[Host, in the present state, it will take 15 days]
'As expected of him,' Ryuk glanced at the young man, realizing how his body was blessed enough to adapt even to the Artifact, which had the ability to degrade anyone's strength stats to 1.
This ant that if Wyrncoil—the artifact Edward possessed—was used on him, there was a significant chance that Edward would recover much sooner than the artifact's usual effect duration, which was a whole month for anyone else.
BAM!
"...I.."
Finally, upon hearing a fading voice accompanied by the punch, Ryuk turned his attention towards the young man, while the man beside him, gritting his teeth, kept his fist clenched and looked downward.
"It should be enough, Regina," he commanded while slowly rising from his seat, composed yet slightly feeling sothing off about everything.
After all, Edward was subdued much more easily despite the title he held.
"Can he leave now?" the man inquired with a frustrated tone, lifting his reddened gaze to et Ryuk's, whose face ford a smile.
"Yes—?!"
Ryuk's eyes instantly turned towards the young man pressed on the ground, whose heartbeat seed to stop. There wasn't any movent, as if Edward Abernathy had died.
"N-no, E-edward?" Even the man slowly rose from his seat, looking towards the lifeless body of his son, sothing which wasn't expected in the first place.
"Regina, is he dead?" Ryuk inquired, lifting his feet to approach them.
ALERT!
[ WARNING! ]
SWOOSH
In that mont, his amber eyes seed to contract due to a golden hand shrouded in light materializing through a soft mist ford just a ter away from his face, appearing scaled yet fast enough to make everything nearby stop, as if in a ti freeze.
'?!'
SWISH
SCRHCH
'Huh,' due to everything being so sudden, even with reflexes taking over, Ryuk's body tilted his head to avoid that golden claw, yet the speed was far too strong, leaving a deep gash across his cheek.
Ryuk's instincts scread at him, barely giving him enough ti to register the glowing hand before it disappeared as quickly as it had co, leaving behind a trail of shimring particles that gradually faded into the air.
'...System, what was that?' His amber eyes narrowed, scanning the place, trying to figure out the source of the attack.
DING!
[Host, it seems a plot has been triggered.]
'What plot?' Not understanding what it ant, Ryuk inquired before suddenly realizing sothing as he turned his gaze towards Edward Abernathy, who lay on the ground.
WHOOSH
The young man on the ground was suddenly bathed in a soft golden light. The lifelessness that had pervaded his body monts ago dissipated as the light pulsed, and his fingers twitched.
'Is it a second Awakening?' Regina also increased her force and exerted tons of pressure to keep Edward's body pressed down, her eyes narrowed while observing the subtle movents in his once lifeless body as a golden energy started to shroud him.
Edward's eyelids shot open, revealing eyes that glead with an otherworldly golden luminescence.
'He is retaliating.' Unexpectedly, Edward's body was trying to push back against her force, slowly standing, as if the millions of tons of weight were nothing.
Technically, there is a difference between power and force, which right now seed more bent in Edward's favor, as his force subtly surpassed the power exerted by Regina for those fleeting monts.
"Leave him, Regina," Ryuk firmly stated, his cheek's wound already healed as his cold gaze observed Edward's body, which was breaking through limits. In place of his prosthetic hand, a golden one had appeared.
SWISH
Regina glanced at Ryuk and nodded before her body disappeared and arrived beside him, her hand gripping the sword hilt.
"Liege, he is going through Second Awakening," Regina inford the black masked man beside her, gazing towards the now standing blonde-haired man, whose body was shrouded in a golden aura, intensely resonating with the surrounding mana.
"N-no, it's sothing else."
Interrupting Regina was the voice from beside the masked man. Standing there was a blonde-haired man whose erald eyes reflected the golden light, which soon appeared to dissipate all the darkness in the surroundings.
'System, show his status window,' Ryuk commanded.
DING!
╔─━━━━━━━━━░★░━━━━━━━━━─╗
INACCESSIBLE******
╚─━━━━━━━━━░★░━━━━━━━━━─╝
'....' Seeing how the System wasn't able to show the details about Edward, it was clear that whatever that thing was, it was very important to sothing highly related to the world's will.
『 This vessel is broken. How did this happen? 』
Suddenly pulling Ryuk out of his thoughts were the layered voices coming out of the golden figure, intensely glimring in that place, observing his own body.
'Vessel?' Ryuk noted that word while also focusing on the reverting double-layered voice appearing as if possessed by sothing.
『 You, did you do this? Hmm, these mories. 』
Another voice ca out of Edward, whose gaze was fixed on the black masked man, narrowed.
"Yes, it was definitely ," Ryuk replied to the figure who had arrived just half a ter away from him, standing not even a hand's distance away.
『 Why did you do it? 』
Tilting its head, the golden figure inquired, now encapsulating Edward's body drenched in the golden glow with visible curiosity for a human to harm its vessel.
"Because I can?" Ryuk replied again, realizing that sothing was amiss in the surrounding space. Yes, a mont ago when this figure appeared, things were normal. But right now, ti was frozen.
Only he and this Edward, more specifically the figure possessing him, were moving.
"K.. i .. ll."
Narrowing his eyes, Ryuk focused on that subtle fading voice coming through the golden figure, clearly understanding that it was Edward's consciousness.
So, at least he was alive. But the question remained, what is this thing in front of him?
『 You don't have to fear , I just want to know the reason. 』
That voice again inquired, not finding the masked man's answer reasonable, looking calmly while ignoring the plea of the vessel inside which he was, pleading to kill this man.
After all, the entity was feeling sothing very familiar from inside this black masked man, making it have the patience to not kill him first.
"Heh, you seem to be confused here, Aternum"
'?!'
A voice caused the golden figure's eyes to widen, hearing an unrecognizable voice before turning towards it to look at the landing figure of a woman wearing a black dress and deep, intensely burning amber eyes.
Thud
Landing on the ground, Drishti lifted her gaze to look towards that golden figure shining in the golden light, yet fading behind the light emitting from her as she firmly stated, "Reasons are needed for weaklings. Stronger ones just follow their mood. It's just this simple."
『 How do you know my identity, Human? 』
'Aternum? Wasn't that,' Ryuk thought, overwheld by unknown events yet calmly considering the familiarity with this na and where he heard it, making him rember the person from whom he heard this na.
'Wasn't Mother ntioned it?' Reminded of a conversation twelve years ago, due to his sharp mory, he had noted those words which were:
::That girl possesses the bloodline of an Aternum.::
These were the words spoken to him while referencing Celestian Reinguard, also known as the daughter of the Sword Maiden, who lived her whole life inside a facade of a boy.
'So, it's so race.' At that ti, the conversation was about how Celestia possessed absolute mories due to her dormant bloodline containing the ancestors of an Aternum, making Ryuk think that it was just so single individual who possessed mory-related powers or sothing. But now...
'System, is it done yet?' Ryuk inquired.
[Host, only the ti inside Titanora is frozen, and it seems the surrounding mana is resonating with his unknown energy.]
"Leave that identity thing and tell , which clan do you belong to?" Drishti firmly inquired, her cold gaze burning with intense mana seed to push back all the surrounding energy trying to restrict her.
『 ....For a re human, you know more than— 』
"Was it Sanctum?" Drishti kept looking at the bright golden humanoid figure while noticing each facial expression, noting how the energy was trying to heal the crippled body of Edward while delaying ti.
Yes, she could see the subtle movent around Edward's prosthetic hands, yet it was useless. This made Drishti form a smile as she glanced towards Ryuk, who seed unaware of the thoughts going through her mind.
'?!'
『 Who are you? 』
Suddenly, hearing so nas regarding his own existence, the entity appeared before Drishti's figure with the sa speed as with the black masked man, completely instant. Yet, he only got to see the background, not the woman.
"You want my help?" Drishti asked the masked young man beside her, ignoring the golden figure ten ters away. She had arrived beside Ryuk much faster than the golden entity.
"...What do you suggest?" Ryuk inquired, weighing the consequences of fighting soone of unknown strength. If it was inevitable, he would not retreat.
"Hm, he will not die even if you kill him. He'll co again with counterasures against your ability," Drishti said, folding her arms and gazing at Edward's glowing figure. The golden face appeared like a statue with widened eyes, as if this woman had known him since the beginning of ti.
"Help then," Ryuk said, seeing how Drishti ca down and offered her help. Despite her earlier proposal for a deal, it was clear the situation was severe. Given her calm deanor, he couldn't gauge just how severe it was.
Drishti glanced at Ryuk before turning towards the figure, who seed to lift his palm for sothing, causing the surrounding golden particles to slowly gather around his arm.
『 Whoever you are, this ends here— 』
"SUPPRESS," cutting off the figure's words was a calm and soft voice from Drishti.
TING!
As if a stone thrown into water causing ripples to form, an invisible energy originated from Drishti, scattering all around before finally passing through the figure.
'!?!'
『 TH-THIS! HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIV....』—THUD
The figure, influenced by sothing, recognized the energy suppressing him and exclaid but was extinguished.
'He knows her,' Ryuk thought, hearing the last words of the golden light before Edward's body fell to the ground.
He understood that the expression and those words were directed towards Drishti. Even in that overwhelming situation, Ryuk could at least derive the aning behind those last words.
The tone, words, and finally those eyes of the figure clearly scread that he was sure Drishti had died previously—maybe in so previous life.
Understanding that the figure only recognized her after experiencing her use of Authority, it was clear that—
DING!
[ Goblin Pheromone Perfu is Ready!]
'Huh? Aren't you on ti', Hearing the sudden notification from the System, Ryuk glanced towards Edward's unconscious body lying on the ground.
With ti still frozen, it was the perfect opportunity to exchange gifts.
tap tap
Ryuk approached the lying figure of Edward, fallen face down with his back visible.
SWISH
A bottle of spray materialized from his inventory into his hand, glowing green.
He stopped above the young man, looking down at his back before shaking the bottle and bringing it closer.
SPRAYYY!
'....' Drishti, who was about to dispel the frozen ti, halted upon seeing the masked young man's approach Edward's body which seed unusual, added with him spraying sothing.
Already coming to a conclusion, with a twitch visible on her face, Drishti inquired to double-check her doubt, "Did you just spray a perfu slling like a goblin on his butt?"
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