Chapter 618: Own Volition

Earlier to the unexpected arrival of his friend, Arthur was fighting against the countless monsters and Sier. The attacks came from two directions. The first one was the illusions, as many as the stars, which can either be real and strike him or a mirage that dissipated for the other attack to arrive. As for the other one, it was the spear held by his former friend.

Arthur couldn't understand why Sier didn't try to cast an illusion on Arthur instead of the surrounding. The biggest reason was the rune that Arthur used earlier when he reflected the trauma illusion on its caster. Therefore, even if it didn't show, the seer was damaged by the memories the two of them saw.

It strengthened the hatred within the seer's heart, almost to the point that Arthur couldn't sense his old friend in the shell of hatred. However, he couldn't know whether this was cultivated by someone from the shadows or Sier's true nature.

"The wounds are increasing over time," said the voice from the shadows as another wound bled on Arthur's body. It was hard to guard against an attack that he didn't see, but Arthur avoided receiving a fatal attack. "And, with each passing second, the imminent doom of Kera marches closer."

Arthur gnashed his teeth but knew that he couldn't lose control of his emotions. The moment he did, Sier would win, and that was his goal of provoking him. Furthermore, it took everything within his willpower to prevent himself from being turned into countless runes.

'Even after receiving this cursed power, my body is still too weak to handle it,' lamented Arthur in his mind. 'It seems I would never grow strong enough to avoid suffering against opponents.'

The more Arthur grows stronger, the more he believes he will avoid suffering weakness. However, he was cursed with a path where his enemies were always ahead of him, and he was constantly fending off their attacks like this.

"You are the creator," said Sier. "You can use those golden fingers to write any rune in existence. I am sure that you can see through the illusions, but there is a reason that you are not. You decided to wait for someone to disturb the space."

"I... don't want to kill you yet," said Arthur, smiling as he watched the incoming griffin. "I don't care about killing anyone who endangers my family, but I still care about Master Ronin and Melania. Those two would be heartbroken to see where this led you."

"The two of them always treated me like a ticking-time boom, so I'm sure that they would be relieved to know it finally exploded," said Sier from the shadows after a brief pause. Arthur can sense some restrained emotions within his voice, but he doesn't care about how this man feels anymore.

Everyone had hatred within their hearts, and Arthur was included. However, he never planned on killing Sier because of that hatred. He simply knew that his friend would one day turn into a guardian and that he needed to prevent that.

However, this was always the eventual outcome, even if Arthur didn't know it when he shook Sier's hand in Kera. Of course, Arthur would never abandon his friend, and he would help him get rid of his powers, but that would mean Sier would have to be weak again.

"You are listening to the guardian because of your mother, right?" asked Arthur as he slashed the griffin apart before jumping high above to avoid the spear. However, he could feel danger above him, so he struck toward the sky.

There was a clinging sound before Arthur fell toward the ground to be received by a giant crocodile ready to tear him apart. As its sharp teeth were about to tear him apart, Arthur allowed his concept to explode and destroy the monster.

"You know the taste of weakness, Outsider. I know that you lived at the mercy of other people. Did you like it?" asked Sier. Arthur landed before he looked around, memories flashing in his mind. "Even if that woman was no mother, she was right. Strength is everything in this world, and I don't plan on being weak when it ends."

"I see this is a dead-end, too," muttered Arthur as he unclenched his left fist. The runes were escaping them as his control was decreasing. "You are right, Sier. I don't want to use any runes that let me see through your illusions. Because then, you can just use them on me, and I would reflect them. The more such runes I use, the more I lose control."

"You are honest. What is the trick here?"

"There is no trick because I need you to understand what happens if I lose control. I don't want that to happen not for my sake because I will always exist through Gaia, but for the sake of Runera, Mistletoe, and even you."

"..."

The seer was silent.

Arthur smiled as he held the dagger with both hands in a reverse grip. Sier knew what he meant. If Arthur lost control, then he would be worse than a calamity.

This was one of the few chances to harm the outsider. Sier's plan didn't involve killing but forcing him to restore the other timeline even if he lost his current identity. It seems the guardian has told him how much Arthur disturbed the timeline.

'So, their current plan is to turn this timeline into hell for me so that I would restore the other one. I don't know how I would do that, but I would never listen to their demands.'

As he raised his dagger, Arthur's powers gathered within it. Although he knew that his stubbornness might lead to his doom, he was still willing to walk a path undesigned by others.

"Let the world turn unhinged," grinned Arthur with craziness as he brought down the dagger on the arena's floor, impaling it. His denaturing sharpness exploded everywhere, lacerating the arena and destroying the illusion.

A groan leaked from above as Arthur must have struck the seer with that attack. However, it consumed most of his mana to destroy the illusions and harm the vessel. A weak smile appeared on his face as he stood up in the middle of the hurricane of destruction.

"I will never choose the path others want me to choose, Sier."

***

After that, Sier restored the arena and the illusions, but they grew weaker. Arthur could tell that some of them didn't have a real threat behind them, but the fight was growing longer by the second. As he landed on the ground after a bitter fight with a serpent, a voice roared from a distance.

"Arthur, behind you!"

His mind was growing dull until he heard the voice, and Arthur rolled to the side to avoid another attack. His body was bleeding everywhere, but most of the wounds were superficial.

As he turned to look at the voice source, Arthur's eyes widened when he realized that Ori was there. His senses were disturbed not to know whether this was an illusion or reality.

"Ori? What are you doing here?" muttered Arthur with a frown.  "But, wait... why are you bleeding?"

Arthur watched his friend run toward him, his right side having a deep shade of red. Some of the clothes were torn apart to reveal the oozing blood, and it seemed to be covering most of his right side.

The wounds didn't appear to be minor, and a portion of his right side was disfigured despite healing. His mind was chaotic as soon as he saw this, making him unable to focus on the fact that his friend was running straight toward an illusion.

Arthur realized that he had expected Ori's arrival from the seer's words. This made him panic about why he allowed him entry into the illusion if this was true. However, even if there were a considerable possibility this was a trap laid by the seer, Arthur would never bet on those odds.

'Even if there were the slightest possibility that this was Oriole and he might be harmed, I would still rather walk into a trap than allow that.'

Arthur rushed forward to save his friend, but countless monsters attacked him simultaneously. His dagger tore through them, but they still managed to obstruct him. However, Oriole seemed to see things that Arthur didn't as he ran straight through a giant wielding a celestial sword.

"Arthur!" shouted Oriole, his face pale and sweaty. "I'm here to get you out of here! I managed to disable the space arrays!"

As he heard the words, Arthur's mind blanked out. This was probably the first time he was in such a situation. Even though he was waiting for a chance that the space got disturbed to leave, he never expected someone would risk their lives to come here.

Furthermore, Arthur never asked Oriole to disable the arrays. This was his decision-making, probably from seeing Arthur's fight against the runic guards. Therefore, not only did this man risk his life and sustain wounds for him, but he also did it out of his own volition.

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