46 046 | Betrayal

I mustn't let my friend die! Felix has always been there for me when we were kids! Despite how much I teased him, he was always staying by my side!

"GET OFF OF HIM!!"

I was the first one to reach Felix. My Raw Energy wasn't as swirling around as fire, instead, it was condensed into an extremely thin red layer, wrapping around my fist.

I punched the dark silhouette and managed to knock them back ten meters.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

Bridgette and Haydon immediately went to Felix and proceeded with emergency first-aid. Pen went to pick up Felix's ripped-off hands and I stood in front of them with my back facing towards them.

I will be there shield this time. I'm not sure what happened, but my Raw Energy is extremely powerful right now. Could this be? The legendary level? The step above and the difficult wall I was trying so hard to climb over?

The Profound State?

Whatever, questions later, battle now.

Felix's poor screams were still audible behind me. I glanced back and saw Bridgette taking off her own healing spell to help stop Felix from bleeding out. He was just a wailing torso.

The Lord of Darkness slowly stepped toward me and I did the same. They tilted their head as if they were cracking their neck.

"It seems you forcibly entered 'that' level. Quite interesting, I would not have expected someone of your caliber to ever reach it."

I scoffed, "I'm stupid, but I'm not THAT stupid."

The Lord of Darkness had already appeared behind me and hit me with a perfect crescent kick on my neck.

That attack blasted me away and at the speed that I traveled, I broke through half the tree trunk when I collided with it.

"It seems like you only barely reached the requirements for the offensive capability of that level. Not anything else seeing as you can't dodge such a slow kick."

Slow? THAT was slow?

I struggled to get up, "Hah...We're so f*cked."

The Lord of Darkness appeared in front of me and lifted me up by my neck with one hand.

"First the Sorcerer will bleed out, then followed shortly shall be your demise. I apologize but...we are unable to witness the fall of your kingdom together."

I felt their grip on my neck tighten and I couldn't breathe.

"Gah-"

"-What was that? Perhaps you should speak up, human."

Haydon was fending off the four Death Skeletons that were approaching Bridgette and Felix.

He was definitely having a hard time and yet, I'm here being useless as always...

I gathered my Raw Energy into my hands and grabbed the Lord of Darkness' forearm that was clenching my throat.

Raw Energy once again formed a thin membrane-like layer instead of the usual flame-like aura. I rebelled against the strength that held my throat the Lord of Darkness, unsurprisingly, was unfazed by my grip.

Thankfully, Pen came in to help. He came from behind and slashed with both of his sabers. He must have retrieved them some time. Pen conjured some sort of magic spell. He threw one of his sabers which stabbed the area right below the Lord of Darkness.

"Quicksand!"

As the dark silhouette started sinking into the ground, their grip on my throat loosened ever so slightly, allowing me to free myself from their clutches.

I kicked off from their chest and they clenched their fist the moment after I freed myself. The tree trunk behind me, although the Lord of Darkness wasn't touching it, was crushed and left a giant clench mark.

"Insane...", Pen says as he staggers from watching the sheer power that the Lord of Darkness possesses.

"There was no magic nor Raw Energy involved in that...", he continues.

I bumped shoulders with Pen so we could stand side by side.

"How's Felix?"

"He's definitely seen better days."

I sighed, "Sh*t."

The Lord of Darkness did a quick punch at the quicksand, shattering the ground as well as nullifying the magic.

Pen charged it, yelling at the top of his lungs.

He sent out a strong blade of mana with his single saber, of which the Lord of Darkness dissipated into dust with a single finger.

"Where do you think you're going, human?"

The Lord of Darkness creepily turned their head, watching Pen as he dived in to retrieve his other saber.

"Accelerate! Physical Enhancement!"

With those two spells that Pen had conjured upon himself, he barely dodged an attack from a Death Skeleton that jumped out of nowhere.

Surprisingly, the Lord of Darkness didn't take kindly to that.

"Mind your own business, scum."

The Death Skeleton took small frightful steps backward, his bones shaking with obvious fear.

The Lord of Darkness simply swiped his hand across and obliterated the Death Skeleton, reducing him to nothing but black ashes that drifted on the ground.

"Who allowed you to interfere? And you-"

They said as they turned around to catch both of Pen's sword attacks that were imbued with a sand spell as well as Pen who was coated in Raw Energy.

"You believe this can injure me?"

"Now Waryun! While I got both of hands occupied!!"

I rushed in with Raw Energy covering my entire body, a thin membrane of red shrouded my fists and I punched the dark silhouette right in the face.

That managed to bend the silhouette's head at an awkward angle but there were no visible signs of damage.

"You are not deserving of that 'level', a mere human with your talent?'"

The Lord of Darkness twisted its body in such a way that allowed them to slam me and Pen together. We both groaned during our collision, the Lord of Darkness then did a wide roundhouse kick that sent both of us flying.

We crash-landed near Bridgette and Felix as we descended, dragging the grass and dirt along our path.

Bridgette had the most shocked expression I've seen on her in a while.

"Hey, Bridge. Looks like we got two more patients."

"I'm not a doctor! Felix takes priority!"

"Yeah, we know, we'll still fight- ow!"

Crap, I felt four ribs broken.

"What's your count, Pen?"

The AU manager responded with a higher number, "I think they got six of my ribs. I was hit directly by that kick-"

Pen then proceeded to cough out blood uncontrollably. Today was not anyone's day.

I had a disgusting thought that maybe I should have kept the golden-haired kid here to help us. Then I realized I would just be labeled as a child abuser for sending him into his death.

"Right, and now we got these idiots to deal with."

Haydon protected all of us consecutively while clashing with the three other remaining Death Skeletons. AT LEAST, the Lord of Darkness murdered one of their own minions in cold blood.

But then again, it seems like they could have summoned another one at any given moment. It's not like we're a threat at all. All we're doing is buying time in our lives.

I got up slowly, forcibly exerting the last droplets of stamina I have to empower myself with Raw Energy.

"I wonder...how much time we're worth?"

Pen snorted but then proceeded to cough up blood again. He's going to have to take it easy for a while, six ribs broken is greater than four the last time I checked.

"Heh," Pen stayed true to his personality even as he was in pain. He got up with the help of leaning against one of his sabers and stabbed into the floor, "I think I'm worth a good minute."

"Can you prove that right now?"

The Lord of Darkness slowly stepped toward us. Ominous amounts of magic power filled the air around us. It was...suffocating, to say the least.

Haydon just executed a wide horizontal slash repelling the three Death Skeletons, they backed off when their master came. Haydon retreated by backstepping and came in between the middle of Pen and me, forming a shield around Felix and Bridgette.

"Haha, trouble approaches!"

The three skeletons cowered like rats and lowered their heads, afraid of what's to come if they disobey the Lord of Darkness.

"Looks like you guys learned from my lesson."

One of the Death Skeletons nodded their head slowly, "Yes, master, we have seen for ourselves that-"

"Who gave you permission to speak?"

"M-master, I only meant-"

The dark silhouette put its hand on the Death Skeleton who spoke out of turn, the skeleton's black bones were slowly crumbling into nothingness.

"Disappear, you mere pawn. I gave a small ounce of my power to one of you and they truly believe they were the Grim Reaper? How foolish."

The Lord of Darkness turned their head in our direction. Their dark silhouette flickered for a slight second.

"Ah, it seems like a mere Death Skeleton can't contain even a fraction of my power for any longer. I will have to apologize, humans, you will not be able to see the downfall of your kingdom with me."

"As if we'll let you destroy our home!"

"Haha, that's right!", Haydon added, "We shall not stand idly as allow you to do as your wish!"

The dark silhouette looked oddly at Haydon.

"A priest are you? Sent from the Holy Axis?"

"Haha, I've quit being one a long time ago! I was promoted to priest a week before I resigned!"

Once again, I felt a smile coming from the Lord of Darkness. No, it wasn't a smile, rather, a forbidding grin.

"If you become one of my devoted followers, I shall grant you power and wealth, levels beyond what the people around you can muster!"

As if Haydon was actually deciding on it, he dropped his sword and walked to the Lord of Darkness. He turned around and smiled at us.

"Haha...my apologies, my friends."

No way...

"Haydon! You're not serious, are you?!"

Despite my yelling, Haydon had already turned his back against us.

The Lord of Darkness spread their arms, welcoming Haydon. They laughed devilishly...

but as soon as Haydon came closer, the Lord of Darkness stopped laughing.

"I see...I'm heavily disappointed in you, priest."

Before anyone had time to react, the Lord of Darkness held Haydon up by the throat, a steel dagger dropped from Haydon's grasp.

Seeing that, I instantly realized Haydon's plan all along.

"You- How could you! Don't think of sacrificing yourself for any of us!"

Haydon smiled wholeheartedly with his eyes closed. He mouthed the words:

Thank you, my friend.

The Lord of Darkness threw his body like a rag, sending him through a few trees.

Pen and I both charged in blindly, screaming at the top of our lungs.

The dark silhouette slithered around our combined attacks. Pen was using different sand spells but nothing was effective. The Lord of Darkness launched Pen in the air with a knee kick to his gut and teleported back up behind him to slam Pen down with a straight punch aimed at his lower back.

Pen then came crashing down and remained unconscious as he struck the floor. The Lord of Darkness then proceeded to appear behind me and struck me with the back of their hand.

My body slowly fell over and as my head turned to look up at the dark silhouette, they kicked my face and I fell unconscious as I rolled into the bottom of a tree trunk.