Chapter 539 - 485: The Voice of Deceit (3) (1/2)
Sivenna, the woman who just protected Elias, was turned into a fountain of blood by Lucy, who fired at her using Lonely Moon. Seeing the gun pointed at him and Arthur ready to strike again, the old man raised his hands and said
”Wait! No need to complicate things, I was only after Sol'dhin.”
His face showed true fear as he was confident enough about the coin's ability to protect him from the assault of both Arthur and Lucy. Furthermore, the people behind him were mostly mortals and weaklings, none of them are powerful enough to resist the duo. The coin was his last hope and, from the looks of it, he wanted to ally himself with Arthur.
”His soul will last for some time and we'll use that opportunity to leave Riarravar. This world is wildly unstable so the moment Timos' soul fully returns to him, everything will be automatically obliterated, we won't have time to create a spatial tunnel.”
Besides its ability to attack a strong person like Sol'dhin, Arthur knew that the strange coin could mass teleport so, basically, Elias was lying to his face. In all cases, he was going to kill this old man before leaving this world and the opportunity presented itself.
Elias picked up the shield containing Void Magic but didn't raise it to defend as he saw Arthur contemplating his offer, or so it seemed. Before he could react, Arthur appeared before him, his hand stabbing at his heart, planning to finish it swiftly and without any mishap.
Unfortunately, just when Arthur got too close, the coin released more black light which flung Arthur away then enveloped the old man, whose face became deathly pale, not expecting Arthur to be so ruthless. Though he was relieved the coin acted on its own, he was still inwardly panicking as Arthur seemed uninjured by the previous counterattack.
By the next second, several gunshots could be heard as Lucy unhesitatingly fired at Elias. The target raised the shield which absorbed all the bullets except one particular purple one, which penetrated the artifact and ripped a hole through the old man's shoulder.
He cried out in agony and dropped the now useless shield, blood gushing out of his shoulder. The Void Magic inside the bullet quickly ate away his organs and muscles, causing him to vomit a lot of blood, however, the coin yet again interfered, using the black light to get rid of all the void magic inside its holder's body.
”Y-you..” He tried to talk but, just like the Shogun, he kept coughing blood. Lucy darted at the old man, nine lotuses circling around her, slowly blooming and freezing everything in the surroundings. Sadly, when she was meters away from the old man, a lightning-fast silhouette blocked her path and, before she could react in any way, stabbed her right through her chest.
”Aigoo… I told you they're not gullible.”
A nonchalant voice could be heard, it actually belonged to the person who just attacked Lucy out of the blue. The man was about to twist the blade and finish off Lucy only to be pushed away by an enormous force that assaulted him from the side. A man covered in green lightning and black flames managed to not only push him away but also cause slight injuries on his flawless body.
The man let out a chuckle, licked the blood on his lips while having an amused expression. This was none other than the Shogun, who was supposed to be dying.
As for Lucy, the stab she received was more fatal than it looked, especially duo the coin, which was sucking something out of her body, causing it to violently shake. Uncaring about the unscathed Sol'dhin, Arthur held Lucy's body while using his left hand to heal the injury.
No matter how much Life energy his poured, the energy wouldn't disappear and soon enough, blood dyed the ground as well as her dress.
Arthur couldn't continue his healing as a fast figure leapt at him, swinging a sharp blade at both he and Lucy. Before the Shogun could reach them, a seemingly normal bubble of water sprung from the ground and turned into a spike that clashed with the attacker.
A robed man appeared next to Arthur, his expression unusually serious. Emir looked at the Shogun then at the coin in Elias' hand, a bit surprised that such an artifact was actually here and that he didn't sense it earlier.
”We should leave, the coin is a soul-hungry artifact and it clearly wants her soul. The farther she is from it, the better.”
Several parasites appeared around the couple and Emir, all raising their arms and preparing to face the Shogun. Furthermore, those weak-looking mortals behind Elias took out unfamiliar red orbs and raised them, preparing to retaliate.
As he heard no reply, Emir glanced at Arthur but the latter was wholly focused on Lucy. The Archmage could hear the sound of grinding teeth, as well as the inhumane growling originating from the parasite kneeling beside him.
”What do you think now, dear guest? Isn't it fascinating how humans act? I didn't expect such a 'foreplay' but it was obvious that they were going to deceive you and the Archmage, it was only a question of how… though, I don't understand why he targeted your partner and not you.”
Unlike Arthur's current mental state, Timos sounded calm as he spoke rationally, stating facts and kind of insulting humans in general. As he saw his wife suffering and his healing not taking effect, Arthur planned to end Lucy because, unlike everyone else, he knew that she won't really die. Just like he created a body for him, he also created one for her and tasked Gutcha to hide so if she were to die, she'll be reanimated elsewhere, for sure.
However, his thoughts were miserably crushed by the Archmage's next words: