Chapter 25
the whole ceiling glowed up crimson red, due to the firey red lotuses. They looked in awe at the once formidable insects, who were now burning as a beautifull garden of crimson lotuses
After the crimson lotus garden dissappears the burning ashes of the insects falls As if it was raining gold
Lisa
"So pretty. "
Merlin
"I know right"
Sreya
"I didn't knew, such a devastating spell could be soo beautiful "
Lugh
"This wont do.."
Riley frowns and looks at lugh with a confused expression and asks
"What do you mean by that ?"
Lugh
"Their ashes still remain"
Said lugh while looking at the ashes burning with crimson light, the room was so massive that the ashes still hadn't reached the floor
Riley
"Huh"
"I think i can take out the ashes with a large Nova Flare "
Said lugh while holding his hand up in the air
"Oh! Oh! Wait ! WAIT!! Are you freaking Mad! Those INSECTS were burnt to ASHES!! "
Exclaimed riley while grabbing lughs arm
Lugh
"But, won't it be better to be extra careful?"
Riley
"Extra careful? My BUTT! Who ! casually walks in a room filled with KILLER INSECTS, WHILE CLAPPING NO LESS !!"
Lugh
"Who would do such a thing..... wait, it was ME!"
Riley
"You FREAK OF NATURE! HOW the heck did you even survive the LAVA FLOOR !"
Lisa
" I saw you passed out on the ground, right before the lava filled the floor"
Lugh
"On that floor i exhausted my mana soo much that I was on the brink of going in dormir state, if I had gone in the state, it would have been a while before I could wake up, so I slept"
Riley
"You slept?"
Lugh
"Yeah"
Merlin
"No, wait! Let me get this straight, in order to avoid going in dormir state you slept "
Lugh
"Yeah"
Merlin grabs her head, her eyes were like a dead fish
"I cant believe, i knew nothing about this world"
Riley
"You monster, you traumatized a WOMAN!"
Lugh
" WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU ?"
As they were talking, the ground beneath their feet vanished and they fell
All four of them were in distraught
Lugh
"This is fun!"
Riley
"No it's not! "
"Peekekekekekekekekekek!!!!"
The ostro was flapping around in air screaming
Right before hitting the ground, lugh casted "Aeroarga" and landed on his feet, Riley landed on his face, girls landed safely, ostro was still flapping
"Peeeekeeeekekekeke!"
They were now standing in a large empty space with a small building like structure with stairs leading to the top of it
Riley
" am I seeing this right, Is that a sword?"
At the top of the structure there was a sword stuck in the building
"A sword? "
Said riley, as he walked towards it, but, lugh stops him
"Riley, we need to defeat the one who is guarding that sword first"
"Guard?"
A footstep could be heard from their left, as they looked towards it, a stone statue was walking upto them with a blade in his hand lisa,Riley,sreya and merlin were shocked to see the statues face, as the statue was of hero Raeos Skaradia
"Is something wrong?"
Lugh asked the four of them of their reaction
Lisa
"The thing is , that statue is of hero raeos Skaradia "
Lugh
" really? How can you tell"
Merlin
"Something weird happened on the 9th floor, we suddenly found ourselves 300 years ago in Orchania kingdom, that's where we saw the hero "
Lugh
[ they went into past? Is that possible. I did sense some peculiar magic from the 9th floor]
Riley
"From the moment I saw the hero, I've been wanting to fight him, i know this statue is no where near his level, but, this will be my first step, guys let me fight this time"
Others agreed, and riley started walking towards the statue, as he came near the statue, green magical aura started to envelop him, indicating he enhanced his physical abilities
Those of the combat class are capable of enhancing their physical abilities using mana , the most common and basic type of enhancement is enhancing senses after that comes enhancing certain parts of the body, then full body enhancement and the most difficult is to enhance the full body in layers
Riley, here has done full body enhancement
The statue lunged towards riley which he parried, but, the statue immediately went for another strike, which threw riley in a faraway wall, after blocking it
Lugh
"That was a feint "
Lisa
"Feint, can a statue be that intelligent?"
Lugh doesn't reply to lisa and just glares at riley
Lugh
"Riley has a mana deficit body, which means he doesn't have a source that could stabilize or generate mana"
Lisa
"Mana deficit and manaless bodies arent they same?"
Lugh
"No, manaless bodies are the bodies that have absolutely no mana in them, on the other hand, mana deficit bodies have mana, but, not a source to regulate it, which means their mana capacity is set from birth"
Lisa
"Whenever, we use mana to cast a spell, we lose that mana, after the spell is casted, that mana disperses and mixes with the natural mana and our sources then take in the natural mana to fill up the mana capacity, so does that mean"
Lugh
"No, what you said applies only for magic spells, but, things are different in the case of physics enhancement, rather than depleting mana like a fuel tank, physical enhancement exerts strain on the users mana, it doesn't deplete it, it tires it out, its not mana depletion, its mana fatigue"
Lisa
"Wait, so, their mana tires out after a use and then recovers to be used once again ?"
Lugh
"Think of mana as blood, it flows through the body, and increasing that flow is physical enhancement, and there various stages of mana fatigue as well"
Sreya
" various stages of mana fatigue? I didn't knew that"
Lugh
"There are namely four stages, in the first stage, body enhancement is at its peak, in the 2nd and 3rd stage, body starts to pain, mildly at first, then severely, in the forth stage body shuts down"
they went wide-eyed , sreya looks at riley and asks lugh with concern
"What stage is brother at right now?"
Lugh looks at sreya and notices her concern for her brother
"He is already at the third stage, he must have been tired from previous battles"
They reeled in shock
Lugh then screams towards riley who was still engaged in a battle with the heros statue, catching his attention
"RILEY ! THATS ENOUGH, SWITCH!!"
"Tch, FINE !"
Saying which riley jumps back and lugh switches, the statue swings down it's sword at lugh. He catches the sword with his hands, rolls backward in a tight barrel roll, and kicks his opponent away, he then throws the stone sword which beheads the statue
Riley's jaw dropped as he gets slumped shoulder, while lisa was healing him
Lugh goes towards head of the statue
Lisa
"Lugh, we are gonna check out the aword, where are you going"
Lugh
"Oh, you all can go ahead, i wanna check something"
Saying that, they climbed the structure, and saw that the whole sword was balanced on the top of its top, they exchanged stunned glances
The sword had a black blade, which seemed like it was forged from a black obsidian-like metal, veined with emerald green lines that pulse subtly like a heartbeat, the blade had a jagged tip and a thin line runs up the blade as if a crack was trying to divide it in two, its cross guard had two asymmetrical wings curving downward, the grip was covered in something like a green leather made from a sinister material, warm to the touch.
Roiey goes towards it to check , amazed by the sword, he goes to grab it
"Just what kind of a sword is this?"
As he grabs the sword, he gets enveloped by an emerald green flame, he started screaming in pain, he let's go of the sword, but, the flame still persists, the three of them froze up to this terrifying scene, they tried to go near him to help, but the flame was too strong,
Amidst all this, lisa notices a black smoke was forming over burning blaze, The fire didn't just burn—it revealed, and what she saw in the smoke paralyzed her. From within the smoke a distorted silhouette emerged
The silhouette vanished as lugh who had just got there pulls riley away from the sword, the flame subsides and the sword calms
Riley was panting hard, he had suffer a few burnt marks, but, it seemed to be more mental. Lisa healed him immediately
Lisa
"What Was that?"
Riley
"I dont know, the moment I touched it, .my mind went crazy, only thing on my mind was to kill"
Sreya
"Kill? Kill who?"
" voices in my head were saying to kill you"
Said riley looking at lugh, the three of them were stunned, lugh just stood there with a straight face
Lisa
"I also saw something, a black silhouette was formed in the black smoke, that silhouette was of lugh"
Merlin
" what are you saying !?"
Lugh then knew, what was going on, and he said as he turns to face the sword
" that right there is the Sword representing the Sin of Envy, Venidia"
No one had expected this, so they stood there listening to lugh
"If the user of this blade envies someone, than, shall both the user and the target burn in the blaze of Envy"
LISA
"what are you talking about lugh"
Lugh
"They were seven blades that existed in the silver age, 300 years ago, each blade represented a sin, and the most known user of these blades is the hero Raeos Skaradia"
Merlin
"You are saying that, this blade is one of the seven blades?"
Lugh
"Thats correct"
Sreya
"But, that doesn't explain why lugh's silhouette appeared "
Riley
"He is just trying to sugarcoat it, the silhouette is formed of the person the wielder of the blade envies"
Srey
"Then, that would mean.."
"Ever since we were kids, i always envied you, lugh, you had everything, you had PASSION, you were SMART, you were INTELLIGENT, you were TALENTED, you were SKILLED, you had a drive to keep training hard even though you were already known as a child prodigy at the age of 5!"
Said riley gritting his teeth- clenching his fist, all the while, lughs face was turned away, masking his expression
"Is that so" said lugh while walking towards the sword
Their eyes fixate on him as he grabs the sword he gets wrapped in a blaze even stronger than riley, the blaze was so immense it was going out of spiral. A thick black smoke formed revealing a silhouette
riley's eyes widened as he realizes
"Is that me?"
Lugh who was burning inside the blaze spoke in a painful voice
"YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE ENVIOUS OF ME? YOUR ENVY OF ME DOESN'T EVEN COMPARE TO MY ENVY OF YOU !"
"IVE ALWAYS LONGED FOR THE LOVE YOU GOT, THE FRIENDS YOU HAD, THE WARMTH THAT WAS AROUND YOU, I HAD NONE OF IT !"
The blaze started glowing even stronger, lisa and the others grabbed riley and tried to go down the structure, but riley didn't budge an inch
"YOU KNOW WHAT RILEY, ITS ABOUT TIME I LET GO OF THIS ENVY, TODAY IS WHEN I WILL GET RID OF THIS ENVY !!!!!!!"
Lisa in a hurry grabs riley and Merlin grabs sreya and they jumps of the structure, right before it was consumed by the green blaze
There were thunderstruck at the spectacle
The whole structure was consumed by the emerald green blaze and the blaze kept getting stronger, untill, finally, with a explosion, the structure collapses
Riley
"Lugh !!!!"
The dusty smoke that was lifted, due to the collapse of the structure got blown away by the swing of Venidia, he stood on top of rubble with his back facing them, he wielded Venidia without being burnt by the blaze, indicating overcoming of his Envy
"Lugh, you---"
Riley was about to say something to lugh, but was cut off by lisa speaking over him
"Lugh! Fight me "
The group went silent, but, ignoring that lisa continues
"I will defeat you"
Merlin
"Lisa ! What are you talking about all of a sudden"
Lisa
"Merlin, this has been my biggest dream, ever since I met you for the first time"
Merlin
"What are you talking about"
Lisa
"I never told you about my real past, did i ?"
Merlin
"I dont understand "
Lisa
"I was also chosen to be sent to the sanctuary, after the kidnapping, i was experimented on alot, but after they deemed me useless, i was sold as a slave, for years I remained a plaything that entertained the noble, i wasn't lucky, unlike you sreya"
[ indeed, i could've went through that same hell, i can't even begin to imagine her pain]
thought sreya with a dark and tensed expression
"This one noble, almost tried to kill me, but, i was saved by lugh, who helped me get out of the trauma, heck, this lisa you know is because of lugh, he used a forbidden magic spell called VOKHANTZ to make me a source" said lisa while looking down
Merlin
"There is a spell that can make a source?"
Riley
[This story sounds familiar ]
" I later found out, that he had a mission, a mission for which he saved me, a mission for which he gave me a source, a mission to take revenge for his friends little sister"
Riley's face tensed up with realization, sreya was speechless, as she was unaware of all this
"It was I who took the mission, it was I who betrayed you, it was I who tried to kill you, the blame lies solely with me, and for that I accept "
Said lugh coldy as he walked down from the rubble
"Riley, give me your sword"
Hearing lugh riley threw his sword at him which he caught after wedging Vedinia in the ground, seing lugh, lisa took a fighting stance, and lunged towards him, which he blocked
They continued to clash, but lisa maintained a distance as she was the spear, taking the opportunity she casted the fire annihilation spell Greoz, which lugh easily cuts through
She gets closer to lugh and performs a horizontally sweep, to avoid it, lugh jumps, taking the chance, lisa, casts a ice element spell "FLORZA" THE WHOLE FLOOR gets covered in glistening ice
Lugh
[ if i fall on this ice, I'm sure to slip and go off balance, that must be what she's aming for"
Right before landing on ice lugh kicks it and breaks the ice floor, the ice shards scatter everywhere, as lugh starts to look up, he gets shocked upon seeing Nova Flare, which hits him squarely, and he gets launched in to the wall
"Lugh! Is this all just a game to you ? Am I a joke, I've done everything i can to get to this level, and you are just playing around with me!!! It doesn't matter, i will now fight to kill !"
Screamed lisa towards lugh who was lieing in top of the broken stone pieces, his head bleeding, he gets up and starts to walk quietly without saying a word
He stops and grabs Vidinia which he himself wedged in the ground
"It was my mistake for underestimating you, but, that won't happen anymore, as i too will fight to kill "
.
.
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The moment lugh grabbed the sword, it started pulsing and radiated aura
.
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