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Chapter 45: Longest 3 Minutes of a Lifetime
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–––1546H–––
When the upper body of the Valkyrie Projection was sucked in on the crater, a mountain of black substance, and literally of something black and tangible unlike the illusory black substance of the Ebony Sanctuary's grand entrance, erupted from the depths of that burning crater.
It was a hand, to everyone's surprise again, and it was, just like how it appeared from the start of this Mage's arrival, the black substance was Reaper pulling its main body up from that hole of a crater.
It didn't take long before it finally appeared.
––its head.
THUB! THUB!
Hearts skipped on beating at that moment. The slow ascent of the Reaper's giant form created an illusory sound of a raging storm.
Red eyes staring at the entirety of the crowd and slowly, surely, it was pulling its body up.
THUB! THUB!
"Haaaaaaa..." A sound of breathing coming from what could be discerned as the creature's mouth resounded in the arena and white air particles spread as if it was in the midst of winter.
One could only think that this creature came from the depths of hell upon seeing it.
Hissing noises came like a surge of violent wind, rattling your skin with thunder. The monstrous black figure exhaled then inhaled deep just when its body was half-out of that large black hole.
Its posture, upon pulling itself out, is like it was screaming towards the heavens.
The giant Reaper was... inhaling deep!
Its red eyes stared at the group in front of it after it had inhaled enough. Then, for the first time, it opened its mouth that was blacker than black inside of it, jaw dropping down at least two meters before it roared.
AAAAAAAAAHHH!!
Seconds had only passed by but it was too slow for the people seeing this scene. It felt like the advent of the Giant Reaper was taking their souls away, stealing their sense of time.
The sound was like a cry of a young dragon, or a screeching call of a hawk, or a roar of a lion... or perhaps it was the trumping of an elephant, or maybe all of them combined...
––but they all knew that it was a form of warning, and a declaration that it was going to kill once it starts its attack!
It was just one roar and yet when everyone in the arena heard it, they felt their scalps numb and their bloods froze.
They could feel the fear in their skins crawling. It was cold and sinister. It was there. It was so real and tangible that they could almost taste it as it crawled slowly from their toes to their necks... to their hairs!
This... this is fear.
Real and authentic fear!
And to add more layer to this feeling, when the black figure that's surrounded by fire seemed to have hastened the process of its ascent to the surface, they all heard that man's voice.
That ghastly, tired, and seemingly in the verge of death's voice...
––of The Summoner.
"Hah.... you... you... Haaaah... you all... will pay!"
And then, the next second ticked by as their souls went back to their bodies.
It was now 3:47 pm.
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*****
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–––1547H–––
ROOOOOOAARRRRRR!!!
The Lapis Lazuli from behind growled as it began to thump the ground, twice, its front limbs firmly positioning itself majestically.
Eyes widened with shock.
Even those in the air all began to flee in horror.
Even Thorn and Volt, without exception, cowered higher in the air as they tried to get away from the radius of the incoming attack's effective radius.
"Get away!"
"Higher, higher!"
"Damn it, you're too slow!"
"Fly faster you imbecile!"
Although the audience weren't part of the battle, they are still citizens and players and they all knew just what kind of attack the Lapis Lazuli is preparing to do just now.
The Guild Masters couldn't even have the time to turn their heads as while all of this was happening, Siva had continued on with a tired voice.
"I... I'm done... playing."
Sakura Angel and the Queen of Fire couldn't think of anything else at this moment as they both only know of one thing to do. They knew that The Summoner was hurt and he was at the verge of dying. Their only chance to take him down would be now or never.
"Kill him!" shouted the Queen of Fire. "Kill him now or he will recover!"
"Attack!" roared the Sakura Angel. "Don't give him a chance to breathe!"
Recovering from their shocks, before the monster could even complete its Pose of the King, before the large black demon even completes its emergence, they knew that there was no way The Summoner couldn't at least be injured after taking on these two guilds' strongest spell attacks.
So they began to move.
The Sisters of Valkyries cried in unison, the Dragons roared as they run with all they have... abandoning all kinds of defenses, face, and even dignity, this one lone Summoner was strong ––strong enough that he made Heller retreat after only one clash.
Solitary Players are strong but they all had one big obvious weakness.
"He is alone. Don't waver and attack!"
"Crush him! He doesn't have reinforcements!"
All of them knew that this was bullying but if the person they're attacking was this strong, it's never a question of bullying but rather, eliminating the thorn to their sides!
People have their goals and their goals' obstacle was this Summoner.
"Attaaaaacckk!"
"Chaaaaaarge!"
The NDG and Valkyries ran in unison, the 50m distance between them and Siva in the crater was just too short to give Siva enough time to breathe.
Indeed, he was injured. Battling them will surely lead to his demise so he summoned back all of his puppets and used the [Overdrive] ability of the Black Tech to summon its final form just to defend.
And now, it was all or nothing. He had to fight back or everything he was preparing to would have been for naught.
While he drank two bottles each of blue and red potions, he also gave the signal for the Lapis to make its move.
"I'm fighting until the end. If you can't become my slaves, then I will kill you all." he declared. "I will not stop until everything bow down before me! You will serve my purpose!"
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*****
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Zabrze who was actually counting the seconds as if it was a lifetime, couldn't help but beam a smile as he felt relieved to have finished his preparations.
"We will be the chosen ones!" He grinned widely.
Just as the unified force started to charge forth and enter the 30m radius from Siva, the entire stadium was then engulfed in a pitch black world.
Suddenly, all the light... vanished.
"This is the era for Ebony Sanctuary!" he said.
There was no flash of a spell. No kind of warning or any kind of abnormal indication.
It... just happened abruptly... and fast!
The high walls of the coliseum were covered by a pitch black dome in an instant, the audience startled and surprised as they were completely blocked off from all events from the arena.
Enraged voices rung one after another but before the chaos got into its third second, the confused arena players all stopped ––including Siva.
ROOOOOOOAAAARRRRR!!
The Lapis Lazuli roared and all noises in the nearest 150m from the Northern Gate stopped but it didn't reach hundreds of players who were close to his location.
"Not good." Siva was also startled and he quickly jumped in the air, rising steadily to escape the range of this AOE Spell while everyone was still tapped in the 10sec delay of the Pose of the King.
But even though he was escaping, he ordered to the Lapis... "Kill to your heart's content."
Replying to this command, the Lapis roared again and it was the same Pose of the King. The 10sec stun time was renewed.
After that, even though it can't see anything, it was still inside the arena and with it, it roared towards the sky and charged towards the area where it last remembered was the center of it.
When it charged forth, it bulldozed many players.
A few tens of meters later, it then stopped and renewed the Pose of the King. Following that, right after the next second, it roared to the sky and summoned a tornado.
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*****
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Booming sounds were heard coming from the walls of the arena. Their visions were the only thing impacted by the [Blind Spell] but all other sensations were not.
The wind picked up and became a tornado, the Lapis at the center.
It maintained its stance.
Siva continued to rise higher but before he could even reach a 50m height, he felt a chill on his nape and unwillingly dodged to the left side.
WHOOSH!
Siva felt something pass him as a man's voice came cursing behind him.
"Shit, I missed!"
After Siva dodged he also raised his staff as if to stop something. To his utter surprise, just as he heard the first voice, he also felt danger in front of him, just in time when a second voice came.
"Don't worry I'm on it!"
Siva felt something heavy hit his staff and he was pushed down by the force of it.
"Guh!"
"What?!" The man's voice was surprised. "You can see? No. You can't see but... your reaction..."
"Hoh?" Siva became calm hearing the reaction of the man and so he retreated, borrowing the force of his descent as he sent a command to his Giant Reaper.
It should be noted that within the nearest 150m, no soul should be able to resist the effects of the Pose of the King. And yet, right now, there was someone, or some people, who managed to actually stay in control of their bodies.
"Maybe because you covered his ears?" Siva had no other thoughts as to how someone would be able to resist the effects of the Pose of the King but he had some ideas. "Or perhaps you were outside its range when it roared. And since you still can see e and I can't see you means, you have been planning for this ambush since earlier."
"Hmp. You will die anyways. What's the point of me telling you anything?" retorted the man's voice and the pushing force became stronger as a boom came from behind the man.
Siva smiled behind his mask. "Are you sure?"
The ES member roared "Help me deal with him!"
"We're right behind you." The second voice said around ten meters away.
In the vision of the Ebony Sanctuary member, he saw how Siva blocked his attack. It should be taken into account that the Blind Spell is a special Illusion Magic where only a dispelling talisman could be used to counter its effects. Of course every member of the ES has it and since they were from above, they all saw how the Lapis had prepared to use its ability so they reacted faster than anyone else in the stadium.
But never would they have thought that Siva would still be able to dodge them. The knew that he was blinded by the spell because he and five more are looking at him directly and there was no reaction to Siva's movements from them coming prior to their surprise attack.
And yet this Summoner was able to dodge and block the surprise attacks. This was something they didn't even considered considering how well and precise their preparations.
Siva felt the man's confusion from the force of his descent and used this opportunity to kick the air and tilt his body.
"Huh?!" the man was caught in surprise and before he could recover, Siva kicked him on the stomach.
BOOM!
It wasn't kick with a destructive power but it was a kick that was layered with the Flight Armor and so Siva managed to make distance with him.
Not even a second later, Siva powered the orb in his staff with his right hand with a Spark Grenade and its power traveled through the shaft and reached the orb.
After that, Siva used his left palm to open it towards the sky.
He didn't know if it will work but he still did it.
From out of nowhere, a bluish electrical figure of a person materialized in midair, looming towards the nearest man, catching him by surprise.
The red figure was made of electricity and what more, there were two of them rushing towards his direction.
"Dodge it!" the second voice roared.
Following that, whooshing sounds and booming explosions of their Flight Armors were heard and Siva was delighted as he let himself fall from the sky.
"Die. All of you." Siva's voice rung.
~~Huuuummmmmmm...
This loud, trembling, thrumming sound came from behind Siva as a black hand reached out towards the first man Siva had kicked.
"No!" Before this person could recover, the Erebus reached its hand upwards.
At 10m before the ground, Siva stopped and hovered. He didn't know if his attacks succeeded and he only based everything right now according into his senses.
He looked up, feeling for the surroundings and he heard the cries of the men as Erebus swiped them in midair like shooing on irritating flies.
Erebus had completed its ascent and reached out in the general direction of where Siva used to be.
Only the members of the ES can see it now. The audience and the rest of the crowd of survivors in the arena could only hear the only noises inside.
As of this moment, those who were not being engulfed in the tornado was hearing the sounds of agony and breaking bones. Those members of the Ebony Sanctuary were witnessing the murder of the ambush team that went for Siva.
"Waaahhh!" the man was crushed and the sound of his bones breaking could be heard underneath the palms of Erebus.
He was just a mere C-Ranked Player and his armor set couldn't withstand the crushing force of a Black Tech in Overdrive Mode.
"You guys, I'd assume, are from one of the prominent guilds of this city. Well then..."
As he willed it, Erebus threw the dead corpse in its hands and gently grabbed Siva with its two hands to pull towards itself.
Siva can't see a thing and was only calculating his location from one of the equipments he had that has the ability to give him that detail.
The Auricle and its [Scan] function.
In his vision, he could see the infrared scans on the nearest 100m of his location and from there, he could detect the location of the Lapis, the ambushing people above, and the nearest people that was supposed to attack him.
Everyone was blind and those who could move were either close to his location or way up above the arena, hovering in the stadium.
While the tornado raged, the effects of the Pose of the King diminished.
But those nearest to the 40m radius of the storm had all either been thrown dead to some place or were still circulating around the tornado as debris.
The members of the Ebony Sanctuary could only watch as they were in fear that Siva's Erebus would crush them just as easily as it crushed that one group of their allies just now.
Fear hugged them with horror.
Compared to Erebus... all of them combined could only amount into the biggest of insects it can crush its hands. Only those S-Ranked players in their guild could match to it and those guys...
...were either dead or injured.
They were the ones closest to the tornado and with the Pose of the King, they were the first to die.
Another scan happened and Siva smiled as he saw no one in his sky of up to 100m.
"Now then–" he spoke and turned his gaze to the people in the stadium. He landed his feet and Erebus swirled around him. He is the heart of his weapon and his weapon is his arms. "–let's begin the slaughter."
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*****
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By now, the Erebus is standing mightily tall in the arena and the only people who were seeing it were, in fact, the Ebony Sanctuary... or at least those who had survived and were not sucked in by the tornado.
––Zabrze luckily included.
Ten seconds felt too long in the battlefield and it was a time frame they were not willing to experience especially when under paralysis by this Spirit Attack.
And what more, the Lapis Lazuli was also unforgiving as it unleashed a tornado that none of the players have ever heard of on any other Lapis Lazuli encounter in any account.
"How is this happening?!" Zabrze was quite shocked as well.
He had thought that everything was going to fit on his plans now that all of his competitors for the top ten spots were tired and injured.
But never would he have imagined that the Lapis Lazuli would be able to summon this tornado.
Moreover, he didn't expect that The Summoner would actually survive that ambush.
As soon as the ten seconds were up, Zabrze jumped back into a safe distance from the Lapis and the tornado and then glanced upwards to look at the loli riding on her broom.
His first target of this sneak attack wasn't actually Siva and was in fact actually Coralline.
"I will let you experience humiliation and defeat!" he gave her a menacing look as he smiled coldly at her frantic expression. Putting a device on his left ear, he ordered, "Kill her now."
"Leave it to me." Namur's voice rung on his ears.
From far above the arena, diving down to the ring, Namur and eight more could be seen going straight towards Coralline.
Namur wore a sinister smile as he cast a magic and pointed his staff at her.
Coralline felt the sensation of Mana and this made her look up. Although she can't see a thing, she still instinctually changed her location.
Just in time that Namur's spell was released, the place where Coralline has been were engulfed in a black ball of fire.
"She dodged?!" Namur's voice rung in disbelief.
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*****
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––1547h––
An angry girl's voice rang through the silence of the crowd.
"You won't get away from this!"
Everyone who knew her would recognize this voice as Coralline. The series of booming explosions rung from her side and a crashing noise echoed followed by a grunt of a few male voices.
Then, sounds of magic being released could be heard coming from the blocked arena as Zabrze's voice sounded as clear as the sun in rage, "Don't let her escape!"
"I knew it was you!" Coralline's voice echoed back.
"Heh. You're too late!"
In the darkness inside the arena, only the members of the Ebony Sanctuary are exempted from being affected by the [Blind Spell]. Some of them even went straight to the members of the other guilds, especially the members of NDG.
Enraged voices rung as men fall one after another.
The members of Ebony Sanctuary were murdering the other guilds by the horde!
"Zabrze!" the voice of the Sakura Angel cried. "I swear I will kill you when this is all done!"
"You won't even survive after this so there's no point of you shouting. Kill them all and don't leave anyone alive!"
Swords stabbing through bones and flesh could be heard in the darkness of the arena. The audience was puzzles and they could only hear the cries of agony along with the sound of the wind-hammering storm.
And then, Zabrze glanced at Siva's direction. His eyes went wide and he tried to run. But the giant reaper was already upon him as its giant hand bored down to grab him.
He didn't even have time to cast a counter spell since his attention was focused on Coralline.
"You can see?!" Zabrze exclaimed.
It was just a matter of seconds and he only slipped out his attention one moment and then the next he was already upon him.
The hand grabbed him and Siva appeared from the Giant Reaper's chest, looking down at him.
"It seems my calculations are correct."
"Y-You can see?! But... but...?!"
Siva was still on his masked, the black robe fluttering from the winds. Zabrze was gripped tightly and he was raised to level with Siva.
"W-Who are you?"
Siva remained silent and he looked up, murmuring something. A second later, he looked down at the Zabrze and the giant fist grabbing him tightened to crush him to death.
"Aaaahhh.... Please don't kill me! Why are you even doing this?!"
The fist loosened a bit and the pained expression of Zabrze loosened as well. But Siva wasn't finished yet and he wiped the air as a panel appeared in Zabrze's vision.
TING!
[You are currently being held captive]
.
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DLING!
[A contract had been prepared for you.]
.
.
TUDING!
[The owner of Erebus has given a condition to your freedom: Submit... or perish.]
WILL YOU SUBMIT?
(YES?) – (NO?)
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The words both offended and surprised Zabrze greatly.
A contract was prepared for him and aside from the major condition for his life or death, there was no more information given to him.
It was such an unfair trade.
At this point, noticing his silence, Siva's cold ghastly voice rung on his ears.
"You only have five second to choose."
"What?! Fuck this!"
"Five..."
"I will never submit to you!"
"Four...
"Just kill me you mother fucker!
"Three..."
"Kill me then! I'm not scared of you!"
"Two..."
"..."
"One."
"Aaaaaaahhh... wait! Wait! Wa–-gwaaaah...!!"
The hand slowly exerted a force and it was squeezing Zabrze by the second. He could feel his bones being crushed and his arms were the first to give up and snap as the hand continued to squash him.
"I give! I give! I submit to you! Just don't kill me!"
TING!
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[You have agreed to the terms of the contract.]
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[You are now a member of The Company.]
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[All privileges and conditions will be applied.]
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Zabrze's eyes widened at the sight of the name of the company.
His breathing stopped.
His heart stopped.
He looked up to Siva with an expression as if his grandmother had died of sneezing in front of him.
"Y-Y-You..." he wasn't even able to finish up as he saw a panel had appeared on his vision that detailed the terms of the forced contract.
.
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[(1) You are not allowed to let anyone learns the existence of this organization without the consent of the leader]
[(2) You are not allowed to speak the name of the leader without his consent]
[(3) You are not allowed to betray the organization]
[(4) You are not allowed to invite members of the organization without the leader's consent]
[(5) You are not allowed to conduct insubordination]
[(6) You are not allowed to disagree with the leader]
[(7) All activities pertaining to violation of these rules or any laws added here into or have been particularly spoken of or decreed on from these rules, shall only be controlled and/or implemented by the leader or by anyone with the authority to do so]
[(8) All violators of these rules shall be subjected to the absolute punishment by discretion only by the leader. No other member of the organization, unless given authority by the leader, shall be allowed to carry out the violator's punishment]
[(9) Rules for violations shall only be changed and/or controlled by the leader's discretion]
[(10) These rules are laws and they must be followed with absolute obedience at all cost]
.
.
Such set of rules were too strict even for a large organization.
Zabrze couldn't help but swallow.
"A-Are you kidding me? This is slavery! It's against the law!"
Siva looked the man and scoffed at the statement.
"You submitted. Your life is in my hands. Unless you want to throw away everything you have worked on for many years, you will follow the organization's rules or perish without trials."
Zabrze shut his mouth as Siva looked around him. By now, the tornado had stopped and 3 minutes had passed by since it formed.
After feeling the tiredness of the Lapis in his mind, he ordered for it to do a Pose of the King before Siva started walking.
Zabrze felt that this was his chance and just when he thought about giving an order to forget Coralline and kill this person, he felt his lips being sealed by small chains and the sound of it rung in his ears like thunder.
As if hearing something, Siva turned his head and he wore a smile underneath his mask that had somewhat travelled across the wide eyed Zabrze.
Of course he was alerted by the system to the brain waves of the targeted person.
Once you agreed to the contract, forced or not, you will be subjected to its rules or you will be subjected to the punishments.
In this case, the punishment was just being mute.
"Y-You're the leader?!" upon realizing this, Zabrze looked at his affiliation on his player window.
He was still the Guild Master of Ebony Sanctuary, only this time there was an organization that was standing above his own.
[The Company]
"Just what the heck is this organization?!" He stared at Siva in fear and he even had to force his lips from shutting tight and not to emit a single sound.
He didn't dare to say it out loud.
Siva only huffed at the frightened Zabrze and then he walked towards the roaring Lapis Lazuli.
The Giant Reaper towered above the arena as the frightened members of the Ebony Sanctuary could only look on helplessly to their capture Guild Master.
Although he can't see anything, Siva was still smiling.
Then he spoke to Zabrze, "Lift the spell."
Zabrze didn't dare to fight back as he knew that from now on, in this game world, unless he doesn't want to continue playing with this avatar, he will not be allowed to get away from him.
After lifting up the blind spell, the light in everyone's gazes came back and they all saw the towering Giant Reaper and the roaring Lapis Lazuli somewhere near the center of the stadium.
Siva looked around and saw the survivors. A smile is beaming underneath his mask.
He had officially recovered his health by now and he had just consumed another bottle of Mana to replenish the ones he had consumed.
After a few seconds of looking around, another roar of the Lapis Lazuli's Pose of the King resounded and then he spoke: "This event ends here so I will only say this once. Submit or perish."
TING!
.
.
[You are currently being held captive]
[A contract had been prepared for you.]
[The owner of Erebus has given a condition to your freedom: Submit... or perish.]
WILL YOU SUBMIT?
(YES?) – (NO?)
.
.
No one spoke. They all exclaimed. At this point, they all knew that not agreeing will be their absolute death.
Those under the influence of the Pose of the King were in shock and horror. Those that were not under the effects were also warry of Giant Reaper.
Basically, right now, The Summoner had controlled the situation.
The fight in the arena... had officially seized.
Right now, the time is 3:49 pm.
That, earlier, is the longest 3 Minutes of their lives.
===================
Overwhelming!
DOMINATING!!!
===================
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Next chapter: The Ten Acolytes are decided...
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