Arc | Chapter. 95: Thoughts

Chapter. 95: Thoughts

This time I managed to sleep without worrying about things. I awoke in a tired and weird mood, a solemn one that just focused on the peacefulness of things around me. I felt… weird, but I didn’t let it get to me.

Ceylon on the other hand gave me a weird look, one of concern but one that I decided to not pay any mind to. In the end, I wasn’t going to explain those things to her. Perhaps, she had a right to know of my past, but at the same time I wasn’t really ready to just share it as a story, right how everything brought… heartache.

With that we went about our day, eventually reuniting at the traitor’s graveyard. Though Faral had stayed behind with Meika.

And now, we were there along with Ceylon, Jake, Giselle, and the old man who was a bit out of place in comparison to all of us.

It didn’t take long before I directed everyone to go help Ceylon with her stuff and as soon as they left; I sat there in silence.

I stared at the black sky, taking in the ashen clouds; the dreary surroundings; the stale air; the dry ground beneath my feet. Everything. I made sure to just let my emotions slowly simmer as a long breath left me.

I didn’t want to admit it but the weird feeling I had was…

Loneliness.

I stared at my pale hand, at my white hair, and producing an ice mirror I examined my face and even my clothes. It was… almost alien. I didn’t think I was going through some period of denial or dissociation, but it was still odd.

I rubbed my fingers together and with a mere thought frost mist began to come from them.

I had attained unimaginable power.

And well that was cool and all. I was in a new world now, a world away from all of those worries. But at the same time the realization that hardly anyone could relate to my experience made me feel so detached and disconnected.

A sigh left me, slightly exasperated.

“What a stupid dream.”

I waved my hand and an undead zombie some meters away exploded⁠— a spike of ice taking his place before it quickly dissipated and melted away. To some extent I was angry that I had remembered all of that. After all⁠— that was in the past, and not in the five years of training had I even thought about it.

So why now?

It irritated me, and my feelings also didn’t help. Finally I turned to look at my hands. I didn’t exactly want to be vulnerable but perhaps I had to talk to Ceylon about my feelings…

Eventually…

While perhaps she wasn’t the most qualified person to hear me, she was probably the only person in the world that would genuinely listen to me as a person right now. And I really valued that. Though…

I shook my head. “These feelings are pretty annoying aren’t they?”

My question rang in the air for nobody to answer as I looked at the sky.

All I could really do for now was relax.

* * * * *

Ceylon was worried about Arc, but unfortunately she couldn’t really broach the subject ⁠— nor knew how to. All she could do was focus on getting stronger and traveling along with the old guildmaster, Jake and the strange heroine of spiders whom she barely knew.

And so that’s what she did, she received assistance in various ways all to slay undead and level up. Whether it was stabbing them through the eyes, having their limbs chopped off and stabbing them in the chest repeatedly⁠— or the occasional one versus one without any interference. Ceylon welcomed everything.

Ceylon was grateful towards Arc and she wanted to show it, and the only way to do so for now was to keep on killing.

Though the undead seemed a lot more scarce even in comparison to the day before…

* * * * *

Necromancy.

The art of creating life from the remains of the living. An art that was considered wretched across many regions of the world, a twisted thing that he dominated. He was the Hero of Necromancy, crowned by the System itself; it wasn’t a fate that he chose, but one that had chosen him.

He had long accepted it, and had long gotten past any emotional hang ups.

This was his destiny.

The Hero of Necromancy had once tried to bring peace and stability to the world, but unfortunately any attempt at doing so was treated as evil. He didn’t know when or why it happened, but eventually he realized that he wasn’t in this world to bring peace, or change it in any meaningful way.

He was here for one simple reason and that was for him to indulge in his fantasies, whether they were twisted or good in nature; it didn’t matter. The nature of his power was antagonistic, and while that had given him troubles in the past, now he was embracing it.

That said, there was an obstacle that prevented him from reaching his current goal.

His eyes narrowed, staring at the two floating visions in front of him.

The dragon woman was missing, but the Heroine of Spiders and the S Tier adventurer were present, and then there was the white haired woman that was just relaxing…

He didn’t know how strong she was, but she had killed the Lord Lich just yesterday and she seemed wholly uninjured ⁠— let alone interested.

Was she a hero?

The Hero of Necromancy didn’t know what to think of things, but one thing was for certain ⁠— this peculiar group of people was in the way of his plans to conquer Draliz.

And unfortunately he couldn’t get his plans in motion until then…

Shaking his head, he dismissed the visions⁠ ⁠— the misty windows to the outside world evaporated as he turned his attention to the army of undead behind him.

There were even SS Tier undeads there…

That said, that wasn’t enough. Even if he got rid of these people, the Hero of Necromancy understood that this challenge would be one of many. That just like him, other heroes were probably after Draliz too. It just made sense. It was the most unstable country at the moment, and for that reason alone everyone wanted a piece of it.

Which is why he had to keep preparing.

He turned to a gigantic skull on the ground.

He never thought he would be using it any time soon, but now here he was.

It was the skull of a dragon, and with it he could revive the might of an SS Tier being.

And so he spent that day focusing his efforts.

“By the dusk of tomorrow, it shall be complete…”

With that, he began his efforts and final preparations to dispose of the adventurers and begin his conquest upon Draliz.

* * * * *

The day ended, though when I met up with Ceylon she had a weird expression, Jake and Giselle had already set off to return, and the old man lingered around

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“In the past two hours we’ve only found two undeads…” She sighed. “Will I even be able to reach C Tier by tomorrow?”

“I don’t know,” I said simply. “But try not to stress about it, there is no rush.”

She chuckled. “Yeah, it’s a bit silly to stress about reaching C Tier in two days when the average person takes more than a year…”

“It is,” I gave her a small smile. “Now let’s go.”

I held out my hand to her and turned to the old man who was looking into the horizon.

“Come grab me too, or you will be left behind.”

The old man meanwhile continued to look.

“Something is brewing in the horizon, and I don’t think⁠—”

“Yes, I’m very sure the necromancer is preparing something,” I said, shaking my head. “After Giselle and I threatened him, it’s no surprise.”

He chuckled and turned around. “Looks like my wisdom isn’t required.”

And soon later we all left the Traitor’s Graveyard for the day, returning to the inn. We greeted Faral, but in the end everyone went to their rooms.

I ate with Ceylon, and while I enjoyed the food it was but a distraction to whatever internal turmoil I had. And unfortunately, my companion seemed to notice it.

“Arc, that… dream is still bothering you, right?”

“It is.” I sighed. “I don’t want to talk too much about it, they were just memories of my family.”

“Right…” Ceylon nodded and abstained from asking questions.

“I just remembered how they mistreated me, that's all,” I smiled bitterly. “Right now I feel sad, whereas before my only reaction to that was spite.”

I shook my head.

“It’s just dumb.”

“I…” She closed her mouth before nodding to herself. “I’m here if you want me to listen to your past Arc, I can’t claim I’ll exactly understand but, it’s the least I can do…”

I smiled. “Thank you Ceylon.”

She smiled back at me and we continued eating in silence, and soon after we both went to sleep. Though all I did was once more stare at the ceiling.

I was…

I didn’t know.

In the end, I didn’t think I should think about things so I decided to sleep.

* * * * *

The next day soon came, and we set off towards the Traitor’s Graveyard. Faral seemed uninterested in it, so she was left to her own devices training Meika, and perhaps that was for the best.

It didn’t take long before we found ourselves back in the dungeon. Though Giselle just looked around.

“Well, I suggest we go fuck up the necromancer at nightfall.”

“Sure,” I agreed without hesitation.

“Well, I’ll follow whatever Arc does so…” Jake shrugged.

Meanwhile the old man seemed to stand there somewhat taken aback. “So are we just going to brigade the lair of a possible SS Tier being?”

“Sure why not?” The Heroine of Spiders asked.

“Because I think only Arc and you are SS Tier and we are talking about a necromancer.” He pointed out hesitantly.

“Well, that’s just irrelevant details.” Giselle shrugged. “Also I’m S Tier.”

There was a pause before the old man spoke again. “That’s worse…”

“Meh, live and let live.” She waved in dismissal. “Besides, Arc has agreed so we’ll be doing that today.”

“Right…”

The old man turned to me but I just nodded in agreement to what the Heroine of Spiders had said. A sigh of defeat left him and finally I turned to Ceylon, who was just watching our discussion.

“Are you worried?” I asked.

“I am… a bit, but more about you…” she said hesitantly.

“Right…” I trailed off. “It will be fine.”

I turned to the old man and the others. “Today I’ll spend the time with Ceylon, you all should focus on the impending battle.”

I was met with nods, except for Giselle who let out a grunt and made sure to say how boring that would be. But I essentially ignored her and let them do their thing, meanwhile I took Ceylon along for leveling up.

That said, there really weren’t many monsters, so we mostly wandered and walked.

Hours passed, and after killing a monster Ceylon made a question.

“Do you know what will happen after we return?”

I paused before shaking my head. “I do not. I guess, I expect people to seek revenge for the Hero of Flames, I believe he should still be injured. As for how the ceremony or election for the new king will work, I’m not sure either.”

“Right, but it will be fine right?” Ceylon asked worriedly.

“If the Dragon of Water is to be believed, then yes⁠— and given he’s my slave I don’t think he’s willing to make a mistake in this regard.”

“That is… comforting.” Ceylon acknowledged after a pause.

“Well, as it can be.” I shrugged. “But, everything should be alright. Your family will be the new rulers…” I took a breath as my voice became cold. “That I will make certain of.”

There was a silence as Ceylon nodded.

“Thank you…”

With that our interaction ended as we continued trying to level Ceylon up, though it wasn’t going particularly fast. Unfortunately. But we still tried to enjoy each other’s company and chat about what we could chat; it seemed that we didn’t know each other that well unfortunately, but we still managed to enjoy conversation; whether it was about what a fun way to kill the undead we were fighting was, or just other stuff.

Hours passed, and soon night came.

“I guess, that’s it?” Ceylon asked, sweating. “I think it’s best if you return me to town.”

I thought for a moment, but ultimately nodded and extended my hand. “Yeah.”

She grabbed it with a smile and moments later we left. It didn’t take more than a few minutes for me to drop off Ceylon with Faral, and with that I found an isolated place to use my skill once more.

Hopefully everyone would be waiting and ready to act, while I didn’t know what to expect things were surely going to be interesting.

We were about to attack a necromancer that had had multiple days of preparation…

That was… somewhat exciting.

Though if he begged for mercy I still felt inclined to spare him. After all, I initially was against killing him, and to some extent I still was ⁠— the undead however? Those were another story entirely.

With a smile, I used [God Step].

The world blurred and a moment later I stood back in the Traitor’s Graveyard, on our reunion spot⁠— and the ground next to me exploded.

I turned in surprise only to see the shadow of the Emera Spider rise from the smoke, and soon I began to sense multiple strong presences. Then⁠— an undead flew across my vision as a familiar voice spoke.

“Well you certainly are a bit late to the action.”

I nodded at Jake’s words, and soon I turned to look ahead where I saw undeads of various shapes and sizes, and all of them were SS Tier.

[Lord of the Crypt. Tier: SS]

[Shadow of Nightmares. Tier: SS]

[Unhallowed Watcher. Tier: SS]

I stared at all of them as I felt some excitement. Jake himself was wielding my ice spear in hand, and soon after Giselle emerged next to us, forming out of a pile of small spiders.

“Well he certainly prepared a lot more than we thought⁠—”

And at that moment a deep roar shook the land, an angry voice echoed throughout and an explosion occurred in the distance.

“Intruders, interlopers ⁠— you people had the chance to leave, but instead you chose to defy me…”

The voice of the necromancer rang in our ears as a weird shadow towered behind the curtain of smoke.

“And now y’all will die. Two heroes dare to defy me, and yet only one amongst you is SS Tier…” I could hear the anger in his voice. “Insolence!”

And with a gust of wind, the smoke cleared as I saw a skeletal dragon flying in the air, at the top of its skull stood a robbed figure, and the system confirmed my suspicions.

[Hero of Necromancy. Tier: SS]

As for the dragon…

[Undead Dragon of Darkness. Tier: SS]

It wasn’t something I expected.