• Chapter #33: [LAST EFFORT]

Impassively gazing at my enemy, I turned off [Eden Block] and blew away the remaining dust with my wings. I then threw away Sun like a useless ragdoll.

“Well, that was pathetic.”, I offhandedly commented, before I held the book on my left hand.

[Prominence Flare]

Stellar flames covered the entirety of the book, easily erasing it’s existence. I grinned in amusement, as I watched the Black Zodiac grit their teeth in frustration.

I sighed, a bit tiredly.

“Let’s finish this, shall we?”, My crimson slits narrowed and sparked with crimson electricity. Spreading my wings, I took off the skies. My wings' shockwave creating a big gust of wind.

“Defend! We need to escape from here!”, I heard the old man yell desperately. Looks like they’re realizing that everything is useless. They quickly retrieved Sun, before activating their respective abilities.

[Spacial Fabric] [Infernal Fortress]

A kaleidoscope-like purple barrier covered the area, followed by a prison of flame that enveloped it. Both covered the Black Zodiac protectively.

“Hmph, I won’t let you run that easily.”, I muttered, preparing my own attack.

…

[Spacial Concealment: Minimal]

Karisa casted a [Spacial Concealment] spell, at least buying them some more time.

“Dammit…! Dammit…! Quick! I’m already out of stamina!”, The old man yelled in both anger and desperation. In his mind, what they had received from before will happen once more.

“I think we need to use this.”, Karisa pulled out an ancient looking scroll out from her coat pocket. The old man looked at it, contemplating with furrowed brows.

“Tsk… We have no other choice. It isn’t as powerful as the Spirit, but it’ll provide enough distraction.”, The old man agreed to Karisa’s plan.

“I’ll maintain the spell, go and release the undead.”, The old man ordered, taking away the barrier duty. Karisa nodded, then motioned Tatsumi to help her. Together, they opened the scroll and Tatsumi took out a dagger, giving it to Karisa. Karisa then sliced her palm with the knife, dropping blood to the scroll.

Soon enough, the ancient texts on it started absorbing the blood and glowed an eerie blood red. As this was happening, Karisa also started chanting.

“With this blood, from my frail body. I release the forbidden army. Plague this land, turn it into your hideous abode. Growl, claw, tear everything on your path. I let out, all of you!”

[Cursed Undead Sealing: Open]

The scroll was the [Cursed Undead Sealing], an ancient artifact that was used to seal massive amounts of creatures in it, turning them into undead as once they’ve been sealed. As the souls aren’t freed, the undead suffers extreme agony and hatred, with it strengthening as the time passes that they haven’t been freed. As a result, the undeads once released destroys everything on its path, even it’s own caster and brings an aura that rots away everything.

The ground rumbled and cracked, with the cracks releasing an eerie black miasma. Soon enough, deformed and rotting hands which also leaked black blood came out. Moans of pain, mixed with growls of rage followed the appearance of the one thousand undead humans, each staring at the first living being in sight, which is Kaide.

…

I stared with narrowed eyes, as each undead manifested and walked towards me. Mindless zombies, stacking upon each other as they tried to reach me. The black miasma of disease that they brought upon their summoning had saturated the area. However, my light and aura had repelled it much easily.

My gaze pans to the Black Zodiac, who had dispelled their walls and were also floating higher in the air. A barrier and stealth ward in place, to prevent the miasma from reaching them and the undead from sensing their presences.

I leave them to be, as I felt Miyanase’s [Rule Over Decay] activate. She was trying to control the zombies.

{Don’t}

I said to her in a firm tone, she is still not on her peak strength.

Immediately, she stopped it, not saying anything. One thing that I always use during combat, is my [Plotter’s Discernment].

A grin came to my face. Those zombies weren’t ordinary, because they have something that almost all other undead never have.

Souls.

Albeit ones that are heavily corrupted, but I know UnderworldSucks could easily scrub them clean once I pull them out of their cursed bodies.

“Heh! You might be much more powerful than us, but even you can’t take a thousand of empowered undeads while trying to stop us!”, The old man’s voice brought me out of my thoughts. Looking back at him, he was sneering at me.

I did not reply and just lightly shook my head. When will they learn?

[Soul Harvest]

Raising both of my hands, they emitted an eerie green glow. A few moments later, hundreds of turquoise colored ghastly chains sprouted from my hands, a hook similar to those used to hang dead animals on slaughterhouses on their ends. One by one, each chain targeted an undead, piercing through their body before wrapping tight around their torso and finally hooking themselves.

Each undead struggled and screamed in more suffering. Clenching my fists, I grunted and pulled all the chains. Soon enough, the trapped souls where carried by the chains towards me, with the white specters’ faces set in a silent moan.

I closed my eyes, as I stemmed the souls that I had dragged towards my body.

As the stream of souls stopped, I finally opened my eyes. Another grin came to my face. Although I didn’t use that ability too much, it’s handy as hell.

A malevolent glint entered my eyes, as I removed my gaze from the crumbling bodies of the undead and the fading miasma they brought, towards the Black Zodiac. They were all frozen in horror, as they witnessed my ability.

…

“I-Impossible…!”, A now fully conscious Sun looked at Kaide in horror and shock.

“Soul Harvest…!”, The old man gritted his teeth. Everything they did was purely useless and just a waste of resources. The mysterious man had everything to counter them.

“Another ability from an Ancient God…”, Karisa whispered hollowly, witnessing their final effort get swept away in just a few seconds.

“Kuh…! Enough! We need to go now!”, Ace yelled out, reminding them. However, even his normally calm voice held fear and one that he didn’t like, a feeling that he only felt when his former team died one by one and he watched, unable to do anything. The worst part, is that it was on the hands of yet again a LightSeeker.

Meanwhile, Kaide slowly walked, still in the air, towards them, his figure akin to an angel of death who toyed with them while still seeking to exact judgement. They were brought about from their reverie, when the said reaper of light struck their barrier a lightning spell that shook their very being. It was a signal, one that said move now or you’ll all die.

…

‘Dammit…!’, Tatsumi thought in frustration, clenching his fists that they leaked a bit of blood. The monster of light was no joke at all and his abilities were ones that easily topped their own.

“All of us aren’t gonna be able to escape here.”, The old man said grimly, his hands trembling.

“The old man’s right.”, Tatsumi said, all of his chunniness gone. “Karisa, you need to escape here first and report this to Zen. I’ll hold him back.”, Tatsumi finished, glaring at the still approaching fake LightSeeker.

The other members, raised their eyebrows and looked at Tatsumi. They were both seemingly surprised by his quick attitude change. However, the old man didn’t have it.

“No. I’ll be the one to hold him back. You’re not strong enough for him.”, The old man stated. Tatsumi tried to argue, but before he could, the old man sent him a steely glare. It was one that didn’t accept any arguments, hence Tatsumi could just grit his teeth, feeling helpless and pathetic.

“Are you sure about this?”, AstroSuit asked the Bound Serpent one more time, who immediately just nodded in response.

“Make sure to report this, directly to Zen.”, The old man turned to Tatsumi.

“I will, surely.”, Tatsumi replied, his voice hard.

They both know of the current conflicts within the Black Zodiac itself. With Zen’s goals being unclear to others, many within the organization seek to replace Zen himself.

“Yes, it will reach him.”, Ace nodded, before looking at the approaching fake LightSeeker once more.

“Mhmm.”, Karisa also voiced her agreement.

With that, the old man gritted his teeth, summoning almost all of the last bits of his mana.

[Final Salvation]

Light envelopes the other Black Zodiac members, and each of their figures slowly fizzle out of existence. It was a success, and the old man was the only one left.

“You’re such a naïve man, Zen. You say that chaos will save the world.”

The old man then laughed, as he thought of the things they did. Infiltrating the Union headquarters, attempting to steal Ancient Relics, fighting off Heroic Candidates. He didn’t see on how this would save the world.

“What I only see, is that we are the villains of this story.”

*Crack…*

*Shatter!*

…

The traces of [Spacial Concealment] faded, as I shattered it with a large blast of light. I had seen him use his last amounts of mana for his comrades to escape, a thing that I didn’t expect.

“Well, well, well. I didn’t expect for someone like yourselves to know sacrifice.”, I said in a bit of a mocking tone. The old man though, was unmoving and just looked at me with a calm gaze.

“Hmph. I guess I really can’t judge someone just like that huh…”, I said, before receding most of powers. I then activated [Store], pulling out a set of chairs and a table. I set them on a solid magic circle of also my own creation, before buying some tea cups, a kettle full of hot water, and some Dong Hong Pao tea. It was quite expensive if bought in real life, but for me, it’s just a few Yen away.

“… What are you doing?”, I heard the old man say skeptically. I looked at him, noticing his narrowed eyes.

I rolled my own crimson orbs.

“C’mon, all this fighting stuff’s boring. Plus, I would actually like to see a conflict with a villain getting resolved civilly.”, I stated, before motioning him to sit on one of the chairs, opposite to where I sat to.

He looked at the things I prepared with an unsure face. Moments later though, he finally relented and settled down with a relieved sigh.

“Let’s rest for a bit. Any story you could pass the time with?”, I nonchalantly said, after I took a sip of my own tea, Hmm...Tealicious! I nodded to myself.

“How about an ancient fairytale?”

 The old man calmly smiled, and took the tea to himself.

[•END•]

Revised by BaNaeNae.