Chapter 427 - The One That Was Forgiven
Although they always seemed carefree, they were in fact always alert, as if instinctively.
For days after days, he had been polishing his Skills while trying for the right moment to pierce Ervas little head with Gungnir and destroy Veronica\'s undead soul with the holy light of the spear.
He did not even care if he was part of why they died or anything, he also did not care if they were good or bad people, or if whatever they were planning to do.
Lance only cared about himself, and he was tired of this fantasy game-like world, he wanted a ticket out of Kritias.
And it was by killing them.
Although he lacked Appraisal, he knew and felt their presence, they were indeed strong.
Very strong.
This… made him doubt himself.
Wouldn\'t he be throwing himself to death if he confronted them?
He was going to get himself killed no matter what.
Their power was just on another level.
Amongst the new Skills, he asked, Lance, asked for a way to perceive other people\'s strength.
Even if it was not Appraisal, it helped him realize this.
Although Ervas and Veronica used their powers to seal their own auras to not look intimidating, Lucas was able to see right through all of that…
And through his very eyes, he saw the real monsters that they were.
Veronica, the Living Armor, had the aura of a gigantic and deep abyss as if it were an endless shadow that extended across everything, with hundreds of tentacles and the chilling cold of death itself, dreadful and deep like the abyss itself.
Ervas, the Half-Demon, had the aura of an enormous gray specter, that had countless arms, wings, eyes, legs, and more, and it seemed to be covered in spikes all over the place. Alongside this, he had an enormous hole right in the middle of such specter, that seemed to absorb everything.
Just by seeing it, Lucas Foresight Skill, the second Skill he asked for after Danger Perception showed him the horrible future that waited for him if he tried to attack them… or their friends.
He would be overwhelmed by their immense power, thrown into the ground, have his entire body torn apart, and then they would feast on his very soul, ending his entire existence…
Lucas began to have nightmares of such foresight.
Every night he would dream about having his entire body being torn apart by these monstrous, phantasmal creatures that he saw Veronica and Ervas as, and then, they would pierce his soul with giant claws, exerting tremendous pain into him, right before eating his whole existence away.
He had even thought once about attacking their friends or kidnapping the weaker ones… but even by planning something like this, Foresight would tell him that it was useless, and Danger Perception would ring bells each time he tried to approach even the weakest-looking human they were helping, such as Juan or Bartholomew.
It was as if they would somehow appear out of thin air and kill him on the spot.
Something, even when they were not with them, was protecting all these people they cared about.
If he dared to attack or touch them, terror would befall him, and death was the only thing left.
Maybe if he knew that they would simply kill him, he would be fine with it, as his soul would be back to Hekaton.
But… they were able to destroy and eat souls.
This is something that Hekaton never told them, but that Lance figured out through these Foresight images.
Nothing was waiting for him after death if he fought them other than the unending void of nonexistence.
For weeks, he had the same dreams, as if they were slowly eroding into his mind, making him go insane.
He could not get this idea out of his mind.
And if things were not terrible already, each night seemed more terrible than the previous one, each dream… was more and more horrifying, and new figures would sometimes emerge, like a giant purple octopus that sometimes shapeshifted into a beautiful fairy but was, in fact, a formless flesh beast, amongst other wicked entities.
Lance began to lose all hope, as he resigned himself…
He did not want to die miserably.
Even if he wanted a fourth life as a rich kid living carefreely, he preferred to not risk it for something that seemed so hopeless.
Now, he had two options left…
Either he joined Ervas and Veronica or ran away from Seashore while trying to live a decent life in this "peaceful" Kritias.
Because he was selfish and did not want to serve Ervas and Veronica even though they could easily kill him, he decided to simply run away from Seashore…
Even with his cheat ability and his new Skills, he was no match for them.
He began to see life a bit brighter, considering his current power and everything… it should be possible for him to live comfortably as a rich S-Rank Adventurer in some faraway town, it was not that bad…
Maybe he would not be in a modern world like Earth, but perhaps he could even build a family and live an honest life.
He began to think that he had been thinking too narrowly. That he needed to be thankful for this little opportunity now.
Lance wanted to get things together and do better.
Perhaps these nightmares made him realize how little he was and made all the steam in his head finally go away.
It was surprising that it took him more than dying two times to realize it.
He was still selfish, but now he was not being overly ambitious nor greedy.
After all, humans could change.
Although he was completely unaware that through those dreams, Veronica and Ervas were unknowingly guiding him.
Although he had not been fully guided, a bit of their influence seeped into his mind, although not by the best means.
Looking up to a brighter future, Lance decided to pack things up and finally leave Seashore, forgetting about his former reincarnated coworkers, and without even considering telling them about what he saw through Danger Perception and Foresight.
As the young-looking human man walked out of Seashore and began to walk through the road somewhere else, Ervas and Veronica glanced at him from above a building.
"He\'s leaving…" said Ervas.
"Indeed…" said Veronica.
"Should we let him leave, my lady? He was someone that killed you in your previous life!" said Ozgeth at Veronica\'s side.
"…No, let him go," said Veronica, waving her head.
"Seriously, you are way too good sometimes… What makes it sure that he won\'t come back one day to try to kill us after he grew stronger?" asked Kireina.
"We tormented his mind through dreams you helped us create, he even got half-guided. I don\'t think he will ever come back, and if he does, he will probably try to join us," said Ervas.
"Oh yeah, I guess we really broke his mind… Well, if he even comes back, we\'ll be way stronger than before, so it\'s not like he will be able to win…" said Kireina.
"He has the rare Foresight and Danger Perception Skills. He can perceive danger and also have scenes of a possible future event show inside of his mind. He was intimidated because he saw us and immediately predicted a future where he was killed horribly by us, which we would have done if he had ever dared to damage us or any of our allies," said Veronica.
"Appraisal came in handy there, we were able to see his status entirely. So Hekaton sent people after us… He had pretty weird Skills too… Not only the special ones and his cheat, but he had stuff like "Target Radar: Owner of over 100,000,000 Death-Attribute Mana" and "The God of Reincarnation\'s Fortune", which made things incredibly obvious… He was given the tools to track and kill us," said Ervas.
"Are there any more like these that you have perceived?" asked Kireina, who lacked any appraising skill in this world.
"Yes, there are three more we have sensed… they are… looking for us for a few weeks and doing nothing else… Their presences are not aggressive either… I don\'t know what they really want," said Veronica.
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