Divine Heritage: Only I Can Judge The gods-Chapter 90: Something in the Rain

Kiera stood underneath a shade, watching the pouring rain, while occasionally stealing glances at the empty road ahead.

Not long after she arrived at the camp, she handed the shaken girls over to Thalia. The three of them were currently recuperating in their military vehicle.

She was currently staring in the direction they had arrived from, which was the same road Ark would take when he returned.

Kiera had considered going after him with the helicopter as soon as she landed. There was enough fuel for a round trip to the pavilion and back—

But her plans were soon truncated when the storm began.

Using a car was out of the question since Thalia would never allow it and so all she could do was wait for him.

She had already briefed Thalia as well as the rest of her group about the current situation, about how Ark had stayed back to stall the goblin.

Thalia seemed very sure that Ark would return safe, which was very assuring but it was hard for Kiera to deny facts.

The fact was that the goblin king was a profane rank creature, being a profane rank creature didn’t mean certain death, in fact, Kiera believed she could take a profane creature if it came down to it.

The issue was that this profane rank creature was far stronger than the regular profane creature, so much so that Kiera was unsure about his chances against it.

’Maybe with my sword...’

Her sword had a specific enchantment that charged up by absorbing the blood of the beasts she killed, the more beasts she slayed the greater the charge.

And then she could release the entire thing at once, giving the user a massive buff in strength and speed.

Kiera’s hope was that with it, he would be able to survive the encounter, or even defeat the beast if possible...

She remained at the edge of the street, staring down for a couple of minutes. After some time, Kiera finally noticed some movement some distance ahead.

The figure was too dark for her to see at first, all she could tell was that there was something approaching from the darkness.

"Ark?"

There was no answer, all that met her was silence.

Purple sparks surrounded her hand and a silver short sword appeared. Kiera took a cautious step forward, her eyes locked on the figure.

Soon, the figure was finally close enough for her to see... Kiera let out a sigh.

A lone skeleton was stumbling toward the camp, its eyes fixed on her.

’Really? A Skeleton.’

Not every single Skelton had been destroyed during the first wave, a few had escaped and were still lurking in the shadows around the city.

Frustrated, Kiera charged forward, she swung her sword with so much force that there was a metallic ring of sword cutting through air as her blade closed the distance between them.

It was just a second away from taking off the skeleton’s head when a figure shot forward.

Clang!

Someone had quickly put themselves between the sword and the skeleton. Kiera’s eyes widened when she saw who had stepped forward to defend it.

"Ark?"

No, there was something wrong. Something was different about him.

Ark was like a rag doll, dried blood clung to his armour and face, dust and grim dotted every fraction of his body and his hair was tousled.

But that was not what got Kiera’s attention. It was his eyes... they seemed glazed and unfocused as though he was in some sort of trance.

They lost a bit of their regular otherworldly glow and were instead a little duller, yet it was still a beautiful colour.

Ark pushed his axe forward, knocking Kiera back, before he charged, lifting the axe high up into the air.

Kiera side stepped his attack, coming to his side and then dug her elbow into his ribs, causing him to stumble.

She dodged to the left when Ark swung and then sped towards him, swinging her leg at his face.

Kiera was sure there was something wrong with Ark, but there was no way for her to find out what it was without restraining him.

Ark jumped backward, as Kiera’s leg whistled past him and then in the next second, he launched another attack, rotating his axe around him before bringing it down upon her.

’His fighting style is different too..."

Ark was not the most excellent fighter and yet this current version of him was far too unrefined.

’Possession?’

It was a possibility and yet Kiera doubted it, no creature that had emerged from the gates was remotely close to being able to possess anyone, and yet it seemed like the only reasonable answer.

That was when her eyes landed on the Skeleton Ark was trying to protect for whatever reason...

It was the only anomaly in this entire ordeal. Ark was behaving strangely, true, but the skeleton was even behaving more strangely.

’Why is it not attacking?’

Apocalypse beasts knew little to no restraint, especially lower ranked beasts such as this.

Kiera had not noticed it earlier but this Skelton looked even more dead than the other skeletons she had encountered, if that was even possible.

The skull was cracked and it was missing some fingers as well.

"Just maybe..."

Kiera dashed forward, completely evading a forward strike from Ark and charged forward, ready to take off the skeletons head.

Ark gave chase, not too far behind but Kiera arrived first, lifting her sword high up into the air.

But then, the strangest things happened.

The skeleton put its hand in front of it in surrender.

"What the hell?"

Kiera paused, the sword inching close to its neck. The Skeleton then raised its left hand a little higher and just then, Kiera felt a wave of wind rush past her.

Behind her, Ark had frozen mid swipe, his axe mere seconds away from her neck.

The Skeleton stared into Kiera’s eyes, within those dark voids in the place of her eyes was a bright golden gleam.

Kiera staggered back, bumping into the now still, Ark along the way. Her hand slowly trialed up to her mouth.

She had a very bad feeling about what was happening and yet she had to confirm it for herself.

"Ark?"

Kiera waited for a few tense seconds, the rain beating heavily upon them— and then the skeleton nodded, its dark eyes fixed on her.