I have returned! In case you forgot, I did say I was going on holiday and that's where I've been. A lovely holiday in the rolling hills of Scottish countryside with my cousin and my nephews, breathing in the fresh air as well as quad-biking in the mud, barbecuing in the hot sun and toasting marshmallows over the residuals. Horror movie nights, as much junk food as I can eat. I miss it already.
So yeah I'm back but developments in my life are stirring again as I just got my college results as well as a welcome letter from my university which I will be attending in September. Lots to look forward to, too little time to prepare.
Anyway, I believe that this is the perfect chapter to draw a comparison between Bell and Lyze as some have been wondering which is the stronger without any powerups or absurd magic. And I can put it very simply for you like this:
...
Bell's total stats as a fresh level 3 = [10,942]
Bell's total stats as a fresh level 4 = [16,812]
...
Lyze's total stats as a fresh level 3 = [21,135]
...
Yep, Lyze is currently stronger than a new level 4 Bell. And only a couple thousand stats short of Bell's as a fresh level 5. Of course, even level 5 Bell is thrown out of the window when Lyze either takes his Demon or his Angel form, but eh, it's the base stats that everyone looks at right?
Anyway, on with the chapter.
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(General POV)
Lyze once again sat upon a stool in front of Loki with his upper half completely bare as Loki opened up his Falna and poked around with it, waiting for the changes to make themselves known as she drank in the memories that came with the inpour of Excelia.
Lyze lifted one leg over the air and leaned his head on his palm as he looked around at the other two people in the room. Finn and Riveria stood on either side of the room, their faces slightly grim and calculating as they watched the process.
Lyze had wanted a status update as soon as possible after his latest escapade. The amount of tussles he'd had since the last one was sure to have some sort of effect after. His life had been in danger more than once.
Ais was still asleep from the spell he'd cast over her and Lili had retreated to her new room after Loki finally put a Falna on the girl. Everyone was in agreement that it needed to be done as soon as possible after Lili's last encounter. Without a proper Familia backing the poor girl, her past would keep coming back to haunt her.
As investigations were still going on on the Soma Familia, the god of wine himself had been isolated and stripped completely of his assets which saw a sharp drop in production of Soma wine...the only thing Loki was unhappy about. Without Soma making his addictive beverages anymore, Loki would have to revert fully to a worshipper of high quality Dionysus wine.
Of course in regards to Soma's children, there were two things going on. Those who were found not guilty of crimes (how they were doing that, Lyze didn't know but he had some suspicions) were free to do as they pleased as far as the guild was concerned. Those that were wanted had their names drafted onto a list and sure enough, Canoe Belway had been among them.
Of course when Lyze had learned of what the ingrate had done to Lili, needless to say he was fuming. Learning that the Astraea Familia had taken the man ahead of them and headed him over to the guild officials ticked him off even more so. He'd been so confident that with the Soma Familia being disbanded, Lili would be safe. But it seemed that spiteful bastards would still be spiteful bastards.
Lyze had regarded the chubby raccoon with a particular hate even in his past life. Something about the scruffy piece of shit just rubbed him the wrong way even when you forgot about the things he did to Lili. Just his face alone would want to make you stick a flamethrower up his ass, in Lyze's opinion at least.
The residual frustration over having not been able to finish off Phryne made Lyze's anger just that more palpable. He'd promised Freya that he would not take advantage over the infinite favours she was willing to give him, but just for pettiness's sake he would use one of those now.
Actually, now that he thought about it...could it work?...would Freya accept it?
Lyze resisted the dark smile threatening to come over his face as he thought of the perfect punishment for the little vermin. But he would wait...oh he would wait...and savour every last moment of what was to come.
Alex had always had a soft spot for Liliruca Arde. The girl had done some morally horrible things in her life but from a point of perspective, you could understand why she did the things she did. As Lyzof Keele and someone who had experienced the same kind of abuse in the very same place that Lili had once lived, and therefore the desire to save her from such suffering increased evermore.
Especially now, when looking upon the poor little Pallum who had yet to even think of doing what she did in canon, who was merely just a helpless and abused little orphan. Lyze could not help but be a little protective of her, especially now that the Pallum seemed a little dependent on him.
Her referring to him as her older brother seemed to signify as such.
"You have some questions for me?" He asked Finn, deciding to just get the subject out of the way as fast as possible. He didn't want to have their inevitable conversation hanging over his thoughts like a shadow.
"Yes, I do." Finn replied. "About a lot of things actually. I understand that the appearance of a monster threw you all off the original plans. But why did you not stick together like I told you to and escape?"
"A new type of monster appeared." Lyze sighed.
"Another one?" Riveria raised her brow.
"Yes. A humanoid with a singular eye on their face and nothing else. It appeared to possess the ability to petrify anyone who looked into its eye." Lyze nodded to Finn. "Just ask the Astraea Familia. Petrified monsters were littered all over the twelfth floor. I possess immunity against these kinds of magic but the monster was fast and it had a long range weapon. I acted as shield to stop it from pursuing Ais and Lili as I knew they would not make it out without the monster outpacing them"
"So you stayed to fight it and buy time for them to run?" Riveria sighed. "What did we tell you about suicidal moves like that? You can't keep risking your life like that."
"I had no other choice Riveria. Had we tried to run together, the beast would have petrified the girls. And even if it did that, it possesses far more speed stats compared to Lili and Ais. They would have been captured before they even knew it. I barely could react in time and it was crazy strong as well. I'd estimate around the strength of a fully maxed out level 3. So I, the most powerful fighter there decided to take my chances to fight it and buy the other two time to escape and then make it out of there myself when the opportunity presented itself."
Finn rubbed his chin and closed his eyes in confusion. "Why would a monster like that spawn in the Upper Floors? Such a creature with abilities like that would not be encountered even in the Middle Floors."
"Not to mention its petrifying ability." Riveria added. "Monsters do tend to have magical powers at times but I've never heard of something like that. If possible, I'd like to investigate the twelfth floor and study these petrified monsters if possible."
"I don't want anybody doing anything like that at this moment in time." Finn looked at her. "At least not by themselves. An unknown monster with abilities like that is not something to take lightly especially when it spawns that far up in the Dungeon. If you must do that, I'll accompany you or we could wait until Lyze submits a report to the guild and they decide what to do with it." Finn looked downwards in slight irritation. "This could put a stint in our expedition plans. You say you defeated it Lyze?"
"Yes." The boy nodded. "Barely but I managed. I estimate it will be no sweat on the Executives' part to deal with it if it does show its face again."
"We'll take note of that. For now just report it to the guild and see what they rule on the matter." Finn instructed. Lyze nodded and they all sat in silence again for a few moments before Finn spoke again. "Well, with that out of the way I guess we should address the other topic."
"You mean what I did to Phryne?" Lyze said.
"No. I mean how you did what you did to her." Finn looked at his vice captain. "Riveria has explained to me the abilities of that mysterious form you took down there. But I'd like to hear an explanation myself. Being able to brutalize a level 4 like that with such ease, and locking hands with me is no exaggeration of strength Lyze. How exactly does that work Lyze?"
"It's simply one of my forms that allow me to access greater power for a temporary amount of time." Lyze said. "That one in particular feeds off of my negative emotions and boosts my physical strength immensely." Lyze rubbed his nape. "It's one of the powers I used against Ottar although it honestly didn't do much against him."
"Forms?" Finn questioned. "You mean there's more?"
"Yes there is." Loki suddenly piped up in the middle of their conversation. She fixed her captain with a look. "But we are not to speak about them unless Lyze wishes so, understood Finn?"
Finn raised a brow at that as Loki's stare intensified, trying to convey some sort of message. Finn looked to Riveria and saw her nod in agreement as she let him know that she was thinking the same thing. Both the executives were having flashbacks to their conversation the other day with Loki. It seemed to them that this was a part of the things Loki wanted to leave undiscussed.
"Very well." Finn complied before looking to Lyze. "But now that I know of this power of yours Lyze, I would very much like to know what it's capable of. If you don't mind, I'd like to spar a little later with you."
"That would be nice." Lyze smiled. "We haven't fought since the day of the try-outs."
"Finn's just been put a little on his toes Lyzie." Loki said with a smile. "The sudden knowledge of you having a magical power up that can temporarily make you a threat even to him has him worrying about his standing in the Familia."
"It's nothing like that." Finn defended. "Besides, you can't say that a mere powerup affording Lyze strength that is approximately three levels above his own is not one of the most bizarre things to come across. It could even change the dynamics of our Familia during the expedition."
"Whatever you say Finn." Loki sang as the hieroglyphs on the Falna stopped moving. "Anyway, it looks like we're done here."
"What's the news Loki?" Lyze asked a she looked back at her. "Any new developments?"
"Yes indeed. For one you've got a new skill."
'Seriously? Another one?' Finn and Riveria simultaneously thought. Lyze's position as a holder of an absurd amount of skills was a development that still had adventurers scratching their heads. After all, people of Lyze's level had at max two in current times.
"Anything else?" Lyze asked curiously.
"Yep." Loki said with a smile. "You've maxed out all your stats now, believe it or not."
"Seriously!" They chorused.
"Yes. " Loki's smile grew even wider now. "And you know what that means~." Loki gave Lyze a pleading look.
Lyze sighed with a smile and shook his head. Loki's enthusiasm was quite obviously palpable.
"Go ahead." He nodded to her.
Loki squealed in happiness as her hands flew to her blessing while she withdrew a piece of parchment from...somewhere.
Finn and Riveria shook their heads while smiling as the Pallum looked up at the ceiling in disbelief.
"All the way to level 3 in just a month alone." Finn said wistfully. "Perhaps I might actually have a legitimate reason for worry now."
"Oh you definitely will." Lyze grinned.
"Why?"
"You'll see." Lyze would've winked if the others could see it. He turned to Loki. "Has another sub-skill slot opened under my first skill Loki?"
"Hm?" Loki looked at him before checking. "Yes actually, there has."
"Good. Can you put 'Disaster' in it please?"
"Oookay." Loki said as she moved the skill over to the new slot. It always did fascinate her how she got to play with these extra features in Lyze's Falna. Only now did she understand why that was the case but it did not make it any less fun. It surprised her though that Lyze had not wanted to hear about the new set of skills that had appeared in availability for the slot. But Lyze knew these powers better than she did and she assumed he had already thought this out.
Lyze however did not want to make the same mistake again. It was better to have the power on hand and not need it than need it and not have it. And this particular magical power was bound to bring him a lot of fun shortly.
Loki pressed the parchment to his back and waited for the writing to appear as she closed his Falna. Once again, Lyze had broken another record and it brought her boundless joy at yet another absurd and monumental achievement amongst her own children. It also served as extra material to rub in the gods' faces whenever she saw them next.
"Just in case you were interested Lyzie." She said to him as she passed him the parchment. "It looked like the sudden increase in stats since the last update was due to your fight with Phryne for some reason."
Lyze gave her a shocked look.
"Really?!"
"Yes." Loki smiled as she gave him a sly smile. "I told you that Lightning of yours was special didn't I?"
Lyze's eyes widened as his suspicions were confirmed at long last. And with it came the memory of Nekros's words to him. The Force Lightning was just a random offensive ability given to him by Nekros and even now Lyze cringed a little at having this ability despite it's endless convenience and now revealed capabilities. Nekros had told him that it would not afford him an Excelia from monsters.
From 'monsters'.
He never said anything about other 'adventurers'. Lyze looked down in shock at his new stats sheet.
'Have I...been STEALING Excelia from other adventurers?'
...
Lyzof Keele
LEVEL: 3
STR: 0 I
END: 0 I
DEX: 0 I
AGI: 0 I
MAG: 0 I
SKILLS;
{Xenia Khaos}
{Overdraft}
{Perseverance}
{Cratus}
DEVELOPMENTAL ABILITY:
Hunter: H
Swordsman: H
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