Chapter 1623 (1/2)

Meldoon Crum’s emotional capabilities flickered and died like an old lightbulb as he looked behind him at the new arrivals. They stared back at him curiously. After being driven mad by the fact Claudette Beigon refused to concede even the smallest fraction, thereby giving him no choice but to kill her and risk the ire of the Frost Matriarch, this new unexpected variable pushed his mind beyond his limits. They would make the truth of this matter even more difficult to hide. He could only blankly stare at the group of six that was suddenly standing near the wall of the isolated space.

His blank eyes wandered across the group, reeling even further as he examined them. He searched their figures for any sort of sense of reassuring familiarity, something that would ground him in the moment, but he could not find it. One of the figures was a leafy humanoid, carrying a lance and riding what looked like a camel covered in chitinous armor. An elfen humanoid stood next to the lancer, shivering lightly as he looked over at Meldoon.

In that man, Meldoon could observe a kindred sense of helpless fear.

On the other side of the group a ram demon and a Vulpine looked around with interest at the two forces clustered around the Nether Array. They spent a particularly long time looking at the armored troops of the Holy Frost Society, causing Meldoon’s blood to pound loudly in his ears. Just by observing their well-muscled physiques and auras of self-possession, both were intimately familiar with violence.

But it was the middle two that Meldoon found the most fearful. The one on the left was a lovely woman with her hair done up in a tight braid. Every part of her seemed graceful and deadly. Her arms were folded across her chest and her sharp eyes swept across every single individual present in the clearing. Even from just her gaze, there was a strange distortion in the surrounding space. Everything she looked at was briefly dyed blood-red.

This was a woman who had taken many lives.

The man on the right had medium length black hair and a black metal left arm that was covered with golden veins that pulsed as Meldoon watched. He was tall and athletic, less so than the two individuals on the right, but still enough to evidence his capability. His feet were bare. Compared to his companions, this black-haired man stood with the most casual posture; he clearly didn’t feel even a hint of a threat as he examined Meldoon’s squad and the trapped group from the Holy Frost Society.

Yet what was most threatening about the man was the total lack of image that radiated off of him. The air around him was still and peaceful. Looking at the man’s subordinates, Meldoon wasn’t fool enough to believe that he didn’t possess a powerful image. He simply had enough control that he could mask his image almost completely.

Figures who possessed so much control over their image were rare, even in the Nexus.

But the question that Meldoon couldn’t move past was who these people were. His mind was fuzzy and repeatedly tried to place this assembly into a reassuring label, but no sufficient category occurred to Meldoon. Such a grouping seemed to defy categorization. Not that there was anything strange about different races working with each other in the Nexus, but since most individuals in the Nexus were descended from a powerful progenitor, most organizations were rather uniform. Even Pinnacle Seeker groups at least had a similar, unifying image.

Yet these people…

While Meldoon’s mind continued to stall out and sputter, the elfen humanoid spoke. “Ah… that appears to be a Retrieval Squad from the Engraving Guild. See the insignia on their uniforms? They likely came out to capture some of the stronger Nether individuals. And that group- by the great Lord, t-t-t-t-t-t-that i-i-is C-C-Claudette Beigon!”

The barefooted man scrutinized Meldoon for a second then frowned at the elfen man. “...Didn’t we talk about useful information? That name means nothing to me. But she must be a Pinnacle Seeker, right? Since the Engraving Guild is willing to attack her.”

“You-! I didn’t… I didn’t want…!” Meldoon snarled, finally snapping back into a conscious state. Being accused of attacking the Holy Frost Society when he had been forced to this by that stubborn bitch was simply rubbing salt in his wound. His limbs trembled. If she hadn’t refused to kill him, should he release her…! That pride was the only reason-

“Fellow adventurers!”

At this moment, Claudette herself entered the vocal fray, favoring the newly arrived group with a winning, dimpled smile. Although her image was related to frost, her beaming expression had enough light and passion that even Meldoon’s fury was briefly silenced. “I crave a boon! Assist me in escaping this predicament and I will definitely repay the favor!”

“This… this shamelessness!” Meldoon hissed this time, practically spitting. She was suddenly willing to trade a favor for being released? Why wasn’t Meldoon, the actual controller of the array, able to take advantage of that opportunity?!?

The ram demon pointed toward the trapped Claudette and her subordinates. “She craves a boon.”

“Honestly, seems like a good opportunity. Pissing off the Engraving Guild isn’t a problem; they’ve caused enough trouble for me already.” As the barefooted man walked forward, his eyes began to glow. “Plus, we get to earn some goodwill in the process.”

Meldoon snorted, gratefully seizing onto the man’s naked aggression as a way to overcome his sense of helplessness. He unwound his Nether Core from the Nether Array in front of him and wheeled to face the approaching group. He used hand signals to get his subordinates to continue trapping the Holy Frost Society while facing these recent arrivals. While Meldoon’s eyes were red-rimmed, he felt exceedingly calm. After shorting his emotional circuits, he sweated no longer.

He had moved past that. Now he only understood necessity.