The water dragon effortlessly shot up into the sky. The energy from the explosion was no match for the martial skill's power.
The explosion's pressure vanished as if it was never there.
Be that as it may, Arnold could feel his head pounding from using the skill.
'I'm still not used to it. I'll have to use it more often.'
A dark cloud surrounded the area when the water dragon exploded.
The wolf was nowhere to be seen.
"Is it dead…?"
'No. I didn't get any XP. So where is it?'
Immediately after thinking so, a shadow appeared above him.
"Look out!" He heard Tanaera's voice.
"Guh!"
Mind-numbing pain was suddenly sent through his left shoulder. Something heavy was biting down on him. He felt his shoulder blade being crushed even through his armour.
He couldn't help but scream as he felt dull fangs digging into his flesh, crushing the bone in his upper arm and the join that connects to his shoulder.
He felt a giant paw hold him down on his right shoulder.
Arnold turned his head.
'How… did it get this big…?'
The great wolf was three times larger than before. Its once blueish grey fur was now ashen silver with its eyes shining in a blue light.
Arnold surrounded his fist in aura and punched its snout.
It did nothing. It felt like he was punching a concrete wall.
He punched again, this time much harder.
The wolf's teeth sunk deeper, causing Arnold to scream again. His mind blanked out for a second.
The screams from Tanaera and Rafaela woke him up. He grabbed the wolf's snout and tried to loosen its grip on his shoulder.
"Tanaera!" Arnold screamed Tanaera's name as he kept pushing it away, "Throw your strongest curse at it! This thing won't budge if you only use a Life Drain spell! A curse will multiply the damage!"
Curses have stronger debuff effects than regular Life Drain spells. The reason why people—especially Dark Magician players—prefer using Life Drain spells over strong curses is because the former's debuffs has a longer duration than the latter.
A curse is a temporary debuff that needs to be topped multiple times to do significant damage. If the curse's duration ends or it's removed then their effects wears off, unlike with Life Drain spells.
Life Drain spells are designed to make the enemy weaker the longer the enemy is exposed to the spell.
The wolf became much slower when Tanaera used her spells on it. It did everything it could to avoid being targeted by her Life Drain spell.
If a curse is added to it while being under the effects of a double life Drain spell then the effect will be increased immensely.
Tanaera shouted back: "But you'll be caught in the curse's range!"
"That doesn't matter! What's a little curse when I can get my first relic!? This mutt is standing in the way of that! Just do it!"
"….." Tanaera nodded and spread her arms.
A gigantic magic circle appeared behind her. It rotated like a windmill on a very windy day. The complex runic patterns intertwined and wrapped around each other with incredible proficiency.
'An 8th rank curse….'
Arnold couldn't help but smile bitterly.
However, this was the only way to get the great wolf off him.
Even a martial skill loaded with half his aura did only a little damage.
Instead of getting injured, the wolf grew bigger and stronger(probably to withstand the full force of his skill).
A divine beast's power shouldn't be underestimated.
'I hope I don't piss Olivia off in the future.'
The last thing he wants is to fight another Divine Beast. Neguard was one of the strongest variants. He was probably two times stronger than this great wolf. It will be awhile before he's strong enough to beat Neguard.
"Get ready! Hold the wolf down so that I can hit it with everything I've got!"
Arnold grabbed the wolf by the snout since that was the only grip he would get from its large head. His left arm's nerves were completely destroyed. He couldn't move a single finger. All he felt was a dull pain coming from his upper arm.
The magic circle behind Tanaera broke as if it was glass. A dark mist shot straight at Arnold and the wolf.
Arnold quickly equipped his helm.
That curse wasn't just any dark magician's curse. It was probably tens if not hundreds of curses stacked onto each other.
Arnold bit down hard and squeezed his eyes shut.
Everything went dark.
The pain he felt from before vanished.
"…Huh?"
He looked around.
He noticed that he was standing in a sort of tunnel, with the end of the tunnel being the only light.
Arnold's body suddenly moved on its own.
'Where am I going? Hey, stop. What the…? Stop! Dammit, listen to me!'
He kept walking despite his desire to stop.
Something suddenly grabbed his arm in the darkness. Something else grabbed his leg.
He felt himself being grabbed on multiple parts of his body.
'Five fingers… These are humans?'
Regardless of him being grabbed his body kept moving.
Multiple arms suddenly manifested in the darkness. He could see their figures in the light.
His body stopped.
The darkness disappeared. Light graced the dark tunnel.
Arnold felt like he got control of his body back. He looked around.
"….What is this…?"
A plethora of wriggling arms tried reaching out to him through the fleshy walls.
The human arms kept grabbing and pulling at him but they were too weak to exert any force that could move him.
He noticed that their fingernails were dark and broken as if they were digging through the sand for days on end. Others didn't even have flesh on their hands.
Their creepy wails echoed through the tunnel.
One of the arms suddenly pulled harder on him. Its body crawled out of the tunnel's walls.
"What the…"
It was a person whose face was eaten off. Their intestines were dragging behind them.
"…I…It was… was… you… You… did… did this…!" the undead said with a gargling voice.
Another figure emerged from the tunnel's wall.
It was only an upper body with guts dragging on the floor. The person's eye sockets were filled by big maggots wriggling out of their heads.
A subconscious "Guh" leaked out of Arnold as he grabbed his mouth.
Why was he seeing this? Who are these people?
The half man grabbed Arnold and climbed his legs.
"Eaten…. Eaten alive…! I was eaten alive! It… it… it was you who brought them to us! You did this!"
Arnold smacked the person. Their head exploded into chunks.
He grabbed the other arms and ripped them apart. Every arm that grabbed him was ripped from the walls.
"Tch!"
More and more of them crawled out of the walls and approached him.
They all pointed at him.
They said a lot of strange things. The most common phrase was: It was your fault" or "you brought them to us".
Who the hell were these dead people?
'Why am I even here…'
-Your body went into a state of curse shock, allowing you to be sent to an ethereal domain between the real world and the world of the dead souls. Do you see these people? You killed them, Arnold.
A faraway voice came from beside him. He looked in its direction but there was nothing besides the undead pointing at him.
-Look at them. Think back to when you watched their city burn to the ground.
'Wait, this voice…'
It was a woman's voice.
He heard it once before.
-Do you see the suffering you caused, Arnold?
'Where are you…?'
-It matters not. I am glad that you are here.
'Glad…? Who are you? Are you… Angelica, the one from the vision I saw?' The voice sounded exactly the same as the mature Angelica.
-Step towards the edge of the tunnel to see the truth.
The voice refused to answer him. It sounded much closer now.
His body suddenly moved on its own again.
'Dammit, not this again.'
Arnold reached the edge. He was suddenly lifted into the air by a mysterious force that pushed him above the ground.
A battlefield littered with corpses appeared below him. The stench of blood permeated the air.
"A war?"
He looked around.
The clouds above were strangely yellow unlike their usual grey and white colors.
"Is that the Eulia empire?"
In the distance to his left was a familiar nation with its high walls and five cities.
Golden clouds circled the empire.
The sound of thunder suddenly resounded and the clouds parted above the empire. A giant figure emerged.
"Is that…" Arnold recognized it. He saw it in one of the memories he inherited from the other Arnold, "…Is that a tree…?"
The figure resembled a tree but it was growing upside-down out of the sky. Thousands of vines and branches extended down to the empire.
What is that and why was he seeing it?
Another sound of thunder resounded, this time coming from the battlefield.
There was a rip in space that was slowly being pulled open. It sounded like glass breaking apart.
Something suddenly emerged from that rip in space.
It was an otherworldly titan monster that reached the clouds above in height.
It walked across the battlefield, heading in the direction of the empire.
Another titan monster stepped out from the rip in space.
The titans suddenly blasted the ground with beams of energy. The battlefield turned into an inferno of blue flames.
Several other titan monsters, along with an army of smaller monsters flooded the battlefield.
Those who were still alive fled with their weapons thrown on the ground. Though they tried to run, they were either blasted by an energy beam or killed by the smaller monsters.
How could humanity face those things?
All they could do was run.
A roar reverberated right as Arnold was beginning to think that the monsters will kill everyone.
Hundreds, no, thousands of lights appeared in the sky as if they were droplets of rain reflecting the light of a rainbow.
All those lights were right above the titans and the army of monsters.
"Who's doing that?"
-"You shall see soon."
Arnold looked around the battlefield to find the source of all those lights. A single light suddenly caught his eyes. It was coming from atop a small cliff.
"….!"
'That's—!'
His thoughts were interrupted by a calm voice. Despite how soft it was, it reverberated around the battlefield.
It said, "[Leviathan Storm]"
The lights that were in the sky intensified and grew larger.
Arnold suddenly heard the voices of the people on the battlefield.
"It's him… He's finally here…" the voice sounded relieved.
"Just when we thought Sir Hero and his party abandoned us… HE shows up…"
"Who is he?" another curious voice asked.
"Fool! You don't even know the man who can singlehandedly beat the Hero Party!? The Hero Party couldn't come today because they're closing down the demon portals that appeared! All of those portals appeared because of the actions of an elite mage. They prioritized the portals over us! Can you believe those scum!? But HE appeared to save our empire!"
"Who—"
"—King Arnold von Penston!"
Multiple roars shook the battlefield at that moment, sending chills down the spines of onlookers.
Thousands of blue dragons manifested from the lights. The dragons rained down on the battlefield as if they were meteors. They exploded into balls of blue energy that shook the entire battlefield.
The source of that power suddenly flew over the battlefield with his sword radiating a darker blue light. He swung his sword while in mid-air.
He said yet again, "[Leviathan Storm]"
A dragon burst out of the sword and fired a powerful beam of white light that killed every single titan monster that came out of that portal. The portal itself was destroyed by his power.
All this destruction was coming from a single man. His sword was a brilliant blue and his armor a vibrant white.
"H-He's like a god…."
He definitely displayed the power of one.
"I-I wish I could become his wife…" a female soldier said while biting her lip.
"He's not just one of the handsomest men in the empire but the strongest knight as well…" Another female soldier sighed in awe.
"Hahahaha! As expected! Nothing can hope to stand up against him!"
"Is it true that he can fight on equal grounds with Hero Luke?"
"The two has never gone against each other before but I think King Arnold is definitely stronger! The Hero's aura is no match for his raw power! I mean, he needs his entire party just to fight an army but this man, nay, this god needs only his sword."
Multiple cheers resounded. People sang "King Arnold's" praises.
Arnold's surroundings changed just as the cheers disappeared. He was now in darkness again.
He felt himself being grabbed.
He thought it was those dead people again but his surroundings changed again.
He could hear cheers coming from all around.
"—King Penston!"
Multiple people shouted that title.
'Why are they calling him a king….'
Arnold wasn't being grabbed by those dead humans but by actual people.
'Huh?'
He was now walking down a road with a crowd cheering him on. His body was moving on its own again.
Women and children hugged and kissed him as he walked by. Men with armor shook his hands and stood with their backs straight and a fiery passion in their eyes.
The crowd suddenly separated.
Arnold's perspective was lifted as he looked forward.
The Hero Party was standing there.
Luke.
Flora.
Shirley.
Alitus.
Besides those four, there were five other unidentifiable shadows. He couldn't figure out who they were but he knew every core Hero Party member by name since they appear throughout the story. There were nine of them in total.
'Wait, where's Lauran?'
There were supposed to be ten core members of the Hero Party. Sixty in total if you count the assistants and trainees.
Why wasn't Lauran included?
"Arnold."
The mature Luke stepped forward.
He said with a smile:
"Thank you for being there for the empire when we couldn't."
He extended a hand.
"It seems you're always cleaning up our mess, ahahaha!"
Arnold shook Luke's hands.
"I might take your Hero title, hahaha!"
All of them laughed.
Arnold felt himself being grabbed again from multiple directions.
His vision darkened.
The cheers disappeared.
"Don't you want that? To be recognized by everyone as one of humanity's greatest heroes instead of being known as a heartless villain?"
He was now sitting on a chair.
Someone, a woman, was sitting across him.
The woman was wearing a long white robe with a blind fold mask covering her eyes.
"Why did you show me that…?"
"That's the life your future self could've lived if he had become good sooner. He was much too late to be seen a hero by the people of the empire or the other nations."
"…Why?"
"He killed the hero, Arthur Tivurgian out of revenge for something Arthur did. That caused Luke von Berkley's death because he was forced to become a hero too early. He died to an assassin sent by Arsnoria."
"…."
'I killed Arthur? Why?'
"Is the 'why' important? How you'll prevent yourself from becoming the same as future Arnold, is what's important."
"How will I do that…?"
"Don't listen to that voice telling you that it's alright to let others suffer to achieve your goals. That will only bring chaos. Not just to your own future but to the future of the Hero Party. It will impact the entire world if there's no Hero Party."
"I know that…"
"Do you know why there wasn't a Hero Party?"
"Future Arnold told me—"
"Everything he told you was a lie. He killed them all, including the two heroes. Didn't I just tell you that? In the end, he was the sole reason for the destruction of the world in the future."
"…." Arnold narrowed his eyes.
His future self told him something different.
The Hero Party was never even formed in that timeline.
This woman in front of him must be the Angelica he saw in that vision when he was in his castle that stood atop the ruins of the Theocracy.
Angelica vanished in the middle of the DLC but she made quite an impact on the Hero's journey. Some say she died while others say she became the new destiny goddess and was taken into the divine realm by Melis. Perhaps the one in front of him was the latter?
The question he wanted an answer to was: Does she really care about the people he kills or does she care more about the power she gains by having control of the destinies of billions?
"Can you promise me something, Arnold von Berkley?"
"….." Arnold didn't nod or shake his head. He merely looked at her.
"Don't follow in the footsteps of the future you."
"…."
"Will you promise me that?"
"….Yeah…"
"I can see that you're lying,"
Something grabbed his leg.
"What the!? Are you doing this!?" Arnold shook the person off him but more and more grabbed him.
"No. I took advantage of your curse shock state to create a domain where the two of us can talk peacefully. But it appears that I'm not able to hold all those souls back. My presence in the past is much too weak as it is now. Hmm, I'll need to do something about that sooner or later…"
"Can't you do something!?"
They were pulling harder on Arnold. He couldn't even move now.
"Do not fret. Your real body is safe. Your—Arnold's—soul, however, isn't."
"What…?"
"Seeing as how you're the real Arnold von Berkley, the one currently residing in your body at the moment is the human from another world. Which means that he won't be as hard to persuade. Hmm, I may need to travel to this Earth and learn the cultures of that world if I'm going to become good friends with him. Perhaps I'll disguise myself as this Alecs person?"
Angelica stood up and gently waved her hand. The two chairs vanished and the white room was slowly being covered in darkness.
"Wait!"
A sound similar to glass breaking rang out.
"Goodbye, Arnold."
"Aaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!"
Hundreds, no, thousands of arms smothered him. They pushed him down; he had no means to stop them so he could only try and free himself.
The small ray of light that was coming from the top was swallowed up by the dead.