190 Unsettling Conclusion
The constant sizzling almost masked the words being spoken.
The flames and dust gave a deep sense of solemnity to the scene in place.
And solemn it was.
What had seemed like the relieving end had suddenly changed into something else entirely.
“As I thought. I can barely use it in this state. Yet the results weren’t so bad…” a man in a green and white mask said.
Half of the city was littered in flames and black, charred ground that was quite brittle yet hard still.
The other half was merely riddled with the scars of the earlier fight and not the one that followed, between the Paladin Champion and the masked man.
Actuass looked before him.
Millions of people covered in halos of the protection provided by the star above… knelt deeply on either of his sides, their bodies prostrated to him as their heads even touched the ground humbly!
All of them without exception, men, women and children had soft glints of green in their eyes as they fervently bowed in neat rows while leaving a straight gap between them for Actuass to pass.
There was total and utter silence except the sounds stemming from falling debris and crackling fire.
“Hmmm…”
Actuass’ image didn’t look as intact as it did before.
His hood was torn, his clothes worn out and dirtied with dust and blood.
His mask was cracked, his hair slightly burnt while his missing arm was quite noticeable.
He sighed before beginning to limp his way through the gap created by all the civilians of Evic.
He was headed towards quite the far distance away where the figure of Revia was leaning against a large stone block.
Her armour had holes in it, chunks of it digging deep into her flesh! Three ghastly wounds on her exposed flesh, one being a hole opened up in her abdomen from where her pulsing organs and damaged spine could be seen while the others were gruesome gashes that looked to have been caused by a sharp, yet crude weapon.
As she sat on the hard ground, blood pooled at her thighs, her silver hair cut and burnt as she vomited mouth after mouthful of blood!
Her one eye was bleeding over her cheeks, the eyelid closed while a series of multi-coloured bruises were all over her face.
Her sword was at her side, cracked pitifully, its lustre no longer present.
Strangely, the life energy within her kept bubbling and growing but it could not heal her. Thus, it continued to roil within her body, boosting her resilience to the pain instead since there was nothing more it could add to her strength when she couldn’t move.
Valis was a few meters away, heaving in deep breaths. He wasn’t injured at all, not physically at least.
He was paralysed by some strange effect that he didn’t understood.
He had initially thought that the battle was over when Revia used her third and final sword technique but that had turned out to not be the case.
With the uttering of strange words, Actuass had become a absolute monster for three minutes, unleashing power that made the High Order Priest lose his will to fight in that moment!
How Revia had been brutalised in the most horrific use of Undeath he had seen so far was traumatising. He couldn’t believe what he had seen.
The people he had been protecting all this time had now created a silent parade where they bowed towards Actuass.
Ridiculous!
Now, he could only watch as Actuass reached the heavily injured body of Revia who was hanging her head while taking in raspy breaths of air while choking on her blood.
Actuass had passed through the long procession of bowing civilians patiently until he reached his destination.
Revia raised her head to face him, her mangled body and broken bones not allowing for any further movement.
“You’re tougher than I thought. It makes me believe that I was right about you. I can’t imagine that you learnt to be this strong because of your faith,” Actuass said.
Revia merely looked up at Actuass and shook her head weakly, a furious expression on her face.
“I can understand. As I said before, I was once a believer but I failed to comprehend what the Deities wanted from me. I was doubtful and I still am. I sense the same in you. You hesitate but follow along because its the only thing you can do. You lack an aim.”
Revia looked at Actuass hatefully while the light in her eyes remained strong. She wouldn’t be swayed.
What Actuass was saying was mostly true. While she cared for Valis, she didn’t share his absolute faith in the Deities.
She had been planning on getting Elita out of her detainment against the will of the Purity for Deities’ sake.
That proved that she didn’t much care for anything else.
Who would believe that their entire family died for some vague reason fabricated by who knew what?
Was everything that happened to her truly preordained?
Revia spat blood at Actuass’ feet in contempt.
“I said it before. Mind games won’t work on me. Just kill me…” she said determinedly.
Actuass remained silent for a few moments before crouching in front of the female Paladin Champion.
It was a shame. He really wished he could rope her in.
“I remember what you said quite clearly. However, you seem to have forgotten what I said,” Actuass spoke in an eerie tone. “Someone else wants your life. I’m only interested in your death…”
Before Revia could question what this meant, Actuass pressed his thumb and index finger on Revia’s forehead, a numbing sensation running along the woman’s body voraciously!
Revia’s eyes opened wide as she felt something dark and repugnant gush into her body from Actuass’ fingers, targeting the growing life energy within her!
The lime green energy that kept pulsing and bubbling was wrapped by the repugnant energy that had a greenish black hue and then…
The bright, luminescent life energy suddenly began transitioning from its lime green colour into a bloody crimson with a very dark shade!
Its concentration was immense as almost all Revia’s life energy was turned into this dark one which was, predictably, Undeath energy!
Revia was terrified at this point.
The sickening energy within her body not only felt cruel and evil but it wrestled against her Divine Blessing which was within her body also!
Luckily for her, Actuass didn’t plan to use her as his personal storage.
The vast and thick amount of death energy was sucked into Actuass’ fingers and absorbed into his body with a terrifying howl of the surrounding space!
Valis’ eyes bulged in shock while he tried to wrestle the paralysis!
What was this?!
Was this seriously the same Green Neolist group that they failed to take seriously all these years?!
After the Undeath energy was extracted from Revia, she felt extremely weak, her body now letting her feel the immense pain that she had lost the resilience to withstand!
She screamed and tumbled as the pain was immense.
Her reserves of mana were depleted in the fight and now she couldn’t do anything to strengthen her body!
She rolled on the ground in pain as tears rolled from her eyes!
This pain!
It was too much!
It even eclipsed the pain that had almost led her to suicide when her brother had died!
She couldn’t stand it!
‘Sister… sister Elita please help!’ she subconsciously called in her mind, screaming with a mental voice while screeching on the outside in pain. “Please sister….save me…”
Actuass watched her writhe.
“Unfortunately for you, if I will it, you can roll around here in pain for eternity. I have transformed most of your life energy into undeath energy. This means your potential to die from any circumstance had been completely stripped from you,” he said. “There is no place for you anywhere else that isn’t this brutish hellscape we call Aigas.”
Revia’s eyes opened wide in shock.
What?!
“You cannot die. You are immortal in a way. Even if your body perishes, your soul will find its way into another body and continue with cycle of the undying. In the purest way, you are an undead. Death is an undeserved gift to all living things. Those who would abuse it wantonly don’t deserve to abide in it.”
Actuass delivered these words before smacking Revia at the back of her head, knocking her out.
He turned to Valis who unconsciously shuddered while trying to free himself.
Actuass opened his mouth to speak but his mask suddenly cracked and fell, revealing a youthful face that instantly turned nervous, then terrified!
The hazel coloured eyes on this face suddenly dimmed, turning into a light shade of brown instead.
The individual behind the mask suddenly panicked and screamed in pain as he grasped his shoulder.
“ARRRGHH! What’s going on?! Where am I? What happened?! What happened to my arm?! ARRGKHHH!” he screamed as his eyes darted to and fro.
Strangely, this panicking and terrified face suddenly shifted again in demeanour, turning stern as the eyes turned from brown to hazel once again.
‘<Sigh>. I almost lost my connection to the vessel. I really overexerted this body with my concept it seems…’ thought Actuass before he addressed Valis as he had intended.
“Be sure to spread the word.”
Actuass pulled out a scroll which he unfurled after grabbing Revia’s unconscious body by the hair.
This scroll had a familiar aesthetic as it was something that the Green Neolists normally used often.
An Arcane Teleportation Scroll!
It was similar to the ones that Eobald and Skullius had used with the flame effect but this one was different.
The once masked man inserted his mana into the scroll and symbols surrounded his figure and Revia’s, lighting up their bodies before a terrific tornado bloomed initiating their travel!
The Arcane Teleportation Scroll, Gales!
Just like that, Actuass left the cult-like scene of millions of innocents bowing within a burning and broken city under the eyes of paralysed High Order Priest….
___
[End of Mini Arc]
What do you think about this arc? What are your thoughts on Actuass? What do you think will happen to Revia? Is her story over or is it just beginning?
I would really love to hear your comments!