Eternal Elysium

The mansion from the inside was wrecked. Many places had been broken, and blood stains remained visible on the floor.

From the looks of it, Sina and the shadow hands were not the only visitors present at that time. Someone else had entered this place as well.

Someone strong enough to keep all the guards busy.

Walking through the floors in silence, I continued to look around.

Ains had asked me to rest while he looked around. I would have been more than happy to accept it if not for the fact that he somehow knew my identity.

I will inquire about this later; for now, several matters remain at hand.

Taking a deep breath, I calmly walked through the maze-like mansion. I was just steps away from hating all the mansions in the world. Every time I visit any mansion, some kind of horror waits for me—I hated that!

The mansion, already broken, seems to have gone through several hurdles. But a part of me didn't think this was done by several people. At least three people had come here aside from Sina and Shadow Hands.

And all of them were experts in stealth missions.

"These marks were left by swords… weren't they?" I muttered, touching the scratches on the walls.

They were done with precision. Each strike seems to have met its target, and only some were missed even by chance—a single stroke of luck, I would even say.

But it was too soon to make assumptions following the trails of the fight through the corridor. My steps froze as a trail of blood started to appear.

As my foot stepped on the small puddle of blood, my eyes searched for its owner. But found no one.

I was in the inner sanctum of the mansion; this old yet well-kept place seems to have its own way of moving. Slowly I followed the blood trail and summoned my sword once again.

Creak—

Stepping on the small wooden stairs, I felt my heart suddenly start to race and tremble inside me.

In the dark a hand lay motionless, my gaze swept from the hand towards the rest of its body. A single clean cut was made in the ankles of both legs, this was probably the reason why this man had run not far away.

Slowly I turned up to see several holes on his chest.

The man's eyes remained wide open—even after his death I could see the terror in his hazy pupils.

Sighing I leaned toward him and closed his eyes, running my palm over his face.

Not fretting over him for too long, I stepped forward and walked past him in silence, afraid that a single sound may raise the dead.

'How did they do all of this without making any sound? This doesn't make sense.'

I frowned, thinking as such, and stopped hearing muffled breathing from another corner.

Behind a yellowish wall the source of the sound soon stopped—the figure seems to have held his breath.

Suppressing my steps, I activated mask of Panoply and vanished, erasing all my traces.

Walking straight toward him, I saw a man with a large cut over his chest. His eyes were filled with fear, and his lips shut.

His hand remained over his heart as he seemed to mutter a silent prayer while gritting his teeth in pain.

Seeing his face turned deadly pale, I almost sighed but stopped, noticing a dark patch beside him.

Turning my head to the side, I saw a huge amount of blood puddle down below as it ripples with every breath the man takes.

'He won't survive.'

I stared at him for a few seconds in silence and felt my mind race with several thoughts—some were good, while others were bad.

'I seemed to be feeling too much.'

Releasing the invisibility, I silently knelt beside the man.

I could see his eyes widen and even hear his heart skip a beat. Just as he was about to use his last bit of strength to let out a cry, I calmly said.

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"I am an ally."

And summoned the half-filled potion.

His figure shuddered as he stared at me with a horrified look. He doesn't seem to understand I mean no harm.

Sighing, I pushed the potion bottle over his mouth, forcing him to gulp it without much thought.

It was a very weird feeling.

Previously I would have never thought this much while doing something like this. The old me, when seeing him like this, would have pushed the bottle the second he saw him, but currently I hesitated while doing so and only did it after giving it much thought.

However, I don't think it was a bad thing at all. Rather, I welcome such change.

When staring at this man, who was clearly on his deathbed. I thought of all the possible pros and cons from saving him.

The cons outweigh the benefits clearly, as the potion was too precious to be wasted on anyone but me—after all, it was one of a kind, undoubtedly, and very limited in number.

Even the information I could get from him isn't that valuable since I was sure many people were still present in the mansion who could tell that same tale as him.

However, the reason to save him was simple and easy to understand. After all, saving a life was never a bad thing.

'Maybe in the future I will come to regret it.'

Seeing his pale face finally started to recover, I once again looked at his condition. The wound was deep, so deep that it was a miracle he had survived till now.

But unlike Elda, his recovery will take more time, as I was sure he had suffered several internal injuries as well.

Standing up, I saw the cut over his chest started to close up as the man gave me a tired look.

"So, what happened?" I asked.

The man with broken armor stayed silent, taking deep breaths. Clarity returned in his eyes as he swept his gaze around us, still unsure of how he healed. Finally he stopped and painfully asked, his voice shaky.

"Who are you…?"

"An ally."

"That doesn't tell anything…"

"It does tell several things. And one of them is that I saved your life. Let me tell you, the potion was very precious, so answer what was asked of you."

Hearing my blunt answer, the man fell silent, his

Hands trembled slightly as he took a deep breath before nodding slowly in my direction.

"Okay… I understand."

"Good," I nodded and then calmly asked.

"Tell me, what happened?"

"I—I am actually not sure. One moment I and the others were patrolling the mansion like usual, and in the next second I saw two silhouettes standing on the second floor. Then we fought—no, calling it a fight would be too prideful; it felt like we were being toyed with."

"Toyed with? Aren't you presumably a rank 1? How strong could they truly be if the fight was so one-sided?"

While it's true that asking an awakener to win against an awakened was simply impossible without prior preparation. Still, the battle shouldn't be this one-sided because the awakeners of this mansion were trained guards, and our numbers are the enemy.

There is also the fact that most of the awakeners and awakened of this city were not the best in experience and training.

So, in my eyes, a properly trained guard should have held out for a bit longer against an inexperienced awakened.

"I-It's true! Both the man and the woman were awakened. But we guards were simple awakeners… We never stood a chance. We wanted to buy time till help arrived. B-but we lost badly because the enemy was simply too strong and unfathomable for us to even compare."

"How many of you were present when fighting them?"

"Five of us fought, and I survived after running away…" The man said with a disgusted look; with a scornful voice, he added.

"They both wore masks to hide their faces. We all cried and yelled, but no one came… So, I gave up."

I fell silent after hearing his words and leaned back on the wall. Crossing my hand over my chest, I sighed.

'According to them, they cried for help… and the enemy was experienced and awakened, something very uncommon in Atlas.'

"Your Lord was also attacked. He is still alive, so don't worry about that, but just so you know, no sound came when you all likely fought."

The man's brows furrowed together as he pursed his lips. Pressing his hand over his heart, he shifted and asked in a small voice. "No sound? But… we shouted and rang bells!"

I nodded.

"I believe you. But stay calm; you are still not in the best shape. Tell me how they fought."

"The man was a swordsman… but he didn't have a sword. His hands moved and slashed down everything that came in his way. H-however, he didn't touch anyone. He was the one who cut me down."

The man said, running a hand through his broken armor and the former injury he had sustained.

Hearing this, my face hardened. I frowned, leaning forward, and asked.

"Are you sure that's what happened?"

This peculiar and horrific scene was done by a swordsman who doesn't wield a sword.

"Yes… and his companion, the woman, was the same. She held no weapon in her hand as well, but she was like a walking cannon. I—I don't know how to explain her ability, but before we could react, three of my colleagues had holes in their chests, and their bodies were wretched!"

Licking my lips, I felt a cold sweat trickle down my back.

'They were obviously stronger than Sina, and if they are together with the onyx arms, winning against the looks is hard—no, almost impossible.'

"They were like… forces of nature." He muttered under his breath.

Staring at him for a few seconds, I sighed and pushed my hand towards him.

"We should leave."

He looked at my hand and grabbed it, grunting in pain.

Standing up, he looked around in a daze and shuddered, walking a single step forward.

Walking some distance forward, he turned back to face me and said with his face down.

"Thank you… Uh, Sir…?"

"Sir is enough."

I was not planning to go around calling myself Reaper anymore. One time of embarrassment was more than enough.

"Ah, okay."

He nodded.

"Show me where the others are."

Not answering, the man sighed and then nodded slowly and pointed back.

Following his fingers, I looked at the corridor I had been walking through all this time.

It was dark; only the pale blue light of the moon came through the window.

Taking a deep breath, I walked behind, following the man's lead.

A strong pungent smell filled my nostrils, making me frown as I narrowed my eyes to look in the dark.

Splosh!

It wasn't a puddle of water—or even blood, like I'd seen before.

This was something far worse.

My heart sank at the sight.

What remained of the people looked as if they had exploded like watermelons, their insides splattered across the ground in every direction.