Chapter 209 Death And Despair [6]
An elongated arm of the Abomination pierced Susan. Going through her the arm had barely touched the forehead of Nathan.
With a sharp pull, the Abomination retracted its arm, a rainbow-colored flame at the end of it, causing Nathan and Susan to fall.
"N..no, you can"t die…" Susan dragged herself to Nathan, blood seeping from her grievous wounds. "You p-promised to save me…d-don"t die."
Her inwards spilled outwards, her vitality slowly diminishing away.
A trickle of tears came down her eyes as she tried to shake Nathan away. He had no injuries, and with Susan taking the brunt of the attack, his body was in pristine condition. However, Nathan never responded.
His eyes had lost their shine and were dull monotonous grey. The Abomination might not have injured Nathan physically but Nathan had lost something much more important.
Leon continued to bang mercilessly on the black curtain. His hands bled from the injuries but he was powerless. In front of his eyes, he saw Cadmus thrown into the Wormhole, Susan bleeding to death and the Abomination consuming the rainbow-colored flame it pulled out of Nathan.
"Leon! If you don"t leave now, everyone"s death will be in vain!" Lark roared and teleported Susan and Nathan"s corpses to himself. "You need to take revenge for them! And only by surviving can you do that!"
Shame, regret, despair, anger, loss. The weight crumpled onto Leon"s shoulders.
Again
He failed again.
He was running away again, leaving his burdens to others.
"AHHHHH!!"
His head felt like it would burst at any moment. Unknowingly, he dug his nails into his skin to stop the pain and torment.
["Denial" has been detected. Conditions have been met.]
[ [Raikou Lvl.1] is undergoing reawakening….]
Shouting until his throat hurt, he fell unconscious.
The abominations stopped attacking at the command of the largest Abomination and watched Leon, who was on the other side of the black curtain.
[User soul is undergoing reanimation]
[ [Full-Frame] is evolving….1%...2%...]
Aether wrapped around Leon, and his figure slowly levitated.
The skeletal giant appeared behind him. But it wasn"t the same as before.
Muscles began growing on the giant as its size increased from 15 meters to a towering height of 30 meters. Two additional arms grew on Raikou"s back, each carrying a sword.
Thunder clouds gathered in air and rumbled intensely.
The ethereal giant had only its upper torso, Leon floating inside it, yet it looked no different than a shura from h.e.l.l.
[Raikou Lvl.2 [Legacy] has been awakened]
[ [Full-Frame] is evolving….11%...14%...]
The giant looked down at the Abomination. Its gaze slowly shifted to the grimoire in Lark"s hand, and finally rested on Nathan"s corpse.
Confirming the Nathan"s death for one last time, Raikou snorted and turned back, killing the boss monster in one hit and bringing Leon to the next Floor.
Kreeech-
The largest Abomination let out a cry and absorbed the smaller abominations. Its feature became more defined and its appearance became strikingly similar to a human. The only difference was that it had no facial features and only a grey figure.
A thin line formed on its face and it split apart, revealing rows of jagged crystalline teethes.
"Found you...Child of Destiny…"
Kreeeech-
The strange cry left its mouth again, but this time it was a celebration of joy.
"You can talk already…?!"
Finally realizing the gravity of the situation and where they had gone wrong, Lark"s hair stood on its end.
"No…" Lark"s thoughts raced. "It has had this level of intelligence since the beginning"
For the Abomination to pose as Satoru, it had to plan everything from the beginning while others were fighting the main body.
"You used these pieces you left to teleport back here…"
"Cor..rrect" The Abomination cackled hysterically. When it killed Satoru, it learned his regeneration and scattered its pieces in case it was killed. Using those pieces as coordinates, it was able to return from the corner of the Universe it was thrown into.
"Now..die…"
Fwosh-
"[Forced Teleport]"
Several tentacles flew to kill Lark too. However, he teleported and ran away.
*
"huff…cough cough..huff"
In between the uncontrollable coughs, Lark puked the little blood he had left.
"Dammit! The Abomination was hiding his intelligence because of Administrator!" Lark finally understood everything. The monster had been acting dumb to appear as an inconsequential threat. This way Administrator wouldn"t be in a hurry to descend and the Abomination would be able to kill the child of destiny. "But now it knows Administrator isn"t coming! That must be why it showed its true color!"
Lark bit his lips, trying to think of a plan quickly, the Abomination will find his location in a few minutes at most.
He abruptly heard a bout of coughs.
Cough- Cough-
Susan"s body spasmed uncontrollably.
"They are here?!" Only now did Lark notice that Nathan and Susan had been teleported along with him. "But [Forced Teleport] only works on living beings!"
He checked their condition hurriedly.
"[a.n.a.lysis]"
Green light covered Susan and retracted shortly after.
A frown rose on his face as Lark failed to get a response from the skill.
"No doubt, she"s dead. But how is she regenerating?"
Unknown to Lark, a string of notifications was appearing in front of Susan.
======
[Ugly Squid [Legendary] ]
Once upon a time lived an ugly squid. The squid had many friends and was loved by all, however, he was hated just as much. With his tendency to sacrifice himself to protect his friends, he gave them many emotional traumas. Fed up with his antics, his friends created a skill to end it once and for all.
-Revives the user upon death
-Number of uses: 3
-Skill activation requirement: User must sacrifice themselves to protect another person. Only works for one person at a time.
-Penalty:
1. Loss of 50% stats and 50% levels on revival
2. Upon revival, the user will go comatose for an indefinite amount of time
3. After the user"s death, the protected person will die in exchange for reviving the user.
======
[ [Ugly Squid] has been used. The exchange has been made]
[Remaining uses: 2]
No matter what Lark did, he couldn"t understand how Susan was regenerating. Shaking his head, he turned to Nathan.
"Are you alive too?"
***
-(Present || Location: Stage-0 Dungeon "Conqueror"s Trial")-
"Papa!"
Nerael"s eyes snapped open and a shout left her small mouth. Agitated, she burst into tears.
A thin and slender arm picked her up and patter her back.
"Nera, did you have a bad dream again? Don"t worry, everything is okay." Evelyn continued to console the little child.
For the past month, Nerael had been having constant nightmares. Only Evelyn and Miller were the ones who could stop Nerael"s crying and help her back to her cheerful mood.
She refused to tell others about her dreams, but everyone in the group thought that she was lonely without Nathan and didn"t think much.
But today seemed to be different. With each pa.s.sing minute, Nerael only cried more, asking to meet Nathan.
Suddenly, Evelyn felt a stir inside her soul and her face paled.
Bam-
"Eve!" In the next seconds, Miller and her two brothers rushed to her. "Did you… did you feel it too? The Oath was era-"
"Stop!"
Miller shouted, trying to stop Elliot from speaking another word. He feared that if he completed his words, they might come true.
However, everyone in the group felt it.
The Oath with Nathan had disappeared.
This meant only one thing. Nathan had died.
*
The group sat in silence inside the dungeon, not knowing what to do.
Nerael had finally fallen asleep in Miller"s embrace after crying for several minutes. Slowly rocking her body, he was cleaning her snot-covered face.
At that moment, a gust of wind appeared inside the dungeon.
"haaah…haaah… I have some news"
Tristan flapped his blood wings and landed. Sweat glistened on his forehead, signifying that he had rushed urgently to return.
Noticing the group"s mood, he gritted his teeth and told them about the things he had been hiding.
"Captain isn"t necessarily dead."
"What?! Tell me!" Miller almost pounced on Tristan as he demanded an explanation.
"I need to start from the beginning…" Tristan began narrating the events that transpired in Underworld on the day Nathan had returned gravely injured.
The group"s eyes widened as they listened to the feats Nathan accomplished. Everything Tristan dictated was beyond their wildest imagination.
Tristan knew a good amount of unleaked information.
Although Umbra and Aegis were trying to hide the information from spreading, with the scale of the fights as well as the colossal Spear that everyone inside the Underworld witnessed, it was only a matter of time before the public came to know about everything. Tristan was only a bit faster to collect the information.
"What are you trying to say?" Listening to Nathan"s achievements, Miller felt proud of himself, but he understood that this wasn"t the time for such things.
"A legendary-grade artifact has been deployed on Ward"s ground. They had isolated the entire s.p.a.ce inside there, turning it into a temporary locked pocket dimension." Tristan looked everyone in the eyes. "The official statements Ward is giving for these over-the-top measures are suspicious. If I"m not wrong, they are doing all this to capture Captain."
His exceptional disguise skills gave him the ability to collect a lot of information easily. Tristan had been away from the group for a few weeks, collecting information.
Sighing deeply, Tristan gave his conclusion of the events thus far.
"It"s possible that the barrier is the reason why we can"t feel the presence of the Oath that connects us to Captain or..."
Or maybe he is dead.
Tristan didn"t speak the last part.
A few minutes pa.s.sed in silence when suddenly Miller stood up and, pa.s.sing Nerael to Evelyn, began walking out of the Dungeon.
"Where are you going?"
Turning back, Miller spoke with determined tone. "I"m going to save Captain. If what you said is true, then Captain will need as much help as he can."
"What…?"A baffled expression decorated Tristan"s face. "Did you even understand anything? Captain is being pursued by Aegis. There is no way an Iota-rank like you can help him."
"I know, but I"ve decided to follow him to the end."
Without speaking another word, Miller left. He understood that, unlike him, others were only following his captain due to the Oaths. He did not expect them to risk their lives in his fruitless endeavor.
Haaaaa-
Tristan shook his head helplessly.
"Wait for me, I"m coming too."