Chapter 84 : Blooming Rose

By the time Kimo was sent flying, Lizard Kimu regained control of his body, the numbness is gone, so, without hesitation, he spat a golden drop of blood and retreated with incredible speed away from Arthur and Lucy.

However, Arthur was not planning to let him flee, Kimu's speed was very fast due to him using his Soul Essence and some mysterious techniques, but Arthur was very fast too.

With his movement techniques, Petal Footsteps and his high Agility stats, his speed was only slightly slower than Kimu.

He was chasing the lizard and slashing with Makaze, long and black slash arcs were produced, this powerful sword energy was even faster than Kimu, no matter how fast he was, he couldn't be faster than Arthur's slashes.

Not only that, Arthur was closing on Kimu while using dark magic to follow up with countless dark spears.

Lizard Kimu, who just breathed a sigh of relief as he backed away from Kashron, was dumbstricken when he saw this slashes and the enemy's bombardment of weird dark spears.

Kashron was never this strong, he also didn't use this weird magic, moreover, he was a hammer user but this Kashron clearly had a long black sword.

Arthur slashed exactly two times, these two black arc slashes which contained his sword energy, struck Kimu, but the Lizard used the scroll in his hands to shift the pressure from Malark to the incoming attacks.

He was powering the scroll by himself, which made it ten times more difficult, not only that, by shifting the pressure, Malark was now free so it made things even more dangerous.

The pressure clashed with these two slashes and the countless dark spears, although it was an invisible pressure, you could see Arthur's attacks facing some barrier which stopped them, their momentum was being lost every second and some dark spears even shattered.

Seeing that he blocked these attacks, Kimu was relieved but by the next second, Kashron who was flying at him, suddenly disappeared from his view and appeared behind him.

A chill ran down his spines as he felt strong killing intent aimed at his back.

With his sword in hand, Arthur slashed with his sword at the lizard's neck, he wanted to behead him just like the last one.

However, just as Makaze was going to cut off Kimu's head, a violet liquid came out from his scales situated at his neck, this liquid was aimed exactly at Kashron chest.

Arthur didn't know what this liquid, but he was absolutely sure that it was not a good thing, he sensed danger from it, it was most likely the lizard's trump card.

Without hesitating for even a split second, Arthur left Kashron's body and appeared next to it.

Once the violet liquid touched Kashron's body, the body started melting and deteriorating, it was a gory and horrible sight.

Makaze flew from Kashron's hand to Arthur's, then Arthur used [Faster than death] to appear a distance away from Kimu, who was overjoyed to have successfully landed his most deadly poison, but it came at a cost.

This poison was his life-saving trump card, it was too deadly and could even heavily injure Malark if not kill him, but the cost of using it was no laughing matter.

He dropped to the Immortal 1st grade, but at least he managed to get rid of Kashron.

Kimu didn't dare celebrate his victory yet, he shifted his gaze to Malark, but the latter was already flying at him with lightning speed.

Lizard Kimu just used a heavy price to kill Kashron, he needed a couple of seconds to recuperate and use the scroll, but unfortunately for him, he was not given this time.

A meteorite even bigger than previous one was flying at him from above, its speed was faster than Malark, but was even worse was that this meteorite had dark red flames instead of purple flames.

The pressure he felt from the meteorite made him freeze, facing this desperate situation, he didn't know what to do, even if he tried dodging, it would result in his death.

Kimu could only lift the scroll and inject all the energy he could muster to activate it, not only that, he spit 2 golden drops of Soul essence which integrated with scroll to strengthen it more, but even with that, he still felt the pressure of the incoming attack.

Malark, who was flying toward Kimu was alarmed from the huge meteorite which was double the size of the previous one, he stopped in his tracks and gazed at it. He didn't dare attack Kimu as he feared the flaming rock very much, he could feel its head even from a long distance.

The yellow scroll's pressure faced the meteorite, trying to stop it. The meteorite was unstoppable as it faced the invisible pressure, the scroll's power only managed to slow it for a bit.

Kimu used this time to flee, he abandoned the scroll which was now floating by itself and facing the meteorite.

But what faced him was a black-clothed person whit a big bamboo hat and the previous hostage of Kashron.

Despite seeing them blocking his escape route, he charged straight at them, after all, facing them was better than facing the meteorite.

Arthur already expected this outcome, dark strings, which were almost invisible were shot from his fingertips and wrapped around Kimu.

These strings were very tight and strong, their speed was incredible as in a matter of seconds, they restricted Kimu, who was already weakened from Arthur's attack and using his Soul Essence too much.

In fact, Soul Essence is the most important thing for people at the Immortal Realm and above, if one used Soul Essence drops, they can never recover it no matter how much time passes, moreover, if one expands all his Soul Essence, he would most definitely die.

Kimu used too much of his Soul Essence and his Realm was too weak, so how could he resist these threads.

"Yo-You!!!..."

He gazed at Arthur and Lucy with hatred, he was unwilling to die here, but no matter how he struggled, he couldn't free himself.

The scroll, which was not powered by Kimu anymore, lost its effect and fell from the sky, as for the meteorite, it resumed its fast momentum and finally struck the immobile Kimu, but that was not the end.

In a matter of seconds, Kimu was crushed and burned to ashes by the dark red flames, the meteorite kept falling from the sky at fast speed until it struck the ground.

Boom!!

An earth-shattering, ear deafening explosion happened when the meteorite struck the ground, dark flames burned the ground and a huge pit was made from the explosion, it was a terrifying sight.

A very large dust cloud was formed on its surroundings, blocking the view, but one could feel energy ripples all over the place.

What followed that was a gigantic blood red rose made by the ancient flames, it rose very high up in the sky and illuminated the gloomy sky. Dark red flames raged as the rose emitted a hellish heat, the desolate ground was turning black and the zombies' corpses which fell from the Spirit Boat were turned into black ashes.

Lucy stood beside Arthur as she gazed at the dark red flaming rose, she couldn't help but mutter

"..Beautiful..."

It was attacked which combined her meteorite attack and Arthur's ancient flames, its might was not something Kimu could withstand, not only that, after the meteorite struck its target, a dark red rose would bloom and cause even more destruction, it would burn everything in existence, including the energy of this world.

In the Underworld, far away from where Arthur and Lucy were, there was a dark-haired middle-aged man with a good build, he was sitting cross-legged and had his eyes closed.

It has been countless years since he moved or even opened his eyes, however, at this very moment, the middle-aged man opened his eyes and said with a very deep voice.

"...This pressure, the heat... it is unforgettable but it's still too weak from the original... how come it is here?"

The man stroked his chin as he was reminiscing about the past. After some time, he sighed and said

"... I can't even perceive its user..."

Then, as if he felt something, a look of surprise appeared on his normally emotionless face as he continued muttering

"Zodiak... how come I feel your magic too.... old friend, where are you...."

Malark was shocked by the power of the meteorite, he could not help but unconsciously tremble at this mind-numbing sight.

He only snapped out of his daze when he saw two individuals slowly fly toward him.

It was the black-clothed man with a big bamboo hat and the supposedly 'hostage' of Kashron.

He didn't know if they were enemies or allies, they indeed helped him but they could be aiming for the 'Yin Flower' and only got rid of the enemies to deal with him after.

Arthur noticed Malark's anxiousness, so he didn't waste time and said

"Senior, do not worry, we mean no harm to you or your people"

Malark relaxed a bit when he heard that, but he dared not put down his lance.

"W-Who are you?"

"We joined your zombie army not too long ago and marched with it, we are a couple who were cultivating in seclusion for a long time, we happened to meet with the zombie crowd and decided to join."

Malark stayed silent as he stared at Arthur and Lucy, after some time, his face turned from caution to disbelief and fear.

"Y...You...you're both at the peak of the Deity Realm? How is that possible!"

It was indeed shocking to see two people at the peak of the Deity Realm deal with those lizards, who were at the Immortal Realm, normally, it should be impossible.

"Senior, we cultivate a special technique that increases our attacks if we join forces, the cultivation divides our Realms and make it harder to breakthrough but with each breakthrough, our strength increases by leaps and bounds"

Arthur fabricated some lies and spoke with an honest tone, he only explained to not cause Malark to be too suspicious.

He wanted to befriend Malark to learn more about the Underworld and the woman who abducted Saly.

"Oh... So it's like that... but even so... for the attacks to be so powerful..... ."

The reason it sounded so believable is because the world is so big, many techniques and cultivation manuals are mysterious, so it is not surprising to see one which divides the Realms of its users but make them stronger than the ones at the same Realm as them.

Despite somewhat believing them, Malark kept a cautious attitude, their strength is not just 'decent', it's too damn terrifying.

That meteorite attack could have killed him too.

What didn't know was that meteorite attack was also one of Arthur and Lucy's trump card, of course, it could not be compared to the one used at the tournament, but this one expended a lot of Mana and Mental power too.

Especially for Lucy as she used it two times in a row without resting, she prepared the second one in just 20 seconds whereas she needs 2 or 3 minutes to normally make one, so she was currently depleted of her Mana.

Moreover, the Mana in this world is not like Astria, the quantity is meager so it made the recovery a bit slower albeit her having very high Mana recovery.

Silent ruled over the place as none of the parties spoke, so Arthur decided to cut this silence and spoke again.

"Senior, as I said, we were cultivating at seclusion and very rarely go outside to roam, if you don't mind, we would like to accompany to ask you about the recent matters of the Underworld and perhaps become friends at the future"

Arthur was too direct as he stated his intentions without much hesitation, he had a strong feeling that being honest toward Malark would be better than making up lies, although he just lied about the cultivation bull-shittery a second ago.

Malark was the calm type, but he appeared to be a person who regards friendship highly and is not like some crafty people.

"Hahaha, friend, I like your attitude, stating your intention straight out! How can I be uncourteous to someone saved my life!"

It was a bit exaggerating to say that Arthur saved his life as the trio lizard couldn't possibly kill Malark, but what astonished Arthur even more than that is the very sudden change in attitude.

It just too abrupt for him to keep up, he expected Malark to be suspicious or even reject him, he never would have predicted that this Zombie General would do a 180-degree change in attitude when he said that....