Building a World Class Empire in another World
Chapter 40: A puppet

Chapter 40: A puppet

"I want you to join the Spirit Cult. Join us, and you will live to see what becomes of this world. Also, you will keep your life," Randel spoke. His voice carried a certain smugness and confidence, like he knew he could easily take out Aric.

Aric, on the other hand, didn’t say anything. He stared at Randel’s chain. Randel saw this as Aric disrespecting him, and that got to him greatly.

His eyebrows twitched in anger. "Ignoring me, right? Well, let’s see how that goes," he said and charged at Aric at full speed.

He moved far faster than even the spirits could follow, reaching Aric in an instant.

"I will make this world forget about you," he said in a cold tone as his hand landed on Aric’s shoulder.

"Don’t worry, though. I will take care of your spirits for you. Their potential was wasted on you anyway," Randel said.

"What the hell are you even saying?" Aric asked. His question stunned Randel. Randel took a step back in confusion. "How? How are you able to withstand the power I was granted by him?

"He said if I followed my path, I would never be stopped. So why? Why? Why are you able to stop me?" Randel roared, slowly going into rage. His confident demeanor and smugness evaporated, and what showed through was rage.

Suddenly, from behind Aric, several light blades shot at Randel. He looked up at them and dodged before they could reach him. His eyes were still blazing with anger, but his ability to fight was not clouded.

Aric turned to his back only to see all the spirits with pissed expressions. Unara had her hands stretched out, meaning she was the one that attacked.

"How dare a lowlife like you touch my master?" she said in a vexed voice. "You think your art is something to be admired? Your art takes away the joy of people by making it seem like they never existed. Of all people, you are the most despicable," Unara said.

"Hahaha... hahaha... this keeps getting worse. None of you are supposed to remember! Why do you all remember? I won’t allow you to remember!" Randel said. He took a few steps forward, and a white fog slowly came out of his body, forming a white creature seven feet tall with large crimson eyes.

Its arms were absurdly long, reaching its ankles, with black, shiny claws. It had skinny legs and hands that didn’t look like they could support its body.

The mouth of that creature was not on its face but rather on its abdomen—a large mouth where the inside looked like an abyss.

"Since my touch will not work, I’ll use other means to ensure my art is done. This is my spirit. Its name: Blank Canvas," Randel said.

It seemed as though calling its name was an activation of sorts. Blank Canvas let out a deafening roar and then started sucking. The pull from its mouth was tremendous, as even trees started getting pulled out of the ground.

Aric got lifted off the ground, but Quadoris controlled the earth. A pillar shot out and grabbed his feet, pulling him back to the ground.

"How are you all managing to stay down?" Aric asked as he got down.

"Spirit energy. Randel is using spirit energy. A greater spirit energy—one of better quality—will override his spirit energy," Unara explained.

"Our spirit energy comes from you, master. Since it was you who named us, we use the same type of energy you use," Deca added.

"So use your damn spirit energy already before you get sucked out of existence!" Pentharis yelled.

Aric did as they said. He closed his eyes and concentrated like before, and his spirit energy started circling around him. Immediately, it canceled out the pull of Blank Canvas. But Aric didn’t stop there.

He emitted more and more spirit energy like the last time when he tried to get his name.

"He is going overboard again," Nona said.

"Yeah, but I think we need that now," Pentharis said.

Randel saw that the spirit energy had blocked out the power of his Blank Canvas and that now Aric was emitting a stupid amount of spirit energy, siphoning all the spirit energy around.

"You... what are you? What are you?!" Randel roared in rage. "So you were the cause. You were the one my path led me to. Fine then. I will make you know my art. One day, I’ll use you to fulfill my path," Randel said.

"This dude is pissing me off too much," Octo suddenly said. He created a massive ice lance and shot it at Randel. He didn’t expect it to hit, but he did it anyway.

The ice lance traveled, and to their surprise, Randel didn’t dodge it. He allowed the ice lance to strike him in the chest. Blank Canvas instantly vanished.

Randel still had a smile on his face, even with the massive lance in his chest. "It seems this model is defective. He got angry too fast," Randel suddenly spoke. The way he spoke was vastly different from how he was speaking a few seconds ago.

It was still his confident tone, but this time it was far more domineering. Aric stopped using his spirit energy and started listening to Randel.

"I knew this model was too unfinished to be out, and it proved my point exactly. But nevertheless, you have piqued my interest, half-elf.

"I’d like to actually meet you in person and speak to you. There might be something that we have in common. I’m sure you will agree," Randel said. And then his body crumbled to dust, everything on him as well.

Aric stared at the heap of black dust the body had turned into. He didn’t know what to even think about what had happened just now.

"A puppet," Unara said as she walked behind Aric.

"So this wasn’t the real him then?" Aric asked to confirm.

"It seems so. He also said this model was defective, so it makes me certain that this was a puppet," Unara said.