"Your skills can be upgraded by two if you manage to eliminate the Silver King and witch."
Arion gasped, completely astonished.
"My skills can be upgraded again?!"
He began to wonder how powerful he would become if his skills were upgraded by two.
Having the Devilmite Beam and the Immortal Extinction Attack made him highly formidable to begin with, so having two more, he couldn't imagine the extent of his magic.
"My skills can be upgraded again, so let's upgrade it," he said with a sinister grin on his face, then dashed into the gate.
His intention was clear: to kill the dark witch and the Silver King, and retrieve the sword.
Although he didn't know the actual location of the three things he was looking for, he believed he would find them soon.
He walked up to the front door of the palace.
The door was a black long one made of silver.
Arion didn't consider the potential dangers behind the door and opened it.
It was then that he realized the palace had been alerted of his presence.
About a dozen soldiers appeared in the hallway, about five meters away from Arion. He continued walking, leaving the door open behind him.
"Halt!" one of the soldiers boldly commanded, but Arion continued walking.
He crossed his arms behind him nonchalantly.
Instantly, the soldiers sheathed their swords and positioned themselves towards Arion, getting closer to him.
Even when the gap between them closed, Arion didn't stop, as if he was going to bump into them.
The soldiers signaled to each other. They advanced towards Arion. However, they were all struck to death by lightning that manifested from the ceiling of the palace hallway.
Arion was agape seeing this and his eyebrows rose
"I was preparing to conjure lightning, but the lightning already conjured itself. How is that possible?"
It was at that moment he realized he had not noticed the change in his magic, as it had been a while since he used it.
He had lost his own power but gained the Zeraphar guardian's power afterward. He was overwhelmed by how powerful the guardian was.
"It seems like completing the mission is just the tip of the iceberg, just like eliminating the shadows last time," he said. Maybe he would complete the mission sooner than he thought with his newfound ability.
He looked down the long hallway and thought it would take time to reach its end if he decided to walk.
Arion sighed before closing his eyes, and after two seconds, he opened them, and he was already at the end of the hallway.
There was a branched path at the end — the route split into two separate routes.
Arion was unsure of which one was the fastest to the king's room.
However, he realized something. It seemed strange that the place was silent and no one was guarding the way.
Arion presumed, "I must be under a close watch now. It doesn't matter whether I take the bait or not, because I am standing in the trap right now....."
"Activate!" a soft woman's voice said, and Arion turned around to see who it was.
Then he saw the dark witch in the left path. His anger rose, and he clenched his fist.
But when he attempted to move, the spot where he stood cracked and then a square formed from it.
"What...?" He wondered, but the 'square' spot sank, and Arion was thrown into an underground prison.
It was then he knew what the dark witch meant by 'activate.'
The floor of the prison was covered with hay, just like that of the one he was abducted in last time.
Arion rose from it and looked around. He saw more prisons like animal cages, similar to the one he was in.
He walked forward and peered into the cages, leaning his hands on the prison metal bars. There were skeletons in those cages, already consumed by decomposers.
In a few more cages, there were dead bodies of men and women, showing signs of suffocation on their necks.
"That devil has killed people so far for their magical essence," Arion said. "But how did all of them die from suffocation?"
Arion couldn't think of a potential reason at the moment and he stepped away from the metals. He contemplated how he would escape from there, knowing his magic might not work as it did before.
His attention was diverted by a haze of smoke coming from the right direction.
He glanced at the dead bodies once more and looked back at the hazy area.
In an instant, he noticed that the other cages had once been filled with the same smoke.
Arion thought of stopping the smoke from spreading to the cage where he was contained, and as he expected, a blue light conjured around the smoke and dissipated it.
Arion felt relieved, knowing he could escape from the prison.
But smoke started to spread from the sides of his cage and spread inside. He covered his nose as he was engulfed by the poisonous gas and tried his best not to inhale it.
He pinned himself to the wall, holding his breath.
"We have him in our custody as I speak," the dark witch said as she entered the king's royal chamber.
The king stood by the window, gazing at the palace gate from where he saw the earlier scene.
Upon seeing that the king was half-naked, the witch took a long leather jacket from the table and draped it gently over the king.
She spoke in a low, gentle voice, "I planted a jar of hydrogen sulphide gas in the prison instead of sulfur oxide, knowing that he might be able to withstand sulfur oxide than the latter."
"Good work then. I will reward you later," the king said in a moody manner.
The woman noticed the unusual atmosphere and asked him what the matter was. The king sighed, saying, "After I obtained the magical stone that day, I should have moved quickly to claim the throne of the demon king. I have wasted so much time, and I am contemplating my next move."
Arion was told by his sophisticated brain to inhale the gas after he had activated his magic, and the effect would be neutralized.
He slowly removed his hand from his nose and did as he was told, feeling like he was breathing in good air.
He teleported back to the hallway and was told that the sword he was looking for was in a magical tunnel located in the left path.
***
Merrick materialized at their sect, his face covered in mud, and his clothes shabby. All the disciples looked surprised. He walked gingerly, clearly exhausted, his face showing lack of sleep.
Seraphis came to his front and bowed, causing him to stop. Merrick asked straight, "Is father in his library?"
"Please look behind you, young master."
Merrick shifted his gaze to the back and saw his father standing there. He bowed his head slowly, "I am back, father."
Just as he expected, his father didn't reply to his greeting. Merrick knew what his father wanted to hear — that he came with the ancestral treasures and stopped the mountain god. However, he knew how angry his father would be on hearing this.
"I didn't get it...."
"I know. Just go in and freshen up."
Merrick was flabbergasted by what he heard. He was surprised but also afraid of what his father was planning to do.
He stared at him with his mouth slightly agape. Then Thorian cautioned him, "Go and freshen up. You stink, rascal!"
"Ye-yes, father," Merrick stammered before leaving, still unsure of his father's next plan.
Darian had been peeping at them from outside and had overheard their conversation. He was curious about what had happened.
Darian suspected Merrick was kind of strange lately so he followed him there, unknown.
Then Seraphis saw Darian's hair behind the fence and shot a red light, which moved like a comet to the fence. "Who is there?!"
The light shattered a part of the bricks, and Darian ran from the spot, jumping into a forest and escaping.
Knowing that he wouldn't be found, Darian stopped and thought, "What could Immortal Thorian have possibly sent Merrick for that seemed so important? Most importantly, it seems Merrick has been away for days. Is he being maltreated by his father?"
Arion reached the tunnel. The door was icy. Taking a deep breath, Arion touched it and momentarily, he felt a cold shiver ran down his spine.
The door unlocked, and he ventured inside.
He halted when he was informed that many trap mechanisms were present in the tunnel.
At that moment, he looked ahead and saw the golden-sheathed sword held in a sword stand on an icy platform.
White fumes surrounded the whole element, and Arion recognized them as another set of traps.
"I won't lose the chance to get that back," Arion said. He was informed that those traps had been destroyed, so he was free to proceed.
Arion dashed to the platform and took the sword immediately.
A sense of pleasure coursed through him, and his head thrilled.
He unsheathed the sword, the runes on it gleaming vibrantly.
Arion's grin widened, knowing that his life wasn't at risk anymore.
Suddenly, the icy door opened with a resounding thud and a group of soldiers appeared alongside the witch.
"I didn't want to take innocent lifes, but the so-called 'innocents' want to take my life. Nature allows me to do this..."
He dashed through the soldiers and looked straight into the witch's eyes.
All the soldiers crashed lifelessly into the ground.
"The game is over now, damn witch!"
The witch reached out to summon the sword from Arion's hand, but her incantation wasn't completed before her finger was cut off, and she was stabbed.
Blood rushed from her mouth, and she fell to her knees, hearing the statement "You aren't a match for me" before collapsing.
Her eyes were still wide open, but the eyeballs weren't moving anymore.
"Last one now," Arion muttered as he walked out of the tunnel, returning the sword to its sheath.
He was nonchalant in his actions, as if he was used to exterminating people.
Then he stopped, not out of fear, but when he saw a figure cloaked in darkness ahead.
Upon closer inspection, he thought he saw a leather jacket.
In the next instant, the figure was no longer there. Then Arion started hearing words coming from nowhere; he would turn when he heard the sinister voice from a direction, but it would appear it was coming from other directions. It was fluctuating.
"Do not get your hopes high. I am where I am today because I am powerful and the best in terms of magic and strength. A mountain god is just an average servant of the mountain, a weak and insignificant creature."
Arion continued to glance around.
He jested with a smirk, "You aren't so sure of what you are saying. I mean, only a coward uses invisibility magic to fool others."
He held his sword tightly, not letting his guard down.
For a couple of seconds, he didn't hear that voice anymore. The place became silent, and he awaited what he would hear next.
"Do you rely on this?"
A hint of air flashed past Arion, and the sword was no longer in his hand.
He became nervous, aware of the dangers he was subjected to. He would be dead if he got stabbed by this sword!
Then he saw the sword floating before him, about two meters away. Arion's heart trembled, and he panted hardly. He contemplated the dangers he was facing.
"Come directly to me if you aren't a coward!" Arion panted.
The handle of the sword struck Arion in the stomach, and he fell to the ground with a loud cry.
"Kharrgh!"
The sword floated towards him.
The voice came up once more, "It's a final end for you."
Immediately, Arion widened his palm towards the sword. "Freeze!" He thought, awaiting the thought to turn into action.
But it was too late as the sword rose towards him, and he looked away in fright, putting his hand up as if he could guard against the sword with it.
He then lost track of air around him, no sense of any other presence, as if there was no existence other than himself.
He was bewildered and lifted his frightened gaze up, only to notice that the sword hung at his forehead.
"Am I...am I really able to freeze time?"
He walked up and realized that time had indeed frozen. He couldn't believe it, even after knowing; he smiled and shook his head, overwhelmed. He contemplated it was time to end that invisible person.
The sword wasn't floating but appeared so because an invisible person was holding it.
Soon, when he cast a spell, the identity of that person would be revealed.
"Let's end this quickly. Everything in the world has paused for my sake, so I must resume it quickly."
He grabbed the sword handle and turned the tip towards the person he presumed. Taking a deep breath, he shouted, "Resume and reveal all hidden identity!"
Air rushed past him quickly, the figure manifested in front of him, and he swung the sword across the part where he believed the neck was.
Blood splashed on his face, and he looked at the front slowly, and he saw the Silver King's head about to fall!
He was surprised and agape. He didn't know it was the last person until then!
"You are a curse to the world..!" The king said faintly, and then, his head fell from his body, and it rolled to Arion's feet.
"Not to the entire world, but to the world of your kind. I will slay all monsters from this world!" Arion declared.
Then an information popped into his brain,
"Congratulations on finishing this mission. Your skills have been upgraded to Tri-beam and Dragon Fist. The skills would be fully defined very soon."
*****
"Everybody, come out! The stable worker won't stop until he kills the sect leader!"