Perfect Avatar

Chapter 46: The One Behind Them

A black mist spread, emanating from Dora's body, whose face was more relaxed than ever.

Beside him, Eryl had stopped shaking, her naturally beige hair had turned purple, and she was watching the crystals disintegrate on her hands.

"Congratulations, now you're done."

A menacing howl rose from the ruins and all the undead went into a killing frenzy.

The shooters on the rocks fired a barrage of spears at Dora and those on the ground rushed at them. Eryl looked at the ruins with a sinister smile.

"So this is where you're hiding..."

She disappeared before the spikes could touch her and the next moment, many undead erupted.

The spikes reached Dora, but once again, they disappeared right in front of him.

"Hm... Can't have a minute to think... Huh? Was my hand always this big?"

"Watch out!!!" Zuri shouted as the swarm reached him, but the boy didn't move.

Spears, swords, axes, all the weapons of the undead were planted in his body, before the horrified eyes of the 3 girls, but then, an unexpected event happened.

No blood was shed, no limbs were torn, and the weapons were stuck in a black viscous matter on his body, it was as if they had pierced through the mud.

"..... Nice, donors."

His body turned completely black and exploded, covering all the undead around him in a black goo that spread over the undead bodies before merging into one.

The protective bubble around Zuri, Marcy, and Freya suddenly disappeared, but they were unable to notice it, as their attention was focused on the being formed by the goo.

Carrying all the weapons that pierced his back, Dora stood up, his eyes completely black.

"I hope you've enjoyed this little game so far, because from now on... I'll be in control."

His black aura covered him and white light covered his eyes. The energy waves he emitted could be felt by everyone and most of them were in shock, unable to understand what was happening, while Eryl literally made large groups of undead disappear around her.

"Polymerization: Beta, Delta, Gamma, Sigma..."

The energy disappeared, the undead were motionless once again, and all the members of the group stared, paralyzed, at the young man with a skin white like a snowflake. Even Eryl had stopped and was looking at him out of the corner of her eye.

He opened his eyes, his irises red as ruby.

"Omega body."

A shock wave passed through the ground, and the undead resumed their frenzy and lunged at him, but they never touched the ground, they flew several meters above the ground while black spikes protruded from the earth and pierced their body.

He took a spear from the weapons on his back, twirled it, and slammed into the ground, the shockwave sweeping away the nearby undead.

The shooters resumed their attack, but each of them disappeared around him.

"Spear Art."

He spun the spear and threw it with incredible force at a group of shooters, but it stuck to the rock rather than any of them.

"Dagger Art."

This time, he took 2 battered daggers and slashed the undead around him, with exceptional skill.

For a moment which lasted less than a minute, no one dared to speak, no one dared to think. No one could imagine what he had seen.

Most of them knew the boy, they knew him as a good friend, a mentor, a rival, or an interesting person. Most of them knew he was not incompetent, they trusted him, but he disappointed them too often.

They had stopped hoping to see him at his peak, but the excitement of knowing he was getting serious was proof that deep down, despite being a failure, he had already invaded their minds.

They expected a lot from him, but what they saw was beyond their imagination.

"Magic Art: detonation"

Several small balls of light surrounded him and randomly rushed towards the undead, exploding instantly.

The next moment he had disappeared from the battlefield and emerged from the spear stuck in the rock and rose into a black smoke above the shooters.

"Dagger Art."

And then he slashed at them mercilessly, without order, without strategy, just slicing away everything his eyes could see.

Kraim, his lips trembling, gradually regained control of his body and whispered.

"What...what is this?..."

The monsters no longer paid attention to them, gravitating around the two emissaries.

"... Dora?" whispered Marie.

A few minutes ago they were overwhelmed by the swarm, but here these two were demonstrating their skills.

Dora was decimating the undead on the rocks while Eryl arrived in front of the temple.

A blue vortex swirled around her body, causing the undead around her to disappear, and she suddenly stopped.

Gazing at the interior of the temple, she smiled.

"Found you..."

Inside the temple, a creature, similar to the undead, was kneeling on a luminous pentagram.

Eryl's eyes turned yellow and red vapor came out of her mouth, whose canines had become sharp fangs.

"Voracity."

She crouched down and jumped at the praying creature at high speed.

The creature made no movement and disappeared in a blinding light caused by Eryl's attack.

At the same time outside, several undead froze and disappeared into the dust.

Shooters, melee, most of them disappeared in an instant. Dora stopped his madness, breathing hard and with dark circles around his eyes.

".... huh?.... Where are you going? We don't have your experience yet."

His comrades, now freed, got up, Sana providing practically no care to Cid who was almost unconscious.

Some undead were still there, but the main group was gone. They could clearly see around them.

Dora, very annoyed to see his precious experience wasted, threw a dagger to the ground.

"Why? Why isn't it leveling up?!"

He looked at the system jobs screen, realizing that his physical tasks were still level 1.

Marie approached him slowly, looking worried.

"D-Dora?... Did..."

"What was that?!"

Erick shouted behind her.

"What happened?! What witchcraft was that?!"

They were words of fear and anger, raw emotions were a weakness in many cases, but had the tremendous ability to make anyone 'human again'.

Morgiana shivered and moved forward as well.

"What... Dora, what was that?"

"Sir... Anesidora?"

They hesitantly advanced towards him but stopped some distance away.

The boy looked at them indifferently, then looked at his hand, murmuring.

"..... Oh, yeah... That's our name here."

Only Leon, Hope, Sana, Cid, and Kraim remained still. Freya was slightly flustered but managed to keep calm.

"It's too early to rest, there are still monsters around... We should finish this first."

She spoke in a loud voice, hoping to reach a specific person.

"We don't need your reminder, we know what we need to do."

He sighed disappointedly, examining the blade of another dagger in his hands.

"Hey, Dora, don't you dare ignore me! What was that?!" Erick was walking towards him furiously.

".... Wait! Stay back!!!"

Freya yelled at him, but he ignored her warning and grabbed his shoulder, or tried to.

"Eh?!.."

He believed he had grasped Dora's shoulder, but his hand slid down. To prevent himself from falling, he took a step forward and discovered something beneath his foot.

He felt a powerful sensation that traveled from his chest to his entire body, ending in his right hand, as he gradually lifted his foot. Underneath it, he discovered four fingers.

"Ah... What... ouch... what is this..."

He looked at his hand, surgically separated from his fingers, and let out a howl of pain as he squeezed his wrist, much to the horror of his comrades.

"M-Mr. Dora!"

"Erick no!"

They rushed towards him, but Dora gave him a powerful slap, knocking him unconscious.

"Loud."

They stopped in their tracks, fearing whoever was in front of them. Hope, sweating profusely, moved slowly.

"Dora, please, please stop, he's your teammate... What are you doing?..."

He was barely able to speak, all his instincts giving him warnings of death.

"Hm?.... Him? Our teammate?"

He looked at Erick, hands on his hips.

"..... Yeah, we remember... He was very hostile towards us and we don't carry him in our hearts."

The dagger slowly rose in his hands.

"But he is stronger than many undead, and a human should drop a soul stone..."

"What?"

A chill spread through the atmosphere, everyone was unable to move but deep down they knew what was going to happen.

He gave off a terrifying sensation, he was facing someone he had every reason to hate, but his gaze had no emotion. He looked at him like a lumberjack would look at the tree he was about to cut.

Suddenly, a spike struck his back.

"Dora!" Mary shouted.

"Argh! What..."

As he turned around, he noticed from every corner a legion of undead crawling from the smoke, striking fear into the group.

"What... They're not done yet?"

The shooters took up positions on the rocks and the melee monsters surrounded the group.

"Aahaha... Good... I was worried... aah..."

Dora dropped to one knee, breathing heavily.

"D-Dora!"

Zuri rushed towards him. He was having trouble breathing, the black crystals spreading throughout his body, and his deadly aura was starting to disappear.

The swarm moved closer and the shooters charged their attacks. The situation was at its peak when an explosion occurred from the temple, but unlike the first time, it was not followed by a time of rest. Eryl crashed heavily near the group, badly injured and unconscious.

Dora, one foot down, Eryl and Cid unconscious, the main force of the team was neutralized and Sana and Marie were running out of energy.

The group, back to back, facing the legion of undead, how could this be a common experience for the emissaries? Where did they miss? They could sense their death coming at any moment, the shooters firing a barrage of spikes.

The red sky was covered with black spots rushing towards the group, Hope, tears appearing in his eyes.

"Aaah...."

The barrage hit the ground frantically and the undead rushed to the impact zone.

Pieces of bodies flew through the air, mixing with debris from the ground and broken weapons. No light could exist in this desolate world, but somewhere else, in a completely different world, Hope opened his eyes. The pain he expected never happened, the screams he imagined remained silent.

Beside him, everyone was there, in the same state as before, but what changed was their environment.

They were sitting or standing in a large and luxurious room, a huge clock on the ceiling, and in front of them, on a large bed like he had only seen in luxury magazines, a girl with green hair was looking at them.