After Abner spent a few hours hunting some nightmare creatures, absorbing their soul shards, and cooking some since he was still starving, he headed back to the city.
Just as he got greeted by the guard, he saw a huge, majestic Green Eastern Dragon appear in the middle of the city.
Abner's eyes widened as his body became tense by the sheer pressure passively emitted by the dragon.
The dragon soon left in the direction of the village; his friends were kept hostage by the corrupted devil.
The guard muttered to him, "I know you don't get along with your father, but you have to admit he's not a city lord for nothing."
Abner asked, confused, "Wait, did you just say he's my father!?"
The guard nodded and explained, "Yes, although he only appears to care for money, I'm sure he still cares for you, and he still protects us from the corrupted they've been getting out of control lately, though."
Abner didn't respond, as he didn't know much about the city lord, and the guard patted him on the shoulder and said,
"He's a good city lord although I can't say he's a good parent since he cares more about gold than he cares about you, but don't mind it too much; it's not like he hates you!"
Abner just nodded and went into the city, planning to sell some parts of the nightmare creatures he hunted.
Moments before, city Lord POV.
'tsk these peasants are taking so long to bring my armor; should I have done it myself? No, then I would be wasting all that money I use to hire them!'
Just as he was about to sigh, he heard a servant's footsteps.
'Finally!' The city Lord thought the servants entered the room and dressed him in the armor they brought.
The armor looked nothing short of breathtaking; it looked just like a painting; the predominant color was a green sea, followed by golden ships with a bit of blue for the people abroad; it didn't have a helmet, and it only covered the arms up to the elbows.
Next, they put the jewelry on him: necklaces, bracelets, and rings; all of these were enchanted items.
The City Lord admired himself in the mirror for a moment. Satisfied, he asked his servants, "So what do you all think? Don't I look fabulous in this?"
The servants all nodded, and one of them added, "Lord Ryuu, you would look fabulous in anything you wear, even if it's rags!"
The city lord sighed and ordered, "Didn't I say not to call me that? It's so uninspired! Giving me such a nickname... only the most lazy of people devoid of any creativity would do such a thing!"
The author sneezed as he was called out by his creation, and quickly gave it another name.
The City Lord "Ryuu" told his servants, "Just call me by my true name, [Unseen Calamity]."
The servants nodded and quickly got out of his way as he exited his mansion and transformed into a dragon.
The armor expanded and changed form into another layer of skin to fit him; the jewelry became one with him, fussing with his flesh due to an enhancement.
He quickly took off to the village taken hostage by the corrupted devil, ignoring the awed looks of the citizens.
It didn't take him long to get there; he traveled incredibly fast; it only took him about 5 minutes to reach his destination. The air itself became ignited by the speed at which he traveled.
Stopping after passing the village by a bit, he was surprised to see 5 corrupted ranked beings of unknown class, and he knew at least one of them was a devil because of what his son had told him.
He briefly considered retreating but chose not to, thinking, 'If they are all here, they are definitely conspiring something; even if it's dangerous with my aspect, I can escape from them easily; they can't catch up to me, so I should at least kill one before I go back!'
All of this happened near instantly, he was still on fire due to the speed of his traveling.
The City Lord [Unseen Calamity] opened his mouth, and small flashes of black lighting escaped his throat before a gigantic amount of darkness was shot out of his mouth, hitting three of the corrupted creatures.
The ones hit were a corrupted demon that looked like an unnatural breed of shark and tree, a corrupted devil that looked like a blue, ugly-looking monkey with too many limbs, and a corrupted tyrant who looked like a Chimera of a Lion, a vulture, and a mouse.
The other corrupted creatures were still unable to properly respond before he made another move; he headed for the corrupted demon that he didn't hit with his breath and hit him with his tail.
Next, he roared, making light seem dimmer as unnatural darkness seemed to cover the surrounding area.
The mind-controlling corrupted devil that wasn't yet hit immediately made a run for it, abandoning his companions instantly and taking eight people with him.
The City Lord was about to chase after him, but the corrupt Tyrant already got up and unleashed a roar of his own making, forcing unnatural fear into the City Lord's heart and stunning him briefly.
The monkey with many arms used this chance to grab him with a malicious, evil grin; the city lord's eyes became darker as water fell from the sky; after the city lord's roar, clouds gathered and it had started raining.
The clouds soon covered the sun, and The area around them became covered in true darkness.
The City Lord seemingly became one with the darkness, becoming intangible and escaping the hands of the corrupted devil.
Lighting fell down from above, briefly illuminating the world as The City Lord's eyes almost shone with deep darkness and his mouth opened, shooting another Wave of Darkness upon the Tyrant and the shark tree Demon first hit by the breath attack.
The other demon he hit with his tail was a dumb-looking Koala-like monster that seemed incapable of even eating on its own, but clearly that wasn't the case as it spit on the city lord and his scales corroded painfully, making him roar in pain.
The surrounding area was once again covered by true darkness as the City Lords' roar faded, and soon the sound of thunder was followed by a scream.
It was the shark-like demon who had his torso bitten by the city lord, and then blown away by the true darkness from another of his breath attacks.
The others turned their gazes in the direction of the scream and attacked, not caring if they hit their ally as well; they each managed to hit the City Lord, dealing him four wounds.
The city lord screamed as he barely managed to escape from them before he was killed and kept hiding in the darkness, sometimes attacking from a distance with his breath.
Hours passed like this until the sun pierced through the clouds that weakened, ending the rain and illuminating the village.
The city lord breathed heavily, thinking, 'I still didn't manage to kill another one since they stay so close together; I should have run away earlier instead of wasting so much time'
Maintaining his transcendent form, summoning the rain clouds, making the surrounding area become filled with true darkness, and spamming his breath attack had almost exhausted the City Lord of his essence by now.
As he was about to run away, his mind became filled with greed; he couldn't leave without getting the materials of these powerful corrupted creatures' bodies!
His eyes widened as he realized, 'No, this is a mind hex that corrupted Goblin Ran away a few hours ago and is still nearby!'
The city lord gritted his teeth as he thought to himself, 'I'm basically dead now that I can't leave with these corrupted creatures here.'
The city lord flew still in his dragon form, dodging rocks thrown at him like projectiles as he thought, 'How do I get out of this mind hex? I can't spot the goblin at all!'
The city lord thought about how his son managed to escape the mind hex 'that mysterious existence! If I pray to him, I can live! I would rather not be in its debt since I don't know a thing about it, but now's not the time to be picky; I can barely maintain my dragon form for another 10 minutes!'
The City Lord prayed while dodging the rocks thrown at him, "The Fool Who Does Not Belong to This Era, please save me from this situation, and I promise to repay you however you wish!"
Arthur, who was traveling heard a voice in his head and, not paying much attention to it, immediately went above the Grey Fog, only to realize the one praying to him wasn't Abner but The City Lord!
Arthur considered if he should summon him; unlike awakened, the ascended, and above had their physical bodies and spiritual ones fused, so summoning them was harder for Arthur, and even harder was forcefully keeping them here as they could use their Anchor to escape the Grey Fog
But those were not the reasons why he hesitated to summon the City Lord; rather, it was because if he found out he was a mere awakened, he might kill him for trying to deceive his son Abner!
He made a divination if it was safe to summon The City Lord, and the result was that it wasn't very dangerous.
Arthur decided to watch the City Lord for a little bit more before summoning him; watching a transcendent fight was quite entertaining; even if he only dodged, it was still an awesome-looking scene to witness.
After 15 minutes, the City Lord turned back into a human falling from the sky.
Arthur then thought to himself, 'Ah right, I was gonna summon him. I kind of forgot about it.'
While sitting on The Fool's Throne, he summoned Weavers Mask and his Echo behind the Throne to boost the illusions he was using to hide his body with the help of the Grey Fog and his own illusion spell.
Finally, he summoned the city lord.
The city lord, who had his eyes closed, ready to accept his death, opened them immediately, sensing the pull of the Grey Fog and the change in the environment.
Looking at the person surrounded by a grey fog, even he couldn't completely see through, he thought shocked, 'That mask! He must be a follower of weaver!'
The City Lord then sighed and thought, 'What does it matter if he's a follower of a demon? In my state, I can't guarantee victory against even an Ascended'
Since in this age, Aspect abilities were usually wielded by Ascended close to becoming a Transcendent and those of higher ranks, the city lord never even thought to consider Arthur was only an Awakened
The City Lord quickly composed and introduced himself, "I'm the Son of Storms, Blessed of the Storm God Nimbus the Unseen Calamity. Thank you for rescuing me. How might I repay you?"
Arthur didn't expect such a quick acceptance of such an unusual situation, and such adaptability too! But he guessed Saints see a lot of strange things in their long lives.
Arthur hummed and thought to himself, 'Since his prayers reached me, it really must be the Storm God's lineage that allowed Abner's prayers to reach me'
Arthur then considered if he should ask for anything; there's not much other than soul shards that The City Lord could give him;
Anything else isn't useful, but if he asked for soul shards, then he would either get a few high-ranking ones or risk getting exposed by asking for a lot of awakened ones.
After all, why would a powerful existence need to ask for so many awakened soul shards? Couldn't he just get them himself?
Arthur eventually responded, "There's nothing that really interests me right now, so you just owe me a favor for now."
The City Lord nodded and asked, "Are you a follower of Weaver? I recognize that mask as one worn by his followers although I only heard of its description without seeing it myself until now."
Arthur shook his head and replied, "No, I just stole this from a corpse since I liked it."
The city lord nodded, sighing in relief, and said, "I see, that's a relief. A follower of Weaver is as shady as the demon himself."
Arthur then asked the Saint, "So when would you like to go back? Be aware that I can only send you to the same location I took you from."
The City Lord thought for a moment and said, "In a few hours, I'm worried about the villages and the people; those corrupted can't be stopped without me. Even if all the villages joined together with the city, they would all die, meaninglessly; even running away is impossible; the corrupted would catch up to them."
Arthur nodded and asked, "For how long have you fought them? You seem very wounded?"
The City Lord laughed and said, "This is nothing for a transcendent; it will heal in a week or two. I've been fighting for a few hours in my dragon form—at least two, I'm sure."
Arthur was shocked but didn't show it as he thought, 'But don't transcendent transformation abilities usually last only for 10 minutes!? They drain too much essence; even if he were a Divine Aspect user, it's too much!'
Arthur chucked as he said, "Transcendent transformations don't last that long, do they?"
The City Lord had a proud smirk as he explained, "It's because I've been blessed by the Storm God; I can keep it for even 3 hours if I'm not fighting!"
Arthur nodded and thought shocked as he made a Divination to see some of the battle of the city. 'He's so fast! And with his powers over True Darkness, he could probably even defeat Saint Sunny! Maybe he can rescue The rest of the cohort...'