Bro, I'm not an Undead!

1410  Guissepo's Atonement

They were beating the living daylights out of Guissepo.

Maxim was rather harsh with her kicks. She wanted to hear Guissepo's ribs cracking, but he was doing his best to use Perfect Aura to defend. Unfortunately, between the strength of both Maxim and Silrat, his defenses soon wore down and it was his flesh receiving the beating of a lifetime.

"Have you any idea how much we suffered because of you? You nearly killed me with that stupid game of yours! I can't get my hands on that masked necromancer, but I'm make do with you, you stupid son of a bitch!" Maxim screamed and she lifted Guissepo only to crash him into the ground with a suplex.

Guissepo groaned and spat blood.

Silrat crashed a mana-coated fist into his face, and then another, and another, and another. Unlike Maxim, he gave a silent ass-whooping. He had a lot of rage to spill, but none of the decency to spell out why he was dishing it out.

Theurien and Skullius had suffered terribly because of this man.

Silrat wasn't the strongest or the smartest. He couldn't help either Theurien or Skullius with his strength, but he could avenge what was done to them this way.

Guissepo's body was broken by the time Maxim and Silrat decided to take a breather.

Pherdanta watched with a complicated expression. She didn't know if she should condone this. She wasn't comfortable watching.

She had forbidden Maxim and Silrat from doing it in front of the civilians she had rescued. It wouldn't do to show the children such a sight.

Thus, after the two had reacted so viscerally to Guissepo showing up, she had teleported with them elsewhere with Granted Warp.

While Silrat and Maxim were panting, blood splashes across their faces, Pherdanta decided it was time to stop them. Guissepo was barely breathing and he couldn't move. His spine had been shattered by Maxim.

"I think that's enough—" Pherdanta began when Vali, who was standing behind her whipped out a hand to stop her.

"No. Leave them," she said with a placid look. She almost seemed indifferent to the brutality she had just witnessed.

Vali wasn't as invested in beating up Guissepo as Maxim and Silrat, but she did enjoy seeing him get hurt. Like Maxim, she had almost died during the Premium Age Royale as well, if it hadn't been for Skullius' Supreme healing potion.

Of course, that wasn't the reason she stopped Pherdanta from intervening. She had noticed something.

Guissepo had made no real effort to defend himself. He had erected his Perfect Aura, yes, but if he had really wanted to prevent himself getting beaten to this extent, he had several options. Silrat was only an Advancement Stager. He could have killed him with a single attack before dealing with Maxim.

Well, he could have tried. Pherdanta wouldn't allow him to kill Silrat, and Maxim was no easy opponent for him. He would lose in a one-on-one.

As far as Vali could see, it almost seemed like Guissepo came here expecting to get wrecked.

"Why are you here?" she asked Guissepo before Silrat and Maxim found the strength to continue pummelling him. "You came to this exact location with a purpose, right? I don't think you came here not knowing who exactly you were going to run into. Spill it before those two kill you. What's your purpose?"

Guissepo could hardly talk. When he tried to, only blood squirted out of his mouth.

Maxim scowled at Vali. The latter shook her head and tossed her a common Special Healing potion. Its healing capabilities were severely limited, some margin above a common one, but that was the intent.

Maxim opened it with a click of the tongue and poured the contents in Guissepo's mouth.

The portion was hard-pressed. It couldn't have healed much of Guissepo, but it did enough. It allowed the former leader of the Evenfall cultists to turn on his side, and regain the ability to see, breathe and speak.

He gave Vali a sharp look.

"This is my purpose," he said to her in a thick voice.

Maxim considered him.

Guissepo's arm suddenly went flying. The skin on Vali's shoulder had extended and hardened into a blade that flew towards the Evenfall cultist and lopped off his limb.

"I hate men who try to be cryptic. Spill it as it is. Why are you here?" she said as Guissepo gritted his teeth.

Guissepo regarded her with another sharp look. This time, he did as she bid.

The Commander of the Stark Troops was taken aback.

"A Herald?"

While her mind raced, Maxim's scowl grew nastier.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she barked.

Vali was looking at Pherdanta, wondering the same thing.

The Infinite Sword God gave a sigh.

"It means that a Herald of Aigas thinks he will be being useful in the battle against Boron," she said. "That isn't too hard a thing to believe. I'm assuming the Herald who told you to come here is the same Herald who ordered my master and the Severed Union to go after the masked man beyond the Central Boundary." Pherdanta stepped forth and crouched before Guissepo. "You brought about the end of the world. Why did you decide to help change it? I can see it in your eyes. You aren't being forced to do this, are you?"

Maxim seemed to dread hearing some sappy story from Guissepo about how he had seen the light in the end. Thankfully for her, it never came.

What Guissepo said was almost funny to her.

"My resolve to burn everything away – my humanity, my morality – in exchange for a greater, personal goal," he said without a shred of self-pity, "was weaker than that of the masked man. That is all. At the end of the day, I am still human."

Pherdanta continued to stare at the man. There were no lies in those eyes.

She wondered how her master would react to seeing and hearing what this man had to say.

Right then, quicker than Pherdanta could react, a short, illusory figure with a wide face and creepy, ovular eyes appeared.

It was Kintar, smiling.

"Hey there. I have a speeeecial message for you," she said.