I hope this works, I thought as I lifted my blade up.
“Heavy Swing!” I yelled and swung downwards, right into the wolf. My sword pushed through, sinking in till the hilt before the beast even had a chance to react. The wolf’s health bar instantly lowered to just a fifth of its health. It howled in pain and shook violently, trying to throw me off. I held my sword tight and twisted, causing as much damage as I could.
The wolf suddenly charged forward, ramming into the trees in an attempt to throw me off, but I held on tight, twisting my sword as much as I could. A second and a half later the beast’s health bar dropped to zero and it collapsed to the floor, motionless.
I breathed heavy, my hand still gripping my weapon. I slid my sword back up and flicked the blade, getting rid of the thick coat of blood that slicked it. I jumped off the dead creature’s back, landing a tad sloppily on the floor.
Critical hits are more effective than I thought,I smiled to myself. I couldn’t think of any other way I could have taken out the massive beast if it weren’t for something like that. My eyes fell upon the runes drawn on the skin of the fallen beast. What are those things? I asked myself, unease in my mind.
As if on cue, a low hum sounded in the air. I jerked my head around, searching for where it was coming from. The dark runes on the wolf’s body started glowing a bright grey, the same color it’s eyes had been when it lived. The humming intensified, no longer a low tone but rather a howl. The sound sunk deep within me, rattling my very bones.
A bright light flashed from the markings for a second and a form emerged from within the wolf.
A wraith.
I held my sword up high, keeping my hands as steady as possible. I looked at the spirit as it slowly took form, a young man dressed in loose robes. His eyes shone a painful white, his expression filled with nothing but pure anger. I quickly tried bringing up his analyze screen.
DING!
Unable to analyze subject.
Dammit, I muttered to myself, my eyes staying on the creature in front of me. I didn’t even know if the word ‘creature’ was apt for this thing. I had no clue what was going on.
The spirit gazed at me, its bright eyes glaring at my presence. “Eternal,” it said, its tone haunting.
Why does it know that? I panicked even more and charged at the creature on impulse.
“Bladestorm!” I yelled and pushed into it with the first strike from my combo move.
Only to have myself pass through harmlessly.
Pain struck my body immediately, as though burning steam was coursing through my nerves. I collapsed to the ground, doing my best to just stay conscious.
“Eternal,” the wraith called out again, its voice sending shivers down my spine.
I turned around, my chest heaving hard. The spirit hovered before me, a horrid expression on its face. Its form slowly inched closer, threatening to cause the pain it had before. I reached out and swung hard but my sword passed through harmlessly, just like before. I pushed myself back, clawing across the forest ground, hoping to give myself more time.
“You cannot run,” spirit cooed as it approached me, its eyes glowing brighter than ever.
I felt a hand on my shoulder.
A word sounded beside me, and a sphere of light formed around the wraith, trapping it within. The spirit howled in pain and its form quickly broke down, withering away and disappearing into nothing in just a second.
“Are you okay?” Freya stood before me, a worried expression on her face.
I nodded quietly, wincing a bit as a wave of pain hit me, this one almost nothing compared to the one I’d had a minute ago.
“I’ll heal you, just give me a moment for my mana to regenerate,” she said.
I nodded, silently noting that whatever she had done to get rid of that spirit had been strong enough to deplete all of her mana.
“What happened here?” she asked, kneeling down and taking my hand in hers.
“I don’t know,” I stuttered, my voice still weak. “I’d finished hunting wolves when that thing appeared.” I gently lifted my hand up and pointed to the rune-covered wolf.
“Ah,” she said, sounding as though that was explanation enough.
“The wraith appeared when I killed the wolf,” I said. “I tried attacking it, but none of my attacks hit it. I don’t know what it did, but after I attacked it the first time my body just went into this aching pain.”
“That wraith was no regular creature,” she said, sorrow in her voice. “Normal wraiths are spirits of the dead that are summoned to the realm of the living. What we just saw was a tortured wraith, a spirit that was captured and trapped from going to the afterlife. Physical contact with such creatures always causes great pain to a living body. And from what you say it seems the creature had been forcefully imbued into that wolf.”
I looked at her. “That wraith,” I said. “It called me an Eternal. It knew what I was.”
Freya did not seem surprised in the least. “Zoran,” she said. “The runes that trapped the Wraith in the Wolf…they are not normal.”
I looked at her for a second. “The Phantom Lord?” I asked, realizing where she was going with this.
She nodded. “I know Ijyela seemed unsure of his existence,” she said. “But I do not share the same thought. Too many things have happened so far for us to still pretend he’s not the one behind all this. Ijyela found the Death Seal on you earlier and this is proof of its existence. The Phantom Lord is coming after you.”
“Great,” I said. A wave of pain hit me once more and I winced, my muscles tightening till it passed.
“You idiot,” she leaned forward, touching her forehead against mine. I smelled lilac and lilies as her soft hair fell onto my face, caressing my skin with its silky texture. She held my hands in hers, her warmth spreading through my palms. She uttered a word that I did not know and a bright light covered my body. I felt heat sink into me and the pain I’d felt dissolved away, vanishing in seconds.
“There,” she pulled away from me, a smile on her face. “You should be fine now.”
The light around me died as I lifted my hand and stretched my fingers, the pain no longer taking hold of me. “Thank you,” I said, giving her a polite nod.
She smiled. “Things are getting confusing again, Eternal,” she said.
“Tell me about it.”.
“You’ve got the the Alliance of Light, the Dark Alliance and the Phantom Lord himself, all coming after you,” she said. “Things are not going to be easy.”
I sighed. “They never were.”
***
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
We spent no time lounging around thinking about what had just happened.
The main reason for that was Freya’s determination to get a move on as soon as possible. We spent about half an hour cooking the meat we’d gathered, and by ‘we’ I mean I watched as the elf cooked, adding exotic spices and herbs she had to our meal.
I’d honestly figured I could help cook the meat and hopefully learn a cooking skill from it, but that was going to have to wait. I wasn’t complaining though. I’d gotten a meal out of this and that was all that mattered.
How on earth did I go so long without any food? I thought as we walked, my stomach now full. Maybe that’s my superpower. I can function without food.
My mind soon turned to a different thought, unable to comprehend the fact that I’d had my first sort of direct encounter with the Phantom Lord. Well, it wasn’t exactly direct, but it was as direct as things had gotten so far.
To me, the man’s existence was still not entirely certain, especially since Freya and Ijyela themselves couldn’t seem to come to an agreement on that. I however, had an inkling that Freya’s judgment was stronger given everything that had happened so far.
The Phantom Lord, I thought.
I couldn’t help but feel amused about how that man had singlehandedly complicated my situation. The Alliance of Light was coming after me because of the shadows I’d caused wi
th the Lumina Knights’ head council and that only happened because of whatever the Phantom Lord had done to me.
The Dark Alliance was after me of course because I was an Eternal and since they wanted me to join their Alignment. The Phantom Lord’s motivations to come after me however, were an utter mystery. The man himself was quite mysterious if I was to go by what Ijyela and Freya had told me about him.
Diablo, I thought, remembering what Ijyela had said. I still found it odd that a man who tortured wraiths and tormented wolves would have a name only those close to him could call him by. It felt odd for the Phantom Lord to have a sense of kinship amongst his followers. The combination of the two was pretty weird, as though the two sides couldn’t really co-exist with one another.
Then again, being an Eternal and not having any special powers didn’t seem like something that co-exist either, so I shouldn’t be one to judge.
“So,” Freya said. “What do you think the Phantom Lord even wants from you?” she asked, breaking the trough of silence we’d put ourselves in for a while now.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “I honestly doubt I’ll know the reason even if I somehow get back all my memories.”
“I still find it odd,” she said. “The Eternals go missing for nearly five thousand years and then two of them show up all of a sudden, one of them just happening to be the strongest one there ever was.”
“I know, it is weird,” I said.
“Honestly, I don’t think it’s that implausible that he did show up just to come after you.”
I chuckled for a second and then stopped when I realized that could honestly be a very possible scenario. It wasn’t unlikely to assume the Phantom Lord made an appearance just so that he could come after me, for reasons I still didn’t know. I was marked with the Death Seal after all.
“I don’t recall the Phantom Lord having any striking nemesis though,” Freya said. “He just fought with everyone there was all the time. I don’t think he’d make a re-appearance just to come after someone.”
“If that is true though and he showed up because of me, then it’d mean the Eternals could have re-appeared whenever they wanted to. And that begs the question, why did they disappear in the first place?”
“Good luck answering that,” she chuckled.
Wow, I thought, realizing that after the ton of complaining I’d done about getting hard questions with no answers, I was the one who was asking the hard questions now. Now that’s what you call development, I chuckled to myself.
“I wouldn’t dwell on those questions too much if I were you,” Freya said. “We should just focus on finding out what’s going on here with the Phantom Lord. The answers to your other questions should come up naturally when we dig deeper into this.”
“Yeah,” I said. “That’s a good-”
A blast of white light suddenly shot of out from within the greenery and smacked into Freya’s side, throwing her against a tree. She bounced off the wood and slumped to the ground, unconscious on impact. My eyes instantly shot to her health bar, only to watch in panic as it quickly lessened to just a tenth of the max. Not good.
I rushed to her, opening my Ga’em menu and sliding to the items menu as fast as I could. I needed to give her my Warrior’s restoration potion. And fast.
Just as I reached out to touch her, another blast of white light shot out, cutting through the air between the two of us and leaving a lingering heat on my face.
“Not so fast,” a voice cooed, and a lady walked out from behind the trees, dressed in silver armor. “Stand still if you know what’s good for you.”
“You hit the elf too hard,” a chuckle sounded and a man emerged. I saw a total of five people walk out of the trees, two women and three men, all of them clad in white armor. I looked close and noticed a seal of silver on their breastplates, shaped as a Pegasus rearing up on its hind legs, its wings spread out wide.
The Alliance of Light, my eyes widened, the realization of what was going on here hitting me hard. They’re one of the Elite Squads, I panicked.
I used my analyze skill on them, and immediately panicked from the numbers I saw. Every single person from that squad was at least Level 160. Meanwhile I’d only gotten past Level 16 a while ago.
“Not putting up a fight are you?” the lady asked me, now standing only a few feet away. It didn’t seem like she’d seen my analyze screen, and that was good.
“Is he even the guy we’re looking for?” the other lady asked, a bit of skepticism in her voice. I didn’t blame her. Even I had trouble believing I was an Eternal.
“Silver hair, silver eyes,” the man said. “There’s no doubt he’s the one.”
Well, I guess that rules out playing innocent, I mumbled in my thoughts, still not sure of how I was going to get out of this one. I’d so far planned on what to do in order to stay away from the Elite Squads, but I’d never thought about what to do if I was actually captured. Honestly, I didn’t think there was anything I could do if I was captured. It seemed like it was end game if that happened.
I looked to the squad of five and noticed that they were still keeping their distance from me. I found that odd for a moment, and then it hit me.
The Kingdom of Aingard had no clue how strong I was. Sure, I’d been pretty weak when I was at the Lumina Knights HQ but a while had passed since that and so in their eyes it was quite likely that I had grown very powerful now.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t have been any more wrong.
I kept a wary eye on Freya, stepping to the side so that I was right in between the squad and her. They’d hesitate to get to her if they had to go through me.
I looked to the woman who appeared first. “What do you want from me?” I asked, hoping to get answers or at least buy myself some time.
“What do we want?” she asked, a chuckle on her lips. “We just want to take you back to the Kingdom. Markus is the one who has big plans for you.”
“King Markus,” the man corrected her.
“Yeah yeah,” the lady waved her hand without much care.
She doesn’t seem to like the King that much, I noticed and decided to dive into that. “So Markus Goodfield is just standing around in his tower ordering all of you to do the dirty work?” I asked, putting emotion into my voice. “Seems quite unfair.”
The lady looked at me for a moment, and then smiled. “So that’s really how you want to go?” she smiled. “I do not question his reasoning. What I do question however is you, Eternal. You’ve been standing there silent for quite a while now. Are you really as powerful as they say?”
Uh oh, I thought, instantly trying to rebound to a different plan of attack.
“Enough chit-chat,” the other lady said. “Let’s just get him and go.”
“Agreed,” the first woman walked up to me nonchalantly, as though she was going to just pick me up and take me away.
Well she was wrong about that one.
I slid my sword out of its sheath, holding it out up in front of me. “I’d rather die that get taken away by you fiends,” I muttered.
“You’d rather die?” she asked. “Why? So your resurrection ability can help you get away?” she chuckled. “Tell you what,” her expression changed. “You seem to be close to that girl we just knocked out. If you resurrect and go somewhere else, I can’t promise you she’s going to die peacefully.”
My eyes widened, unable to believe they were suggesting what I thought they were. “You would not,” I said. “It isn’t how the Alliance of Light does things.”
She smiled. “You’d be surprised.”
“Uhhhh,” a familiar voice mumbled, interrupting everything that was going on. “That was rougher than I had expected.”
I turned around and saw Freya stand up, dusting herself off as if nothing had happened. She stepped up to me, the expression on her face calm. Calmer than it should have been.
“What’s going on here?” the elf looked up dazedly, her eyes turning serious the moment she saw the men and wo
men in front of us. “Is this the Elite Squad that Markus sent after you?” she asked.
The first woman chuckled. “You’re quite calm for a person that was just knocked cold,” she said. “Maybe I should knock you out again.”
“I doubt that,” she smiled. “The Elite Squads are not as special as you think they are.”
She laughed. “I’ll show you special,” she said and shot up to us, standing a few feet away one second and right in front of us the next. Her arm was already coiled back when she reappeared, now rocketing right towards Freya’s face. I saw a blur as she landed her punch and a shockwave shot out from the contact point, throwing dust and sand into the air.
I panicked, looking around frantically as the air cleared up, hoping desperately that Freya hadn’t been taken out. But when the dust actually cleared, my eyes widened at the sight before me.
The elf stood there, one arm stretched out, her palm stopping the woman’s punch as if it were nothing. The elf smiled. “Special indeed.”
The lady’s face changed. She jumped back to her colleagues’ side, no doubt confused beyond belief. I looked to the rest of the squad, noticing that their faces showed the same kind of confusion. I couldn’t blame them. I felt the same way they did.
“You seem to be misunderstanding the term ‘special’,” Freya said, her tone changing into something I’d never heard from her before - rage. “Let me show you what special really looks like.”
She stepped forward and her form immediately flickered. Winds swirled around us, and sparks showered the air around her, as though lightning were ready to strike the Earth. I went aghast as the Elven assassin suddenly changed appearance, her hair turning blood red and her eyes changing to deadlier version of the same shade. Runes of black formed over her body, as if they’d been hidden within her skin all along.
The longsword on her back changed form, glowing white and expanding until it was a massive broadsword of jet black. It was about as wide as my forearm and stood about one and a half times as tall as she was, radiating pure power with its presence.
The Eternal: Awakening - A LitRPG Saga (World of Ga'em Book 1) Page 15