Chương 14: No Mortals Here (II)

"Aaaaaaagh!" Helux's desperate scream was followed by a brutal kick that sent Nerez flying and slammed him into the charred trunk of a tree.

"Gah!" After the impact, Nerez felt like he couldn't breathe, though fortunately it only lasted a few moments. The fact that the charred trunk shattered to pieces must have helped keep his ribs intact.

"Aren...! What are you doing?! Now's your chance!" Aren, who had been standing there frozen, watching Helux clutch his smoking head and groan in pain, snapped out of it at Nerez's shout.

"Sorry!" Aren shouted back as he lunged at Helux. But his advance was abruptly cut short by an explosion of light that forced him to leap back.

"Damn it..." Nerez muttered, steadying himself after that monstrous kick. [Death's Touch] [No mortal can resist the inevitable; mark those whose time has come]"What an unnecessary skill for a librarian... And just as I expected, it wasn't going to be very effective against an immortal demigod. But it seems it wasn't for nothing either." [Cursed] [-30% to all stats]"Hahaha, I honestly wasn't expecting that kind of attack at all," Helux laughed, lowering his hand from his face. There were no burns on it.

It was as if the smoke, or whatever it had been, had risen from his very soul.

"I've decided it would be a shame to eliminate you from our little festival... But..." The sphere floating above Helux's head suddenly burst in a blinding flash of light. This was far from the first time Nerez had gone through something like that, so he had managed to shield his face in time. But when he opened his eyes again, Helux was already standing in front of Aren.

"Guh!" It was a savage punch to the stomach. Aren had no time to react; after the blow, he collapsed against Helux's arm. With a single motion, the demigod slung him over his shoulder.

"This young man has potential, but he needs guidance if he's going to shine. So I'm bringing him into my faction, taking him under my wing, so to speak. You, on the other hand... would be much harder to control." As he spoke, the forest filled with the clatter of advancing bone and metal. The sound grew and multiplied until it became a single ominous murmur. By the time he finished speaking, an army of a thousand skeletons had already closed the circle around him completely.

Dozens, then hundreds of bows rose in unison, taut and ready, aimed to punish the slightest movement.

"I wish I could say this is getting interesting. But for my Eidolon, destroying a hundred skeletons isn't much different from destroying a thousand," Helux remarked with a shrug.

"In one blow, with your stats reduced that much? If you fail, will you really be able to defend yourself with only one hand?"

"Hahaha, it's true that, for some reason, your skeletons seem able to pierce my skin, but me having only one hand free in this situation is more of a disadvantage for you," Helux shot back, adjusting Aren on his shoulder.

"Weren't you the one who said you weren't going to sacrifice anyone?"

"What do you even want Aren for in the first place?"

"Because I plan to take control of Eryndea sooner or later, and wonderful as I am, I'll still need a little help if I'm going to overcome Zorovan's granddaughter," he replied with a smile.

"And can you force someone in this world to fight for you against his will?" This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"That depends on the kind of oath one swears before the Divine Order. But don't worry, I have no intention of forcing him to do anything against his will," Helux reassured him.

"I won't just protect him. I'll make him one of the most powerful gods under my command."

"Would he get a bigger domain than he could win on his own?"

"Of course. He'd be part of my faction, after all." Nerez crossed his arms and thought with his eyes closed for a couple of seconds.

"I wouldn't mind continuing this encounter. But to be honest, I'd rather let you grow a little and meet you again outside this festival," Helux went on with a smile.

"When we can use our artifacts instead of just Eidolons."

"There was a rule like that? Not that it makes any difference to me... But then again, no one running this whole thing ever bothers explaining anything."

"Hahaha, but that's common knowledge!... Honestly, I prefer close combat, but fists aren't really my style. I miss having my true weapon back in my hands..." He let out a small laugh, miming the grip of an imaginary weapon, but his expression soon turned a little more serious.

"Though if you really insist, I can make you disappear right now..."

"Don't underestimate me. I've died a thousand deaths. One more won't make a difference." Wow. I thought that sounded cool, but now that I think about it, it's just really sad... Also, I really don't want to die at all. What happens if I get sent back to the Silver Sea?

"Hahaha, I didn't mean to offend you," Helux replied apologetically.

"I don't know what you mean by a thousand deaths, but it's true you're not just anybody." Nerez let out a tired sigh and loosened his grip on the Book of Death.

"All right. Aren wanted a faction and more power, after all," he said before meeting Helux's eyes.

"If you keep your word, I suppose I don't mind leaving him in your care."

"You can count on that."

"But... honestly, I have no interest in 'growing' any further. Could you just stop showing up in front of me?" As they spoke, the ground began to tremble in unison, and from every direction a tide of fallen warriors surged forth. The trees that had finished burning collapsed beneath the stampede of bone and metal, turning the horizon into a continuous tide of death. There were no longer a thousand skeletons surrounding them, but ten times that number. Helux let out a low whistle as he looked around.

"It seems I've underestimated you! You've really got my attention now!" he exclaimed, thrilled.

"Now we absolutely have to meet again, with all our artifacts."

"Isn't that the exact opposite of what I just told you?!" Nerez protested in exasperation.

"Besides, I don't have any 'artifacts'!" The sphere floating above Helux's head shone more brightly, but not in preparation for an attack. Instead, it was lifting the demigod into the air for his retreat.

"Wait! I'm going too... I-I'm going too..." Vilkie's battered figure appeared beside Nerez.

"Are you sure? He's the one who left you in that state..."

"Ah, yes, that was my fault," Helux admitted, scratching his head.

"I wanted to stop the cutie from warning you, but I hit her harder than I meant to and she crashed into the ground."

"Normally I'd be dead already. This is a battle royale, after all," Vilkie pointed out.

"The fact that I'm still here says a lot."

"Well, I'd already decided I wasn't going to bully the weak, so I wasn't about to change my mind that quickly," Helux declared.

"And while nobody asked for my opinion, I don't mind taking the cutie along as a bonus."

"Sorry, Nerez. We're allies, but we're going to leave you alone..."

"Ha, that's all I wanted from the start. Take care of your boyfriend for me, all right?" Vilkie gave him one last smile and made her way over to where Helux was waiting. He lifted her by the waist and began to levitate again.

"If anything happens to either of those two, then you and I are going to have to face each other," Nerez warned, signaling his skeletal soldiers to lower their bows.

"And I'd hate that, so do me a favor and keep them safe."

"Hahaha, I'll be looking forward to the moment we meet again, but don't worry!" Helux called down from above.

"My faction is going to become the most powerful faction in this world!" Before long, he had already vanished into the blue sky of Eryndea.

"There are none so deaf as those who refuse to hear..." Nerez sighed tiredly. Around him, the army of thousands of skeletons waited in silence. The sight sent a chill through him, so he made them disappear almost immediately.

"I only knew them for a day and a half, but I'll miss them. They were good kids," Nerez said, stretching to work the tension out of his body.

"Though I have a feeling... no, the certainty, that they're just as thirsty for glory as everyone else here. So growing within a powerful faction won't do them any harm." Dusting off his jacket, now covered in ash and dirt, he started walking. He had no idea how many enemies the sound of those explosions might have drawn, but he wasn't about to stay and find out.

"Now then, unpleasant as that encounter was, it did let me confirm three things. First: my skill's proficiency only rises when I use it at its maximum potential. In other words, summoning a hundred skeletons again did nothing. Only when I summoned the full thousand did the proficiency rise a rank." Nerez opened the heavy black book in his hands. On the page beside the one with the skeletal soldier was the image of a hand that seemed to be made of black mist.

"Second: even though I summoned ten thousand skeletons, the proficiency didn't rise another rank. So rank A seems to be the endpoint for skills... or at least that's what it looks like for now." Even as he spoke, his attention remained on the Book of Death. When he turned the page, strange shapes and symbols were moving around it, as if impatient to form a new image.

"Third: apparently, getting new skills is pretty easy..." After saying that, his gaze shifted to a small holographic tab floating nearby. [Soulwarden] [Memento Mori] [Requiem]"And once again, the Godscript wants me to choose based on the name alone..."

After several minutes of flying, Helux descended with Aren still unconscious over his shoulder and Vilkie asleep from sheer exhaustion in his other arm.

"Selene, look what I adopted... Selene?" The night she had summoned had dispersed, and the land it had once covered had now been reduced to ruins. But there was no trace left of either Selene or her opponent.