Legendary Architect of Apocalypse

"Aren't you a little too old to be bullying a child?" Elias heard the voice, which, surprisingly, came from behind him. He hadn't even felt the person's presence, even though he was speaking from right behind him.

The only thing he could see was that the remnant snow in the surroundings had started turning dark, losing any semblance of life it contained.

He felt a tap on his shoulder, and to his surprise, the pressure that had been pushing down on his body disappeared entirely.

"You are...?" Elias stood up and looked behind him. He saw a man who looked like he was in his mid-twenties. However, he couldn't be certain about the man's true age.

The man didn't look strong. He had dark circles around his eyes, as if he hadn't slept for months. He looked somewhat gloomy and bored.

He wasn't even dressed as lavishly as the rest, or had any family insignia on his clothes. He was simply wearing a loose t-shirt and jeans.

He stretched his arms and yawned. "Can you return that little toy to my brother? And while you're at it, can you also give that body to me? For research, of course."

"How long have you been here?" Freya asked, frowning at the sight of the troublesome person. This man was the reason she had come here in such a hurry to take Lilian's body, after all.

"Who knows? I'm too sleepy to remember things properly..." The man rubbed his eyes, trying to keep them open. He looked as if he could fall asleep at any moment.

"I can't give you Lilian's body," Freya stood firm in her decision. There was no way she was going to hand over Lilian's body to this person.

Lilian thought that the man was at least going to argue, or try to throw a tantrum, but he didn't seem to care in the least. "I'm too lazy to argue. Just return my brother's toy in that case."

Even if she wanted to investigate the weapon, she knew that it was a better deal. It was something that didn't belong to her in the first place.

It had been fine when she took the weapon from a child who wasn't favored by the family, as he couldn't even complain to anyone. But with this man's arrival, things were different.

If it spread that she stole things from children, she could only imagine how embarrassing it would be. It wasn't as if the man cared about her reputation, unlike others who were here.

"Fine." Before the man could change his mind, she tossed the sniper rifle back to Elias, before rushing inside the portal with Lilian's body.

Elias caught the Rifle, looking in disbelief. Was it really the Dean of the Academy? Why did she look like she was running away from a plague?

The others also didn't stay behind. Seraphina and the Shadow Guards also left, leaving only the two of them behind.

Elias was still curious about the man's real identity. He had heard the man call him little brother. Did it mean he was also from the Ashborn Family?

It couldn't be the Eldest Brother as he had been missing for a long time. Other than him, the only brothers that he hadn't seen were the Second and Third Brother.

He didn't think that there would be someone in this family who would help him, let alone one of his brothers.

"Did you make it?" the man asked Elias, his eyes barely open at this point.

Elias nodded. There was no point in hiding it. He was going to make even more impressive things in the future, after all. He couldn't keep hiding these things.

"Interesting..." The man ruffled Elias's hair before walking past him. He didn't say anything else, simply taking a few steps forward.

He lazily tapped his foot on the ground, and two skeletal hands came crawling out of the snow, followed by the rest of their bodies. But what stunned Elias most was that they were holding something.

Each skeleton seemed to be pulling a hand out of the snow. When they pulled the source of those hands out, Elias almost froze in place. It was Lilian's body! She was right here. Then what did Freya take?

"Shhh..." the man gestured to Elias before walking away. The skeletons carried Lilian's body and followed the man inside the portal, disappearing.

"It seems like you don't recognize me. I won't blame you. You were only a few months old when I last saw you." Just before entering the portal, the man left behind a few sentences. "My name is Elten... Elten Ashborn. I'm your second brother, and also a Professor at the Academy."

After Elten left, the world returned to complete silence. Only Elias was left behind, looking at the portal as it slowly closed.

"Second Brother..." he mumbled, remembering the stories of the Second Son of Ashborn.

Even if he wasn't as famous as Aliath, he had also made a name for himself. He wasn't considered any less crazy than the other Ashborns, even if he didn't seem that way.

He was the person said to have killed a Professor of the Creator Class. Not only that, he had even tried to turn that person into an undead, only to be stopped by other Professors.

In the Academy, he was known as the Lazy Necromancer. At least that was what people called him behind his back, as no one dared to say that to his face, even if they had all the courage in the world.

"Confirm Extraction." Before the other Professor could arrive, Elias started extracting the Essence of Lightning and the Dust of Creation from the sniper rifle.

The gun returned to its normal form, and he kept the two vials back in his pocket. Even if someone were to snatch the rifle, it didn't matter.

Even as he finished extraction, he didn't stop thinking about Elten. "To think that he became a professor at the Academy... But when did he switch the bodies?"

He felt as if something was out of place.