Galaxy's First Ruler

Chapter 118: Clutches of Death

'There is something beyond Death; In Death, there is no life, but in life there is Death.'

*

A few minutes before

[Dreamers have hunted the Elite Crawler]

"Finally!"

Aldrich exclaimed, seeing the notification. He did not know what kind of being his Elite Crawler was for it to kill all Dreamers during the last six months. It seemed the Elite Crawler finally met its match.

He put down the Diary and walked out of the house. The snow had stopped falling, and in the sky, the spotless moon had come up as always. The cold had increased in intensity but under the effect of glowing Rumok, it couldn't come close to Aldrich.

He looked at the extended tattoo on his right hand and remembered the description of the Rare ranked Rumok.

[

Item: Force Rumok

Type: Rumok

Rank: Rare

Description: Dreamers can freely exert force on Concepts within a limited space

]

Aldrich had aimed for the range of this Rumok to be the same as that of the Common one, but he failed. Nonetheless, he was quite happy with the results. As Rumok was made by him, it would be useless for a Dreamer, who didn't even know what these Concepts mentioned in it were.

The coldness and warmth were not the only Concepts that this Rumok could push or pull.

"I miss Shadow Homunculus Sigh!"

With the lack of Inventory and all his Items eaten away by the Shadow Homunculus, only Rumoks felt like they weren't affected by his strange state. He just didn't want the sentient Item to roam around in the space attached to his dead body.

As Aldrich was thinking about his lost Item, he looked at the Mana film and frowned. For six months he had been trying to understand the Law of Mana. But it felt like a gargantuan task, even for him.

"Not even dying a hundred times would be enough. There is no Mana in that place. Arghh!"

It was like standing on an operating table with all the tools in hand, but no experimental subject on the table. It was also like having all the time to learn something, but no books to read from. The frustration on Aldrich's face was momentary and reasonable.

Aldrich eyed the edge of the Mana film and looked beyond towards the blurred city. At any moment, the Party of Dreamers would come and he could get some answers from them.

"Haha!"

He remembered his meeting with the three Bosses and chuckled, holding his chin. The idea of messing with the awaited Dreamers kept flashing through his mind.

"Hmm! How should I act? Attack as soon as they see me? Na! Why not a game of Hide-and-Seek? Yes, let's see if they can find me."

Seconds turned to minutes, but he still couldn't see any sign or notification about Dreamers. The playful smile on his face disappeared, and then the scenario hit his head like a sledgehammer.

"They They will not crush the Return-Stone, right? Fuck!"

He ran to the wall of Mana-film and pounded it with his fists.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"No! Don't go, brothers and sisters. I will not kill you. Look, I don't even have a body."

After banging for a while, the helpless expression on Aldrich's face vanished. His calm eyes looked at the Mana-film and he jumped back towards the opening in front of the house.

"Well, that didn't work."

The only thing that he could deduce in the six months of his meditation and contemplation was that there was a presence within Mana. A presence so light and obscured that it only surfaced around extreme emotions.

"If only I had a Devil"

Aldrich couldn't finish his sentence as he felt a burning sensation all around him. He snapped his head towards the city and felt a red-tinge in the distance. The Rumok on his hand glowed and his heart thumped, feeling the impossibility of this hotness that he could neither pull nor push. His throat felt dry, and the tips of his fingers itched. An unknown Concept had presented itself to him, and the thought of not being able to learn and research about it fed on his patience.

But the sensation didn't remain for long and soon the sudden golden hue in the sky caught his attention. He looked at the moon but only found a Golden Trident in its place. The one leafed sapling within his forehead twist and turn in response to that, but before he could analyze it more, the Trident shattered.

"What's going on? What are they doing? No respect for Bosses, tsk! Now I know how Boss Buckey must have felt. Sorry, bro"

Aldrich was still trying his best to memorize that sensation when another change happened in the sky. He craned up his neck and saw many fissures opening up in the sky and a tempest had covered the entire Dungeon. But this didn't seem to be the end.

One by one, he saw four images of enormous beasts. And this time, the feeling that came to him was something he had felt before. All images were at least on the same level as that of the 'Banished Golden Devil.'

"Four"

BOOOM!!!

The sudden booming sound cut off Aldrich's mutter. He looked in astonishment as the ever-present Mana film burst apart, along with the house behind him. The events happening outside finally came under his senses. There were no traces of a city anymore, and the only thing he could see was a huge black ball of fire revolving maniacally in the air.

Despite the weirdness of the situation, Aldrich could feel that the black object was a part of him. There was a slight attraction or link, tying him with that object and pulling him towards it. A smile came upon Aldrich's face as he guessed what was going on and dashed towards the black fire.

[YOU CAN NOT LEAVE]

A voice bashed Aldrich's mind just as he was about to reach his destination. He turned around and saw a bone hand ripping apart the space of Dungeon and coming towards him. Despite the normal size of the bone hand, it felt like the entire world could fit in it. But Aldrich had a joker-like smile on his face.

"Haha! Death is a liberty."

As the bone hand was about to grip his wrist, Aldrich voluntarily extended his hand and touched the tips of bone fingers.

"Law of Death. BANISH!"

Cough!

Aldrich coughed out a bucket worth of blood in a single go and got thrown towards the black fireball.