Chapter 812: Can I Punch Him Now?
And here I was prepared to actually fight him and his army of Dungeoneers which I was almost sure he had hidden them in here since this place clearly looked like a trap to lure--
*Bang*
All of us turned to see the tunnel that we had just climbed through had been closed shut by a boulder dropping from above, blocking us in.
Err… I mean if we were just normal people, that would be a problem but I\'m pretty sure I can not only lift that rock rather easily, I could even break it if I wanted to. And I\'m more than sure the Royal Guards could do that too…
That\'s why I was a little confused why he would set such a pointless trap like this one?
Just as I was about to go and move the boulder away, I heard a scraping sound and I spun around again to see a part of the wall sliding open, revealing a horde of people hiding behind it.
All of them were dressed like Dungeoneers and every single one of them had a mask on them.
Fuck.
So this was actually a trap all along…
All of them did not say anything and simply started charging towards us.
I got ready to fight off the Dungeoneers but a hand on my shoulder stopped me.
"Aster, go and chase after him," Levianne instructed, her face now serious. "We will be able to handle this."
I looked pointedly at the crowd of charging Dungeoneers who outnumbered our group by at least three or four times, "Are you sure about this?"
The Queen raised her hand to point at the crowd of Dungeoneers who were still rushing towards us.
"[Frost Domain]"
A wave of frost blasted out from her and the entire crowd of Dungeoneers were encased in frost, freezing them in their tracks.
Wait… The Queen didn\'t chant… And she managed to cast a spell like that?
Was it not a spell but an artefact or something?
Levianne gave me a serious look, "We can handle this, Aster. Go and get him before he runs away. He should still be nearby and I want to skin this bastard alive myself."
Alright… Not gonna lie, I did not expect Levianne to be able to say something as vicious as that…
But I guess I don\'t need to worry about them if she was able to cast spells like this.
I gave her a nod before turning towards the boulder with the intention of tossing it away.
Levianne stopped me, "No, I\'ll teleport you directly to him. Come here."
She knows Astromancy as well?
The Queen pulled me to the place where the Off-Worlder had created his portal to escape before lifting up her palm to point at the ground.
"[Teleportation Trace]."
A portal appeared on the ground and Levianne nodded at me, "Go. Subdue him if you can. Kill him if you can\'t."
"Wait… Why aren\'t you following me then?"
There was a soft crack coming from the direction of the Dungeoneers and I looked up to see that the ice that held them was starting to crack.
She gestured towards them, "They are also a source of that Off-Worlder\'s powers. We will work to free them and take away his strength which should help weaken him during your fight. If we can, we will join you after we are done."
Alright then… She already showed me that she could just run at any time so I really didn\'t need to worry about her anyway.
I wished her good luck before jumping into the portal, letting it teleport me to where the Off-Worlder had escaped to.
When I went through the portal, I found myself standing on an island off the coast of the capital city.
I only knew it was the capital since I could see the palace from here and we were surrounded by the sea.
The Off-Worlder was standing a short distance away looking towards the city itself, seemingly not noticing my presence.
I don\'t think we are at Dragon Sanctuary since we were still quite close to the mainland and the island we were standing on was rather small.
Well, not \'tiny\' small since I reckon there\'s still enough space for you to build a mansion here, but not big enough for someone to want to do that.
Hmm… Since it looks like he doesn\'t know I\'m here, I should just attack him first.
As I started creeping towards him, he suddenly called out, "Not gonna lie, I\'m surprised that you managed to find me. How did you do that?"
Drat…
Here I thought I could just sneak up behind him and knock him out to avoid fighting him entirely.
Wait… He hasn\'t turned around yet… Maybe I can still do that?
I went ahead to cast [Shadow Wall] and [Shadow Glide] on myself before I continued creeping towards him.
He suddenly turned back towards me, "A few of the Dungeoneers I\'m controlling knows Umbramancy as well, dumbass."
I scowled slightly.
Wait… Is he bluffing?
I tried leaning to the side and his gaze followed me.
I leaned to the other side and his head turned to match my movement as well.
"Yes, I can see you. Are you retarded?"
How rude…
Anyway, it was worth a shot.
I straightened myself and huffed at him, "Alright. You\'re the leader of this group, right? Why the hell are you doing this? Do you have nothing else better to do?"
Even though I can\'t see his face, I could somehow tell he was smiling at me.
"Is that all you have to say to me? I was sure you would have more questions or maybe even some choice words for me."
"Oh believe me, I do. I just want to make sure that I got the right guy before I start to beat the shit out of you."
He spread his arms out, "In that case, you have indeed found the leader of this operation! So what do you want to do now?"
"Could you… Maybe just stop being an asshole?"
He lowered his arms before lifting his chin at me from under his hood, "You think you\'re better than us, don\'t you? You think that because we come from another world, we have to be the ones to serve you instead?"
I frowned, "Wait… You don\'t know who I am?"
The idiot scoffed, "Oh I know you. You\'re one of the supporters of the Royal Family, aren\'t you?"
"Errr… Well… You\'re not wrong… But I was asking about my identity, not my position…"
"Who cares? You\'re just another one of those people of this world, aren\'t you?"
I blinked at him, "Wait… You really don\'t know? I thought for sure… Nevermind… I am an Off-Worlder just like you in case you didn\'t know. I am not an original denizen of this world."
He paused, as though needing the time to process and understand my words before he finally pointed a finger at me, "You\'re… An Off-Worlder?"
"Wait, you really didn\'t know? Why the hell did you try to blow me up then?"
"Wait… You\'re… You\'re Aster? I thought… Huh?"
Both of us just stared at each other in confusion.
"What the hell, you don\'t even know who you were bombing?"
"The… Most talented student in the Academy who might potentially ruin our plans?"
Awww stahp it, you~
Ahem… I mean… Really?
"How do you even get your information?"
He stayed silent for a while before he spoke again completely ignoring my question, "Then why don\'t you join us instead? Off-Worlders like us should stick together!"
I raised my hand, "Nuh-uh. I\'m actually quite happy with this World so I don\'t want to do anything to mess it up like you. In fact, I\'m standing on their side instead so… No."
"Do you not even see the problem with our position?"
"What problem? We were practically given a second chance at life. Isn\'t that the dream of most people? We even got some cheats to start our new life with!"
"So you don\'t see it… Our world was destroyed by the Gods on a whim. Who is to say that it won\'t happen to this world as well? We cannot rely on such whimsical beings to ensure our own safety!"
I narrowed my eyes at him, "What are you suggesting? Don\'t tell me your plan is to overthrow them?"
"That is exactly our plan! We do not let such beings preside over us! We have to overthrow them and put ourselves above instead! That way, the same thing will not repeat itself!"
"Have you not heard of the expression that absolute power corrupts?"
"No, no. We will not put new gods above us. We will live without gods watching over us. We will be the masters of our own fate!"
"But this world is granted existence by the gods right? If I\'m not wrong, they each govern something so it\'s not like they\'re just spectators? Removing them might cause this World to have problems too?"
He clucked his tongue audibly, "I don\'t have time to debate with you. You\'re either with us or against us. Which will you choose?"
If you put it that way, I guess we\'ll just have to fight then…
Not that I wasn\'t already planning to beat your face in from the start so better clench up you fucker!