Sivenna, the woman who just protected Elias, was turned into a fountain of blood by Lucy, who fired at her using Lonely Moon. Seeing the gun pointed at him and Arthur ready to strike again, the old man raised his hands and said

"Wait! No need to complicate things, I was only after Sol'dhin."

His face showed true fear as he was confident enough about the coin's ability to protect him from the assault of both Arthur and Lucy. Furthermore, the people behind him were mostly mortals and weaklings, none of them are powerful enough to resist the duo. The coin was his last hope and, from the looks of it, he wanted to ally himself with Arthur.

"His soul will last for some time and we'll use that opportunity to leave Riarravar. This world is wildly unstable so the moment Timos' soul fully returns to him, everything will be automatically obliterated, we won't have time to create a spatial tunnel."

Besides its ability to attack a strong person like Sol'dhin, Arthur knew that the strange coin could mass teleport so, basically, Elias was lying to his face. In all cases, he was going to kill this old man before leaving this world and the opportunity presented itself.

Elias picked up the shield containing Void Magic but didn't raise it to defend as he saw Arthur contemplating his offer, or so it seemed. Before he could react, Arthur appeared before him, his hand stabbing at his heart, planning to finish it swiftly and without any mishap.

Unfortunately, just when Arthur got too close, the coin released more black light which flung Arthur away then enveloped the old man, whose face became deathly pale, not expecting Arthur to be so ruthless. Though he was relieved the coin acted on its own, he was still inwardly panicking as Arthur seemed uninjured by the previous counterattack.

By the next second, several gunshots could be heard as Lucy unhesitatingly fired at Elias. The target raised the shield which absorbed all the bullets except one particular purple one, which penetrated the artifact and ripped a hole through the old man's shoulder.

He cried out in agony and dropped the now useless shield, blood gushing out of his shoulder. The Void Magic inside the bullet quickly ate away his organs and muscles, causing him to vomit a lot of blood, however, the coin yet again interfered, using the black light to get rid of all the void magic inside its holder's body.

"Y-you.." He tried to talk but, just like the Shogun, he kept coughing blood. Lucy darted at the old man, nine lotuses circling around her, slowly blooming and freezing everything in the surroundings. Sadly, when she was meters away from the old man, a lightning-fast silhouette blocked her path and, before she could react in any way, stabbed her right through her chest.

"Aigoo… I told you they're not gullible."

A nonchalant voice could be heard, it actually belonged to the person who just attacked Lucy out of the blue. The man was about to twist the blade and finish off Lucy only to be pushed away by an enormous force that assaulted him from the side. A man covered in green lightning and black flames managed to not only push him away but also cause slight injuries on his flawless body.

The man let out a chuckle, licked the blood on his lips while having an amused expression. This was none other than the Shogun, who was supposed to be dying.

As for Lucy, the stab she received was more fatal than it looked, especially duo the coin, which was sucking something out of her body, causing it to violently shake. Uncaring about the unscathed Sol'dhin, Arthur held Lucy's body while using his left hand to heal the injury.

No matter how much Life energy his poured, the energy wouldn't disappear and soon enough, blood dyed the ground as well as her dress.

Arthur couldn't continue his healing as a fast figure leapt at him, swinging a sharp blade at both he and Lucy. Before the Shogun could reach them, a seemingly normal bubble of water sprung from the ground and turned into a spike that clashed with the attacker.

A robed man appeared next to Arthur, his expression unusually serious. Emir looked at the Shogun then at the coin in Elias' hand, a bit surprised that such an artifact was actually here and that he didn't sense it earlier.

"We should leave, the coin is a soul-hungry artifact and it clearly wants her soul. The farther she is from it, the better."

Several parasites appeared around the couple and Emir, all raising their arms and preparing to face the Shogun. Furthermore, those weak-looking mortals behind Elias took out unfamiliar red orbs and raised them, preparing to retaliate.

As he heard no reply, Emir glanced at Arthur but the latter was wholly focused on Lucy. The Archmage could hear the sound of grinding teeth, as well as the inhumane growling originating from the parasite kneeling beside him.

"What do you think now, dear guest? Isn't it fascinating how humans act? I didn't expect such a 'foreplay' but it was obvious that they were going to deceive you and the Archmage, it was only a question of how… though, I don't understand why he targeted your partner and not you."

Unlike Arthur's current mental state, Timos sounded calm as he spoke rationally, stating facts and kind of insulting humans in general. As he saw his wife suffering and his healing not taking effect, Arthur planned to end Lucy because, unlike everyone else, he knew that she won't really die. Just like he created a body for him, he also created one for her and tasked Gutcha to hide so if she were to die, she'll be reanimated elsewhere, for sure.

However, his thoughts were miserably crushed by the Archmage's next words:

"If we make it in time, we can heal her but we can't save them both, sorry."

It took some time for Arthur to process what he just heard.

"…both?"

He lifted his head and stared back at Emir, who frowned and thought for a moment being realizing something.

"Oh… you didn't know…"

The Archmage didn't know what to say as he saw Arthur's twisting expression. His face was already hideous due to the black flames covering most of his body but it became much more terrifying after this abrupt and not-expected revelation.

"She's pregnant?" Arthur tried to control his shaky voice while asking Emir, just to confirm his already answered suspicions.

"Yes."

The Calypso Parasite let out a sigh and shifted back his attention to the Shogun, who was playing with his sword, not caring about what he did or what they were talking about. As for Elias, he gasped for breath as he spat more blood before calming down. The coin got rid of the Void Magic but his shoulder was still severely wounded, making him in a bad mood. It wasn't supposed to be like that, nonetheless, his artifact will soon absorb Lucy's soul and be upgraded.

Emir signaled for one of his subordinates before walking toward Sol'dhin, planning to hold him off until his people teleport out of Riarravar.

"My people already created a suitable Spatial Tunnel so quickly go with them!"

The Archmage urged the dazed Arthur before waving his staff and creating a water barrier that easily blocked the Shogun, who jumped at them while releasing a maniacal laugh.

Surprisingly, the young female parasite who, supposedly, escaped her base and joined the humans at the keep, walked up to Arthur and said:

"There's no time to waste, let's leave."

She nudged the silent Arthur, who lifted Lucy's body and presented it to her, his face distorting and his eyes blackening.

"Take her with you, I'll catch up."

The young girl wanted to object but stopped herself as she felt a chilling and suffocating aura emanating from the man before her. While holding Lucy's bloody body, the girl hastily walked away, directly toward the group of parasites which already opened a large Spatial Tunnel at the edge of the broken bridge. Amongst the group, there was Lissandra, who somehow allied herself with parasites and guaranteed herself a spot.

"Hahahaha you won't get away."

Several water droplets flew at the Shogun, who deflected them all then flew at the group of parasites, precisely aiming at Lucy.

Just before he could reach her, a silhouette appeared in his sight and slashed him. He knew it was Arthur but wasn't scared so he raised his arm to block, unfortunately, what happened next totally caught Sol'dhin unprepared.

He could see his arm flying in the air then falling into the abyss. Thankfully, Arthur didn't continue without another attack, nonetheless, the Shogun remained flabbergasted as lots of blood gushed out of his shoulder. He stared at the blade in Arthur's hand, trying to sense something from it but the sword looked and felt completely normal. It was no different than a steel sword forged by a mortal blacksmith yet it easily cut his arm a second earlier.

The blade met no resistance as it cut through everything and easily got rid of one of the Sol'dhin's arms. However, the cost was equally terrifying as Arthur knelt on the ground and held his chest. Both [Eternium] and [Transmutation] disappeared as he reverted back to his original appearance. His current unstable body started getting blurry and his soul was hurting like hell, causing him to cough one mouthful of blood after the other.