Chapter 47

In the chamber's doors stood a tall muscular man seemingly in his late twenties, of course in reality he was significantly older. He stood there confidently like nothing in the world could bother him. His first impression was further enhanced by the man kneeling in front of him, someone the entire group has been struggling to simply keep occupied.

However, the shining hero's arrival wasn't well received by everyone. Namely Anthony, who took the liberty of loudly voicing his displeasure, even in their otherwise dire circumstances.

"Really?! You couldn't call anyone else? There should be at least a dozen people owing you favors who are just as strong as him. Why did you have to ask him specifically?"

His annoyance came from a deeply personal reason as their savior turned out to be none other than Leon Verndari, the prime minister of the Norden alliance and Anthony's arch nemesis. The two of them hated each other's guts so the people around them did everything in their power to keep them apart.

"That's what I get for saving your sorry behind? And don't be mistaken, I specifically asked to come here as the deal offered was too good to turn down, even for me."

While they were bickering, Jake managed to stand up and he started walking towards them. He was still affected by the crushing force coming from Leon but he managed to overcome it gradually and was ready to fight again. But then the politician lifted his hand and he started sinking into the hard stone floor of the chamber.

"As I understand it, I would have had to come here eventually but it's nice to get something substantial out of it."

Jake was struggling as the pressure on him kept increasing, but he was still standing. Leon was about to go and finish him off when Rose walked between the two of them. She was a lot calmer than she was during the fight and she looked at the false prophet with a questioning gaze, while ignoring the bone crushing force coming from behind her.

"Was I anything more than fuel for your power?"

Jake didn't look at her as he was physically unable to, but he also didn't answer the question, asking another instead.

"What did you think you were?"

Leon took this as a sign that he was free to finish his job. But instead of getting out of the way, Rose lifted her incorporeal leg and kicked the fallen priest in the head, who then immediately collapsed.

The first one to know what happened to him was Peter who also gained the knowledge that the interface considered some of Rose's actions as his own.

[Phantom achievement unlocked: First kill.]

[Reward: STR +0.05, AGI +0.05, END +0.05, MGC +0.01]

[Achievement unlocked: Giant Slayer.]

[Description: Defeat someone who is at least 20 classes above you.]

[Reward: All physical attributes +0.3, INT +0.05, MGC +0.1]

Jake was dead for sure. Now that he didn't have to worry about imminent death, Peter had time to look at the messages he had previously missed and to ask some questions from the interface, as the past few minutes have been more confusing than usual.

[Absorb has been upgraded to a divine ability: The divinity attribute now contributes to the abilities' success rate. The ability can now be used on entities possessing divinity.]

Among Peter' numerous questions was how Rose even managed to hurt her physically far superior opponent. The answer to which lied in her unique ability's description.

[Shadow form LV1: A modified version of Shadow body. It allows shadow based entities to interact with the physical world.]

In short, Rose killed the guy by kicking his brain directly. Of course this also applied to the kick to the chest earlier.

The other question wasn't really important, it was more of a technicality, but it would have been nice to get an answer. Previously, every achievement was more or less the same. Peter got a little confused when he was shown a so called phantom achievement and an achievement whose name wasn't also a description, which only happened once before.

[Phantom achievements are downgraded path achievements.]

[Some achievements may be displayed as titles. Their unclear names and the descriptions they necessitate are purely a design choice.]

With his curiosity mostly satisfied he went to help the others clean up and figure out how to leave the place without further conflict. As they were doing that, Rose's shadow leg suddenly disappeared and without her crutches she simply fell over.

Peter sort of expected this to happen eventually because she got that leg from her ability, which she couldn't keep constantly activated. His assumption was correct but in this case the cause was something else.

[Rose Leijona's feats have been recognized. Divinity has been achieved. Transformation into Divine Shadow Beast has begun.]

[Notice: As a familiar, Rose Leijona will be sharing divinity with Peter Williams.]

Sine there wasn't any serious trouble, they found her a chair and went on with their business.

312. 4.70.

Norden capital. The prime minister's office.

"So the Phoenix Order has been disbanded, the dead have been buried, the family members have been compensated and the still living are receiving proper medical care. I'd say we are just about done."

Said Leon. His office was a little more crowded than usual as everyone involved in the incident has been invited. In hindsight, the whole ordeal's greatest winners were Leon and Helen.

Helen was very public in her support for the victims of the cult, offering to pay the medical bills of everyone involved. This act of benevolence made even those who were vary of her, due to her status as a gangster, willing to do business with her. Which could make her even richer than she was before.

Leon on the other hand managed to boost his reputation as a just ruler who wasn't afraid to take matters into his own hands. His increase in popularity guaranteed that he wouldn't have to worry about being challenged in an election.

The alliance didn't have regular elections but every public official could be challenged at any time if a candidate got enough popular support. As a result, those who spent longer times in politics either did their job well, or simply no one could be bothered to replace them, resulting in an overall above average satisfaction from the public.

This form of government worked mostly because of people like Anthony, who were willing to go to extreme lengths to get rid of someone. Said person was grumbling at that moment because he knew full well that one of the two criminals in the room also gained something else from the incident.

"What was it about a deal between the two of you?"