“Arthur Silvera has appeared!”
“Quick, let’s go and hide!”
“Are you an idiot? He is not a terrorist! This is the man who fought against a calamity! The title Calamity Slayer is not without reason.”
“The world declared him a criminal, so there are things that we don’t know about,” said a part of the crowd. “In any case, things are about to get ugly. He placed a corpse on the throne!”
“Is that his message? The throne is more befitting of a dead man than the emperor?”
The zeal and worry intermixed among the crowd, and the bustling crowd argued about what to make of Arthur Silvera. Ai and Layla made their way through the crowd, but the road ahead was blocked because of the screen above.
“He… died…” muttered Layla as she stared with shock at the screen. Gray Ravin was sitting on the emperor’s throne, but he was dead. Arthur Silvera stood beside him while placing a hand on his body. The world grew smaller as Layla realized that another one of her friends had died.
“Why wouldn’t he revive him?” asked Ai beside her, making Layla flinch and turn toward her. “Is there a reason he cannot do it?”
“What are you talking about?” asked Layla while holding Ai’s shoulders, looking at her with surprise. “Are you saying that Arthur Silvera can revive him if he wants to?”
“Ah,” exclaimed Ai, realizing that she might have said something she shouldn’t have, but the deed had been done. “As long as it was in a few minutes, the Seika can ensure that the person does not join the astral realm.”
“Does that mean revival?” asked Layla with surprise, unable to believe her words. “Are you sure about that, Ai?”
“No one can be surer,” said the healer, pointing at herself. “That’s how I met him and how I became forever indebted. That incident made me realize that the Seika, unlike what you said, was far from being human.”
Layla stared at her, confused, before grabbing her hand and bolting toward an alley. The two ran away from the crowd, which hindered their path until they arrived at a ladder screwed to the building.
“Let’s climb,” said Layla before placing Ai’s hand on the ladder. “We can use the roofs to get closer without being hindered by the rest of the crowd.”
“Are you going to ask him to revive that man?” hesitated Ai, but Layla nodded while grabbing her hand. Layla was silent, realizing that asking a stranger to do that for her might be too much.
“I have no other choice, Ai,” said Layla as she bit her lip. “I cannot see another person I care about die anymore. Please, can you help me?”
“I…” muttered Ai, seemingly unwilling but nodded anyway. “I will ask him, and if he remembers me, I doubt he would refuse.”
“Thank you, thank you,” said Layla before grabbing her hands and kissing them. Ai nodded and started climbing the ladder to reach the roof of the building.
Once the two were high above, the screen seemed closer to them. Although it was a screen, it was floating in midair, created of light. It now revealed the scene of Duke Delano jumping from the collapsing platform and summoning his astral tiger, and sending it roaring toward Arthur Silvera.
“We meet again, Paladin,” said Arthur Silvera without much thought as he stood behind the throne. “The last time that we met, a dragon beat your ass. How about I show you the same dragon again?”
As he said that, Arthur Silvera raised his hand and violet light exploded from it. The light gathered before him to create a dragon as big as the astral tiger.
“Lilo is a real creature, not a summon! Are you sure you can handle it this time?” asked Arthur Silvera as his dragon roared with rage, its eyes staring at Duke Delano with wrath. “I had no plans to summon him, but this is the first time he requests to fight. As they say, the blood knows.”
Lilo opened its jaws and unleashed a heavenly roar that shook the capital. The building beneath the two started shaking as if an earthquake had struck the land, even though the palace was far away. As the crowd closed their eyes and ears, the dragon flew to meet the dragon.
Although the tiger was stronger, its attacks passed through the dragon, whose claws dug into the monster and brought it down. The balcony started breaking down underneath their weight as the two crashed down, making the knights rush for safety.
“Kill Arthur Silvera!” shouted the Light Emperor as his aura exploded. The knights unsheathed their weapons and gathered around the outsider, who stood alone beside the throne.
Layla and Ai stared at the screen, wondering how he would survive a barricade of the empire’s strongest warriors. Ilios was known as the land of warriors more than others, so even if none of them used mana, their stats combined far surpassed Fallen God, Amelio.
***
Arthur surveyed the surroundings and the wrestling Lilo and tiger. Finally, the two monsters let out heavenly roars as they tore each other, although the tiger couldn’t harm Lilo.
The dragon was within his sea of consciousness ever since he returned from the Tanera Kingdom. Hazel strengthened him far more than Arthur imagined, making the once-small dragon as big as the tiger.
Lilo flapped its wings, taking the fight toward the sky. It was easier with the two gone since Arthur could focus on being outnumbered. He stared at the knights, each unleashing a threatening aura capable of toppling the skies.
“Space-binding!” shouted the Nobles Commander as he clapped his hands, making threads explode from his beard. The threads sewed space together, making it impossible to manipulate it. “You can no longer escape, vermin!”
Arthur was silent as he stared at them before a smile appeared on his face. Their threatening auras and hostility made the atmosphere suffocating, but Arthur restrained his aura so far.
In fact, he restrained his aura ever since he met with Gaia in this world. Otherwise, his mere existence would send the surrounding into an overdrive of existence.
“Did it occur to you, Nobles Commander, that I had no intentions of escaping?” grinned Arthur as golden mana appeared around him. “Does it reassure you that your side has more numbers? Of course, it should; there is no shame in such a feeling. However, when I am on the opposite side, it doesn’t matter.”
As he finished his words, Arthur allowed his unrestrained aura to explode, amplifying the existence around him. It came like a tsunami that crashed into the surrounding, causing a ripple across existence.
The world wavered like a pond, with Arthur in the center. The Knights Captains fainted, unable to bear the sudden influx of power. Arthur was surprised by how much he grew stronger because of the Mansell Mansion and absorbing the gangsters’ stats.
“There are nine commanders present today out of the twelve,” said Arthur as he looked around. “Since each commander has three vice-commanders, there should be nine. Instead, however, there are twenty.”
“Do you think it would make a difference?” asked Duke Delano as he walked forward with his spear on his shoulder. “You managed to fool me once, but never again.”
“You would like to believe that,” said Arthur with a smile as he turned toward the forger’s corpse, and a small flame appeared on his hand. “Rest in peace.”
Arthur wanted to incinerate the corpse, but he stopped. A sudden aura burst from the sky, which compelled him to look into the distance. It was an aura of creation.
‘Again,’ muttered Arthur as he looked at the sky with confusion, his eyes focused on the source. A small line split the sky in two. Arthur watched the line as it grew longer and seemed to arch toward them.
His eyes focused on the line to find that it was no line but a long pillar of metal that grew toward the sky. Arthur stared at the tip of the pillar to find two people, but he was unable to see who they were.
All he knew was that the two of them were rushing toward their location at a breakneck pace, and one of them had the aura of creation.
“Of all times,” muttered Arthur before extinguishing the flames and turning toward the knights. “This is getting more interesting,” he said with a grin as the Emperor of Light stepped forward.
“This is the first time we meet, Arthur Silvera,” said the Light Emperor as his robes dragged after him. “What do you hope to accomplish by terrorizing my empire?”
“Terrorize?” mused Arthur before shaking his head. “I’m here to save it from your clutches. You killed this man because he told the truth, and that can never be undone.”
“I killed him because he spewed lies to disturb the people, as he did countless years before,” said the emperor. Arthur smiled as he glanced at Ishmael, whom Lyle restrained. “I expected you would take this chance to strike but believed you were smarter than this. So, what’s next, outsider?”
