Chương 185: Chapter One-Hundred-and-Eighty-Five

Adam landed on the hard glassy floor of the challenge arena. Crimson glass spread out below him and up the stands, where many of his patron's adherents watched in anticipation. Since his target also worshipped the Flayed Lady, the theme went all the way across the arena, though there was still a seam down the middle, denoting which side belonged to which player. He was about to fire off all five fingers of his right gauntlet when Iona lifted her arms in surrender.

I don't think either of us gets to leave before the other is dead, and there's no way I'll spare her. Still, Adam stayed his hand.

"The Lady told me you would come," Iona said, her voice reaching him despite the distance. She was keeping her hands in the air where Adam could see them, and he quickly noted her relics. The prominent ones were the blood mage choker, ghoul's hand, and raiment of bone, two of which would reactively defend her. They hadn't been visible in the tavern, meaning she'd found a way to hide them from others. I need to find a way to do that too.

The fact that she hid them likely means she wanted to seem more unassuming than she is. Adam was confident in his own defences, but he didn't move any closer. Blood mages, especially those who served the Flayed Lady, were not to be trusted.

"Only one of us can leave alive," he replied, his voice echoing across the arena.

"I know. I am not going to ask you for mercy. I want you to sacrifice me." Adam frowned.

"The Flayed Lady said you could send me to her realm," she went on.

"In return I am allowed to gift you something. She said that you would do it, because you are her Red King." Her melody was sincere and hopeful. It was clear she was blinded by devotion. She chose the wrong God to worship.

"You won't like what happens if I send you to her," Adam said bluntly. He hated the notion that his patron was telling others about him, like she was proud of him. It made his skin crawl.

"I failed her in Moonport," Iona said.

"Even though I sacrificed the other survivors in my group, it wasn't enough. But she allowed me this mercy. She allowed me to live until your arrival. When you sacrifice my body to her, I will go to her side and be rewarded." The Flayed Lady is not that merciful. This is yet another of her tests, one which clearly has no correct answer. She wants Iona to show her loyalty by allowing herself to be killed by me, but being sent to her domain is a guarantee that she'll be tortured for an eternity.

If she doesn't allow herself to be sacrificed, she will likely just be punished in a different way. I can't save her, nor do I wish to, since she's zealous enough to kill other people to appease the Flayed Lady, but I don't want to condemn anyone to the Rotten Core. Not even a monster.

"What are you giving me in return?" Adam asked.

"It is a spell that reveals the past using blood."

"Show it to me."

"Thank you for this," Iona said sincerely. She lowered her hands and walked towards the middle of the arena. Adam pulled the fingers off his right gauntlet, floating them in front of himself. Given the doubled spell limit granted by his new crown, he could control a total of six separate spells, but he was using one of those 'slots' on his own armour.

The fingers of the gauntlet were an amalgamation of bone, flesh, and blood, and it would allow him to pull on each of the separate elements to greatly increase the power and speed if he fired them. Iona would be dead the moment she tried something, since Adam was certain he would be able to overwhelm her defences. When she reached the seam between the two halves of the challenge arena, she started to unequip her raiment of bone.

She wore a simple blue blouse under it and she pulled it off as well, along with her bra, before turning around to reveal her naked back. Adam gritted his teeth at what he saw. The Flayed Lady had carved the spell pattern into her skin, all for this moment. Would she have been punished if I hadn't chosen to use my challenge stone on her? Adam wondered. No. The Flayed Lady knew that I would pick her… After all, she knows so much of what is to come… She even knows who I will be grouped with in the Forlorn Kingdom.

He started to reconsider if it was even possible to break free of her. Maybe I'm better off just cutting my loop short after stage nine. I can't let her get to me. Any punishment she chooses is going to set me back far more than a single death. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Adam let out a deep breath and pulled the gauntlet off of his right hand to expose the Mandate of Blood.

He walked towards where Iona was awaiting him, moving the floating fingers ahead of himself, slow enough that they wouldn't trigger her blood choker. Then he swapped his own choker for the hobgoblin's pendant and pushed one of the fingers in through Iona's nape. It slid through her skin and flesh, and he moved it up into her head and through the cranium to where the brain resided. With a single pulse of control, Adam detonated the finger, killing her in an instant.

As soon as she collapsed, Adam shot forward and placed his glass hand on her back where the spell symbol was carved into her skin. He absorbed the knowledge from the wound, and in the process he saw the moment when the Flayed Lady carved the pattern and Iona cried out for forgiveness. < < Challenge Stone Deactivated > > < You have defeated Player Iona Gartner in the arena > < < Victory Pearl Obtained > >"This was a mercy," Adam said to her corpse as he stood back up.

The remnants of Iona's pleading voice reverberated inside his head as he was transported back to the basement restaurant. He immediately found a seat and searched for Beck.

"Took you a while," his friend remarked.

"She asked me to sacrifice her," Adam replied.

"What?" Before he could answer, Kat tried to talk to him, so Adam added her to the conversation, before recounting what had happened to them both.

"I've gotta see this spell she gave you," Beck said and pulled out his visiting stone. < < Visiting Stone Activated > > < Player Beck has entered your Dimension >"Is he travelling to you?" Kat asked.

"He already arrived," Adam replied.

"I wish I had used my visiting stone better," she said.

"You found a secret, so it wasn't a waste," Adam told her.

"How did you spend your remaining points?"

"I evolved two additional weapons to get more of the mastery shards. I bought the orb of insight alongside the visiting stone."

"What weapons did you evolve?" he asked.

"I tried Lancer first, because I heard about its speed-based evolution, but I swapped it out for Brawler. Its Pit Fighter evolution complements my claws, since it increases the damage I deal up close, and the Street Champion's kill boost overlaps with my devour buff." As she spoke, she showed him the gauntlets on her hands. Adam realised she had evolved them in the same way as Emelia, though he was unfamiliar with the evolutions.

"What does Street Champion do?" he asked.

"It increases my attack and movement speed by 5% for every kill, up to a total of 50%. It is similar to the Pugilist evolution I initially picked, which raises damage and impact for every hit inflicted to the same target." That sounds really strong, but there is a way for her to get even stronger.

"Do you have any points left?"

"I do. I am unable to buy more upgrades since I fully evolved my weapons, so I am unsure what to spend them on."

"You should try and get an epic belt from Lucca's stall. It's called Pugilist's Belt and it has the same effect as Pit Fighter, but going up to 100%."

"I may be able to find it. I have increased my luck to 25 like you."

"You should hurry then, the day is coming to an end soon." Kat made to stand, but paused for a moment.

"Let us meet after the next stage," she said. Adam nodded. Then she vanished from the table. Adam got up from his seat and went over to the stairs leading up, but he paused for a moment to call over Sylvia.

"I have something new to show you," he told her. The moment he went back up into the player house, he heard knocking coming from the door, so he went over and opened it.

"I was about to go back home," Beck replied with a frown.

"I've been standing here forever."

"I thought you could just waltz right in," Adam replied.

"Apparently not." Beck's eyes trailed from Adam to Sylvia.

"Was I interrupting something?" he asked suspiciously. Adam smiled.

"No, no, it's not like—""Yes," Sylvia interrupted." Twilight and I were about to get busy." Beck laughed.

"This is no laughing matter," she remarked.

"She's talking about experimenting with blood magic," Adam quickly explained.

"Sure, buddy," Beck replied.

"I'm not buying that." Instead of trying to defend himself from Beck's suspicion, Adam went over to the dummy, transformed it into a bloodfiend and slashed its throat. As the dummy died and its blood spilled onto the floor, his kingly raiment started to pull the blood into itself, but Adam stopped it with his control sigil. He shaped the liquid and drew out the spell pattern that had been carved into Iona's back, laying it flat on the floor. Sylvia and Beck both came over to observe what he was doing.

As he finished drawing the symbol, he injected his mana into it and the blood pulled itself up into the air, spreading out into tiny droplets that marked the outline of a person identical to the dummy, before showing how it died.

"It's the Blood Recall spell," Sylvia realised, her melody filled with awe and excitement.

"I have heard of its power, but I have never seen it before. It is supposed to have been lost to time."

"An adherent of the Flayed Lady showed it to me," Adam said.

"Why?" Sylvia asked.

"She is miserly with her knowledge. What cause could she have to reward anyone with this power?"

"Adam is her favourite little toy," Beck told her. He ignored the jab and recreated the spell a few more times, trying to find ways of breaking the recall image. However, no matter what he did, the outline always replicated the dummy's final moments in clear detail. The only time it didn't work that well was when he used the smallest amount of blood possible to draw the lines, since it meant the recall had very little material to pull from, creating a very confusing image as a result.

If he used more blood than necessary, laying the lines thickly, the recall lasted longer and gave far more detail. Beck tried to replicate it, but Adam had to correct him a few times before he got it right. Still, even without the ability to use blood magic, he was able to pull off the spell. He tried to create the pattern with his spell staff, but it had no effect, similar to how he had been unable to cast Clot and Dilution.

After they were done experimenting with Blood Recall, Adam showed him the Covetous Vessel spell, much to Sylvia's dismay. Since Adam had learnt demonic from the Tome Keeper, he tried to adjust the parameters of the spell, but it was easier said than done. Sylvia wasn't allowed to assist him, but he could tell her melody was getting irritated with his attempts, likely because he was missing some crucial detail.

"If you understood how to intone the spell, you would perhaps know what is wrong with your attempts," she finally said, managing to give him a hint without being punished by the System.

"Maybe it has to rhyme," Beck guessed. Sylvia's melody reacted to that, but when Adam attempted to word his command in a rhyme scheme, the spell completely refused to activate. Their cubes announced that they would soon be forcefully put to sleep, so Adam gave up for now. He spent the final few minutes talking strategy with Beck. Suddenly, everything went black. Adam felt like he was falling. < < Now Entering > > < Stage 9 > < The Forlorn Kingdom > < 7-day Timer >