Sylver Seeker

Chapter 226: Comes Around(2/2)

Aurick took his sweet time. Sylvers blood had already dried and had glued his hair to the ground. Sylvers plan was-

[A skill similar to [Appraisal] has been used!]

Give it back, or youll regret it, Aurick said in an infuriatingly relaxed tone.

Very slowly Sylver shifted his [Lesser Perception] towards the boy and was surprised to see that he was grinning.

The suns were high in the sky, and Sylvers pale forehead and nose were getting dangerously close to turning red from sunburn. He didnt want to risk using magic, in case Aurick could see it through the Ki barrier.

Aurick was sitting on top of the Green Lion sects wall. It was barely tall enough to reach Sylvers chest at his full height, and due to his near delirious state, he barely remembered climbing over it. Aurick was inside the holy energy-infused Ki barrier, about 10 steps away.

I may be young, but I wasnt born yesterday. Ill talk if you want to talk, but I am more than happy to just wait, Aurick said.

Sylver couldnt really remember what the boy sounded like when they last met. But he was fairly certain the boy hadnt had so much fearless confidence back then.

His invulnerability probably helped with that.

Sylver didnt know how Aurick made himself invulnerable, but he could make an educated guess as to where the power had come from.

Except, Auricks invulnerability wasnt the same as Anastasias. Or at least it didnt feel the same.

Anastasias invulnerability was a part of her until Sylver tried to crush it, her hand felt like any other human hand. Her skin felt like skin, even her hair felt like hair, if he met her under more normal circumstances, he likely wouldnt have noticed the fact that she was invulnerable.

But with Auricks invulnerability, there was a foreignness to it.

If Anastasias felt like it was inside her skin, Auricks felt as if he was wearing something over his skin.

Alright, I guess were just waiting then. You down there, cooking under the sun, and me up here, in the comfortable shade, Aurick said, and to add insult to injury, a fly landed on the tip of Sylvers nose.

Sylver wasnt sure what his plan was, other than baiting Aurick to come outside.

He considered finding a poor person and bribing them to bring the invulnerable, but physically weak, boy out to him. But Sylver didnt have all that much jade with him, and somehow doubted Aurick wouldnt just pick up a knife to defend himself.

Sylver smiled to himself as he imagined catching Aurick with a lasso, and then dragging him out. Sadly, without Rias assistance, Sylver couldnt get through the Ki barrier, and Sylver wanted Ria to stay as far away from Aurick as possible, for as long as possible.

He wasnt sure if her metal would be enough to block the book, so he didnt want the living part of her to separate from the portion keeping the book contained.

Since you seem to know my name, its quite rude not to introduce yourself, Aurick said.

The first rule of being more than happy to just wait, is to not say anything.

Unless Aurick didnt have the patience to sit quietly and wait for Sylver to stop pretending to be unconscious. That was a very real possibility.

Also, unless Sylver misheard him the boy didnt know who Sylver was.

Sure, it had been almost 5 years since they had last seen each other, from Auricks point of view, but just how many black-eyed albinos has this kid met that he forgot who Sylver was.

He summoned a fucking demon in front of him, and he didnt even remember Sylvers name?

Unless Aurick was purposely fucking with him.

Was he stalling?

Then why would he show himself? If Owl, Lion, and Hound were moments away from waking up, why would Aurick be anywhere near Sylver? Even if he knew Sylvers only way of getting to him was Ria, what was he hoping to gain?

You look like a Juzhu. Or a Xhobiax. Actually, you probably have at least a couple of apostrophes in your name, Agshcol Nhuzqid? Aurick guessed.

To Auricks credit, Sylver almost stood up to cuss at him.

Any time a lich had a name that sounded like a childs attempt at demon tongue, the undead in question was born during the Undead Millennium.

The Undead Millennium is a hypothetical period of 1,000 years, during which, for some fucking reason, the vast majority of liches were created.

Sylver didnt know how, he most certainly didnt know why, but both from personal experience, and Ibis records, most liches were the same age.

Now, technically, the liches in question werent really liches. In Sylvers eyes, to be considered a lich, someone had to perform a ritual to bind their soul to a physical object.

And liches that skipped that step, or had the ritual done for or to them, werent real liches.

For the most part, all the liches that were born during the Undead Millennium very clearly hadnt actually performed the ritual. The ritual left scars, for lack of a better word, even if its performed perfectly, some damage is plain and simple unavoidable.

And yet all but one of the liches Sylver had killed and autopsied, that were from the Undead Millennium, didnt have any signs of having performed the ritual.

The popular theory, or at least the theory Sylver believed to be most likely, was that demons were responsible.

Why did Sylver believe that?

Because Juzhu, means retard in demon tongue. Xhobiax is a demonic euphemism for a man with a crooked manhood, and Agshcol Nhuzqid, can be translated to mean drinker of piss.

Of course, it is possible this is all mere coincidence.

Despite Sylvers insistence of the opposite, there was a relatively large, ish, overlap between dark magic, and demons. Theres a chance that during those 1,000 years the demons decided to plant undead seeds in the ground, and traded phylacteries for the lichs name.

Aside from having names that translated to demonic swear words, the other common factor all the liches born during the Undead Millennium shared, was that they were all feral.

Every. Single. One.

Maybe 1 in 10 retained enough sanity to research something, but the vast majority just floated around in their underground tomb, waiting for some mining group to uncover them. Then the lich broke out, brought the mining group back as undead minions, and eventually caused enough damage that the Ibis got wind of it, and Sylver was sent to handle it.

These liches had no long-term plan, no goal, they killed everything in their path, and thats all they did. They were barely better than animals, or monsters, even the ones that could talk, always spoke utter nonsense. Their threats were just echoes of intelligence bouncing around in their empty cracked skulls.

But it wasnt the difference in quantity that created the stereotype if it can be called that.

It was the fact that real liches had the good sense to take their time. They didnt just randomly appear in the middle of a mining operation; they enchanted their cave to open once the time was right.

Once a child with a specific mixture of bloodlines is born, once the stars are in alignment, once a hated enemy died, real liches moved with purpose.

Comparing a real lich, such as Sylver, to those bloodthirsty, barely undead, liches, is the equivalent of comparing an educated adult human to a monkey eating its own shit.

The bottom line is, Aurick struck a nerve.

A very raw nerve.

Especially since Sylver couldnt even call himself a proper lich right now. Being reminded of the fact that he was closer to those feral pests, than he was to the likes of the Silver Lich, was pouring salt on an open wound.

And yet, despite the desire to do so, Sylver remained motionless on the ground.

Until he got a better idea, he wasnt planning on moving.

If Lion, Hound and Owl could move, Aurick wouldnt be sitting here, taunting Sylver.

Sylver would have likely had his head bashed in a couple of times and was then held inside the holy Ki-filled barrier until only fine ash remained.

Or they were stalling.

And Aurick sitting here, acting as if he was in a rush to get the book back, was a double bluff. Its possible they werent aware of Rias perfect magical nullification and assumed Sylver simply had a fancy lead slime golem or something along those lines.

Or Sylver caught all 4 of them with their pants down, and they had no leverage.

Sylver only noticed it the 5th time Aurick did it. He was mostly staring at Sylver, but every now and then he glanced upward, towards the suns.

But something told Sylver Aurick wasnt just trying to tell the time.

Truth be told, Sylver had no idea what Aurick was doing, or what he wanted. Back when he summoned a demon for the group, Owl/Bear told him they were going to make Aurick the high king, so he could save the world.

But then that raised the question, save the world from what?

Back then, Sylver just wanted the lunatics to leave him alone. Even now, if it werent for the book, having them just walk away would have been preferable.

Even if they nearly buried him deep underground. Sylvers pride would be wounded if he let them live, but hed get over it.

Come to think of it, I still dont know if the ceiling falling down was part of Hounds plan

If it was, wouldnt he say something to me? Or did they consider me so insignificant, that I wasnt even worth a so long sucker?

Then theres the 11 days of absolutely nothing happening.

How about a trade? You answer one of my questions, and Ill answer one of yours? Aurick offered.

It wasnt quite panic, he didnt even really sound worried, but there was just a hint of discomfort in his voice.

Since Aurick was immune to magic and physical force, Sylver couldnt exactly tell if he was lying by reading his soul, and while he was quite good at reading body language, he wasnt willing to risk it.

More importantly, did Sylver care what Auricks goal was?

The boy was a certified shit stirrer. First, he had found a book with a piece of demon flesh, and now he somehow got his hands on a book that could ruin everything.

Even if Aurick wasnt a [Hero] he was as annoying and dangerous as one.

At least [Hero]s had the decency to walk around with a metaphorical giant pillar of light coming out of them. Aurick on the other hand was quiet, he scurried around like a rat, by the time you noticed the droppings on the floor, the whole house was already infested.

Sylvers plate was already overflowing, he didnt need a mind-controlling cherry to cause the pile to topple.

Listen, I know youre wide awake. All youre doing is wasting my time, Aurick said, as Sylvers body continued pretending to be a corpse.

I know you sent the girl away... Your reaction to my invincibility was too quick, you accepted it without hesitating, meaning you met someone recently, who was as invincible as I am, Aurick explained, as Sylver just lay there.

Poisoned by holy magic.

Defenseless.

Until he came up with something better than such an obvious trap. Playing dead normally worked better when people didnt have access to an all-knowing system that, presumably, told Aurick everything there was to know about Sylver, along with the fact that he wasnt as unconscious as he was trying to appear.

On the other hand, it wasnt as if Sylver had anything better to do.

Aside from messing around with mushrooms.

The even bigger issue was that-

GET OFF ME! Aurick screamed, and Sylver almost lifted his stupid fucking head to get a better look.

One of the monks had just put Aurick in a headlock under his armpit and was in the process of grabbing Auricks hands. Aurick was slipping out of the monks grasp when a second monk appeared and did his best to wrap his arms around the young boys kicking legs.

Sylver watched as they grabbed him by the hem of his shirt and used it as a makeshift harness to constrict his limbs, as they gradually made their way towards the edge of the barrier.

The monks movements were odd, uncoordinated, and even as Aurick shoved his fingers into one of their eyes, the monk didnt react. They werent even looking where they were going.

As the monks and Aurick approached the edge of the barrier, Sylver continued playing dead. Hed been fooled one too many times, to fall for such a simple trick.

But the monks didnt stop when they reached the edge, against Auricks desperate struggle, they pushed him through the barrier. Aurick landed on his feet on the other side and tried to force his way back inside, but the monks were using their hands to hold him back.

One of the monks said something, or rather, tried to say something, but his voice came out wrong as if he was shouting from far away. Sylver didnt understand the words, but as the monk lifted his head for a moment, Sylver saw that the mans left eye was glowing with a faint flickering white light.

Silently, Sylver rose from the floor as if several strings were lifting a puppet. Aurick tried to punch his way through the wall of flesh acting as a barrier, and when that didnt work, he jumped left, then right, in an attempt to get around the large men.

The sound Aurick made as Sylver placed his hand on the boys shoulder, was music to Sylvers ears. It wasnt a gasp, nothing as dramatic as that, just a barely audible gulp.

Because of the repelling force around his body, Aurick was slippery in a way that is impossible to put into words. But as the armor of [Necrotic Mutilation] wrapped around Sylvers body slithered along his arms, and wrapped around Auricks body, the slipperiness stopped mattering.

With his robe helping him get a grip on the slippery child, Sylver looked like an octopus wrapping its tentacles around its struggling prey.

Which wasnt struggling that much in this case. The prey went as far as to look smug.

You caught me, so what? Auricks relaxed face asked.

Instead of responding, Sylver merely pulled the boy closer to him, until their heads were almost touching. With both of them staring into the others eyes, the ground opened up beneath them.

Aurick broke eye contact as he and Sylver began to fall, and as funny as it would have been to watch Aurick try and stop their descent, Sylvers [Necrotic Mutilation] tendrils, continued restricting the boys limbs.

They fell for what felt like a long time.

The feeling was aided by a continuous gust of wind that was causing Sylvers hair to flutter and further aided by the rocky walls of the hole moving much faster than Sylver was actually falling. Oddly enough getting the wind right was harder than shifting the walls around.

Illusionary bullshit aside, Sylver and Aurick really were deep down underground. Deep enough that Aurick, despite being invincible was failing to keep the worry out of his face.

Being unkillable is good and all, but there are times when death is preferable. Sylver knew that better than anyone.

Such as being buried deep underground. With no hope of escape.

Sylver continued falling up until the earth got too dense and rocky for him to effectively move it with [Advanced Earth Manipulation].

He stared at Aurick as the walls expanded, and after about a minute, Sylver and Aurick were alone in a small sealed cave. Sylver formed the mass of [Necrotic Mutilation] on the boys body, into a sort of harness. If he tried to run, Sylver would simply pull him back.

Not that there was anywhere to run, Sylver had closed the tunnel he made as he fell down it. If Aurick wanted to leave this place without Sylvers help, he would have to dig through solid rock.

A small sphere of light appeared on the ceiling, as Sylver sat down on one of the two chairs present in this room.

You wanted to talk. So you talk, and Ill listen, Sylver said, with a gesture towards the stone seat opposite him.

Aurick didnt protest, didnt complain, didnt even try to bargain, he just brushed the dust off his shirt, and sat down.

It all started with a man named Solnoshko, Aurick said with a resigned sigh.

He dropped the name so causally, so undramatically, that it took Sylvers mind a whole 5 seconds to remember where he had heard that name before.

Sylver felt a blood vessel in his left eye burst, and off in the far distance, Mora screamed out in an attempt to relieve at least a small portion of the frustration Sylver was feeling.