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Chapter 274: FlowerLord Explodes
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With a light gasp and an action as if he just got out of the sea after an encounter with a prehistoric-era shark, Siva staggered off from Akhenaton’s catching motions as if the latter had some kind of pandemic disease.
“My Lord?”
Blinking and taking four steps to stabilize himself, Siva covered his face with his hand trying to look around him for something familiar.
“Wh… what just happened?”
“What do you mean My Lord? I saw you about to fall with your face first so I thought I should catch you but you just recovered just now.”
“Fall…” Siva murmured and just as he was about to think of a few more things, he blinked many times again as his formerly chaotic mind cleared and the once unfamiliar memories became a form of book which the recorded memories he could recall and flip through with clarity.
He looked at the humble Immortal and thought of all the information regarding Akhenaton.
“You… you can control your bloodlust clearly?”
“Pardon, My Lord?” It was Akhenaton’s time to blink in confusion.
“You are Ahepton Dessert Empire’s Akhenaton, the Emperor of Bones, owner of the Throne of Bones… sentenced for an eternal imprisonment in a world of darkness for blaspheming against the name of the Gods.”
Hearing this, the confusion on Akhenaton’s face was replaced by rancid fear and idolatry as he immediately knelt down in front of Siva, not daring to make a sound or even breathe loudly.
With one knee on the floor, he even lowered his head even more and spoke in awe, “My Lord, this servant had been imprisoned for so long in the world of darkness that in order to pass the time not in vain, he had honed his spirit in the art of tranquil enlightenment. My bloodlust and drive to slaughter will only be unleashed upon the enemies My Lord wants me to point my spear!”
Finishing his actions by cuffing his fist with a palm in front of his lowered head, Akhenaton renewed the vow of his punishment and assured Siva of the leash that granted him the freedom to see the light of day.
Siva blinked, and then straightened his self and a moment later, he gasped yet again as a newly acquired memory surged in the surface of his mind.
He saw his parents, in a white room, they were hugging each other… and then there was his father’s and mother’s words echoing deeply and clearly into his mind like raging thunder:
“This world holds the secret to the evolution of the Human Race… stop Mefisto from being complete… save Baron… save Terroa… save mom and dad…. don’t let anything enter that door….”
Don’t let anything enter that door…
……anything… that door………..
………..anything enter that door……
……………….that door…….
………….that door…..
…….that door…..
…that door…..
Don’t let anything enter that door.
BANG!
That last line was like a hammering motion of a judge that said his judgement. Or like a crack of a lone thunder to welcome the coming of the storm, the meaning behind those words rung in his mind and he began to pant because he remember it all clearly along with the sense of loss, sadness, and loneliness that came with its memory.
“Mom… dad….” He was still holding his face with his hand as if he was trying to cover something.
In the next instant, with but a thought, he equipped the “Siva Set” on his three equipment set slots.
His outer appearance changed with a short flash of bright blue and white light.
A white polo with a flaming-like pattern on his left sleeve, black slacks and black shoes, and to finish the setup, there was a white mask on top of his nose up to his forehead.
Akhenaton only watched this happen and did not lower his cupped fist down as he waited. Siva lowered the hand that covered his face and also calmed his breathing, looking at Akhenaton with the dull luster of the anti-glare orange colored eye sockets on his mask.
With his long black hair brushed back, flowing freely without the flat and shiny effect of when it was styled with a gel of a wax, looking at Siva right now is like looking at a monarch in the modern times on his casual home attire… with a mask.
Seeing him in this form, Akhenaton couldn’t even pull up the notion to be fearful because Siva look as if he was just meeting him after having a good morning stroll.
“I remember… I remember…” his mind focused on tasks and a deep impression of a mission was instilled on the very top surface of his memories.
“My Lord… are you… alright?”
Siva looked at Akhenaton and although it was a hideous sight, he smiled at him with his reply.
“I’m okay.” He said. “I’m just organizing our next mission in my mind just now.”
“Speaking of our next mission…” Siva then gave it a thought and the doors of the main palace hall all opened at the same time with loud bangs that echoed like a resounding explosion.
After this, people with worried faces began to flood inside the palace hall and they all saw Siva and a kneeling semi-transparent ‘image’ of their humanoid warship with a more ‘physical’ appeal on their eyes than the golden giant.
There were Thorn, Volt, Coralline, and the rest of the core members of The Company; there was also Scion followed by FlowerLord, Loni, Cramer, and the familiar crew of the Archangel; also, there were the delegates of the City of Alexandria; and finally the panicking NPC servants and a few bits of the players assigned to be roving guards in the palace halls.
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The people flooded in from the doors coming from five directions, with two of those from Siva’s right and left sides.
“Siva!” it was Scion who was the first to call and run to his side from the door to his left.
“Master! I missed you!”
“You!”
““““…..””””
The next to call was Cassiopeia and then finally an angry one word remark coming from the always hot-blooded FlowerLord.
Scion reached him first and clung on his left arm and then Cassiopeia came rushing on with wide excited steps from the right side.
The latter didn’t clung on him and maintained a sense of propriety but her eyes shining brightly with dazzling worship and excitement was blinding the eyes of the weak-hearted male guard NPCs.
Scion silently and wordlessly buried her face on his arm and didn’t say anything. If there was one thing that Siva noticed had changed from Scion then it was the fact that right now, atop her usual white one-piece Wizard Dress is the black cloak which was the basic form of the BlackTech that Siva had bestowed on her.
When he saw this shy action of hers, Siva gave her an appreciating smile. She was really a shy-type and doesn’t associate much in the mundane world.
“Master! I’m so glad you’re fine! Yukata…”
Cassiopeia wiped the tears that formed in her eyes as she bid him a smile while placing herself behind him with humility.
“Cassiopeia, thank you so much for worrying for Scion al this time…”
Startled on being called Cassiopeia’s body gave a stiff response but then she loosened on the next moment and tears of happiness accompanied her warm and endearing smile.
Siva thought, Cassiopeia may be calling him her master and she may not even be serious about it, but her, worrying about Scion, was genuinely true as he couldn’t feel any kind of pretense from it.
He gave her a pat on the head. If she had a tail, it would be wagging left and right, right about now.
“You! Do you know what you’ve done?!” finally, that enraged voice followed behind through behind Scion and the owner of that enraged voice walked in with heavy falling steps. “Because of you, my friend had almost broke her mind back there!”
Siva didn’t feel any anger from being raged upon by FlowerLord but just after he opened his mouth to give a retort, Scion faced back and held her friend off.
“Alice…”
“Let go, Mandy. If it wasn’t because of this prick playing hard to get, you wouldn’t even be dragged into this mess in the first place.” Finished lashing at her friend, she faced Siva. “Explain it to us now then… what is the… grrrr… fuck! Why did you just suddenly disappear like that? Do you know how much this silly girl cried when you left? Not only she stopped coming to work, her parents are even scared senseless because she just cried and cried without telling anyone about anything. I don’t care about your reasons, but you just tried to break a kind and pure girl’s heart without saying a word. So how do you expect me to just brush it all off after you saved her? Why don’t you explain the bullshit now, huh, and give us a proper reason why we shouldn’t worry about you…”
“Alice!”
“Let go, Mandy! I won’t get a proper sleep until I hear his reasons for abandoning you like that and making you cry. Nobody messes with my friend and expect mercy from me even after he had done you a favor! Now talk, Rex… talk and let me give you a good punch depending on your reply.”
FlowerLord’s actions and words were really a strike of a man… away from the gender that was visible from her.
If flames were women, then she was a red hot fire that nobody can just mess with. And even if you compare her with ants then she’s like the queen of the fire ants, mess with anyone in her care and she and her legion will sting you to death.
Siva looked at her for a moment and then told her with a cold and detached voice, “With how much you’re expending your fuel, no word coming from me will enter your mind. In the end, no matter how much I explain myself to you, you won’t even understand a word I’m gonna say. It’s better if you talk to me after you’ve calmed down.”
After being told like that, Siva looked down on her with nothing but his height and resolve.
She was shocked and her mouth turned from a sharp and angry square into a round shocked and surprised capital “o” for shOck.
FowerLord, in front of all these people and NPCs, have just been told off in her face.
Thankfully, Scion pulled her arm and retreated but before Siva could turn his head around and greet an unfamiliar face that emitted a faint but familiar pseudo-immortal aura, FlowerLord’s brows twitched and her mental strings snapped as she launched to attack Siva.
“IMPUDENT!!!”
A loud sonorous war cry rung in the entirety of the palace halls and every ear aside from Scion and two others that’s unaffected by it, rung with a nauseating vibration that rendered their knees weak and their minds spinning like an endless loop in a roller coaster ride.
The felt their inside churning with uncontrolled force and some of the poor NPCs that were only there to watch were either pushed out of the large palace chamber or have been rendered unconscious by the fear-inducing pressure of that one angry shout.
FlowerLord, who was the focus of that cry, felt her body was being ripped into countless shreds and it was only thanks to the fact that she could almost feel no pain from it aside from the faintest of sensations of being twisted like a laundry dryer that she came to realize who had stopped her from attacking Rex from behind.
“You lowly life dared to attack My Lord from behind him! If it’s not because you are an honored guest of My Lord, I would have killed you where you are standing right now!”
Everyone realized what this shredding sensation was. In fact, Thorn and Volt had just experienced this kind of sensation not too long ago and the strongest they felt it from was from that Large Colossus monster that destroyed Alexandria.
This is this game’s version of bloodlust. It may be different from the actual ‘bloodlust’ unleashed by Rex when he was enraged, but the physical representation was almost in the same degree and given the reason spoken of by the owner of that warning voice, FlowerLord would’ve indeed been shredded to piece if it wasn’t for the said fact that she was a guest of Siva.
When the cry finished spreading its wrath on the inner halls of the palace, a resounding set of steps rung headed for FlowerLord.
Akhenaton, with his regal and imposing Mana, his imperial robes that had colors, unlike the version seen outside on his golden idol body, fluttered in a way that his own mana served like a breezing wind to move it.
He stood before the stupefied and horrified FlowerLord and his belittling eyes focused on her as if he was measuring the resolve he had within her.
“How can you understand the reasons My Lord has in his actions?! The world you are living in and the world he is trying to face and defend is of two unequal realms. You may be here to sight see and flutter your invincible immortality, but you are but a mere grain of sand when compared to the purpose and mission My Lord has. You tell me, how big is your mouth when compared to the actions of saving this world and humanity?”
Condescending, arrogant, disdainful, mighty… the former emperor of a mighty warring tribe of the dessert unleashed his ‘aura’ in front of FlowerLord and this alone had deterred her so much that she began shaking.
“Please, don’t hurt her…” Scion’s pleading cry rung behind Akhenaton and following that, Siva raised a hand, which Akhenaton took as a signal to bow his head and retreat behind him.
Scion ran when they all felt the pressure vanished from the surroundings.
FlowerLord was speechlessly looking at Akhenaton with a fearful gaze while Scion helped her up and Siva stepping in with a drooping pair of shoulders.
“I’m sorry. But I really can’t tell you. Although you may hate me for this but I’d appreciate it if you will not ask any more questions regarding this matter.”
When he spoke at this point, Siva then faced the crowd of disbelieving audience then faced the group with the unfamiliar face yet also familiar aura.
“You have The Oracle’s aura in you.” Siva said in a cool voice. He had now fully synchronized with the once unfamiliar memories and the confusion he felt on these unfamiliar things became accepted facts to him.
In fact, it was even the source of this somewhat faint but discernable mysteriousness coming from his shoulders.
Everyone’s eyes focused on the newly arrived group with Loni and the crew of The Archangel.
All of them wore deep brown cloaks with their hoods covering their faces with deep shadows.
Their hands joined together in front of them and all these time, they only watched the things unfold in front of them.
When Siva spoken thus, the leader of the group led the entourage forward and when they are in front of Siva, the leader, followed by the three, knelt in front of him as if they were servants greeting a master of another house.
This greatly surprised the crew of The Archangel because as far as they knew, the Circle of Magi is a group of the most noble of people in the entire Terroa.
Siva who stood in the edge of the top platform of the stage, didn’t budge as he only watched them.
After a moment, the leader of the brown-cloaked group pulled down his hood and the NPCs and the first time watchers of the scene all gasped as they recognized the markings on their faces.
The leader said, “Greetings, Lord Siva, my name is Eleanor of the Circle of Magi….. envoy of The Oracle, bringing you tidings and endless praise.”
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The Archangel’s crew and their guests finally met with Siva….
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