Arknightcraft Modpack
Chapter 470: A Friend of Your Past
"Uh, well, I was called over by Kal'tsit to help. You guys should retreat first—leave this place to me."
Ignoring the words Hypergryph had whispered into his ear just moments ago, Steven turned his head and casually waved at Ace, who was still maintaining a guarded stance. Then he dropped a name that was more than enough to earn their trust.
The moment Steven mentioned Kal'tsit, Ace decisively nodded in thanks. Without another word, he led the rest of the Elite Operator squad toward the direction Amiya and the others had retreated earlier.
This stranger had already intercepted Talulah's attack, and on top of that he had invoked the name of the person they trusted most among all elite operators. Ace had no reason to doubt him any further. In his eyes, someone like Kal'tsit would definitely have prepared a backup plan.
Talulah, meanwhile, calmly observed this newly arrived stranger.
The faint trace of surprise that had flashed across her face vanished almost immediately, replaced once again by the visage of a world-destroying dragon.
"You cannot protect them. Destruction is their inevitable end."
As she spoke, Talulah cast a brief glance in the direction Ace's squad had fled. That route was still swarming with Reunion members and commanders. Given their situation, escaping alive would be no easy feat.
As for the young man standing before her—if he wished to become a hero who sacrificed himself to save his comrades, then she would simply grant him that wish.
Yet for some reason, as Talulah looked at this young man, a strange sense of familiarity surfaced. It felt as though she had seen him somewhere before. Even more unsettling was the inexplicable irritation rising within her—an emotion she shouldn't have felt at all.
And so, without waiting for the young man to respond, Talulah grasped the strangely shaped longsword at her waist and swung it straight at his position.
An even more terrifying heat than before surged from the blade. The ground instantly transformed into a sea of fire, and the surrounding buildings began to melt at a pace visible to the naked eye. In almost no time at all, the raging heat completely swallowed Steven.
"Still just as short-tempered as ever. Though… this is what, a darkened version of you? That edgy way of talking—looks like that Black Snake really did a number on you."
Steven didn't even bother to block the attack.
He casually pulled out a strange red potion, downed it in one gulp, and then looked on as if he were merely watching a performance put on by the girl before him.
From the very beginning, Steven had felt that Talulah was a perfect match for him—especially in combat. Fire users like her were, in his eyes, no different from Blaze-type mobs that existed solely to mass-produce Blaze Rods.
In front of a Fire Resistance Potion, neither extreme heat nor flames could deal even the slightest damage to him.
In other words, as long as he had a Fire Resistance Potion active, he was practically immune to fire. So what exactly did Talulah think she could do to him?
And if she wanted to fight him in close combat with raw physical strength?
Heh.
Not to brag, but when it came to strength, he had never lost to anyone.
Completely ignoring the flames and scorching heat around him, he stepped directly onto ground that had already turned into molten lava and walked straight toward Talulah.
As Steven looked at the girl, an unexpected trace of pity quietly rose in his heart.
Even if this was only a dream, she was still Talulah. Perhaps she was even a future version of the Talulah that existed now. Steven didn't know what she had been through—but one thing was certain: it could never have been a happy past.
Almost unconsciously, he felt the urge to reach out and gently stroke her silver hair, to smooth down the unruly strands that had clearly gone untended for far too long.
What greeted him instead was a sword blade radiating scorching heat.
"Tch. Do you really have to be this rough? Or is it that the one controlling your body right now is that so-called snake?"
Steven casually caught the blade between two fingers as it stopped right at his neck. The searing heat clinging to it failed to affect him in the slightest. His expression didn't even change—he looked as relaxed as if he weren't exerting any strength at all, chatting with the girl in front of him like an old friend he hadn't seen in years.
Whether this Talulah was real or fake didn't really matter. If they could talk, why not talk?
Only now did Talulah fully realize how terrifyingly strong the boy before her was. She tried to pull the blade back from his grip, but no matter how she struggled, she couldn't make him budge even a fraction.
Her brows knit together, and she responded with a harsh declaration instead.
"I don't know who you are, or what you know," Talulah said coldly, "but you can no longer stop me. Chernobog has already completely fallen into the hands of Reunion."
"So what? What does that have to do with me?" Steven shrugged. "I'm just curious—are you the Deathless Black Snake right now, or are you the Fighter, Talulah?"
"…Who exactly are you?"
At the mention of "the Deathless Black Snake" and "the Fighter Talulah," Talulah frowned deeply, clearly not expecting those names to come from his mouth.
As she spoke, a wisp of nearly imperceptible black mist began to creep out from her shadow, silently spreading toward Steven.
"Me? You could say I'm a friend of your past," Steven replied lightly. "More precisely… a friend you never quite got the chance to meet."
As he spoke those awkward, difficult-to-understand truths, Steven casually lifted his foot and crushed the black mist before it could reach him.
Judging by this underhanded method of attack, it seemed the one truly in control was still that so-called Deathless Black Snake.
Which made sense. If Talulah herself were really the one in charge, Reunion's members wouldn't have ended up like that.
"What kind of nonsense are you spouting?" Talulah snapped. "No matter what, are you truly determined to stand against Reunion?"
Her failed ambush left her scowling. She searched through every corner of her memory, yet found nothing related to the boy before her. And yet, just as he had said, merely looking at him filled her with an inexplicable sense of familiarity—one she couldn't trace to any source.
As for Black Snake, it had already labeled Steven as either some unruly Feranmut or a god's incarnation. After all, strength of this magnitude was simply impossible for an ordinary human.
Damn it.
Hadn't it been agreed that those cursed beings wouldn't interfere in matters like this?
Showing up now to cause trouble was the last thing it needed.
Chernobog had only just been taken. If the plan was to be carried through to completion, the current level of occupation was far from sufficient. Having someone like this suddenly appear to interfere was, frankly, a nightmare to deal with.
"Are you sure?" Steven said calmly. "Is Reunion right now still the Reunion it used to be? Is it really me who's standing against Reunion—or are you the one who has truly betrayed Reunion's original will?"
Now that he had confirmed Black Snake was the dominant presence, Steven's words grew far sharper. He even deliberately tried to provoke her—because only by doing so would there be any chance of drawing out the part of her that was still Talulah.
"But what I'm most curious about," he continued, "is this, how did Alina not stop you from doing all thi—"
But before he could even finish speaking, a fist wrapped in searing, blazing flames smashed straight toward his head.
The girl who had still retained a trace of restraint and rationality just moments ago now looked as though a forbidden scale had been touched. She lunged at him in a frenzy, launching a relentless assault.
"Who gave you permission to say that name?!"
Her silver-gray eyes were bloodshot, on the verge of turning crimson. Just hearing Alina's name was enough to turn her into a mindless beast. She no longer cared whether her attacks could even hit this stranger—she simply swung her fists wildly, desperate to stop him from ever speaking that name again.
"…You couldn't protect her?"
One look at her expression was enough for Steven to piece things together. At the very least, at this moment, it was undeniably the Talulah part of her consciousness that was in control.
No wonder Talulah had become like this.
Without Alina—the little adorable deer—by her side, and without someone like himself to serve as a listener for her worries, it was entirely possible that someone with her personality would spiral toward the opposite extreme.
Talulah had never been as strong as she appeared.
Before reality's cruelty crushed her, she was, in truth, incredibly fragile and naive.
And precisely because of that, she needed someone to stay by her side—to correct her when she strayed, and to stand there quietly, listening as she poured out her troubles.
Yet even after reaching this understanding, Steven's expression showed none of his usual lightheartedness.
His brows were tightly knit, his face more serious than it had ever been.
Alina coming to harm—even knowing this was only something that might happen—was still something Steven never wanted to hear.
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Note: Character Illustration is in this Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iuyfwNVFHzIi9H4rWNT_lAm7jTSiah_M
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