Geto City Outskirts
Great Western Empire
December 7th
Year 1051
**RUMBLE!!
The sky rumbled as the clouds began to gather in the sky. The postcard-perfect sky had changed completely. The beautiful cocktail-blue shade had darkened into gravel-grey. Large pillows of cloud had ford, blotting out the old-gold colour of the sun.
**PITTER-PATTER
The rain splattered down on all the people dressed in black who were staring at the proceedings of the funeral ceremony in front of them.
Evan took shelter under an old oak, subconsciously hoping that he could see out the shower.
Droplets of moisture dripped from the leaves, sprinkling onto the grass like a gardener's hose. The rainfall beca more intense as a wall of rain moved over the oak with the drops drumming against the canopy.
His gaze, however, was fixed on the figures of the priests wearing robes inscribed with a 'Golden Rose' symbol who were conducting the funeral ceremony in front of him.
Ever since he ca to Aidos, he had not encountered mbers of the church at all, he had been unconsciously avoiding them.
This funeral ceremony was his first ti being so close to any of the church's mbers. As for the deity they worshipped, it was naturally the goddess who sent him to Aidos, Artemisia.
**PITTER-PATTER
A month had passed since that faithful day, the day when tragedy struck Geto city.
Ninety-five
That was the number of Knights Xakon murdered the night before the day of the tragedy. All the knights of the Geto barony were found dead in the basent of the baron's mansion.
This was the reason for the lack of security response by the knights, they were all already dead, after all.
One hundred and twenty-eight.
That was the number of adventurers who had t their unfortunate ends when the demon, Xakon, used his Detonate skill in the adventurer's guild building.
Forty-three.
That was the number of innocent civilians who just happened to be close by to the adventurer's guild building and were killed by the explosion.
Seventy-nine
That was the number of those who were injured by the explosion and were still under intensive care in the Geto City clinic.
As for the party that happened to be in the sa room with Evan when Xakon activated his skill, one of them t his end while the other two were injured and were currently still unconscious.
They either lost a few limbs or had their entire skin burnt off from their bodies.
Even if Evan didn't really get along with him, seeing what was left of Nodin's body being lowered into the ground by the undertakers left more than just a bad taste in his mouth.
A part of the eleven-year-old still blad himself for Xakon's actions that day, after all, if he was never there, then Xakon would not have killed off nearly two hundred and fifty people who were just going about their everyday lives.
Evan would also have not survived if the still recovering shadow spirit did not put his life on the line to save the young hero.
Since that day, Kuro retreated to Evan's shadow and had not co out ever since. Though Eliza perford so healing on Kuro, she stated that the young shadow spirit's injuries were a lot more severe than they appeared to be.
As for Kayla, even after Eliza used a few charges of her skill, she was still unable to purge out the demonic energy that Xakon had infected her body with.
Even Pride did not have much luck in that area, despite being a demon herself.
Evan heaved a sigh as he watched the mass burial occurring in front of him. On his left was a woman of average height and a slim build, with fair skin and long black hair that spilled over her shoulders and down to her waist.
She was dressed in an all-black gown with a black hat on her head and she stood under the old oak with Evan, shielding herself from the rain.
"I always disliked aningless slaughter. Why go through all the stress of killing hundreds of others besides your original target, such an action was unnecessary.
She muttered to herself under her breath as she clicked her tongue and shook her head at the scene in front of her.
'Says the person who sunk entire island countries a thousand years ago.'
Evan retorted internally as he turned his gaze to the guild master who Xakon had sent out two days before, and had returned barely a few minutes after the demon had t its end.
It was blatantly obvious to anyone who knew what fully happened that Xakon had sent the guild master out using the city lord's authority to prevent him from interfering.
Sadly, his plan worked perfectly.
Geto had barely even began to recover from the chaos and destruction of that faithful day.
The normal citizens were scared of leaving their hos as the ones responsible for protecting them, naly the knights and adventurers, had faced a drastic reduction in numbers.
Many others had now begun to laud Evan and Pride as their heroes as so who were hiding in their houses and didn't flee the city, witnessed Evan and Pride fighting against so 'grey skinned, winged-humanoid'.
Between the normal looking Evan and Pride, and the grey skinned obviously inhuman Xakon, they were more inclined to believe Evan and Pride to be on their side.
This belief turned into conviction as the Royal knights who ca with Eliza on Laurene's orders vouched for Evan.
Naturally, this was partially because they recognized him as the missing son of Duke Eris and partially because he indeed dealt the final blow to the monster.
As for Evan's demonic possessed state, not many saw its true nature and so they did not realize that Evan had taken on a similar for to that of Xakon's.
As such, he had now begun to be considered a hero among the people of Geto, even though part of the reason Xakon attacked was because of him.
Of course, Evan was not stupid enough to say that.
In regards to how they were unable to sense his demonic possession and the transformation that ca with it, he had two suspects.
'Most likely Artemisia's doing. If it wasn't her, then it's definitely 'that' guy.'
He stared at the blinking blue notice board in front of him that carried a single ssage that had been replaying itself over the span of the past few days.
[The 'Eternal of Ti and Destruction' says you should not bla yourself for the deaths of people unrelated to you.]
The other 'godly' being who claid to be friends with Artemisia and had been silent ever since he 'created' his vortex skill.
He suddenly sent Evan the ssage the mont he woke up after being unconscious for two weeks.
[The 'Eternal of Ti and Destruction' states that he was once like you, acting like he didn't, but deep down, caring about every single innocent life that he endangered during his quest for power and feeling sad at the deaths of all those who perished because of him.
However, he soon realised that in order to achieve his goals, he had to steel his heart and not be affected by things such as the passing of people unrelated to him.
He says that besides the party you braved the spider folk dungeon with recently, none of the other beings who perished are of any relation to you, thus, you should not let their deaths bring you down and make you waver in your determination.
Nevertheless, this does not an that you should not try to prevent such aningless killing if you are able to.]
While Evan found so sense in what he was being told, it was not so easy for his ntality to change, as such, he still felt that Xakon's actions and the deaths that resulted from these actions were his fault.
p
Upon hurriedly turning his head around, making Pride send him a questioning gaze, he discovered a figure gazing at him from atop an uncompleted building in the distance.
After the attack, it took the people of Geto a week to recover enough to start rebuilding the buildings that were destroyed in the battle. The reconstruction was still ongoing even at the ti of the mass burial for the departed souls.
Evan on the other hand, had woken up a week after this rebuilding action began and ever since then, he had felt that his body had gone through a change that he could not fully explain.
His status board was also unavailable due to so reasons he did not understand so he could not see what changes were made to his body.
His enhanced eyesight and increased kinetic vision were so of the benefits he now enjoyed, this was the reason he was able to clearly spot the face of a man atop the roof of a building more than five buildings away.
'That...!'
As the highest-ranked player of Aidos online, it was impossible for him to mistake that person for soone else.
'There's no doubt...it's 'him'!'
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