Eternal Empire Online: The Rise of the Mythical Detective

Chapter 13: The Sage, The Demon, And The Legend 3

A red message instantly appeared before Grimm’s eyes the moment that he reached the vicinity of the training ground.

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The Emissary of Darkness, Many Eyed Demon [Amradias] has appeared

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‘What the? A Boss Monster?’ Grimm halted and stared at the sight of Amradias.

Standing at 10 meters, the Demon has the appearance of a hulking but distorted anthropomorphic deer with 12 red spider eyes nailed on his face. All 12 of those eyes rolled around and focused on Bart and the five surviving disciples that are throwing attacks towards him.

Grimm swallowed a lump on his throat and replayed everything that Gambit told him. The incident occurred not even an hour before their meeting. The disciples were practicing and hunting as usual while waiting for Bart’s arrival. Everything was fine when all of the sudden, black fog begun spreading around, completely covering everything in darkness. And like Grimm, they initially thought that it might just be a natural occurrence of the forest. But when they received the notification of the Dark Shackles, they immediately recognize that something is wrong.

And they were not mistaking, just a few minutes after that, the training ground which was supposed to be a safe ground was attacked by dozens of Ghouls. In a matter of seconds, the entire place broke into chaos and according to Gambit, the last thing he remembered before getting dragged away from the training ground was the arrival of Bart. However, he wasn’t alone. A giant deer like creature with a huge hammer was battling him.

“Concentrated attack!” Deidre instructed as she continuously shoots several magic arrows while Trevol, Basche, Louie and Kylo are engaged in a melee battle alongside Bart.

The five raised their long swords high and proud as they charged. Countless sword technique and magic imbued arrows bombarded Amradias from all direction.

However, the Demon was ridiculously tough. Despite taking countless attacks, there wasn’t even a sign that his Health is receiving a significant reduction. Even the Three Amigos’ Unite Combo can’t even do much against him.

“Kekekekee, foolish hairless apes!” Amradias opened his mouth and laughed, revealing his jagged fangs as he swung the length of an enormously large hammer.

With one blow, Bart and the rest of the close combatants screamed as they were blown away. The Wandering Warrior and the iron-willed disciples he’d trained through the fiery flames of hell were easily overpowered by Amradias.

And if that weren’t an insult enough, the impact of Amradias’ hammer created a shockwave that shredded the durability of their armors and weapons down to 0, destroying them in an instant.

“My Bow!” Grimm heard Deidre exclaimed when her Bow c***k and shattered.

“Grrrrrr! You dare to oppose me with skills amounting to just this!?”

Amradias raise his hammer again and aim to swing it towards Bart and the disciples that are still knocked down on the ground.

Deidre screamed for them to get up and run away but none of them seems to have the strength to even stand.

Well, one managed to do so.

“Sacred Blade!”

Bart, with the last inch of his strength rise back to his feet and equip a new sword from his bag. He then swung the flashing sword against the hammer of the Demon and when their weapons clashed, Amradias seems to have taken quite a hit since he staggered back after his hammer was parried.

Bart then used the opportunity to cast several Grand Heal to himself and to the downed disciples to recover their exhausted Health back to at least 50%.

With their Health recovered, the disciples then rose and drank several Health recovery items to further increase their Health points followed by equipping their reserved gears and weapons in order to return to their formations and resume fighting.

Grimm stood in a daze. He was impressed by how the disciples work well together with Bart. When hunting with them, Grimm no longer pays any attention on how they handle or mishandle the situation of each battle so it escaped his notice how much they have improved on their attacking formations and teamwork.

But still, Grimm shook his head. ‘That kind of fighting won’t be enough to take down this abomination.’

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Name: Amradias

Race: Demon

Level: 120

Attribute: Dark*Earth

Health: 25,867/30,000

Mana: 1,000/10,000

Weakness: Light, Holy

Skills: *Breaker (Active), *Wrecking Earth (Active), *Bone Crusher (Active), *Malice Manipulation (Passive, Special), *Black Mist (Active, Special), *Dark Shackles (Active, Special), *Stronghold of the Tainted Souls (Active, Special)

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For identifying a Boss Monster, your Intelligence had risen by 5 points (+5INT)

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Using the Eyes of Knowing, Grimm had pinpointed the weak spots of Amradias. And among the six fighters that are attacking him, only Bart is hitting those areas while the others just plunges their weapons every time they get the chance. In the end, their Health points and the durability of their gears are sacrificed without even landing an effective strike.

It was then that Grimm finally decided to make a move after observing and calculating Amradias’ movements. Using Stealth and the effect of the Paws of the Cat, Grimm silently moves above the trees to approach Amradias from behind, and then attacked at the nape of his neck.

“Magnum Impact!”

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+You dealt a Critical Damage. 

+Bonus Effect, Backstab [Deal an additional 200% damage]. 

+Amradias had fallen, [Off-Guard for 5 seconds].

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“All of you! Attack him now!”

“What the!?” “Grimm!?” “Brother Grimm!?” Everyone exclaimed out their shock and puzzlement on his sudden appearance.

However, those expressions were nothing compared to the ones that they’d make after Grimm unleashes his next attack. “Nine Headed Naga Strike!” Grimm screamed as he stabs his swords against Amradias’ eyes.

Bang! Bang! Bang!…

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+You dealt a Critical Damage.

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Especially Bart who seems to be having a lot of difficulty believing what his eyes had just witnessed. “That’s the…Phantasmal Blade!”

“Why you!” Amradias snarled deafeningly when 5 out of his 12 eyes were destroyed due to Grimm’s attack.

Amradias had then swung his hammer towards Grimm. But Grimm that already anticipated it, leapt back before the attack landed, thus, it smashed Amradias face instead.

With that, the Demon’s Health was reduced to 40%.

“Hey!” Grimm shouted towards Bart and the others who are still unmoved from their spots while carrying dumbfounded faces. “Didn’t you guys hear me!? He’s down, it’s our chance!”

‘Damn! What’s with them? They were fighting fearlessly just a minute ago, and now they are frozen like statues. Do they have a death wish or something?’

“Y-yeah!” Bart said as he snapped from his daze.

The rest also did the same and the assaults towards Amradias resumed.

“Sacred Blade!” “Grand Heal!”

“Double Strafe!”

“Unite!” “Earth Splitter!”

“Magnum Impact!”

“Arrghh, y-you bastards!”

After several minutes, Amradias Health began to hit the bottom under the successive attacks of Grimm, Bart, and the other disciples.

“Die, demon!” Bart declared as he charges forward to deliver another blow.

“Argh!” Amradias roared in pain when Bart’s sword cut his flesh. “Y-you dare to shame me like this.” He shrieked in rage. However, his red eyes bursting with hatred were not on Bart, they are directly piercing towards Grimm. “I swear, I will make you pay!”

Ding!

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Amradias has used ‘Stronghold of the Tainted Souls’

All the Ghouls within the 50 meter radius will be instantly transported towards Amdarias’ location.

Number of Ghouls: 32

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At that moment, the 32 Ghouls clustered around Amradias, acting as his shields as the demon begun to retreat towards the woods.

“Damn it! Stop him!” Grimm shouted towards the others while inwardly cursing his self. He thought that his calculations against Amradias were flawless but he incorrectly interpreted the nature of the demon’s last skill.

‘To think that the Stronghold of the Tainted Souls was his Rally skill.’

Grimm gritted his teeth as he fume in rage over that single mistake that might now cause them their chance to finish off the Demon that is holding them prisoners.

He tried to chase after Amradias but the Ghouls, after ensuring that their Master had already fled, begun flooding towards them.

With their combined strength, the Ghouls were immediately taken care of but Amradias succeeded in escaping.

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When the battle ended with Amradias’ strategic retreat, Deidre and the disciples looked at Grimm again in a daze. Even with Bart, their struggle against Amradias had been extremely high to the point that they were utterly convinced that they don’t have a single chance of winning. However, fighting Amradias instantly turned into a child’s play the moment that Grimm entered the battle. And not just that, he also displayed skills and fighting movements that they’d never seen before.

“Hey Grimm, what was that skill?” Trevol asked.

“It was so cool,” asked by Basche this time. “Where did you learn that?”

“Uh, well…” Grimm said.

“Hey,” Louie exclaimed, staring at Grimm’s hands that are both holding a sword. “Isn’t that ‘Dual Wield’?”

‘Dual Wield, a flashy sword technique, and also…those gears he’s wearing.’ Deidre pushes aside the boys flocking in front Grimm and confronted him with a stern look. “Hey you,” Deidre said, grabbing his necklace and pulling him towards her. “How long had you’ve been fooling us?”

Deidre used her ‘Intimidation’ against him. It’s a skill that inflicts fear and decreases the morale of the target. In addition, it can mess up the target’s thoughts, making it easier to extract answers when used in an interrogation.

But much to Deidre’s surprise, Grimm was unaffected by her Intimidation and instead, he smirked and replied. “Just a little longer than you.” He said this as he glanced to the Ring of Victors on her finger.

Deidre flinched and let him go. She instinctively covers her ring and retreated away from him.

‘What the…? How did …? When did…?’

But as Deidre try to search for answers, her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when she noticed that Bart had collapsed to the ground.

“Bart!” Deidre cried and run towards his side.

And hearing her cry, the rest had also took notice and gathered around their fallen Master.

“Sir Bart!” “Master Bart!”

“Bart, please come to your senses!” Grimm said as he carried Bart and lean his back against a tree.

The weakly trembling Bart opened his eyes. “My-my disciples,” he mumbled with a dull voice.

“Bart? Are you alright? What happened to you?”

Bart jerkily vomited blood. Soon afterwards, a huge hole appeared on his chest. “I was killed by Amradias. He used a dirty tactic and stabbed me from behind.”

“What?”

Bart wheezed. “But I refused to die. I refused to let that demon taint my home, prey on my disciples, while giving me a pathetic death. So I used the Forbidden Art of my clan to keep myself alive for a limited period of time. That’s how I was able to warn you kids about him and fight alongside with you until the very end.”

A shock of disbelief swept through everyone. And Deidre shook her head fiercely over those words. ‘What the hell? What does that supposed to mean now? Is he saying that the training quest is ending as a failure for them?’

Deidre refused to accept that. The quest can’t end in a failure. She didn’t go through with all those troubles just to fail miserably like this. “Bart, don’t do this. You can’t die!”

“I’m sorry, little miss. But this is the end for me.” He then pulled out a folded parchment from his bag and handed it to Deidre.

Ding!

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You acquired [The Cult of Illusion’s History Record]

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“Find him… Without a doubt, he’s the only one who can save this forest.”

“What?” Deidre frowned. “What do you mean? I don’t understand.”

Bart’s arm fell limply. And exhaling one final time, his body slowly became transparent and eventually disappear.

‘No!’ Deidre wanted to scream. For it to end like this after suffering so much, she wanted to explode in anger.

But while she was having those thoughts;

FLASH!

The parchment that Bart gave to her emitted a blinding light. Then, a mysterious flashback flittered before her eyes.

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Pow! Pow!

There were two boys each holding a wooden sword and striking wooden statues repeatedly.

One was talented while the other one was just hardworking.

Over time, the two boys grow up into fine warriors.

The talented one, Amradias, with his overwhelming might sweep the battlefield to fuel his desire for power and prestige.

While Stellio, the hardworking one solely raises his blade to protect those who cannot defend themselves.

When the time comes that their Master was picking a Successor, Amradias was confident that it would be him.

But much to his dismay and disbelief, their Master chose his brother in arm, Stellio.

Believing that he should have been chosen instead, Amradias rebelled and tried to take the position by force but was easily defeated by his Master.

Infuriated and humiliated. He vowed since then to become the strongest being alive, resulting him into finding the Dark Art that will grant him his wish.

Now clad with vast darkness, Amradias confronted once again his former Master and Stellio, the man he once called brother.

And though the battle still resulted on Amradias defeat, he had now turned into a vicious Demon of destruction that through the power of malice can regenerate his life over and over again.

Thus, in order to prevent him from bringing terror to the world, the Master and Stellio used the Sacred Art to seal Amradias within the depth of the Forest of Illusion.

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Ting!

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NEW QUEST ALERT: FIND THE LAST PHANTASMAL MASTER

The Seal that imprisons The Emissary of Darkness, Amradias had been broken. Now, he walks freely to the world once again, bringing terror and destruction.

However, all hopes are not lost yet. The Last Phantasmal Master, Stellio, Amradias former brother in arm and the only person that has the power to defeat him still resides within the Forest of Illusion.

Difficulty: C+

Quest Requirement: Find Master Stellio and gain the knowledge needed to end Amradias.

Reward: The Sacred Art of the Cult of Illusion

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Deidre’s eyes widened.

Surprisingly, the quest in the Forest of Illusion was not over yet.

Bart might be gone and their training will never ever reach completion but there’s still a way left to reap a profitable reward.

‘There’s still hope,’ she said with a smile.

When Deidre distributed the quest to everyone, they were surprised but no longer wondering at this point, that Grimm had imparted a very crucial information regarding the quest.

“I know where he is.”

“You do?”

He nodded. “Actually, I just got back from visiting him.”

“Where is he then?”

“At the edge of the forest, the region known as the Final Glade.”