As Arthur made his way down the stairs, on his way to the bottom floor, he began feeling a sense of nausea building within.
Arthur recognised what this could potentially mean, as this sickly feeling was something he had been all too familiar with as of late. He had made it down the staircase and out of the laboratory before waves of nausea coursed through his body.
It wasn't quite vile enough of a feeling for Arthur to rush to the bathroom, but it did deplete any motivation he had to do anything other than lay down the second he entered his room.
He entered his house and locked up behind him before staggering up the stairs. The energy he had earlier in the day was now gone, replaced with lethargy, and his motor skills had become sluggish.
Arthur barely slipped into more comfortable clothing before slumping down in his bed, not even bothering to perform his usual nighttime routine.
As Arthur expected, he once again began experiencing the sensation of floating around in a black void moments after his body fell into a state of unconsciousness.
'Let's hope the dreams are different this time... or I guess I should call them visions.' Arthur thought to himself, 'I just don't want to see Anna in that state again.'
But, regardless of how long Arthur waited, no vision seemed to appear.
For what felt like hours, Arthur's consciousness floated around in that black void, he spent that time ruminating on his thoughts, but it had gotten to the point that he began getting impatient, and then his thoughts captured his interest again.
'Why has it not taken effect yet, where are the visions?' Arthur pondered. 'Do I not--'
That thought was immediately cut off as Arthur was thrust into what seemed to be a battlefield in the middle of a forest clearing.
Scorch marks littered the ground of what must have been a beautiful natural wonder. Many flowers appeared to have been crushed underfoot and some of the surrounding trees hadn't gotten off lightly either.
'Wait a second, this isn't real life...' Arthur thought, turning to see a few familiar faces, one of them being his own.
"Commander, they've got us surrounded... There are at least fifty enemies in the immediate area." One figure spoke, it was a young man who joined the same guild as Arthur in the previous timeline, although he had joined several years later, he quickly made his way through the ranks as one of the best information-gathering supports in the world.
"Is that so? Those poor bastards..." A gruff yet familiar voice rang out.
An older Typhoeus stood before Arthur, mounted on a winged steed with a silky black coat.
"You're up, old friend," Typhoeus spoke, signalling towards a man with long white hair and bright purple eyes. "Do what you do best."
"Alone?" The support remarked, "Pardon my lack of faith, but we have been split up from the rest of the raid team, should we not call for backup?"
"Don't worry, just keep your head down and watch," Typhoeus said.
As the older version of Merlin dismounted from his own steed, Typhoeus had thrown him an item.
"That's the useless tank item that has been floating around in the guild storage." The support remarked while remaining confused, "What could Merlin possibly do with that?"
"Probably commit a war crime," Typhoeus laughed before turning his attention to his surroundings.
"Are you seriously hiding in the trees? What are you, the Viet Cong?" Merlin mocked, "If you play nice and stop hiding, we might even go easy on you."
A vast assortment of lights filled the treeline, denoting the fact that several spells had begun being cast.
"You guys are so easy, it's not even fun for me anymore..." Merlin continued to mock them, causing more lights to appear.
With a smug expression on his face, Merlin held the item in his hands straight into the air, the item that the support claimed was useless.
The item let out a low hum, indicating that it had been activated, but whatever effect it had was yet to be made clear to all outside observers.
"I'm kidding of course..." Merlin spoke once more. "This part will always be fun..."
As the enemy spells finished, a barrage of magic flooded the area around the clearing, but something odd had occurred.
Even spells that had flown so far off course that they clearly missed anything that could remotely be considered a valid target suddenly turned and flew directly towards Merlin.
As was the effect of the magic item currently active in his hands, an item that attracted every spell, allies included, towards him. The addition of ally spells was what cemented this item's useless status amongst rankers and raid teams, but for someone like Merlin, using the item in a context such as the one he found himself in at this moment, that effect was unproblematic.
With a smug grin on his face, and with a barrage of magic moments away from mutilating his corpse until nothing remained, Merlin chanted a skill name.
"Angel of Vengeance."
Within an instant, the whites of his eyes had turned black, and black illusory feathers began forming in the air around him. But these details were hard to notice when he was showered by an obscene amount of visual effects.
When the spells ended, Merlin was still standing.
Arthur noticed that Typhoeus looked excited at this moment, like a child eager for the next firework at a festival. Arthur appreciated the additional point of view that the vision granted him, and for some reason, it brought a genuine smile to his face.
"Revenge counter!" Merlin shouted, ensuring his words echoed within the clearing and reaching those hiding away.
A black wave of energy shot out from Merlin's chest, expanding into a large bubble that enveloped the clearing and a large portion of the treeline surrounding them.
Moments after, the black energy dispersed, causing black feathers to rain down from the sky in its place.
"So cool, every time," Typhoeus muttered to the support staff before leaping from his mount. "My turn!"
Typhoeus walked up to Merlin, who was currently drinking a high-level health potion, and stood by his side before chanting an ability of his own, "Angel of Death".
Eerie red energy bubbled around Typhoeus' feet before spreading out rapidly in a wave around him. It wasn't as visually appealing as Merlin's move, but the effects would quickly show themselves.
"Arise you miserable bastards, have a second chance in life on the winning team for once." Typhoeus said in a mocking tone to what seemed to be nobody, but screams and shouting could be heard in the distance moments after.
Within moments, smaller groups had scattered, running out into the clearing, and being chased shortly after by what seemed to be their own team members.
The group watched as a tankier-looking player was ganged up on by three of their fellow teammates and slowly devoured alive. The scene was reminiscent of an animal documentary, where a group of wolves had grouped up against a larger target, taking chunks out of it before it ran out of energy and died.
"Your army seems stronger than last time, did you change your build?" Merlin asked.
"Sort of. You remember the apple that appeared in the auction house a few weeks ago?" Typhoeus responded, "It took every penny of my personal funds and an eighth of the guild's treasury."
"Ah, so it was you who got the Eden apple... I remember hearing the drama about it but I didn't pay much attention to who actually got it." Merlin responded.
"If another one shows up, I'll try to get you it." Typhoeus said, "I'm curious what it'll do to your angel soul. Maybe it'll just buff the damage."
"Nah, not necessary," Merlin said, "Thirty-five per cent of all damage taken is still busted."
"True that, but it still hurts my soul that you wasted an apple of Eden on that lore... finder... seeker... whatever soul," Typhoeus said.
"You're ignoring the fact that we have the archangel souls specifically because I upgraded the loreseeker soul..." Merlin said, giving Typhoeus a side-eye.
"True that..." Typhoeus conceded, "But the offer still stands."
"Let's clean up the stragglers and meet up with the rest of the raiding party," Merlin said, ignoring the topic.
Arthur felt himself being suddenly dragged back into the black void as the scene around him faded into nothingness. But he didn't seem to mind as much, he was too busy reminiscing on the scene that played out in front of him.
'Good times.' Arthur thought to himself. 'One day we'll get back to that point. Well, maybe not exactly... I wonder what everyone else would eventually build into...'
But the happiness he found would soon disappear as scenery began forming around him once more, this time it was clear that this wasn't another memory from within New Genesis, but rather a scene he had yet to witness.
Arthur found his consciousness floating around the front gate of the Watt's estate.
