CHAPTER 30

My stalker still has Goldcalibur. Based on the data that my floating words downloaded, it has different effects if used in World Number 39. For starter, it doesn’t send someone into a different world. That’s a relief. However, it will allow the rightful user to store their consciousness into the blade. From there, it can interact with the mind of the next rightful user if they’re near the blade. I’m not entirely sure how that’ll affect his fighting style, but I’m sure as flour don’t want to be infected with his sludge rotten mind.

His hands are still dirty. I don’t why it’s so hard for him to clean the hand. I’m actually surprised that the sword doesn’t absorb any filth from his hand. One important detail is that he doesn’t have any Lapis Lazarus on him. Good. I don’t have to worry about him being a member of the empire.

“Who is he?!” he screams.

“He’s none of your business,” I say.

Thank goodness that the Nostra brothers come to my side.

“I’m your future husband! It’s my business to know!”

“I’m tired of your antics!”

“It’s okay darling. I can change.”

“Stop it! Stop this stupid farce!”

“Darling, what’s wrong?”

“I’m not your darling! I don’t know you! I don’t even want to know your name!”

“Of course, my name is—”

“I don’t want to hear it! If this is fiction, you’re a terribly written one! Unfortunately, there are many people like you! I’m unlucky enough to be roped in with you. I’ll never let even the memory of you live in my mind!”

“How can you say that?”

“The same way that you can say anything you want to me.”

“It’s okay darling. I will forgive you for this. Come on. I have a home for you to stay.”

I throw a rock at him. It hits straight to his forehead.

“I’m still willing to forgive you,” he says.

I throw another rock. A hand catches it. A faceless man.

I turn to Aurelius, Nostrades, and Nostreidon. “If I die, don’t touch that golden blade! It’ll poison your mind.”

Okay. Let’s get this done with.

Several coffins appear out of thin air. They smash the ground, then, they rise up in the air, looking for a new location to smash.

Dozens of faceless men appear from the ground. This time, each one of them has giant scissors. That’s a lot of new spells coming from him.

I, Aurelius, Nostrades, and Nostreidon deal with any faceless men that come our way. However, the coffins keep smashing themselves into the ground. This breaks our formation and separate us. Whether we like it or not, we have to fight far away from each other.

The stalker jumps into a floating coffin. He’s using the coffin as his platform. As the coffin moves to smash the ground near me, he jumps to stab me from the sky. Bad move. I block his Goldcalibur with my bladed gauntlets.

Suddenly, one of the coffin on the ground moves horizontally. It knocks my balance off. As I lay on the ground, the coffin tries to squish me. The stalker stand on top of the coffin.

“There’s still time for you to apologize,” he says.

A cube hits him straight on the forehead. He falls on top of the coffin. I know that it’s a critical hit, but I can’t see the damage for myself. For all I know, he could be using an illusion to trick me.

He stands up. For whatever reason, his head had been replaced by the head of an elephant with a third eye on his forehead. What kind of spell is this?

Suddenly, third eye closes itself. At the same time, my cubes fall into the ground. No matter what I do, I cannot move the cubes anymore. The third eye must be sealing one of my subclasses! Fine! I grab the nearest cube then throws it at him. His elephant trunk catches it. He throws the cube back at my helmet. The helmet is shattered and my head is exposed.

I breathe steam the same way a dragon breathe fire. The steam clouds the stalker’s vision, which causes him to fall off the coffin. Combined that with the fact that he cannot concentrate to control the coffin, I push the coffin away.

I’m up. He’s also up. His sword against my blades. We’re both evenly matched. I don’t even have the time to breathe steam to him.

As our weapons clash, I realize that he’s actually sending a small spherical magic to something behind me. I can’t turn back, but I’m sure that he’s trying to snipe someone behind me! I can hear something fizzles behind me. That spell hits someone!

He stops with the magic. Whoever the target is, he’s done with them or he can’t get a clear shot. Suddenly, a pair of arm try to restrain my arm. That must be a faceless man! I forgot about them!

The stalker tries to slash me. Unfortunately, the armor is too durable for Goldcalibur. I receive zero damage. Frustrated, he shoots electric at me. The electric moves through my entire armor, spreading the damage to every inch of my body. He delights in my suffering. However, he missed one important detail.

The faceless man hugging me is also electrocuted by the electric! I was about to deflect his electric, but his flawed positioning broke his own combo! Stupid stalker!

As the pressure from behind me disappears, I use this chance to stab him in the chest. He tries to say his final words, but I block my hearing with whatever mockery I can think off. I don’t even know what kind of sentence I’m delivering to him. As long as it can drown out his nonsense, that’s good enough for me.

The stalker’s body falls to the ground. The golden sword has no owner. I don’t know if he has his consciousness inside the sword or not, but I don’t want to touch it. I don’t want to be infected by his madness. Thanks to the armor, none of my blood dropped onto the sword. That saves me from being the next owner of this worthless blade.

The coffin stops moving but the faceless men are still fighting. I slay as many faceless men as I can. Along the way, I regroup with Nostrades. I can see green electric moving on his armor. I touch the electric to turn its direction. It moves into one of the faceless men. Good. I don’t have to deal with it anymore!

Then, we move slowly to Nostreidon as we mow down more worthless minions. As we get to Aurelius’ position, all of the faceless men are dead. Good riddance. I don’t want to see their sorry features anymore. With this nonsense threat gone, I can finally continue with my life. If this is fiction, he’s actually a very terrible plot device.

The problem remains with the Goldcalibur. What do we do with it? As far as I can find, it has no other unique interaction with anything else. But to be fair, the data is sparse. I have to seal it off somehow. The only option we have is to bury it.

After listening to it, Aurelius digs a hole. Even without any rage active, Aurelius is still very strong. Nostrades and Nostriedon use the blades from their suit to put the golden blade inside one of the coffin. After that, we bury the coffin along with the Goldcalibur inside it.

That’s done. Now, I have to tell the Nostra brothers everything about the Lapis Lazarus that they’re wearing. Then, we can start moving to Sorcerous Lake.