Chapter 134: Cursed artifacts.

'These two again…'  Darius couldn't help but comment when he saw the carriage bearing the insignia of the Nystrom family.

'It was pretty stupid of Sanders to fight Reeves in possession of 2 epic grade artifacts or maybe he had a plan but unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.' Darius shook his head when the pocket dimension was created.

Darius didn't need to see how the battle went in other to know the outcome, apart from the fact that Reeves was with 2 dangerous artifacts, he had already begun his ascension ritual meaning he had half a foot in the realm of angels while Sanders had been stuck in the demigod realm for almost a century.

From the champion realm and above for one to advance in realm they had to fulfill certain conditions and advancing from the demigod realm to the Angelic realm was called an Ascension ritual.

The higher one went in realm the greater their connection with the mother-stream became meaning they could interact more and depending on their level, manipulate the laws of nature to an extent.

That was how Reeves was able to lock everyone in place with only words from his mouth and that was how Commander Darius was able to make everything weightless, but the manipulation was dependent on the opponent's level of interaction with the laws of nature.

If Darius who was in the Angelic realm was to face a mortal in the champion or hero realm, he would be able to snap his/her heads without making a pronouncement, because they had in no way come in contact with the laws of nature.

If he went up against a demigod below the perfect realm only a pronouncement would be needed because of the vast gap between both realms, but if he was up against an angelic pronouncement as useless as a third nipple because both parties had almost the same level of interaction with the laws of nature.

'I guess the empire just got itself a new angel…' Commander Darius thought. 'Well, that should be all… hmm, what do we have here?' Darius was about to cut his connection with the artifact, but when he saw a thunderbolt descending on Blake he decided to stop. 

"Interesting…" Darius said with a smirk as he cut off the connection between him and the beholder.

Immediately the connection was cut, the hand mirror began vibrating causing the purple glow of the beholder's pupil to change to red and sending out a wave that would make Darius lose his sight for a short period, but before it got to him an ethereal barrier protected him.

"Same as always…" Commander Darius chuckled after the artifact had failed to enact its punishment on its user.

Different artifacts had different origins and among many ways, only 3 were known by a select few.

Some artifacts were created by legendary forgemasters with legendary grade resources and equipment, while some were created when the power of a god-level being was infused with an item causing a massive reaction that ends up turning it into an artifact with abilities related to the god level being and finally those created by forbidden magic and arrays.

Artifacts in this category involved living beings as sacrifices and almost every time the sacrifices were no small numbers. Among the other two methods, artifacts created such a method are bound to be the most powerful but that was mostly dependent on the number of sacrifices.

Throughout history, there had been multiple occasions when villages and cities were sacrificed for creating artifacts. The end result always tends to be powerful but the price that came with using these cursed artifacts was quite steep.

The prices usually came in form of punishment before or after the use of the cursed artifact and the degree of punishment was dependent on how strong the artifact was and how long it was used.

An example was the beholder that took the sight of the user and the duration was dependent on how long it was used.

If Commander Darius wasn't strong enough to evade the punishment, he would have lost his sight for more than a day because he had pushed the cursed artifact to its limit by watching the entire event that played out, under the interference of a perfect demigod.

"Sir, the young lady's condition has been stabilized…" The supervisor reported.

"What is the death toll so far?" Commander Darius asked.

"According to the team at the middle region no death had been recorded, but 427 deaths have been recorded so far at the slums." The supervisor reported.

'507 dead… 94 trapped under rubbles… Out of the 94, 28 have less than a minute left. I must say that's a nice trade.' Commander Darius thought as he withdrew his sensory range that encompassed the entire slums.

"Alright, I will be leaving. Contact if anything serious happens." Darius said as he handed over the hand mirror to the supervisor.

"Oh… Beholder is pissed off so put it out of commission for a very long and make sure to report to a high-ranking officer before it is used again." Commander Darius said as he entered the luxurious carriage. 'Because the next person to use it might not live to tell the tale.'

…

When their carriage arrived at the adventurer's association, the trio headed straight for their rooms.

They had had a very rough day and they had been drained mentally, physically and emotionally from the sudden turn of events that occurred during the mission. It would be an understatement saying they were drained because it was only due to their sheer will that they were still standing.

Grrroooowl!

When Blake got to door, his stomach protested for food causing him to pause for a second.

[Don't you want to have a quick bit? Sleeping on an empty stomach is not advisable.] The system said.

"Fuck that shit!" Blake opened his door and threw himself on his bed. Immediately his head came in contact with the soft pillow he slept off.

[If he had accepted the offer, I would have thought he wasn't human.] The system chuckled when it saw Blake's reaction.