Galaxy's First Ruler

Aldrich couldn't take any risk.

He already could not use his Perception, and even if he could, he couldn't sense Shu with his Divine Sense. Only Sha could do it using her "feel". But it wasn't like Aldrich was clueless about what was happening behind all this.

Before going into the El Cid's Dungeon, it was indeed as said by the Crawler, Viscount Basajaun, that Aldrich didn't know how to use Perception. When the female Crawler appeared out of nowhere behind him from within the earth, he couldn't tell what was going on. At that time, he could only put it at the back of his mind to contemplate later.

It wasn't until he saw the Devil Aldrich sucking all his Divine Sense within him in Sha's memories that he formed a theory behind the secrets of Perception. And when he saw the memory of Devil Aldrich using that devastating Almighty Push, he got to confirm that theory. Even then, Aldrich's thoughts were fast enough to outrun the transfer of memories from Sha.

'All things in the Universe have Perception…' Aldrich had thought then and concluded, '… But it isn't a fixed value.'

What Aldrich had come up with was simple. If he was right, then Perception of anything, other than the Dreamers, fluctuated between two limits with a rhythm. A rock on the river bed had its own fluctuations, and the entire river had its own, too. And the Baron Ranked Crawler female had done the same.

The earth within the Dungeon had its own Perception fluctuation, between a minimum and maximum limit. She could, too, bring down her Perception's value, like the Devil Aldrich. But that wasn't the only thing she could do. She could tune her Perception to match the rhythm of fluctuations coming out of that part of the earth. And that's why Aldrich couldn't tell her apart when he had scanned his surroundings.

Aldrich got to know that if he could control his Perception to do the same, he would become truly invisible. Match the rhythm of fog, and become fog. Match the rhythm of the mountain and become a mountain. Then, even if one were to directly look at him, none could find him.

But Aldrich couldn't do so. All he managed to do was to copy the Devil Aldrich in making his Perception value zero. And he couldn't find anything relating to this rhythm in the Devil's mind, when he had brought him out as an undead, either. It seemed to him that the Devil Aldrich hadn't transformed enough for this knowledge to descend in his mind from the Great Old One's Will.

And it was the same case with this strange beast Aldrich had contacted.

Aldrich didn't know how, as he hadn't heard of any magical beast doing so, but this beast could control his Perception and make it zero, too. If Shu were to run out of the clearing, it was easy to say that Aldrich might very well not find him forever. And Aldrich wanted nothing but to find out all the secrets he had missed by Sha's refusal to devour the beast.

Shu would pay the price, even if the beast wanted to or not.

"… ARISE!!!"

For the first time, the dead darkness around Aldrich felt alive. All his Skills had vanished, along with his Ranks, but the Classes were still there, and so were his Class-specific Skills. An opening appeared in front of Aldrich. It was less like a space-crack, and more as if a pitch dark veil had parted there.

El Cid walked out of that opening in all his majestic appearance. The blue cloak behind him fluttered without wind, and the red glare coming out of his helmet was sharp enough to infuse dread in one's soul. But Aldrich could tell at one glance that his beloved undead wasn't as strong as he seemed to be.

When Viscount Aldrich had called El Cid out, there wasn't much difference between him and the undead's Stats and levels. Even though El Cid couldn't use his full capabilities, he could use most of them in that state, as the Rank "Count" couldn't actually be termed as a High Rank. But now Aldrich wasn't a Viscount, he had fallen to just a Common Dreamer.

As per the Skill ARISE, the undead El Cid's rank had also fallen to just Common. This "fallen" wasn't the same as Aldrich's Fallen, as El Cid's Stats had dropped, too.

"My Lord…"

Before El Cid could kneel, Aldrich cut off his words and used Rumok to shout out.

"Later, immobilize him first."

Aldrich didn't need to say much, as his undeads could already feel much through the connection he had with them. El Cid, like a beast, snapped his head towards Shu, who was just about to go out of the clearing. His hands went to the hilts of the two greatswords at his waist, and in the next moment, he unsheathed the blades.

Shuuuu!

False One Step Shunpo!!!

This was the exact reason for which Aldrich had called out to El Cid. Even though El Cid wasn't a Count anymore, the False One Step Shunpo depended upon the two greatswords' attributes, and not his MP or SP. The only negative effect was that the distance El Cid could cover using it had drastically reduced.

El Cid appeared in front of Shu's tiny figure like a phantom. With two pairs of horrifying eyes planted on him, it wasn't like he could disappear into thin air. Aldrich doubted that the beast could make his Perception value fluctuate in a rhythm matching his surroundings. Making the Perception zero was easier than maintaining it between two different limits.

Grrrr!!! Hissss!!!

Shu bared its tiny but sharp teeth at El Cid and changed his direction. Even after turning around, his two snake-headed tails kept letting out hisses at the black armored Undefeated King. El Cid didn't run after Shu. His hands again went towards the two greatswords, and he disappeared.

Shuuu!

Shuuu!!

Shuuu!!!

Shu kept running here and there, but every time El Cid kept appearing in front of him. After a few minutes, the beast seemed out of breath. Old injuries had just healed, and it would take more time for him to return to his full strength. As Aldrich saw Shu losing his previous ferocity and slowing down, he silently nodded in his mind.

El Cid, getting an unspoken command, unsheathed one of the greatswords. Its blade was icy blue, all around El Cid a chilly air appeared, freezing body and soul alike.

This greatsword was COLADA, the GREAT FROST STEEL!!!

Around the cross-shaped greatsword, air froze in blurry icicles, and chilled breath started to come out of Shu's mouth along with his heavy pants. El Cid held the Colada in both hands and pointed it downwards. And when it seemed Shu had finally taken a chilly breath of relief, El Cid buried the blue icy greatsword into the earth.

"COLADA - Great Frost Shift!!!"

Just as the sword went half into the earth, a mirror-like layer of ice spread out with the sword at its center. In just a blink of an eye, this perfect ice covered the 1oo ft radius around El Cid, including Aldrich and Shu. But unlike Shu, whose paws kept slipping over the ice, which looked dark as the surroundings, Aldrich had no ice under his feet. Unseen to anyone, the Rumok on his hand had just given out a blue flash.

Slow whimpering noise kept coming out of Shu, but he couldn't get a hold of his footing. But this wasn't the end of this Item-specific Skill. Four tiny hands, made of ice, protruded out of the icy mirror and grabbed Shu's legs.

GRRRRR!!!

Shu let out a mad growl, but the ice-hands didn't care, and in the next moment, they pulled him down. The mirror rippled as if it wasn't solid but liquid, and someone had just thrown a pebble in a lake.

Aldrich gazed at this scene, and his mind went to the Ice-Dimension used by the Dreamers of House Divine Enclosure. During the Territory Bestowment Ceremony, Viscount Vivi Ingegard and Viscount Enok both had used it. But the Great Frost Shift hadn't formed another dimension like them.

Aldrich could see Shu's blurry image rippling along with the waves in the icy mirror. Just as the last wave died, an icicle appeared in front of Aldrich in the shape of an altar. At the top of this altar, Shu's four legs were bound tightly by tiny ice hands, and they seemed frozen to their bones.

For the first time, Aldrich's false black eyes matched the six yellow eyes. Shu's eyes were defiant, and Aldrich could feel the same emotion in Shu's heart. Its two bat-like wings kept flapping, trying to break the clutches of those ice-hands, but it was all in vain.

Grrr-roarrrrrr-hissss!!!

The voice coming out of Shu's mouth didn't seem as if he was just a kitten-like creature. His tails hurled around as the snake bared their fangs towards Aldrich and El Cid.

Aldrich saw all this, and the corner of his lips lifted by just a small amount. But this was enough for Shu to lose all the motions. Shu's mouth, baring the tiny teeth at Aldrich, closed, and along with it stopped the hisses coming out of the snakes at the end of its tail. The only things left were a deep shiver, running from Shu's head to the tip of its tails, and clattering of his teeth.

Just when it seemed Shu would freeze to death, under the might of that chill, Aldrich's words rang in Shu's head.

"… Would you like to know Pain?"