Arc | Chapter. 99: From Bones to Dust

Chapter. 99: From Bones to Dust

Giselle felt happy but also conflicted, staring at the notification she was seeing before her. She had killed the undead she was fighting, it grew weaker so she had managed to slay it.

Now the problem was…

[ You have ascended to the true Tier of Heroes: SS. ]

She had become SS Tier…

Sure she had gotten some cool new shiny skills, and normally the occasion would’ve made her extremely happy, but right now she felt bitter. It was bittersweet. The reason was very simple; extremely so.

Arc had been looking for SS Tier monsters to slay, her spider was injured and hadn’t felled its opponent. So, it was basically a slow down in the plans as a whole. The Emera Spider would take at least a week to recover… And that would’ve been somewhat okay, but the problem was; Giselle leveled up.

She became SS Tier before the spider she was supposed to prioritize and nurture. The mere thought made her slightly sick in her stomach⁠— it’s not like she was actively trying to do so or anything.

She just fought for her life and came out on top…

Still, she had to explain this to Arc, hopefully in a way that wouldn’t be terrible and hopefully it wouldn’t lead to her demise. While Arc seemed relaxed and laid-back Giselle wasn’t willing to test the waters, especially not after the beating she had been given in the past.

Giselle turned to her surroundings for help only to find nothing, finally her shoulders slumped.

“This sucks…”

“Hey!”

A voice called out to her in the distance. Her ears perked up in confusion only to see a group of soldiers heading her way. She tensed⁠— what the fuck was she supposed to do?!

“You must be a survivor!” the leading figure called.

Giselle tensed before hurriedly nodding. “Right, yeah I am!”

In no time the soldiers arrived and she found herself being stared at by a bunch of people, but the leading General or whatever was the first one to speak.

“You should evacuate now⁠—”

“It’s fine,” Giselle interrupted nervously. “We should look for other survivors first, it’s best to do that…”

The man thought about her proposal before finally nodding.

“Very well, let us go.”

And just like that they departed.

Minutes later they found Jake, who was immediately recognized as his famous adventurer self. Then, after some of her nagging they ended up venturing further and met the two S Tier adventurers that had set off.

They immediately recognized Giselle but thankfully they said nothing. However, as the status report was given, the attention was drawn towards the monster in the distance. Everyone was tense but it seemed to be waiting for something.

Giselle⁠ — if she was honest ⁠— wanted nothing to do with the situation, but she still kept her mouth shut. The General was quick to instruct the present soldiers  to set up a teleportation spell circle that would be used for evacuation. Giselle had never seen it before but she didn’t question it⁠; it wasn’t as if she ever interacted deeply with the society of Arlas or anything.

And so everyone relegated themselves to waiting what was happening with the monster, and a moment later a white figure rose⁠.

Arc.

Giselle tensed, the S Tier adventurers tensed, Jake watched with curiosity and the soldiers watched with curiosity except for one of the Commanders who whispered her name softly.

Giselle heard it but she said nothing instead deciding to watch the unfolding situation. There was some dialogue, but it quickly ended as Giselle watched Arc raise her hand in an instant and call⁠—

“[Judgment of the Ice God]!”

A whisper only few people heard⁠— and a moment later a spear of ice fell from the air, striking the gigantic being of bones with an explosion. And then an ice pillar struck the monster⁠— sending it flying.

* * * * *

Finally, I will be able to teach her a lesson…

That’s what was crossing through the Hero of Necromancy’s mind, but now he couldn’t help but blink as he found himself flying through the air. He could feel the great undead he inhabited, cracking, and twisting. So much power was coursing through it and yet it had suffered damage from that⁠?!

Ridiculous!

Bone wings sprouted as the Hero of Necromancy fully delved into embracing the being he controlled and becoming one with it. He stabilized himself in the air and looked down into the distance at the heroine he was fighting.

He wasn’t going to lose.

He watched as the woman held a spear of ice within her hands, she was muttering things under her breath as the ice subtly shifted color. But it was just a spear⁠— against him, a being that was in the SS Tier, it wouldn’t do that much damage. So the idea was ridiculous.

The Hero of Necromancy sneered, it wouldn’t do anything. Yet the woman still believed it would be enough to even damage him in a decent way? That was pure delusion⁠—

And the spear was thrown. A white ray of light immediately hit the Hero of Necromancy before the whole world went white. Pain rocked his body and in a blink he hit the ground of the Traitor’s Graveyard. His surroundings were caved in, flakes of frost rained from the air, and when he tried to move the Hero of Necromancy…

Couldn’t.

His body, his feet, the bones⁠— everything was bound by ice.

It didn’t make sense, the heroine had just used a spear and some skills and yet he had been felled?! It just didn’t make⁠— the Hero of Necromancy struggled to no avail. What was happening?!

He had fought her toe to toe and even overpowered her. But after she raised from the ground everything changed⁠— how? The Hero of Necromancy wanted to deny it but this was undeniable proof. Perhaps she had used an SS Tier skill to strengthen herself and enable this⁠…

In that case he had to do the same.

The Hero of Necromancy could feel the heroine approaching.

Soon he would put her in her place. That he was sure of. The Hero of Necromancy closed his eyes, hearing the approaching foot falls of his adversary. Much like him, she was an SS Tier hero, and much like him she too had her own trump cards. He had already used two, the Undead Dragon of Darkness, and his SS Tier skill for the body he was inhabiting.

But there was more…

However, was it worth it to halt his plans for Draliz over it?

The Hero of Necromancy greeted his teeth and made a decision.

Damn right it was!

If he killed the heroine of frost, everything would be fine. He could always conquer Draliz in the future, but this grudge had to be resolved first. Otherwise, the Hero of Necromancy was sure he wouldn’t be able to live with himself.

Gritting his teeth he prepared for the right moment.

The perfect time to attack.

* * * * *

A lot of eyes were on me. Bystanders. People I didn’t know.

It was a situation that I normally would’ve found distressing but right now I didn’t. It was just something in the back in my mind that⁠— well didn’t matter all that much. Nothing really mattered that much, Ceylon was safe with Faral so I didn’t have anything to worry about.

My footsteps echoed across the ashen land, something was about to happen, and I knew that for a fact and yet I didn’t really pay it that much mind. I didn’t pay anything all that much attention if I was being honest. My only objective was getting rid of the Hero of Necromancy and that would be the extent of things.

As for what happened after?

We’ll see.

I closed my eyes for a moment and took a deep breath as I readied myself, lightly raising my hand to start my attack. And at that moment I heard a deep bellow of primal anger, shouting the name of a skill.

“[Burn Through My Bones Until There Is Nothing But Ash]!”

And the ice in front of me exploded with a flash of red. The air itself changed color as the earth quaked. My eyes immediately narrowed and I brought my hand down without hesitation⁠—

[Frost Lightning].

The crackling white struck and the ground reverberated all at once. Then, it broke⁠ with a flesh of red⁠— the gigantic monster came my way at lightning speeds, I barely managed to conjure an ice sword before it struck with its deformed fist.

I felt the shock travel through my arms and the ice sword let out a painful crack, nearly shattering from the single hit alone and sending me flying. The world blurred around me, all while I realized the Hero of Necromancy had grown stronger yet again, and that I would have no choice but to use my SS Tier skill.

A breath left me as I began with the first word in my mind.

[Frost…]

Immediately the temperature within the air dropped, and yet the Hero of Necromancy rushed. The undead being shifting into a gigantic worm was enough to threaten my life, but I continued casting.

[Stasis…]

I made an ice shield as the worm struck me into the ground. The strength was enough for my bones to creak and my internal injuries to rupture once more, making me cough up blood.

But it didn’t matter.

[Eternity…]

The worm came my way, opening its gaping maw as the voice of the Hero of Necromancy echoed in the air, the joy obvious.

“I shall finally put an end to you! Heroine of Frost!”

The ground was breaking apart from the red aura, everything was splitting as all my danger senses blared, and in a single moment the worm reached me. Swallowing me whole as I finished my incantation.

* * * * *

The Hero of Necromancy felt whole satisfaction, the crushing of bones and mangling of his prey. That was it, he was victorious and obviously the Heroine of Frost didn’t have a comeback. She was dead.

The Hero of Necromancy was sure of it, he turned already knowing where the heroine would revive⁠—

And that’s when he noticed, the world seemed frozen. The Hero of Necromancy paused for a second, observing with confusion.

What⁠—

And everything exploded into white as his body was ripped apart.

* * * * *

It exploded.

Arc had been swallowed, and from one moment to another the gigantic worm of bones exploded with flashes of white. It was as if judgment had befallen from above, white lightning⁠— white spears. It all eradicated the monster in just a single moment, and Giselle had seen all of it. The chunks of bone flying, how everything seemed to come to an eerie calm, and yet how her heart warned her of danger.

The fight had ended just like that.

Giselle swallowed watching the white-haired girl standing there looking at the sky. There was blood all over her body and yet no injury was visible. It was awe inspiring, and it was terrifying.

All it took was a single attack.

Though in spite of the fight being over no one dared to move, it felt impossible to do so as if an undetectable force was stopping them from doing so. However, that didn’t last long. A second later, the effect disappeared as the white-haired woman shook her head to no one in particular.

* * * * *

All it had taken was to use my SS Tier skill.

The control of frost it granted me had allowed me to chain multiple skills at once⁠— overlay them for total destruction. And the result was…

[ You have vanquished the: Hero of Necromancy, from the world. Tier: SS. ]

[ You have leveled up. ]

[ You have leveled up. ]

Nothing.

Not only had I gotten a notification for killing the Hero of Necromancy, and levels too. It hadn’t been enough. I had gotten no new skill, no nothing.

It was slightly disappointing but I decided to not think too deeply about it.

I shook my head and got ready to go, but at that moment someone screamed for my attention.

“Halt!” I turned only to see the familiar Elite Dark Knights, a man with a decorated cloak was looking right at me. “We’d like an audience with you, Heroine of Frost!”

I paused, surprised at what he was requesting, and for a moment numerous things flashed through my mind. The idea of telling him to fuck off, the idea of leaving, the idea of asking what happens if I refuse, but in the end, it wasn’t going to go anywhere.

A sigh left me.

“Fine.”