Bro, I'm not an Undead!

...

For a moment, only the brimming of Stylla's Aura could be heard as silence tore through the contained space.

Her words just now had been clear but everyone, for a moment, couldn't make sense out of them.

Setkh...?

Ed, Arisa and even Skullius turned to Setkh with hard faces plastered with contusions of shock, however they coloured their differing skin tones.

The most trusted guard and the most trusted maid were particularly shaken.

The guards outside were astounded by this detail as well, hearing it through the open door.

But... no...

"Lady Stylla..." Arisa began with a shaky voice, her feet subconsciously drawing her away from Stylla's brother.

Ed clutched the hilt of the sword at his side but burdens of disbelief could be seen through his eyes.

"Lady Stylla..." Arisa called again, her eyes gazing at Stylla whose glare refused to leave her brother's face. She ignored everyone and with a voice like a howl...

"Look at me."

She said.

Setkh's eyes, lacking any particular intense shock or awe, rested on his father's body instead.

"Look at me."

Stylla called again.

Setkh didn't respond.

The Aura bursting in the room, causing the air to become stifled and thick with its force grew even more disastrously tumultuous as Stylla's face twitched while her hands balled into fists.

"Look at me, you fucker! I said FUCKING look at me!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice paired with her Aura smashing into Setkh's face, literally!

The long haired man was bombarded cleanly, his body nearly sent flying had an indifferent Karrun not supported it!

Setkh bled from the nose, but he didn't look to be concerned with the pain.

Still, his eyes finally turned to the furious Stylla whose face had reddened so much it was nearly reaching the colouration of her hair, steam hissing from it as her technique subconsciously activated.

As the two locked eyes, Stylla reached into her pocket and showed a small piece of paper.

A sullen smile appeared on her face, its curve restricting the tears that fell from her eyes to continue their course to her chin.

"Tell me... tell me this is just a lie, hmm? Tell me.. this was someone's idea of fucking with me and trying to make us turn on each other. Tell me... this is just some... I don't know... some bastard you met during your time away who wants to frame you..." Stylla said with a series of expressions that utterly broke Arisa who clasped her mouth with terror.

This was... this was real, wasn't it?

Setkh's eyes remained without the lace of any emotion.

He didn't respond.

He didn't even blink.

"ANSWER ME!" Stylla bellowed.

Setkh wiped the blood from his nose.

"Why should I try to convince you otherwise when you already believe everything on that note?"

Stylla's eyes shot open.

Of course.

She knew.

In fact, when she struggled over this message since the latest batch of matches in the Royale, she had found that... it was not impossible.

When her father was cursed, Setkh had already taken off. He returned a few months ago, Stylla begrudgingly welcoming him back because... at the end of the day, her father would have done the same.

They were blood. They had to stick together. 𝗳𝙧𝐞𝚎w𝗲𝚋n𝚘𝙫𝑒𝘭.𝑐om

But... she had never suspected him. There was no reason he would do this... After all...

"But, Master Setkh..." Arisa spoke, her voice choked and her eyes leaking profusely. "No... it can't... He was so good to you. He loved you and you... you loved him just as much..."

Setkh didn't spare a glance to the Head Maid.

Instead, he glanced at Ed whose eyes burned with a growing, unveiled light of hatred, not the concealed disdain from before.

He then spoke once more.

"It's easy for you to put it that way, isn't it?"

Setkh's sight returned to his father.

"You're right. He loved me and I loved him. But in the end... I guess fear was just that much stronger," he said.

...!

Suddenly, Karrun grabbed his shoulder and the two vanished!

Skullius who had been listening to this reveal silently, stormed over at a magnificent speed where Setkh and Karrun had been standing!

He threw a mighty straight punch at the air and...

BAM!

He felt something fly and knock against the wall from the force of his fist!

'I knew it!'

Ed heard the sound too after being disappointed a split second earlier that this treacherous young Master had escaped but now...

"They are here, just invisible to your eyes!" Skullius yelled.

Ed drew his sword and slashed where he had heard the impact, but his sword merely clashed with the reinforced wall, giving a loud clang!

'Damn it! It's a pretty effective technique!' Skullius thought as he bolted out of the room.

None of the guards standing there could understand what had just happened at all. Given the fact that the only light source came from within the room, it was easy for someone invisible to escape them.

Skullius pushed them away and focused his senses but still... nothing!

'I'd always been wondering since that day when he first showed it...' Skullius thought, recalling the day he first met Karrun.

(A/N: Refer to Ch.493).

Setkh had announced for him to show himself after the small conversation that night and out of nowhere, Karrun had appeared, revealed to have been sitting among them the whole time and yet, they hadn't noticed his presence!

This had bothered Skullius quite a bit. For someone like him who relied on his senses, it didn't make sense for him to be unable to feel the shape of someone present, even if they were invisible.

Perhaps this opinion of his was brought on by Silrat who claimed that Karrun wasn't actually that strong when compared to him which had led to this great suspicion.

Had Silrat been mistaken?

Silrat of all people? Unlikely.

His entire role revolved around seeing the worth in people, particularly combatants.

This matter had eluded Skullius for long but now, he had gained a subtle hint.

His awareness had spiked since Stylla had dropped the massive reveal and in the moment Karrun had touched Setkh, a barely discernible itch had pinched at the innards of his head. It was easy to forgo but not for Skullius who had a great level of consciousness to his body.

When he felt the itch, that was when he suddenly couldn't sense Karrun or Setkh anymore.

And then he realised it!

That sockethole was a powerful Mind Caster with the ability to mess with perception of seemingly any kind!

A hand suddenly pressed against Skullius' shoulder from behind.

It was a seething and broken Stylla who gazed at him with feverishly wrathful eyes, her face so close to Skullius' that he could taste her skin with but a shift of his lip.

"Get him! I beg you! Please, don't let him get away!" she implored.

The Hybrid Luman's face shifted as a wave of emotions flooded him from this...

He felt his soul churning.

"He won't," he found himself saying.

*

Loud panting could be heard as Karrun and Setkh dashed up the stairs at full speed, their Auras wrapping around them fiercely.

They couldn't be perceived but this wouldn't last long.

"You should have guessed that she had found out," Karrun said. 𝗳𝘳𝐞e𝙬𝙚𝚋𝗻𝚘𝚟𝗲l.𝑐𝑜ｍ

"Yes. But I couldn't have. I suppose they saw it fit to make me hurry it up by tipping her off on this. Damn it!" Setkh said, a rather dark look on his face that was smeared with pain.

Emotional pain.

He thought he had more time.

He had asked for it.

Sadly, they couldn't be reasoned with and neither could their motivation.

"This is not what we agreed on. I can't fight against all those guards, especially with Festos among them," Karrun pointed out while looking back but the darkness was just way too thick and he couldn't sense the presence of anything from the distance they had covered.

"I hired you specifically for things like this, didn't I? Besides... you won't have to fight," Setkh said while pulling from his spatial storage, a maroon ring which he slipped on his finger. As he did, his face hardened with unwillingness as he thought about the dreadful consequences of using it.

She would definitely die.

Stylla would definitely die if he used it.

He could save himself but...

No, Festos would definitely save her and it would all be alright in the end? Right?

All things he considered, he really did love her.

He loved her so much.

Her reproach against him leaving the Family back then, along with the memories of all the time he had spent with her was what he had used to hold on to sanity in that place.

That cavern.

How many years had it been? 5? 10 years?

He had held on for as long as he could, thinking about his sister and wishing he had heeded her words.

Regret.

Longing.

Pain.

His love for her had twisted over those false years of torture, desire and the only source of entertainment he could conjure.

Imagination.

Tsk.

"How much is your technique's limit range?" Setkh asked.

"Ten miles, give or take. I'm extending it that far with my Aura though and... DAMN IT! Something's coming!" Karrun's eyes bulged as he found that behind them, over the darkness already within this space, a darker, deeper darkness exploded towards them like a horrendous sand storm, hiding the glimpses of other sets of steps that could be seen with keen sight!

Setkh saw it too as he turned, his face depicting astounding horror.

What was this cascading darkness?!

Why was it so ravenous, devouring everything it came across and shielding it within its appallingly dark depths?!

Setkh panicked and infused mana into the maroon ring on his finger but immediately after, he too was devoured along with Karrun!

Within the darkness, a deadly suppression crushed his will and consciousness as he floated, burying even his Aura back into his body forcefully!

It was ruthless... but the ring held something....some things worse than the grip of darkness...