Chapter 572: A Puppeteer

Arthur's mask reformed as several cloaked figures rushed from the deepest parts of the ruins to surround Arthur and Li, landing around them in a circle. Li sheathed his weapon before reaching out toward the void, ready to take Stars Reaver out.

If the spiritual weapon came out, then the whole ruins would collapse. It was a strength that not even Li could wield fully, so Arthur grabbed his arm to prevent him. The masked man stared at him with confusion.

"These are not real people," said Arthur as he stared at the figures. "They are lifeless corpses being controlled by someone else," Arthur's runic sense gave him an idea about them. "However, why would they be here?"

Puppeteering was not a common ability to witness, and finding it here in the ruins after the earlier disturbance did sit well with Arthur. As he stared at the corpses, he noticed that they were wearing robes with the Runes Association Insignia.

"Two circles linked by four lines," stared Arthur at the robes. "These are runemasters from Runera, but there was no news about anyone dying here."

"...this does not make a difference, my lord," replied Li, and Arthur rolled his eyes at the title. "We need to eliminate them before Runera knows we are here. Sier will not let us walk around unhindered."

"I know, and I guess he has ordered one of the two to create a disturbance that would," smiled Arthur as he turned to Li. "How am I going to convince him that I am still an ally?"

"I am far from being smart to have an answer," shrugged Li with his ancient tone. "These corpses are carrying artifacts, and they are activating."

"There is no need to panic," smiled Arthur as he raised his hand. "After all, the Holy Crown is working in this world."

A black-light covered his hand as Arthur recited the mantra in his mind. This power the Holy Crown gave him was not a stroke of luck but a plan that Jizo had for the outsider to have control over the trial.

However, this power was very similar to the one that the Enders used, as corruptive and as antagonizing of runes. Therefore, Arthur had doubts about this power from the Holy Crown and whether Jizo was indeed an ally.

Arthur waved his hand, and the black light from above washed over the corpses. Then, the bodies began to fall to the ground without moving another muscle, and the artifacts rolled to the side.

Arthur walked toward the artifacts and picked them up, but the moment he touched them, the runic lines exploded, and the artifacts were destroyed. However, Arthur held back the runic lines from exploding until he saw the creator's mark.

"This must be an inside job," muttered Arthur as the corpses lay there without moving. "We need to remove our traces from this place before the Runic Association arrives. Let's leave too."

***

The news about a group of corpses shook Runera and its visitors. It was unknown who leaked the information, but the bodies were found after checking on a disturbance inside the ruins.

Arthur was inside his room reading an article the following day. The person sitting next to him was none other than Li, staring at Arthur without rest for the whole night. It was a little annoying, but this was the main difference about Li from the past.

"When I received the epiphany, I did not believe it. I thought it was nothing but dreams instead of a vision I had to follow. However, meeting Adrian in the, Spirits Realm changed my life."

"And how did you get to meet him?"

"Adrian was the one to seek me out because of his epiphany, and it seems the instructions he received changed, making the wooden doll confused. However, its pursuit of houses was still the same."

"You knew Adrian from the epiphany too?" asked Arthur, and Li nodded. "The memories should not be this clear for most people."

"It seems you are truly the one behind the epiphany," sighed Li, and Arthur nodded. "Those entering the Spirits Realm all have high spiritual energies. It allows us to adapt to change faster, and when the merge happened, we received the soul fragment from the alternate timeline in a better way than most people."

"That indeed makes sense," nodded Arthur. "But there are people that I chose to give their full memories, and there were no signs of their spiritual attainment being anything special."

"Anyone who spends a lot of time with you will can at least reach the Earthen Layer," chuckled Li for the first time. Arthur stared at the ancient man with perplexity because there were slight changes to his character.

After a few minutes of thought, Arthur realized the reason for this change. Li was easier going and expressive in this timeline because he never received Arthur's powers to use the Stars Reaver.

Adrian was the one to help Li train for that instead of Arthur just helping him conquer that obstacle. Arthur has never considered it, but his powers might have the same effect on others as they had on him.

Being the creator made him lose his feelings, and that effect must have extended to Li after he received his powers. The reason that Li was like that in the Spirits Realm was that his village was being destroyed.

Arthur felt like his powers were poison to anything not logical. Maybe feelings did not belong to this world, as intelligent species like humans and demihumans were the only ones aware of them.

"I corrode anything I touch," smiled Arthur as he turned off the article. "We need to get you out of here before the investigators reach my doorsteps."

"I must remain here and assist you in the ruins. Sier and the others are bound to attack once we get separated. I know that you have grown more powerful, but the difference in stats remains."

"It is a sad ending for our group to be split apart like this," sighed Arthur as he stood and walked toward the door. "If you stay here, we need to find you a different identity. That is why I called a friend of mine."

After he opened the door, the startled Julia appeared behind it. The runemaster looked at him confused before turning toward the masked person inside Arthur's room. Then, her eyes widened.

"You..." she muttered before looking around and bolting inside. Julia closed the door behind her and leaned against it, glaring at Arthur while stealing glances at Li. "What have you done?"

"I killed no one," said Arthur while raising his hands. "I was there when it happened, though."

"Are you injured?" asked Julia with panic while pushing away his robes to look around. "What on earth were you doing in the ruins at that time?"

Arthur felt touched by her concern, but he had to make her calm down. As he grabbed her arms, Arthur raised them for her to meet his eyes.

"I am not injured, and there were no killings yesterday. Those runemasters were dead a long time ago. Someone was controlling them inside the runes. My friend and I happened to be there at that time."

"...that does not make sense as much as you think it is," said Julia while pulling her hands away and adjusting her robes in a nervous gesture. "I need to know everything. The Runic Families are looking for clues about what happened in every nook and cranny."

"All clues are there inside the ruins," said Arthur with a shrug before walking back toward the table and sitting down. "Those runemasters must have been missing for quite a while."

"And they are from every family. There are missing runemasters who go to accomplish some missions or explore ruins and never return. However, that is usually the end of their story."

"And this end happened to have a twist. Someone from Runera killed those runemasters. They were carrying artifacts to fight with."

"Are you saying that someone was manipulating the corpses?" Julia trembled at the thought. "However, what reason can there be for someone to do that?"

"The four families are all working to open the ruins as soon as possible, but they are not the only ones that want a slice of that pie. It is not a surprise that one of the four families wanted a head start."

"I highly doubt that. The upper echelons of Runera were all at the gathering. There cannot be someone suspicious other than..." her eyes widened in false realization. "The one outsider who appeared shortly before the ruins appeared."

"The Ghost Ruler is the one who notified me about this incident," Arthur shook his head. "It cannot be him that is behind this. However, we should find out soon enough as things get more chaotic."

"You wanted this to happen?"

"I left the corpses there on purpose. I wanted to shake the culprit and restrict their movement. Furthermore, the delay will allow them to have another chance to open the ruins ahead of time. They will not miss it."

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