Bro, I'm not an Undead!

(A/N: The previous chapter has been fixed. Be sure to read it).

Six weeks later.

A set of footsteps trampled over the grass and small quantities of dry leaves.

A certain feminine figure walked up to a large fire away from the house. She was wary. Four silhouettes sat around this fire, Their voices echoing around the open space freely.

It looked like a casual gathering of friends to warm themselves as the sun sank from the distance, but the reality was quite different.

Revia knew.

She felt uncomfortable walking towards this group but she had made a choice. An uncertain choice that she had decided to follow through with.

Or rather, she had finally made a concrete decision.

When she reached closer to the four, they all turned to her.

"You are free to join in," Actuass said, the flames and sparks illuminating his green and white mask vividly, the image of which still haunted Revia to this day.

Fulina patted the open spot on a tree trunk that she sat on, a gesture for Revia to come sit.

The former Paladin Champion did so.

Revia looked around.

She was more familiar with three people here; Actuass, Cyne and Fulina, but the third person, an old geezer with white hair and one functioning red eye, she didn't know quite well.

She knew his affiliation and his powers but she nothing else as they had met only on a few occasions.

"Something on your mind?" Actuass asked.

Revia turned to the man, scrounging up enough of a resistance to his intimidating hazel eyes behind the mask. She would need to start working on that, given what she had decided.

"Yes, I do," she said. "Why have we been lounging around for the past weeks? Don't you have a grand plan to enact?"

Actuass was amused.

"I do. But your question begs another question rather than an answer," he said as he poked the burning wood in the fire. "Are you prepared to kill without mercy, should this plan of mine succeed?"

Revia sucked in a deep breath, her expression shifting several fold.

Fulina at her side shook her head.

"She's not ready," she spoke.

"I thought as much. You are merely going with the flow. Half-swayed," Actuass said. "To answer your question though, every plan has a waiting period. Sometimes it's years, sometimes it's micro seconds. The results are determined at the end of the wait."

The old geezer in the group chimed in at this moment, expressing his concerns.

"I agree with your words but I'm not sure I can trust your sense of time. With how much time has passed, the Extreme Formula should have absorbed quite a lot of power, shouldn't it?" he asked.

"It's not about absorbing power. I was certain Guissepo told you about this. The Extreme Formula requires the powers of the Deities to open. The most efficient way to do that is to use the small blessings that reside within common folk and combatants alike, different from how the previous Evenfall leader used to do it; hunting down Paladin Champions to feed their Divine Blessings to it," Actuass explained.

The Extreme Formula was a mark on the crust of Aigas. For unknown reasons, the Purity had no knowledge of it but the Evenfall had known of it from old times, its whereabouts supposedly leaked by Boron, the Traitorous Deity.

This is where Revia's Divine blessing had been fed to weeks ago, but to no avail.

"Guissepo already explained these specifics of course. But, as he said, the Extreme Formula needs to be dipped in a large well of blessings first. Kind of like soaking it to remove the rigidity. It then needs to be hit by an enormous amount of the same energy when it has been soaked enough in order to open a doorway into the Under. I'd say the Formula has seen enough... soaking, no?" the old man said.

Actuass sighed.

"No. If it were, Guissepo would feel it and he would have told you. However, he and I structured the duration of the Premium Age Royale with the estimations he was 'given' so I encourage you to trust your own leader."

"Trust? In what way does what we have here even resemble trust?"

Indeed. It was a bit of stretch to call this relationship one based on trust.

It was more like a transaction.

Guissepo had entered into talks with this old man a while ago to recruit the him and the people he gathered for protection.

Summoners.

People with this class were practically regarded as their own race and shunned in Pelian and sadly, in this age, no one would even consider choosing the class anymore.

Guissepo had asked the Summoners for help and actually managed to attain their promise to assist because he offered them a chance at being free to live anywhere they desired should he succeed.

(A/N: Refer to Ch.438).

For the Summoners it was possibly their own choice to live like this; at least this group of Summoners. There were other channels to make a living here in Pelian but they shunned them, choosing to hide.

Until now.

For Guissepo, his goal was something he was willing to stay locked up in the venue for the Premium Age Royale for, making it something he was wholeheartedly giving himself to.

However...

The old geezer was under the impression that only Actuass wasn't staking everything on this, which sparked a lit cord in the masked man.

Actuass have a stern gaze towards the man.

"You are right. It is not something hung on trust. It is built from necessity. I have allied with Guissepo because there is value added here and a greater chance at success. Something I yearn for," the masked man said with a harsh breath coming from his mask. "I have spent 490 years preparing for this. I have accumulated hundreds of thousands of Creeds in that time, which I have used up to ensure that nothing short of Divine stops me."

"I have made tens of thousands of immortals and stocked up on a pool of undeath energy enough to overwhelm the whole of Aigas, all in that time span. So do not speak to me of trust and I warn that you keep your doubts behind your tongue. I have stakes in this as well. Our conflict begins AFTER our cooperation ends."

The old geezer made a face and grunted, turning away from the topic.

Revia on the other hand almost choked on something Actuass said.

Thousands of immortals?

Did he mean there were more just like her?

Seeing Revia's reaction, Actuass answered to her thoughts.

"You're fortunate that I saw value in you, Revia. Otherwise, I would have added you to my collection of unconscious dolls waiting to be awakened at the right time."

...!

Revia couldn't continue to make eye contact with Actuass anymore. For now.

She felt herself grow smaller and smaller whenever she faced him, which infuriated her. However, today was the start of something different.

She was usually given freedom to wander about since the day she accepted the chance to join, which gave her free time to think and settle her thoughts.

Would she really abandon everything just because she had become... this?

Was there no good she could do?

Good? Perhaps not. But there were evils that many were blind to in Aigas. Ones that only she and the other Paladin Champions knew.

Now that she was no longer tied up to duty, she was free to act.

Her conclusion?

"You are right. I am undecided. On one hand I feel like I'm too broken to continue to live a normal life and on the other, I feel like I can make a difference even while fallen," she said, her eyes shakily looking to Actuass. "My choices are either to come to your side or become a... 'doll' that you keep shackled till you need it, right?"

Actuass didn't respond as the answer was all but clear.

"In that case, I'll kill and I'll fight but only those enemies that you and I have in common. After I'm done, I'll stay true to my word. I will kill you."

The declaration Revia made was not new but it was more serious this time around.

The former Paladin Champion had found 'her place' and her role.

She too had enemies. Enemies that Actuass and Guissepo both shared.

Enemies disguised as saviours.

Enemies she had only tolerated because for a time, she had been blinded by Elita's love, care and world view.

--

[Ding!]

[The target of 300 Power Stones was met!]

[+1 extra chapter as at 08/02/23]