Chapter 9 - The Hero

(Third Person)

Lilagord gestured for Silent Dream to close in for a classic fist to fist fight. Obviously, as a Soul Wraith, that was not an option. Soul Wraiths were magic assassins with long cast-time spells.

“Do you find this a joke? You say you’ve killed thousands of my kind, yet, you don’t know how they fight?”

“Oh! My apologies. I’ll make sure to remember next time that you are an assassin that is completely f*cked if not given time to cast their spells!”

“Oh? So you do know? I’ll be casting...”

[Preparation [Mind Shatter; Duration: 30 seconds] ]

Truthfully, [Mind Shatter] only required a five second prep for someone like Silent Dream, since it was only a level 4 spell. Thirty seconds was unnecessary and did not do anything other than waste time. However, Pandora had noticed a spellbreaker about 19 seconds away from spellbreak cast range and had already suggested Silent Dream to give them some more time and also use a more easily broken spell at the same time.

Lilagord pulled out her weapon began to chase Dream, who in return, continued to run around in order to dodge her staff attacks.

This was another irregularity. An elf logically should be fully invested in magic since they were incredibly gifted with it and also completely disdain other humanoid species like humans. Yet, Lilagord completely contradicted both stereotypes. Here was an elf in a human kingdom wielding a staff. Though it baffled Pandora, it seemed that nobody else was surprised. Silent Dream and Kindred were prepared with beforehand knowledge and all the citizens obviously also knew since the Bloody Hands were the best adventurer squad as the only Indigo (8) rank team in Chirenth Empire.

It seemed that Lilagord was winning. Yet, every time the attack should’ve struck on the body, it completely missed. Instead, it was only wasting time.

19 seconds into [Mind Shatter]’s preparation, Silent Dream was blocked by a spell caster and was forced to recall it since jammed spells backfired on spell-users.

“Yes! Thank you, Thysias!” Lilagord cheered. Silent Dream, on the other hand, snarled with feigned anger. “I want to see you try to cast spells now! Our mage can send mana fluctuations to destroy any and all the spells you have.”

Silent Dream ran away towards the central park where there were more people after noting the fact that this act of cowardice would match that of a Soul Wraith.

Now complete with the full team, the Bloody Hands began to give chase to see her holding another hostage. The boy was already crying.

“You p*ssy. Stop lugging hostages all over the place. Fight like you mean it!” Lilagord did not take the action very well and got incredibly pissed.

“I want you guys to go one at a time. I don’t find this fai---.”

“Why the f*ck do you deserve fairness? You’re literally a goddamn monster.”

“Ufufu, well you don’t have a choice… This little boy or a 1v1… I already know what you have chosen. Pick my opponent for me.” Dream kissed the boy before anyone could say anything. “You see? He’s been soul marked. If anyone other than the chosen fights, this boy dies…”

“What stops you from using him again if you are losing, then?”

“Nothing! But you’ve got no choice with your paladin’s justice, no? This is the natural advantage of a villain, right?” Silent Dream grinned.

“You motherfu---.”

“Captain, let me go.” Thysias interrupted Lilagord. “I can interrupt her magic and cast my own spells. I can easily beat her.”

“Y-yes, okay you go ahead.” Lilagord reluctantly agreed. Silent Dream smiled, having already played out the fight.

[Preparation [Mind Shatter; Duration: 30 seconds] ]

It was immediately cancelled out by Thysias. “Haha, you one-trick pony! Why don’t you try a different spell, hmm? Maybe it’ll work next time, right? Come on, come on, come on. Keep it going!”

“Keep going? Indeed, I’ll keep going…hehe, I-i, ahhhhaha. Hahaha.” Silent Dream began to blush to the confusion of Thysias. Dream began to giggle erratically and put her hand to her face. “Oh my… How ill-mannered of me…”

She pointed out one finger from her other hand.

[Preparation [Mind Shatter; Duration: 60 seconds] ]

[Preparation [Mind Shatter; Duration: 60 seconds] ]

Silent Dream immediately prepped out two spells. And another one. And another one. And another. As soon as Thysias blocked one spell, five more came out. One minute? No, 5 seconds was all that was needed. Dream was looking for a beautiful face. She was waiting for it. A false sense of hope would guarantee it. That was the purpose of giving more time.

Then, it happened. Thysias began to give a look of despair. Her whole face pale from overuse of mana, there was no chance for hope. She was barely standing and could only watch in absolute despair. Less than 10 seconds had passed and there was sure to be already 80 spells hiding within the menacing aura.

“Ohhh…” Silent Dream began to pant. “Beautiful… Let me touch it. Ohhh… So hot… Down there...”

[Cast [Instant Teleportation] ]

It was to be noted that teleportation was not a skill of a Soul Wraith, though no one really paid attention to note it.

Silent Dream appeared right before Thysias and began to caress the face. Dream simply was unable to control her desires. Her inner sadism dominated her consciousness as long as there was a victim. A victim suffering despair. She relished the feeling as she had done so many times everyday since she had come to the kingdom. In fact, her illusions were already flickering, though it was immediately held back up by Pandora’s assistance before anyone could notice.

“Waii---.”

“Shhhh.” Silent Dream pushed Thysias’ face towards Lilagord by grabbing the neck. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she? Just looking at it… Anhhh… I could… I could… I can barely stop myself from doing it.”

On the other hand, Lilagord and her teams were completely disgusted. Thysias, unfortunately, didn’t even have the right to be. Meanwhile, Pandora was lying on her front with her legs twirling around in the air and grinning as she watched the spectacle from above with Kindred’s clone.

“Stop! Please… Let go of my friends. They’ve done nothing…” Thysias used all her strength to speak.

“Ufu? Then, I’ll just kill you, okey? I’ll preserve your beautiful face and carry it with me. Anhh, wouldn’t that be amazing…” Dream continued to rant on. She paused for a second. A brief flicker of consciousness ran through her eyes, putting out her abnormal sadistic face like water to a fire. She smiled. She began to count down. “6…”

“Stop, please, cancel the spells. Kill me. I’m the captain…” Lilagord interjected. To their disappointment, Dream refused to be interrupted.

“5… 4… 3… 2…”

[Cast [Illusion: Spell: Obliterate] ]

As soon as she reached two, a fireball, small but deadly, appeared right behind her and exploded.

[Cast [Instant Teleport]

She was “obliterated into nothingness”. A masked man from behind her then produced a Soul Wraith core from within the smoke. Obviously, this was Kindred. After the smoke dispersed, the man walked towards the pale Thysias and began to carry her on his back. Nobody moved as they couldn’t process what had just happened.

“Are you okay, Thysias?”

“Y-yes. Haha, thanks to you, that is. I’m indebted to you.” Thysias replied in an incredibly feeble voice.

“No, no, no. I just did my duty as a fellow adventurer, haha.”

“Hahaha…how m-modest of you…” She gave a smile. It was at this point that Lilagord and the others ran towards her with teary eyes. They asked for the OK from Thysias and also thanked Kindred, the usual.

“I’m incredibly sorry. I hadn’t listened to your advice and underestimated your prowess. Please. Do visit us whenever you have time. Again, thank you for saving our teammate.” Lilagord bowed towards Kindred before handing him a piece of paper with her address. The rest also bowed and exchanged formalities with Kindred..

Lilagord looked at Kindred’s ring and threw a little trinket into Kindred’s hands. “I think this will help warrant the killing of the Soul Wraith, as I see you are an underestimated white-rank…”

Kindred stuffed it into his pockets and left the scene. So did another shadow, who wished to speak with him.

Right after that, Lilagord jumped up to the building where Pandora was. Pandora was back at her fragile appearance.

“Please. Come with us. Let’s have a good rest. I’m sure today has been very traumatizing for you.” Lilagord sympathetically whispered. Pandora nodded weakly before being carried off princess style by a 10 year old looking girl.

Now was the time for the news of a fragile beauty and an incredibly powerful white-ranked adventurer to spread.

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Kindred walked to a dark alley and continued to do so until reaching the dead end. He stood and waited.

“Captain, how are we going to connect Pandora to the Thenada Kingdom?”

“Hmm? Oh… I didn’t see you there, Diabolos…” Kindred did not turn around and began to feel the stone wall.

“You jest.”

“Hmm… You can tell Pandora to introduce herself to the elf’s team as a noble of Thenada Kingdom. You can make it convincing with some rewards.”

“I understand.”

“Also… no… Oh, yes… Why don’t you rush there with some of these low-level guards. Make it seem Pandora snuck out of your sight…” Kindred tossed a low-tier storage crystal.

“Yes.” Diabolos bowed before leaving.

Kindred pulled out the trinket. He finally took a good look at it. It was a slender hand. The fingers were put out and very relaxed. A beautiful piece of handiwork. Well, as far as a severed hand could get. Connecting the dots… Fame… Royal ball… Emperor Verinas… How will it all be put together?

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Pandora felt like eating. Except, eating for a vampire was drinking blood. That was one issue. The second issue was the fact that she was to pretend to have lost all appetite due to her trauma. Here she was, surrounded by a group of female warriors at a small diner , all eating like wolves. It was an incredibly awkward atmosphere for her, especially when the others ushered her to eat. She politely declined, not knowing what else to do. That is until…

[Message [Pandora of Mordekor: Introduce yourself as a noble of Thenada Kingdom. I’m going to burst open the doors with Captain’s maids in a few minutes.] ]

[Silent Message [Diabolos of Mordekor: Aii.] ]

“Ahem, thank you for helping me…” Pandora started off.

“Ahaha, no problems. As that man from before had said, it was our duty to save you!” Lilagord immediately replied.

“Ehehe… I’ll just introduce myself… I am Lydia Siglai of Then---.”

The bulky woman interrupted, with her mouth still full of food, “Nice to meet you, Lydia. I’m Tieria, warrior of the Bloody Hands.”

Another woman elbowed Tieria at the waist, clearly angry after Tieria did not even flinch. “I’m really sorry, Miss Siglai. Pardon, my friend’s lack of manners. My name is Laerys, support of the Bloody Hands. Do continue on.”

“Y-yes. I’m Lydia Siglai of Thenada Kingdom and direct descendant of the House of Siglai.”

They all suddenly paused wolfing down food and stared at Pandora.

“Wait, what? Siglai? You’re a noble?” Lilagord could not help but ask.

“Eh, ha, y-yes. I was trying to enjoy the empire without my guards so I sneaked away by buying some commoner clothes while pretending to go to the bathroom. Now, I’m lost…”

“...”

It was at this moment that Diabolos, who was listening into the conversation, decided to barge in. A couple dozen guards also spilled into the little diner.

“Miss Siglai, we have finally found you! Lord Siglai and Lady Siglai are incredibly worried about your absence. You can do whatever you want, but you must have guards at your side at every moment. How could you try to sneak away?” Diabolos blurted out.

“Oopsies! I got lost…” Pandora giggled.

“And, I can’t believe it! You, you, you. We’ve already heard that you’ve almost died to the empire’s recent Soul Wraith. Don’t you understand how dangerous it is to be alone? There are murderers and rapists here too! Thank god that the Bloody Hands and that man had come to your rescue! You are incredibly lucky! Have you thanked them yet?”

“Well… I didn’t get to thank the man, but I think I’ve already shown my gratitude to them.” Pandora pointed at Lilagord. Diabolos sighed.

“My utmost gratitude for protecting our miss. Here’s some pure gold. As a reward, of course. In fact, my lord has already invited you whenever it pleases you.” Diabolos walked over to Lilagord and handed over some gold bars made from melted World coins.

“No, no, no. We did nothing to deserve this! We did what was expected of us!” Lilagord waved her hands in dismissal.

“No, I insist. Please! It would make my lord incredibly guilty to not reward the people who are willing to sacrifice themselves for others. Accept this measly gift, please.” Diabolos pushed it into Lilagord’s hands.

“Y-yes. Well, thank you! This is more than enough! Probably enough to make us fully indebted to you, now, haha.” Lilagord remarked.

“You jest. Nothing is worth more than the protection of our miss.”

“Haha. Miss Siglai, make sure to visit us tomorrow! We’d love your presence, if that would be okay.”

“Most definitely, right, Goren?”

“I would assume so…”

“Heehee, okay! Let’s go! See you tomorrow!”

“Yeah! See you tomorrow!”

Diabolos escorted Pandora out of the diner and the other guards left after a slight bow to the Bloody Hands.

After the whole company was out of earshot, Lilagord muttered to the others, “How scary! Even a minor noble’s daughter has so many tier 30 guards.”

The others replied in agreement. After finishing their meal, they also left.