Castle of Duke Larin - when the moonlights are overwhelmed by the shine of the hall.
He frowns his eyebrows tightly, and his eyes close as if he's waiting for something important. It's awkward enough to force everyone inside the castle to keep their mouths shut, no one is brave enough to ask or say something.
Then a random Silver Knight enters the hall through the two enormous doors. He slightly downs his knee, puts his hand over the beating heart and slightly bows his head down. He just failed the mission that he's supposed not to fail.
As a final drop, the glass of patience is broken and all the liquid of madness are overflowing outside in the Duke's wrath.
"How dare you?" - He threatens.
"I'm sorry my lord. Even though we just mobilized all the laborers, there were a lot of enemies. They all hide themselves in black coats. I believe that they are at least a group full of Violet Crescent shadows of The Esclipsed Moon." - He instantly bows his head lower and lower by time.
"Are you sure?" - it works. The Duke has been "calmed" down after hearing that appellation.
Catching it, he clearly presses that they were blocked on their ways by The Eclipsed Moon - "Yes! My lord, I swear they are too strong for us. Five of The Golden Knights were eliminated the day before. We didn't have enough power and people to break through their pressure."
Everything turns to absolute silence, then he sighs. The Duke slightly waves his hand to cancel the terrible meeting. He knows that he shouldn't lay a hand on that organization.
*The Eclipsed Moon: the unofficial organization working on assassinating and hunting others' heads for money and rewards.
That's all the information they have about that force throughout four continents. Many hypotheses have been made about them. But there's one point that they all agree on, "they are hiding in the crownless continent."
They are known by two kinds of threats, Lower Moons and Upper Moons. And the term "Violet Crescent" is used to mention the rank 4 of The Lower Moons. Duke Larin knows that they could even destroy all this weakest branch of The Holy Council if they really wanted.
The fact that his Silver Knights only reduced two guys is the most obvious evidence that they had spared their lives. Consequently, without the support of the Holy Council, he won't do anything stupid related to that organization.
And even if they supported them right now, he wouldn't do it or change his mind. All the three forces and alchemists do not want to mess up with them, let alone to outrage The Eclipsed Moon by his own will.
"Aizz, Larin, what did you do…?" - He sadly goes back to his room after everyone leaves the hall.
He knows that he shouldn't do anything but wait for the upper knights to contact him.
"You always make a mess everywhere you lay your steps on, Ryun." - On the top of a high tree, one of the assassins of The Eclipsed Moon is standing still.
"Hmm? I paid you guys three epic items for this trade, it's such a light work with a high price, isn't it?" - Ryun mocks.
"Shut up, one of us just got his left arm cut down while dueling with two Golden Knights. We don't have a stable supply of healing potions. So I'll keep it short, more money."
Ryun slightly stands up and looks at that guy, "Bring him here or just tell me where he is."
Then they all disappear in the moonlight - going through the shadows among the high trees, finally they stop right at the base of this Violet Crescent group.
"Yo, can you spare me a healing potion?" - That girl softly asks.
She has long yellow hair, a cute face and two bright eyes.
"Don't look at me like that, I prefer your expressions while killing my targets." - Ryun approaches her slowly.
*Haha* - "Who? I didn't do anything, I'm just a soft girl."
No reply, Ryun only picks up her left arm and puts it in its old place.
Shadow: Fusion - variant. He lets the shadow interweave both her arm and her shoulder, then link them all at once - full recovery.
"Keep it as our secret, I don't want my ability to be leaked out, okay?" - He looks around and determines all the coordinates of them.
Just for the worst case that he'd be jumped right away, Ryun still could rush into one guy at the left side to break through the dead end road. Thankfully they all show their corporations, that's such good news.
"You just killed Razun right?" - Suddenly one guy among them asked him.
In this case, Ryun just used Veil to hide all his Aura spreading outside slowly. But he hasn't wanted to flip the table yet, "Yea, what's wrong?"
"Nah nothing. He is our original target, thanks for doing us a favor."
"Nevermind, I need his ability for sure. Just a random win-win trade."
They both laugh, but two of them rapidly move themselves and try to assassinate Ryun while he's "over heaven."
"Good grief." - Shadow Fusion: Fusion Beast - Ceperp has been used.
It's a fusion of Tamias and Plamung by his control. Different from the result of Razun, Ryun's fusion beast is way bigger than the old one. It even has a size of ten-meter length and five-meter height. With the weight of 12 tons, it surely can't only block but also knock them back a far distance.
"So you guys want to mess with me, Rasphel?" - He slightly warns them once.
"Don't worry, it's my personal test about your ability. I admit, your potential is way larger than that useless Razun. So, I want to make a contract with you." - The leader of that team steps to the front one step.
His hand slightly spreads out as an invitation, "We need your power to kill one guy."
"Oh? Who?" - "Aetheria Grantey, the strongest Golden Knight in the new branch of The Holy Council."
"I deny. Last seen, even though he got injured, I was aware of his power. Right now, I can't claim that I'd win against him. He is still hiding the true trump card." - Ryun clearly explains.
"So how about accompanying us? We just need to kill Aetheria, about the special abilities, we'll give them all to you." - Rasphel drops a big reward that's too attractive for Ryun.
*Clap* - Their hand shake just tells everything, "Deal!"
"Oh? I wonder who is trying to kill me." - A strange voice suddenly comes from nowhere as if it doesn't exist.
Rapid as lightning, Ryun instantly seals his hands into each other to summon another beast to adapt with this situation.
Shadow Fusion: Fusion Beast - A…
The shadow instantly pops up under his feet and forms a large gate on the ground. Inside it, something grey and white rapidly emerges. That pressure even threatens all the Violet Crescents at this place.
*Clap* - A hand randomly puts on his right shoulder, "Don't worry buddy, I'm not the Aetheria you know."
Instantly, all the shadow and fusion beasts are forced to disappear inside the shadow gates. Even though he has tried, Ryun can't summon them again beneath that pressure of Hex. More than ever, Ryun feels the overwhelmed experience from that guy absolutely clear.
Suddenly all the Violet Crescent assassins drop to their knees and head beneath that guy's pressure.
Ryun: "Wha…?"
Fast as a flash, he swiftly steps head, but in Ryun's sight, he just did something as teleportation.
"Stand up." - He drops a cold order.
"Yes sir." - They move their legs and stand on them, looking at their superior with confusion.
"Don't show that face my guys. I'm just here to check on our new partner." - Then he looks at Ryun with a couple of eyes in darkness, as if they are the embodiment of all the shadows in this world.
*Whirr* - A cold wind slightly passes through them, consequently, his hood strongly shakes and is blown away.
In the confusion of Ryun Liferberto, the moonlight slowly reflects that face into his two eyes. He has a black hair with an odd blue eye on the right, but that's not the issue. Ryun knows this guy, he met this guy before.
"Aetheria?..."
Red gate - Biome: Savage Wilds (undefined rank). In the forest 20 miles far away from the boss' base.
"Idiot." - Aetheria throws both Ian, Paragon and Aranta aside while taking out a healing scroll level 7. Obviously, thanks to him, our new cleaners were saved beyond the claws of that Wyvern.
"I told you to wait, not dig in this gate and get in trouble, right?" - His eyes glance straight at Ian with a high pressure as a threat.
"C'mon dude, it was going to explode and cause a dungeon break. I just did everything to prevent that case."
Even though Ian is trying so hard to explain, Aetheria still wants to kill him right away.
"You have a huge potential. That's why you need to be alive. Guess who I just met during the chase?" - Aetheria sighs, he looks at Ian with a seriousness in his eyes.
"Who?"
"Ryun Liferberto. The one I mentioned before. He isn't infected, but surely someone is using his body to do something inside the darkness of this continent." - Aetheria reveals the truth.
"I know that he also has the same potential as yours. So if you don't want to be killed, just become stronger." - He sighs.
"Wait? Are you Aetheria?" - Paragon heavily breathes and asks.
"Yes? What's wrong?" - "Why did you try to kill us?"
Everything turns to silence, among the confusion of everyone, Aranta also explains.
"Ian, we met this guy at the edge of Empire Cala, Niliphon. Entering this gate is the inevitable choice that we had to make, otherwise we just died centuries ago."
"Oh, so you guys lied to me for the whole story?" - Ian replies.
"That's not the issue!" - Paragon shouts out.
"You… are you sure that you see one guy called Aetheria in another continent?" - Put aside their confusion, Aetheria confirms it again.
Paragon and Aranta also look at each other for a second, then they both come up with the same answer - "Yes."
"Seems like we must have a conversation, Aetheria. I'm confused too." - Phoenix slightly announces.
"Not this time." - Aetheria sighs.
Then he stands up and unleashes his Zone outside to isolate the cave from the outer world.
"I'll keep everything in short. So…"
The Upper Eye slightly moves its sight, looking somewhere in Arezal - at Aetheria's office in one branch of The Eclipsed Moon.
"Welcome to my office, Ryun." - He still keeps that delicate manner from the start.
"Straight to the issue. What do you mean about 'alternate' and who are you?" - Ryun doesn't want to do a "merry go round" right now. He needs to know the core of this problem.
*Sigh* - "What a hurry guy."
Aetheria slightly takes out two cups of tea and gives one of them to Ryun, who is sitting on the opposite side of him, and delicately gives him a hand sign.
*Sigh* - Ryun consumes that tea and looks straight at Aetheria again with the same demand.
"Have you ever heard about… Irregulars?" - He presses the word "Irregular."
"No, this is the first time." - Ryun replies.
Aetheria slightly takes a sip of tea while looking at Ryun.
"They are the beings not considered as creatures in the laws of existence of Aurorize."
"What do you mean?" - Ryun is confused.
"We do not know exactly about their purposes or behaviors. But! We can claim that they aren't the kinds of beings that you should contact. You have two options."
Aetheria clicks his fingers onto the table one beat, "Kill them."
He clicks his fingers again in another beat, "Run way."
"But why? They must have something threatening us right?" - Aetheria looks at Ryun after hearing his opinion.
He smiles, "That's right. Your sanity is limited, if you step in their infected zones, you will bring chaos and madness after a specific period of time."
"So I need to strengthen my sanity and mind, or even the ability to restrict that infection." - Ryun guesses.
*Snap* - "That's right!"
"So, are you willing to join us?" - "No."
Ryun looks at Aetheria with a sharp look, his voice presses heavily on the second question.
"Who are you?"
*Fuf… Fu Hahaha!* - "Even I don't know who exactly I am." - After a laugh, Aetheria slightly looks at Ryun with an honest manner.
"Seems like you met another Aetheria already, right?"
He goes on after observing Ryun's confirmation, "One of us is a doppelganger. It's a kind of irregular that always tries to kill the original version and replace that position by itself. Usually it has the same memory as the true one, even though they might not have the same experience and behaviors. But they are considered 'the same' beings."
"So your case is a special one, which confuses you if you are the original or not?" - Ryun points out the main ideas.
"Yes. That Aetheria is a different being from myself, but I know that we are just the same. None of us have the instinct to kill each other. As if we are not related at all." - Another sip of tea just flows into his throat.
He continues, "Killing Aetheria is just a fake mission that I made to find him. I want to determine who exactly we are."
Ryun breaks the flow, "So The Eclipsed Moon is a kind of organization that doesn't allow the members to meet or have relationships with other members of the three big forces?"
"Yes." - That claim just reveals everything.
"I can't do much but make this fake mission. All the previous actions were the test for you to prove yourself. My apology, I need your power." - Aetheria expresses his hand toward Ryun again.
"One more question…"
"What if you were the doppelganger instead of the original Aetheria?"
"You!" - Suddenly one of the Violet Crescents steps ahead with his blade on hands.
"It's fine, Halry." - Aetheria calms down the atmosphere.
Then he looks at Ryun sitting in front of him, that manner is still kept the same.
"I'll kill the true Aetheria as a member of the Upper Moon of The Eclipsed Moon. All I want is the truth, it doesn't matter if I'm the fake one or not."
They both look at each other, that silence and so on lasts for a few minutes in the confusion of Aetheria's inferiorities.
"Deal."
*Clap* - The handshake told everything, they had come up with a fair trade.
"I'm glad to accompany you, Ryun. We'll do our best to help you accumulate more power."
"That's the same feeling in my bouncing heart right now, I'll also do my best to help you find Aetheria."
"Well, actually I met him already. I always send at least one clone to save my guys in dangerous cases. It was just caught by him at the last second before he leapt toward you with a kick." - Aetheria tells him the truth that his other self isn't that weak.
"Perhaps he was shocked or surprised, or even spared your life for any reason. I can make sure that he didn't want to kill you with that kick."
"So what is his true speed?" - "Mach 60."
Ryun can't believe it, with that power and speed, he can't understand why that guy is still considered as a Golden Knight.
"He isn't weak, he just doesn't want to rank up. He can even…"
"Okay okay, that's enough. So can you handle him in a 1v1 fight?"
"No." - "Fine, somehow I feel regret."
"Too late man." - *Fuhahaha*
"So which ability do you want right now?" - He instantly asks a question about the core demand of Ryun.
Of course, that's too attractive to him. Free lunch is for real.
"I have Shadow Gates and Puppet Manipulation already. I need something that allows me to do some mind control to coercively fuse them together without making contracts or taming them."
"That's one way to improve your move set, however, I think you will need to learn some exchange spells and magic circles from mages and alchemists. Also the space spells to expand your Zone or even Domain." - Atheria knows exactly what Ryun needs, which surprises him.
"I need to tame some beasts to fuse them. Do you have any locations…"
*Slap* - A bunch of papers and maps are thrown straight onto the table without any hesitation.
"These are my records of 103 kinds of monsters, beasts and dungeons on this side of Arezal. Use it wisely."
"I like this kind of companion, alright, see you all after a few days."
"Do you need help?" - The soft girl asks him.
"If you want to bait all the monsters into a specific coordinate for me."
"No problem. But I need a reward."
Atheria jumps into the conversation, "I haven't let you do it on your own."
"I'm sorry, master…" - She squeezes the tears from her two eyes and looks at him with a cute look.
"It won't work on me."
"Aww…"
"Okay, I'm your companion right now. So I must have some authority." - He looks at that girl with another question.
"Do you know how to use the maps and help me raise the farming power?"
"Yes, I can." - "That's enough, I'll take this girl."
"Aiz, good grief. Do whatever you want, just be stronger." - He touches his ring and throws a weapon straight at Ryun, a necromancer's staff.
It's made by the spine and bones of hundred people (traitors), the skull holds a black pearl in its mouth as if devouring a dark night. The twelve ribs slightly form a rib cage which hold two more orbs standing for heart and mana core.
"It's called The Afterlife of Souls - Necrosec." - He gives Ryun a hand sign, telling him to get his *ss to his journey.
"Aight, thanks. Now it's mine."
Shadow Gates - Shadow Teleportation: He instantly creates a shadow gate and jumps straight into it while dragging the soft girl's hand.
"May I ask for your name?"
*Hihi* - "Can't believe that you even have this side of gentle manners. My name is Zela, Zela Hympus."
"Let's introduce myself again. Call me Ryun Liferberto or Har if you want. At the last moment facing Aetheria, Ryun must be considered dead. You don't want to reveal our coordinates, right?" - He smiles gently and looks at her.
There is a fast thought that swiftly passes through his mind. This girl… is too similar to his childhood friend.
*Hihi* - "Don't worry, I still want to live more."
*Haha* - The laugh closes that conversation which ended up with his silence in mind. It's been a while he hasn't met her.
Miladous Tower - a small branch in the education system of The Tower of Mages.
"Clara." - "Yes."
They are in a white room for the test to accept the letter of recommendation for her to be a grade 3 mage in this tower.
The Tower of Mages has many branches and separated education, resources and authorities. It's determined by the rank of those branches and the reason for this action is really simple.
The Tower of Mages doesn't want to waste their time and resources on a fair education. First of all, the potential of each being among humans is different and variable. Secondly, pressure creates diamonds, besides accepting royalty to enroll in The Tower of Mages, they also make a battlefield for other guys to struggle.
Whenever they surpass at least grade 5, they will be considered to enroll in The Tower of Mages with a cyan medal.
That's also the minimum requirement to be able to enroll in The Tower of Mages.
"So you are the mentioned girl in this letter?" - The first examiner flicks her portfolio.
"Yes, I am Clara Maredivous."
*Silence* - They all look at her with a coldness in their eyes, as if she's just failed because of telling her name.
"Alright. Tell me about yourself." - The second examiner asks her in the same manner.
"I… I am an outsider."
The atmosphere instantly stopped at the cold silence after she said that. But Clara isn't scared at all.
She keeps going, "I had 37 years of learning low level runes and some magic before I came to this world."
*Silence* - One more time, everything turns to silence.
"I just want to know more about magic, no matter the cost it'd be. Except for doing something that goes against my own will, I can do anything to achieve more power and more knowledge."
"I see." - The first examiner looks at her with a different look, however it doesn't change that much for her to realize.
"So how can I know your boundary and limit of morality?"
"I can only tell you that I won't slaughter arbitrarily, neither using human souls nor dead bodies to combine into my spells." - She looks at them with honesty in her two bright eyes.
"Everyone always says that before some of them become necromancers."
"Some of them, so I might not be one of those guys."
"How can I believe you?"
"How can you determine that I'll be one of them?"
Silence has come again, they both look at each other with an undefined look.
*Haha* - A silent laugh breaks that atmosphere softly. The third examiner finally starts to ask her a question. Perhaps it's the last one, perhaps it's her last chance.
"Why do you want to learn magic, spells and achieve more knowledge?" - "Curiosity."
It's as fast as lightning. Clara answers without any hesitation, her two eyes have reflected her true ego in that moment.
"I couldn't access the true magic for my whole past life. But I know that everything always leads to a higher realm at the end of that broken road. I want to know about the history of this world and my old realm. That's my curiosity."
"H…" - "Last one." - The third examiner instantly prevents the first one's intention by his final question.
He looks at Clara with a smile and a couple of shiny eyes, his lips slowly moving, "What would you do…"
The pressure inside that room instantly raises up three more levels. Consequently, Clara almost falls down by it. It's heavy enough to keep her breath sound miserable and burdensome.
"After you achieve the Saint level?"
Not only Clara, but two other examiners also look at him with an unbelievable prediction of his purposes for that question.
"Ultrak, you've gone over the edge." - The second examine swiftly takes back her sanity and prevents him.
"Zolya, Balika, it's on my own will. I'm just a little curious… about this girl's thoughts." - He slightly ignores all their efforts.
"I will find him." - Clara heavily shouts out that answer through her throat full of blood. The drive heaving almost tore it apart.
"Who?" - "Yujin! I want to find him!" - Her throat keeps screaming and the crimson liquid keeps overflowing.
Doesn't matter! Clara again opens her eyes wide to look at them with determination of madness.
"He is the unshakable wall that I couldn't reach." - *Kuff kaff*
She keeps going, "After coming to this realm, I realized that I was nothing but a little human with a foolish and pitiful power beneath the true mages' wrath. That's why I want to examine it one more time." - *Kuff kaff*
She grinds broadly and lets that blood flow through her small lips, "I want to examine how strong he was at that moment and how strong he will be after years."
*Haha* - "I want… to witness the true power of that entity."
*Silence* - Ultrak silently sits there while looking at her again, but this time his manner has changed totally. He also recalls the pressure and leaves there a peaceful atmosphere.
*Hahaha* - he laughs, "Jezz, you are crazy, little girl."
Then he approaches her with a smile on his face, "There were three guys who also mentioned that name before. Even though I can't hear it, I still know that he mustn't be an ordinary guy."
He gently lifts her up while lying her body in his two arms, "I wonder who he is, also which kind of entity like that. I can make sure that he won't only be at Saint level, good luck."
The healing spell is activated to help her recover the wounds.
"You've passed." - He looks at her with a smile.
"I'll take her as my new student." - Ultrak turns back and looks at two other examiners with a smile. Even though it isn't an order, no one here is brave enough to ignore him.
"Welcome to the new chapter of your life, Clara Maredivous."
"Alright, but… can you just let go of me?"
"No. I'll bring you to your new office."
Spell level 8: Light Dash - He instantly shifts himself and Clara with the speed of 10% light speed. Don't be misunderstood, as I said, shifting objects with Aura or mana does not give them inertia or momentum, also it's just like moving objects without their mass. So the speed is based on the skill issue of the users.
Moreover, it doesn't protect objects from crashing into others. That's why converting them into photons like lights can resolve this problem. Even though lights can be blocked by objects like rocks, buildings,... it's still helpful due to the formless shape based on the users' intentions.
Let's change to another way to explain. Let's assume moving one object costs a specific amount of mana. Its core principle is moving that object non-stop by scanning, loading and determining coordinates for where it should be after a specific amount of time, not dragging the object by force.
So consequently they give them no inertia and momentum, which means the only damage that can be landed is the crashing force converted from remaining mana of that process before the object crashes into something else.
Here's an example, moving one guy with 10% speed of light costs 10 units of mana at the start. For each time they change the coordinate for the next destination, it reduces 1 unit of mana to bring him there. But, he must pay one unit of mana for each 0.001 second whether he needs to change coordinates or not.
Which means with 100 units of mana, he can shift himself with 10% speed of light for 0.09 second without scanning space to determine coordinates and moves into it.
Based on that concept, the faster you are, the more you pay. The more objects you move, the more you pay. The more times you change the trajectory, the more you pay.
I hope it works to help you guys understand. Whatever, I'm just a narrator, no idea mates.
*The units of mana used in this comparison and examples are just used to stand for the difference in costs. It doesn't stand for the true cost of the light speed object shifting process.*
Back to Verol, at the military camp of Luker's legion. Lucy and Luker are having a secret meeting with their Grand Marshal - Ma'am Alphabet.
Alpha: *E~hem* - "Have you changed your decision, Luker? Would you like to have a dat…?"
"I refuse, ma'am." - As a bucket splashing the cold water into her face. Luker denied without any hesitation.
"Why? Am I that ugly?" - She cries.
"I didn't mean that, ma'am. It's my fault, sorry for confusing you."
*Brrr* - "I can't even make a joke with you just because of that motionless face."
*Fuhaha* - "You have the same thoughts as mine right? He always looks like a statue when he meets the superior."
*Haha* - "That's right. Always like that."
"Lucy, don't go over your edge." - Luker doesn't look at her, but she knows that he just warns her.
*Ahh~* - She jumps straight to ma'am Alphabet, stays inside her embrace and acts spoiled.
"Ma'am, he yelled at me."
Alphabet also strokes her smooth hair and shows a no-good-smile as if she's trying to rage bait Luker about his statue manners.
"Why are you so aggressive, Luker? I thought that you aren't a kind of violent husband. I'm so sad for your future wife." -*Hahaha*
Even she and Lucy can't hold back their emotions after finishing that joke about him.
Luker is still here, he is wondering why he joined this legion two months ago.
"Hmm? Luker, check around here if there's a brat." - She slightly orders him.
"Yes ma'am." - Luker instantly disappears from their sight by the blood hole under his legs.
After 0.27 second, "Got it." - *Clash* - the blood spear and a black sword of a guy inside the dark coat.
He frowns his eyebrows, "The Eclipsed Moon? Even a Violet Crescent?"
"Nice eyes buddy. However, I do not have a demand to fight you here." - That guy replies with an undefined voice. Even Luker can't determine if it's a man or a woman, also he's unable to stop the enemy teleport away by the item.
Luker doesn't waste a second, he takes out a runic stone, "Ma'am."
"Yes, I'm listening."
"I found one Violet Crescent of The Eclipsed Moon near the west side of our camp with a distance of 3.17 miles."
"Great, I just captured one of them too. Now move out of that place, avoid getting jumped."
"I don't think they will let me have that time ma'am."
Her eyes stretch wide, she yells, "Luker!"
But his voice instantly overwrites all her efforts, "Ma'am. Five crimson, twenty violet, fifty azure, two hundred white. Northwest, East and South…"
*Beep* - He slightly turns off the stone to end the connection.
"Bait me here and jump me. That's a good strategy, but don't you really think you can defeat me with five Violet Crescents and a Crimson Crescent?" - Luker slowly gives a cigarette a spark of fire and takes a deep breath.
"Don't be fooled, Luker. I know you are an Ex rank, but here's the problem. Have you considered your final result after being killed by me?" - That only Crimson Crescent assassin swiftly casts his spells.
"Violet Grade mage, not bad."
*Whoosh* - The spear instantly swings straight into his face without any hesitation.
*Bang - Crack* - The assassin dodges it rapidly and throws to Luker's heart a dagger.
*Clash* - A spear rotation immediately knocks it back to its owner and that blade is just right on the enemy's neck.
*Vsh* - One of the Violet Crescent assassins just used another item to shift their leader to Luker's rear.
*Swish* - A wind slash cuts through the trees and shoots straight to Luker at his back with an incredible speed.
"If you want to kill me. Just use something much more useful to do it."
*Crack* - The space instantly gets shocked, Space Breaker has been released. It crushes the space around them and blows everything back two miles.
Spell level 2: Thunder Spear - His blood spear is instantly charged with plenty of thunder running over the veins.
"Oh wow, it seems like you just locked in."
"I have no time to waste on you."
*Bang* - His Aura overflows through his two legs, within a leap, Luker has been a meter in front of his enemy.
*Zrrt - Zrrt* - The sound of two metal blades clashing is even overwhelmed by the yellow lightning stretching out and destroying everything inside the zone of two meters.
It even blew away everything blocking his way with the thunder of calamity. Luker slowly approaches the assassin while casting two more spells of fire element.
Spell level 2: Fire Enchant I -chain- Spell level 3: Fire Spear.
*Crackle - Whirr* - A burning slash instantly approaches his neck.
*Clash* - They clash with each other, leaving a chain of metal sounds.
*Crackle* - The fire aggressively burns in the cold air, forming a small explosion at the meeting point.
*Crrt* - Luker rapidly stabs the spear into the ground, forcing it to work as an anchor to drag him back from knocking away.
The third guy has jumped into this battle. He has crimson hair, a discordant piece in this melody of night, a broad grind and a flashy interface as if he's a male model.
"Hmmm?" - He strokes his hair.
"Who are you? Why are you so aggressive?" - He asks.
*Clash* - Luker gives him no time, with a continuous combo of three strong slashes, he has knocked back that guy with a distance of three meters.
"Oh c'mon." - Inside the dense dust, that guy easily swings his mace around to wipe out all those disgusting grits.
"I wonder why an Upper Moon rank assassin is here and dressed as a Crimson Crescent." - Luker doesn't waste time, he has already cast two more spells in chains.
Spells level 4 and 5: Fire Enchant II and Fire Enchant III.
Consequently, the fire blazing from that spear even grills his right hand until cooked. But it doesn't matter, Luker still steps forward with the burning and electrified spear; he knows that his enemy is a big deal right now.
"Oh boy, why do you need to try that hard? Just run away, today we only need the Alphabet's head." - He mocks.
That's beyond the boundary, Luker instantly rushes straight into him without any hesitation. But in that guy's perspective, he is seeking death.
*Clash* - Even though that mace is heavier, although that assassin has more power, yet, Luker still can parry the first strike easily as pie.
*Clash - Clash* - Two more strikes have been thrown. Due to the advantage of the spear, Luker can move its shaft swiftly to land more than one slash at once.
Yet, *Clash* - with only a downward slam, the battlefield instantly comes back to balance.
*Clash* - One more swing to force Luker to step back two steps.
*Clash* - One more swing to force him to almost break his legs.
*Clash* - The final strike just smashes him into pieces and crumbs.
"Good grief." - Lukay slightly wipes out the blood drops on his clothes a second after killing Luker.
"Afley, wrap up everything." - He glances at the Crimson Crescent with an arrogant manner.
This is the truth of this organization. The majority of them just obey the superiors and disdain their superiorities for their whole lives.
That's why having the delicate leader as Aetheria is such a precious treasure. He requires them nothing but loyalty, they also require him nothing but companionship.
"Yes sir." - "Fasten your *ss." - Giving him no time to recover, Lukay just orders him to do his work.
"Yes sir…" - Even though Afley doesn't want it at all, he has no option left. Do or die, that's all.
*Smash* - Suddenly his head is crushed into pieces in the confusion of all Violet Crescents and Lukay. The headless body of Luker just moves by itself and rushes straight to the enemy without any hesitation.
*Clash* - Lukay can even hear the sound and scent of something being burnt, however, that body still keeps moving as a zombie and crashing straight to that flashy assassin.
*Crack* - Besides the detail that it was a surprise attack, those too legs just bursted a lot of Aura to strengthen itself - doing a crash shot into the enemy and the large rock behind.
*Crack* - It's even broken! Luker's body just rushes like that until its two legs are torn apart, consequently, Lukay just got a bunch of wounds and burnt parts on his body.
*Ahhh!!!* - "This is so disgustin…"
Giving him no time to yell, Luker instantly approaches him from behind via the blood gate. He swings his spear straight to Lukay's snap with an absolutely critical strike.
*Splash* - Yes, it stabs through one guy's neck. But it didn't land on Lukay's but a random Violet Crescent's.
"Get the * out!" - Getting hit by a high kick, Luker is sent flying back three meters while forced to block three more strikes from the mace.
"Let's see, you or me, who will run out of corpses first."
Luker replies nothing to that declaration but an effort to summon hundreds of blood undeads made of various dead bodies of beasts by himself.
"Oh…" - Lukay just got sent to silence by himself.
*Clash* - This time he's even faster. Luker just crashes straight into Lukay with an incredible speed and a blazing spear in his hands.
*Clash - Clash* - Multiple sounds of metal blades clashing. They both brought phase two of the fight up to another level.
*Clash - Clash* - They all rush to another place while swinging the weapons to eliminate each other. Luker swings his blazing spear ahead, aiming straight to Lukay's head. While Lukay smashes his mace into Luker's face, trying to crush it again beneath the unstoppable pressure.
*Clash* - The turning point has come! Luker swiftly knocks away that mace in a strong strike to buy him at least 0.5 second to stab it through Lukay's heart.
*Splash* - Yet, just by sacrificing a hand, he just blocked that deadly piercing spear before it could reach his madly bouncing heart.
*Splash* - So on, Luker mercilessly drags his spear and stretches a deep bloody line on that hand, leaving there an obvious empty space on Lukay's left arm. Nevertheless, he kept moving with his next move, landing three more strikes, Lukay's left eye, right thigh and his chest just got a lot of deep wounds.
Within his final effort, Lukay strongly swings his mace again to knock both of them back to two opposite sides - buying him time to recover and prepare for the next strikes. He was arrogant to believe that he could defeat this opponent easily with only his mace. He steps back and looks at Luker with his two open wide eyes.
Besides the burning sounds, Lukay can even hear the heartbeat and the steam overflowing around Luker's body. He slowly moves back and tries to determine what the reason for that sudden change in power of Luker is.
But he doesn't know that, one of the elite blood undead just camps at that coordinate for a while.
*Splash* - *Graahh* - "You fell for that."
Different from other undead, this elite one can talk and communicate by its own will. That's why it can make a quick plan to support Luker without any contact.
"How?" - The blood overflows through his lips as a consequence.
"Read more books in Hell later."
*Splash* - That dagger just draws a deep bloody line on that body. Starting at the snap, dragging to the hip and stabbing non-stop around his body until there are around 79 bloody holes.
Then it summons a blood hole and throws that dead body into the world on another side of that gate. That action was clear enough to consider that it isn't the first time they do this kind of corpse collection.
"You are going to have a companion soon, Latimas." - Luker announces.
"That's my please, master." - Due to the lack of time, it only bows his head down a bit and puts the hand on its heart for the thanks.
Then it rushes straight to the battlefield to execute every Violet Crescent. But Luker chooses to do something different, he just stands still and recovers himself by the blood reserves inside his own dimension.
*Tch* - "In a cave not too far from that battlefield, the true Lukay is sitting on a carved rock chair.
"You just made my life harder, Luker." - He stands up and disappears with a supersonic speed (Mach 20).
*Crack - Boom* - An explosion is made right behind Luker twenty meters away.
Lukay just slightly approaches him with a team of ten other puppets which are as strong as the previous Lukay clone.
"Let's end it fast, I still need to kill Alphabet."
*Clash* - The spear just stopped right five centimeters away from that couple of eyes, "Don't you think I really gave you that chance?"
"I remember that I wasn't asking you."
*Thud* - A simple kick of the closest puppet just shoots him away as a bullet.
It also rushes straight to him with the support of two others. The left one just shifts itself behind him with a deadly neck lock, while the right one just cuts down Luker's right arm.
The last one easily stabs its hand through his hot beating heart.
After leaving a hole on a dead corpse, they all move to the nearby battlefield to eliminate all the blood undeads left.
*Crash!* - Old trick, that dead body just crashes straight to Lukay with its maximum power and speed.
Those two legs were almost broken by the pressure of bursting all Aura inside itself. Even though the muscles are torn apart, even though the bones are crushed into pieces by that pressure, even though it crashed at the maximum speed of Mach 7 at the start. All that effort isn't enough to shake Lukay a bit, on the contrary, that corpse was crushed apart by itself after crashing into him.
He slightly wipes out all the blood on his clothes with a dissatisfied manner, "F* you Luker."
"F* you too man!" - He just leaps out of a blood hole on the ground. Grabbing that spear with a stronger flame on itself, Luker uses all his power to mobilize all his energy inside that body and swing the spear non-stop to that opponent.
He knows that he stands no chance, yet, the only thing he needs is to buy time for ma'am Alphabet to call for backup. He doesn't know whether his case is a special one or not, but if there's only one Upper Moon assassin fighting him. It means that two other sides are safer than his.
It's good news, besides the Grand Marshal, Luker is the strongest in this legion. Unluckily, ma'am Alphabet is a healer for her major time. She is weaker than other Grand Marshal in close range fighting. That's why it's dangerous that Luker just left her alone, but on the other hand, it's good for him to have a conjecture about this assassination.
The Eclipsed Moon isn't a kind of organization that revenges someone for nothing. If you damage them then give them a bigger compensation, they still work with you as a great consumer.
That's why Luker determines that this time is a requestment of someone hiding in darkness. If ma'am Alphabet dies here, this legion will be broken apart easily, no matter if Luker is here or not.
That's why he's trying his best to protect everyone by himself. But life isn't that easy, within another kick, he is sent flying back again.
"You just can run away, I won't lay a hand on you."
"I have a pride not to run away, got it?" - Luker spits out a sip of blood on the ground near him.
*Aizz* - "So annoying." - *Vsh* - He just disappears in the darkness, or it's just too fast for Luker to catch up with that movement.
"Why do you always try to overcomplicate everything?" - A strong strike just broke his neck after landed on his face.
*Crash!* - That dead body crashed and exploded again. But Lukay is still there as an unshakable mountain that isn't supposed to fall down no matter how many times Luker tries to go against heaven.
*Clash* - One more time, Luker just appears behind Lukay and swings his spear again with an incredible speed. Of course, it's just stopped only by two fingers.
*Splash* - And then, his head is crushed into pieces again - dying a corner of that forest into the crimson color of fishy blood.
"You are such an annoying brat." - He complains.
Yes, one more time, Luker just jumps out of that bloody hole and attacks Lukay again with the same spear. It even almost gave him enough reason to abandon the mission and take a nice sleep on his bed.
*Crack* - Different from the previous times, Luker has parried that strike and flown away as a thrown doll.
At the same time, Latimas just rushes into him with a bloody blade in its hands.
*Slash* - The slash is also stopped by two fingers before it can reach his skin.
"C'mon bro, just run away."
*Crack* - This time, the kick is even heavy enough to crush all the bones of that elite blood undead to pieces and also send it flying away until it crashes into a bunch of trees far away from there.
"I refuse."
"F* me man! You are not a protagonist in novels, just shut the f* up and run away."
"NO!" - He rushes toward Lukay again with that spear as the last effort to save the Ma'am Alphabet.
*Tch* - "If he hadn't paid me that much, I wouldn't do this kind of job. So just please get the f* out of my way."
*Clash* - Luker rushes into him again.
*Tch* - "Brat!" - A downward slam just throws straight into his head and crushes it into small pieces.
Lukay just stands up and looks at Luker, exactly the remains of Luker, with a boring manner, he says, "Good grief. Worst choice ever."
There is one of Aura techniques allowing the users to pay a high cost to achieve more power in a short time. By burning all the current Aura inside the body, Luker can force himself to consume more and more Aura to strengthen the final maximum output - Ignite.
Non-stop, he also burns his blood throughout every cell to boost the physical stats. In other words, Luker is reaching another level.
Latimas also fuse itself with all the blood undeads - forming the bones armors for their owner.
Inside the blood hole, Luker is also absorbing all the blood he's been saving since the first day he came here. He knows that it isn't a good time to do this, but the memory just flows back into his mind as a non-stop tidal wave.
His mind just reminds him about the original reason why he joined this legion. Ma'am Alphabet, her characteristics reminds him about his old companion. It's similar enough to confuse him if she just reincarnated like an old story of miracles.
"Faster… Luker…"
*Badum - Badum* - The heartbeat racing is insane, as if he is going to explode inside.
*Badum - Badum* - He remembers that he has heard this sound before, far away in his bygone days.
*Badum - Badum* - So familiar.
*Badum - Badum* - Furuni…
"Astra Coden Tinum, Falaribys Talifina, Ricanum Lamitica Cofynas: Larima." - As the voice inside his unconsciousness, one side of Luker chose to use it again, no matter the cost.
"Lady of Blood?" - Lukay instantly gets shocked.
He can't believe that there's really someone worshiping a Heretical God like him in this era.
"How?" - He wonders how and why that guy can access that kind of power.
*Badum - Badum* - "I hear your wish."
Lukay instantly leaps back a mile away from that lancer. He also summons all 20 puppets to cover himself for the worst case. What did Luker just do to force him this hard?
"O Lady of Blood, I have no intention to disrespect you at all. I do not know he is your faithful. I'm willing to sacrifice one of my legs and arms for you to…"
*Splash* - Latimas was also shocked, it was trying to support its master with the fastest speed while observing he's lying on the ground. Yet, it didn't know what just happened, also what is going on right now.
"Master…"
That spear has cut down Lukay's head within a moment, leaving no evidence that he had a chance to struggle.
"Don't worry Latimas, we've won." - Luker slightly falls back to the ground.
Yet, he doesn't forget to collect that headless corpse for himself. This strike was the final effort of him after sacrificing everything he had to the Lady of Blood. One strike even took him everything, he wondered how strong he can be and how much he must pay to stay on the top of this continent.
"Go back and cover ma'am Alphabet. Use the corpses wisely, I'm going to sleep a bit inside the blood gate, just wake me up when you're near death." - He also disappears in that blood gate as what he just told.
Observing that, Latimas also rushes straight to the military camp with its maximum speed to cover the Ma'am Alphabet as fast as possible.
West side of the military camp.
"They're coming." - One of the Azure Crescents announces it to his teammates.
"3 more meters, ready." - Obviously they are planning to jump some weak soldiers to tear apart this legion guy by guy.
*Splash* - Famous last words. Latimas just rushed straight to the center, he cares not about them, unluckily he's too fast to remain in their body after crashing.
*Clash* - With that incredible speed, he just grabs the spear of Lukers and stabs straight to one Violet Crescent assassin while he's attacking a random group of soldiers under Luker's authority.
Even though it's blocked, the shockwave and that pressure are just too strong to be negated. Nice reflex, but he is just blown away by that strike.
"Luker?" - One of them suspiciously asks.
"No. I'm his elite servant. Is ma'am Alphabet still in the tent?"
"Yes. She is healing the injured knights." - She rapidly replies. She knows that Latimas is their hope.
"Thanks." - Fast as a wind, he just rushes straight to the center.
*Tch* - A low voice silently shows someone's dissatisfaction. That guy is still hiding.
*Splash* - All three members of that small group are eliminated by the last one. He instantly changes his face and identity to another guy and hides into another group.
"Where are you going?" - Latimas instantly rushes back to that location with the bloody spear on his hands.
He knew that one of them has the Aura of The Eclipsed Moon, but he couldn't determine who it would be. Sacrificing three knights to find out a traitor isn't an expensive price, especially when the one who decided that was Latimas, an undead, so there's no morale limits locking him up.
*Clash* - First slash, the traitor has successfully parried it.
*Splash* - Second slash, he just died.
"Aura is the inner power of a being. And ability is the consequence of their wishes and desires for one purpose."
"What is your desire, Latimas?" - An echo from the bygone days, Luker asked.
"I want to obey you, master."
"Not enough, I know that you are one-and-only elite undead of my blood legion, it's very normal that you have absolute obedience. But I want to hear your own wish, I would rather treat you as my companion than a servant." - In the glass of memories, Latimas always remembers that Luker just smiled that day.
"Master… I want to be useful as your advisor." - In the silent voice, he murmurs his first wish of his own will.
"I want to… be a human."
Ability: The Interrogator - allows the user to extract 100% of one or many targets' memories without the majority of side effects.
Ability: The Eye of Elite - allows the user to reveal all the frauds.
His two eyes burn a fire of determination, The Interrogator has been used on the traitor head.
"Got you…" - The hollow eye pockets sparkle two crimson lights aggressively. It seems like Latimas just found out their true plan of this assassination.
*Boom* - He leaps up with his maximum power, The Eye of Elite has been activated. It allows him to look through the extremely large Veil from those Crescents of The Eclipsed Moon.
But the worst thing is witnessing a little girl playing with ma'am Alphabet's head in her hands as if it's nothing but a toy.
"How dare you?"
Silence has come… It's not a fraud, Latimas is instantly threatened by her look. Her eyes open wide, he feels from that opponent an insecurity. Latimas knows that if he just jumps straight into the center, he will be executed in one second without any chance to struggle.
Hex has been released, it stretches out and overwhelms all the sky above, as if the night is painted red and black. Those evil thoughts even force him to give up fighting and start to consider running.
Latimas: "Is it even possible…?"
All the negative chains have locked him up inside the cage of defeat, they repeat the poltroonery over and over again inside his blank mind at this moment.
He truly wonders about why he must go ahead while being threatened in life, he wonders why he must face this monster directly.
"I want to be useful…" - The Eye of Elite has been activated, he knows that it helps nothing in restricting that Hex, but it shows that he is willing to fight until the death of this elite undead.
"Sorry for hesitating, master…" - his whisper silently disappears in the night full of moonlights.
Nice determination, great ambition and extremely large loyalty, yet, they help nothing in rescuing him from death.
When the moonlights shine the most obviously, that undead has blown away all of his upper body in the air.
That girl still sits there with a satisfied manner, even though it just took her a second to wipe that bug away from her masterpiece, she is still very happy to admire her 24th masterpiece of this year.
"Hmmm?" - She wonders…
"Hmmm…" - She is still wondering…
"What should I call it?"
*Haha* - "Miss, may I suggest an idea for you?" - The guy standing closest to her starts a requestment.
"Go on."
"Due to her body just getting separated into four parts and her head also not landing on its own position, I may call it dismemberment."
"That's great." - She smiles.
"Let's call it dismemberment." - Within that declaration, the remains of ma'am Alphabet are just set as exhibits.
"Sh*t…" - Luker dizzily touches his head, of course, he just wakes up from a long and tired dream.
He looks around the place where there was a battlefield last night. Then he slightly drags one corpse of Violet Crescents and goes to the center.
Luker is still in dizziness, his mind is almost a blank and everything remaining in himself is about ma'am Alphabet's safety.
But then, he found the lower body of his elite undead.
"Latimas? Just wake up dude."
Following that order, he actually rises from the blood pool and fully recovers everything.
Latimas looks at his master with an emergency, "I'm sorry, master!"
Luker still doesn't know anything, "Huhh?... What's wrong?..."
But after those three seconds, observing that Latimas is still downing his knees on the ground, he instantly realizes that there must be something terrible.
But what should it be? He thought.
There must be something. He tried to remind himself.
There must be somethin…
"Alphabet." - That word instantly brings him back to reality after cruising among the mist of Aetheria.
"Where's she? What…" - His eyes open wide just to witness the head of his elite servant bow even lower.
"Don't tell me…" - His voice struggles inside his throat as if there is an anchor trying to drag it back to his heart.
"She's dead…"
Silence, the entire world around Luker has been reserved all at once. That's too shocking for him to understand the situation.
"What… what did you just say…?" - His voice is lowered down word by word.
"I'm sorry, master. Ma'am Alphabet… she died last night."
Overwhelmed and lots of pressure are what he can feel right now from his master.
His eyes open wide to let those two lines of tears overflow on his face. Those fragments of bygone days keep reminding him about the old day, when he had to witness Furuni's death. Her silhouette was like the moon on water which he couldn't reach but just gaze at it fade away in the nihility.
Another time? Luker reminds himself.
Is it supposed to be this cruel? He asks himself.
What haven't I done? He wonders.
Another time? A loop.
Something has been awakened inside himself, something that's way more evil than devils.
His eye sockets start overflowing the blood instead of tears, his two eyes slowly but surely change themselves into the new form.
The part should be white now is black, the pupils have turned to the color of blood - crimson.
Carving there twelve rhombuses interwoven and stretched eventually overall those two eyes of doom.
"Are you sure about making a contract with me, Luker?" - An old voice echoes around his mind.
"I'm sure. I have nothing left to lose." - That white silhouette chose to lay his two hands on blood and calamity.
"You will lose everything as a curse for this forbidden connection."
"As I said, I have nothing left to lose."
*Haha* - "Now I just lost something…" - *Haha* - "I've already lost something…" - *Haha…*
The silent voice trembles as the undefined emotions inside Luker right now. Why? He wonders why it must be this wicked and cruel and even atrocious like this moment.
"Latimas…" - "Yes… my master…"
"I won't treat you as my servant anymore, I prefer a connection as two companions. From now on, you are my family. And I swear…" - His voice is no longer trembling, it's steady just for this declaration.
"I won't lose anyone in my family anymore. I swear." - His two eyes finish the lines of tears in silence. Seems like the last vestige of gentleness toward this world of Luker has just vanished into the nothingness, just like the silhouettes of Furuni and Alphabet.
They have all forever stopped in his memory, perhaps, at the end of this road won't remain anything but loss and doom. But Luker still wants to step until he can no longer.
At that moment, Latimas has felt the true intention of slaughtering. This is the first time that he's witnessed something like that for his entire life. Hex, the color of doom and despair have been interwoven into the space around that guy.
He knows that Hex doesn't aim straight to him, it's just pure evil thoughts inside Luker's mind. But… why… why is Latimas so afraid of it like that?
His body slightly shakes beneath that pressure as evidence for that true dominance.
He reminds himself about those years in blood and slaughtering monsters. The sky through his eyes right now is dyed in the color of death and nightmare, like those bygone days in the old realm. Observing that, Latimas says nothing but stands up and waits for his companion.
Luker has been rebirthed again, but the hell that he lives in seems like no different from the new world where he's standing on.
He has been reborn in Hell full of fire and suffering…
Undefined dimension.
The one-and-only entity here just sighs a bit. His eyes slightly move down onto the table, at the piece standing for Luker. He just witnessed it break itself into a deep crack.
"One more time…"