Unshaven resolve

Smooth pale skin, dark hair, piercing blue eyes, a well-toned body, and a lady-killer look of a handsome face.

The elf girl didn't even know she left her mouth open all this while until she saw Arthur assessing his new look with a cold expression on his face.

Done with his assessment, he could tell he got his original look back but with good upgrades.

The elf lady collected herself and gave a light cough. She is a lady, and a man is standing stark naked in front of her.

Only now did he recall someone else is around when he heard that coughing sound. Noticing the awkward look on her face and the flushed expression on her cheeks.

Arthur helplessly turned towards the dried-up corpse to scavenge for something to put on unhurriedly. "Isn't it rude to stare at someone like that, precisely? Isn't it too late for a lady with no ability to be walking around this late?"

"Who says I got no ability? I'm a level two ability user, for a matter of fact," she fired back at Arthur, hearing his sarcastic tone, forgetting about her fear a few moments ago.

"That explained the aura," Arthur muttered to himself in a low tone, ignoring her retort.

"What are you, anyway?" she threw another question, seeing the person in front of her treat her like she doesn't exist by ignoring her.

"You don't look like you are from the dragon race or the giants due to your physique. Neither are you a skinwalker or mermarine. Obviously not an elf either, as I can tell straight away you are not, nor does your height fit in with the dwarfs. As for being an elemental, it's a total write-off with the ability you displayed. Which leaves me with two options, but I'm leaning more towards the latter of both. Are you either a human or a fey, those mischievous cunning bastards? So which of them are you?"

Arthur, having found a few less bloody stained clothes, had helped himself into them and was now fully dressed.

He treated the elf girl's question as trash, ignoring it as he asked one of his own. "What day is it?"

She couldn't understand this heartless fellow, treating a lady as trash, a beautiful elf one at that.

Although curious as to why he asked, she gave him the answer he requested for. "August 8, 2150."

"Hmm," was the short reply Arthur gave as a few thoughts ran through his mind.

So, it had been over a hundred years now since he was betrayed and killed along with his sister.

This thought pissed him off badly, but he could only rein it in, as anger wouldn't change a thing.

"You better return now, little girl. This isn't a place for kids to play around in," saying that, he turned and started walking away.

Unaffected by the elf girl's mad look, her eyes threatening to bore a hole through his head.

"I ain't a kid, and I got a name. It's Elena, Elena Aerendil."

"Good for you," was the nonchalant reply she got from Arthur, leaving her figure, not sparing her a glance anymore.

"At least, don't I get to know the name of my savior?" calming her nerves down, easing the strains on her veins that threatened to snap from annoyance.

"This isn't one of those romantic movies, Elena. I ain't no knight in shining armor. Worse, I'm the dragon aiming to kill the princess."

Still not sparing her a glance, the distance growing further apart.

"Name is Arthur, Arthur Relzar, if you are so desperate to know."

Hearing the name he mentioned, Elena felt conflicted. "You mean the same Arthur Relzar, brother of Alexa Relzar, who both betrayed humanity and all of Earthlings a hundred years ago at the final battle with the invaders? Switching sides at the last minute, aiming to aid the enemy?"

This time around, Arthur's footsteps instantly halt. A surge of killing intent gushes out from him into his surroundings, creating a decaying effect at the circumference around him. Everything rapidly decays at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Where did you hear that?" Arthur's voice sounded more like a deep growl at the moment.

If Elena was standing in front of him right now, she would see his deep blue eyes giving off a deep blue glowing effect.

"Duh, it's a well-known thing, recorded in the history books. It was said that Morphis Plataea made a timely decision to take him and his sister out before they become totally corrupt due to the power they seek from the enemy side."

This time, Arthur couldn't hold in his rage anymore. A small whirl forms around him, rapidly turning everything it touches to ash. Elena has to flee from the proximity of the energy whirl.

When Arthur finally calms down, there is nothing left around him. Even as far as the grave tomb, all has turned into ash.

Arthur stands at the center of this destruction, a mini crater formed by the whirl. He is untouched. Not a single hair on his body is fluttered by the devastation he set off.

Arthur slowly turns towards Elena, standing some distance away. His hair falls over his face as his head is hung down.

"Tell me everything." His voice isn't loud or commanding, but it holds power and a mixture of emotions.

Elena details updates him with all the info up to the present date gist.

"So that is how it is, eh? We became the bad guys and them the heroes."

Elena couldn't fully comprehend what he was mumbling to himself, but she pretty much gets a clue of what is going on here.

A dead guy coming back to life, lacking present-day information and getting mad at a well-known history.

This is all pointing to one end, and that is, things aren't what they seem on the surface. Her concern, though, is how all this is possible in the first place.

"Are you really Arthur Relzar?" she asked in a suspicious tone, wanting to clear her doubts.

"How many Arthur Relzars do you know?" Arthur asked back annoyingly.

"None, as that name has been designated a taboo name to humanity," Elena answered rather casually.

"Everyone hates that name like it's the bringer of misfortune and bad luck. If not for Morphis' plea, your body and that of your sister wouldn't have been buried here."

The moment Elena mentioned his sister's grave being around here, Arthur scurried away to find it, abandoning Elena like she doesn't exist in his eyes.

Though pissed, Elena still decided to find him after some initial mental deliberation.

It took her a while to find Arthur. He was squatting right in front of Alexa Relzar's grave.

She stopped a few feet distance from him, giving him the private time he needs.

"What are you planning to do now about all this?" Elena asked the moment Arthur got back up.

Arthur didn't answer immediately. He shifted his gaze to the horizon in a thoughtful posture.

After a while of silence, he answered while still gazing at the stars, "nothing."

"Nothing?" Elena was taken aback and confused by this answer.

"Nothing," Arthur confirmed again, "one doesn't have to dwell in the past when there is a future ahead. In the future, there will be plenty of ways to ask for retribution of the past."

These words sounded strongly to Elena that she appeared by Arthur's side the next moment.

Her gaze focused on the stars too, just like Arthur. "Sure, there are so many ways one can redress the past in the future. I've been stupid before, but now I've seen the light."

Her voice laced with strong determination, to a point Arthur could feel her unshaken resolve.

He didn't know what made her have such temperament and resolve, or what she had gone through.

One thing he knew for sure now is the fact that a lot of things around her would be hit by this drastic surge of change going on in her, like a tsunami.

Both of them stood there quietly, like stargazers wanting to tell the fortune of tomorrow.