422 [Bonus chapter] Beatrice Neel
The shock Arthur had was hard to hide, as Claridge was someone who had been a part of his life, his journey, but for him, it was someone he would never see again — Claridge was supposed to be dead.
But now he had resurged from the ashes and was responsible for opening up a rift in the sky, with beasts from the Dream Realm coming out of it!
“You are the one who opened the rift, right?” Arthur said, and his precise guess impressed Claridge.
“Not bad. You seem smarter than the others, but unfortunately, you have to die,” Claridge said as he moved his right hand, and a spectral sword appeared in his hand.
Arthur did not like where the situation was going, especially considering that Claridge was likely to be a rank four mage, which his avatar could not go against at that moment.
“Will this be the end of my avatar?” thought Arthur as he tried to devise a solution, but there was none.
If his main body were there or could go there using some method, Arthur would have a way to circle his dire situation, but that was just a pipe dream. There was no way his main body would appear there, and no one was around to save him.
“Any final words?”
p、A,nd A-n、o、ve,1 “I…”
“Helloooo? Can you hear me? Helloooo?”
A voice inside Arthur’s mind was telling him something in his last moments. At first, he believed it was just a hallucination, which wouldn’t be surprising as he would face his end in a few seconds, but the more that voice spoke, the more alive it became.
“Who are you?” Arthur said inside his mind.
“Finally! I have been trying to contact you since we met, yet you did not hear it. Are you deaf or something? You must know my voice is tired after yelling so much, and this situation is not good. I could have died, and that would be dangerous, really, really dangerous. It would be best if you thought more about my life. You see, I may be an ancient ring, but I am alive, and I was once a mighty creature before I died. Anyway, these are just stories. Also, why is this person in front of us looking like he is about to kill us? We are fine, right?”
“…”
Arthur’s first impression of that creature was that it talked too much. It spat a lot of nonsense in just a single sentence, but he tossed that judgment to the back of his mind and said, “who exactly are you? The red ring I got inside that cave?”
“Correct, yes, correct. I was in that cave for many years, unable to speak with anyone! That dumb beast inside that place thinks too highly of himself because he has the power of a rank seven mage. Bullshit. If I was in my prime, I could end his life in just one blow.”
“Kill a rank seven mage with one blow? Who are you, if I may ask.”
The sound of someone clearing their throats before speaking echoed inside Arthur’s mind, which was funny, and then the ring said, “I am not from this universe, but from a distant one, where people are strong and not weak like you. I am princess Beatrice Neel, the one and only.”
“What? This is too crazy. And why is everything around us so weird?
Arthur looked toward Claridge and noticed he was standing there, still as a statue. Not only him but everything around him seemed to have stopped, which was crazy to think about.
“I froze time so that we could speak more freely. My current power is a joke, so this can only last for about 3 minutes, and if you try to attack him, then everything will return to normal.”
“So, how did you end up inside this ring, and why are we only talking now?”
Beatrice went silent for some time, and it took her a few seconds to gather enough courage to say it.
“I… I died back in my universe. It was a disease, and no one found the cure… my father put my essence inside this ring so that one day he could resurrect me, yet somehow the ring fell into this universe like a falling star. And as to why we are talking to each other, this is the strangest part….”
“Why? What do you mean?”
“My father put me inside this ring before I died, in my final moments, and he said only those who have our blood will talk to each other,”
“I…I had a brother; at least, my family told me about him. He was older than me but was gone before I was born. They said he died, but I bet something else happened to him, and considering how we can talk to each other, it must be you!”
“No, no. You don’t understand; this is impossible.”
How could Arthur be her brother? He was a dragon named Placidusax, and that was only his avatar. Could Beatrice’s brother be a dragon? Or maybe have the blood of the Monlog Giants?
“I know what you are thinking, Arthur. You are special, and I heard about a prophecy about something exactly like you in my universe. And I know we are brothers. Not me and this avatar you use, your dragon body called Placidusax, or your giant bloodline. I can feel all of it. The person who is my brother is you, Arthur, the one who came through a portal from yet another universe, one that is not this, not mine, but another one!”
“I…I…”
It was too much information for him and a crazy one. Arthur was not surprised Beatrice could know all that, as she said she was someone powerful from a universe more powerful than Arthur’s. Ikarus also could feel these things in Arthur, so it was not that big of a surprise.
But Arthur being her brother? The place he lived his entire life was called Earth, and he did not have parents back there. His life was miserable also, so that day he slept and woke up inside a new world, that was the best moment in his life!
“But I never asked myself how I ended up here, and why… and I never found my real parents either….”
After Beatrice told him those things, his curiosity grew, and he could not tell why, but he believed in her! It was like they had a connection, like they were indeed siblings!
“So, big bro Arthur, what is happening to your world, and why is this person trying to kill you?” Beatrice asked.
Arthur returned to the reality he had to face and said, “this person is Claridge, someone I thought was dead, and now is a rank four mage. I believe he is the one who opened up this immense rift above our heads, which is a rift to another realm, one where beasts live, and now that they are getting out, it is only a matter of time before this world ends.”
“I can help you win against this man, but I don’t know how to stop this rift. You will have to figure that out, brother.”
“You can help me win against a rank-four mage?”
“Huh? Why are you saying as if a rank four mage is a big deal.”
“…”