Chapter 43: The power of Time
Charles felt pain as he stumbled a few steps and soon fell backward. Breathing heavily, he sat up hurriedly without minding the pain and soon noticed that a superficial wound appeared on his right side chest area. At that moment, some strange, chilling energy also started to invade his chest area and caused him to breathe harder.
"Are you okay, Charle- young lady?" Emilia teased Charles from his side and then sharpened her gaze on the red-haired Addie Baker.
"Cough, I'm okay," Charles said while placing his hand on his shoulder area and casting [Crimson Cure] on himself. A moment later, the chilling energy began to disappear from his shoulder, and soon the superficial wound also began to heal at a visible rate.
Charles then stood up from the ground and turned his gaze towards Addie. Unlike before, Addie was also wounded on his right shoulder and stood with a grim look. As for how he got injured, only Emilia would know the truth. Charles even heard rough breathing sounds from him and instantly acted.
First, he cast the [Crimson Steps] as he ran towards Addie and pulled out the Ember Pistol from his void pouch.
In the meantime, Emilia took out a small blue crystal from her void pouch and muttered a word in an unknown language.
An instant later, Emilia disappeared from where she stood before and soon reappeared behind Addie. Before he could respond, she lifted her right hand and placed the palm on his back.
But instead of smiling foolishly, a wicked grin appeared on Addie's face as he raised his right hand and strangely wiped his mouth!
Noticing his abnormal action, Emilia spoke another word in an unknown language and then disappeared from there.
On the other hand, Addie shook his head and then returned his gaze towards Charles, who was running towards him at an abnormal speed.
"Snake," Addie spoke a single word and then walked forward with a calm expression on his face.
Meanwhile, tens of snakes made of black water popped out from the dirt ground and soon tangled Charles's legs. Within a second, those creepy snakes moved into his black skirt and white shirt and started restricting his movements. After that, those snakes bit him in different areas and caused him to curse in pain and anger.
At this time, Emilia reappeared a few meters away from Addie and was about to attack him using an Arcane Card but stopped.
No, she suddenly forgot how to activate the Arcane Card and got confused!
"Who are you, young lady?" In the meantime, Addie asked as he arrived in front of Charles and then took the Ember Pistol from him before creating more black snakes to immobilize him completely.
Within seconds, more black snakes slithered around Charles's body and covered him entirely, leaving his head, feet, and hands alone!
In the meantime, Addie casually threw the Ember Pistol towards his right side and then stared at Charles's feminine appearance in keen interest.
"Why did you stare at my house for a few seconds? Why did your action cause a variation in my fate?" He licked his lips and was about to probe Charles's mind but soon froze.
He suddenly sensed a dangerous premonition from his right side and got confused. Turning his head to his right side, Addie stared at the strange Ember Pistol, which was now hovering in the air in puzzlement, and soon widened his eyes as he heard a hammer clicking sound.
Before he could understand the situation, some invisible power controlled the Ember Pistol, aimed it accurately at Addie's head, and squeezed the trigger.
At this time, Emilia suddenly appeared behind Addie, touched his back, and cast [Touch of Idiocy] skill on him!
Addie couldn't understand why she wasn't affected by his [Mind Freeze] skill and got anxious.
But unlike the last time, the power hidden in the [Touch of Idiocy] was three times stronger!
Before Addie could even think further, Emilia's [Touch of Idiocy] spell took effect and ultimately affected his mind.
An instant later, a dense bullet made of pure fire energy came out from the muzzle and directly went towards Addie's forehead!
With a foolish smile on his face, Addie closed his eyes and waited.
In the next instant, the condensed flame bullet directly entered his head and exploded from inside.
An instant later, Addie's head exploded like watermelon and soon sent blood and brain matters in all directions!
Then, all those creepy black snakes on Charles's body turned into a puddle of black water and fell on the muddy road before absorbing into it.
[Target Eliminated! 1350 Battle Exp Rewarded!]
A heavy sigh leaked out of Charles's mouth as he stared at the game interface for a second and then curled his lips upward.
Meanwhile, Emilia wiped off the scarlet blood from her face and then stared at Charles's face for three full seconds.
"Sigh, you actually created six spell models in just one month. If I didn't see it with my own eyes, even I wouldn't think of such a possibility." Emilia said with a dubious look on her face.
"I was lucky-" Charles was about to put the blame on the 'Luck,' but Emilia cut him off.
"Charles, I'm not a dumb idiot. Haa, if you don't want to talk about it, leave it." She waved her hand before he could say anything and then changed the topic.
"Now, what should we do with this current situation?"
"Why not take his body into the void pouch and dump him somewhere?" Charles suggested as he stored the Ember Pistol in his void pouch.
"No. Yesterday, I heard a piece of news from my brother. A Rank 4 [Historian] class member had already come to this city and he seemed to be working with the security department to find more clues about the disappearance of three [Historians]." Emilia shook her head and spoke in a gloomy tone.
"Why are you mentioning him now?" Charles got confused by Emilia's words and asked.
A sigh leaked out of Emilia's mouth as she rubbed her temple and then spoke.
"The upgraded version of the [Wonder Sense] skill has the ability to see a glimpse of the past incidents. So, if he came here to search for any clues about those three [Historians], our secrets will be exposed."
Upon hearing her words, Charles blinked his eyes in surprise and soon asked,
"What should we do?"
In the meantime, Charles also thought of the Holem's Crown's another rumored ability and grew warier inside.
'It can see through past incidents... Shit, if it uses that ability to watch this battle, wouldn't it find something odd about me? Moreover, Team Leader also participated in this battle... The Holem's Crown will definitely link my facial appearance with Charles Nightwind's one and will see through my plan...' A grim look appeared on his face as he thought of that possibility. Meanwhile, Emilia thought for a moment and spoke.
"Charles, hide in Slum Street and try to act like a real..." She paused for a moment as she had no memory of Charles's new fake identity and soon asked.
"What is your fake name?"
"Edith Oliver, Team Leader." Charles covered his mouth to hide his emotion and replied.
"Yes, hide in the Slum Street using that name and keep monitoring Jimmy for the next few weeks. You don't have to worry about your fake identity's relationship with me. Because-" She purposefully paused for a second and continued with a mysterious smile on her face.
"My existence during the previous battle will be erased from the 'Time' itself," After saying those words, Emilia took out a sealed letter from her void pouch and passed it to Edith.
"What is it?" Charles raised his thin brows and asked in suspicion.
"It's our next mission. It's an escort mission to the outer area of the Unexplored Forest. Be sure to arrive at Withering Shadows on September 18th. That day will be the end of this search mission. If we found some clue before the escort mission, Muddy's team will take over this search mission. Otherwise, this mission will be considered a failure and we will lose some rewards."
"Unexplored Forest? Whom do we need to escort?" Charles became confused by Emilia's words and asked.
"Our employer is a rare class Mystic and I don't have much information about him. But he seemed to be an important person to the Life Church higher-ups. There will be many people accompanying this escort mission, so be prepared for any unexpected situations during the escort." Emilia said vaguely, took out a silver pocket watch, pressed the crown twice, and then walked towards the dark alley.
Meanwhile, a strange ripple came out from the stopwatch, went to the surrounding areas, and erased her appearance from the 'Past' itself. Truthfully, she participated in the earlier battle, but her existence was replaced with an invisible space. Unless a Divine or a Taboo Existence intervenes, nobody will find out that she had participated in the previous battle!
They would only find that some mysterious power intervened and helped Edith during the battle!
The strange 'Time' power also entered Charles's mind and was about to alter his memories, but the game system suddenly acted and nullified the 'Time' power.
Unaware of the actions that happened in his mind, Charles went near the headless corpse and then took the strange plain gold coin, silver ring, and blue gem-embedded gold coin from his neck. After that, he cast his [Inspect] skill on the plain gold coin and inspected it.
[Name: Coin of the Helper
Rank- Rare
Effect: This coin has the power of 'Death' hidden in it. When you activate this coin by saying the 'Change' word in the Nether tongue, an undead will appear from the Underworld and help you or your companion escape by creating a Nether Portal.
Caution: If you summon a high-class messenger, run for your life; otherwise, it will enslave your soul in return. This coin doesn't have to power to control a high-rank undead.
Usage: 1/week.]
'It's a double-edged sword. Moreover, 'Nether tongue'? Is that a magic language like the Runal Language?' He stared at the strange plain gold coin for a moment and soon shifted hIS gaze towards the blue gem-embedded silver ring.
[Name: Space Ring
Rank: Rare
Effect: This ring has ten cubic meters of space in it. By binding this ring with your soul imprint, you will be able to store your materials with much more protection. Unless you die, or someone with a high-level understanding of space law came and broke your soul imprint, no one would be able to steal the things from you. Even if they stole this space ring, you would be able to find its location using your soul imprint.]
The corner of Charles's lips curled upward as he saw the information in front of his eyes.
'I heard that space rings are scarce in this Edhen World, but I didn't expect Addie has one.' He stared at the ring for a moment and soon got puzzled about the 'Soul Imprint' thing.
'Looks like I need to check it using the hard way.' He muttered to himself and soon focused his full attention on the ring. As he had expected, a strange suction came from the 'Space Ring' and pulled a small part of his consciousness into it.
Charles saw different types of materials hovering in the space a moment later and got stunned for a while. Although he was eager to explore the contents, he hid his curiosity and then shifted his attention toward another gold coin.