"Your condition has not stabilized yet, stay still."

As Lucy tried to get up, a cold voice penetrated her ears, startling her. Once she glanced toward the source of the voice, the silver-haired woman became dumbfounded, her eyes containing disbelief as she stared at the fragile-looking woman sitting next to her. Never did she imagine to run into Lissandra, a former enemy, in this kind of place.

She knew that the fallen God deserted MoonStar city and went to live her life, as a mortal, so what confused her is how a weak woman who can be killed by a wind breeze ended up in Oblivion. Furthermore, she was being taken care of by her, making Lucy a bit uneasy as their relationship couldn't be considered 'harmonious'.

As if she read her thoughts, the woman added:

"Fear not, I bear no grudge against you. What happened in the past shall remain as so, moreover, in a place like this, it's better and practical to ally together to make it out alive and in one piece."

Though told not to move, Lucy struggled and tried to look for any signs of her husband only to fall back down, groaning from pain. In the last battle, she didn't receive a frontal attack which knocked her out, instead, she fell unconscious due to overworking herself. Continuous nonstop use of Mental Power several exhausted her, and the pain only added more fuel to the fire, worsening her condition and rendering her in this helpless state.

Her right arm didn't even resemble an arm anymore, it was just a gory mangled piece of meat, covered in blood and lacking any kind of energy. The bones were either shattered or broken, the muscles were ripped and the skin was torn, revealing the disgusting sight underneath. The rest of her body was in no better condition, failing even to do the most basic of movements.

Although her energy pool recovered to full, she was unable to use it as the mental backlash resulted from the gruesome fights was still present and heavily affecting her, both mentally and physically.

"Your husband is with Vyncent. We had to separate to confuse our pursuers."

Lucy struggled to open her mouth and utter a few words but all that got out was a lot of blood, mostly black and sticky blood.

Seeing the poor state of the white specter, Lissandra felt neither joy nor satisfaction… she already forgot about the past and never wanted to discuss it. Her actions were foolish and rash, she shouldn't have been that arrogant. Her short mortal experience changed her thought process, allowing her to see the world in a new light.

While it's true that she resented the couple at first, those hateful feelings she harbored slowly but surely vanished and were replaced by hope and curiosity. She didn't know why but she was inexplicably curious about Astria and its origin.

This small and remote world seemed fine from the outside, however, it had terrifying secrets which would frighten anyone, especially the cave she found underneath the Eastern Continent. The pictures on the wall depicted the future, the book and its connection with Riarravar.

**********

"How do you feel?" The bearded young man gobbled up a dried piece of meat while asking another man sitting opposite of him. The man's hair was grey and had an unsightly scar on his face, his slow movement and trembling body indicated that he wasn't in his best shape.

While controlling his shaking hand, Arthur ate some meat and replied:

"I'll need a few hours to regain enough power to fight."

He recovered all of his Nether Energy and Mental Power but, for some reason, his current 'body' was rejecting him and not fully obeying him. Strangely, his skin showed signs of cracking, like glass, which alarmed him.

Without the assistance of the ARK or the knowledge of Claud, Arthur wasn't able to guess the reason behind the crumbling of his physical body.

'Must I change hosts?'

He does have other humanoid bodies but he would rather keep using this one until he finds a better alternative. Now that he's a Soul Parasite, he didn't have a real physical body so his current host was temporary and after what suffered in the war, it's to be expected that it's in this condition, however, it still didn't explain the rejection he was experiencing.

In fact, even after being almost killed in one more than occasion, his body should have fully recovered in a few hours, at most.

…

Coincidentally, three hours later, when the trembling ceased and the parasite regained enough strength to defend himself, the two of them received uninvited and unwelcomed guests.

This desolate place was like a graveyard, due to its peculiar nature, not even the Cthulhu dared to come yet there were two silhouettes who appeared a distance away from Vyncent and Arthur.

"You caused a lot of problems then bailed, inferior organism."

The muscular black-skinned man from before stared at Vyncent with an unfriendly gaze, a dangerous pressure revolving around him. Next to the muscular man stood a silent elder who glanced at Arthur with interest, wondering how another human managed to enter Riarravar.

Surprisingly, neither of the two, who were also parasites, managed to discover Arthur's real identity. Probably due to his special race, something that never existed.

Arthur glanced at the expressionless Vyncent and said:

"What did you do?"

The young man shrugged his shoulders and whispered:

"I did nothing… I was framed."

"By whom?"

"…" Vyncent glanced at the two parasites and kept his mouth tightly shut, refusing to answer in their presence. Arthur let out a sigh and shifted his attention to the two hostile guests, trying to gauge their strength only to fail. Appraisal showed him absolutely nothing so he tried using his Sense only for it to be negated by a formless thing surrounding the two entities.

"What do you want?" Said Arthur with a chilling voice, his only eye emitting suffocating killing intent. It was only when he heard him speak did the muscular man pay any attention to Arthur, he squinted his eyes and examined the grey-haired man for a few moments before mockingly said:

"You're a broken husk yet you dare to talk in my presence?"

Arthur remained expressionless, his aura rising and his skills ready to be unleashed. Evil Wind, which was sheathed and hanging on his waist, started vibrating, about to attack on its own.

This staring confrontation continued for a few more seconds before the black-skinned man jumped at Vyncent, his big hands transforming into long and sharp claws. Unfortunately, before he reached his target, a dark shadow blocked his way and before he could react, he was sent flying like a kite, a grievous wound appearing on his abdomen.

The man rolled on the ground a few times then hastily got up, holding his bloody abdomen and gritting his teeth, his face incredibly ugly.

"Fucker!"

Sadly, Arthur wasn't going to sit by and watch… his figure appeared next to the black-skinned man, Makaze in hand, he stabbed the target's throat. Just as the dark blade was about to execute the parasite, flames rose from the ground and forced Arthur to retreat a few steps.

When everything cleared, the elder was found standing in front of his comrade, his face still calm, unperturbed by what just happened.

"Stranger, our feud is with the man over there, there is no need to shed unnecessary blood."

Arthur glared at the old man covered in flames for some time before he sheathed Makaze and nodded his head. He turned around and got out of the parasites' way.

The old man kept his gaze on Arthur, only retracting it when the former was a distance away. The injured man was seething with anger, his focus shifting entirely to Arthur. Were it not for the old man who held his shoulder and whispered something in his ear, he would have already attacked the far away Arthur.

As for Vyncent, he stood rooted to the ground, sword in hand and ready to retaliate were anything to happen.

The old man raised his hand and was about to attack the bearded young man only for a fountain of blood to appear next to him, splattering him with the disgusting and nauseating liquid.

He saw a man wrapped in black flames, his hand holding the head of the black-skinned man, as for the rest of the victim's body? It exploded.

Arthur used Shadow Magic to create a clone and dived underground, attacking when the old man no longer paid him any attention. Though this strange parasite was truly strong, he still couldn't compare to Arthur's arsenal of skills.

He only needed a tiny bit of Godly Thunder to make the black-skinned man explode into a pool of blood.

As he saw his companion die like that, the old man's face turned extremely ugly. He swiftly retreated away from Arthur and retrieved a dagger covered in flames, his aura exponentially increasing.

Just as he was about to attack Arthur, the old man's body froze in the ground as the Gravity had a drastic and unexpected change. His body became inexplicably heavy and his movements very slow, nevertheless, the old man muttered a few inaudible words, causing his body to turn illusory, becoming unaffected by the Gravity.

Even the black chains which sprung from the ground did nothing at all, they merely passed through his body. Seeing this, Arthur was reminded of Angelina's Physique, which rendered her immune to Physical attacks for a period of time.