In a crater with a lot of holes that looked scary enough to traumatize the ones with trypophobia, Liam lay in its center with blood oozing out of his limbs and face.

Hecate and Lith were a few meters above him in the air, gazing down at him. Hecate had an indifferent look, as if nothing mattered to her. And that was indeed the case. Lith had a wide smile on his face as he saw the scene below him.

The reason for his smile wasn’t Liam laying down but the constant squeaking that he was hearing. The squeaking was getting louder as moments passed and Lith only felt more excited hearing them.

Squeak! Squeak!

Lith saw rats the size of a basketball emerge from the holes a few seconds later, covered in dense black fur. The rats did not appear to be ordinary rats like those he had seen on Earth. The rats here at present were large and had a star-shaped mouth. That wasn’t the only thing. The rats’ starry mouths protruded outwards, the protrusions being red in color.

And everywhere along the gums of such a star shaped mouth, there were sharp and pointy teeth present. It was sharp and pointy enough to cause a hole in one’s hand if made contact with. These star-mouth shaped rats were called StarryJagged Rats.

Lith had a close encounter with them in his previous dungeon encounter. Remembering it, he took advantage of it by bringing Liam here. His plan was simple: have Liam get eaten by the rats, then strike the killing blow to reap the rewards.

Everything was working. The rats came out of their holes and went to Liam’s body. From the top, Lith saw a lot of dark creatures, that is the StarryJagged Rats, move towards Liam’s body. The rats gnawed onto his flesh, and it didn’t even take a few seconds for one of his arms to fully disintegrate.

Lith quickly cast a healing spell on Liam, keeping him alive so the rats wouldn’t kill him. If that happened, he would be devastated. Lith quickly cast a destruction spell after casting a healing spell, sending a black shiny orb condensed with the purest destruction elements towards Liam.

Liam laid there like a living corpse even after that with his lifeless eyes half opened. Getting hit by Lith’s destruction orb, Liam finally died. However, nothing changed even during his death. He still had the same lifeless look on his face as he died. Only thing that changed on him was that he had a hole in the place where his magic core was.

A few seconds later, the rats all gnawed Liam’s body and went back into their holes. There was no trace of him left in the crater. Looking at this, Lith smiled. He then closed his eyes and tried to feel the changes in his body.

A few seconds passed, but nothing changed. Not feeling anything, Lith once again concentrated on his body and looked for any changes. A few more minutes passed, but still nothing.

Lith tried his best to feel the abilities he may have gotten but still not feeling anything, he thought to himself, ‘did I mess up? But I killed him in time. What happened? Why do I not feel any trace of having any unique abilities?’

…

Auckland city, Villmer.

Inside a white and exquisite looking palace.

A black-haired, blue-eyed man with a clean face and long hair was working in his study room while sitting on a chair behind a desk. He was busy doing papers when he suddenly felt some fluctuations and, sensing this abnormality, he quickly spread his senses all over the palace to see what was wrong.

His queries were answered as he found a black rectangular shiny crystal box shaking violently in one of the dark and locked rooms in the forbidden zone of the palace. He was surprised looking at it as he knew whose crystal it was. He quickly willed the wind elements around and arrived at the place where the crystal box was present.

He stood patiently in front of the crystal box, allowing it to shake violently. A piece of flesh fell out of the crystal box as it soon broke. The flesh wriggled around and began to grow little by little. After a few minutes, the flesh had grown enough in size that would match someone’s body in their pre teens.

The body soon started developing features like eyes, hair, nose and all the little details of the human body like lines on their palms, sparse nose hair, wax in ear, etc. Soon, the body’s development stopped and it now looked like a younger version of the man currently standing in front of him.

The eyelids of the body fluttered for a while, and soon they opened. The person looked around in confusion and looked at his hands, legs, and his surroundings.

The person thought to himself after a while of looking around, ‘wasn’t I supposed to be dead? What happened? Don’t tell me…’

‘…Resurrection! I got resurrected! OH NO…’

It was Liam who just got resurrected from his phylactery and realized it after a few seconds. However, instead of feeling joy at being alive again, all Liam felt was panic and pain. He ignored the person in front of him and didn’t even bother to look at him. He quickly rushed to a corner where he found a katana lying in its sheath.

He quickly took it out of its sheath and attempted to slash his own throat with it. The man with the long hair sighed as he looked at this. He didn’t move or raise his finger, instead simply willed the wind elements to return the katana to its sheathed state and place. He also had Liam fly over and stand in front of him.

Looking at him, he saw the expression of deep fear and panic and he could tell that Liam wanted nothing but to die. He shook his head helplessly and flicked his fingers onto Liam’s forehead, and knocked him unconscious.

He picked up Liam like a sack of rice on his shoulder and vanished from his spot while willing the wind elements once again, leaving the place with shards of broken black crystal all around.