Chapter 131: We’re Just Going To... Fall
Many thoughts ran through Cillian’s head.
’Just what the hell are that White Shepherd and that "God" talking about at all?! Besides, this "God" is... unexpectedly weak? I thought it would be on the same level as those big-shot gods like Zeus or Thor, but... it’s only on the same level as the White Shepherds... Hmm, like an Improper Ruiner wielding [Five] Pieces, [Zero] excluded? Or maybe a bit higher?’
Cillian, Aster, and Mouthful Eye had already reached this destination almost ten minutes ago.
Before that, they had already spent twenty minutes running straight without encountering any enemies, which somehow frustrated Cillian. Probably because of his insane boost in luck, he hadn’t encountered any enemies whose abilities he could copy.
Because how was he supposed to help Aster with zero weapons stored in his mimicked storage?
His greatest strength was his Faceless, and his other skills, such as sorcery, hadn’t come close yet to what he was trying to achieve. He didn’t even have a Circle yet.
There’s no need to talk about his archery skills since Cillian had excluded storing a large quantity of arrows. The Inventory, which of course had its usual flaws, wouldn’t allow Cillian to simply put a box full of arrows inside and count it as one inventory slot.
He hadn’t tried looking for loopholes, such as using an Artifact that worked as a storage device, for example, Aster’s pouch, and putting it inside his Inventory with items inside it, because he had no such item.
And there’s no need to talk about his swordsmanship, which was entirely self-taught and something Cillian currently possessed as he grabbed the weapon from one that a Black Shepherd had used earlier.
Cillian peeked through the hole again with Mouthful Eye, using his head as a stand. Aster followed them by peeking through the hole right beside Cillian. They had been listening for the past several minutes, but now was the time to not be second-guessing when the Hidden One manifested in their world.
Staring down at one of the holes that had formed, Cillian saw that they all led toward the center of the ruins, which would lead to this huge dome underground. Inside it was an open shrine that was everyone to everyone.
In the middle of this shrine were the levitating ’Arthur’ and his victims, most of whom were from Hensel Hospital, while the others were victims he had picked up along the way. All of their eyes were devoid of life, leaving behind only hollow, white eyes.
Last but not least were the Shepherds who surrounded this ’God’.
"Arthur didn’t seem to have succeeded in making a deal with this ’God ’or, should I say, Hidden One?"
Aster whispered beside him, which further confirmed Cillian’s suspicions, seeing that Arthur had just been possessed by ’God’ instead of making a deal with it.
’Wait, wait. I know that the Black Shepherds are aiming for the ’God’, which is something I had already concluded, and I heard that they are planning on killing it after someone mistook me for coming from Xesie and informed me of that. But is that really something we humans could do? Aren’t they usually standing at the pinnacle of a power system?’
Kill a God?
Is that even possible in the first place?
Unless it was a ridiculously weak God, that is. Or perhaps the status of a ’God’ wasn’t actually the highest? However, even without those two possibilities, the more Cillian looked toward The Hidden One, the more certain he became that this entity wasn’t in its peak form.
But it is the real deal.
’Is it doable?’
For some reason, Cillian felt his heart pounding in excitement before all his previous thoughts came to a halt when his eyes, which were moving around the place, couldn’t help but focus directly on two people that are currently floating at the same level as the Hidden One.
It was his family.
’They are safe...’
Cillian felt relieved inside, and he planned on keeping them safe by rescuing them from The Hidden One’s grasp.
He set aside his excitement and calmed down.
"Hey, what are we going to do now?"
Aster, who had already seen his group among the people currently being held hostage by the Hidden One, asked very impatiently.
The plan.
Actually, Cillian had no idea how he should proceed from now on, now that he had found his family.
He couldn’t involve everyone as he had done before since everyone was scattered around, which was something Cillian could eagerly do whenever he wanted. If they were here, he would’ve already used them. Alas, by the looks of it, they were the first people to come here.
Setting aside that unusable strategy for now, if they were talking about individual skills, Aster might be able to do things like a main character, especially when his flag still hadn’t turned into a Death Flag—
[Black Flag] -> [Death Flag]
Cillian had to immediately stop the plan forming in his head when he saw that Aster’s previous flag had changed into something similar to his own.
Will he just send this main character to death? Well, Cillian could if there was no other choice but to do so.
But Cillian knew there were other ways to do this. It didn’t have to be a situation where someone had to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.
The question is, what would be the right action?
"Cillian, I might be able to use my swords, but I’m afraid that I might hurt someone if I tried to kill that ’God’. But we also can’t allow them to start a fight when my friends might be in danger once they do. You understand what I’m getting at, right? They will become part of the casualties!"
Cillian started scratching his head while trying to think of something. He knew that Aster becoming impatient would lead to a mistake if he allowed him to take the lead, hence, he didn’t speak just yet and let his brain work.
’I know...! I know we can’t let them fight just yet! If there’s another way to rescue them without being in the middle of everything once they start fighting, we could’ve already done so five minutes ago!’
A plan. Right now, any plan that was on the verge of working would suffice. It didn’t need to be perfect or accurate.
Eventually, Cillian had found the ’right’ way to approach this situation if that’s what he liked to call it.
He immediately called out to Aster.
"Aster, listen up."
Cillian began to stand up while pulling the robe over his head to cover his face, while also signaling Aster to do the same.
"If we wait any longer, someone important to us might die. Here’s how things are going to go. We will join them and make it appear as if we’re on Hidden One’s side, but you’re going to do the heavy lifting from that point onward. You’re going to attack the Shepherds while I handle Arthur. You got it?"
[0:30:00]
[0:29:59]
Cillian watched the timer of his Death Coin’s luck on the side slowly counting down before he saw Aster nod and ask.
"How... are we going to join them?"
Cillian wore a smug smile.
"Simple. We’re going to barge our way through. We’re just going to... fall."