Chapter 215 - Alienated

'...Squishy'

Before he could even realize what had happened, the feeling that Ethan felt from hitting the zombie's head directly turned his stomach upside down. He believed that the zombie had a skeleton inside him, but it seemed almost as if some parts were missing, just like the back of the skull. Ethan's blow, although not powerful, had been able to cause serious damage to the zombie.

the shock caused by his weak point being directly hit, made him collapse on the ground before decomposing quickly, as if the only thing holding him from disappearing completely was his second death.

'..This can't be a monster generated in a dungeon.'

He was certain. The zombie aura seemed strange to him in itself, but with this new information, Ethan felt more confident in his theory. There was something or someone under it, otherwise it would have been impossible that the zombie generated by the dungeon could be so weak.

He wasn't a hero. He wouldn't have acted to save in any way the victims of this tragedy, also because it seemed to be too late for this kind of thinking, but now the only thing he wanted was to make the entity that have made humans a set of zombies and skeletons, with their minds lost, and that follow only the orders of despicable people like them, disappear.

But these thoughts didn't last long as a sigh was enough to calm his mind again. Now that he had freed the zombie from his sufferings, Ethan could only go on to find out more about the dungeon...

---

"...You said Ethan disappeared?"

More than an hour had passed in the real world by now, but Ethan still didn't seem to show up.

"...I should've been able to track his presence, yet he disappeared without leaving a single trace behind..."

Loki was very surprised. She had no idea of many things about Ethan, but this had surprised her much more than the fact his powers seemed to be more out of the ordinary than she thought.

"...Indeed, this is a new even for myself."

Riveria certainly knew more about Ethan than Loki. In fact, in recent weeks she hasn't only trained him in magic, but she pointed out one of the main flaws of his magic. It left much more traces than normal, which meant that someone who could see and analyse the remaining traces of magic would be able to understand much more about the nature of his magic than others. His power was essentially too relevant to mana, as if it changed in nature unrecognizable to many people, but someone like Riveria had obviously noticed this, after the two had finally decided to study his magic in detail.

Another reason Riveria requested that Ethan learn to fight even without the help of magic itself, so that he doesn't rely on it even when it's not necessary to do so.

That said, she had been able to witness his [Instantaneous Movement], the technique he was learning to use the [Boost Magic] in an innovative way, dramatically increasing his speed, creating the illusion that he teleported from one point to another, but this "teleportation" had its limits. Ethan couldn't cross physical objects that stood in front of him, no matter how fast he would have been, something like that was thought impossible. Or at least, it would only be possible if Ethan's speed was equivalent to that of light itself, but for now, such a thing was impossible.

"...Well, at least he accomplished his objective..?"

Riveria had been called by Loki to discuss what had happened, but she hadn't yet mentioned anything about the main subject, and Loki only sighed as if to tell her that she wasn't entirely sure either.

"I've never seen Freya like that. I'm sure she tried to use her charm against him, but from her reaction, it didn't seem like Ethan wasn't influenced. No...That smile on her face clearly indicated her goal had been met at the peak of her expectations, and although I want to trust Ethan, is it really possible for him to succeed in leading Freya to do what he wanted without the slightest doubt?"

She certainly had no intention of doubting him, but the mere thought actually scared her a little. Ethan, a boy almost ordinary if not for his abilities, was able to deceive a goddess who lived millions and millions of years so easily, and the latter didn't suspect a single thing, it was written all over her face. If this had been possible with such ease, what could assure Loki that Ethan wasn't lying all the time? Vows? Even those seemed to be meaningless in comparison to such a feat.

Riveria had understood what Loki meant. Even for her the whole situation seemed almost a dream, but to her doubt, she narrowed her eyes as she thought about the differences in how they viewed Ethan.

Loki, had seen only the most surprising sides of his personality, and although this wouldn't change his astonishing feats, Riveria had a small smile on her lips, which was almost not visible, but at the same time able to express feelings she herself felt obliged to express

"..Loki-sama. I believe that boy is simpler than you picture him. Even if he's like that now, to reach this point he m.a.t.u.r.ed, he faced hardsh.i.p.s and understood several things, I can tell from a glance, he's not what you think he is."

Her words were somewhat cold. Riveria wasn't the type of person who expressed her feelings so clearly that if Ethan were here, her response would be completely different, but in this case she felt that Loki was more confused than she should have been.

She had witnessed his changes over time, and she was sure that no matter how many incredible or out-of-the-ordinary things he would do, Ethan's heart was different. These patterns and schemes were reserved for his enemies, and his feelings for the people beside him were genuine. She would never have let Ethan get close to Ais and Lefiya if that wasn't the case, after all.

Riveria's words surprised Loki. It wasn't too strange that she was defending him anymore, but this time she wasn't doing so, no, she was talking because she was sure that she had personally witnessed the changes in Ethan over time, and to her words Loki recalled that he had explicitly said that he had begun to accept even her, the Goddess that everyone knew acted only for her familia and her own interests...

'Right. I shouldn't doubt him, losing his trust now that he wanted to make my familia gain so much...'

Inevitable thoughts flooded in her mind, yet she sighed as this wasn't what she wanted to think about.

"..I understand."

He had neither denied nor confirmed Riveria's words, but in her heart, Loki knew it was the truth.

"After he'll return though, I would appreciate if you asked him how could he accomplish such a feat, but before that, confirm his safety"

He decided to go back to his duties and wait for Ethan to return rather than stay here to doubt him. Right now, Loki wanted to confirm that everything was all right so that they could implement the plan he himself had proposed. Since Freya would no longer be at their back and call, they had complete freedom to act, and in case they could overhaul points of their plan, but now Loki could already see their success ahead of them, compared to before where everything seemed to be rather impossible to achieve, at least in her eyes.

'You win this round, Ethan. Let's see how you'll handle the next games now that you were able to take down one of the most difficult Queen with ease.'

In her mind, Loki had imagined a chess board, with one side represented by Ethan inevitably playing the role of King. At this time he had won the very first battle impeccably, pulling down the queen with relative simplicity, but now there was an even more complicated part. In this new game, the King would have to face Queen after Queen, meeting all their requirements to win so that he would have them all under his control. Removed the shock that his first win had caused, she was now curious to see the results of all the other battles.

While Loki, perhaps for her divinity or for personal amus.e.m.e.nt had formulated these thoughts, Riveria sighed noticing that Loki had returned to normal and, saluting her with due respect, she decided to return to her duties, since neither Ethan nor Lili were present to be trained...

---

"...How?"

Ethan had no choice but to ask these words out loud as he dodged the claws aimed at his face, yet blood flowed from his right cheek as although not deep, the monster still managed to wound him.

As Loki and Riveria conversed, Ethan had gone deeper into the foreground, discovering that in reality the passage led only to a much larger area, in fact he found himself at what appeared to be the exit of the passage, a kind of dome as in the centre walls were built high enough to make it impossible for anything inside to be seen. Although he could not see the buildings though, Ethan had a bad feeling that he couldn't shake off his head since he saw the walls.

'..They had the time to build a city? Impossible.'

It was impossible for the city to be monster-made. If so much time had passed, Ethan would never have found Maple still alive, and so the walls were 'inexplicable', but he didn't have time to think about it for a long time since after a while, a monster appeared from the ground but Ethan was able to avoid it easily because of the pulsating aura coming from it.

'The same disgusting aura the skeletons possessed.'

Ethan decided to take a quick look at the monster who had tried to launch a surprise attack. This time in front of him wasn't posed a being similar to a human, at least not as much as the zombie.

This monster seemed at first sight to be a skeleton, but in reality this wasn't the case at all. The only thing he couldn't identify was this. The 'skeleton' looked human, but in parts like feet and hands, instead of ordinary hands and feet, the monster had claws, probably sharp enough to cut even steel, or at least that's what Ethan thought at first sight...

Before he could try to attack him though, he could recognize other auras of the same intense black always coming from the ground, so he could deduce that the monster wasn't alone, but was in a group, which made Ethan smile.

'It seems these ones are stronger than normal skeletons, but they still act in a group, which means they're not strong individually...'

---

(I have a discord server. discord.gg/cpVr5X8. You may ask me: "Why should I enter the server?". Well, I'm replying to every interesting question you readers are asking in my chapters, so, you should absolutely enter if you want to read my answers. Ah, and you can find some image reference of items in the story such as Light..! (Soon even Qienta).. so it's recommended to join, I frequently post polls as well, regarding things that(most likely) will be present in the story. One last thing, I post chapter updates in my discord right after I posted on , so I guess you can join to be able to know when I post chapters faster.)

(Poll going on in the discord: Vote what you think is better. I only want to introduce one of these three, the ones with most votes when I feel like it wins. - Light being able to interact with the real world. - Qienta shows up before planned. - More power ups than planned for the girls and Ethan himself.)

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(Alternate Titles: "Ethan underestimated the new monsters!?", "Riveria is baeeeeeee", "Loki, fighting against her own thoughts? I think it was just a moment.")