Chapter 286: You Need Treatment
Chapter 286: You Need Treatment
After three days of steadfast camping and fasting on the same spot, Roel finally managed to snag his prey. At the same time, in the forest near Fulte’s Stop, a black-haired woman opened her eyes at Paul’s reminder.
The Twin Stones was a unique magic mineral on the Sia Continent that existed in pairs. Whenever one of them was infused with mana, the other one would glow in resonation as well.
The little piece of stone in Paul’s hand was glowing crimson-red, seemingly reflecting the murderous intent boiling beneath Lilian’s calm exterior. She rose to her feet, and all of the members of the Special Ops Team quickly stood up and divided themselves into two teams.
“Let’s set off.”
Simple words, but they were much heavier than usual. The two teams began swiftly making their way toward their destination under the veil of the night.
At the same time, the cawing of crows began echoing inside the wine cellars. The bloodstained slaughterers raised their heads and looked at one another.
“Emergency! The bishop has sent news over!”
“Retreat as we’ve planned!”
The evil cultists immediately went into action, but little did they know that it was all too late.
…
Cries of agony weren’t something which the usually soft-hearted Roel liked, for it symbolized pain and suffering. It was usually a harbinger of bad things, but not today.
Listening to Marceus’ screeching howls, Roel felt the rage and frustration that had been bubbling inside him for three whole days finally being released. His smile grew brighter as the cries crescendoed.
The screams of the sinner aren’t pleasant, but they are at least pacifying, Roel thought.
Meanwhile, the pale-faced Marceus finally backed into a wall and hollered.
“That student over there, what are you doing? It’s against the academy’s laws to attack a member of the teaching staff!”
He was trying his best to buy as much time as possible for him to recover.
Roel’s presence here was more than enough for him to figure out the truth. The Bluerose Ringbearer, whom he had looked down on all this while, had seen Melty’s letter and conducted a secret investigation. They even prepared elaborate diversions to mislead him and make him lower his guard.
It’s all been exposed. We need to retreat right away!
Marceus was utterly panicked at the moment, but he made sure to maintain an innocent look on his face as he secretly channeled his mana in preparation for making a comeback. All that was needed now was for Roel to let his guard down.
He had seen the projection of Roel’s fight in ‘Night of the Demons’, so he knew that he would at least have to incapacitate Roel before he would stand a chance at escaping. That was also the reason why he didn’t recklessly charge out of the house right away.
Right outside of the dormitory was a forest with hardly any natural obstacles like mountains or rivers. Once they got to open land, Roel would be able to unleash the full prowess of his skeleton giant without any worries.
Marceus had no intention of trying to outrun a skeleton giant on flat land. That was indubitably a recipe for death.
“I was patrolling around the area when I sensed an anomalous mana pulsation, so I came in to take a look. Now that I think about it, it must be due to you hiding here. What are you up to here?!”
The sharp-witted Marceus quickly found an explanation and began questioning the young man righteously. His realistic acting successfully induced doubts in Roel’s mind. The latter looked astonished for a brief moment as he struggled to process what was happening.
“You claim that you’re a member of the teaching staff. What evidence do you have?”
“I have my identification card in my pocket. I’m the chief of the Student Information Bureau, Marceus Collard! You’re Roel Ascart, right? I know your teacher, Chris Wilde. I’ll not let this matter go easily!”
“Wait a moment, you aren’t an evil cultist who’s here to take Melty’s life? T-this is a misunderstanding!”
Roel was utterly flustered to hear Marceus’ account. He panicked for a brief moment before he hurriedly channeled his mana into his staff.
“I camped here because I heard that this student had been targeted by evil cultists, but I didn’t think that I would end up alarming a staff member. This is truly an unfortunate misunderstanding. Please, allow me to treat your wounds!”
Roel lifted his staff as he apologized with a guilt-ridden face. Marceus carefully assessed Roel’s reaction along with his staff, and he couldn’t help but widen his eyes in astonishment.
What powerful life force he’s channeling!
There were plenty of healing spells in the Sia Continent, but most of them were defective. Take the church’s priests for example, their healing spells came with purification effects that risked undermining the physical integrity of a human body, which could result in all sorts of problems. The only way to heal a person without incurring any side effects was through the replenishment of life force.
Such an advanced healing method should be extremely effective.
Marceus was still in great pain after having lost his arm, so this offer to treat him was a godsent opportunity. His eyes immediately lit up in excitement as he sneered in disdain.
Heh, he’s nothing more than a brat in the end. He might be strong, but he has completely no experience at all. All it takes is a scare to make him panic.
“Alright, it looks like it’s really just a misunderstanding. Hurry up and treat me!”
Marceus continued glaring at Roel for a moment longer before finally relenting. While waiting for Roel to treat him, he secretly channeled mana into his hand, ready to blast it at Roel as soon as the treatment was done.
On the other hand, Roel looked visibly relieved upon receiving permission. He pointed his staff toward Marceus and cast a pale yellow glow upon him.
Staring at the pale yellow glow, Marceus couldn’t control his expression anymore and his lips curled up a little. At the same time, Roel smiled as well.
But the very next moment, Marceus’ smile froze in place—literally.
His face had been petrified.
“AHHHH!”
Marceus shrieked in agony for the second time since entering this room. Under Roel’s heartwarming ‘treatment’, his skin began to turn grayish at a frightening rate. Realizing the danger he was in, he quickly released the mana he had gathered thus far and shattered the petrified skin on his face. At the same time, he dashed toward the window and jumped out.
He would rather escape right away even if it meant putting himself in a worse position than to face the pale yellow glow petrifying him!
Peytra’s petrification wasn’t so superficial as to merely create a layer of rock above one’s skin. The petrified skin that fell off exposed Marceus’ flesh, causing his face to sting as the wind battered on it. By the time he finally escaped from the dormitory, his face was already dripping blood all over.
“Lord Roel, you…”
“I’ll be chasing after him. The members of the Request Club are currently on their way here, so don’t move around recklessly.”
After issuing some instructions to the worried Melty, Roel quickly dashed out of the window after Marceus. Crimson mana began converging around his body, manifesting into a humongous skeleton giant in the midst of his descent. Without any hesitation, he quickly followed the trail of blood to track Marceus down.
The moment the bloodied Marceus saw the flash of crimson light, he knew that his earlier prediction had come true. He ran as fast as he could, but the loud thumping sound behind him only grew closer with time. A humongous shadow started looming over him, blocking off the moonlight. Soon, he could even sense the undead aura coming from Grandar.
Shit, I knew it! There’s no way I could outrun him in the open. I won’t be able to get away at this rate. Goddamnit, I might as well go all out now! I might still stand a chance that way!
Marceus clenched his jaws furiously. He was infuriated at being duped by Roel, but his anger didn’t cloud his mind. He knew that the skeleton giant wasn’t an easy opponent to deal with. It emanated the aura of an ancient god that instilled deep fear into his heart. In order to deal with such an existence, he would have to resort to his final trump card.
Aztar, the evil god worshiped by the Bloodtribute Cult. It was depicted to be a being made out of flesh and blood, often prying on the mortal world from the shadows.
He would have to borrow Aztar’s power in order to make a comeback here.
Knowing that it was futile to continue running, Marceus whipped out his knife and sliced open his abdomen. Shockingly, the injury he inflicted on himself didn’t cause blood to spurt forth. Instead, all of the blood that was about to seep out of his body vanished as if it had been devoured by some invisible being, and an eerie gulping sound could be heard in the air.
Roel immediately knew that something huge was going to happen. It was a known fact on the Sia Continent that strong spells required great sacrifice, but the converse was true too. Seeing how Marceus had gone to the extent of tributing half of his body to the evil god he worshiped, he ordered Grandar to back off right away.
The next moment, hundreds of capillaries suddenly burst forth from Marceus’ body. They were no more than thin threads when they first emerged from his body, but they rapidly expanded in the sky and transformed into terrifying bloody leeches spanning over fifty meters in length with sharp teeth at their ends.
Grandar’s retreat caused the initial assault of these bloody leeches to fail, and they immediately backed away right after. These hundreds of bloody leeches then began weaving together with one another to form a meat giant.
This meat giant looked exactly like what it was made out of—long slabs of meat interweaving one another. It had no eyes or nose, just a gigantic mouth that was constantly moaning hellish whispers. Its birth produced a flash of blood-red light, and the stench of corpses swiftly suffused into the surroundings. There was a blurred silhouette behind its back, reminiscent of some sort of projection.
It was a projection of Aztar.
Roel felt his Origin Attribute trembling ceaselessly in the presence of this sinister being, and it brought a tight frown to his face.
The cries of the monster broke the silence of the night, spurring students in the nearby dormitories to open their windows to take a look. The moment they saw the meat giant towering in the middle of the forest, their minds suddenly jolted as if their minds had been struck by a hammer. Some of them clawed at their hair from the sudden headache whereas some even fainted right away.
“An evil god? How strong is it? Can we deal with it?”
“So-so.”
Grandar assessed the sinister squirming meat giant with his glowing eye before giving his evaluation with a calm but grim voice. Roel’s eyebrows twitched a little. He quickly posed another question.
“What if I convert my life force here to raise my strength to Origin Level 3?”
“Trash.”
“Alright, I understand.”
Roel nodded with a smile upon hearing those words.
A pale yellow light cloaked his body, and his mana began to grow at a tremendous pace.
Even a lion would go all out to hunt a rabbit. There was no way Roel would allow Grandar to be humiliated before an evil god of unknown origin because of his weakness.
The moment Grandar received Roel’s blessing, his body released a brilliant flash of crimson mana that dyed the night sky red. A furious gale rushed across the air, suppressing the awful stench of the evil god. Even the blurred projection of Aztar started to waver like candlelight on the verge of being extinguished.
The two giants stood face to face with one another with a distance of a thousand meters between them. The meat giant screeched frenziedly while Grandar stood as calmly as he always did. Then, the two of them charged forth at the same time.
The meat giant wriggled its way forward, leaving a trail of decomposing flesh and blood behind it. Its arms morphed into countless tentacles that were prepared to sink their sharp teeth into their prey.
On the other hand, Grandar’s body was cloaked in lightning and flames. The sheer speed of his charge created a deafening sonic boom in his wake, and the thunderous crackling coming from his fist hinted at devastating power. The moment he threw out his punch, the amalgamation of lightning and flames produced a blinding white light that fully lit up the dark forest.
The tentacles were torn to shreds under the sheer shockwave of the attack, and the spurting corrosive blood vaporized in the face of the flames. Grandar’s fist sunk into the evil god like a descending comet.
In the face of such might, the thick and lumpy body of the meat giant was crushed as easily as a rotten tomato. Blood and flesh splattered in all directions.
Bam!
With a powerful explosion, the upper half of the meat giant was blasted into countless squirming leeches that fell all over the forest. But things weren’t over yet. These scattered leeches were showing signs of gathering back into the meat giant.
However, Grandar wasn’t fazed at all.
After smashing through the body of the evil god, Grandar’s arm stretched forth and grabbed the blurred projection of Aztar behind the meat giant. At that very moment, Roel clearly felt another emotion from the monster other than madness.
Fear.
Despite being left with only the lower half of its body, the meat giant still struggled desperately against Grandar, but it was all futile. Any tentacles that dared to approach him would be vaporized by the searing heat of lightning and flames.
Grandar held the projection of the evil god up high, as if clutching onto its neck. His hands glowed with a dangerous light as he drove his Strength Origin Attribute to its full power. With a furious roar, he crushed the struggling projection with sheer might, reducing it to dust.
Boom!
The moment the projection disintegrated, the lower body of the meat giant immediately fell limp. There was a brief moment of stillness before it abruptly expanded and exploded into a bloody fog. The leeches that were scattered everywhere also slowly lost their strength and stopped wriggling.
It was all over.
Grandar dissipated the bloody mist with a wave of his arm. From the crumbled lower body of the meat giant, a middle-aged man tumbled out onto the ground. His body was withered, and he seemed to be on his last breath.
Looking at the severely weakened Marceus, Roel finally felt the fury burning in his heart calming down a little.
“You’re still alive. Since that’s the case, you can take one last trip to hell’s gates at the executioner’s platform.”
Roel walked over to Marceus’ side and spat coldly.
“You’re arrested.”