Chapter 86: [86] We Are All Monsters
"T-Thalia? This can’t be real, it has to be some sort of illusion magic! Thalia would never do this!" Olivia said hurriedly, unable to believe the scene in front of her.
Thalia crunched down on bone, barely sparing Olivia a glance, before she smiled at Esau.
"You bastard!" Esau felt like his heart was about to shatter. His heart was racing so fast that he felt a painful sting in his chest.
He grasped it, as though trying to hold it, but all he could do was press down on his leather armour.
From their days during the tutorial, from suffering ridicule due to their pitiful classes, Esau and Sazan had been brothers through thick and thin.
They had lived together, failed together, wept together, and won together, even as little as those wins had been.
Bitter tears slipped down his eyes as he stared at his brother’s dying form.
She was right in front of him, and yet, he knew that he was powerless to do anything. There was nothing he could do against a lamia, especially one that had managed to get the better of his brother...
[Sazan has passed on to the beyond. His game has ended.]
"Oh? You almost sound convincing." Thalia’s mocking laughter filled the room. "You make it sound like I am the villain, when it was you two who connived to kill me..."
"Liar! Don’t listen to a word that woman says!" Esau cried bitterly. "How can a murderer like that have any truth in her!"
His words only caused Thalia to laugh even harder, before returning to her meal.
Ark glanced at Esau, then at Thalia before he took a step forward, towards her.
His eyes swept over the room with cool composure, before once again settling on her.
"So this is where you do it, right? This is where you made the other players vanish."
Thalia ripped out the arm of Esau, who was now dead, and took a bite off it like it was a drumstick, before licking her lips.
She still had the same beautiful, innocent face, which made the contrast disturbing.
"Mmhm, of course. A good meal is all about the view, you know?"
It was not just her body that had changed, even her voice had grown more mature, did that mean everything up until now had been a ruse?
Her shy persona? Her fearful nature?
"I see..."
Thalia frowned slightly, the sound of her rattling tail echoing all around them. "You are different... unlike the rest... why is that?"
She scratched her cheek with her bloody arm, and her serpentine body adjusted as she stared intently at him.
"Oh, I get it now." The look on her face became even more crazed as she cackled wildly. "You knew all this while, didn’t you?!"
Ark shrugged, once again advancing closer. "Just a hunch, nothing more."
"A spell that could ward off snakes? A healer who was barely competent but was so excellent at wards?" He scoffed. "You might as well have held up a sign."
Since humans were one of the most common races, it was easy to pretend to be a human. After all, all you had to do was not switch to your assigned race.
Warding off snakes was likely a passive intimidation trait that came from being a lamia.
But as for her healing and support abilities... All this while, the only reason they had seemed incredibly weak was because she was in her human form.
That was until now.
"Besides..." Ark continued.
There had been signs right from the beginning. Ark was the type to pay attention to every single word someone said, especially when he did not trust them.
From what Sazan had said, Thalia had never really been a part of the team, she was a new addition...
Ark glanced at Esau. "When did you start gaining interest in the Wyvern quest?"
"When did I—?!" Esau visibly stiffened, which was all he needed to know.
Of course it was when Thalia had joined them.
"All this time while you felt you were manipulating others... little did you know." Ark’s eyes grew darker. "All you had been doing was dancing to the beat of her drum."
From minor suggestions to body movements, to side comments, one would be surprised how easy it was to manipulate the human mind.
Thalia was especially good at this, she had likely manipulated other players the same way, leading them on a wild goose chase, only to drag them down there.
Each time with different personalities, each time wearing a new face.
"You use an artifact to mask your presence, don’t you? Is that black hair even real?"
Ark’s words seemed to cause a stir.
"Black hair?? Isn’t she blonde?" Esau asked, clearly shocked.
Olivia also seemed very surprised.
"Blonde?" Ark glanced at Thalia, only then realising what had likely happened.
’Am I somehow immune because I am a skeleton?’
Undead were known to have high resistance to mind attacks, especially since they didn’t have a brain to begin with.
"Hahaha! Now it makes sense! You seem smart, I always wondered why you tolerated these two, despite knowing they were planning on killing us for the eggs. You kept quiet, all for your agenda..."
"What?" Olivia’s eyes widened. "What do you mean?" she glanced at Esau.
"Aww, baby girl." Thalia’s voice grew deeper and more sensual. "You are really cute."
Olivia glanced at Esau, but he was staring at the ground with a dark look in his eyes. Then she looked to Ark. "Ark.."
"It is true. They were the reasons the wyvern attacked us, they foolishly covered us all with their pheromones while we slept."
Olivia staggered back, placing a hand on her forehead. She had simply thought of them as cowards who were only trying to save themselves, never had she imagined that they would be so vile.
It was expected, Olivia was just entering into the world of players for the first time.
But Ark had seen it all, he had seen how money could change people, how greed could so easily corrupt a soul.
After all, greed and cowardice was what had led to his death...
"If you knew what I was..." Thalia snapped a finger, enjoying every single moment of their conversation.
She lifted Sazan’s body up with her tail and tossed him right at his feet. Now, Ark was just a few meters away from her.
Her violet eyes sharpened. "...you must have known what would happen to him. You used him as bait... didn’t you?"
"Yes, I did."
"Y-you monster!" Esau screamed as he charged towards Ark, his daggers slicing through the air with a violent hiss.
But just as he got within an inch of him, the blade of an axe suddenly sprang out of the floor, cleaving him into two perfect halves.
[Esau has passed on to the beyond. His game has ended.]
"Make no mistake..." Ark stared at his bleeding corpse. "We are all monsters..."
A screen suddenly flashed in front of Ark.
[Race Synchronization has gone up to 20%!]
[Player will experience a greater connection with his race, dampened emotions, less emotional sensitivity, greater pain tolerance, as well as a host of other race-related effects.]
"So?" His eyes moved back to Thalia. "Shall we?"
"How nasty, I like it~!"
A/N
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I had to go to the airport so I could only post two Chapters today, uploads will be back to normal tomorrow.
We have hit our golden ticket goals!!
Next week Mon - Thursday will be 4 Chapters/day!
I decided to spread it over four days to make the workload lighter, but if you guys prefer single day releases for bonus Chapters, let me know in the comments.