Chapter 438 - Imminent War

The rain began falling almost immediately after the water vapor rose toward the sky. The expansion of the liquid to gas caused the atmosphere's pressure to change, and the heat spread for a few kilometers.

"Pho..." Arthur breathed out as the crystal Hydra finished its attack, and his wall of fire began to scatter. After the two battles, there was very little mana left in his body, and he knew that he needed to wrap things up quickly.

As a raindrop touched his cheek, Arthur felt like it stuck to his face. His brows furrowed as he wiped away the raindrop, only to find that it turned into a crystal.

The sky began to rain, and Arthur found himself drenched in an instant. Then, to his horror, the water started to crystalize, trying to turn him into a statue.

Clink!

Clink!

Clink!

The crystals broke down as he used his Release-rune for an instant burst of strength, hurrying to throw his spiritual energy to block the rain. But, as he looked around at the forest, he found that it was turning into a crystal forest.

"... this is bad," Arthur frowned as he turned toward the infant hydra, which was releasing astronomical amounts of mana to turn everything around it into crystals.

The nine serpents began to grow bigger as the rain started to gather around them. Then, with the Hydra at the center, everything around it began to crystalize.

"The town!"

Arthur snapped his head back as he saw the crystals approach the town rapidly. If normal humans were enclosed in the crystals, it would be hard to guarantee their survival.

His mind raced for a solution, but Arthur simply couldn't think of a way to stop the Hydra in time. Even if the Mernars chose to forgive humans, the latter would never forget the tragedy of thousands of humans turning into statues.

'An imminent war,'

Arthur foresaw what was destined to happen at this rate. However, even if he lacked an answer, he couldn't keep standing idle as the town turned into crystals.

Space compressed itself between him and the town, allowing Arthur to teleport toward the city's edge. The forest began turning into crystals in front of him, trees losing their lush green to turn into translucent white.

'Fire? That should work to vaporize the water, but it would burn the place down. Should I teleport the town? However, my teleport rune is still incapable of teleporting such a giant place.'

All of his runes flashed in his mind. Strengthening runes, detection, absorption, release, force, healing, restoring, vegetation, spiritual interference, and spatial expansion...

'None,'

There was not a single rune that could stop this Hydra from killing thousands of innocents. He could use his protection to protect Arthur, but it was too weak to cover anything other than a small area.

Arthur realized that he was a jack of all trades but a master of none at such a crucial moment. He had so many abilities, but all of them weren't powerful enough to provide any usefulness when it truly mattered.

"The Insignia," Arthur muttered as he hurried to raise his hand toward the sky. He began to recite the summoning phrase of the Breaker Insignia, but only a system notification answered him.

[Failure to synchronize with the holy crown.]

"No!"

Arthur shouted as the wave of power reached the town, starting to turn everything into crystals. His mana exploded out of his body, golden and all-powerful, but they could only destroy the crystals around his body.

From the ground to the trees to the houses to the people, they all turned to crystals. Then, finally, Arthur turned around and bolted toward the town, as cries of horror rang in his ears.

"Stop, you stupid Mernar!" Arthur shouted as he stretched his arm to protect just the house from turning into crystals, but the last of his mana left his body. As strength left him, he fell to his knees and watched the town turn into glass.

Arthur knew that this was just the Hydra protecting itself, and he knew that it was all because of Larza and the Alvan Kingdom. He knew that this was the betrayal of some of the nobles, and he knew why this happened.

He knew all along that it would happen, but what difference did that make? What could he do other than to stand idle and watch the people scream while he fell to his knees helplessly?

His knees began to crystalize as well as the rain fell on his body. The water turned into hard crystals in batches around his body, trying to assimilate him into the town.

As far as he could see, everything turned to crystals. His lips were shaking as they were slowly coated with crystals, holding them in place. The water that fell from his forehead turned to crystals as the voices of the people died down.

"No..." Arthur muttered before his mouth was sealed too, and he couldn't even get up anymore. The minutes ticked by as the world was muted, leaving Arthur alone with his thoughts.

'There must be a way to reverse this,' Arthur knew that it would be hard to save anyone, but he needed to try. 'This noble might be corrupted, but the people in this town are innocent.'

An artificially-induced natural disaster has taken place in the Town of Perfumes, killing most ordinary people. This was only the beginning of the Mernars invasion, looking for their missing royal family member.

***

The sound of footsteps jolted his slowing mind awake, and Arthur snapped his eyes open. His body was covered with crystallized rain, and his spiritual energy was the only thing that managed to protect him from being turned into a crystal statue.

His mana was still mostly spent, but he had enough now to break free from the crystallized water. However, before he did so, a white flash of light covered his body.

"This one is alive,"

A voice said as the white flash of light broke down the crystals. When Arthur heard the voice, he thought he had imagined things. After all, it was such a familiar voice, yet a layer of strangeness coated it.

As the crystal fell away from his body, Arthur broke free to turn toward the walking person. The person he saw wore a white cloak with black edges and collar.

"You are..." Arthur muttered, and the arriving person stopped moving. Then, from beneath the cloak, a pair of eyes stared at him with equal recognition but not a lot of shocks.

"What happened to your promise to return?" the voice asked again as the figure's two hands pulled the cloak down. A pair of red crimson eyes and glaring white hair was all Arthur needed to recognize her.

"Rae?"

"I believe you called me that name before," Rae paused before she smiled. "It has been a long time, one-armed man."

Arthur realized that was Rae's impression of him. A one-armed man helped her after she woke up in the slave house, only to promise his return but never fulfill it.

"What are you doing here? No," Arthur coughed as he tried to stand up, only to slip and fall on his knee again. "What happened before? Where did you disappear into?"

"I was taken away by someone else," Rae said without the previous cluelessness that Arthur knew her.  "He is the man who helped me regain my powers."

"The Devils Hunter," Arthur muttered. "Where is he?"

"Not here," Rae shook her head before looking beyond Arthur at the town. "It seems we were too late, too," she said with a saddened expression, one he had never thought he'd see on her face.

"Did you know about what was going on here?"

"We received word about the inhuman treatment of the Demis and the existence of devils. I was sent here to take care of both matters. However, it seems there was a different evil that needed to be fought."

As she said so, Rae turned toward him. Arthur met her blood-red eyes with a shaking heart because emotions flooded his heart when he met someone he knew from his world. She smiled warmly and walked over to help him stand.

"Can we save the people here?" Arthur asked as she helped him stand up, but she shook her head with regret.

"I am afraid... not," she sighed. "And I don't think that you have time for this, right? Your city should be fighting against the Mernars too."

"Has it... began?"

"Unfortunately," Rae said as she released his arm for him to stand on his own. "You need to go back to your city as soon as possible. The war ahead will make this kingdom bleed unless everything can be stopped in time."

Her words carried the knowledge that ordinary people shouldn't possess, and Arthur realized that the Devils Hunter might be more capable than just a slayer of immortals.

"Who is the person who helped you?"