System Change

Tevarian clutched at his now shattered fingers in pain. It’s good to know that he somehow feels pain in this form, at least. Derek was intensely taking mental notes in case he ended up fighting an enemy with an ability like the one the King of Astrus was showing in the future. His void channeled attacks worked well on flesh and energy—if that’s what he could consider was in the golem’s mana cores—but didn’t seem to work well on completely solid objects.

Also, seeing that the man could still feel pain even though his entire body was solid ice, gave Derek something to think about. His nerves and pain receptors should have been frozen solid, as well, but clearly, the system wasn’t allowing such a thing.

“I’ll tell you what,” Derek said. “I have a separate space that I can open, and if you go inside without causing a fuss, I won’t kill you here and now.”

“Hmph,” the man snorted while still clutching one hand with the other. “It’s true that you may be stronger than me and even have some insane healing ability. But I don’t believe you would be able to kill me—especially since I know what to look out for now. Those skills take too long for you to cast. You won’t hit me with them again.”

“That’s funny,” Derek replied. “I hadn’t planned on using them again. I have a much better, and easier, strategy to take care of you. The offer’s available for the next ten seconds. And know that even if I can’t kill you in that form, there is no way you can escape me.”

“There is always a way to escape,” the man said. “Did you think that I came to the front lines without being prepared for something to go wrong?”

6…5…4… oh, she’s here early. Derek was counting down in his mind as he let the king blabber on. “I don’t think you understand,” Derek said. “You could teleport to the other side of the world, and I could be beside you in a matter of seconds. You could go into a dungeon, and I will still appear. There is no escape—not from the Cydarian Army, or Edgar, or Alanah—but from me.”

“Lies!” the angry king shouted as he flicked his wrist and a scroll appeared in his hand. “I don’t believe you. Let’s see if what you say is true.”

“Wait!” Derek held his hand out for the man to stop.

“No, that’s not it,” Derek grinned. “It’s a pity to destroy a teleport scroll like that. I’m assuming that’s what that is.”

“A pity? Using such a scroll to preserve one’s life is never a pity.”

“That’s not what I was talking about,” Derek said. “I was just waiting for her to get into position.”

“Wha…” Tevarian started, but was immediately hit by a terribly hot wave of dragon fire.

The scroll in his hand had instantly burned up upon impact, and there was nothing he could do to activate it any longer. Soon, Derek heard a thud as his ice body crashed into the ground from the force of the dragon flame. But Silvi didn’t let up—the massive flood of fire continued to pour from just outside her small mouth. It wasn’t until Derek received the kill notification that the fire stopped.

Your Bonded Companion Has Killed 250 Ice Mage

850,000,000,000 Experience Gained

Level Up

281,255,550,000/2,100,000,000,000 Experience to Next Level

Derek quickly swiped the kill notification away after checking on the experience from it. The amount of experience the king had given him was much greater than any of those he and Silvi had taken out from the combined army—many between level 230 and 250. People with higher classes really do give much more experience—or should I call it essence now—than others. That’s the most I’ve gotten. I’m sure the Starfury Leonarus would have been much more if not for having to share the experience with everyone.

However, Derek didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on the kill notification or check his stats, as Alanah was still battling. Derek gave a thankful nod to Silvi.

‘Going to see if storage rings survived,’ Silvi sent to him. ‘Hate fighting icy things. Never leave any good ingredients.’

‘You do that,’ Derek said. ‘I’m going to check on Alanah after I gather a bit more mana.’

With that thought, Derek reactivated Greater Meditation. He was getting pretty good at switching the skill on and off during a fight. It’s the only reason he hadn’t run out of mana during his short battle with King Tevarian. He was also thankful that humans, or sapient beings, in general seemed to enjoy talking and spouting insults during a fight. This allowed him to regenerate even more mana during the battle. Every extra second that he could keep the skill active was vital.

It really is easier and more fun to fight against people than beasts. Especially spoiled nobles who aren’t used to being talked down to. Well, maybe there are some beasts out there smart enough to be distracted by words, too. At least I know that there are Void Beasts out there like that. Derek didn’t waste a lot of time, though. As soon as he deemed his mana good enough, he stored Harbinger and activated Void Shift and began moving in the direction that Alanah and the duke had.

They had traveled a longer distance away from everyone than Derek had expected. He thought Alanah would have caught up to the man much quicker based on the speed that she had possessed back then. However, when he arrived, he realized what had happened.

Alanah was back to the old Alanah. Her hair shined emerald, her body no longer looked malnourished—she was just back to the regular, beautiful owner of the Crown Restaurant. However, she had broken out in an intense sweat, and it looked to be everything she could do just to stay in the air and block the incoming attacks from the duke.

Her skill had run out, and she was dealing with whatever effects came from it doing so. Still, she had apparently refused to let the man before her escape and was fighting him tooth and nail to keep him there—even if she was losing quite badly.

The duke, on the other hand, had activated what looked to be the same skill that his brother had used. Though, his skill didn’t seem anywhere near as stable or effective as the king’s. In fact, while the skill seemed to cover his hands and head, Derek could immediately see that it stopped at the man’s neck. Which meant that there was a good chance that it wasn’t covering what was beneath his armor.

When Derek saw the man slowly turned slightly while still shifted, he found that his guess was correct. The wound that he had inflicted on the man with Spatial Rend before was still there. It was covered by a layer of ice to staunch the bleeding, but if that part of the man’s body had solidified into the pure ice statue that his brother’s had, there would be no need to keep the extra layer of ice there.

Derek moved just a bit closer, then canceled Void Shift—appearing almost equal distance away from the man as Alanah was. His appearance was enough to cause the duke to shoot backwards, but Alanah just looked his way and nodded.

“It’s about time,” she said.

“Sorry I’m late,” Derek replied. “His asshole of a brother used that same skill, although he was able to use it on his entire body and not just partially. It took some time to kill him.”

“You… killed?” the muffled voice of the half-covered ice man said. “There’s no way.”

“Well… I guess I didn’t kill him,” Derek replied, still giving the man a good inspection. Yeah, I think my void should work well against him.

“That’s what I thought.”

“Oh, no. Don’t get me wrong. He’s dead. I’m just not the one who did it. That would have been a pain in the ass. Surely you have some contracts or notifications you’ve been ignoring during your fight with Alanah. Go ahead, check them out. I’ll wait.” I bet the army received notifications or canceled contracts, too. Should make it easier to end the war.

The man’s eyes unfocused for a moment before he turned his head back toward Derek and shot him a glare. “How dare you!”

“See, told you,” Derek said. Then, with a thought, he pulled out Harbinger and gripped it tightly. After that, he began to push void energy through the weapon. The man’s entire head was covered by ice, and it was possible that his heart or other organs were, too. There was still a chance that his insides were solid and it was only the outside flesh that wasn’t covered.

With a kick off the void, Derek dashed toward his new opponent. The man’s wings quickly wrapped themselves in front of the duke in anticipation of his attack. With his free left hand, Derek held it out and cast Void Lightning exactly where he knew the man’s stomach would be, behind the wings. Just before Derek arrived at the wings, Derek heard a grunt, and the man’s defenses lowered ever so slightly—just enough for him to get past them. That’s what I like to hear.

That grunt was enough to allow Derek to know that the man wasn’t as indestructible as his brother had been. It also gave him a target. With a horizontal slash of Harbinger, Derek activated Multi-Strike, and the attack landed almost perfectly on the duke’s side.

Seconds later, the ice wings broke into thousands of small pieces and began to fall to the ground. The ice on the man’s hands and head slowly began to retract, and as soon as his mouth was uncovered, a mass of blood began to pour out of it. He doubled over in pain and began to fall.

Derek didn’t allow that, though. He quickly moved forward and caught the duke by his neck before lifting him up. The man’s eyes were completely shut. Derek stored Harbinger, then took his now free hand and lifted the man’s eyelids. He was completely out and unconscious. In fact, when Derek used Identify, he found that the man was in a dying state.

“What do we do here?” Derek turned and asked Alanah, who was slowly moving closer to him. When she got there, she put her arm around Derek’s shoulders to stabilize herself. With her arm wrapping around him, he could feel a weird, slight vibration coming from her.

“He’s dying?” she asked. She seemed much more calm and level-headed now that she wasn’t in that form of hers. Alanah raised her other hand and tapped her cheek. “Let’s do this since the king is dead.” With a flick of her hand, a potion appeared in it. “Here, give him this, then throw him inside your space.”

“Sure…” Derek said, as he took the potion. “Seems like a waste, but it’s your potion.”

“You have one duke, you might as well get the pair,” Alanah laughed. “It will be easier to stop the war with a captured high royal. Astrus isn’t like Cydaria, they’re much more of a warmongering kingdom. A public execution will go a long way with them. They respect power.”

“Okay,” Derek said as he poured the unstoppered potion into the man’s mouth before handing the empty vial back to Alanah. Then, he activated Time Prison and tore the sky open with his free hand before opening the door behind.

He half expected to see the other duke fly out, but he didn’t. Ryven was still on the ground in a fetal position—blood still leaking from his mouth. He wasn’t in a dying state, but he didn’t look to be faring well. “Should we…” Derek started as he tossed the now only unconscious man in beside the other duke.

“Let him be,” Alanah said. “He’s not worth a healing potion. You can manipulate the time of your space, correct? Just make it so not much time passes while they are inside. If Edwin wants to use a potion of his own, he can.”

“Sounds good to me.” Derek closed the door back and slowed the time inside the prison. They wouldn’t exactly be safe from their wounds, but Derek and the others would be wherever they were planning to go well before their injuries caused them death. Finally, he closed the tear in space and looked at Alanah.

“I like you better this way,” Derek said with a smiled. “Less ‘I’m going to kill you’ vibes.”

“Me too…” Alanah said. “Me too…”

“Let’s go find Edgar and get the hell out of here.”

With that, Derek held Alanah tight and kicked off the void. The first phase of ending the war was over. It was time to see what Edgar planned to do next.

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