Arc | Chapter. 98: Inner Peace (Patreon)

Chapter. 98: Inner Peace

The Hero of Necromancy gasped, he rose from the main crypt as his body reformed from the ashen bones surrounding him. His head was pounding, it was the worst headache he had had in centuries.

What the fuck had happened⁠—

And it all came rushing back. He groaned with phantom pain coming from his arms, his head was pulsing as if his brain was banging against his skull. It was unbearable. A notification soon came, something about his skill being consumed but he didn’t give a shit.

His entire body hurt so much, he screamed and flailed ⁠— he didn’t know why it was happening. He wasn’t supposed to feel any of this, but yet he was for one reason or another. He didn’t understand it⁠— it didn’t make sense.

He had died, this was his new body and yet he was in so much pain.

The Hero of Necromancy continued thrashing. At first he had wanted to run away, especially given how the Heroine of Frost had looked at him, but now⁠— after suffering this pain, this humiliation. His mind eventually began to veer; it began to change towards other goals and feelings.

Feelings of revenge, of resentment, of anger. He wanted vindication, to make the Heroine of Frost suffer, but more than anything to show he wasn’t someone that would go down just like that. He wasn’t weak, not enough to allow something like that to happen to him.

Gritting his teeth the pain subsided as he hit the ground with his banging fists. The bones beneath his feet trembled ⁠— rattled with each of his anger filled punches.

He wasn’t going to let it happen.

Feeling more anger than ever he began to cast his SS Tier skill.

“[To Create The Ultimate Lifeform is My Desire; Be Born From My Creations…]”

His voice echoed through the chamber, all while a miasma permeated the entirety of the Traitor’s Graveyard. Soon, he would make her regret her actions.

He was sure of it.

* * * * *

Narg the Silver Wolf had heard the white-haired woman loud and clear, and what was implied given the situation was more than obvious. They were standing before a hero… Than in itself was incredibly unusual, the problem was that Canti had offended the already angry hero, and she had done so quite badly.

Narg panicked, he didn’t want yet another S Tier adventurer to die just like that⁠—

“Any last words?”

The heroine’s cold voice snapped him from his stupor. He didn’t have time to think, he just had to act. He watched as the woman raised her hand and an ice spear appeared.

“Hero!” Narg called out to the woman who turned to him.

Her gaze gave him pause, an oppressive aura gripped onto his heart as the entire world seemed to be drained of color. Such was the might of a hero. But Narg, the Silver Wolf suppressed the urge to run and continued speaking.

“Please spare my foolish companion, she has no manners. If there is anything we can do to make up for it, we will.” He knelt, his head lowered. “Please…”

He was gritting his teeth. While Canti wasn’t exactly his companion, nor Hanz ⁠he still felt fairly close to them. The life of an S Tier adventurer was lonely, if he could avoid it, then he’d like for Canti to survive.

That was why…

“I’ll do anything⁠—”

“Fine,” she interrupted. “Only if you beat up your friend yourself.”

Narg blinked.

Had he heard right?

“Are you telling me to hurt her…?” Narg asked, unbelieving his ears.

“Did I stutter?”

And then there was another pause, silence loomed in the air. The heroine was fully serious, and failing to comply meant that Canti would die… Narg wanted to save her, and to do so he would have to beat her up ⁠— a sincere beating that would placate the heroine before him.

It was… insane.

But at the same time…

Narg looked at Canti, the woman was on the ground definitely conscious but not daring to move a single muscle. However at that moment he saw the subtle movement of her head giving him a nod.

He could save her…

His heart began to skip. It was immoral, and almost wrong. The heroine was insane for requesting this, but the woman was in a position of power. What could he do…?

Narg stood there frozen for some moments, gathering courage to agree to the heroine’s request, but before he could agree the woman let out a small hollow chuckle.

“Relax, I’m just joking.” Then she tilted her head. “Though I guess this is probably the first joke I’ve made since coming here…”

A sigh left her much to the surprise of Narg before she turned to him.

“Look I’ll be honest, my mood is shit, take your companion away and never speak of me even if you see me again,” the heroine said.

“Right… I can certainly do that…” Narg agreed.

It wasn’t a big request at all actually. He suspected that a lot of his fellow S Tier adventurers had met heroes in the past but never spoke about them… So if he was included in this unspoken club it certainly wouldn’t be a big deal for him.

With that in mind, he nodded more fervently.

“Under no circumstances shall I disclose your appearance or the fact that you’re a hero.”

“Did I ever say I’m a hero?” The woman raised her brow.

“No…”

“Just never speak of this encounter.” She shook her head. “Not a huge request.”

With those words the woman let go of Canti and then stepped away. As soon as she did, the Steel Shadow disappeared and reappeared right next to Narg. Though a moment later she grunted and had to lean on his shoulder from some injury.

“Okay, the two of you should go now. Something troublesome is about to happen.” With those words the white-haired woman turned away. “Then I can finish the deal.”

“Something troublesome…?” Canti asked after a pained breath.

And then the earth began to rumble, Narg blinked as he realized the whole world around him was shaking. It was trembling, heralding a bad omen that was about to come. The bad omen he had been warned about.

In a hurry he grabbed Canti’s wrist. A bad feeling was brewing deep down and he didn’t want to find out about it⁠—

The earth exploded. A hundred meters forward, everything was torn apart as a cacophony of roars echoed through the land. Numerous red lights shone through the curtain of smoke as a sigh left the woman before them.

“Why does it always feel like it’s just slapping SS Tier skills against one another and finding out which is stronger…”

Meanwhile, all Narg, the Silver Wolf could do was stare a head in horror as the smoke cleared. He saw a human hydra, one of many heads and amalgamations of undead, a gigantic being of twisted horrors. One that was the strongest he had ever seen.

“Heroine of Frost, prepare to meet your demise!”

It called out in anger.

“Whatever.”

With those words, the woman stepped forward as a beam of darkness struck the spot she was standing on, and Narg and Canti were thrown back as a battle of SS Tier beings truly began.

He rolled across the dirt ground, blasted away by the shockwave sent by the attack. He didn’t want to understand it or comprehend it, but it was already implied⁠— this was a fight between SS Tier individuals. And he was now involved whether he wanted it or not.

He slowly stood up, avoiding flying debris and dirt as Canti did the same. They just stared in surprise as the gigantic mass of bones and the hero battled. They saw flashes of ice and blue, they saw darkness and red auras being thrown around, it was all unfolding at lightning speeds that they struggled to follow.

“I can’t believe I offended an SS Tier individual…” Canti gulped. “Especially the Heroine of Frost…”

“Right… she is a heroine…”

Narg stared in disbelief as he slowly digested the facts. He had come face to face with a hero, and one that he had never heard about before.

She was the Heroine of Frost.

Of course he had heard the rumors of the Hero of Frost⁠—

And he paused.

“I thought there could only be one hero per element…?” he asked, confused.

“There can only be one.” Canti affirmed and grabbed his hand. “More importantly, let us make distance now.”

The world blurred a moment later, Narg suddenly found himself hundreds of meters away from the battle. Though even from a distance he could still see the fight just as clearly, his great vision allowing him to even see the rather detached expression on the heroine’s face.

“I think we should be fine.” Canti breathed.

“Hey,” Narg called. “If there can only be one hero per element, then how come there are rumors of a Hero of Frost, but we are seeing the Heroine? There are even eyewitnesses for the Hero of Frost…”

“Right, the Heroine of Spiders was slain wasn’t she?” Canti asked now with a serious tone. “That seems odd… Does that mean that one of the heroes is an impostor?”

“Possibly…” Narg the Silver Wolf murmured under his breath.

He looked onward, watching the fight unfold. He doubted this woman’s strength was fake, but multiple people confirmed the feats of the Hero of Frost as well.

So what was up with that?

Still, the heroine was going toe to toe with an incredibly strong SS Tier being…

With a frown he watched as the Heroine of Frost jumped into the air with an ice sword⁠.

She was so strong⁠—

And the heroine was smacked. The thunderous clap resounded through the air as she was launched through the air before hitting a spot hundreds of meters away with a cloud of dust. The hit made Narg’s jaw drop from the strength he had witnessed. For a moment he was concerned.

Was she still alive?

But before he could think about anything else, Canti grabbed him by the hand and a moment later they vanished before they could continue watching the fight.

* * * * *

I had felt so angry.

But now my mood was closer to being grumpy, if not closer to feeling nothing. I didn’t want to deal with anything, nor the ongoing situation. In fact, I wanted to do nothing. But I couldn’t, instead I was just stuck here, fighting the Hero of Necromancy that had said something that crossed so many lines that I had instantly snapped.

But now, I just stared at the sky.

The warmth of my blood all over my body embracing me. I didn’t want to move, nor did I feel like moving, or even fighting. I didn’t want to die, but the thought of that happening didn’t even cross my mind. It was just… everything was just…

I wanted to sigh but I didn’t. I didn’t blame myself for what had happened to me in the past, and if I could help it, I just wanted to forget all about it again. I didn’t feel hurt, I didn’t feel sad, I didn’t really feel anything towards those memories that had made me tear up just the day before yesterday.

Bygones would be bygones, and that would be the end of the story.

I knew for a fact that I would never return to Earth, it was probably impossible due to the almighty System being corrupted and broken. So in the end, it’s not as if I’d ever see them again. There was no real problem anymore, I was far away from all of that, in a different world even so it didn’t matter.

A long breath left me.

One that I found particularly relaxing as I stared at the night sky. Very slowly my eyes shut closed, my body felt warmth, the aches of pain somehow I found to be particularly relaxing. I was free from all of that, so perhaps it was best for me to just embrace it. Their actions had been shit, and that was the end of the story.

I did hope they would come to regret it or some stuff, but for the most part it wasn’t worth my thoughts or even my emotions.

“Oh well…” I let out a breath.

Perhaps I just needed some emotional release or something but I didn’t care all that much. The ground surrounding me was shaking, and yet my heart was at peace. I could hear my supposed enemy approaching but I just didn’t care.

Finally, the shaking stopped as I felt an overwhelming danger permeate my surroundings, but in spite of my senses I didn’t really care.

“So you have given up?” The Hero of Necromancy asked. “Pathetic, to think that’s everything you could amount to.”

His voice echoed in my head but I didn’t really care and I just laid there in silence, not bothering to reply and just waiting for him to attack. As for whether I’d defend⁠— well, I’d do whatever I felt like doing. I might’ve been relaxed but I wasn’t planning on dying.

* * * * *

The Hero of Necromancy couldn’t believe his eyes.

The woman that had made him feel genuine fear was now lying on the ground, bloodied and waiting for her demise. It didn’t make sense. She had been so angry when he died, but now she was like a shell of her former self. Her expression even looked peaceful.

The sight made him feel angry, resentful even.

What was the point of bothering with all of this if she was going to be like that? It didn’t make sense, and it made him angry.

“Is that all?” he hissed his question. “You will just roll over and die? Is that why you got so angry, just to die?”

His questions however, simply fell on deaf ears, something that he found upsetting and yet didn’t know how to deal with. All he could do was grit his teeth in anger, he understood that something had happened in the heroine’s past, something that was probably on the same level as his own mental struggles.

But now she looked so peaceful.

And it angered him. Why? Especially after being so angry. Why? It didn’t make sense, how could she experience such an emotion and just take it in stride. He stared at her, he didn’t know for how many seconds, but his teeth felt like they were on the verge of shattering before he realized.

It didn’t matter.

His gargantuan form towered over the small heroine, this was the peak of his power, and it would continue like that until he ran out of mana ⁠— it would last days. He would get rid of this woman and then go on with his goals, that’s what the Hero of Necromancy needed to do.

“Goodbye then, it is a shame you’re wasting your life like this, but just know that I will come after you once you revive.”

His grave tone didn’t really affect the woman, so he readied himself.

“For what it’s worth, you’re not to blame for your past.”

With those words he let out a sigh and raised the arms of the being he was controlling. He would kill her now⁠—

And a long breath entered his ears. “You know, you’re really annoying.”

The heroine stood up.

“You could’ve just said some shit about how I deserve what had happened and I would’ve been fine with it, or you could’ve apologized and I would've been fine with it. But instead you chose to tell me the obvious.” She shook her head and turned around. “I’m leaving, do what you want. Try and take over Draliz and I’ll fight you tooth and nail, but otherwise I can’t be bothered.”

The Hero of Necromancy couldn’t believe it.

Her attitude was… grating. And now she was acting as if there was no fight or no conflict⁠— he still was going to fucking kill her⁠— he very much intended to do so and yet she wasn’t registering that?!

“I’ll take over Draliz.” He gritted his teeth. “That’s why I must get rid of you first.”

“Good.”

The world seemed to grow cold as her nonchalant voice echoed. The Hero of Necromancy noted the shift in attitude as the heroine turned to him, now her face fully serious.

“Then I’ll just dispose of you now.”

Seeing it, he couldn’t help but grin.

“Bring it on then!”