"E- Eon…" Brennan Bosque, as the king of Bosque, had never before been faced with such a dangerous situation. Though at the peak of the B-class, Brennan had not once trained outside of the palace. As much as he boasted he at least had wits to make up for this shortcoming… he was lacking in will.
The moment he saw his hands turn dark and broody, gray and lifeless. The skin rotting and falling. As soon as he saw the face of death in the mirror of his grand room, Brennan was scared out of his wits.
But it was justified. The petrified and putrid face reflected in the mirror was not of death, but of his own. In spite of all of the things that happened around him, Brennan could only see his reflection.
That reflection with sunken eyes. Skin chapped and bloody. Hair disheveled and fallen. It wasn't the face of a living person but that of a zombie. Most of all, it was a testament to his inevitable race towards death.
"Cou- Cough Brennan!" Eon who was already struggling to hold his own was forced into a tough spot. Faced with an onslaught of dark tentacles that threatened to whittle away at his vitality, Eon had to do his utmost to both defend himself and counterattack the dark figure.
That angel of death laughed maniacally even as his surroundings shattered into pieces and as his own skin started to rot and decompose. Even as his dark mask and clothing started to fade the man showed zero regard for his own safety. They were only driven by a primal instinct to kill the living.
But Eon was a man who had lived countless decades. A man who had seen the rise and fall of many small countries in his travels and who had in some cases even aided in their defeat or victory. Eon knew to be ready.
So, it was with great difficulty that Eon reached his hand out into the empty space that surrounded him. The shields that he had kept around himself were instantly weakened and cracks ran across them. There was no room for hesitation!
But before the cracks could mend, the tentacles broke through and all charged straight towards Eon with the intention to drown him and tear him apart.
The masked intruder and angel of death, Azrael, kept on expending the mana in his core to create more of the slimy tendrils. He created more and more until they appeared to be getting sucked in by Eon. The endless waves of tentacles disappearing into a single point!
"Cough, without this I really might die in that dungeon…" Eon muttered as he wiped some blood with one hand and watched as the last bits of dark tentacles disappeared into the small black hole that floated above his palm.
"How!?!" Azrael yelled angrily with a hoarse voice, he was incensed by the development. All of the deathly mana he gathered from his many assassinations and that he painstakingly cultivated into tentacles had been sucked away by a black orb.
That was also when Azrael saw Eon's other hand. He narrowed his eyes and watched as purple rays of light seeped past Eon's closed fist. The bright light that shone on the tattered walls and broken floor with tremendous energy left only once conclusion.
It was a mana crystal without a doubt.
Azrael's bloodlust instantly simmered down as the rationality of an assassin began to once again take over. His first thought was to flee.
To begin with, It had never been in Azrael's plan to show up so brazenly in front of his targets. He wasn't a fool. Yet, at the same time, it was also impossible for him to control his strong urges. Azrael's experiment was successful but it wasn't without its side effects.
"Tsk!" Azrael's plan to flee was reaffirmed as he caught sight of his rotting skin and eroded clothing. Without hesitation, he dashed off. Within a second he had returned to the corner from which he came.
Eon, who had the black hole in one hand and a mana crystal in the other, could only watch him run away without putting up any resistance. The reason was quite simple.
"Gaargh...!" A stream of viscous red blood was instantly shot out of his mouth and the blackhole which used to float ordinarily above his hand began to shake vigorously.
Eon had to swallow the rest of the blood that threatened to exit his body and muster some more strength.
"D- Damn it" Eon instantly cut off the mana he was sending to the black hole and instead focused on using it to create many shields.
With the help of the crystal, many walls of space solidified around the black orb creating what would perhaps be the world's most fortified individual area.
Immediately thereafter, Eon clenched his teeth and averted his gaze as the room was filled with bright light.
Like the sound of shattering glass, the first barrier fell. Then the second. The third. The fourth. So did the fifth, the six, the seventh. None of the barriers that Eon had set up seemed as if they would last.
And as the final barrier was broken past and the horrible sound of something shattering permeated the surroundings… the light dissipated.
This had all lasted no more than a second.
Yet, Eon felt as though his remaining life span had somehow even gone overdue.
In the end, he collapsed to his knees and spit out much more blood. Of course, he didn't forget to quickly pocket his crystal even while his insides churned. The main reason was that he had survived the short unexpected ordeal and the crystal would continue to act as a lifeline for him.
"Brennan... " In the back however was a husk of a man. Being so focused on himself, Eon had barely even been able to spare the time to shield the king. Eon could hardly hold himself up even now that the assassin was gone so what was he supposed to do then?
Outside of the king's bedroom, Shattering. Something new shattered which the guards were able to clearly hear. Following that was a soft thud. The guards didn't spare another second as they forced open the bedroom door.
"Wh- What? Who-!? Your Majesty!" What they had heard was Eon's body collapsing onto the ground and what they saw was a husk of their former ruler laying like a corpse on his bed.
"G- Get a doctor!" Nevertheless, the guard didn't dare confirm if it was indeed the case.
***
After experimenting with the new upgrades to the system, Ed woke up to confirm whether or not his arm had healed, and the first thing he noticed as he woke up was…
[Body Recollection has leveled up]
Before even catching a glimpse of his arm, Ed was already smiling inwardly.
'It worked' Ed thought as his drowsy vision once more became clear and a pristine white arm came into vision. The time he had spent inside of the system space didn't feel like all that much but perhaps he had simply spent too much time messing around with smart stacking.
Whatever the reason, he had his arm back.
'Brutus! Round two!' Which meant he was free to destroy it again. While he experimented with the creation of drop items, a new arm would come to being and Ed would be able to immediately put it to use.
'Wait… can't I just store my own arm?' A random stray thought hit Ed right after he had enthusiastically called Brutus on over.
Brutus who was outside of the temple received this transmission and ran over eagerly. The room was dark but it didn't take any effort for Brutus to catch sight of Ed's resplendent arms which were for some reason still attached to his body. Brutus couldn't help but stare at Ed intently with confusion.
'Stay there for now' Ed decided to try and see if storing his arm would sever the connection between it and him or if it would even be stored in the first place.
Ed detached the arm and as a way to ensure nothing went awry, used the area store function to try and store the arm.
After not even a second, the arm disappeared without hiccups.
'It can go in…' Ed wasn't all that surprised since sending something to his mind shouldn't break the connection, right? Still, he was feeling a bit bad about having called Brutus over for nothing.
'Erm, you can have some sparring sessions with Iron. It's your reward for earlier' As to avoid any mishaps, Ed quickly tossed the responsibility that was responding to Brutus' eagerness to Iron.
The first death knight. That was Iron. So it was understandable that Iron would be caught off guard by the sudden order to spar with the mace wielding brute that was Brutus.
'Take good care of him' Ed simply said and shrugged as he went back into his sweet dreams.
Once inside, he headed over to the storeroom and grabbed the small shards of his arm from his embarrassing first attempt to sever the connection between himself and his arm.
Thanks to smart stacking, Ed's intact arm was also right next to it and Ed could still feel a subtle connection.
'I guess it doesn't sever unless it's destroyed' Or at the very least not while Ed's consciousness was still in his skeleton body.
Ed then created tendrils of light from his body which grabbed the smaller shards and quickly made his way over to the forge where miracles happened. There, he admired the beauty of the candescent white flame and placed the necessary items into the holding box.
'It's time to begin making bones' Ed would finally tackle the issue of making bones pop up from the cadavers of his skeletons when killed.. He wouldn't rest until this was done.