Yula’s eyes narrowed as Kallen’s headless body dissolved into smoke.
"I see you’ve improved your illusion technique," she said coldly.
"Help take down nelaus," a voice suddenly whispered beside her. Her pupils constricted into pinpricks when she saw Kallen again, standing not even two feet away.
His face was pointed forward, eyes fixed on the wall. His expression was stoic, and his gaze placid.
’He’s dangerous’, she thought.
"I know you must have contacted Zephyrus. nelaus taking away from prying eyes, and then retuning unconscious, with a new... "appearance", is not sothing you keep from your superior" he continued.
"However, before he takes away, I want nelaus dead." He finally turned to look at her.
At the ntion of killing nelaus, a flash of suppressed anger stirred in his gaze.
"And if I don’t?" she asked.
Kallen remained silent for a mont before sighing.
"Don’t get wrong. I could simply do it myself..." His voice suddenly sounded, right next to her ear, causing her heartbeat to spike.
A trickle of blood ran down her throat and into her cleavage, the short sword at her neck biting slightly into her skin.
"...Just like I could kill you myself."
Her eyes imdiately turned frigid, and her aura erupted, blasting him away.
She dashed toward his body, kicking him and slamming him into the wall with the heel of her foot.
His apathetic gaze t hers as he dissolved into smoke once again.
"You can drop the childish act now, or I’ll kill you right here."
Her eyes trembled in shock. Touching her neck, she still felt the cut he had made, and the pain was very real. Yet the body was an illusion?
How he had managed it, she didn’t know.
"Fine," she muttered after taking a deep breath, a contemplative light flashing in her eyes.
---
"So... how long till he arrives?" Kallen asked.
Yula, however, did not reply, her eyes trained on nelaus as he dropped to the floor.
She was still gripping the ends of her enchanted chain blades, which suspended the crucible Kallen had placed into the furnace.
It was looped over a spear lined with small cracks— the sa spear Democles had attacked him with, now smoking hot after being used as an anchor to tip the crucible over, and empty its contents onto nelaus.
"Hmm?" Kallen suddenly frowned.
He felt a foreign energy around him... sothing pulling at him or from him. The energy peculiar and sowhat familiar in a way though he couldn’t tell what.
He instinctively distanced himself from both Yula and the "dead" nelaus.
A black notification flashed in his mindscape:
[Providence: (—)]
"He’s not dead," Yula said, pulling her chains back to her.
She moved in for the kill, but was suddenly blown backwards, streaking through the air like a bolt.
nelaus slowly stood up, his face a grotesque skeleton with charred at still clinging in patches, so pieces hanging by threads of sinew.
In his mindscape, notifications after the other, dropped one by one.
[You are in the presence of one marked with the stench of TABOO]
[All Attributes 100%]
[Your Core Skill has evolved and ascended]
[Fourth Ascension ’Hand of the Forge’ (Active) has beco Fifth Ascension ’Saint of the Forge’ (Active)]
[Corruption: 89%]
ROAR!!
nelaus let out a bone-rattling roar as he began to levitate, his empty eye sockets giving him the look of a lich king.
Kallen felt the ground tremble beneath him, and the hairs on his body stood upright at the feeling of danger. Without thinking, he dashed to the side.
The next mont, a spike jutted out of the floor, at the exact spot where he had just been standing.
His expression grew grim. He knew exactly what had happened.
Based on the notification about Providence, he realized the Existential Compendium had decided to screw him over.
Gripping the hamr in his hand tightly, he chose not to retreat but to accelerate toward nelaus instead.
He weaved between stone spikes erupting from the ground, and tal spears shooting out from the forge equipnt.
Yula seed to have co to the sa conclusion, just like with Kallen, there was no buying her way out of this. nelaus knew they had both tried to kill him, and was thus, targeting both of them.
She couldn’t leave without Kallen, and he wouldn’t leave without killing nelaus. Although she could easily overpower the little bastard, she wasn’t confident in dealing with his illusions.
She almost called out to ask Kallen why he wasn’t using his illusion technique, but quickly reconsidered.
If he did use it, wouldn’t it mislead her too? And she was certain he couldn’t defeat nelaus on his own.
’Wait...’ Her eyes suddenly lit up, then turned cold.
Kallen reached nelaus just as the skeleton faced brute threw a punch that seed to erase the distance between them in an instant.
Kallen barely twisted out of the trajectory, using the montum to spin and slam his hamr into nelaus’ bony temple.
nelaus staggered back but retaliated instantly, a stone spike bursting from the floor with violent speed.
Kallen was forced to dodge it, slowing his montum.
He wasn’t alone, though.
A series of rapid slashes tore into nelaus as Yula appeared around him, moving like a phantom with two daggers in hand.
Her speed was so great, Kallen found himself montarily alard.
’Second Ascension Ascendent?!!... Well played,’ he thought solemnly.
nelaus screeched like a banshee, and Yula retreated, frowning as she examined her daggers, now streaked with rust, which was rapidly spreading.
Kallen charged forward, raising his hamr for an upward strike.
nelaus’ head snapped toward him, and suddenly, the hamr beca eight tis heavier.
The unexpected shift in weight nearly snapped Kallen’s wrists, throwing off his swing.
A punch slamd into his gut, blowing it open.
His body rocketed backward, trailing blood and entrails, his mind ravaged by pain.
He crashed onto an anvil, his eyes wide with agony, gasping for air that refused to co.
Yula appeared beside him in an instant, a flicker of panic flashing across her face.
She shoved him off the anvil before nelaus could summon another spike from it.
Popping a pill from who-knew-where into his mouth, she snapped coldly:
"Don’t you dare die."
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