ROTLE- Chapter 198- God-Like (Patreon)

They ran with all the power that they could muster. The incessant jerking of the very motion forced Aiden out of his weakness. His eyes opened quite violently, and something pressed against his abdomen threatened to either break his ribs or force everything out of his stomach. The joke was on it, however. Aiden didn’t have much in his stomach.

The first real thing he noticed was a familiar weight in his chest, akin to when he had gotten the title [Giant Slayer]. The same feeling he had lost when he had turned back time.

“Good,” Valdan said, owning the shoulder that Aiden was currently thrown over. “You’re up. Think you can run for yourself?”

Aiden took the briefest moment to account for everything around him. The trees moved in a blur, telling him the speed they were moving at. He could see a handful of people in the back, leaping through the trees and moving like assassins in the night. His eyes narrowed on one who was actually teleporting. He kept slipping out of one tree to fall into another just to slip out of a completely different tree ahead of him.

He ignored the man, counting how many were chasing.

Eight, he noted.

It wasn’t a high number, certainly not a number that they could not handle. So why were they running.

“The lowest of them is level one hundred,” Valdan said, as if he was reading Aiden’s mind. “The fight is not worth the risk. And you won’t like the risk.”

“The heart or the crystal?” he asked.

“Zen, Feira, Fjord.”

It wasn’t Valdan that had spoken. It was a feminine voice. It took Aiden a moment to remember it. Melvet.

She was right, they were not losses he was willing to accept for the heart and the crystal. The question, however, was if they had even gotten the heart.

“Alphonset, Yerit, Telma,” Estabel added from where Aiden couldn’t see.

Aiden focused on his status now that he knew what he wanted to know and pulled up his life stats, ignoring all the other notifications present.

Life

[Health 22%], [Stamina 36%], [Mana 52%].

He frowned at it. He had healed a little, but not by much.

With a shrug of will, he summoned a vial from his storage space and popped the cork. Even as he performed the action, he really hoped that whatever using [Fragmented Tongue] had done to him, he was allowed to heal his body.

Pressing his thumb down on the vial’s opening, he kept the liquid inside from spilling as he spoke.

“How long was I out?” he offered the question to anyone to answer.

“Five hours,” Estabel’s voice answered from somewhere in front. “Give or take.”

“We were worried you wouldn’t wake up,” Feira said from out of sight.

“Must’ve been one hell of a fight,” Zen said as Valdan moved around a tree. “I still can’t believe the Immortal is dead. My mind’s blown, and I thought it was unblowable.”

Five hours was a long time. Normally, his entire life stats would be back to one hundred percent if he had five hours of rest. Just how dangerous was fragmented tongue supposed to be that it did not allow him to heal well even with proper rest.

Five hours should be long enough… right?

With the thought and a touch of hope, Aiden removed his thumb from the vial only to pause again.

“Has anyone tried to give me a potion?” he asked.

“No one,” Valdan answered immediately. “Why?”

Valdan ducked at the last second and a blast of mana went over his head. Aiden almost spilled the contents of his vial, not that it mattered, there was more where it came from.

“No reason,” he answered Valdan, then gulped the contents of the vial down in one go.

He tasted the liquid, like freshly cut grass added to hot water. Then he relaxed when he felt the tingle going through him. He tossed the vial and summoned another from his storage space. He downed it as well and discarded the vial.

“What are you doing?” Valdan asked, voice confused. “You better not be taking any potions.”

“He’s taking potions,” Melvet answered.

Aiden ignored both of them and summoned a bow from his storage space. “Hold stead, Valdan.”

“I’m currently running, holding steady will be difficult with your heavy ass!” Valdan hissed.

Aiden ignored him and summoned an arrow from his storage space. It was big and strong, enough to take a man’s head in one shot. He knocked it and aimed.

Valdan was bouncing too much.

“Did no one teach you how to run?” he muttered under his breath, complaining to himself.

“You’ve been teaching me for a while now,” Valdan said, proving that he’d heard Aiden’s complaint. “You didn’t think to teach me how to run.”

“Oh.” Aiden paused. “That’s right.”

Suddenly Valdan was at the same pace as Melvet and Estabel.

Melvet waved at him. “Welcome to the land of the waking, Little one. When we survive this, I have a gift for you.”

Aiden wasn’t sure how to feel about that, so he nodded once and turned his attention to Estabel. “How are the others keeping up with us?”

“Your barbarian is very far ahead,” she answered. “He keeps leaping all over the place, but your brother has his eyes on him with one of his familiars. At least I’m guessing the familiars are his.”

“Who has the heart?”

“Oncot.”

Aiden had thought it would be Elami. “Where’s Ted?” he asked. He hadn’t heard Ted’s voice yet. “Tell me he lives.”

“Awwn.” Ted’s voice echoed from ahead of them. “He loves me.”

Even with their current predicament, Aiden rolled his eyes before he could stop himself. “Shut up, Ted.” To Estabel he added: “And the others?”

“They have their own familiar steeds,” Ted called from ahead. “We should really level them up quickly. This whole debacle is too risky for them.”

Aiden could not disagree. But while he had just finished having a conversation, this was not the time for conversations. Arrow still knocked, he moved his attention to their fastest pursuer as he jumped from tree to tree.

It seemed whatever skill he was using didn’t have a cool down, and he could spam it as much as he wanted as long as he had the mana for it. Aiden wondered how much mana the man had while counting the trees.

“Valdan,” he said when he was ready. “You’ll have to throw me.”

“Where?” Valdan asked.

“When I say so, throw me to the tree on your right.”

“Got it.”

Melvet gave Aiden an interesting look.

“What?” he asked.

“Are you always this bossy with my beloved?” she asked.

Aiden looked away. At the same time, Valdan said, “Yes.”

Melvet sighed. “You’ve spoiled him, love.”

“I—”

“NOW!” Aiden barked, cutting Valdan off.

Valdan threw him immediately, without any delay. Aiden went cascading through the air. He adjusted his position so that he landed on the tree with both feet and removed the arrow from the bow, then he pushed off, going for another tree.

The man jumping through trees came flying out of the tree and Aiden slammed into him. The man lost his balance midair, his eyes widened in confusion and Aiden slammed his arrow into one of them.

[You have dealt Blan a Fatal Blow!]

Heralded by the man’s screams of pain, they went down to the ground. They tumbled twice. Aiden summoned another arrow, ignoring the one he’d just used, and knocked it as they came to a stop, the man grasping at the arrow while Aiden came up to his knee. He aimed and allowed the arrow to fly.

The woman he had aimed at, ducked to the side, avoiding the shot easily.

Aiden frowned, then he summoned a sword while returning the bow to his storage space. Unsheathing it from its scabbard, he slipped it into the grounded man’s neck very easily, silencing the man’s cries.

[You have slain Blan Lvl 103]

Ignoring the notification, he held the sword low and to the back, bent his knees and shifted his center of gravity. He took a careful breath as the woman ran past him. She was to his left, separated by a few trees. She’d completely ignored him for reasons unknown to him. He guessed she was going straight for the heart not him.

It didn’t matter.

He let her pass even as the remaining six drew closer, tracking her with his heightened perception. There was no philosophizing to be had in what he was about to do. This was not about someone stronger dealing with someone weaker, someone they could simply allow to live. It was something else. It was one man protecting another.

He tightened his muscles and relaxed his grip on the sword.

Fourth Order, first flow…

The world lit up around Aiden, and he moved.

Conqueror’s sword.

His foot carried him with easy steps. He flowed through the air, guided himself through the ambient mana. He moved around a tree and his sword moved with him, flashing out once, then twice, then a third as he spun around a living figure.

[Dash] moved in tandem, carrying him in a different direction, forward now where it had once moved him backwards. In his senses, he felt one of his quarry come to a stop while another controlled the mana around and do something he was currently not tracking.

His sword flashed through the air. Blood was drawn. Flesh was cut, muscles ripped. He took a man’s head off. [Dash] activated again. His next sword slash struck a shield of mana, clanged off it. But he did not stop. His feet carried him, danced him around his opponent, and he tore a line along their back. He heard the man cry out in pain and his sword slipped carefully into his mouth.

[Dash] played its part once more and Aiden felt the wind against his face. It was a gentle thing, yet it reprimanded him for taking lives.

When he came to a stop, there were only two others alive around him. His sword was held low and to the side. Blood dripped crimson from it to stain the grass beneath his feet. He stood there, casting a figure as he watched the other two.

One of them was on his knee. It bled profusely from a gash that Aiden had left in it. The man had succeeded in stopping two of Aiden’s three blows, saving himself from the killing blow. the second man stood in a dome of pale-yellow mana. His dome had saved him from everything.

The others had not been so lucky.

Aiden wondered if the man in the dome was a [Mage].

He watched them, allowing his senses to reach out, his perception to pick out anything else that was alive in his vicinity, within their reach.

There was nothing.

“Is this all of you?” he asked, curious.

The man in the dome had his hands held out, as if he needed a physical gesture to keep the dome up. Aiden knew that physical gestures made a [Mage]’s spell stronger. Maybe the man was a [Mage].

If so, why did he look so terrified?

Aiden doubted the technique was so flashy that it had terrified him.

“Let us live,” the [Mage] said. “And we will go back.”

A [Mage] begging for his life. Aiden could not remember the last time he had experienced such a thing. Most times, those with their class would rather die than beg. In fact, all the [Mage]s Aiden had ever heard beg for their life where already on the brink of death.

It was almost as if the man was sure that Aiden could and would kill him.

“Do you know my level?” Aiden asked. With all the notifications of him leveling up that he had ignored when he woke up, he could only imagine just how powerful killing the Immortal had made him.

The [Mage] shook his head very slowly. “I would not be so rude.”

Aiden almost laughed. “Dude,” he said. “You were just chasing down me and my friends. I assure you that checking my level will not be considered any ruder than what you’ve already done.”

The man held his dome in place as he looked around.

Aiden didn’t follow his gaze, but he knew the man was looking at the six corpses. They were significantly spaced away from each other, with a handful of trees between them. [Conqueror’s Sword] had covered quite a large distance. It seemed his techniques were perhaps sixty percent as powerful as they used to be in his past life.

“Mercy, Slayer,” the man bleeding out of his leg pleaded.

He said the word as if it was some kind of title.

Aiden’s brows furrowed at that even as he felt the others drawing closer now, coming to join him. Valdan was at the head of the group.

“Slayer?” he asked.

The man put his head to the ground in a show of submission. “I did not mean to cross you, slayer of the Immortal.”

Oh, Aiden thought, realizing one simple thing. The people that had come for Nosrath would’ve undoubtedly seen him kill the Immortal. All it would take was someone who recognized the Immortal to make a comment that would tell everyone what had happened.

Well, he wasn’t very sure of how he felt about people knowing that he had killed the Immortal. It would make him famous which, in some cases, would end up painting a target on his back. One of the last things he needed was to be on the [Enemy of the Order]’s radar just yet. He still had plans for the man that were not limited to modifying his body.

“Estabel,” he said, just as the others got to him.

Estabel walked up to stand right next to him. “Yes, Saint Slayer?”

The eyes of the [Mage] in the dome widened in horror at the title. Aiden pressed his lips into a thin line as the man bleeding out actually whimpered in fear.

“Can you undo the spell?” he asked, ignoring the title while nodding at the mana shield.

Estabel stroked her jaw. “Seems like a simple enough spell. She squinted a little. Considering he’s at level one hundred and eighteen, it shouldn’t be too much of a hassle.”

Aiden frowned. How was a level one hundred and eighteen [Mage] afraid of him? Did knowing that he killed the Immortal make him seem so strong?

Then again, it was the Immortal. If the [Mage] had not lied and had actually not checked his level, then it would mean that the [Mage] was working under the same assumption that the majority of this side of Nastild worked under, which was that you had to either be stronger or as strong as someone in order to kill them.

They probably thought he was around level three hundred too. That explained the [Mage]’s terror and overwhelming need to put all his power into maintaining the shield.

“Is there a reason you want to bring the shield down?” Melvet asked.

“Because he wants to kill him,” Ted answered, matter-of-factly. “It’s kind of obvious if you know him.”

The [Mage] in the dome looked at Estabel with pleading eyes. The man bleeding from his leg seemed to be close to making peace with his impending death.

“Is he always like this?” Melvet asked. “Murderhobo-ing all over the place.”

“So, he is a monster,” Telma muttered to herself.

“He doesn’t go around killing people,” Valdan answered Melvet. “He is simply not very versed in the concept of mercy.”

“Yeah,” Ted shrugged. “He’s more of an eye for a head kind of guy.”

“I have no idea what that means,” Valdan said.

“It’s not important,” Aiden said. Ted was not wrong, though. He was a strong believer in putting down threats.

Melvet walked up to Aiden now. The spear that Valdan had struck Nosrath with was strapped to her back once more. She stopped in front of him, turning her back to the men currently in fear for their lives and looked at him.

“Must they die?” she asked.

He met her gaze. “They cannot be allowed to live.”

“Why?”

“Because they are witnesses to an act of mine that I do not trust. I cannot have them spreading word.”

Her brows furrowed in confusion. “The death of the Immortal?”

Aiden nodded and she laughed.

She let out a low whistle then looked at the others. “Who’s going to tell him? It would be fun to do so myself, but I think it should come from one of you.”

Aiden looked around. “Tell me what?”

Ted gestured at Valdan. “I think your good friend should have the honors.”

Aiden looked at Valdan. “What is going on?” he asked.

“Everyone knows, Aiden,” Valdan said simply. “We all got a notification when the Immortal died. It bore your name.”

Aiden frowned. “I can understand you getting the notification since you helped, but…”

Valdan was already shaking his head. “I did not help, Aiden. I did not land a blow on the Immortal. Everyone got the notification.”

Aiden blinked. He looked at the [Mage] still in his dome.

Everyone?

He saw it in the man’s eyes, in the man’s terror. It was hope. The man hoped that finding out that everyone had seen it would save him.

It was true.

Even the [Mage] had seen it. The wounded man, too.

Who else?

The only worldwide notification Aiden knew of on Nastild was when the barrier between the two sides came down. It was the only time every single individual with mana on Nastild had received the same notification.

Impossible.

Yet it stared right at him. Everyone who had been present at the scene had received a notification. The problem now was who else had received one.

Aiden was lost. If the whole world knew, then there were a lot of people who would be interested in him—people who would come for him. A lot of people didn’t know this, but the Immortal had a cult, a group dedicated to the worship of the Immortal, operating in the shadows.

In his past life, they had come out into the open when the barrier had come down, claiming that he was the hero to slay the [Demon King]. The Immortal had personally brought an end to the cult.

That was one insignificant worry that he would eventually have to deal with. Then there were monarchs and maybe possibly the Order, though they were not very interested in the Immortal.

He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. Then he turned and looked at Valdan. Valdan nodded once in answer to an unasked question.

Aiden sighed. “Estabel.”

“Yes?”

“I need a spell to bind them long enough for us to leave this forest without being pursued,” he instructed.

Sighs of relief came from both men. Personally, he would’ve liked to simply kill them, but they were no longer the potential threat that he thought they were alive.

Estabel nodded once. “On it.”

She raised her staff and vines erupted from the ground around them, holding down the wounded man and the [Mage]. It held down the [Mage] along with his orb.

Aiden had a lot on his mind as he turned his head in search of the scabbard for his sword.

“We should go,” he said absently, walking over to the scabbard. He picked it up, sheathed the sword and strapped it to his waist, attaching it to his soldier’s belt. “We need to leave before anyone else comes.”

It wasn’t long before they were running again.

Feira, Zen and Fjord ran on mounted familiars summoned by Ted while the others ran beside each other. Telma had nothing to say, and Tanor was as quiet as a church mouse.

“Do you still have a read on Oncot?” Aiden asked Ted.

Ted nodded. “He’s actually waiting for us right now. He’s not very far.”

Aiden nodded slowly, his mind elsewhere, nestled in his newfound fame. It was going to make a lot of things difficult going forward. There was an Order member in the chaos, so it was only a matter of time before the Order would know his face too, if they already didn’t.

“If it’s any consolation,” Ted said absently. “I watched it. You won honorably.”

“Maybe,” he muttered to himself. “Maybe.”

“If the Immortal is as powerful as they say he is,” Alphonset said very carefully, “then I assure you that it is no small feat killing him. The world knows that it is, in fact, an impossible feat.”

Aiden’s mind paused just then. What was it that Valdan had said about the fight.

I did not help, Aiden, the words echoed in Aiden’s mind. I did not land a blow on the Immortal.

The words shook him like a tidal wave.

The Immortal was over level three hundred.

With a mental will, he hurried to pull up his status, rushing to the ones he had ignored. Right there, they stared at him, and he stared back at them. Without wishing it, his legs slowed from a sprint to a jog, to a walk.

He stopped, commanded by nothing but shock.

[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]

[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]

[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]

[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]

[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]

[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]

[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]

[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]

[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]…

Aiden watched the notifications as they simply blew on by, seemingly countless. But he could count them if he wanted to. His eyes tracked them down until he got to the bottom—to the end.

He had not accounted for growth this quick and couldn’t believe the words that crossed his mind as he stared at the bottom.

This is too fast.

[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]

[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]

[You have Leveled Up!]

[Level 104---> Level 149]

[You are now Level 149!]

…

Achievement unlocked!

You have dipped your hands in the blood of the unkillable, bathed in his death. You have walked upon the domain of the gods, doing that which mortal men cannot. None exists that you cannot kill.

You have earned a new title!

[God-Like]

[Effect: Immunity to all effects of Divine Mana]

[Effect: Immunity to all Nosrath-based skills]

[Effect: Increased resistance to aura from up to 100 Lvls higher than you]

Aiden stared at the notification while the sky gazed solemnly upon him through the gaps in the canopy.

[God-like], he thought, finding it difficult to process it.

He knew the skill. But he rarely thought of it, rarely cared about it. Why? Because in the known history of Nastild, there were only perhaps two people who had ever gained the title. The a [Hero] who had slain their [Demon King].

His interface popped up once more, but Aiden hesitated to look at it. The second known bearer of the title was the first [Demon King].

Aiden couldn’t remember how the [Hero] had done it, but he could remember how the [Demon King] had done it: By killing almost half of Nastild’s population.

By doing the impossible.

The master of the Order often joked that extinction level acts were the domains of gods. It seemed so was killing something that was not supposed to be killable.

He finally looked at his interface as the others gathered to him with different looks of worry.

It stared somberly back at him.

[You have achieved one of the criteria to gain the Existential Title ????]

…

[You have gained the title God-Like]

[Remaining criteria: Unknown]

As if it was not enough, his interface chose to react now. as if it had been waiting for him to see the notification, a new one popped up in front of him, fresh and mocking.

[Congratulations Prisoner # 234502385739]

[You are now God-Like]