Chapter 66: Chapter 62: The conclusion
BAMMM!! The last of the three doll's heads had just crashed and smashed against the sturdy barrier wall, his blood splattered onto the ground as the mutant knelt down, exhausted. His aura began to dissipate since the condition he set out for his <Berserker> skill had just been fulfilled.
「Yuusei chan?」Although he could not move away from where he stood, Ryan called out to the mutant. 「Are you okay?」
「... Yes...」Yuusei dizzily stood up. 「Master?」
「He's still inside.」Ryan turned around. 「... He'll be fine… He has to be fine...」
「Hello there, you two!」An unfamiliar voice echoed throughout the wood. 「How's Zaeryn doing? Ohhh, he's dealing with Adela's Ultimate Arte huh? Good thing that they are both trapped in an enclosed space then. In there, Adela's skill isn't as deadly as she thought it would be. "Shisou" sure is lucky.」
「Who are you?」Ryan quickly turned his attention toward the new intruder. Judging from his tone, he did not seem to be Adela's servants; however, neither Ryan or Yuusei could lower their guards, for appearing in front of them was a being with power that clearly surpassed everyone they had come into contact with. In fact, the only time Ryan had felt this pressure was when his master had summoned HaoS. Just who is he? The hero thought to himself as sweat started to roll down his cheeks…
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Adela Ignelas Velmer, the 27th crown princess of The Holy Kingdom of Eberus, the predecessor of the current Yronas Theocracy, was one of the few individuals during her time who was blessed with an Ultimate Arte, a type of unique skill that usually possessed a power to devastate countries. Yet, with all of her overconfidence and arrogance , she has never been a good fighter. The reason did not lie with her skill, but with her overreliance on it: With <Horus' sky domain>, she could practically deprive her opponents of all of their senses, easily transforming them into fishes in a barrel, only to be killed by her holy imbued twin chakrams. Yet...
「... What an idiot.」Kibadios snickered. The moment Adela's Ultimate Arte was activated, the hybrid had cleverly backed away, leaning his back against one side of the barrier, allowing him to narrow down the direction of any incoming attacks. Within this space, only Adela alone would have the ability to retain her senses. That meant she had practically rendered the dolls she brought with her useless. Of course, since their main purposes were to delay the hybrid and give her enough time to activate her skill, she did not feel like losing any fighting power on her side. Though, that was not how the hybrid viewed the current situation. Had he been in Adela's shoes, he would have let the dolls fight himself for as long as they could afford to. Although he had the upper hand, it was clear that he still could not finish off even one of the dolls, let alone all of them. Had Adela let the dolls continue fighting, he would have exhausted his Nen so that even if he emerged victorious against the five dolls, the moment Adela activated her skill, it'd be game over since he would not have enough Nen to divert to his eyes, allowing him to see some distance away from where he stood. Arrogance and selfishness, that were Adela's two biggest weaknesses so despite possessing an overpowering skill, she had never been able to utilize them to their fullest potential. She wanted to selfishly experience the joy of bringing down and destroying the hybrid on her own that she completely forgot the advantages she had. That was why she refused to have her father help her and that was the reason why she neutralized her own weapons called Dolls.
Now, I have to watch out for her weapons. In this space, since we cannot sense anything, long range fighters were the only one that could pose a threat and among the five dolls, only that one elf who held onto the 2 crossbows had the ability to fight from long range. Kibadios calmly analyzed while paying attention to his immediate visible surroundings, watching out for any hint of attack.
Whooshh!!!! Although he could not hear the approaching chakram, the moment it flew inside his field of vision, the hybrid quickly reacted by parrying the swirling weapon with his scythe, his keen eyes dashed left and right like Madara fighting fodder ninjas during the Fourth Great Ninja War.
「Hmm? Haha!」Adela leisurely walked toward the guarded hybrid, though carefully stopped before she could enter the area that was visible to him. 「How long can you keep this up, Zaeryn? You and I both know how this will end: by directing a majority of your Nen to your eyes, you'll be collapsing soon once it's depleted. If you were still Zaeryn, I know you can keep this up for days. However, you're now just a hybrid, I bet you wont be able to do this for more than 10 minutes.」
… 5 minutes top… Kibadios thought to himself. I need to finish this within 5 minutes or else I'm screwed. Releasing his scythe, Kibadios quickly raised his hands up, and two holy auras began to take shapes of two large bows, one on each hand. He had utilized this skill while fighting Erik, though since that night, he has been continuously refining and improving it. By now, each of his shots releases several different holy imbued arrows, allowing him to project countless attacks in all directions in front of him. His current strategy of shooting indiscriminately, was a prime example of why long range fighters enjoyed significant advantage when trapped inside this domain. Furthermore, because the domain was now severely restricted inside the barrier that Ryan constructed, there were not many places where the Astral could hide. Soon enough, she had to recall her weapons back to her hands to use them to ward off the dozens of shots coming her way. The other dolls were not too fortunate since one by one, they all succumbed to the hybrid's attacks, without even knowing what had struck them.
Only Skyer, who was witty enough to direct his Nen toward his eyes, were able to retaliate before perishing to his wounds by shooting his poisoned arrows at the direction where he perceived Kibadios' attacks were coming from. Even though it started off as two normal arrows, those quickly morphed into two small serpent-like creatures since they were created from his own Arte. The serpents entered Kibadios' field of vision, but unlike previous attacks, they could move freely so their trajectory quickly changed, avoiding the hybrid counters before wrapping their bodies around one of his arms and sinking their teeth inside his flesh. Shit! Panicked for a brief moment, Kibadios quickly regained his composure before creating a thread from his Nen, swirling it around his arm before tightening it, preventing the poison from circulating his body any further… Tsk… I should have been more careful. Kibadios reprimanded himself before directing his arrows at the serpents' heads and shot them at point-blank range, shattering them into dust. Though, fortunately for the hybrid, that one Arte attack was the last offense Skyer could ever launch at him before one of Kibadios' arrows abruptly pierced through his head, ending the Doll's life.
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「I am serious, Skyer!」Standing next to the high cliff within the vast territory of the Shilna, Yllaes screamed out into the wild scenery in front of him.「One day, I will assume the title of the clan head. I will destroy this outdated confederacy, only to then unify this forest under our rule and protect it with all our might! Soon enough, the empire will turn its eyes on us and unlike my baby sister, I am not foolish enough to think we can repel them while our own forest is fragmented into different states like this...」The prideful elven prince frowned.「However, if I continue to walk this path, even if I emerge victorious by the end, I will lose my baby sister… That's why I need to know you will still be by my side, Skyer.」
「Yllaes sama… It was about 50 years ago that you saved me from falling off this very cliff during one of my hunts. Despite me being a lowly, nameless elf child, you took me into your care and treated me like your own family. I owed my life to you.」Skyer smiled. 「Of course I will stand by my side, no matter what.」
「Thank you, Skyer.」Yllaes wrapped his arm around the doll.「I have treated you not much different than how I treated Yllaner because I have always seen you as my little brother. Together, Skyer, we will protect this woodland realm, no matter the cost.」
… Whose memory is that? … Why does it feel so nostalgic?…Skyer? Is that my name?... Where am I?... Who am I?... What am I? My consciousness is vanishing?... But have I been conscious? Everything feels so fuzzy… I feel as if this is the end… Am I crying? … Yllaes… I am sorry I cannot fulfill my oath to you… But who is Yllaes?... and who am I? Skyer's last thoughts were all a mess, for his memories as the individual named Skyer and his empty consciousness as a doll started to mix with one another. Though soon, the doll could feel nothing, for his homunculus body had ceased to operate… The doll and its alternative personality, Skyer of the Shilna Clan, was now no more.
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「Hahaha」laughed Adela. 「It seems like that useless doll was able to land a hit on you, Zaeryn! As an <Alchemist Class>, just being hit by one of his attack is dangerous enough, I bet you'll fall sooner than I expected.」
「... I'll end this right now, you filthy Astral.」Although Kibadios could not hear what Adela was saying, he knew the Astral must have been ecstatic seeing how he fell to one of her dolls' attack. 「<Arms of Darkness: Modified version 1 and 2. >」The hybrid screamed out, his eyes were bloody red from all the burden caused by overexerting his Nen into this finisher move.
「... Wha..」
To deal with Adela and her Ultimate Arte, Kibadios had devised beforehand a move that could hurt her, even when he's trapped within her domain. This move had two modifications to his <Arms of Darkness>: the first, obviously, would convert the natural affinity of the move to that of the Holy aura, allowing it to be amplified by Ryan's barrier. The second modification would allow the <Arms of Darkness> to be activated at predetermined locations instead of right where the hybrid stood. To mark the locations where the skills would be activated, Kibadios had cleverly imbued the "markers" into his arrows. To the untrained eyes, Kibadios had merely fired his arrows at random, hoping to hit the dolls and Adela. In truth, with each of the arrows carrying the marker, Kibadios had simultaneously laid the groundwork for this final move against Adela. That meant one the skill was activated, from more than 200 locations throughout space within the barrier and Adela's domains, countless sharp claws made up of the Holy element began to elongate and thrust blindly straight outward. The confused Adela was now much like someone who was trapped inside a magic box, awaiting the dozen swords to pierce through, she had nowhere to hide from Kibadios' sudden attack. It did not matter how Kibadios did not have any of his senses inside the Astral's domain, nor could he see far out, he just knew his attack would thoroughly "comb" through the limited space and hit Adela from all directions. The Astral could be lucky and ward off a few attacks but sooner or later, she would succumb.
「ARGHHH!!!」Kibadios finally heard the loud grunting noise, which meant her domain, which required total concentration, was broken. As his vision and other senses came back to him, he was now grinning from ear to ear, for his nemesis was now caught by more than 5 of the claws, each grabbing and squeezing her body tighter than the last. 「Damn you, Zaeryn! How dare you!」
「「Master!!!」」From outside of the barrier, both Ryan and Yuusei shouted out in relief.
「I finally got you, Adela.」Kibadios quickly dismissed hundreds of other arms and left only the five which had caught the Astral since he was now completely exhausted from the massive usage of his Nen and the poison consuming his arm. Kibadios signaled for the "arms" to squeeze the Astral even more, causing her to scream out in excruciating pain.「This is nothing, Adela. Soon enough, once I finish absorbing you and your soul, you would know true pain.」
「Fuck you, Zaeryn! You lowly, pathetic being!」Adela wanted to shout, but all she could afford to let out of her mouth was a whisper shriek. 「You better... release... me… or else...」
「Else what?」Kibadios smirked.
「My father… would hunt you… down!!!」
「Ha, let him come. That would save me the time to seek him out. After all, I intend to pay him back for all the pain he caused me.」Kibadios wiped off a small bloodstain on his mouth.
「Ha… Hahaha… Don't worry… He's already made his move.」Adela still struggled to break free from the hold. 「By now, I'm sure your precious Ryuu... has been taken care off by Aspen.」
「What??」Kibadios' eyes widened in horror.
「You think we'll let a primal dragon roaming free unchecked?」 Adela laughed, though her homunculus started to cough up more blood as Kibadios' anger caused one of the claws to squeeze her even more, breaking her spine. 「ARGHH!! Ha… Hahaha… Zaeryn… no matter how you struggle… the end result will be the same… everyone who is close to you… will perish… First was that healer… then the dragon... You… should…just... stay… dead….」
「Shut up!」Kibadios screamed out as he activated his <Devour> 「Enjoy the endless torture on your soul, bitch!」The white "shadow" made up of the Holy element started to take shape of a wolf's watery mouth before mercilessly flew straight at the restrained Astral's head and bit it off, then ground up her "bones" with its sharp teeth before moving on and devoured her whole body, piece by piece, just like how Alucard disposed of Luke Valentine in the Hellsing Manor's basement. Soon, after ensuring he had obtained the Astral's soul within himself, Kibadios signaled for Ryan to remove the barrier, before collapsing moments later. Though, Yuusei, with his quick feet, was able to jump next to his master, preventing the hybrid from falling onto the ground.
「Kibadios sama...」Yuusei called out to his master, his eyes were full of worries.
「... Looks like you've grown up.」Kibadios smiled at the boy. 「Thank you, Yuusei, for taking care of those three dolls and protecting Ryan in my stead.」The hybrid slowly tried to stand on his feet, though he still had to lean on the mutant for support.
「Master...」Now, it was Ryan's turn as he ran to his master to support him. 「... I'm sorry… I… I killed...」
「Ryan… don't worry...」Kibadios ruffled the hero's blond hair as Ryan slightly leaned onto him, crying. With his eyes overflowed with tears and snots starting to come out of his nose, Ryan quickly reminded the hybrid of when they first met. 「I know Rowan chan… is not dead yet… He's still alive, out there somewhere.」
「What?」
Clap clap clap… 「That was terrific, Shisou.」The man cloaked in a black hood walked toward the hybrid, who quickly turned defensive.
What is that man doing here? Isn't he the one who attacked Ryan and Maia's village?... Though...this voice… I thought it was familiar… but...
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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