Stupefied and unable to comprehend what just happened, Claudia stared at the grey ash in her hand then back to Arthur, who was looking at her with an amused expression.

A low-grade item such as this one can easily be nullified with his High Mastery of Space Magic. In fact, he can even negate the high-grade items as long as they aren't above Mystic Rank.

(Small reminder: Items ranks are : Spirit => Mystic=> Heavenly, Godly, Mysterious.)

"You think you can escape your fate that easily? I don't think so."

Arthur shrugged his hands innocently then clutched the air with his hand thus resulting in Claudia being raised a few centimeters above ground and suffocating as her hand was being grabbed by something invisible.

Slowly, Arthur started walking up to this venomous woman while his figure started turning illusory until he regained his old appearance.

Once he was merely two meters away from her, her pupils contracted as she even forgot to struggle for air. She stared at him with a dumb look as she didn't know what the hell was going on.

This was obviously none other than her deceased husband, who was supposed to have died five years ago. For more than ten seconds, she remained in this state until the grip that was tightening around her neck was finally retracted.

The woman fell on her knees but her eyes still didn't leave Arthur, who was watching her with an emotionless face.

"I bet you never thought that such a day would come, right?"

He stared at this woman who made his previous life miserable, even in her current state. With a disheveled hair, weakened body and pale face, he felt no trace of pity.

In fact, he could feel his insides burning as his hidden emotions started surfacing. All the rage and anger he had been saving her for her.

It is no longer about a simple story of revenge but it's about repaying old debts and getting back at her for all the horrible things she had done to him and all of that for what? Just money and power, material things that surely would push anyone to do the things she did but not the same way.

He knew she felt joy when she saw him suffer and wondered many times about this matter. What could he had done to her to push her to the extreme and make her torture him for months!

It wasn't a human thing to do, a thing that even demons of hell would refrain from doing.

"A-a... w-wha"

Claudia couldn't utter any words as they got stuck in her throat. She sat there, astonished and confused about this whole matter. The first thing she thought was 'Impossible'.

He died five years ago and even if he was a God, he can't come back to life. She saw his dead body and confirmed it herself that he was deader than dead!

"T-this is P-preposterous! You're not 'him'!"

With reddened eyes, she pointed at him angrily with a trembling body. Although she was sure he wasn't the real one, she still couldn't help but feel anxious and afraid.

"Y-you...! You're using illusion to trick me!"

The truth was before her eyes but the woman was refusing to believe reality. With the appearance of Magic on Earth, there surely are people who are adept at using illusions, which is why she uttered those words to try and convince herself.

"What's preposterous? The fact that I'm still alive or the fact that I'm here, cornering you like the rat you are?"

Claudia's mind went blank as she couldn't understand what's going on. Her thoughts were in total disarray and her body was shaking instinctively due to the chilling and ominous aura Arthur was emanating.

She shifted her glare to Lucy, who was a distance away and yelled at the top of her lungs

"YOU WITCH! What the hell did you do? You think using some petty illusions to show me my dead husband would shake me?"

Hearing this, Lucy snorted and retorted

"Husband? First of all, he was never YOUR husband. Secondly, this isn't an illusion. Lastly, you should think of what's going to happen to you instead of denying reality."

"NONSENSE! THIS IS TRICKE-"

Claudia was interrupted halfway through her sentence as a loud slap landed her face and slammed her into the wall, breaking a few bones in the process.

The unimaginable pain made her screech loudly as she held her red cheek and venomously glared at Arthur, who used a handkerchief to clean some of her blood which landed on his palm.

"I remember it clearly, our first meeting, I mean. It was in a classic Chinese restaurant which was reserved to just the two of us. You wore a traditional purple Chinese robe and fanned yourself with a golden fan as you sat opposite of me. You even said those exact words 'Am I pretty?'. I was young back then and didn't know what real love was, you could say I was temporarily attracted to your body but couldn't see the ugliness inside of you. My foolishness led to our marriage, which ended becoming my doom."

Arthur paused for a second before continuing

"We even had a little secret between us that nobody knew but I'm not sure if I should say it."

As she listened to him, her breathing became heavier and faster and she even starting sweating. The more she heard him the more she started believing that he really was Arthur Bilgart.

They really had a secret which only they knew of it. She never spoke of it to anyone and he didn't either, for she was monitoring him daily and even slipped a few microphones into his clothes.

***********************

Inside Arthur's consciousness, the Earth Spirit was freaking out as part of the dark fog managed to corrode some of its body.

"Fuck! Why the hell did itt became so agitated.... Shit! I'm doomed this time!"

It shrunk its body until it was merely three meters tall but it still couldn't escape the ominous dark fog which was sucking the life out of it.

If this continues, it would survive for a few more days before being fully corrupted and dies a miserable and pretty painful death, to say the least.

The cluster of thick and long chains around it, which were forming a spheric cage, were rotating in a weird manner and the whole consciousness, which was a vast starry sky turned into complete darkness where the only source of light was the huge bright blob, which was none other than Arthur's soul.

The Earth Spirit peeked through a small hole to see what exactly is going on but in doing so, its expression turned even graver.

Between the spirit and the soul, there were specks of dark and grey lights which were merging together. They were made from Dark Mana and Death Energy.

The problem was that these two peculiar kinds of Energy were affecting it since it was so close it and its presence was actually aiding the birth of a monstrosity.

"Motherfucker! It's actually the birth of a Spirit! And not an ordinary one at that! We're doomed... it's over...."