Kapitel 13: Departure

When Dmitri heard Aurum's comment about him, he immediately turned around to avoid meeting Aurum's cunning gaze. Mazda who was right by their side was looking at both of them warmly. Seeing as how both of them can interact like this, he remembered how all of his followers used to be like this.

Aurum was about to approach Dmitri when he saw a ethereal fire ball floating in front of him. Of course, he didn't know that it was a fragment of Mazda's soul right in front of him because he haven't even met him. He looked at the fire intently, trying to discern if what he is seeing is hallucination or not.

"Stop staring at me like that, my successor"

"Wu-- WAHHH!!!" Aurum was pretty scared when he heard a voice coming from the fire.

"Pffft..."

When Aurum turned his gaze towards Dmitri, he saw Dmitri's shoulders tremble and he was trying so hard to hold in his laughter.

"Hey, why are you laughing? Can't you see this creepy thing here?!" Aurum retorted.

When Dmitri heard that, he suddenly stopped laughing then turned his gaze towards Aurum. His gaze was filled with killing intent that just by looking at him made Aurum feel like he has been hacked into a thousand pieces.

"You better be careful of what you say... The one before you is Ahura Mazda, the god who saved you from your earlier state," Dmitri said coldly.

Mazda was so satisfied when Dmitri said those words in front of him. Up until now, he truly didn't expect that Dmitri's loyalty would remain the same.

"Eh? What do you mean he saved me?" Aurum asked looking confused.

"You ungrateful little bastard! YOU JUST DIED A WEEK AGO AND NOW YOU DON'T EVEN EXPRESS YOUR THANKS TOWARDS MY MASTER?! I'LL SEND YOU TO THE UNDERWORLD TODAY!" Dmitri immediately leaped towards Aurum with a sword in hand.

"Huh? What do you mean I was dead? I was never dead. I was trying to reconstruct my body structure to make sure that my body can handle the power within me. I really hate those stupid *ss b*tches like you who always jumps to conclusions," Aurum immediately got his Sword of Creation.

Before they could murder each other, they suddenly heard an authoritative voice behind them.

"Both of you STOP!"

When both of them turned around, they saw Mazda was like a dragon who was about to destroy a city. They immediately stopped their previous actions and didn't bother what the other said earlier. Aurum, who didn't know who this person was, really is astonished because even him couldn't do anything but tremble and obey him like a dog.

"Right now, what we should be doing is to strengthen our power and not fighting with ourselves to death! Those hypocrites are the only ones who would benefit if both of you fight. Besides, if one of you died, the surviving one wouldn't even be able to escape from those hypocrites' onslaught," Mazda said.

When he said this, both of them immediately focused to the task at hand. Previously, Aurum was not willing to deal with the gods himself. He felt that it would be pointless to go head-on with them. However, when they resurrected and sent Yuu and Steve to eliminate him, he didn't dare to hesitate anymore. He already confirmed that even if he didn't want to go against them, they would still try to kill him without any hesitation.

Aurum was really worried that he would not have the power to deal with them alone. However, if Dmitri was with him, he could feel that he would have more chances to solidify his power. He immediately asked the system to show him his stats.

[Name : Aurum Est

(NEW!) Title : Mazda's Successor

Age : 18

HP : 4190 (+10,000)/4190 (+10,000)

MP : 3865 (+5,000)/3865 (+5,000)

LVL : 14

Rank : D-

Exp: 41,126/800,000

Str: 215 (+215)

End: 226 (+226)

Int: 212 (+212)

Wis: 200 (+200)

Agi: 300

Luck: 250

CP: 0

Skills : Ultra Instinct III, Time Stop V, Appraisal IV, Auto-regeneration VI, Aura Concealment I, Wind Walk V, Premonition of Death I (NEW!), Revive I (NEW!)

Abilities : Rampage III, Unyielding Will IV, Thunder God's Wrath I, Perfect Elemental Affinity, Underwater Breathing, Danger Sense V, Herculean Strength I, Thought Acceleration I, Blessings I

Bloodline : God II]

"Premonition of Death? Revive? Since when did I get these abilities?" he pondered.

[DING! Host gained the skill Premonition of death due to your fusing of soul with Azi Dahaka.

Premonition of Death : Leaves a death mark on a target. After 2 years the target would die unconditionally.

Host gained the skill Revive due to a god trying to resurrect you while upgrading your body.

Revive : Raise someone from the dead as long as their soul is still intact. Cannot be used to other gods except for yourself.]

"Hmmm... If I could just use it to other gods and gain their support, it would be really great. Too bad it doesn't let me do that," he initially hoped that he could use it to anybody who is dead, but he felt disappointed when he saw the notification.

"Aurum. My name is Mazda. I was the previous owner of the sword that you posses and today I came to ask a favor. Please help me decimate the current gods," Mazda asked earnestly.

"Why do you think that I can help you destroy all of them? And why do you think I would help you?" he asked somewhat suspiciously.

"First, it's because you are my successor and I think you would help because you owe me four favors at the moment," Mazda replied confidently.

"Since when did I owe you that much favor?" Aurum was confused.

Mazda looked at Aurum like he was looking at an idiot. Then he smiled at him saying, "If it were not for me, you would have already been arrested by the police thrice and there was a large probability that you would be wanted nationwide. Also, if it were not for me, you wouldn't have a body as good as the one that you have right now."

"Oh, so that's why I didn't have anyone on my tail even when I went on a killing spree," Aurum finally know why he wasn't chased by the cops.

"Alright fine. We have the same goal anyways, but I have a question. How are we supposed to go against them with this kind of team?" he asked.

"Oh don't worry about that. Five other ancient gods will be joining us to our battle with thousands of Celestial Beings. I assure you even if you only got five more ancient gods by your side, we would win this war with them," Mazda replied persuading him.

"Who are those five gods that you are talking about?" Aurum,who was still not convinced, decided to probe out the names of his future benefactors.

"Well, I am afraid that you would get a heart attacks once you have heard their names... okay, okay! Stop looking at me like that! I'll tell you now," initially he wanted to play some word games with Aurum however, after seeing Dmitri and Aurum's penetrating gaze, he was rendered useless.

"Those gods are Angru Mainya, Anubis, Shiva, Isis, and Nun. They are the greatest gods that I know of and I am very familiar with their personalities," he replied without worries.

"Also, they are probably going to visit you soon enough and impart some of their powers onto you. So don't worry about not getting strong. Instead, worry about how you are going to survive while you are still weak. When your soul was being transferred to a new body, you exuded a terrifying aura that only existed in legends. Not even me in my prime can unleash that sort of aura. I feel like there would be many trials and obstacles waiting for you in the future created by those hypocrites," he warned Aurum.

Aurum just nodded at the warning that Mazda gave him. Although he looked nonchalant on the surface, Mazda knew that he was taking this seriously. Aurum was already contemplating on what his next move is going to be until he saw Mazda's soul flickering. It looked like it was in the brink of turning into nothingness. When Dmitri saw this, he was so shocked because he didn't know what is going to happen.

"MASTER! What is happening to you? Why are you vanishing slowly?" he asked.

"Little Vlad, I appeared before you only by using a fragmented soul. Without a body, a fragmented soul cannot continue to exist for long. I am even surprised that I managed to last this long... Usually, all fragmented souls would cease to exist in five days," Mazda replied indifferently.

Dmitri was about to say something but didn't continue it. The reason for that is because he can sense his Master saying not to worry about him. Mazda's gaze returned to Aurum and stared at him intently.

"My successor, after this talk that we had I want you to grow stronger! Strong enough so that nobody in this world can stop you! Not even the gods! You must find the unseal all of us ancient gods. I don't care how you do it, but all of us will become indebted to you!" right after Mazda said that, his soul vanished completely.

Aurum was listening intently at the parting words Mazda said. He thought that what Mazda said made sense, "If you don't want to be stopped, you must grow stronger." He immediately engraved those words in his heart. Suddenly, he heard a notification from the System.

[DING! A new quest has been unlocked.

Unseal five ancient gods and gain their support.

Time limit : Six months

Rewards : Unknown

Will you accept the quest? YES OR NO]

"Unseal five ancient gods and gain their support? Hell yeah I want to accept this! Doesn't matter if they are those five gods who Mazda mentioned who agreed to help me or not. As long as I get more backing, everything is good," Aurum thought.

Dmitri, who standing by Aurum's side, also got a different message from his Master before he left.

"Protect my successor if you want to see us rise up again. Give him lessons on how to use magic because even though his mana is high, he can only use some ability boosts at the moment. I want you to teach him how to use every magic that he is going to acquire. I'm counting on you little Vlad. Don't disappoint me..."

"Master, I promise you that I will nurture his potential as hard as I can. I won't disappoint you."

Dmitri swore to his heart that he would do the task that Mazda gave him wholeheartedly without any complaints. His Master placed all of his trust onto Aurum so how can he, a servant, refuse to follow his Master's decision?

Instead of going home, Aurum decided to stay in the temple for a while to train his ability Thunder God's Wrath which he acquired not long after. Ever since he got this ability, he wasn't able to use it at all. Same goes for his Time Stop. Even though he leveled it up to V, if he can't control it, then what's the purpose of having it.

Dmitri saw Aurum's decision and cannot help but inwardly praise him. He thought that Aurum would just recklessly charge towards Yuu and Steve. However, after seeing that he decided to train his skills and abilities, he somewhat changed his evaluation of Aurum.

"Although this guy likes to fight, he knows how to pick his own fights. I am a little bit surprised on how that incident changed his mentality a little bit. I heard before that he would always get into a fight without thinking of the consequences, but now that he knows his life is at stake, he won't foolishly do those actions again."

Aurum kept on thinking on how he could improve his Time Stop skill and Thunder God's Wrath ability. Four hours passed by, but he still can't find a way to control it. Dmitri then stepped in and looked at him. A satisfactory smile could be seen on his face at the moment which left Aurum somewhat uncomfortable.

"What do you want? You're creeping me out with that smile..." Aurum said somewhat disgusted.

"What's with you? I was about to show you a better way to improve your combat prowess, but you don't want it?" he asked teasingly.

"No no no! I want it! I want it! I was just kidding earlier. Why didn't you say so right away?" a complete change of attitude by Aurum left Dmitri somewhat stunned.

"Okay then, if you want to learn how to use your skills better, you must know its origins. That way you could understand everything that you are doing related to that," Dmitri said.

When Aurum heard this he was somewhat troubled.

"How the hell am I supposed to know it's origins when it came from the System?"

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Hi guys, Sic here.

I never thought that I would end up lying in bed for 2 days just because of some illness. To that, I humbly apologize for the late updates. Also, about the Mazda's sword turned sword of god, I ultimately changed it to Sword of Creation, luckily the author approved it.

Ah, right. The 'chapter' things before the chapter title, the author told me to remove it. I'm not in any place to ask questions though. It's getting awkward that I am the one thanking you guys down here in my 'afterword'. So, I told the author that he should be the one doing that, which is also appropriate. Anyways thank you for reading this web novel.

-Sic Parvis Magna