'So that city lord wannabe will die due to my descent? Right, Klein could also summon his spirit body with a ritual' Arthur thought to himself as he intuitively realized what was needed for the ritual after seeing it in his vision.
Arthur showed the vision to Abner and told him to prepare it. What the ritual required was an object related to him and 'Faith' that he was there along with some essence; it was quite simple.
Arthur then wondered, 'But why was there a shrine then? And why did the Vision end so suddenly?'
Arthur just shook his head and thought, 'The Shrine is probably important, so Abner should make it, but even if I do make a descent the Vision was interfered with. Will that Skinwalker really die?'
As Arthur was worrying about the chances of the plan succeeding, Abner was worried about putting the plan into action.
Abner thought to himself, 'The materials required for the shrine should be easy to get with all the people too worried about the nightmare creatures to keep watch over them, but how can I get the fake city lord into the room without anyone else with him?'
As Abner saw Solarion and Kayron, the answer became obvious.
'I must convince them to help me!'
Going over to them, he greeted them and asked "Don't you all think that Olwen, the City Lord, has been a bit off ever since he arrived?"
Solarion nodded while Kayron looked at him incredulously and said "I've never met him before today, but from the rumors I heard that guy has always been a weirdo. There are plenty of things that aren't right with him."
Solarion interjected and said "No, there's definitely something wrong with him. Ever since he arrived, he showed no concerns about the state of the city or the people evacuating; I just saw him send people to kill the missing city lord right now of all times!"
Kayron mumbled "He did? What a waste The city lord must be dead; he would have been able to arrive here in minutes if he wasn't."
Abner: "Wait, he did what!? And people just went along with it!?"
Solarion looked at him with sympathy as he said "Right, although your relationship with him is strained he is still your father; it must be hard to hear such things"
Abner asked again, "No really, why would they just go along with that!? A few Awakened killing a Transcendent and their own city lord at that—why would they?"
Kayron responded as if it was obvious "The Oracle mentioned that the City Lord would save us but didn't specify which, and since Olwen arrived here first people believe it's him."
Abner looked at them and said "I think this new city lord, Olwen, is an impostor! a Corrupted."
Kayron looked at him with a grim expression and said "That's a serious accusation He's the one leading the city right now and the strongest here by far What proof do you have?"
Solarion who had a look of relief after hearing what Abner said responded "His actions speak for themselves. Instead of going to help the people evacuating reach another city safely leaving this place to its doom, or running away to save his own life he chose to stay, but for what?"
He looked at Kayron and Abner with a serious expression as he said his next words: "The reason we are even here and not abandoning the city is that the City Lord is still alive; it was confirmed by an Oracle that he would save the city."
Abner was surprised and asked "An oracle said that? I haven't heard of that. I just stayed because I know we can win this."
Both Kayron and Solarion just looked at him for a second with incredulous expressions and mumbled at the same time "Dumbass."
Completely ignoring Abner, Kayron responded "And where is that Oracle now? that's right evacuating the City it was all a lie Solarion!"
Solarion responded "He didn't. You know he went missing a day before the City Lord went missing."
Kayron just shrugged and said "He ran away a day earlier; it's the same thing."
Solarion asked "If you truly believe that then why are you even here?"
Kayron responded with a bit of sadness evident in his tone "My two brothers are here too the idiots. They really believe the city wouldn't fall."
Abner asked both of them "Wait, why are you all so sure the Oracle ran away? Didn't he say the City Lord would save the city? Maybe he went to help him!"
Kayron scoffed and responded "Even if the city lord is alive and the Oracle went to help him how will the city survive the siege by the corrupted? By the time they arrive, the city will have fallen."
Solarion nodded and continued "That's why the arrival of the Olwen, the City Lord, wasn't questioned much. Even if he was chased by the Corrupted, why would he run here of all places? Running towards the capital would have gotten him more reinforcements."
Kayron's eyes narrowed as he mumbled "I didn't think of that with all the problems here, but... you have a point."
Abner then decided to ask "Then do we all agree that he's not the real Olwen? I have a plan to kill the impostor..."
Kayron didn't say anything for a second and then nodded, sighing and mumbling "Of all times for a corrupted to infiltrate the city... and boss us around too! The nerve!"
Solarion simply nodded.
Abner explained the plan: "You two just have to bring him to this room after an hour Trust me I will kill him."
Solarion looked at him curiously and asked "How will you do that? Didn't you see that the corrupted could copy Lord Olwen's Aspect?"
Kayron scoffed and told Abner "What? Are you begging to die? Didn't you see what happened to Tristan? We have to convince more people and ambush him!"
Abner shook his head and said "I won't be alone; there is someone stronger than me helping."
Solarion asked "Another awakened? That doesn't make much of a difference."
Abner just sighed and said "It's someone stronger than just an Awakened..."
Abner had not lied since Arthur, being an Awakened Demon, was stronger than a normal Awakened.
Kayron asked curiously, "And who might that be? All the Ascended left the city."
Abner simply replied not bothering to hide Arthur's existence any longer "The Fool Who Does Not Belong to This Era."
Solarion and Kayron's eyes widened "A true name!?"
Only important people tended to have them, so they knew that if Abner was telling the truth there was a chance his plan would work
Kayron asked him seriously, "Do you really think you can pull it off?"
Abner nodded confidently—at least that's what it looked like, but he wasn't completely sure about killing a corrupted ranked being even with all of Arthur's help.
After that, Abner went to build the shrine in the meeting room.
While building it due to his nervousness, he bit his lip, and a drop of blood fell on the altar.
Arthur suddenly felt a connection from far away calling to him, but this time it was different; whereas before he would pull the connection towards him this time he felt like focusing on the connection was bringing himself to it.
He realized why 'Abner successfully made the Shrine! It looks like his blood made it more effective? Since his blood has the Storm God Lineage, maybe sacrificing it makes it easier for me to travel there?'
Arthur didn't really care before he suddenly had a thought: 'If I can go there with the help of that Blood could I also take someone from there and summon them here?'
Summoning the City Lord in the Grey Fog would be a huge advantage for Arthur and Abner, as the terrain would be completely under Arthur's control!
After telling Abner to Sacrif-Donate a little more blood both of them waited anxiously for the fake City Lord to arrive, and finally he did.
Arthur immediately descended on the altar; the moment he did he felt like multiple eyes were watching him, some familiar and some unknown.
He instinctively blocked the sight of the most familiar eyes only to realize those eyes were his own—this was what interrupted his vision!
Arthur didn't pay the eyes much attention and stared at the Fake City Lord with Weavers Mask
The Nightmare Creature disguising itself as the City Lord frowned and looked at the two people behind it, Solarion and Kayron and asked "What is the meaning of this? Worshiping a demon!? Have you all gone insane?"
Both of them were just as confused as the city lord as they looked for Abner, but with the thick gray fog around the room they couldn't see him.
Just as the fake city lord was about to kill them he heard Arthur speak: "Greetings, I am the Fool Who Does Not Belong to This Era."
The fake City Lord looked unamused as he said "I have no interest in the name of a Demon Follower! Just tell me what schemes are you plotting?"
Arthur cursed in his heart, 'Bastard, just say my true name!'
Arthur shook his head and told the fake city lord "I am not a follower of any demon; in fact I am a lord, a real one, unlike you a corrupted playing pretend."
The fake city lord stiffened for a moment as he narrowed his eyes and said "The Fool who doesn't belong to this era was it? How did you kno-"
Before he could finish his sentence he found himself pulled into another realm a completely unfamiliar one full of grey fog so thick he couldn't see anything.
He tried looking around and soon saw a silhouette He attacked it immediately only for it to be an illusion.
He narrowed his eyes as he tried to make use of his hearing, but the place was eerily quiet until he heard a sound akin to a gunshot—not that he knew what a gunshot was or what it sounded like.
He immediately went to attack it again only to be met with nothing but an extinguished fire.
The fake city lord tried to exit the realm, but it seemed to be keeping him locked in making him unable to get out.
He cursed in his heart, 'Where did that fool send me? This place is so bizarre and... Empty, but also not like there are many things just out of sight.'
The fake city lord kept wandering the Grey Fog, trying to find anyone or any way to escape, but found nothing.
In a few minutes his body became hard to move like it was made of wood, and he realized that his suspicions were true... he wasn't alone.
He just sighed and accepted his death very uncharacteristic of a nightmare creature as he thought, 'It's just one body and core anyway; there's no fighting back whatever is hiding here.'
However, it was not completely okay with its defeat, as it declared loudly, "YOU MAY HAVE WON THIS TIME, FOOL, BUT I WILL PAY YOU BACK TENFOLD FOR KILLING ONE OF MY BODIES!"
And so it slowly turned into a marionette unable to even fight back.
Abner soon heard the spell's voice whisper into his ears.
[You have slain a Corrupted Beast: Possessed Olwen The Blessed]
Abner was surprised at how easily they killed the corrupted beast as he told Arthur the corrupted beast had truly died.
Arthur asked and was disappointed to find that it didn't drop a memory as he cursed it loudly "A corrupted beast? More like a complete bum! No, even a bum is not as useless as you a failure That's what you are!"
He then kicked the marionette as he continued to berate it.
Abner just watched him quietly as he he mumbled "He's strong... Stronger than me."
Although he had killed the corrupted beast that was with Arthur's Echo and in Arthur's Grey Fog.
If his blood wasn't needed for Arthur to go inside the nightmare and take people inside it to the Grey Fog, then Abner wouldn't even be needed.
Abner looked at the runes of his Aspect Rank and thought to himself, 'Can I kill a Corrupted beast too?'