The Eternal: A Boxed Set (World of Ga'em Book 6) Read online

  I froze. Why does it know that? I panicked and charged at the creature.

  “Bladestorm!” I yelled and thrust into it with the first strike from my combo move.

  Only to pass right through it.

  Pain struck my body, as though burning steam was coursing through my nerves. I collapsed to the ground, my teeth clenched as I bore the sensation.

  “Eternal,” the wraith called out again, its voice sending shivers down my spine.

  I turned around, my chest heaving hard. The spirit hovered before me, a twisted expression on its face. It wasn’t happy, it wasn’t sad. I couldn’t tell what it was, but it unnerved me.

  The spirit’s form slowly inched closer, and my muscles tensed. I stayed on the floor, unable to get up, and swung hard at the wraith. My sword passed through harmlessly, just like before.

  Damn it! I pushed myself away and clawed across the forest ground, putting distance between us.

  “You cannot run,” the spirit cooed as it approached me, its eyes glowing brighter than ever.

  A hand tapped my shoulder.

  A word echoed, and a sphere of light emerged around the wraith, trapping it within. The spirit howled in pain and its form quickly broke down, withering away, and disappearing into nothing in just a second.

  “Are you okay?” Freya stood before me, a worried expression on her face.

  I nodded quietly and then winced as a wave of pain hit me, this one almost nothing compared to the one I’d had a minute ago.

  “I’ll heal you. Just give me a moment for my Mana to regenerate,” she said.

  I nodded. That attack must have completely depleted her Mana, I realized. What did she use, anyway?

  Freya knelt down and took my hand in hers. “What happened here?” she asked.

  “I-I don’t know,” I said. “I’d finished hunting wolves when that thing appeared.” I gently lifted my other hand up and pointed to the rune-covered wolf.

  “Ah,” she said. “That explains it.”

  “The wraith appeared when I killed the wolf,” I said. “I tried attacking it, but none of my attacks hit. I don’t know what it did to me, but after I attacked it the first time, my body just went into this aching pain.”

  “That wraith was no regular creature.” Her voice shivered. “Normal wraiths are spirits of the dead that are summoned to the realm of the living. What we just saw was a tortured wraith, a spirit that was captured and trapped, prevented from going to the afterlife. Physical contact with such creatures always causes great pain to a living body. And from what you say, it seems the wolf had been forcefully imbued with that spirit.”

  I looked at her. “That wraith,” I said. “It called me an Eternal. It knew what I was.”

  “Zoran,” she said. “The runes that trapped the wraith in the wolf…they are not normal.”

  I bit my lip. “The Phantom Lord?”

  She nodded. “I know Ijyela seemed unsure of his existence,” she said. “But I do not share the same uncertainty. Too many things have happened already for us still to pretend he’s not the one behind all this. Ijyela found the Death Seal on you earlier, and now this happened. It’s as clear as moonlight. The Phantom Lord is coming after you.”

  My chest tightened. “Great,” I muttered. “Just what I needed. Another enemy.” A wave of pain hit me once again and I winced, my muscles tightening till it passed.

  “You idiot.” She leaned forward, touching her forehead against mine. The scent of lilac and lilies bewitched me as her soft hair fell onto my face, caressing my skin with its silky texture. She held my hands in hers, and her warmth spread through my palms. She uttered a word from another tongue, and a bright light emerged around my body. Heat sank into me and the pain from before dissolved away, vanishing in seconds.

  “There.” She pulled away, a smile on her face. “You should be fine now.”

  The light around me died down and I lifted my hand. I stretched my fingers, but the pain no longer had a hold on me. I flexed my wrists and then grinned. “Thank you.” I gave her a small nod.

  She smiled. “Things are getting confusing again, Eternal,” she said.

  “Tell me about it,” I chuckled.

  “You’ve got the Alliance of Light, the Dark Alliance and now the Phantom Lord himself, all coming after you.” The corner of her mouth twitched into a small smile. “Things are not going to be easy.”

  I looked up, gazing at the night. “They never were.”

  ***

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  We spent no time dwelling on what had just happened.

  The main reason for that was Freya’s determination to get a move on as soon as possible. We spent about half an hour cooking the meat we’d gathered, and by “we,” I mean I watched as the elf cooked, adding exotic spices and herbs to our meal.

  I’d honestly figured I could help cook the meat and hopefully learn a cooking skill from it, but that was going to have to wait. I wasn’t complaining, though. I’d gotten a meal out of this, and that was all that mattered.

  How on earth did I go so long without any food? I thought as we walked, my stomach now full. Maybe that’s my superpower. I can function without food.

  My mind soon turned to a different thought. I’d had my first direct encounter with the Phantom Lord. Well, it wasn’t exactly direct, but it was as direct as things had gotten so far.

  To me, the man’s existence was still not entirely certain, especially since Freya and Ijyela themselves couldn’t come to an agreement on that. I, however, had an inkling that Freya’s judgment was stronger given everything that had happened so far.

  The Phantom Lord, I thought. What does he want with me?

  I couldn’t help but feel amused about how that man had single-handedly complicated my situation. The Alliance of Light was coming after me because of the shadows I’d summoned, and that had only happened because of whatever the Phantom Lord had done to me.

  The Dark Alliance was after me because I was an Eternal, and because they wanted me to join their Alignment.

  The Phantom Lord’s motivations to come after me, however, were an utter mystery. The man himself was quite mysterious, if I was to go by what Ijyela and Freya had told me about him.

  Diablo, I thought. I still found it odd that a man who tortured wraiths and tormented wolves would have a name only those close to him could call him by. It felt odd for the Phantom Lord to have a sense of kinship amongst his followers. The combination was weird, like the two sides couldn’t really coexist with one another.

  Then again, being an Eternal and not having any special powers didn’t seem like things that could coexist either, so I shouldn’t be one to judge.

  “What do you think the Phantom Lord even wants from you?” Freya said.

  “I’m not sure.” I kicked a lone pebble over the forest floor. “I honestly doubt I’ll know the reason even if I somehow get back all my memories.”

  “I still find it odd,” she said. “The Eternals go missing for nearly five thousand years and then two of them show up all of a sudden, with one of them just happening to be the strongest one there ever was.”

  “It is weird.”

  “Honestly, I don’t think it’s implausible that the Phantom Lord showed up just to come after you.”

  I chuckled for a second and then stopped. That actually isn’t too implausible. I frowned. It wasn’t unlikely that the Phantom Lord had made an appearance just so that he could come after me, for reasons I still didn’t know. When all was said and done, I was marked with the Death Seal.

  “I don’t recall the Phantom Lord having any striking nemesis, though,” Freya said. “He just fought with everyone there was, all the time. I don’t think he’d make a reappearance just to come after someone.”

  “How did he even appear in the first place?” I asked. “Wasn’t he sealed away?”

  “Good luck answering that,” she chuckled.

  I blinked. Wow, I thought. After the ton of complaining I’d done about gettin
g hard questions with no answers, I was the one who was asking the hard questions now. Now that’s what you call development, I chuckled.

  “I wouldn’t dwell on those questions too much if I were you,” Freya said. “We should just focus on finding out what’s going on here with the Phantom Lord. The answers to your other questions should come up naturally when we dig deeper into this.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “That’s a good—”

  A blast of white light shot out from within the greenery and smacked into Freya’s side, throwing her against a tree. She bounced off the trunk and slumped to the ground, unconscious on impact. My eyes instantly shot to her health bar. It had lessened to just a tenth of the max. I gritted my teeth. Not good.

  I opened my Ga’em menu as I rushed to her, and slid to the Items menu as fast as I could. She needed a Warrior’s Restoration Potion, and fast.

  Just as I reached out to touch her, another blast of white light shot out, cutting through the air between us and leaving a lingering heat on my skin.

  “Not so fast,” a voice cooed, and a lady walked out from behind the trees, dressed in white armor. “Stand still if you know what’s good for you.”

  A chuckle sounded. “You hit the elf too hard.” A man emerged behind her. A total of five people walked out of the trees—two women and three men—all of them clad in white armor. A seal of silver was engraved onto their breastplates, shaped like a Pegasus rearing up on its hind legs, with its wings spread out wide.

  The Alliance of Light. My eyes widened. They must be one of the Elite Squads.

  I used my Analyze skill on them. Oh gods. I froze. Every single person from that squad was at least Level 160. Meanwhile I’d only gotten past Level 16 a while ago.

  “Not putting up a fight, are you?” The lady now stood only a few feet away.

  The other lady leered at me. “Is he even the guy we’re looking for?” she asked. I didn’t blame her. Even I had trouble believing I was an Eternal.

  “Silver hair, silver eyes,” the man said. “There’s no doubt he’s the one.”

  “Well, I guess that rules out playing innocent,” I muttered. How am I going to get out of this one?

  I’d planned out what to do to stay away from the Elite Squads, but I’d never thought about what I’d do if I was actually captured. There probably isn’t anything I could do, I thought.

  I looked at the squad of five. They were still keeping their distance from me, and standing in a line five yards away. That’s odd, I thought. Why would they do that?

  And then it hit me.

  They think I’m an all-powerful Eternal. I grinned. Unfortunately, they couldn’t have been any more wrong.

  But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to take advantage of it.

  I kept a wary eye on Freya and stepped to the side so that I was right in between the squad and her. I looked at the woman who had appeared first. “What do you want from me?” I asked.

  “What do we want?” she asked. “We just want to take you back to the Kingdom. Markus is the one who has big plans for you.”

  “King Markus,” one of the men corrected her.

  “Yeah, yeah.” The lady waved her hand.

  She doesn’t seem to like the king that much, I noticed. “So, Markus Goodfield is just standing around in his tower, ordering all of you to do the dirty work?” I asked. “Seems quite unfair.”

  The lady paused for a moment and then smiled. “So that’s really how you want to go?” she asked. “I do not question his reasoning. What I do question, however, is you, Eternal. You’ve been standing there silently for quite a while now. Are you really as powerful as they say?”

  Uh-oh, I thought.

  “Enough chitchat,” the other lady said. “Let’s just get him and go.”

  “Agreed.” The first woman strode up to me, without a worry in the world, as though I was a puppy she could simply lift up and take away.

  Well, she was wrong about that one.

  I slid my sword out of its sheath and held it up in front of me. “I’d rather die than get taken away by you fiends.”

  “You’d rather die?” she asked. “Why? So your Resurrection ability can help you get away?”

  I sighed. Of course, she’d know about my ability.

  “Tell you what.” Her expression changed. “You seem to be close to that girl we just knocked out. If you Resurrect and go somewhere else, I can’t promise you she’s going to die peacefully.”

  My eyes widened. “You wouldn’t,” I said. “It isn’t how the Alliance of Light does things.”

  She smiled. “You’d be surprised.”

  “Uhhhh,” a familiar voice groaned. “That was rougher than I’d expected.”

  I turned around and saw Freya stand up, dusting herself off as if nothing had happened. She stepped up to me and then yawned.

  “What’s going on here?” The elf looked up dazedly, and the sparkle returned to her eyes the moment she saw our opponents. “Is this the Elite Squad that Markus sent after you?”

  The first woman chuckled. “You’re quite calm for a person that was just knocked out cold,” she said. “Maybe I should knock you out again.”

  “I doubt that.” Freya smiled. “The Elite Squads are not as special as you think they are.”

  She laughed. “I’ll show you special.” She shot to us, eating the five-yard distance between us before I could even blink. She stood before Freya, and her fist rocketed toward her face. A blur hid her movements as she landed her punch, and a shockwave shot out from the contact point, throwing dust and sand into the air.

  I stared into the outburst. Please tell me she’s okay. My chest clenched. But when the dust actually cleared, my eyes widened at the sight before me.

  The elf stood there, one arm stretched out, her palm stopping the woman’s punch as if it were nothing. Freya smiled. “Special indeed.”

  The lady’s face changed. She pulled back her fist and jumped to her colleagues’ side. All five of them now had twisted expressions on their faces, and their eyes all stared at the elven assassin.

  “You seem to be misunderstanding the term special,” Freya said, and her voice quivered with something I’d never heard from her before—rage. “Let me show you what special really looks like.”

  She stepped forward, and her form immediately flickered. Winds swirled around us, and sparks showered the air, as though lightning were ready to strike the earth. I turned pale as the elven assassin suddenly changed appearance. Her hair turned blood-red and her eyes changed to a deadlier version of the same shade. Runes of black emerged over her body, as if they’d been hidden within her skin all along.

  The longsword on her back glowed white and expanded until it was a massive broadsword of jet black. It was about as wide as my forearm and stood at one and a half times Freya’s height.

  The Elite Squad stepped back, with panic on their faces and fear in their eyes.

  “Ahhh, it’s been a while since I changed.” Freya stretched out. “You’re all lucky. You’re witnessing a rare event.”

  The elf surged forward, kicking up dust and sand in her wake. A thundering boom came from ahead, and I turned. A man flew out from her fist and crunched through plenty of trees before finally coming to a stop. His health bar was too far away to make out properly, but I could see enough to know it had gone to zero just from that one move.

  My chest thumped as I turned to Freya. What the hell is going on here? I wondered. That man was around Level 160 and she’d taken him out in one hit. I tried to come up with explanations for how that had just happened, but I found none. All of this was just…weird.

  “We need to regroup,” one of the remaining men said, a shiver in his voice. “Let us leave now.”

  “You freaking elf!” The first woman picked up her sword and charged at the red-skinned elf.

  “Sword fighting it is.” Freya grinned and slid her massive chunk of metal out from behind her back. A low hum pulsed from the weapon, as though it was speaking out
in its own tongue.

  The elf surged forward and swung her sword at the lady. The blade moved swiftly through the air, and caught her off guard. She quickly held her sword up and got into a defensive stance. Freya’s sword swung undeterred and thundered into her blade. The lady’s weapon shattered on impact, and Freya’s sword pushed through, sinking deep into the lady’s body and cutting her open at the hip.

  She screamed as the force of the attack threw her into the air. Her body smashed against a treetop and she thudded to the ground. I didn’t even need to glance at her to know she was dead.

  I looked at the elf and noticed a smile on her face. What is going on here? My shoulders tensed. Is this even okay?

  A hand gripped my shoulder, and the next moment there was a sword under my neck.

  “Stop this, elf.” One of the men stood behind me and held me still.

  Damn it, I cursed.

  “Resorting to cheap tricks now, are we?” Freya walked up to us, sword still gripped tight.

  “T-this is not a joke.” He brought his sword closer to my throat. “If you do not wish to lose this man, I suggest you—”

  A blast of white shot out from in front of me and the man flew away, crunching through tree after tree before coming to a rest. Dead.

  “Been a while since I cast that.” Freya shook her hand. “Are you okay, Zoran?”

  I stared at her, then at the scene of death around me.

  Is this all really okay? I thought.

  The echo of a word descended the air. A violet circle of runes emerged beneath Freya, and ropes of light surged out of it, wrapping around her limbs and binding her still.

  A woman and a man—the last two remaining—shot out of the trees and right at me. I turned around and dived out of their reach.

  Or at least, I would have, if I wasn’t so slow.

  The woman grabbed my shoulder one moment, but oddly, her hand was gone the next. I turned around only to see her on the floor, her body twisted harshly, her eyes rolled up in her head. Dead. Freya stood over her, her massive sword dripping with blood.

  My eyes widened.