Arthur was thinking about the problem, about the spies and the secret cults, as he just stepped on entrance hall to leave the mansion, he was intrupted by Sasha.
"Where are you going at this time" she asked, curious about his presence at the door.
"I'm going to hunt for spies, as usual, but this time I'll go alone" said Arthur.
"Why? we have worked together to kill them, now you're going without me? again?" she said, frustated at him, thinking that he's being overprotective for her.
"Sasha, it's not that, you should keep our children safe, plus you haven't recovered properly yet, even if you got your old memories back, it takes time to recover from trauma, I don't know if I may return but I have taught you everything you need, since you're good enough to take care of them now, so please guide them as much as you can" he said, being cautious of the incidents that happened around their family.
"understood" she cooed, dismayed for not having her own disciples to help, watching Arthur leave her at the mansion.
Sleeping at the branch of a huge sherman tree, Zeref who assumed in Yuko Sayumi's shape, had a deep nap. Until Freiya and Yuko screamed at him to wake him up.
"Geez, what's wrong with you two" asked Zeref, annoyed by the screams.
"Nothing, hahaha" said Yuko, amused by Frieya's idea to torment him.
"Hey Freiya, should I kill you" asked Zeref, frowning with rage.
"N-nnooo" Frieya and Yuko muttered, as they became afraid of his demeanor.
"Alright, so just stay silent and be-"when he was just about to finish his sentence, Zeref remembered, the contract he made with Celine.
"what is it?" Yuko asked.
"Just remembered, there's something I need to tell her " Zeref picked up his frame, and concentrated himself, a few minutes later he finally connected to her.
Meanwhile Celine lingered at Zeref's room, she was cleaning his room at the moment, while taking care of the books he used to read.
"Celine, do you hear me?" Zeref's voice echoed inside Celine's head.
"Zer...is that you" Celine was a bit doubtful, as she felt a weird sensation on her head.
"Yes Celine, and I just wanted to talk about something, it's that I'm sorry for talking back at you" he said.
"it's fine, you did the right thing zer" she said while holding her tears. Eventhough she felt relief at his voice, on the inside she was extremely happy to hear Zeref's voice.
"ah anyways, I just got stuck in a tree, so I don't know what I'm supposed to do" said Zeref awkwardly reacting to her, Celine smiled but she's getting really pissed at him.
"idiot, just what are you upto right now" she face-palms.
"Anyways, I'll be back before you even know it, so you don't have to worry about it, I just have something to do right now" Zeref assured her, eventhough tears of joy on her face, she couldn't believe about how did he managed to escape the kidnapper.
"I'm glad that you're okay, so take care" she said, Zeref couldn't speak much, as it felt embaressing and awkward for him for to continue this conversation. Cutting the telepathic transmission.
"Just asking, who do you think is the prettier, me Freiya or that maid" Yuko said, Freiya giggled at her question.
"Celine is much prettier than you, eventhough you look like a almost like a model, but she's not that pretty as the princess" he said.
"Ofcourse, I am the prettiest, and that's a fact" Freiya echoed in Zeref's head, proudly being egocentric.
"Oof, a fatty thinks about being the diva, you should get your priorities checked, and you're no longer a princess" Yuko said, mocking her.
"A peasent like you is too dumb to know this world, you can't even socialize properly, learn some manners first" she said, visibly scoffing at her from her memories.
"Says the cow, and by the way, that was a lame comback, gosh how were you a fatass kid, no wonder why you got bullied in your teens" said Yuko, sarcastically.
"Shut up, nerd, aren't you the same" Freiya shouted.
"No bitch I wasn't, so how long did you rot inside this junk? 6 years?" Yuko said to her.
"he ain't a junk, you stupid cunt" she retorted.
"Shmucks, keep quiet, I'm going for a kill, there's a mythical beast nearby, so no more cussing" Zeref whispered in Yuko's voice, as he intrupted them, but even a whisper could be loud and clear for both of them, leaving the tree.
Floating in mid air, zeref used mana sense to check the surroundings. Sensing an immense mana energy, he found out a mythical beast lurking inside a jungle.
Following it's stench, as it grew bigger and bigger, suddenly infront of the creature. Which appeared outside the pond. A giant toad with retractable spikes on it's back, standing 10 feet tall, probably weighing around a ton.
Freiya and Yuko quivered, being scared of the aura it emitted, the toad was known to be the nightmare to many adventurers got eaten by it. especially the summons.
"You had to come here, have you got a deathwish Zer-chan?" Freiya asked, with her tone of voice that kept shivering.
The Toad was called Erngek, a demonic abomination from hell which survived for 300,000 years. scavenging for mana and eating it's preys nearby, the sole purpose of the toad is to eat, and gain power, it was on par with a high tier 6th circle mage or a 5th class aura.
Zeref was obviously confused, as the aura changed to an immense pressure, it was more stronger than the 10 sages from another world, now he could die anytime. although he had something up on sleeves, the forbidden spells. This time, lady luck saved him, all his divine protections had been activated, most likely during emergencies or near death situations.
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[ Forbidden spell: Herul's divine hunger]
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{Goddess of war: Enya's blessings}
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[God of wrath: Dullanhir's blessings]
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[Goddess of healing: Hyllene's blessing]
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[Goddess of Time: Virjhel's blessing's]
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[God of luck and restoration: Gerd's blessing's]
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Zeref attacked the toad, scowling at it, as thick mist engulfed on it, confusing the toad, as it tried it's best to adapt, the toad attacked him, with it's sticky tongue slamming into his torse. heavily injuring him, coughing up blood as he fling towards the forest.
Zeref stood, after getting healed, he stood, as he dodged the spike projectiles it threw, one of them hit him, releasing a poison into his body.
"Shit" confused, Zeref used fire bolt to injure the toad, but then again, toad proceeded to attack him. Thankfully the protections decreased the effectiveness of poison. buffed by the God of wrath's blessing, which grants immunity to all posions and curses while being resilent.
Predicting it's next move, randomly manouvering, as the toad got became blind, while the toad couldn't bear the cursed technique's power. Zeref used Freiya's ice power, throwing hundreds of small ice spikes on it, even freezing it's leg, even if Freiya's magic powers got enhanced by Zeref's protections, it still broke free.
Zeref, who fought in Yuko's form, used her dagger skills to attack the toad in sub-sonic speeds, imbueing the dagger with ice magic of Freiya, and even Yuko's poison knife skill. manvouring via wind magic, which came from the mage assasin herself.
Going back and forth, using obstacles near him to manuvour, while cutting the weak points until the fog entered the toad. Even dodging the spike projectiles, became easier as the fight progressed, thanks to the blessing from the Goddess of war, and the God of restoration and luck.
The divine protections, enhanced frieya's and Yuko's ability, even magic powers too, while successfully overpowering the toad, the fight took 3 hours to finish, until the toad became too exhausted to keep up, as it got consumed by the mist in process, dissolving into the it. The toad vanished from thin air.
Herul was the Demon that plagued the heavens, Killing and eating things around him, that demon's thirst and hunger was enough to make angels fear him, Alas, he got killed by an Archangel. Hence the Apex predator died with it's own glory.
Zeref coughed blood, with injuries present as it got healed, the forbidden skill heavily injured his organs, he could potentially die at any moment now, but gladly, the blessings restored his health, this became his first near death experience, the forbidden skill almost killed him.
"Dammit, I never thought it was that taxing" said Zeref, groaned as he scowled at himself.
Freiya and Yuko were amazed at the level of power he used. They were impressed by him using their abilities to gain upper hand in the fight, although even after taking it's powers and mana energy, he felt too tired.
"Crap, I shouldn't rely much on my blessings or forbidden spells" thought Zeref, panting, as he got disappointed by the weakness he had. It felt like he used a lot of mana to kill the toad.
"That was amazing" said Yuko, trying to cheer him up.
"Zeref, you're a true monster" Freiya said, judging from the blessings, which had killed the Demon king of nether magic, Dein. She started admiring him.
"Maybe so, but I'm still weak" he said, believing that if he wasn't born with Yeingard's blessings nor without Dein's power, he could instantly die.
Unfortunately he got the urgency to vomit after the tiring fight, puking everything he ate during lunch at the afternoon.
Freiya and Yuko became worried about Zeref. Eventhough they used to hate him for taking their bodies.
"Are you okay" asked Yuko.
"I'm totally fine, I just need to find a place to sleep" said Zeref, panting in yuko's voice, as he forced himself to find a small cave. with a dead end just after 100 meters. It was enough for him to make himself comfortable.
Oddly enough, there wasn't any bugs nor any plants. He shot fire ball, just to check if it's a trap. Gladly there wasn't anything suspicious.
Using earth magic to close the den, fire magic on his fingertips, just to check any threat beside him, He found nothing. Relieved, he lay down, sleeping on the ground.
The next morning Zeref woke up, destroying the rock made by him, which used to cover up the small cave. it was visible that his physical strength got enhanced thanks to the monster's power.
As the sunlight bathed on him, the ashen skin of young lady assasin, stretched her arms, cleaning his or her teeth via nether magick.
Suddenly, a strange notification popped up.
[ you have levelled up]
[Name: Zeref
level: 20
Class: Mixed (Aura/magic), mage warrior.
Powers: Dein's curse arts,
Valgurid Aura-mana arts
Reinhard's blessings
Hyper focus(original world) ]
[New skill Acquired: status restoration]
"What the hell? is this one of those stupid game system novels? why is this showing up?"
"wait don't tell that time?" Jordan remembers about the incident. am eerie lady that whispered her name.
"maybe it's related to that, but I'm not sure why I have my old power here." Zeref thought but then again, he didn't have to time to think about it. he must get it done since Vahn is expecting Yuko to come back.
After finding his clone, which killed some monsters, Zeref carried it, and rushed towards the Jehovich continent, especially the Herdin state which his target resides on.
7 hours have passed, it became 20:00 at night, Zeref reached the destination, at Archmage Trildigor's place.
"Give me the child" Trildigor asked.
"Pardon?" said Yuko.
"Obey my orders" he said. As yuko, who is actually Zeref, pretend to be under his control, giving the child, wickedly grining at him on behind. Trildigor killed the clone as it started bleeding.
"Why did you kill the child" asked Yuko, but deep inside Zeref was laughing at him, even Freiya and Yuko couldn't control their laughter, as they were pretty impressed by Zeref's scheme.
"Master, don't you think that's bad, I mean, what if the Valgurid family chase us" she asked.
"Valgurid family is easy to handle, as long as they fall subserviant to me, I would resurrect this child back alive, not as an undead, but as a living human flesh" said Vahn Trildigor.
"I see" said yuko, amiably smiling at him, the look she made on him, did make him confused, as she never smiled at him.
As he paid attention to the child, it began melting, it's shape deformed into an abomination, eventhough it smiled, grining beyond it's cheek level, the eyes changed colours to red pupil and black, staring at him, while bleeding in tears.
"What?" Vahn's complextion became tight, as he was utterly perplexed by this scenario. Scowling at the predicament, suddenly he got stabbed behind his back.
"Maybe you're right, Valgurid family could be easy to deal with" said Yuko sarcastically, as she smiled cynically at him, her eyes glowed purple instead of the green eyes she had.
"What did you do to me" he asked.
"Simple, I managed to bypass all the curse protection seals, and released them all, so you won't inhibit one of their bodies as you die, you think I wasn't smart enough to play this" smiled Zeref, grinning with yuko's face in a much twisted way possible.
"WHO ARE YOU" Vahn screamed as he collapsed near a table. destroying the research objects around it. Zeref used Zenith hand, to move the knife trapped on his torse, and back into his hands.
Although, as the knife was stabbed at the back, the zenith hands caught the knife's sharp tip, pulling it out in front of him. The knife came back to his hand, massively injuring Vahn's lungs, even destroying ribs too. He wasn't able to use magic which perplexed him more.
"Thi..this keuk....can't..bb...be, who are you?" Vahn massively quivered, as his body weakned, which made him drop to the floor, blood leeked from his chest.
"I am Zeref Valgurid" she said calmly, Vahn became shocked at the truth. The Mage, witnessed himself, getting stabbed on his head, by his own disciple's body, as he died with fear and a deep lingering grief.
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