The blood from the severed head pooled on the ground, touching her boots. Furthermore, Haro could hear the sound of gushing blood from his neck. She was staring with confusion at the scene, her mind unable to process what had just happened. Then, the Trinity Member stepped forward and picked the head.
“This is what he gets for being a coward,” said the man who appeared. Haro snapped out of her daze and turned to see him holding Captain Munro’s head and staring at his face. “If the enemy is too strong, you die to land a single hit.”
“Ah, aa,” voiced Haro as she fell on her bum, crawling away as tears gathered in her eyes. The Trinity Member turned toward her, his helmet hiding everything except his eyes, and grinned.
“You are in luck, girl. Staring this day, you are the new captain of the Thirteenth Squad. The reason is simple: you know what will happen if you don’t toe the line.”
Sounds leaked from Haro’s throat as she tried to scream, but the lump in her throat prevented her. As the Trinity Member delivered his line, he swung Captain Munro’s head as if ringing a bell. Haro could see his grin and crescent eyes as if he was enjoying this.
“No time to waste here,” said the Trinity Member before throwing away the severed head toward the kneeling body, knocking it over. Then, he walked past the traumatized Haro, whose tears wouldn’t stop falling. “The emperor will be thrilled if I bring him this head.”
Whistle~
Haro could hear him whistling with joy as he entered the mansion, not seeming to be disturbed by a knight of their own. Then, after realizing he was gone, she turned to look at Captain Munro and collapsed with his head beside him. His blood was still gushing on the ground.
“Cap… tain…” she managed to say, but her sobs followed soon after. She crawled toward his body, but the scene was too cruel. A man she had known half of her life was no more than a motionless body now. “How did this happen? I was… Munro was…”
The events transpired too fast, seeming like a nightmare. For reasons she couldn’t understand, Captain Munro was now dead. However, deep down, Haro knew the reason.
It was her fault that the two retreated, and Captain Munro had to take responsibility. Because she followed her heart for once and didn’t blindly obey their orders, this happened. It was her punishment for not ‘toeing the line.’
“Captain,” she sniffed as she reached to hold him and feel his fading warmth. “I’m sorry, captain. This is my fault, but you… you…”
After that, Haro burst out, crying her eyes out. She could not remember what had happened after that, but the powerful explosion from the mansion awakened her. The fight has begun.
***
Arthur was still feeling disoriented after meeting Mistletoe’s newest member, Clover. His real identity was Arthur’s most trusted and closest friend, Oriole. Although he knew that Mistletoe was bound to be here, it still came as a shock to see Oriole wearing their clothes and defending Zas.
As he was fighting against the gangsters in the hallway leading to the main building, Arthur felt turbulent mana from above. Zas then used the Moonlight Crossbow, which Arthur confiscated now, to strike him. The explosion was that ambush. As a result, Arthur was ready to kill Zas for wanting to harm him, even if it made Sier furious.
Oriole’s interference in the fight made Arthur spare the bastard, but it made him sad to see Ori standing with them. He knew it was for a goal he had in mind, but Arthur couldn’t understand what Oriole was working for.
In the end, Arthur had to believe in his friend. All the people that Arthur had in Alka had to trust him, fighting for him, even when he disappeared. The least he could do was to trust them back.
“Die!” shouted a gangster who descended from the ceiling as soon as Arthur entered the main building. He wanted to slash Arthur from above, but Arthur’s hand grabbed his neck. “Gah!” struggled the gangsters and flailed, but Arthur snapped his neck and threw him away.
The main building consisted of corridors surrounding its inner yards filled with gardens and training equipment. Arthur then sprinted in a particular direction, which he knew would be the underground cells’ entrance.
Although he expected to run into more gangsters, the corridors were empty. Arthur had an ill-omened feeling in his heart as he got closer to the entrance of the underground cells. Once he reached that corridor, Arthur understood the reason.
“No number of weaklings can stop me, so you decided to come out,” said Arthur to the man standing with the gate to the underground entrance behind him. “Is that door so important?”
“You should know best,” said the young man wearing a suit as he pulled on his tie and removed it, folding it neatly and placing it in his jacket. “After rampaging straight to this door, you want me to believe it’s not your goal?”
“Thank you for making it easier for me to find you,” said Arthur as he watched the man take off his jacket and folded, placing it aside. “There are two ways to do this.”
“There is one way since you killed half of my men. I wonder what we did to anger the strongest man in the world, so much that he revealed his existence before the rebellion?”
“I am far from being the strongest. Although you are a peak deme-ranker, any fight we have here will bring you more harm than good. I have nothing to lose here, but this is your home ground. How about giving me what I want instead?”
“The moment someone takes something from us, and not the other way around, we stop being a gang. We have a face to uphold too, outlander,” said the young man, his different-colored eyes glaring at Arthur.
Arthur met this man before in Dark World, and he couldn’t forget him since he had a scar on his nasal bridge. However, the man was far from looking like a gangster. Instead, he was well-dressed and elegant, almost like a noble.
After taking off his shoes, the man unbuttoned his sleeves and rolled them. Arthur looked around and couldn’t feel any trap laid in the corridor. Furthermore, although the man was a peak-deme ranker, Arthur couldn’t say he was threatened.
“Since you are so famous, I already know your name,” said the young man as he finished preparing. “Let me tell you mine. I am the Mansell Boss, Alexander Mansell.”
“A gentleman indeed,” mocked Arthur as he started walking toward him. “We both know that I have no time to waste here. How about we decide this in one exchange?”
“I am not a man of strength, you see,” said Alexander while raising his arm. “You have met my two lovely creations, right? I’m afraid our fighting style is different.”
Arthur paused as he saw two figures appear beside Alexander Mansell, and he remembered the two assassins who threatened him earlier. However, their shape was still hazy, as if incomplete.
“An illusion?” muttered Arthur as he stared at the two figures before the Mansell Boss waved his hand for them to disappear.
“We both know that is not the case. How about we play a guessing game? What is my ability? The creator of the world should be able to tell.”
“An illusion would be constructed from mana and light, but those figures attacked me and slammed me to the wall. Are you a conjurer?”
“Everything in this world is created from elements. If someone commands those elements, he can be the strongest! That man is known as God of Elements, Transmutation Guardian.”
Arthur was silent as he heard this. Then, the lights in the man’s eyes suddenly changed color as something started conjuring in his hand. First was a handle, which Alexander grabbed, and then a diamond sword began forming to that handle.
“The empire backs the Mansell Gang for this exact reason. My father and the emperor are brothers, making the bloodline of the guardian run in our veins!”
Arthur wondered about their lineage since this knowledge was unknown even to Master Ronin. Although he knew about the seven families being descendants of the guardians, he had no idea which one belonged to their bloodline.
The Iliosian Imperial Family, with Erin Voldor included, did not fight using the elements. Instead, Erin Voldor was a berserker whose strength came from blood chains and armor. Can that be a conjuring as well?
“Prepare, outsider,” said Alexander Mansell as he raised his diamond sword. “This sword has never been broken or scratched, becoming the epitome of toughness!”
“The epitome of toughness, huh?” smiled Arthur as he started to understand the descendants of the Transmutation Guardian. “You cannot conjure everything in existence, it seems.”
This made more sense to him. The descendants of the Seer Guardian, the Yalen Family, did not have the same abilities as the vessel. Instead, the bloodline was fractioned, and so were the abilities.
