Crimson Blood Pearl

Night. The sky had become completely dark as rain poured down from the sky. The clouds had obscured the light from the moon, and the entire city was silent as everyone needed rest from the hellish day they experienced. And perhaps some people would sleep tonight and never wake up by tomorrow.

However, despite that, Lancell was still widely awake, outside the city. In front of him was countless remaining monster corpses as he stood with both arms crossed.

Lancell raised a hand and tried to do something, but a voice interrupted his actions.

"I knew you'd be here." A familiar voice resounded.

Lancell turned to the source, and saw Arthur, who had just arrived. In her hands was Excalibur, and she looked at Lancell not with her usual carefree gaze, but expressionless eyes.

Lancell also gave back an cold gaze of his own as he asked. "What are you doing here."

"What about you too? What are you doing here?" she aske with a mocking tone. "And here I thought you'd be a better guy than last time."

"A better guy?" Lancell asked with a raised brow.

"Nah. It's nothing. I was just saying how much of an asshole you are. Really." Arthur shrugged.

"I get that a lot."

Arthur scoffed. She always felt something was off ever since this 'war' began. She was there when Selvenia was attacked by monsters in the previous timeline, but even if they wasn't prepared, they still managed to survive. And believe it or not, the amount of survivors may actually be more than those who survived today.

She knew Lancell was planning something, and now she was enlightened.

"You wanted to create an entire area full of killing intent, right? And the best way to do it is to start a massive life and death battlefield."

"..." Lancell went silent at her statement. He neither affirmed nor denied her words. He merely crossed his arms again, and stood in place. He wasn't gonna budge.

"I see." Arthur finally spoke, and sat on a nearby corpse. "I'll keep watch."

Lancell raised a brow in surprise. She was gonna cooperate? Even though it went against her principles in her past life? How rare.

However, Lancell couldn't just let the opportunity pass, so he nodded. "Alright."

Arthur's strength was something that couldn't be ignored as her Excalibur was already at the 8th Level, and her own Guidance Tome wasn't the ordinary Tome for Heroes. Her protection would definitely be of great help.

"So? What are you gonna use all these killing intent for?" She asked. "Don't tell me you're gonna use it to curse someone, will you?"

"Huh? Of course I won't. And I can't." Lancell said with a shrug.

The talk ended there as Lancell raised a hand, and gathered mana in his fingertips. Looking at that, Arthur was surprised. "Oh? Is that Rune Tracing?"

"Yeah. A little trick I learned." Lancell nodded. He didn't look at Arthur as he focused on his task.

Rune Tracing was a technique used my higher levelled wizards. It utilized memory as channel and air as medium to draw runes, despite the limited effects. Limited as it is, however, runes were still runes, which mean the mana and Laws it contained were nothing to scoff at.

And now, Lancell was barely capable of doing it with his perfected mana control mastery, and his understanding of Laws along with a bit of Arkenvalle's help.

After he finished drawing a Rune, it suddenly emitted some sort of pulse that scattered along the entire battlefield, as the next instant, ambient killing intent converged on their location.

The killing intent continued to gather as it then entered the rune Lancell had drawn, while Lancell who took full brunt of the monstrous amount of them, started sweating in cold sweat. He couldn't leave the Rune yet. It was only a rune that gathered killing intent, but didn't have any ability to store it.

Once again, Lancell started to draw another Rune. The speed of his drawing were far cry from what he did earlier, but he still persisted. He needed this no matter what.

After a while, the Rune was finished, and the new Rune started to store the killing intent. And as it did, the killing intent formed a whirlpool as it became denser around Lancell.

Lancell spat a mouthful of blood from the sheer suppression in the density of the killing intent. If any normal Third Step warriors had been here, they would have been long squashed by the monstrous amount of killing intent, but Lancell was different. His tempered for combat mind was far stronger than any Third Step warrior.

After a few more while, the killing intent gradually became lesser and lesser as not long after that, it was stored within the Rune. Lancell manipulated the killing intent inside, and after another while, the rune vanished as what stood in its place...

...was a small crimson pearl.

Arthur looked at the pearl in his hand as her eyes widened. She seemed to recognize what it was. And Lancell knew she didn't have good memories with it. Lancell saw her eyes narrow in cold gaze for an instant, but reverted back right after.

She sighed. "Lancell," she called out, "tell me, is that a Crimson Blood Pearl?"

"Yeah."

The Crimson Blood Pearl. It was a mysterious magical object that contained dense malevolent energy, along with strong killing intent. It wasn't actually much useful other than scaring weaker monsters, however...

"You plan on making a Cursed Equipment?"

...it was the core materials for making Cursed Equipment.

Lancell didn't reply to her question. There was no need to, as she only asked in courtesy. Lancell knew that she was convinced he'd definitely do it. And he would.

However, the surprising thing was that she didn't even scold him. She only sighed, and spoke.

"Lancell... You have a reason for this, right?" she asked.

Lancell went silent again. For the same reason as earlier. No words were needed.

Arthur stowed Excalibur, as she then turned to leave. She then started to move her legs. But before she did, she spoke.

"For now, I'll trust you. However, if I see things go out of hand, I'll be the first to knock you out of your shit. Got it?"

Lancell's eyes widened for an instant, but then averted his gaze from her. "Fine."

Unexpectedly, she was a considerate person. In the wrong way, as she was probably aware that a lot was gonna die in Lancell's plan.

She turned to her back and left, waving her hand coolly while she did.

She really was strange today.