[Target is using tier 4 spell: Lunar Metamorphosis]
The horror on Kayden's face was apparent as he witnessed Zhang transform into a being of pure madness. His head was swathed in white flames, and Kayden could see his skin burning off, revealing a black skull underneath. His purple robes had fused with his skin, forming thick, purple scales that covered every inch of his arm and torso. From the waist down, his legs were covered in thick, matted fur and quickly swelled up to double the size. From his fingers and toes grew sharp talons that sliced into his skin as he clawed desperately at his own throat.
Overall, Kayden would put this creature at the number one spot for nightmare fuel.
"[Not good! He's a lot more powerful now!]"
Kayden cursed and quickly sprang into action. With one of his normal daggers, he sliced his palm open and held it up to the sky.
"CHEESE!"
"[…Of all words, that's what you chose?]"
Ignoring Hel's complaints, he focused on the spell he was casting.
[User is using tier 3^ spell: Create Lesser Strength Undead.]
The cut on his palm began to widen, and more blood began pouring out, evaporating into a red mist. He could feel both his stamina and mana drain considerably, and the spell began to take effect.
All in sync, the three dead men stood up with a sudden jolt, their bodies in varying conditions. Ryan had blood pouring out of his mouth with his eyes rolled back, his reptilian face the same horrified expression he had right before his death. On the other hand, Brandon and Ronald didn't even have heads to express their emotions with. Kayden could only guess how they felt right before they died.
Like all undead summoned by a necromancer, they followed Kayden's each and every command. As a first-time necromancer, he had mixed feelings about using what was considered one of the vilest forms of magic in the entire world, but to save his skin, he put his prejudice aside for now.
He had far bigger problems ahead of him.
Name: Zhang
Title: Avatar of Arluna, Moonlit Ghost
Level: ???
Health: ???/???
Mana: ???/???
Job: ???
Status:
4 active buffs
"What in the world…?"
Never had he seen question marks riddle a large chunk of the stat page before. It was impossible for him to gauge just how powerful Zhang had become.
"[This is becoming worse that I thought.]"
"Why? What do the question marks mean?" Kayden inquired.
"[I can normally appraise just about anything. The only exception to this would be those… with divinity.]"
"Divinity, you say? You're saying this monstrous entity in front of me right now is a God?"
Kayden looked over at said monstrous entity, discovering that it still wasn't done clawing at its own neck. A nervous bead of sweat rolled down his forehead. It wasn't doing anything to him now but standing around doing nothing like this made him anxious. He decided to go on the offensive first.
"Go!"
He commanded his new undead minions to grab hold of the target's legs, and surprisingly, the monster let them. However, even if they were grabbed onto the legs successfully, their effectiveness was doubtful. It looked like a bunch of mice trying to hold back an elephant.
'Well, I'm not done yet!'
He created two guns made of ice in his hands again, aiming them both at the monster. These guns looked near-identical to the one his master owned, but a key difference was that they didn't work the same.
Unlike his master who needed to pull a trigger for it to fire, Kayden simply shot a tiny chunk of ice straight out of the gun's barrel, using mana to propel it to high speeds. The downside to this was that it forced him to use a substantial amount of mana for each shot he took. Still, the sheer power of the bullets was well worth the cost.
"Weapon creation successful! FIRE—"
"[Hold on! Don't attack it yet!]"
Kayden heeded Hel's warning and froze, beads of cold sweat dripping down his chin. If there was something incredibly dangerous about what he was about to do, he wanted to hear it.
"[A-appeal to the Goddess, it's the only way! Right now, that man is serving as an avatar for the Goddess! If you speak to him, the Goddess can hear it too!]"
Doubt was visibly written on Kayden's face, but he himself wasn't eager to fight that thing anyway. If there was any way to avoid a direct confrontation, he was going to take it. With a nervous breath, he began to make his appeal to the Goddess.
"Goddess of the Moon! Hear me out! You don't want to do this! And uh… uh…" Kayden had no idea what to say next. What on Eden was he supposed to say to a Goddess? Beg for mercy? Crack a joke?
The flaming skull that rested upon the monster's neck suddenly opened its mouth. A lofty, feminine voice rang out through its blackened teeth, and it was incredibly loud.
"Begging for your life, are we? Quickly state your case, I do not wish to spend any more time here."
Kayden was surprised. The Goddess actually gave him a chance!
"W-well, you see. There's zero benefit whatsoever in—"
"Wrong. I have everything to gain, while you have everything to lose. Come up with a better excuse."
"Oooookay…" Kayden huffed a bit. "How about this? I'm pretty powerful! Maybe I could do something for you?"
The voice paused, as if she was considering it, but not long after, the skull shook its head.
"There's nothing you can help me with. It's not that I don't trust you, but rather, you are simply incapable. Give me a good reason not to smite you right now."
Kayden was about to say the next thing that popped out from the top of his head, but he faltered. Instinctually, he felt that a wrong answer here would spell the end of him. No matter how confident he is about his powers, there was no way for him to stand up against a God.
Biting his lip, Kayden sifted through his brain for anything he could use. Anything he could offer up. Just anything. If his service wasn't enough, what was the next best thing?
'Treasure? No! There's nothing I have that would satisfy a Goddess. My life? That's even more pointless! Just what do I have to sacrifice?'
"You seem to be taking your own sweet time. While you come up with your next excuse, let me tell you something interesting. Did you know? We Divine do not take kindly to your kind around here. I'll be doing Eden a service if I got rid of you."
Kayden squinted in confusion.
"My… kind?"
Did the Gods hate a particular race? But that's weird, he was practically a human, the race with the largest population in the whole world! If it wasn't his human side that offended the Goddess, then it could only mean one thing… Well…
He was not at all surprised that the Goddess could tell that he wasn't a pure-blood human.
He was part giant. Frost giant, specifically, though he wasn't sure of the human-to-giant ratio of his blood. It was why he was capable of casting the necromancy spell, which required a giant's blood as its main component. He was the component.
Come to think of it, that certainly was a massive stroke of luck. The spell required giant blood, and he happened to have giant blood running through his veins. Talk about getting lucky!
What wasn't so lucky, was his situation right now.
"As expected of a Goddess, you figured out that I was part-giant in no time." Kayden praised, hoping to soften the Goddess' stance on him somewhat.
"Oh, you were born part giant? Interesting choice."
"…Bro…"
"[Hold on a minute, Kayden. I think she's confusing you for someone else. Tell her that you aren't an earthling.]"
Kayden was desperate to find a way out of his predicament, so he quickly latched onto Hel's advice, and did as she said.
"I-I'm not an earthling!"
"Did the System tell you to say that? It's no use trying to trick me."
And then… it hit him. Kayden pinched the bridge of his nose. He now understood what was happening. This whole situation was because of the System. It was loaded baggage that he had stolen from Matou, and it caused him trouble to no end.
Thinking back on it, there were a few things incredibly suspicious… His enemies all felt… off. They all acted as if they were characters from a script or actors on a stage. Even if Brandon wanted revenge on him, there certainly were better ways to go about it. Ryan seemed pretty smart, he should have been able to come up with a better plan. And this entire B-ranked party… Going this far for a simple map… seemed a bit too excessive.
And more than anything, they wanted his death so badly. Killing him would have ended their adventurer career instantly, and with his master's status, they would be hunted down to the ends of Eden, both by his master and by the Adventurer's Guild themselves. They all knew this! His background was not a secret! So why…?
"H-hey…! Isn't there something wrong? You're a Goddess! Can't you tell?" Kayden began screaming at the Goddess, "Something's off! Why do so many people want me dead?! I didn't even do anything!"
The hulking monstrosity remained silent for a good while as Kayden screamed his lungs off. Eventually, he was out of breath and slowly collapsed onto his knees.
The monster looked at him with empty eye sockets and opened its mouth to speak.
"You… do not seem to be lying. And frankly, there's been something bothering me for a while now. You don't happen to use mind-altering magic, do you?"
Kayden weakly shook his head.
"I see… Something far more sinister is at play here… Very well, I'll let you go. If you wish to know more about… your circumstances, visit one of my temples. My followers will fill you in."
Leaving those final words, the white light in Zhang's hollow sockets was snuffed out, and he fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut off.
[B-ranked adventurer has been killed (assist)! You gain 7,200 EXP!]
[You level up! (Gain one stat point)]
"I-is she gone…?"
"[I think so…]"
"I-I don't think I'll be able to sleep at night after that. Haha…"
With that, he collapsed onto the ground, laughing hysterically. What in the heavens is even happening anymore? Mind-altering magic, was it? Well, at least he got a clue.
As much as he wanted to fall asleep right then and there, he knew he could not. There was something else he had to do first, and that was properly saving his allies.
They were all hidden away in a safe space Kayden found between some trees, and he covered it up with an illusion spell as well. Not only were his allies hidden there, but he had also hidden the dungeon map here too, just in case he died, and his allies couldn't find it.
Looking over all of them, he was relieved to find that none of them were seriously hurt, though all of them were still unconscious.
He couldn't really leave them like this, so he decided to set up camp, all by himself, even though his body was exhausted. It took a whopping full hour for him to finish setting up the tents, the campfire, and the bedrolls for everyone. After that, he carried all of them to their beds before dozing off into his own.
To his surprise, he didn't have nightmares. In fact, he slept like a rock, and by the time he woke up, the sun was up, and everyone else was up. How did he know? They were the first thing they saw when he opened his sleepy eyes.
All of them, save for Louis, were sitting around his bedroll, staring at him. Kayden eyed them cautiously.
"…What?"
Aisha was the first to speak up.
"What happened last night?"
Cold sweat began to roll down his back.
'Oh no, Louis didn't tell them about my powers, did he? Ugghhhhhhh…
He decided to first try and play dumb.
"What do you mean? Didn't Louis tell you?"
"Louis?" Alice cut in. "Well, we can't trust the words coming out of his traitorous mouth, so we tied him up outside. He refused to tell us what happened last night though… said we should ask you for the details."
Kayden heaved a giant sigh of relief in his heart. His secret hasn't been exposed, at least not yet. Now all he needed to do was to come up with a plausible explanation for everything.
"Let's go out first." He suggested, "It's too crowded in here."
Once they left the tent, he told them what happened, making it loud and clear so that Louis, who was tied to a tree with his wounds still unhealed, could hear.
"You see, a mysterious figure saved us! He turned the whole battlefield into ice, and quickly took out the enemy!"
"A he? Not she?" Aisha asked, disappointed. "I thought that it was your master who saved us."
Kayden shook his head, and continued,
"Unfortunately, my master did not come to save us, so we should all be grateful to the mysterious figure instead! Riiight?"
Kayden gave a pointed stare at Louis, who nodded silently in affirmation. He definitely got the message.
"Anyway, after dealing with them, he disappeared into the night. Thankfully, I wasn't knocked out during the battle, and I saw all of you unconscious when I tried to return to help. So instead, I set up camp for you all and went to sleep. The end."
"Really? Our savior sure is mysterious. He left Louis and Madison alive, but then killed the rest of their party. Doesn't sound like a hero to me." Said Conner.
Kayden heard an unfamiliar name.
"Madison?"
And then it dawned on him.
'F#ckkkkk! There's another person who knows of my secret!'
"I need to see her! Now! Where is she?"
They all stared at him in surprise.
"U-um! She was here a few minutes ago. I think she left when she heard that you were awake." Cathy earnestly replied to his question.
Hearing that, he buried his face into his hands, surprising his allies even more.
'I forgot! Why oh why did I forget? She's a loose end for God's sake.'
"Why did you let her leave? Isn't she an enemy?"
"Now now, no need to get so upset." Aisha placed a coaxing hand on his shoulder, "She apologized profusely for what she's done and even offered to compensate us for our troubles. Which we took, of course."
She winked at him and continued,
"Also, the poor girl was very traumatized and scared, probably because of her near-death experience with the mysterious figure. She refused to tell us the exact details though."
Those weren't enough to alleviate Kayden's fears. If Madison went ahead to tattle about him to other people, specifically the Adventurer's Guild, he was going to be arrested.
"I'm going to look for her!"
With a burst to speed and to everyone's surprise, Kayden shot out of the tent and into the forest, closely observing the blinking, yellow ping on the System's mini-map.