Chapter 752: A Sliver
Eness' heart leapt into her throat. She didn't know who this man was. No one had been in her apartment aside from herself in so very long. There was no reason for that to change today, unless...
The man only gave them a casual glance before tossing down a ticking device. Then, he calmly turned toward the window, placing a foot on the ledge as he pulled himself out.
Their eyes widened as they locked eyes with the bomb.
00:05
00:04
00:03
They turned away, rushing out of the room. The two young men hauled Eness with them, far less delicately than they ever had before. However, deep inside, they knew that they wouldn't be able to get away.
Despair colored their gazes, and heartache and guilt painted Eness' own.
She should have done more to push them away, more to get them out of this situation... more to save their lives.
But never did she think that the place she called home... was actually so cruel.
The man on the ledge remained calm as though an explosion wasn't about to erupt to his back. In his mind, the thoughts were flowing quite smoothly.
'The story will be clean. An alchemist's experiment gone wrong. A group of amateurs tried to help an Elixir maker heal her injuries but accidentally chose the wrong mixture.'
BOOM!
CRACK.
The sound was heart-pounding, but the eruption of flames and the billowing heat that should have come with it did.
The shockwave rippled out, sending the group sprawling down the hallway and shattering the windows and mirrors in the small space, but it was greatly suppressed, a little stronger than a forceful gust of wind.
The man had already leapt out of the window and scaled a nearby building when he realized that something was wrong.
BANG!
The roof of the small building shattered to pieces, spiraling out in all directions in a rain of hay, tile, and brick. But the man's heart shook.
Something was wrong.
Others wouldn't be able to tell the difference in the aftermath, but he could tell that that destruction had nothing to do with the bomb he had left behind.
There, standing on the edge of what once had been the location the roof began in, a man wearing a half-mask stood, his hand clasped behind his back.
Eness, Darla, and the others slowly propped themselves up, their hearts beating out of their chest.
When Eness saw the back of this young man, her eyes widened. "Gho-!"
She hurriedly stopped talking. She recognized the young man, but she couldn't believe it. Wasn't ghost man supposed to be dead? What happened?
A groan left her lips as more waves of pain hit her.
Sylas turned back and his palm flipped over. With a wave of his telekinesis, he sent the widow a shimmering Elixir before turning back to the man dressed in black in the distance.
The man was someone Sylas recognized immediately despite the disguise. He might be able to hide his presence from others, but Sylas had learned how to identify people by their Wills long ago.
Lucirius Guiz.
[Lucirius Guiz]
[Level: 30]
[Physical: 647]
[Mental: 803]
[Will: 877]
A flare of violet spiraled around Sylas as his Scorpion Warlord Armor took shape. Lucirius' eyes opened wide. "YOU-!"
BANG!
Sylas' foot crumbled the failing wall beneath him, crossing the distance between himself and Lucirius in an instant.
Lucirius' body swayed back, reaching toward empty air and seemingly pulling a spear out from the shadows.
Blade and fist met, but Lucirius was sent rocketing backward, his arm snapping in the wrong direction.
Sylas looked down on the man from above as he crashed through several buildings, landing on the wide, unkempt roads of the slums and drawing a deep trench.
Lucirius' stats were incredibly weak, so much so that Sylas felt he could pinch him to death with a single thought.
But he knew that things wouldn't be so easy. Nor did he want them to be.
If he killed Lucirius too easily, he wouldn't be able to execute the latter half of his plan with
ease.
He could have killed Lucirius in the first exchange just now, but he chose not to on purpose. Luckily, Lucirius didn't disappoint him.
Chi. Chi. Chi.
Lightning sparked around Lucirius as Runes that bound him shattered one after another.
A strong force of oppression descended from above as Sylas sensed a familiar presence. The last time he felt this... the System Eye descended, eradicating a Dogon in the blink of an eye. However, just as it was about to fully form, Lucirius coughed up a mouthful of blackened blood.
As though the sacrifice was enough, the oppressive might slowly vanished, leaving a man wreathed in lightning.
"I've wanted to kill you for a long time. Today, I'll show you a small bit of the Guiz Clan's power, you insufferable ant."
Lucirius' hair sparked and seemed to become just as much hair filaments as it was streaks of golden lightning.
His aura pierced toward the skies and storm clouds brewed.
BANG!
An arc of lightning came from the skies and struck Lucirius' body. But instead of writhing in pain, he greedily consumed it, whipping out his arm and snapping his broken bone back into place in a single fluid motion.
Streaks of gold overwhelmed Lucirius' eyes and body as he pointed his spear forward.
He took a step and vanished, becoming nothing more than a bolt cutting through the wind.
In a blink, his spear appeared before Sylas' throat.
Sylas side-stepped with a single fluid motion as though Lucirius' speed didn't bother him in the slightest, erupting with a vicious hook toward the Sylph's liver.
However, the Lucirius that Sylas had fought in the past only seemed awkward and unskilled because he was fighting with four hands tied behind his back.
How difficult was it to battle with the same fluidity when 99% of your skills were locked?
Now, however...
He had regained a tiny sliver of his real ability.
[Lucirius Guiz]
[Level: 45]
[Physical: 1529]
[Mental: 3729] [Will: 1372]