Marcus sat with bated breaths as he watched the battle unfold in front of him.
When it looked like Gwyneira was about to be killed, he tried once again to return to the battlefield but to no avail.
It seemed that the administrator was going to keep him here in this sectioned off space until she deemed it okay for him to leave.
In contrast to Marcus, she had been watching the battle in a very relaxed manner. Making comments such as “Oh that was a pretty good move”, to “Looks like that one is going to die.”
However, when Boreas arrived, Marcus felt a sudden sense of relief seeing such a capable fighter join the battlefield and save Gwyneira.
“Oh, looks like it will not be as interesting from here on out. That man is just too strong, along with everyone else there they will probably win eventually.” The administrator said as she slumped over in her chair..
Obviously, she had been enjoying watching the battle, but with Boreas there now it seemed likely that they were going to win.
Of course, Marcus had already realized by now that the administrator was trying to rile him up with her comments. She honestly did not care what was happening and was more interested in how he would react to her blatant comments about his friends and allies dying.
“Well, I think I have kept you long enough. It should be safe for you to return now and give your friends and allies a bit of peace of mind” The administrator said.
Marcus quickly opened his status window and saw that the “Return Now” button was usable again.
Though before he could press it, the administrator spoke up and said one last thing, “Oh and since I kept you here against your will, I will give you a bit of advice. You and your allies will have an incredibly hard time winning unless you cut off its power supply.”
Marcus looked over at the administrator in confusion upon hearing this.
He was not sure what she was trying to tell him, since it was pretty obvious that something was giving the Dread Burrower power. But if any of them knew what exactly it was, naturally they would have already targeted it.
“Well, if you want to think about it, you are welcome to stay tell the end of your countdown. I imagine that is the minimum amount of time it will take them to win now.” The administrator said before going back to watching the show.
“Yeah, I do not want to stay here a moment longer.” Marcus said as he hit the return now button.
His vision then went dark for a moment before he appeared right above a large crater in what was a barren wasteland.
‘Looks like it really does bring me back to the exact spot where I died.’ Marcus observed.
Except while he may have been where he had blown himself up in order to deal a devastating blow against Doomsday Worm, the battle had already moved away from this place.
‘Hm looks like I am not suffering any negative effects from my use of soul burst or soul devour even though I am back. Still looks like soul burst is on cooldown and deny destruction will not be able to activate for another year.’
Marcus, once he had finished looking over his status headed in the direction of the Doomsday Worm.
With its enormous size even after shrinking a bit, it was certainly not difficult to find.
Along the way he thought about what the administrator had told him and tried to figure out what was giving the Dread Burrower its seemingly endless power.
Even a normal regeneration skill took a great deal of stamina and mana to use, and it had been shredded and blown apart more time than he could count and had bounced back every time without fail.
Yet as he thought about it more, he vividly remembered one of the instances where it recovered right after he had blown himself up.
‘Yes, that must be it! But how are we even going to stop it from continuing to do that?’
Having found some sort of conclusion to the Dread Burrower’s seemingly endless life, Marcus made haste to catch up to everyone else.
When he was finally in sight of them, he saw that they were having a heated discussion on what to do.
But once everyone saw him approaching, they were all stunned silent, since they were certain that Marcus had destroyed himself in a sacrificial attack to give them a chance for victory.
When he finally made it into a reasonable speaking distance, Gwyneira was the first one to speak up and said, “Marcus, how are you alive?! There was not any trace of you left.”
Shrugging his shoulders like his dying had not been a big deal, he said, “Oh I have a skill that lets me survive being destroyed, though it only works once before having a decently long cooldown. I mean no way I would have blown myself up otherwise.”
Marcus then began laughing trying to pass his death off like a joke, but for everyone else there had really believe he was gone.
“You know you could have told us something like that before you did something so stupid.” Ardea said as she punched Marcus in the arm.
Now that he was back and apparently all of their grief and worry were for nothing, a lot of the people that knew Marcus were angry with him.
This was mostly Gwyneira, Aria, Retharin, and Ardea, who were certainly giving him a hard time.
“Okay I should have told at least one of you about the skill, but I have at least told Mraz so I am sure you would have found out even if I had waited to come back.” Marcus said in his defense. “Anyway, we have more pressing matters to attend to. The Doomsday Worm is getting closer to Loursend as we speak, and I am sure just even the shockwaves of this battle have damaged the city. While I was recovering, I had some time to think, and I finally figured out a way for us to beat this thing. But it is going to take all of us working together.”