Safa knelt down next to the chopped-off arms, lifting one of them up in place. She had to see if what she was seeing was real.
She recognized the clothing that was worn.
"Wait, how do you know this belongs to Liam?" Simyon asked.
"These hands, of course, I would recognize them," Safa replied. "They were the hands that had tried to touch me… many, many times."
Hearing these words, Simyon didn't know whether to get angry or be upset because of what he imagined Liam had tried to do, but if his arms were like this…
"Does that mean, Royo, he killed Liam?" Tinson asked.
Everyone was stunned into silence. If Liam did go up against Royo, there was no chance for him to survive, no matter how much stronger he had gotten through their training.
"Don't count him out just yet," Dame replied. "Those might be Liam's arms, but then where is his body, and if we look at Royo, it's quite clear that he's dead as well.
"The markings, the clean cut on his head, it's not something any type of beast could do, at least not one in this type of dimension."
"I think there's a good chance that he could still be alive. We shouldn't give up until we've found a body, and everyone, let's stay close together."
Dame didn't want to tell the others why he wanted them to now stay close together; he was worried it might frighten them more.
One thing was clear, the person who had beaten Royo was incredibly strong. The statue would have to be used, and even then, who knew what would happen.
The group continued their search, and Safa herself had decided to use her god eyes. She was currently also carrying the pair of arms on her back, tied up by a ripped part of clothing from Royo's body.
If they found Liam in a certain state, she was sure she would at least be able to heal him and put him back together.
While using her god eyes, she soon noticed something. In the fields of grass, there were dead beasts. The energy from their bodies was still present because she could see that there was a crystal still inside those that were dead.
For some reason, whoever had killed the beasts hadn't pulled out the crystal.
Going ahead, the rest started to follow. As they were moving upward in the grassy hills, they had reached the peak of one, and in a sunken area of land, down below, they could see a certain individual with a sword held in his hands.
Around him, there were several beasts dead, at least five of them.
"Liam!" Safa shouted out.
Liam was midway, practicing the strike that he had performed via his new system and was trying to perform it on his own. When he heard his voice though, he turned around to take a look at the group of people that were running toward him.
'System, can you confirm, I'm not seeing things, are they real?'
[I can confirm that what you are seeing is not an illusion; they are certainly real.]
"Wait, you look fine, you look completely okay?" Simyon said, staring at his arms in particular.
"What, did you wish me dead or something, so that's one less rival to get in your way?" Liam replied.
"No, I mean…" Simyon wasn't even in the mood for jokes because just moments ago he really thought Liam was really hurt, and a part of him was actually upset by what had occurred.
Safa then went to pull the arms out from behind and dropped them on the floor.
"Those!" Liam replied, scratching the back of his head. "Why have you been carrying around someone's arms for? I've never seen them before, as you can see, my arms are perfectly intact and working fine."
Liam was awkwardly moving his arms through the air. It seemed like they were working fine, but it was also quite clear that he was hiding something as well.
"We saw the dead body of Royo," Dame stated. "That's where the arms were as well. I'm not sure if you know, but that was the Vice Clan Head of the Lethal Bite Clan, a middle-stage warrior."
"Now, I'm okay with accepting that these arms that we found, in a dimension where there is only meant to be us, aren't yours, but I can't accept that you were the one to beat him… what killed him, or who killed him?"
Liam was hoping he could avoid this conversation, he didn't even think it was going to happen. After taking out a few more beasts, he was ready to leave this portal and see how the others were doing.
"It wasn't me," Liam replied.
"Well, no shit it wasn't you," Simyon replied. "Who was it?"
"Look, it's really hard to explain because I don't know what really happened myself," Liam stepped back, feeling the pressure. He felt like he was being interrogated.
"I did meet Royo, I saw him in front, he said he was here to kill me, on the orders of the Lethal Bite Clan Head."
This was expected since all of them had gone through the same thing.
"But, before our fight could even get underway, and I could strike him down, a portal had opened in front of us, a red portal.
"The next thing I know, and this guy, in a full metal suit comes out and kills the guy."
Hearing the story, Dame thought there was no reason for Liam to lie. It sounded impossible for portals to just open up, but Dame knew someone who was quite capable of doing just that.
The more important question was, who was that guy.
"Why did he help you?" Safa asked. "You don't think it was a coincidence that he appeared in the middle of that fight between you two, do you?"
Once again, Safa's question was met with silence. They were starting to wonder what Liam was holding back from them.
"I'm not sure, but when he saw me, it seemed like he was almost disappointed. Like, I wasn't the one that he was looking for."
"He said something else that worried me a bit as well, he said that he was looking for a mage."
Safa, Dame, and Simyon all looked at each other. They remembered when Raze had told them the truth about him; he had told them he was what they had called a mage.
If someone close to Raze, like Liam, had met with someone and was disappointed, then it meant one thing.
"This person, I think they might be looking for Raze," Safa exclaimed.
"And we're not sure if he's on our side or not, we should hurry again. There are still multiple dimensions that we have left to check."
Nodding along, it was time for them to head out, and they were thankful that Liam had somehow managed to survive that ordeal.
As they ran, Liam stayed at the back of the group.
'It's the right thing, keeping what I am now a secret from them, right?'
[I cannot answer that question for you, as I do not know what will occur in the future or the reactions of others.]
Liam thought it was best to keep it to himself, but he was worried about something else as well as he went to rub the back of his neck.
'When he appeared the time before, my neck was hurting. I'm wondering if he's keeping an eye on me. If I'm being tracked and leading him right to the one he wants.'
