The Transcendent Godslayer

Yula immediately sped toward Menelaus, no longer holding back in the slightest.

She needed to keep him occupied and distracted enough that he wouldn't spare a single thought for Kallen, who, frankly, was an easy kill at this point.

That alone confirmed something else for her: Kallen couldn't really use his illusions on her at the moment, and it was all because of Menelaus.

This information made restraining him until Zephyrus arrived, become easier. Kallen was that valuable.

She couldn't kill him, nor could she allow him to die, not after whatever it was Menelaus had done to him.

On the back of Menelaus' left hand, she noticed a runic marking similar to Kallen's, that hadn't been on him before.

However unlike Kallen's that looked line drawn tattoos, his' had been carved in surgically deep, bloodied, and raw. It was obvious he was planning to do to himself whatever he'd done to Kallen.

Keeping Menelaus alive held no real significance. Though she wasn't even sure she could kill him at this point, with how powerful he had become. Should he die, they could simply search his body or living quarters for the treasure, or the method behind it.

And if it turned out to be something intangible, then Zephyrus would simply rip it from his corpse—by reading his memories, his soul, or something else entirely.

That much, Yula was confident in. It was Zephyrus' core skill, a skill that was related to memories, souls, and Will... If he arrived in time, that is.

Until then, she had to stall. So she decided to go all out, not like she could afford the luxury of holding back.

Menelaus had grown terrifyingly strong.

She reappeared before him in an instant, a new dagger manifesting in her hands, and slashed straight for his neck.

The fact that he was still alive, with what was likely a burnt throat, was surprising.

Menelaus leaned back, narrowly evading the blade, and countered with a fist.

But Yula had already moved to his flank, aiming a follow-up strike at his liver.

He was forced to retreat, dodging the strike, while Yula pressed forward, overwhelming him.

With swift, relentless rhythm, she brought her bladed chain into the fray, alongside her daggers.

Menelaus was forced to retreat, again and again, only using the spikes to momentarily break her rhythm before she was upon him again.

---

Kallen's eyes traced their figures as they fought, struggling to keep up with their movements.

If not for how powerful his Will had become, it would have been impossible to do so. In fact, none of this would have been possible.

The moment he experienced his Will evolution, he knew his time had come. It was now or never.

That was how, despite the screaming Orc teens, the flowing blood, and the burning bodies, not a single piece of sensory information escaped the confines of the forge.

It was something he had simply come up with, yet it turned out to be an insane level of Will manipulation... though he didn't realize that yet.

Using his illusion trait as a framework, the idea seemed so obvious that he felt foolish for not thinking of it earlier.

His illusion trait affected sensory information... predominantly sight, by using his Will to bend and twist obscurities in the air through varying wavelengths, refractive indexes, and reflections to create false images.

Smell and other sensory data were handled solely by the substance of his Will, a far more complex and metaphysical application.

But if he could manipulate light and other sensory stimulants with his Will, couldn't he suppress them as well?

He had tested that theory the moment it occurred to him, and that was why the sudden explosion of Castor's head had shocked the orcs so deeply.

More than the shock of the sudden explosion and sight of blood and a headless body, it was the eerie silence, the fact that they hadn't even seen or heard the cause of his death, until they saw the blood dripping from the hammer in Kallen's hand, while he waved it as though feeling its weight..

But Kallen wouldn't have made such a move unless he was confident he could deal with the fallout. All the cards were laid out now, and he'd be a fool not to play them.

While lying on the floor, he had overheard the orcs recounting what had happened. That's when he knew that this was his chance. Zephyrus would be coming.

How did he know that? Well, it was too much of a coincidence that just while Menelaus would take him up, there would be some sort of existential crisis amongst them that almost had them killed, and then Menelaus would come back with him naked and unconscious, covered in runic tattoos.

One little bird, would definitely chirp what happened to her owner.

As for how he planned to escape Zephyrus... That was even easier.

Why would he meet him at all? He'd kill everyone before Zephyrus arrived.

Menelaus was obviously a huge obstacle in that, but wasn't he already being handled? Whatever Menelaus had done to him, he was now the perfect test subject for Zephyrus to study, to uncover Menelaus methods.

Kallen could see it all. Just from one encounter, he'd grasped Zephyrus' mind enough to know the orc was dangerously intelligent. And that made this situation... a goldmine for gathering data.

Zephyrus would take both Kallen and Menelaus with him, while he would eliminate everyone else, to leave no loosed ends.

So why not do it for him?

He watched with cold calm as the last of his intestines slithered grotesquely into his open abdomen like a massive earthworm.

As it slid in, his open belly closed with a squelching sound, a movement of new tissues and sinew growing to heal the wound.

To survive Zephyrus, he would have to kill every orc here including Menelaus and Yula.

On his own, he wasn't confident he could kill them both.

But he had Yula to kill Menelaus for him. He only needed to force her hand. Even if she was "short sighted" which she wasn't, would know how valuable he was once Zephyrus agreed to come, and would do everything to protect him.

As for how to kill Yula herself even after discovering she was a Second Ascension ascendant... he had a trump card for that too.