Chapter 25: Duel to the Death

It took Arla several hours of sitting passively before she found the strength in her legs to move again, she sat in the restaurant until sundown, unable to move, unable to do anything but think about what she had seen.

Sol could not be considered human in any regard, he possessed power so phenomenal that he existed on another plane completely, and he was master over Ikaris; she was a whole other ordeal.

"Is she even human to begin with?" Arla asked herself, she pondered endlessly on what her magical perception had witnessed, but in the end, she decided that it was better left unasked, and so the half-elf passed it off as another random mystery and went home to sleep.

"Have you seen Master Sol?" Sara stood next to Ikaris who was in the process of reading Argom's version of a newsletter, in her presence were the other female heroes, they had all gathered to casually chat, but Ikaris spent this time observing and as Sol had ordered her, she needed to find a way to get along with them.

"Why is everyone suddenly calling him 'master'?" Ikaris lowered the pepper and stared up at the maid. "He is only my Master, nobody else's, see here!" She folded back the sleeve of her blouse and showed Sara the crest on her wrist that looked like a shackle. "And here!" She folded her collar revealing the one on her neck. "Anghewe (and here)" She opened her mouth showing them the one on her tongue for the first time.

"What are those exactly?" Eris asked first because everyone else was afraid to, especially Dina who had learned the hard way to keep out of Ikaris's way.

"They are the tether that keeps us bonded, they are proof of my service, my loyalty, and my complete submission to my master," Ikaris proudly declared, but received the opposite effect she was going for when Eris seemed to reject the idea and shook her head.

"I always wondered, you said he was strong and all that, and we all remember how he broke Sir Morn's hand, but, Sol is such an oddball, how did you two meet?" Eris asked, and Ikaris jolted forward and slapped her paper on the table with a serious expression.

"Master... was on the verge of death, I have known and been close to him for ten years, but according to Earth time, it was a month before we were dragged here, he almost died, but I did everything in my power to save him," She gave them an abridged version of the truth, it was completely true, just not in that order. "In return, I got to witness the strength he possessed, he saved my entire world, and he liberated me from a heavy and burdensome betrothal to one very persistent bastard, in return, I have decided to serve him, body and soul, Master is my everything." She declared.

"Wh..." Sara seemed the most shocked of the people present. "I assumed it was some kind of strange relationship that you two had, but he saved you from marrying someone you did not want to?"

"That's right!" Ikaris snapped again and pointed her paper at Sara. "Master is amazing, the absolute best, circumstances made it impossible for me to directly refuse this demon of a man, but Master upended his plot in one fell swoop, he saved me from a life of suffering," Ikaris shook her fist and stood on the table.

"O-okay, but where is he now?" Sara panicked when she sensed the princess approaching. "He keeps disappearing every evening, and then returning at night filthy and in need of a bath,"

"Once a swine always a-" Dina was about to finish her insult, but felt a heavy hand rest on your shoulder. "T-Teacher?" She stuttered when Arla's perfume invaded her nose.

"From now on, I will take full custody of you, you will learn manners and discipline, or die trying." Arla smiled at her ear before the two of them disappeared in a flash of light.

"Isn't it obvious?" Ikaris responded to Sara as if she hadn't just seen someone get kidnapped. "Master spends his evenings training and raising his level, since he will be coming along on our first crusade he has to level up as well,"

"Huh, seriously?" Eris seemed the most shocked, considering she never saw Sol as the hard-working type with his lax personality.

'Achoo!' Sol held up his hand and sneezed. "Someone must be thinking bad of me again," He wiped blood from his face and took a seat on the back of a golem, staring at his status window.

[Mobs cleared, you have gained 2000xp will you proceed to the dungeon master?]

"This is stupid," Sol looked at the [Golem level 500] "They'll be killed if they ever meet something like this, but the system calls it a mob," He stared at the blood on his forearm.

Aside from the hilt to hold his sword, he wasn't wearing any kind of protective armour, and because of his debuff being activated by creatures weaker than himself, he could incur actual damage overtime from these weak creatures.

[Proceeding to dungeon master]

[Error, a god has intervened, new rules have been instated, and a new dungeon master has been created]

*This is foul," Sol smiled nervously.

Sol felt a tug at his magic, and the world around him became bright as he was teleported into a large cave

[You have entered the lair of Psiko, the god of golems]

"Wait-what?"

[Cursed has been deactivated, the opponent is stronger than you are]

"You're kidding, right?" Sol used [heal] on himself and equipped armour as the status windows kept appearing one after the other.

[Psiko has challenged the tarnished warrior to a duel to the death, the victor will devour the soul of the loser, and no other human or god may interfere]

"This is too sudden," Sol complained as a small figure of a four-foot man made of stone sat on a throne in the far corner of the massive cave. "I don't even know who you are, does everything have a god here?"

"Tarnished Warrior of outer-world, I challenge you to a duel to the death." The stone golem stood from the throne and began walking toward Sol.

"I don't want to though," Sol summoned his true spear and turned it into a hammer, and then looked at the Golem again. "Hm..."

He released the hammer and held out his fists, summoning a pair of battle gloves with armoured shields on the forearms and then picked up his hammer again, shortening it to the length of his arm.

"Can I just leave?"

[You are unable to leave this sealed space]

[Contact with the outside world has been temporarily disabled]

[Your Arkadian mana is at 30%]

[Otherworld Magic is at 100%]

[Arkadian level is 101

Health is at max

Stamina is 97/100

Armour is 99%]

[The god of death reels from excitement]

[The god of bets has placed a bet]

[The god of peace is crying in a corner]

"This is ridiculous," Sol commented as more and more gods kept appearing to watch the fight.

[The goddess of war is paying attention]

[A new god has forcefully registered their presence]

[The pantheon is outraged at the use of their system by a foreign god]

[The goddess of war warns the pantheon to not attack this new presence]

[True Goddess Ikaris is now watching the fight]

[True Goddess Ikaris cheers you on]

[True Goddess Ikaris is confident in your victory]

[The goddess of war is confident in your victory]

[The god of death shakes his fists at the goddess of war for choosing your side]

"I will devour you now," Psiko began running toward Sol, and as Sol prepared for an initial attack, his senses were thrown off when the ground beneath him suddenly shifted forward while Psiko appeared above him, intent on killing him in one blow.

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