BXBX NOVEL Chapter 209 C209. The Old One
"Lady Levi!"
"Lady Levi are you okay?!"
Seeing their Lady break down in front of them. Yeva and Wrynn snapped out of their stupor as they panickly ran up to help her off the ground. She was coughing severely and would occasionally cough out blood that made Nadine and the other feel uncomfortable just standing there and staring at them.
Kali also hadn\'t made any follow-up attack as her orders had only been to protect them in cases of emergency and not attack. She had only attacked simply because she hadn\'t liked the look on Wrynn\'s face.
After the beastmen siblings finally got themselves together and administer a potion to the dragonkin named Lady Levi. Her coughing fit finally subsided as her breathing slowly returned to normal and she just needed to rest for a bit.
Seeing as the woman who saved them from any more unnecessary fight would be fine. Jarret quickly signaled for them to leave as he didn\'t want to be caught in any drama that would most likely keep them from their mission which would end up keeping their master waiting.
As they approached the carriages, Kali returned to their shadow and they didn\'t bother to ask her any questions. Jarret could guess the reason why Lord Ty had sent her after them. He hadn\'t noticed her their entire trip and she probably wouldn\'t have revealed herself to them if a situation like this hadn\'t occurred.
Her only purpose was to get them out of any situation they were unable to handle themselves and that was only to be expected from someone as great as him, as he had even predicted such an unlikely eventuality.
The only thing that had surprised them was her strength. She felt far stronger than when they had seen her face the ogre chieftain and the evolved trolls in the training hall a while back.
It was unknown if undead creatures could gain more strength with time or if absorbing more negative energy would help but they were sure she was not the same as last time. Nadine was the only one aware of what Kali and Flare had been up to since they left their master\'s side.
From what she knew, they were supposed to still be in the North part of the Darknar forest investigating the undead army there so she was surprised to see her here. Anyway, perhaps being around such dense negative auras would improve their strength.
Well, it was fine. They all decided to ignore it for now as they helped Jin off the ground and returned to their carriages, prepared to leave.
"Wait!"
\'Crap.\'
Jarret unwillingly turned his head as he saw the male predatory beastman stand up hurriedly with an embarrassed expression as he bowed his head before them, surprising all of them.
"I apologize for my actions today. I was the one who attacked you first and then tried to kill your friend without even realizing that you\'re not the one I thought you were. Please forgive this one foolishness."
"Indeed, you\'re very foolish."
"Awk!"
His entire figure was shaking and he seemed like he was nervous. He clearly didn\'t want to do this but was only doing it because the lady Levi had to ask them to. Even after Jarret\'s purposeful remark, he just forced himself to bear it.
Although the Jaguarkin didn\'t stand up as she was holding Levi, she also bowed her head and apologized for her part in all this.
"It\'s fine. We\'re in a hurry so we\'ll forgive you this time. Have a nice day."
Jarret said that in a way he judged would allow them to leave quickly and it worked as the pair were now too embarrassed to stop him. But of course, there was still someone else there that still could.
"Please wait a moment."
The dragonkin struggled to stand despite the protest from her companions as he moved to where Jarret was and smiled charmingly.
"I\'m sorry about my students. Please forgive them and myself as well as I didn\'t stop them on time for my own selfish reasons."
"Like I said. It\'s fine."
"I see, alright then. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Leviathan or you can simply just call me Levi for short. These are my students, Yeva and Wrynn Earuak. If you can believe it."
"Huh. When you said Leviathan you don\'t mean—"
"Fufu... We would appreciate it greatly if you could help us with something."
"And what would that be?"
"Well, I recently sensed the disappearance of the Primordial Behemoth of Greed, Mammon, and would like to locate the person that was responsible for ending his life."
"What makes you think it was a person? Perhaps he got mauled by a monster. That could happen."
"Ahahaha.... *cough *cough, you\'re quite funny, but I doubt something like that could happen. Call it an educative guess."
In her charming laugh, she broke into a mini coughing fit and had to be calmed down by Yeva until she was able to speak again.
"There aren\'t that many things that can kill a behemoth of that level, the great five won\'t do something like that at this point in time and a fight like that would shake the continent even the strongest suppression barrier would not withstand it. The only barrier that could do that is in this region but I\'m finding it hard to believe it myself."
"Hmm... well we wouldn\'t know. We\'re just freemen after all so if you\'ll excuse—"
"I doubt that. I\'m yet to meet any freemen capable of owning any luxurious carriages much less magic ones. Please don\'t be frightened, I have no ill intent. There isn\'t even anything I can do against such an opponent in my current state. I just need to talk."
"Is that so."
"Yes of course. I just *cough *cough, *cough *cough. I-I just require a favor from him. It\'s not something overly demanding and I\'m willing to pay whatever price he or she requires."
Jarret contemplated on the issue for a while as Nadine stared at him quietly without saying a word and Raz and Jin just stood by the side looking a little lost. He was a little unsure of what to do as he didn\'t feel like he had the right to make decisions for his master but couldn\'t just ignore this anymore.
In his moment of need, a savior came in the form of a shadowy undead that suddenly stood beside him and whispered something to his ears before fading back into the shadows.
"I\'m sorry I can\'t help you." His reply was firm and a look of determination flashed across his eyes.
"Huh, why not. I\'m sure you\'re aware of who I\'m looking for. What did that girl say? I would also like to speak to her. To have an undead that can speak is quite impressive."
"I\'ll just get to the point, you\'re right, I am aware of who you speak of. He\'s my master and I can never deny that. However, I can\'t as a loyal servant lead a possible primordial to his doorstep when one had already caused so much pain for him."
His eyes flashed with rage as blood dripped from his balled-up fist. His anger didn\'t seem to come from his own pain and death but it was as though he was angry on behalf of someone else.
"Oh, I see... I suppose there is no hiding it then. *cough *cough."
"Lady Levi."
"You don\'t have to do this."
"It\'s fine. It\'s my decision." After calming down from a minor fit of cough, she raised her head to look at the determined Jarret in the eyes and spoke with conviction.
"You\'re half right. I was formerly the one known as the Primordial Behemoth of envy, Leviathan. And yes, I am not an ordinary beastman but a dragonkin, an actual Leviathan if you can guess. Up until about five or six hundred years ago. I was proudly standing at the peak of this world as one of the seven greats. However, that was a long time ago. A man had challenged me for my position and I lost. He had similar powers as mine and was somehow able to steal most of my abilities after damaging my very soul."
*Cough *cough *cough... "Lady Levi, please take it easy."
"Don\'t worry I\'m fine. As I was saying, I don\'t know how he did it but I\'ve been unable to recover ever since then. Well, he was supposed to kill me during the fight but he hadn\'t so I suppose that was why. I became his prisoner for some reason. It seems he wanted all of my abilities but could not attain it at that time so he was keeping me alive until he could find a way."
*cough *cough... "Well, after 300 years of his failed attempts, I managed to recover a little and escape. I was then taken in by a freeman settlement after wandering the continent on my own for a while. Of course, the current Behemoth of Greed who had inherited my name as a title would not let me get away that easily. He continuously tracks me down and tries to capture me while annihilating everything in his path."
"I\'ve tried to stay away from the settlement several times so they wouldn\'t get involved but in my current state, even surviving in this harsh world is a tall task. I know I probably shouldn\'t be telling you this but I must if I require your assistance. The reason I want to meet the individual that defeated Mammon is simply because I require the soul of Mammon to repair mine and regain some strength to defend myself. While I still have no intentions of going after my lost status, I would be eternally grateful to him and offer my assistance in whatever venture in needs me for."
*Cough *cough... "Of course if he only wants to trade me the soul for money, I\'ve saved up quite a bit over the years. Fufufu..."
As she said those last words, she seemed quite proud of herself as the two beastmen behind her turned their gazes away awkwardly. Perhaps she didn\'t quite have enough yet?
Jarret\'s gaze had gradually returned to normal as it was easy for him to tell that she wasn\'t lying thanks to Kali\'s help. Even if she was, he was sure his master would easily see through it. it seems there was no demerit in leading her to Lord Ty as gaining the favor of a primordial would surely help their forces.
"Alright. I understand your situation now. I\'ll leave the rest for lord Ty to decide. Would you rather we point you in the right direction or lead you there ourselves. Keep in mind that we\'re currently on a mission and won\'t stop until we\'re done."
"Oh... so his name is Lord Ty, that\'s great. We don\'t mind just trailing behind you. Perhaps we can even be useful in your task and boost our chances in convincing him."
The pair behind her nodded in affirmation and Jarret just shrugged. He wasn\'t sure if their carriages would contain the entirety of the Raven settlement but at the very least they now had a backup. Even though it wasn\'t a magic carriage and could only contain at a maximum of a dozen people.
The predatory beastmen had a two-horse-drawn carriage unlike theirs that was pulled by a single magic beast. However, the horses that pulled their carriages were at the very least demonic horses so, at the very least, their movement speed would not be lagging behind them.
With Kali\'s presence now completely gone, the group proceeded to board their carriages in their original formation and the predatory beastmen did the same with Wrynn driving and Lady Levi and Yeva riding inside the carriage as they trailed behind the four large carriages that galloped across the riverside until they meet the hobgoblins and Onis from the Raven settlement.