Hunter of the Evernight
Chapter 553: Unboxing

Chapter 553: Unboxing

"Arwen, what are we doing here?" Elena asked as she walked behind Arwen, traveling through a mass graveyard that stretched on for quite some distance.

Currently in the Eastern Highlands, this peculiar graveyard was located in the territory once ruled by the Hyenas, which now stood devoid of life due to the efforts of a certain Abyssal Daemon that had since met his end.

Arwen gave no response to Elena’s questions prompting the latter to bridge the distance in a few steps before grabbing hold of her shoulder, bringing her to a stop.

Silence persisted for a moment later before Elena repeated her question, eliciting a response from Arwen who turned to look at her.

"I thought you’d have left since you already brought me here." Arwen calmly remarked, her glassy eyes almost devoid of emotions.

Her current appearance was hardly pleasing to the eye as apart from her face with pale skin mottled with black spots and her silver hair, the rest of her body was devoid of flesh, remaining as a skeletal frame covered by pale white flames with a tattered cloak over her shoulders.

"I can’t do that, Alex charged me to watch over you."

Arwen shook her head. "He shouldn’t have. Nadia is the one that’s experienced loss, not me."

"But you are also suffering and as the youngest in Constellations, I can’t leave you be."

"Is Constellations still a thing?... I thought with Alex abandoning us, it would be dead."

"He didn’t abandon us, if he did, he wouldn’t have asked me to watch over you and bring you over to him once you gain strength."

Arwen shook her head. "There’s no way he said that."

"Would I lie to you?"

"..." Arwen pursed her lips before looking down at her skeletal hands.

"Do you think he’d be happy seeing you change yourself so much?"

"The only way to master death is to embrace it... this is my way of embracing it." Arwen calmly explained before adding. "But you are right, maybe I am overdoing it."

With that, the flames died down and her skeletal frame returned to normal, allowing her to regain her human form.

At the same time, her glassy eyes seemed to regain a bit more emotion, causing Elena to realize that Arwen had been suppressing or, perhaps even worse, destroying her emotions.

Taking a deep breath, Arwen explained. "Just as Alex has Lady Charlotte to aid in close combat, I wish to gain such a loyal aide as well."

"But unlike Alex, you don’t have control over shadows to help conceal them." Elena calmly pointed out.

"It doesn’t matter. As long as they agree to serve me, there can be ways to get past that particular problem."

"Do you have a target in mind?... I dare say this particular act can’t be done countless times."

"Unfortunately not; even as I have learned the Headless Horseman’s way of controlling undead to make them work efficiently, it still isn’t possible to imbue each person with individuality, which is an important aspect of the Ability Alex utilizes."

"Noted." Elena intoned before taking her hand off Arwen’s shoulder. "So a target?"

Arwen nodded as she took steady steps forward. "I do have one. I’d have loved to revive a Mystic but once they die, they are immediately absorbed back into the aether. Vampires were another option, but their death doesn’t leave behind a corpse, so there is nothing to reanimate."

"Which is why you asked me to bring you here."

"Indeed. Hyenas are the next best thing since there are no Dragon or Gryphon corpses which is quite regretful." Arwen muttered causing Elena to raise a brow.

The young lad truly had some grand ambitions to be thinking of resurrecting a dragon.

It seemed unlike Alex’s Forever Knight Ability, which needed to be carried out the moment the person died, Arwen’s could be done whenever.

Regardless, the ladies soon came to a stop after a prolonged trek, standing before a grand tomb made of steel and engraved with the name of the one that lay within.

"Patriarch Ungrim." Elena read the engraved name out loud while Arwen moved closer before crouching after which she placed a hand on the cold steel.

"According to the dead, he had reigned as Patriarch during the signing of the Peace Accords. After the Vampires moved to the Eastern Highlands to establish a new kingdom, he launched an attack and very nearly won, if not that the Monarchs at that time banded together and dealt him a heavy blow, forcing him to retreat. The attack is commonly referred to as the Night Raid."

"He must have been powerful during his prime."

"That and the Vampires were just recovering from a war. If the Vampires were not strong enough, they would have long since been wiped out by the attack."

"I see." Elena nodded. "So he is your pick?... You do realize that Hyenas are incapable of loyalty."

"He doesn’t need to be loyal. He only needs to be strong." Arwen calmly replied. "My flames will handle the rest. In any case, this is a test."

With that, the hand she placed on the cold steel ignited with pale white flames that ignored the protective covering of the tomb to attack the corpse entombed within.

Arwen took a step back, her irises giving way to the whites, causing her to exude a deathly aura.

Elena instinctively took a step back as she felt her cells dying just from being in proximity.

Moments passed before there was a slight tremor and then....

Boom

A fist emerged, breaking through the cold steel like it was wood.

The skeletal fist was covered in pale white flames which showed that the fist’s owner was moving at the behest of Arwen.

Several more attacks followed before the tomb was ripped apart, allowing an enormous humanoid figure, almost as large as Rey Alejandro, to step out.

His gaze washed over Elena, causing her to immediately feel tense as she could tell that this person, when alive, was a force to be reckoned with.

It was said that the generation of Cryptids that existed during the Dark Ages and the first few years after it had ended was terrifyingly strong, even capable of going toe to toe for a time with the 7th Advancement Mystics of that period.

"You chose a good one," Elena admitted with Arwen replying.

"I know."

Patriarch Ungrim shifted his gaze to stare at Arwen briefly before dropping to his knees and bowing to her.

Arwen smiled as she intoned. "From now on, you’ll be my pet, come on, we have work to do."

The patriarch transformed, taking on the form of a skeletal dog with flames covering its entire body, causing it to appear quite ghastly.

"Is there anywhere else you want to go?" Elena calmly asked.

Arwen pursed her lips before asking a question of her own. "If I had been more proficient in soul mutilation, do you think Miss Emily would still be alive?"

"Perhaps, but we do not dwell on what ifs, Arwen."

"I know." Arwen intoned before remarking. "I’d like to improve my ability to harm souls, can you help me?"

"You plan on attacking people?" Elena frowned.

"Oh no, can’t you take me to the Afterlife?"

"That..."

"Can’t you?"

"I can, but it’s the land of the dead. Staying there would not be ideal for a living person."

"That’s why I’ve been practicing," Arwen remarked before once again covering her body in pale white flames, revealing her skeletal frame once more. "In this form, I’m basically dead."

"It’s temporary."

"I don’t plan to stay there forever, silly, just enough to learn a few things."

Elena let out a sigh. "You have to do this?"

"You already know the answer to that, right?"

"... Come on, let’s get going."

A moment later there was a golden flash, marking the exit of the trio.