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Chapter 243

Edgar was busy regaling a group of guards with a heavily embellished tale about his exploits in Tartarus, no doubt spurred on by the presence of Eva sitting next to him.

“So there I was, without my wand or my armor. Jonathan was unconscious, and the city lord was about to kill him. However-” Edgar cut off when he saw that Jonathan was standing next to him, his head cocked curiously.

“What city was this?” Jonathan asked mildly. “I feel like I would have remembered something like that.” Edgar spluttered, as Jonathan stared down at him. Then Jonathan let out a loud guffaw and slapped Edgar on the back, nearly knocking him over. “Just make sure the object of your tales is not nearby, eh?”

“I-i” Edgar began, but Jonathan shook his head.

“It doesn’t matter. I have something to show you though.”

Edgar nodded, giving Eva a quick hug before he went off. As they left, Jonathan heard the woman continuing the story, and he let out a soft groan. He would never hear the end of this. At least the citizens were getting over their fear for him. That was good.

He took Edgar back up the mountain, and showed him the skid mark left by his movements. Then he showed the man his actual speed. Within the span of a second, he raced to the top of the mountain and back down. It was a small mountain, but that was still incredibly quick.

“I think it's time for revenge,” Jonathan said, his voice darkening.

“I agree,” Edgar replied, cracking his knuckles

“I hope you haven’t spent the last week doing nothing more than spreading rumors then. For your sake.”

Edgar merely chuckled. Jonathan pulled out the token, nodded at Edgar, and then whisked them away to Tartarus. This time, they would stay there until they had gained enough power. Jonathan wanted to get to at least level 175 before he started to scout out the rest of the Ash Heaps. By that point, he would be like an army all on his own.

Some time later, they found themselves standing within the heavily warded treasury of the Uthraki city. Except this time, there was nothing preventing them from leaving. No doorway, sealed shut. No annoying invisible Uthraki to keep them from teleporting away. It had been long enough that the Uthraki Guildmaster likely thought that they were long gone. Unfortunately for him however, Jonathan never forgot an affront. With a grin, he and Edgar walked up the stairs of the treasury, and into the palace that took up the central area of the city. Now that it had been converted into something that looked like a guild hall, it was a bit less ostentatious than before. Still, it seemed that the Guildmaster had some expensive tastes of his own, and there was a large statue of him at its center now.

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Jonathan and Edgar slunk around the halls, keeping out of sight of the others. By the time that they were standing near the throne room, they could hear conversation from within. Jonathan peeked around the corner, and saw the Guildmaster himself, sitting on the throne. It had been remodeled to fit the man’s personality, and was now crowned with spikes of darkened metal. However, the Guildmaster himself looked exactly the same. Now that Jonathan knew his true colors, the man looked almost pitiful. He had always been small for an Uthraki, and it was only now that Jonathan was actually realizing this. He smiled as he saw the height difference between the man and his guards. It hardly mattered, of course, but it was still gratifying.

Rather than wait for the room to clear, Jonathan simply strode in. He had nothing to worry about here. Behind him, Edgar started to cast his ranged abilities, one of which filled Jonathan with even more speed than before. With the power of Edgar’s buff roiling through his body, he felt like a god of speed. As he entered the room, the conversation puttered out.

“We meet again,” Jonathan said, leaning into his persona as an implacable, inexorable conqueror.

He knew that the Uthraki leader’s psyche must have been in shambles, given the fact that they had escaped. The other man spluttered, but then seemed to get his composure together. He snapped his fingers, and a dome of light fell down from the ceiling at high speeds. However, Jonathan was not the same man that he had been when his presence had last graced these halls.

He surged forwards, and dodged the attack, moving out of its range with ease. The Uthraki leader got out of his throne, snarling as he did so. The weaker Uthraki scattered, and left through the large doors leading into the room. Jonathan let them go. His quarrel was with their leader.

Voidlight started to spark around his fists as he walked, moving menacingly forward. He started to pick up his pace until by the time he was near his enemy, he was moving like a blur.Behind him, Edgar sent out bolts of highly concentrated wind, tearing through the Uthraki. Unlike him, Edgar had focused on his mental stats, and with both thresholds passed in Intelligence and Wisdom, he was far more powerful in the magical realm than Jonathan was. Each bolt was small in size, but contained the energy of an entire tornado. They blasted apart limbs and dented mastercrafted armor as they went.

Jonathan pushed off, and flew towards the Guildmaster, who was staring at him in shock. The man fumbled for his dagger, but it was too late. With one apocalyptic punch, Jonathan blasted him into the throne, causing the stone chair to explode in a storm of shards. The Uthraki stumbled to his feet, bleeding violently from a litany of wounds. However, to his credit, he remained silent. He knew that begging for his life would serve no purpose here.

With a roar, energy began to flicker around his blade, and he thrust it into his body, eliciting a grunt of pain. Power surged between the weapon and the man, limning both in a corona of power. The Uthraki opened his eyes, revealing two orbs of red light. He flashed forwards, almost as fast as Jonathan.