Chapitre 35: Wanted
Aura is the energy that only the most powerful warriors are able to use and that only a few are able to master.
It is a strange thing indeed; it is a different energy from mana, though not completely. You could say it's a sort of variant.
Some say the aura is a physical manifestation of a warrior's fighting spirit; others say it is an evolution of how warriors use their mana. Some say it might just be a variant of the touki used by martial artists from the eastern lands.
But one thing is for sure: a warrior who awakens the aura is far above a normal warrior.
Clank-! Clank-! Clank-!
Spear and sword collided, generating sparks and shockwaves with each collision.
'Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, how can that be?! I'm using my aura, but this fucker can still keep up!'
Avalon, who started using his aura, attacked Arthur with all his might; however, to his great irritation, Arthur was still able to block his attacks.
'Who the hell is this guy, Did he also awaken his aura?'
When a warrior awakens his aura, improvements are immediately noticed. Not only is strength greatly increased, being comparable to 20 knights; perception, speed of thought and reflexes are also greatly enhanced. Natural regeneration is also enhanced; a broken arm, which would take a normal person months to heal, would only take an aura user a few weeks to fully recover.
Such are the benefits if the aura can be awakened.
Therefore, for Avalon, Arthur to be able to cope while using his aura is a puzzling fact.
Clank-!
Another clash ensued, and the two were face-to-face. While Avalon's face denoted his frustration, Arthur was perfectly calm, with a slight smile on his lips.
"Hey, tell me, did you get high before you confronted me or something? Why are you so strong?" he asked.
"Find out for yourself, narrowed eyes."
A vein popped out of Avalon's forehead when he heard his words. It seemed he really hated that narrow-eyed nickname.
Clank-!
They broke apart and began another exchange of hits.
***
Swoosh-! Swoosh-! Swoosh-!
Clank-! Clank-!
In the dark forest, several shadows could be seen moving through the trees, and occasionally the sound of clashing metal could be heard.
Clank-! Clank-! Clank-!
Livia was moving through the trees as she defended herself from the attack of the masked men, wielding her double swords.
The masked men moved with perfect synchronicity, propelling themselves using the trees to get out of sight of the enemy and confuse them to catch them off guard—truly a deadly combination that could put even an experienced warrior at risk.
Clank-!
But Livia was no ordinary warrior.
Using her dual swords, she blocked the simultaneous attacks of the masked men coming from above and from her right.
Woosh-!
The third masked man, seeing her restrained, quickly stepped forward, wielding his sword with the aim of cutting off Livia's head.
Swoosh-!
But with quick and flexible movements, Livia dodged his sword and, taking advantage of his momentum, spun around and managed to connect a strong kick to the masked man's stomach.
"Bhuf!"
Not stopping there, she swung her sword with the aim of stabbing him, but before her sword could connect, it was blocked by the sword of one of the masked men who had attacked her earlier.
Boom-!
Taking advantage of her immobility, the third masked man sent her flying with a powerful kick, sending her crashing into a tree.
'They don't leave a single opening, and if there is one, they correct it immediately'
Livia thought to herself as she wiped the blood from her nose and quickly pulled herself together.
'They are very fast, though not as physically strong, but they make up for that with their terrifying coordination. I have to find a way to break that somehow.'
As he thought about that, she noticed that the masked men hadn't moved in quite a while. This struck her as odd, so she became vigilant.
After a while, the figures began to move.
"That's...!"
However, an orange-colored energy began to emanate from the men's bodies as they approached.
"Aura!"
Woosh-!
The masked men moved at an incredible speed and began to move through the trees around Livia.
' They got faster!'
As she thought that, Livia felt a warning signal.
Swoosh-!
By sheer instinct, she managed to duck to dodge the sword of one of the men who came within inches of decapitating her.
"!!!"
But they didn't give her time to pull herself together.
Boom-!
Propelling herself with her legs, she rolled across the floor to avoid the attack of one of the masked men coming from above. When the man's sword impacted the floor, it shattered it completely, creating cracks that expanded like a spider's web.
Pulling herself together quickly, Livia got into position, only to find the missing masked man immediately lunging at her.
Clank-!
Using her swords, she blocked the man's attack; however, her arms went numb and her feet were buried in the ground due to the force of the impact.
Crack-!
To make matters worse, her swords began to crack from the heavy punishment she was receiving.
Woosh-!
The other two masked men appeared behind her and swung their swords with the goal of finishing Livia off once and for all.
Slash-!
But to their surprise, Livia dropped her swords and managed to avoid their attack, although she received a deep cut on her side.
She quickly reached into her shirt and pulled out two black marbles. She threw them to the ground and when they impacted, they created a thick cloud of smoke.
Taking advantage of the masked men's distraction, Livia ran into the dark forest.
'I need a plan; I can't face them head-on.'
Despite being an extremely skilled warrior and adept in the use of various weapons and martial arts, she would still find it difficult to deal with an aura practitioner, much less three at once.
Livia moved through the trees, and when she thought she was far enough away, she stopped and leaned against a tree branch, holding her side wound.
From her dimensional ring, she took out a small green potion and poured it on the wound. Letting out a sigh, she leaned against the tree, letting the potion take its effect.
"This is very troublesome."
These guys were already troublesome, but now that it turns out they can use aura, they have become very troublesome.
Livia stared at the bright moon in silence as she regained her strength and let the potion heal her wound.
"...I can do it."
She knew she was strong; she had trained all these years for nothing, learning tactics, strategies, martial arts, training, and mastering different types of weapons.
She had prepared and psyched herself for difficult situations like this.
Swoosh-
"!!"
Livia, hearing someone approaching quickly, stood up and pulled out some daggers from her dimensional ring, preparing to fight.
"Calm down, Miss Livia; I am not an enemy.
But unlike what she thought, what appeared was not the three masked men but one of Miss Lissa's men.
"What are you doing here?"
She asked, still a little cautiously; she really didn't trust these hooded people who rarely spoke.
"Miss Lissa asked me to give this to you."
The man said this before resting a long case on the floor that was almost his size.
"From Miss Lissa?"
Livia approached the man and grabbed the case to see what was inside. When she opened it and saw what was inside, her eyes widened in surprise.
"This is..."
"Unfortunately, this is as far as my contract goes; the rest you have to take care of."
"I understand."
Livia didn't mind not getting help; after all, with this, her chances of winning had increased exponentially.
"Tell Miss Lissa I appreciate it."
"I will."
Said the man before disappearing.
Livia lifted the case and rested it against her shoulder. The moonlight illuminated her figure, and her bright purple eyes were filled with determination.
"Let's finish those bastards off."
***
Swoosh-! Swoosh-!
Three men, dressed entirely in black and with masks hiding their faces, were moving through the trees of the dark forest.
They were attentive to their surroundings, looking for any clue that might manage to lead them towards their target.
"!!"
One of the men suddenly stopped looking in one direction; the other two also stopped and looked at what he was seeing.
On a tree branch, there were still fresh bloodstains plus some fallen leaves, indicating that someone had passed by recently.
The man who stopped first approached the spot to inspect it. He got to where the blood was, and as he was about to examine it, a shadow came out of the top of the tree.
Clank-!
Thanks to his reflexes, he managed to unsheathe his sword and protect himself from the surprise attack; however, the impact of the hit was extremely strong, so he was sent flying, crashing into another tree and shattering its bark.
Damaged by the impact, he looked up, catching a glimpse of his target, who was wielding what appeared to be a staff just as tall as her, made of black metal.
Without giving him any more chance to compose himself, the girl ran towards him, ready to deliver a hit. However, the man would no longer be taken by surprise. Noticing that he would not be able to dodge it, he raised his guard and prepared to receive the impact.
But something unexpected happened.
Woosh-
Mana began to course through the staff; suddenly, as if it were a liquid, the tip of the staff changed, taking on the shape of a huge hammer.
BOOM-!
The man took the hit squarely and was sent flying several meters, smashing through multiple trees on the way.
"Ghh..."
When he finally stopped, he tried to get up, but the damage he received was so great that his body was unresponsive.
With one out, Livia lashed out at the other two, swinging her staff, now a mace, at them.
Boom-!
Snapping out of their daze, the men dodged Livia's mace, which crashed to the ground, cracking it with its brutal force.
Seeing an opportunity, the masked men unsheathed their swords and attacked the now-vulnerable Livia.
Clank-!
However, the shape of the staff changed again, this time becoming a shield that blocked their attack.
Woosh-
The shield turned liquid again, opening an aperture from which Livia emerged, this time with part of the metal coating her fist.
Boom-!
Her fist smashed into the face of one of the men, shattering his mask and smashing his head against the ground.
The man was knocked unconscious; his nose and teeth were broken.
"You!!!"
The last masked man coated himself with his aura and attacked Livia.
Clank-!
But to his great surprise, Livia reached out her gauntlet-like metal-coated hand and stopped his sword dead in its tracks.
"H-how!?"
The man was dismayed, but Livia didn't give him a chance to gather his thoughts.
Extending her free hand, the black metal shot towards her palm, transforming and taking the shape of a spear. Livia didn't hesitate and pierced the man directly through the heart. His blood seeped through his mask, splattering Livia's face, and within seconds, he died.
Livia, noticing that he was already dead, pushed the man back, and he fell limply to the ground.
Woosh-
The metal in her hand slipped away and integrated again with her weapon, which once again took the shape of a staff.
Livia looked at her weapon and couldn't help but marvel.
"A weapon made of orichalcum—no, this is more of an artifact."
Orichalcum was an extremely rare metal that could only be found in the deepest parts of the sea. Its value could be as high as 2,000 gold coins per gram.
It was not only its rarity that made it so valuable; orichalcum possessed special characteristics that made it extremely useful in the manufacture of weapons, artifacts, machines, etc.
It was super-sensitive to mana and transmitted it with extreme ease and precision, which made it perfect for the manufacture of machines or magical artifacts. Another characteristic it possessed was that it was extremely simple to manipulate, as well as very durable and resilient.
"You could create the sharpest weapons and the toughest shields with Orichalcum."
It was no wonder that it had taken the young master 2 whole years to pay for it, even as he spent hundreds of gold coins in the brothel every day.
Not only was the weapon made of orichalcum, which already made it extremely valuable, but in addition to that, Livia could sense that there were several enchantments on the weapon.
The main enchantment allowed mana to be infused into the weapon to take advantage of its great sensitivity to change its structure and shape as she wished. The other enchantments were supportive, as if to keep the weapon from losing its form the instant after mana was not administered to it. Livia really couldn't say much; though she had studied the subject, she was not a great connoisseur of alchemy, though she was sure that creating such a weapon must have been tremendously difficult.
"And the young master made it for me."
This made Livia feel a great warmth in her heart. Arthur had been really good to her all these years, and Livia didn't think she could ever repay all that he had done for her, but she would at least try.
"I'd better finish with them and return to the young master's side."
Willing to finish the job, Livia walked towards the two men who were still alive.
***
"Huff...Huf...Huf..."
Avalon was breathing heavily; he had several wounds and cuts all over his body and had already run out of potions.
Arthur, on the other hand, didn't look tired at all, and the wounds he had already started to heal were already completely healed.
'What kind of monster is this guy! Is he even human?'
During their fight, Arthur was never inferior to Avalon, even though Avalon was using his aura. On the contrary, Arthur was overwhelmingly dominating Avalon, which made Avalon angry every time he thought about it.
'I need reinforcements; where the fuck are those dogs!'
The three men he had sent to take care of the maid had already taken too long to return, plus the rest of his forces didn't seem to be around.
They couldn't have failed or could they? All three of them were aura practitioners; there's no way that maidservant could have stood up to them!
Woosh-!
Clank-!
"What is it that you're thinking so hard about?"
While he was distracted, Arthur took the opportunity to attack him. And end the fight already.
Clank-! Clank-! Clank-!
With a series of attacks, Arthur was pushing Avalon backwards. The latter, overwhelmed by the attacks, could not react and ended up stumbling, which Arthur took advantage of to finish him.
Clank-!
With a hit, I sent Avalon's spear flying, which stuck several meters away from him. He, for his part, was on the ground with Arthur's sword pressed against his neck.
"Well, this is over."
"W-wait! You can't do this! You think Dad's going to stand still if you kill me?"
Succumbed by fear, Avalon desperately tried to stop Arthur from killing him.
"L-listen! If you let me go, I-"
Slash-!
He couldn't finish his sentence because his head detached from his body and rolled a few feet before coming to a stop.
"Benedict?"
Arthur looked emotionlessly at the decapitated body of his "brother" lying lifeless beneath his feet.
"I don't think that guy cares in the least."
He shook the blood from his sword and put it back in its sheath. He walked slowly toward the horses that had stood obediently waiting in a distant spot.
"Sorry to make you. wait."
He said this as he harnessed his horse.
After a while, he heard someone approach, and Livia appeared from the trees.
"All settled?"
"Yes, although they gave me some trouble.
She said that, and Arthur noticed the case she was carrying on her shoulder.
"I see Miss Lissa is done with the artifact I asked for."
"Yes, if it hadn't been for him, it would have taken me much longer to take care of them."
"I'm glad to hear that. When I can, I should thank Miss Li.".
His words stopped abruptly.
That's because Livia pulled him closer to her and brought their lips together in a kiss.
They stood like that for a few seconds before parting.
"What was that for?"
Arthur asked, genuinely curious, though not at all displeased by the sudden kiss. During all those years they had been together, he had developed a special fondness for Livia.
"It's really bad timing, isn't it?If I'm honest, I acted before I thought; it's just... I wanted to repay you somehow for everything you've done for me so far."
She said it with a garter of blush on her cheeks as she averted her gaze.
"I don't need you to pay me back, you know?"
At first, if he intended to use Livia, he was going to train her to become a powerful ally and personal guard.
But as he spent time with the lovely maiden, he came to see her as a true friend and partner. He wanted only the best for her so that she could make it alive to the end of this treacherous road they were traveling.
"I know... I still want to do it; I know this is not enough to repay you, but I will try my best to do it."
She said that as she stared into his eyes, Arthur could see and feel the determination and sincerity in them. So he couldn't help but smile.
"Is this a confession?"
"Y-you can take it that way."
"Then let me answer you."
He said before kissing her again; this time their kiss lasted longer. They both enjoyed each other's warmth and company.
The wind blew the leaves of the trees, creating a soothing natural sound; the moon, which was already at its highest, illuminated their surroundings, creating a landscape of serenity and calm.
Finally, they separated, and Arthur rubbed Livia's head.
"As much as I'd like to give you many more kisses, we have to get a move on."
"Y-yeah, you're right."
Livia said she was embarrassed as her cheeks tinged red.
With that, they mounted their horses and rode even further away from the scene, ready to begin their real adventure, which would not be easy at all.
***
"It looks like they've already left."
Ozul, the vice president of Athena Academy, said as he watched the moon from his office window.
"What a romantic development, a true love story."
A voice was heard inside his darkened office; sitting on one of the couches was reclining a man dressed in what appeared to be a monk's outfit, albeit with red detailing instead of white and a trench coat over it.
Other than that, what stood out most about him were the black bandages covering his eyes, his extremely pale skin, and his smile showing his sharp teeth.
Although calling him a "man" didn't seem to be the most appropriate,
He looked human, but he wasn't, neither a demon nor a spirit; neither did he give off any presence; if he wasn't so talkative, Ozul would forget he was there.
He existed, but at the same time, he did not.
"Looks like the plot is starting to move; this story without a protagonist is about to get interesting."
"I've always wondered, which is this protagonist you talk so much about?"
Ozul asked the man, who just smiled at him.
"Haha, unfortunately, I can't say it without being punished, but whatever, who cares about a protagonist who fell before facing the villain?"
"Certainly, however, can I at least know who that villain is?".
The man smiled broadly, showing his sharp teeth, before giving a short reply.
"I."
A silence settled over the office. Ozul merely smiled softly, as he always did, and sat down in front of the man.
"But then, what is Arthur? Is he your new protagonist?"
He asked as, out of a shadow, came two cups of tea and a teapot. The bandaged man put a hand to his chin and leaned back in his seat.
"Hmm, well, it's hard to explain. Is he a villain? An extra? Maybe a supporting character? A co-protagonist? Oh, maybe he's all of those things at the same time."
Ozul listened intently to the man's words as he sipped his tea in a quiet, calm manner.
"So you don't know?"
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't; it's like a blank sheet of paper, something undefined, something out of the stipulated. A variable."
"A variable?"
"Yep, a variable, something that could completely change the course of things. If I had to give an example, he doesn't follow the plot, nor does he have a written script. He creates his own plot and writes his own script, altering accordingly what is already written."
"I see..."
Ozul said as he looked thoughtful.
"It's certainly a complicated thing."
"But at least, thanks to him, time started moving."
"Time began to move."
"Yes, or, in other words..."
The man's smile grew larger, almost unnaturally so.
"The plot has begun."
***
"What's the report?"
In a plush office, a stout man with a beard and red hair asked the vacant-eyed man in front of him.
"Mr. Avalon is dead, and the forces that accompanied him have been exterminated."
Benedict did not seem at all affected to hear that his son had died; rather, he looked disappointed.
"Anything else?"
"It was confirmed that there is a force supporting Arthur Reclesia from the shadows; at the moment, we have not been able to find the source."
"And what about the brothel he always used to visit?"
"Our men went and investigated every nook and cranny."
"¿And?"
"It was completely empty; all traces of the people who were there were wiped out; we couldn't find anything despite the exhaustive investigation."
Benedict sighed and put a hand to his temples; after a few moments of silence, he spoke in a heavy tone.
"Make the statement."
"Are you sure, sir?"
"It's the best we can do now; the Pendragons have been more upset lately; that little guy must have done something; we can't risk it and look even more suspicious."
"Understood, sir."
With that said, the man was swallowed by his shadow and disappeared.
Benedict leaned back in his chair and watched the moon through his window.
"I don't think you'll be able to escape me so easily."
The next day, a communiqué was issued throughout the Empire.
[The former member of the Reclesia family, Arthur Reclesia, is guilty of being in league with demons and conspiring with criminal organizations to assassinate Avalon Reclesia, the lord of the Southlands, along with several other Reclesia men
For this very reason, a warrant and a price have been issued for his capture. Whoever manages to catch Arthur Reclesia alive and bring him before the Reclesia family will be handsomely rewarded with the sum of 10,000 gold coins.]
This news spread like wildfire. Everyone was talking about it, be it the citizens who wondered how such a person was born into the honorable Reclesia family. Even the mercenaries who were greatly attracted by the reward.
Within a few days, everyone already knew the name Arthur Reclesia.
The criminal allied himself with the demons.
***
A/N: Alright, so we have completed the first volume. It might have been a bit lengthy, but I wanted to wrap it up in this chapter. I appreciate you reading this far. I will not be uploading for a while because I am going to take my time organizing and getting ready from this point on. That is all I have to say; I hope you keep reading my story.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone