Chapter 162 - 158 : The Pigolo Tribe (1/2)

The preparations were complete, the plan was thoroughly explained by Arthur and the foolish ones were warned several times, all that was left is to activate the Warp Device.

Due to his chains, Arthur didn't need to be physically restrained by anything, as for Taliya and Lissandra, Gutcha has advised him to tie them with a special rope in his storage as the story more believable.

”Everything is in order, all that is left is for Arthur to come as well.”

The two women and the hideous creature stood near each other, waiting for Arthur, who was sitting in a corner with his eyes closed seemingly focused on something important. This began a day ago and he didn't stop for a second and after a few hours, a bright flash would blind their sight and when they recover, he would still be laying in the same position.

The three patiently waited for him to finish with Gutcha being a little bit anxious as he wasn't totally willing to go along with the plan, however, he really does not have any choice in the matter or else he would have hidden in a remote cave somewhere on Astria and seclude himself for a long time before coming out.

Fortunately, Arthur finally stood up after a few minutes after the predicted blinding light. He had a proud and happy expression as he walked toward them.

As a final precaution, Arthur summoned The Book of the Damned and hid under his black robe. If he were to be sneak attacked, the rotten hand would instantly absorb the damage and unleash the little bit of Energy he stored into it along with the recently absorbed attack.

”So, is everyone ready?”

Lissandra silently stared at the floor, Gutcha hesitantly nodded his head and Taliya resolutely nodded her head with clenched fists. Seeing their response, Arthur took out the Warp Device and activated it without delay. He didn't need Gutcha's help to use it with the presence of the Appraisal.

Very soon, the four of them experienced a pretty discomforting feeling, even Arthur felt that his body became a bit sore, the experience felt completely different from using a Spatial Tunnel.

Gutcha had already told him that the Warp Device is not very practical and it is only used when Spatial Tunnel does not exist, it is like a primordial version of teleportation. The warped people would also experience dizziness and in some rare cases, they would pass out, especially those with a weaker body, so Arthur laid a Dark Barrier around Lissandra as she is but a Mortal. As for himself, he wasn't worried about falling unconscious with such a high Vitality, his defensive layer from the Dark-Star Strengthening technique is permanently activated too.

...

Contrary to the Spatial Tunnel which only took a couple of seconds or minutes if the distance is large, the Warp Device takes between half an hour and an hour for the users to arrive at the destination.

All he could see around him is a grey world with blurring environment, it was unpleasant to the eye and a discomforting feeling surged him, it wasn't to the point of annoying him yet it was still unpleasant to have.

A little bit more than thirty minutes, the four of them appeared in a big square with a large rune engraved on its floor. The weather was a bit hot and the sun was blazing hot.

Arthur was not bothered by such a hot weather, however, that was not left unnoticed by him. His only guess is that this strong heat is due to the wall of flames which is a distance away from here. Its intensity must be huge to cause its surroundings to suffer a rise in temperature.

One look at his surroundings made him certain that growing plants or anything in such a soil is practically impossible. The place resembled a desert but there were countless structures around the large square, they were buildings made from normal stones as wood would make its interior much hotter.

The very second they appeared, yelling sounds could be heard from all around them, several hideous creatures similar to Gutcha surrounded them with long yellow spears pointed at them from every single direction.

'There must be at least 50 around us.... let's see....'

Appraisal was activated and a stream of blue windows appeared in his sight

'Hmmm between Lv800 and 999 with three at the Spirit Realm?'

It was quite a terrifying force, and this was only at this square, what about the rest of territory. From Gutcha, Arthur knew that his Golem was sent here so it must have caused quite the ruckus and caused them to be alerted which forced the higher-ups to stationed a remarkable force to guard this place.

'Quite the clever ones, huh?'

With his Sense, Arthur could sense more than a hundred extra spear-yielding monster hiding in the buildings around the square with a few ones who were quite skilled in hiding their presence, it's a shame that they couldn't escape from his Ability.

”C-captain Gutcha?”

One of the spear-yielding monsters hesitated before he stared at Gutcha with a confused expression. Clearly, he recognized his captain and dropped his spear whilst breathing a sigh of relief.

The others were not as relieved as that soldier for they were not all under Gutcha's command. There were just too many captains in the tribe that it is quite hard to remember them all unless one had done distinguishable feats. Gutcha was a newly promoted captain but in the past, he did the infiltration and scouting jobs, so his identity was not that famous.

”Drop your weapons, I'm Gutcha, a Captain in the third army, I have come back and brought a few hostages with me.”

Even after saying that, none of the soldiers dropped their spear. They only took orders from their direct superiors and Gutcha is but an unknown captain so they still maintained a serious expression, a cold glare and an intent to stab their spears at any sudden movements from the enemies.

”Drop your weapons.”

The three present Captains which were standing at the back spoke at the same time. When the spears were dropped, the huge crowd of soldiers who were surroundings Arthur and co, opened a path for the three captains, who made their way to Gutcha and his hostages.

”If it isn't Captain Gutcha, we didn't hear you for a while so we assumed you perished.”

Laughing heartily, a captain with a burn scar on his neck addressed Gutcha but his eyes were full of mocking and contempt. Albeit being at the same rank as Gutcha, he didn't seem to respect him and instead, belittled him in front of everybody.

Oblivious to the other party's mocking, Gutcha shrugged his shoulders, not caring about that and said

”A few unexpected things happened and I was ambushed by a strong group which led to the death of Captain Drok'e but I managed to defeat the enemy.”

Gutcha didn't offer a detailed explanation as that was planned for his superiors, not this captain. The other party did not hold enough authority to be able to force him to explain himself. Just by bringing precious hostages, he is considered to have achieved good merits in the Third Army.

Upon hearing Gutcha, a frown appeared on the laughing Captain, the other two also had a serious expression.

”What kind of strong group?”

Another captain was the one was talked, he had a pig face and was quite fat which made him look a talk fat pig.

”The details will be reported to the Major.”

”Captain Gutcha, this is no time to be holding on important information. Because you were so busy apprehending whatever hostages you brought, our tribe suffered heavy damages a few days ago when a monster suddenly appeared on this very spot.”

From his tone, it can be seen that he feared whatever he saw a few days ago. There was only one monster that was sent by Gutcha and that was the Death Golem, which also gave him a fright.

It was called a Golem but its appearance was scary and by no means did it slightly resemble a normal golem, only its size was similar.

Obviously, Gutcha wouldn't be as stupid as to say he sent the Death Golem because he was going to be killed by it so he decided to send it to his tribe to take care of it. All the Warp Devices the other captain who invaded Astria took, lead to this destination so any one of them is a suspect.

There was another piece of information that Gutcha was unaware of, it's that Astrith disposed of every one of his tribe and none were left alive.

Feigning a look of shock, Gutcha stared at the three captains with a loof of surprise before speaking

”I-is that true?”

The pig-faced captain nodded his head seriously and added

”Not only did it cause a lot of destruction, it killed more than a hundred soldiers and two captains, it required Major Bull and Major Billard to apprehend. It was only due to luck that they won, the monster suddenly fell on its own and died then its body turned into a black ash.”

”Major Bull was also promoted to a Lieutenant Colonel due to sacrificing his arm to protect his soldiers.”

The first captain who mocked Gutcha said proudly with a smirk. Major Bull was previously his superior and their relationship is quite good.

'Now that Major Bull is promoted, I expect that in no time I'll become the next Major of the 5th platoon of the Third Army hehehe'

Captain Reek didn't voice out his thoughts but from his expression, anyone can tell he was happy, not only that but almost everyone knew that he was close to Major Bull so the free position of the Major would necessarily be passed to him.

”Is that so... well then, I'll have to go report to Major Kal and bring those hostages to the prison.”

Gutcha grabbed the string which tied Taliya and Lissandra and bypassed the three captains. His reaction was a bit lacking to what happened recently but it wasn't a family but just a tribe made of random warriors, despite this, its heritage and prowess are long and powerful and it is a force that should be reckoned with.

Arthur remained silent and stared at what's occurring, his attention was diverted to his Sense, which spread with every step he took forward.

As far as he could tell, there was no imminent danger and it was going smoothly, he just needs to arrive at the prison and see if Sonia and Mary are there, there was also the Demon Princess but the two women came first as they were his and Lucy's friends.

”Wait a minute.”

After walking a few steps, Captain Reek turned to look at Arthur and frowned.

”What is it, Captain Reek?”

Displeased that he was stopped yet again, Gutcha turned to look at the annoying captain and harrumphed. As two people with the same rank, the other party should at least speak to him with respect. 'Wait a minute' should be replaced with 'Please wait a minute', as Gutcha is not a person who cares about that, he was not bothered by it but the way he acts right now played a huge role in Arthur's plan and he did not dare to divert from it, especially after witnessing the weird and scary looking ball that entered his chest.

***

”Oh it's nothing important, I just happen to have something to do with Major Kal so why not head there together?”

Without waiting for Gutcha to reply, captain Reek strode toward the same reaction with an unpleasant grin on his ugly face.

Gutcha didn't press on the matter as he really didn't care about being mocked or disrespected, as long as Arthur and the rest to their destination without any problems, everything will go smoothly. As per Arthur's orders, he had to do a few things and the idea of fleeing far away from the tribe didn't cross his mind.

Each nearby tribe had their own unique Race so venturing into unknown areas is simply suicidal from his part, as for crossing the wall flames, that is even more unlikely.

There have been cases where experts would emerge from the flames and rest in one of the tribes, although they didn't help in any way, just by the fact that they rested in that specific tribe, its reputation, and status in the surroundings would soar astronomically.

The two other captains didn't follow Gutcha and Reek, instead, they instructed their soldiers to keep watch then left to one of the buildings near the big square.

Arthur silently surveyed the area but nothing was special or deserved to be paid attention to. They walked away from the several stones buildings and by the look of it, the prison is quite the distance away from the tribe's main territory.

There were mountains and hills made from sand, coupling that with the intensely hot weather and the fast pace the captains were walking, it became hard for the weak-bodied Lissandra to catch up to them which systematically made her fall and be dragged a few meters before Gutcha noticed her.

As a hostage, if he were to treat her with respect as she is Arthur's comrade, it would appear suspicious and if he were to yell at her or execute her on the spot, it would incur Arthur's wrath.

Helpless, Gutcha glanced at Arthur who was far at the back, he was not bound by the special ropes and instead, had chains around his feet and arms, but his face excluded total calmness as if he was not a hostage, to begin with.

Captain Reek didn't pay much attention to him and only frowned when he saw Lissandra fall.

”Captain Gutcha, it seems that the hostages you brought are way too weak! To think that they gave you a hard time, this is a disgrace to the Third Army. Even a Captain died *sigh* I'm afraid that our reputation will decrease dramatically if anyone hears about that.”

Reek didn't need to say it out loud for Gutcha to understand. Lissandra needs to be killed for such a stupid reason, however, Gutcha wasn't a pushover either. With a snort, he continued walking whilst saying

”Each extra hostage adds more rewards for me, moreover, it is not up to Captain Reek to decide what I do with hostages that I caught.”

Although a bit risky, he decided to leave Lissandra's case into Arthur's hand and hoped it would be solved, if he made a move and tried to execute her, he feared that he'll be the one to die instead.

'Even with a Dark Barrier around her, she's still this weak?'

It was indeed weird for Lissandra to fall like this. She's a Mortal, yes, but that doesn't mean she's that fragile. The intense heat is not even affecting her thanks to the barrier and all she had to do is walk, it can't be that hard to simply walk, even for a Lv1 Mortal, much less for an ex-God.

'Appraisal!'

Lissandra (Race: Human): Lv8 (Suffering from 'Mind Break', 'Soul self-devouring', 'Against Death'...)

A whole list was displayed in front of Arthur, who stared at it with gobbled eyes. Last time he appraised her is when he stripped her away from her powers, she was weakened to Lv10 Mortal but none of the statuses of the above were present.

There were at the very least 20 debuffs with names more astonishing than the others.

It seems that her sudden change in attitude and silence is strongly related to this and it was way foolish for him to not appraise her immediately but how could he ever think that she is suffering from all of those? She's just a Mortal and what could a Mortal suffer from except illnesses.

Arthur picked one random debuff and appraised to see its contents only to be flabbergasted

Against Death(Passive)(Permanent): Becoming a fallen God, the lower the Realm the stronger the effect and the shorter the time for him to live is. Gods age differently than Mortals but once the balance is broken, the past rules will apply to the fallen user, he will be marked by a Death Reaper and soon his soul will be reaped!

'Are you kidding me? A Death Reaper?'

Remembering the fearsome Death Reaper he had to fight, Arthur couldn't help but shiver unconsciously, it's true that he got rid of it but it was only thanks to the World tree's help and since he is not on Astria anymore, he can't request its assistance.

If a Death Reaper were to appear right now, the plan will be totally disrupted and things would get pretty messy.

To be honest, Arthur was not afraid for Lissandra, quite the opposite, in fact, he couldn't care less if she died by the Reaper's hands as he is not her guardian angel, if it's a beast or someone he could cope with then he'll save her but against a Reaper? Hell no! Especially with his body restrained by these damnable chains.

What he was more afraid of was that the Reaper will also sense him and will try to execute him along with Lissandra, getting two birds with one stone.

Furthermore, what if the incoming Reaper is more powerful than the previous one?

Feeling a headache, Arthur didn't even bother reading the rest of the debuffs, just this one is practically impossible to deal with, so if he reads the rest of them, it'll only make him feel worse.

The only thing he could do is push the matter to later when this plan ends at least then he will see what to do. The safest choice is to kill her right now but he was reluctant to do that. She did a lot of horrible things, that's true, however, if he were to execute her after all the torture he did to her, he would be no different from her.

Secretly, Arthur used his Ancient Threads along with Telekinesis to move Lissandra's body. She was barely conscious and she didn't struggle when the threads wrapped around her body and moved it on its own. The Telekinesis was only used at the beginning to adjust her body then removed.

Taliya kept a passive attitude and disregarded the falling Human woman, even if Lissandra would die in front of her, she would not bat an eye.

Her hatred for the Human Race far surpassed the feelings of pity to a miserable being. As they continued walking toward the prison, Arthur's body was like a dry sponge absorbing all the water around it. This world had Nether Energy and not a small amount of it.

It lacked a bit compared to the Underworld but nevertheless, it was enough for Arthur's body to start absorbing it like a massive a whirlpool.

His empty reserve of Nether Energy began filling up in a matter of seconds and the chains around his waist, hands, and feet began vibrating intensely, making loud noises and even making a bit of the sand under his feet float for a few millimeters. It fortunate that Reek ignored the noise and Gutcha only threw a couple of glances whilst walking next to the other Captain.

The black orb inside his Dantian began rotating intensely and emitting a dark steam, an illusory talisman also circled around the orb. Arthur started feeling his body heating up on its own and the Dark Star strengthening technique along with the Dark Anguish technique acted on their own.

Being at 1999 Mental Power, Arthur was just one point away from breaking through. With no presence of Nether Energy on Astria, his body started to become a little bit to such atmosphere but now that it was thrown to a world with so much Nether Energy and adding that to Arthur's extremely high Nether Energy Recovery, breaking through was something that was bound to happen sooner or later, even if he didn't intentionally try to break through, with such accumulated stress and after holding back for quite sometime, stopping it from happening is almost impossible.

While gritting his teeth, Arthur closed his eyes and dived deep into his consciousness, where his soul laid. In the starry sky, Arthur floated to the bright light in its centre, which was his soul.

He didn't know much about the Orb of the Fallen Overgods which didn't act since a long time ago, or about the thick chains around the big blob of light but it didn't take a genius to know that they are means to restrain something, as for what it was, he didn't know yet.

Arthur noticed a slowly rotating cubic object which resembled the one he saw inside the ARK, the cubic object was silently rotating next to the Orb and the two have the same size, more or less.

Breaking through will bring countless benefits and if he's lucky then the chains would disappear, however, that was what he would think a few hours ago, not right now!

He honestly didn't know how strong he would become if he became a Divine being, but there was still the possibility of powerful experts laying nearby, he won't be reckless anymore and dive into their territory expecting to save everyone and come back safely.

Such actions will only be done when he holds complete confidence in battling Peak Grade Gods.

After thoroughly thinking about his decision, Arthur floated near his bright soul and grabbed the end of the thick chains at the bottom half of the blob and pulled it with all of his strength.

It was only after a lot of effort and full-strength pulling that he was able to bulge the chains and make them tighten just a bit around the soul.

It may not be a good idea to do that but it is the only way to stop the breakthrough, it'll buy some time for him at least. He was willing to break through when he is in his prison cell, but not in front of Captain Reek. He could still kill him and possess him but he was not sure if breaking through will remove the chains and everyone would find it suspicious if a captain is loitering around with chains all over his body.

'Argh!!'

As the chains tightened around his soul, Arthur experienced unimaginable pain along with an unpleasant cold feeling surging his physical body. The heat emanated from his Dantian lessened and the fastly rotating Orb was forcefully stopped. As for the talisman, there were no signs of it.

Arthur was relieved to see that, however, before breathing a small sigh of relief, he couldn't help but spit a mouthful of blood, freaking out Taliya who was sizing up Captain Reek and making some secret plans.