Debauchery of a Soul-Eating Wraith

One…

Two..

Four…

Eight...

'Eight Arcanists besides the one in black. An elaborate scheme. This wasn't coincidental. Now I just wonder…' Evian thought as he looked from his surroundings to Aren's frowning face,

'… Are they here for me or her?'

"Who are you? What do you want with us?" Aren asked in what sounded like quite the dominant voice that was backed by a brilliant, if minute, flair of Spiritual energy.

While the Arcanists now surrounding them sneered with malice, it was the Stranger in black who spoke. However, he ignored Aren like she was not important and looked over at Evian instead with an almost amicable smile,

"Evian Stygian, was it?"

'Well, I suppose that clears things up,' Evian thought with a frown before glaring at the stranger, 'They're here for me!"

"You know of me?"

"Well, of course. You were essential in foiling last night's plot, were you not? And who better to find Abyssal anchors than a creature of it, right?"

"Not sure what you're talking about," Evian said quietly.

"Oh don't bother denying it. Is it because of her? You're worried about her knowing?" The Stranger asked while pointing to Aren who looked between the two in confusion,

"We assumed you were not being upfront about who- what you are. But don't worry, you are among Friends here. Besides her, of course, but we can deal with that issue very quickly."

Evian put a protective arm across Aren's front,

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"Some 'friends' you are. You just blew me up," He said with an intense glare.

Evian stopped paying attention to the Spiritual energy oozing from the body of the twelve Arcanists and focused on the stranger instead. The man in black was not being showy with it but he was also not going to great lengths to keep it hidden either so it didn't take much scrutiny for Evian to feel the wisps of Eldritch energy seeping from his form.

The stranger threw his head back and roared in laughter,

"Hahahaha. 'Attempted to blow you up'. Your successful survival makes all the difference. You have earned a right to be spoken to as an equal.

Why would you ally yourself with this bunch? Spiritual energy is OUR bane…"

"What are you talking about?" Aren voiced out suddenly, "Evian is a Knight with the Martial Temple."

The stranger raised a brow,

"An elaborate cover but does that certify him as a wielder of spiritual energy?" He asked.

Aren opened her mouth with another defense prepared but it choked at the back of her throat. It dawned on her that she had not, ever once since they had met felt a twinge of spiritual energy from him. Even Knights in the Martial Temple at least let off the energy in combat and he should have needed to do so to combat the corruption of the Abyssal energy last night.

That— had not been the case.

Aren remembered paying attention to him throughout and remembered how freely, almost comfortably he had moved through the dark energy that should have weakened him…

"Evian…?" Aren let out in the tone of her question as she sought some explanation.

Evian didn't look at her. Getting outed was 'minor' in the face of the more urgent predicament they appeared to be in,

"I believe she asked you something before," Evian said with a head gesture toward Aren, "What do you want with us."

"In few words; Your death…"

Evian flicked his wrist and his Spear appeared in his hand while he glared threateningly but the stranger was not yet done,

"… Agenon is furious that you helped the Arcanists last night and he wants you dead…"

"But Agenon is dead. He died last night—" Aren said, temporarily forgetting to dwell on the horror of her recent discovery.

Again, the stranger acted like he had not heard her,

"… However, looking are you now, I realize you must just be misguided. You are struggling to fit in because you think it's the only way you can survive. To have reached the Wraith Lord level of Decadence, you must have still indulged but you no longer have to hide. .net

There's a revolution coming—"

"Arrr. Come on, how much longer are you going to yap?" One of the Eight Arcanists asked. He had a scar down the right side of his face and in his impatience, he let loose an aura of the Sixth Circle,

"Let's get right to the killing. Looking at them now, Eight was an overkill… Just Me is enough."

"Mr. Neb, you will be patient. Be reminded who is in charge here," the man in black said and his eyes flashed while he let loose an intense chill targeted at the Arcanist called Neb.

"You don't control me, you little twerp!" Neb said but he did get quiet.

"Sorry about that, 'Sir' Evian. Mr. Neb and the others have no love lost for the Arcanists who cast them out, Forcing them to be rogues and scavenge for Arcane Knowledge the Church insists on monopolizing.

As you can imagine, being a Wraith yourself, I detest the very feeling of Spiritual energy however, this bunch does make for capable allies and there are many more.

Hundreds of them. We hold the initiative and while you have delayed plans and given the Church the gift of alertness thanks to your antics last night, our goal is inevitable.

Join us."

"And Aren?" Evian asked.

"Well, she now knows what you are and is a witness to your turn. She has to die and the beauty of all this is that you will be the one to do it."

As the man in black spoke, the rogue Arcanists shifted on their feet while glaring. They looked pissed to be losing out on killing Aren and probably Evian too for that matter.

"And what do I get by joining you?" Evian asked.

"Are you hard of hearing? I already listed the benefits. You can finally be yourself…"

"Screw that. I'm saying you have not given me enough of an incentive. Joining you is accepting the joyless lives you all live. A life without fun. Wraiths are Decadent Races and yet you only live to eat souls and make grandiose plots? Please, oh please, miss me with that bullshit…"

Evian vanished from where he stood and next appeared in front of the man in black and stabbed out with his Spear.

"Huh?!" The man in black let out a shocked sound as his eyes widened in shock. He managed to cast an Eldritch spell but whatever its effects were, they passed through Evian's body.

'All that confident yapping and you're only a Wraith lord. I must say, I'm disappointed…' Evian thought with a disappointed 'Tsk' sound right before his spear made contact…

*BANG!*

… with an Arcane shield?

The force of the contact repelled Evian a few feet away and he saw that his act had called the Rogue Arcanists to happy reactions. They looked delighted that they would not miss out on kills. The targets were only two so the competition for who managed to get the kill would be fierce but that only excited them all the more. The psychopaths that they were.

Evian saw four cast spells to strike Aren down just as his instincts warned him of incoming spell strikes but he just phased and let his body sink into the ground. The Array that had been set around them extended underground by design but Evian was never planning escape anyway.

He surfaced a foot away from the four and cast his Reaper chains spell and had ten chains wrap around two Rogue Arcanists with five around each to pull yank them away from Aren and toward him where he stabbed his spear through the back of one and called forth the Attacking chains to stab the other.

With the Arcanist injured, Evian pulled his Spear free and delivered a final stab that caused his victim to gurgle blood before slumping so his soul could free and could be swallowed.

[You have acquired 1,500,000 Soul Points]

[Balance: 13,690,000 Soul Points]

As his balance of Soul Points flashed before his eyes, Evian finally succumbed. While his research and his goal to free himself from having to consistently fork out Soul Points that did not involve leveling up his Decadence, remained on track, he knew to set it temporarily aside in the urgency of the situation.

500,000 Soul Points to upgrade his Wraithic Phasing. It was still the most useful spell in his Arsenal especially considering he was facing Arcanists all at the Sixth Circle. To be able to avoid their attacks was undoubtedly a boon.

Evian's attempts of using Reaper chains to stab and kill the second Arcanist he pulled close failed as with a powerful outburst of Spiritual energy, his target freed himself and sent out a spell, not at Evian but at Aren.

Speaking of Aren, Evian taking away two of the original four who came for her certainly helped lessen her load but as she repelled them both with Spell Circles on each hand, she was ill-prepared to face and defend against a third attack.

Luckily, she had a 'guardian angel' in the form of Evian who stretched both his hands forward,

Gates of Gaheena!

The Gates appeared while giving off the purgatory that made them feel like they had risen out of hell itself.

The Arcanist's spell hit the Gates and although they shattered because the attacking spell surpassed their (still-Un-upgraded) level, they still reflected a portion of the pain that the spell would have caused back to the caster.

"Argh!"

The Arcanist doubled over in pain. It passed quickly but that didn't matter because, with a powerful slash of his Spear, with the tip strengthened further with Eldritch energy, Evian decapitated him in that single swing.