Chapter 266: “Awaken.”
"Gasp… Gah…"
Vicious spikes of pain assaulted Diere's mind. She finally lost all strength and fell to the ground.
She wanted to try to pull the arrow in her side out, but she found her strength draining away faster than she had thought.
Plus, the pain quickly spread to her entire body, giving Diere the feeling like her life was quickly draining away.
Diere realized very clearly just what was happening.
"Hahaha! I've done it!"
Gerald's overjoyed voice rang out.
"I didn't waste all that gold buying this venom arrow. You're done for now!"
That's right, that arrow was no ordinary arrow. Instead it was a magic arrow imbued with a powerful curse and poison.
The reason Diere wasn't able to dodge it wasn't because her reaction had slowed. Rather, it's because it's speed was far faster than ordinary arrows. Even if the one using it was a complete amateur, it will still automatically lock onto its target and speed up on its own. It's basically an undodgeable magic arrow.
Of course, undodgeable doesn't necessarily mean unblockable.
If it was Vivian, then with her defensive might, she would have been able to easily block the arrow from hitting.
Diere however has an attack and speed type build, so a magic item like that perfectly counters her.It's because he knew that that Gerald used a magic item like that in the first place.
Under the constant corrosion from the venom and curse, Diere had completely fallen to the ground, is utterly unable to get up, and can't even able to speak anymore. She could do nothing besides enduring the torment of the venom in her.
"Diere!"
"Diere!"
Her comrades' cries echoed in Diere's ears, but she was already unable to hear it clearly anymore.
Diere could still faintly see Melika desperately trying to run over to her. Lumia was distracted by her collapse and ended up struck by a knight's blade, leading her to yell out in pain.
Vivian was pushing herself to get back up, but she completely failed to notice that she was not only surrounded, but all those noble mages by Gerald were calling up their magic power in preparation for a new round of spells.
————Ahh…
Diere watched all this unfold, fully understanding what kind cruel event was about to happen.
They no longer had the ability to resist anymore. They'll all end up dying the next second.
Even so, this wasn't something that Diere could accept.
It doesn't matter what happens to her, but the one thing she can't allow is for the others to end up harmed as well.
Therefore…
————Awaken.
"Thump, thump…"
Her heart started beating violently.
————I'll leave everything to you.
"Crack, grind…"
The sound of her muscles and bones grinding against each other echoed in her ears.
————From now on, you can do as you like.
"Splatter…"
Blood flowed furiously like a raging river.
————But I have just one condition.
"Buzz…"
Magic power rose violently in a blast wave around her.
————Help me protect my important people.
The next instant, Diere's will disappeared.
…
"Haha! Hahaha!"
Gerald was still laughing madly even now.
Dier had fallen before his eyes. Vivian was surrounded. Lumia and Melika were screaming helplessly. Even so, he not only had not the slightest pity, he was even madly overjoyed.
He was different from Vask and the others. He didn't bear much of a grudge against Diere, but his family was vassals to the Vask family. He was just one of the many insignificantly minor nobles under Vask's family.
For a minor noble like him, within the Capital, his status was barely only a little higher than the commoners. His family's wealth can't even match some of the more wealth merchants. He's basically just a completely insignificant baron, that's all.
The Vask family however is however of the count rank, which is just below the noble ranks of duke and marquis. They're unquestionably high nobility.
In this kind of situation, all the countless minor nobles that are vassals to a high noble wish desperately to be noticed by their lords. They hope to one day gain their lord's recognition, achieve merits, and then rise in rank from that.
Gerald is one of those countless minor nobles.
His family are barons. Above him are viscounts.
However, even viscounts are simply similarly minor nobility.
In order to reach a position that is considered high nobility by the masses, one would at least need to rise from viscount to count.
Thus, Gerald has always been fighting against the other minor nobles for merits in the hopes of gaining Vask's recommendations to first rise to viscount, and from there, figure out a way to reach count and become a real high noble.
It's for that reason that when Vask summoned all his vassals to head to the Ataru Canyon to enact the ritual here, Gerald had followed without hesitation.
He knew that this was no small matter.
If they ended up failing in the end, what awaited him was utter ruin.
However, he had already had enough of the days of trying constantly to climb from the lowest rung of nobility.
That's why he decided to take the risk in hopes that he might be able to rise a step higher using this chance.
Now, since he had personally slain Diere, he'll definitely be able to gain great recognition and rewards from Vask.
With that, he had come one step closer to his goals.
"Die. Hurry up and die already. Become a stepping stone for my rise."
Gerald was filled with anticipation.
As for Vivian, Lumia and Melika, he didn't really plan on killing them.
Putting aside everything else, if Vivian ended up dying to him, he'll definitely end up faced with the unrelenting vengeance of the Latrard family.
That's not a consequence that he's capable of withstanding.
The Latrard family is a marquis family, which is even higher ranked than Vask's count family. Their status is also special, on par with the Arbin family, to the point where not even ducal families would dare to slight them. Likely not even Vask would dare to casually offend a high noble among high nobles, so Gerald doesn't even bear mentioning.
If he were to kill Vivian, then Gerald's only possible future is to be made a scapegoat by Vask and then given to the Latrard family to do with as they like.
Thus, not only will Gerald not kill Vivian, he'll even do his best to keep her well protected.
As for Melika and Lumia, it doesn't matter if those two girls live or die.
That said, it's somewhat of a shame to just kill them like that.
As Gerald stared at Lumia, who was on the ground, injured, as well as Melika who cried as she held Diere, his gaze turned hot.
As for those two girls, he plans on personally taking them for himself and taking his time enjoying them.
"Forward! Get them!"
The heat that rose in Gerald made him spiritedly give out orders to everyone around him.
"Capture those women!"
This was the first step in his rise to greatness, Gerald thought, completely ignorant that what awaits him next is a fathomless hell.
"Boom!"
Suddenly, the air exploded with force.
It was caused by an unbelievably violent eruption of magic power.
A heavy, pressuring, and terrifyingly huge wave of magic power swept through the field like an invisible storm, causing all the nobles and knights who were about to charge out to freeze on the spot in fear.
This includes Geralds as well.
"T-this is…"
Vivian, Lumia, and Deire were also stunned for a moment.
Immediately after, Melika was the first to recognize who that wave of magic power belong to, making her break out in a joyful expression.
The next second, a figure suddenly dropped down from the sky, appearing before everyone.
That violent wave of magic power came from him.
"Shien!"
Vivian's eyes widened. Finally, she too was overjoyed.,
It was indeed Shien who had shown up.
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