Chapter 267 - A Black Mask
Arthur couldn't remember how much time he kept injecting mana or trying to resurrect her. He fell into the what-ifs and despair of losing a friend of his until Rae pulled on his shoulder.
"She's gone."
"Shut up!" Arthur slapped her hand away as he kept trying. He wouldn't believe that someone he knew for so long can die like this, with not even a ripple in the world.
He had always thought of death as something grand, a thing that you can't help but see, even if you don't like it. It shouldn't happen this easily, what's the meaning if it did?
"Alexie," Rae said to him again but Arthur didn't answer. His movements turned slower and slower until he retracted his hands and rested them on his thighs. They were shaking.
It was unrelated, but as he looked at his hands, he found the situational laughable. With all the stats he gathered, with all the powers he gained, he could never escape from being a human. His eyes blurred as he turned to look at Ellen's pale face.
She was with him a few hours ago, as silent and as quiet but she was there. Yet now, she'll never move again. She was the person who helped him the most in the runes club and probably the first friend he made in a long time.
He tried to help her, but where did that lead her? If he hadn't helped her to get into Jerano, she would have been alive now.
Arthur knew he couldn't have possibly known, but it did little to lessen the guilt he felt. If he had paid more attention to her, she wouldn't have died away from everyone who cared about her.
"Alexie," Rae called out again, an urgent tone in her voice. Arthur snapped out of it and turned to look at the figures who started standing up. "They're coming back to life. They were dead a moment ago."
The guild members, men, women, mages, and warriors, rose to life around them. Arthur turned back toward Ellen but she was still unmoving.
'Is she safe from being controlled because I disrupted their ritual?' Arthur looked at the guild members who didn't resemble Ori in any way. They had no Enders power trying to control them. He couldn't save them using his mana of creation, they were already dead, unlike Ori.
"Should we make a run for it?" Rae suggested as the people around them started taking out their weapons.
"There's no place to run to, this space is theirs." Arthur stared at Ellen silently as he caressed her shoulder gently. "They are here, hiding behind their army of undead."
It then suddenly clicked. This wasn't the first time that Arthur has seen this phenomenon, he had seen it before with Juan. The person he was in a dungeon with at the time of his awakening has turned into an undead when Arthur came to the mountain range after his breakthrough.
When he was alive, Juan was a powerful deme-ranker. It was also the reason he looked down on Arthur so much. However, when Arthur met him again, his strength decreased significantly after he turned into an undead.
If Arthur's guess was correct, then Juan fell after the serpent broke down the floor and ended up in the mountain range the same way that he did. However, he was dead at that time either due to the serpent's attack or because something else killed him.
Finding Juan's body, the Undead Lord turned him into an undead. Juan then met Arthur and received his blissful rest at last.
"They aren't as strong as they were," Arthur said as he placed his hand on Ellen's body, making it disappear into his subspace. When he stood up, Rae looked at him with furrowed brows. "I can't leave her here."
The moment something dies, it becomes eligible to go into his subspace. This way, he wouldn't have to leave Ellen here. His grief started to morph into something more dangerous.
"The bastards are still here." Arthur clenched his fist. "Whoever is behind all of this is still here. If we want to get out, we'll have to find them in this castle. Rise!" He threw out his hand and a shadow formed beside him. "Keep an eye on the castle from the outside. If someone leaves, report to me."
The shadow disappeared instantly. Rae looked at him with widened eyes but he couldn't care less at the moment. All he could feel was cold rage about Ellen's death.
He still couldn't accept it, that someone he cared about could die so easily. What did she die for? He wondered. He could still smell their stench, one of the bringers of chaos, the Enders. They were still here.
"Let's take them out," Arthur said as he raised his finger. Rae has already seen more than enough for her to suspect him; it didn't matter if he held back now.
He couldn't hold back here. Even though these were undead with almost half of their strength gone, there were still three Vetus rankers in their midst. There was also an army of dead rei-rankers.
'You were supposed to protect me, now you are the ones to bring me trouble.' Arthur sneered coldly. His finger started glowing bright a bright orange hue as condensed fire spilled out from it. His liquid fire formed into a rope that stretched as fast as Arthur waved his arm.
"Take them out!" Arthur told Rae as the rope of fire whipped toward the undead members. As soon as it came into contact with their bodies, chaos ensued.
The undead started howling as their flesh began to turn into charcoal. They ran in every direction and used their shields to block the fire.
There was a whistle as a bright flash of light tore through the darkness. Arthur ceased using his liquid fire and hurried to construct a barrier. However, he was too slow in transition between the two runes and the light struck him in his chest.
Arthur grunted as he took several steps back. The flesh on his chest turned black as blood oozed out from it. He raised his head at the undead standing far away with a gun in his hand.
The undead gunman fired several more shots but Arthur was able to construct a barrier in time. The bullets bounced off his barrier as they couldn't break-in.
"Take him out, Lilo!" Arthur ordered and Lilo flapped his wings. It flew close to the ground in the direction of the undead. It turned ethereal and passed through all of them. The gunman shot several mana bullets at him but they passed through Lilo's body.
Seeing the futility of it, the gunman was about to flee. It sluggishly began to ran away but Lilo caught up to it in no time. Using its front claws, Lilo pinned the gunman to the ground as mana gathered in its mouth.
"Lilo, retreat!" Arthur shouted in alarm as his senses screamed danger. He used his Dragon Mark to enforce the command and Lilo flapped his wings. At that moment, an arm stretched out from thin air and slashed the place where Lilo was standing.
The slash sent a vertical ray of black substance that ate away everything in its way while heading toward Rae and Arthur. Rae tried to block it with her scarf but Arthur hurried to construct a wall of liquid fire.
The two forces collided as a rupture in space was all that was left. Arthur retreated several steps back while squinting his eyes to see what had come out from the darkness.
The arm wasn't human, but something like a shelled resembling of a human arm. It had white lines covering it from fingertips to the shoulder. The body of the newcomer slowly revealed itself as a cloak appeared followed by a black mask.
The newcomer was fully disguised, but Arthur's hair stood up as he felt his existence. There was only a single figure that has appeared but it was enough to alarm Arthur to no end.
"What... are you?" Arthur was stunned as he muttered out. This was something that he has never felt before.
The Enders but also an Existence. Usually, the Enders were a gap in existence. They held no 'power of existence' that everything held in different degrees. That's how Arthur could recognize their existence.
Now, Arthur was confused. The figure in front of him was neither an Ender nor a creature, but he had both qualities. Furthermore, the creature's existence was more powerful than a human's body should have.
The creature didn't answer and the black mask silently stared back at Arthur. There were no eyes nor a mouth, there was nothing. It raised its hand again and slashed out, sending another ray of force that tore through space.
Arthur couldn't hold back anymore and activated his Art of Creation. His body started glowing golden as he summoned his mana to block the incoming attack.