Chapter 503: Graveyard of My Enemies’ Adversaries
"It’s already too late, Beatrix."
Arthur calmly declared and before Beatrix could get a word out, Idrilla suddenly dropped to her knees.
The woman took a deep breath and looked up to Arthur before speaking.
"Too late, indeed.
I only ask that you do not dash my hopes of a new life away from this wretched place."
The hatred in her voice when she spoke the last two words sent a chill through Beatrix and she stepped back on instinct.
Artemisia, who had remained silent since the beginning, suddenly stood up. She held out her hand, summoning her sword crackling with lightning as she spoke.
"Brace yourself."
Idrilla’s fallen form released a sudden burst of powerful divinity, her lips parting to call out the activation words of her skill.
"Unique Skill: Soul Harvest."
The Saintess of Death summoned the powerful souls of the Epic and Legendary Realm existences she had defeated in the past.
With her ’Eternal Servitude’ skill, she converted half of them into Spectral Guardians and then used the remaining half to fuel the Tier Four Spell she soundlessly cast.
Death Magic: Death Wave.
The magic circle deployed and released a wave of necrotic energy that decayed everything in its path.
Instantly, all the trees and greenery in the forest around them for a kilometre radius turned dark and withered away.
However, the targets of her spell remained undaunted.
Artemisia and Beatrix released their divinities, offsetting the negative death energy. Evan used his Mesarthim skill’s ’YELLOW’ flames to create a ring of purification around them, while Arthur’s destruction energy simply ’destroyed’ the death energy of the spell, reducing the effects that the other three felt.
As for the Spectral Guardians, they were swiftly dispatched by Evan and Arthur.
The Rogue Hero unleashed his prismatic flames, burning the spectral entities with the yellow flames of purification.
Our resident Progenitor, with his destruction energy, obliterated the guardians with a single thought, consigning them to oblivion.
’These Spectres...they barely have any defence so it’s easy to kill them...too easy.’
Evan narrowed his eyes in suspicion when he noticed something amiss. Just as he was about to comment, Arthur spoke up.
"You’re a sneaky one, aren’t you?"
"Hahaha... you can’t blame me. I’ve had to fight off outsiders since before I became a teenager. I wouldn’t have survived this long without learning a few tricks."
Idrilla responded with a bitter laugh, rising to her feet, while Arthur wordlessly stretched out his hand, ready to call his weapon.
"Arthur, what did she do?"
"The spectres, that spell...they were distractions. And they worked very well."
While he was handling the spectres, he had not paid much attention to the ground. If he had, then he would have realised that the ’Death Wave’ Idrilla cast was nothing but a means to infuse the ground around them with her death energy in a manner that he wouldn’t suspect a thing.
With that move, Idrilla’s death energy permeated deeply into the ground for a radius of 1km around their position.
The woman had successfully laid the groundwork for a certain game-changing ’Topographic Technique’.
"Right now, we’re literally in the palm of her hand."
Arthur spoke as he summoned Celestia and filled the sword with magic power, locking eyes with Idrilla who calmly spread her arms out and declared.
[Bounded Field: Graveyard of My Enemies’ Adversaries.]
A black mist burst forth from Idrilla’s body, rapidly spreading and forming the boundary wall for her Bounded Field.
In an instant, a blinding light filled the vision of those present, and when it faded, they found themselves in a different realm entirely.
An open, barren desert of black sand stretched out in every direction, with giant, dreary hills rising ominously behind Idrilla.
The sun in the sky was obscured by pitch-black clouds, which, upon closer inspection, were actually masses of condensed death energy swirling ominously above.
The landscape was a desolate, expansive wasteland cemetery, littered with thousands—perhaps countless—tombstones, each inscribed with a name.
The air was heavy with a palpable sense of death, and the very ground seemed to pulse with negative energy.
"My apologies. My Oath has forced me to take action."
Idrilla spoke with a wry smile on her face, while the four teenagers she was faced with all had difficult expressions. Except for Arthur who had no expression.
Evan glanced around warily as his Danger Sense skill was ringing alarm bells, and his gaze inadvertently caught sight of the name inscribed on one of the tombstones near his feet.
[Xakon Ilmoth]
"...what?"
Shock rippled through Evan’s form, enough that he actually took a step back with his expression now changing to one of pure confusion.
That name...was a familiar name.
Evan could NEVER forget that name.
The problem was, that name belonged to a dead man.
Arthur turned towards Evan, wondering why the boy was so shaken, and in the process, his eyes caught sight of a name on a tombstone as well.
[Zach Pearce]
"...the fuck?"
Now, it was his turn to be shocked as the name there was one Arthur recognized as well. The name of a dead man.
He looked around and he saw that the hundreds of tombstones around them all had names inscribed.
Many were names he did not recognize, but there were some he did.
What’s more, the names he did not recognize were names that Evan recognized.
Seeing their changing expressions, Idrilla spoke up.
"Familiar names, aren’t they?"
Arthur and Evan turned to her with narrowed gazes and she calmly drew her finger across the top of a tombstone which was beside her.
The name on it was another Arthur was familiar with; Ursan—the deceased Northern Emperor of the destroyed Planet Phirex.
Idrilla’s other hand touched the top of the tombstone on her other side and Evan read the name there, seeing it was one he recognized as well.
Yaqash—the name of an Arachne Evan faced in a Dungeon years ago.
"Did you remember what I told you when I introduced myself?
I am The Saintess of All Those Who Have Died."
On Idrilla’s cheek, a distinctive runic symbol began to take form, glowing with a faint divine light as she explained.
"Within my Bounded Field, I can resurrect the Dead. The dead who have fallen by your hands.
The Adversaries of you, My Enemies."
"?!"
The moment she spoke, geysers of death law energy shot up from the ground in front of the tombstones and the four teenagers quickly jumped away to gain distance.
The black ground burst open and arms emerged from below, gripping the earth tightly and pulling up the rest of their bodies.
The first to emerge was a man of average height and a slender build, with short, messy red hair and slanted eyes. He wielded a large one-handed sword and was dressed in a black full body emanating demonic energy.
A pair of bat-like wings emerged from his back, completing his demon appearance.
Second was a teenage boy, with shiny blonde hair and an angry look on his face. Runes of various kinds marked his skin along his arms and his two swords were inscribed with runes as well.
His body leaked out droves of malevolent ether, making one feel unsettled with his mere presence.
When the two of them stepped out, an unknown light flashed through their eyes and they snapped their heads in the direction of the two boys, bellowing out their names simultaneously.
[ARTHUR VAUGHNNNN!!!!!] [EVAN ERISSSSSSS!!!!!!]
Their auras burst out wildly and they charged towards the two boys with fury. The ambient death energy swirled around their weapons and the boys didn’t need to be told it’d be bad to let those weapons touch them.
"What the actual fuck?! You shouldn’t even exist in this time period!!"
Evan shouted to the Demon named Xakon, but the Demon only screamed his name in rage while swinging his sword wildly, sending streams of black fire and flames towards Evan.
"Is that your issue? This guy is someone from a different Universe!! How is he even here?""
Arthur exclaimed as he dodged Zach’s sword, grabbing the Monsterized boy by his face and slamming him into the ground with his full strength.
The end result was that Zach’s skull burst open and blood spattered out. However, the blood, as well as the rest of Zach’s body soon dissipated into magic particles and were blown away with the wind.
Leaving aside this strange occurrence, the two boy’s exclamations were more important.
Zach Pearce and Xakon Ilmoth.
Arthur didn’t know this Xakon guy, but it was surely someone Evan killed in the past. The issue here was that Evan was from 10,000 years in the future, meaning this Xakon guy was from that time as well.
Yet, Idrilla had summoned Xakon and sent him after Evan.
What about Zach? The same guy whom Arthur had killed during the Monsterization incident in his first year at the Royal Academy on Planet Kriez.
The issue with Arthur’s case was that Zach was not only from a different planet but a different Universe entirely!
But here he stood, before Arthur.
How?
Idrilla was kind enough to explain.
"You’re wondering how these enemies of yours that are from a time that has not yet come, can be summoned here, are you not?
It is simple.
The ’Graveyard of My Enemies’ Adversaries’ resurrects the Adversaries of the targets within it, whom they have slayed in their past."
Hearing her short explanation, realisation flashed through Arthur’s eyes and he quickly understood the working process.
"Now it makes sense..."
"What does?"
Responding to Evan’s query, Arthur shared some of his Time Law Comprehensions.
"Even if you came from the ’Future’, Evan. The ’Future’ you came from is now your ’Past’ and this ’Past’ you are in is now your ’Present’."
Evan and the others weren’t Time Manipulators, but they quickly understood Arthur’s words. This still left the question of how the Deceased from the future appeared, and Idrilla gave them the answer with her next words.
"Barriers of Time and Space exist not within my Bounded Field...for this is a Realm of ’Death’.
Death affects all, regardless of if you are from the past present or future, regardless of what planet you were born on or what Universe it is."
"Ain’t that some fourth-dimensional shit right there?!"
Just as Arthur screamed that out, a beam of pure white flames tore through the air and surged towards him.
He used time laws to halt the flames, before looking at the giant white dragon that was their source.
Since it was unfamiliar to him, he turned to Evan and asked.
"You know this guy?"
"Sure as hell do."
