Arthur withdrew his spiritual energy, and the pain seed to subside. His rage, however, was overflowing through his body. It was the first ti he felt such anger in this world, especially after eting Gaia. An old saying was: beware a patient man's rage.
"Well, I have no use to her if she died. Therefore, I will spare her life for now, but not the agony," said Hartman over the wireless device. Arthur placed Suyin down and walked toward the table to pick it up.
He wanted to trace the source of the call, but it seed that Hartman was a cunning man. The device was not made of runes but a walkie-talkie that used batteries and electromagnetic waves.
"Are you there, outsider?" chuckled Hartman over the phone. His deep voice reverberated through the empty hut, only interrupted by Suyin's groans and cries. "I know you can hear . But, you better answer, or there will be no survival for that gal."
"…what do you want?" said Arthur with an apathetic, monotonic voice. There was silence as Arthur tried to trace the waves toward the other end. Finally, however, the connection was lost, and Arthur had to start over.
Every ti he was about to locate the source, the signal would disappear and then reappear elsewhere. It seed as if Hartman knew that Arthur would try to trace him down and installed a chanism to counteract that.
"I want another fight, this ti with no running away. If you defeat , I will remove my astral venom from the girl. You can run, but no one in this world can save her."
"How would I know you wouldn't go back on your word?"
"We can form a spiritual contract governed by the Order Spirit itself. Thus, no one can revoke the contract without losing their essence. What is your answer, outsider?"
Arthur was silent. He could tell that sothing was fishy. If Hartman wanted another fight, then he would have revealed himself already. Arthur would even be at a disadvantage, given that he needed to protect Suyin.
However, this executor went through the trouble of poisoning her and even taunting him into a fight. This might be a trap, like the one that the emperor designed to turn the tides in his favor.
'If I cannot think of a rune that would cure her, then I have no other option,' thought Arthur to himself. Regardless of what he wanted to do later or think of a plan, he needed to agree to his conditions.
"Tell where you are, and I'll co over."
"The Hoary Dungeon west of Ayaz. You have one hour to co over here, although a teleporter like you needs no more than a minute."
"I need more ti," said Arthur as he tried to rember how far Ayaz was from his current location. It was the next city separating him from Helios, so teleporting there could take him no more than a minute. "A teleportation will damage her, so I must travel there on foot."
"Even if you travel by foot, with your stats, three hours are more than enough to get here. Make haste, outsider, because not even I know how long she could resist."
After that, the communication was cut off, and the walkie-talkie caught flas before exploding. Arthur then took out his phone to call Julia and make so arrangents, but Suyin let out a cry of pain, forcing him to rush toward her.
"It will be alright," said Arthur as he caressed her skin and wrote another rune. The Sleep rune allowed him to temporarily sever the connection between a target's consciousness and the outside world. "You will go to sleep now."
Suyin was still convulsing as Arthur brought the rune toward her head. However, before he could use it, she grabbed his arm while her blood-filled eyes stared at him. "…am… sorry…"
Arthur froze when he heard her words and stared into her eyes. They were full of pain and anguish, but that wasn't what made her cry. Instead, he realized that even at this mont, she was apologizing for being poisoned and having to be cured.
'What sort of past creates such a ntality?' questioned Arthur as he stared at her blood tears rolling down her face. Then, without letting her go through more of this, Arthur put her to sleep.
The rune fused with her head before appearing on her forehead. Her convulsing body stopped, and Suyin slowly closed her eyes while staring at Arthur. After she was out of it, Arthur placed her down.
Instead of rushing toward Ayaz, Arthur sat in the hut and watched Suyin sleep. The dark rash was still spreading, as if corroding her skin from the inside, but it was unhard. It was rely losing color.
"I am the reason you were poisoned," muttered Arthur while staring at her. "But, even then, you apologized. When Erin attacked Hazel in the trial and tried to assault her, I got blad because she beca a target. I accepted that as a fact. It seed natural that I would be blad if soone got hurt because of , even indirectly. Yet, what makes you different and unhateful?"
Arthur was heartbroken over her last words because he never thought soone would feel such a way. The sleep rune on her forehead sealed her sea of consciousness, making her unable to feel or hear the outside.
As he watched the rune glow, Arthur raised his index finger and pressed on her forehead. A wave of images appeared in his mind, coming directly from her sea of consciousness. Like her na, there was no sound, just a quiet and desolate land.
Arthur saw an image that terrified him. In the wasteland was a mountain of corpses, burning alongside a village, with two figures standing at the entrance. The two figures had tattered clothes, and blood leaked from their bodies. They were two young girls, one older than the other.
"This is not our fault, Suyin," said the older girl as they stared at the corpses. Then, she sniffed but held back the tears. "This is not our fault."
After that, the scene ended. Arthur removed his finger from her forehead as he stared at the sleeping woman. He realized that this might be the root of her current emotions, thus revealed in her sea of consciousness as a dream.
Arthur then used his telekinesis to strap her to the bamboo bed and raise her. He needed to ensure no harm befalls her body since he wouldn't take chances with what Hartman said.
Arthur would get there in an hour if he ran while using his Release rune. First, however, he needed to be mindful of Suyin. His phone finally connected to Julia, who had been with him fifteen minutes ago.
"Did you go back to Ilios?" she asked with confusion.
"We have a problem. One of the Trinity mbers of Ilios found my whereabouts and poisoned soone I knew. I need you to find out how to treat a curse or poison inflicted by an astral weapon."
"An astral weapon?" she asked with shock. "I'm not sure, Arthur. First, each astral being has its counterasures, so we need to find out the astral star linked to the weapon. After that, we can only hope there is a record of it sowhere."
"Contact the Nightroad Family and Mr. Tate to find out. There is no ti. I feel like I'm going into a trap," said Arthur as he strapped the bamboo trolley to his back. "I might lose control again."
"What are your orders?"
"…bring the fortress here, and prepare the de-runic chambers. It feels like this battle might end up badly for ."
Arthur was unafraid of Hartman himself, but the confidence of the Astra ranker made him believe that there was sothing more. Whatever trap there could be, Arthur needed to prepare for it.
Julia affird receiving the orders, and the call ended. After that, Arthur called Ai to find out where they were. However, it seems the group was still in the first city far from Ayaz. Ultimately, he had no one to rely on but the giant inside him.
"I need more strength," demanded Arthur as soon as he appeared in his sea of consciousness. The giant opened his eyes with a frown. His face was still masked by the clouds whirling around his body.
"I do not grant strength since it is yours," said King Arthur after a pause. "You seem agitated, creator. Is it your family?"
"A friend," said Arthur before stepping forward and waving his arm. "I know those chains restrict how much strength I use, so I need your will to push them aside when the ti cos."
"Chains of Order," said the giant with a sigh. "Their na answers your request, creator. These chains govern Gaia itself, and going against them might cause another world-shaking event. It might even turn the world unstable."
"Should I leave her to die, then?" asked Arthur after a pause. "I have a feeling that the next fight will be difficult. I'm no coward, but I learned my limits."
"And now, you want to break them," said King Arthur with a smile. "You are the master of your choices, creator. If this brings the world down, then you are the one responsible. I am a dead king, and you are my heir, whom I obey."
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