14 Chapter 12 - Believer

Due Return by Death, Jens again returned to his save point. This time, without even giving Masquerade a chance to say something, Jens collapsed.

"Why was I chosen to live this life? Why did Satella chose me? Why did Masquerade erase my memories? Why am I still alive? Why do I keep returning from my death? Why? Why? Why?"

The thoughts of Jens were filled with depressing ones and didn't go away. His body was embraced with fear because of Masquerade. It is the clown that erased Jens' memories. Jens was angry, but he didn't have the courage to even stand up.

Emilia : "Jens!"

Screaming out of fear, Emilia ran towards Jens while screaming his name.

Masquerade : "Hmm?"

The man with the mask slightly tilted his head while looking at Jens.

Raven : "What's with him? Is there a problem?"

Beatrice : "Don't move... Emilia, check his heartbeat."

Emilia ran towards Jens and grabbed his hand, checking if he had a pulse.

Emilia : "Jens! Please! Oh... Stay Alive!"

Right after a few seconds, Emilia realized he was alive and felt relieved.

Masquerade : "Raven-sama... I assume that Jens saw too much because of... you know."

Raven : "How do you know?"

Masquerade : "I assume. I'm not confirming anything."

His voice changed from the clown high pitched voice into a serious man's voice. Raven looked worried at Masquerade.

Masquerade : "Let's finish this Raven-sama... We should probably keep moving. I can sense some serious help coming this way. It might be the Sword Saint. If that's true, we wont return alive..."

Raven : "We can deal with the Sword Saint. We can't kill him, but we can stop him for sure. But I agree, finishing this is the best idea."

The woman with beautiful black hair named Raven returned her sword into its sheet and then grabbed it again, showing a red blade.

Masquerade grabbed two scimitars out of his tuxedo and kept them in a defensive stance. Firing Magic towards Masquerade had no effect. These blades would cut the magic with ease.

Masquerade : "We should kill the Half Elf first. After all, she's one of the things we should get out of the way."

Raven : "I agree."

Then--

Ram : "Stay back. If you'll move any more further, me and sister will kill you!"

Rem : "Don't move. Making a move means you are willing to fight us. Me and Ram will kill you!"

Rem and Ram stood in front of Beatrice and protected her. Ram pointed her magical wand towards Raven and Rem head her morning star in her hands.

Raven : "Fighting you is simply a waste of time. However, I assume you are demi-humans, no... You two girls are Demons, am I right?"

Rem : "How do you know?"

Masquerade : "It wasn't your fault you couldn't save Quark or Temae, Cheeky, or various others."

Ram : "WHAT?! ARE YOU GUYS PART OF THE WITCH CULT?!"

Raven : "Masquerade, what are you talking about?"

She looked worried at Masquerade, yet even concerned. She started to doubt if she even knew the one behind the mask.

Masquerade : "Don't you remember me? I know exactly who you two are. Remember Dudley Miload? He was a good guy... sad that we had to extinguish his embers in effigy."

Rem : "Don't you dare to talk about him. My mother and dad did not die in vain. We'll demolish and shatter your hopes right now. You freaking psychopath!"

Masquerade : "My my! Watch your tongue, unless you want to suffer the same fate your father suffered. Do you really want that, be honest please!"

Ram : "I'm done!"

Ram swung with her wand a few times into various directions. Then suddenly, few wind magic spell were fired towards Masquerade. But, for some reason, everything went right through him.

Masquerade : "Please, show me something real."

Raven, immediately opened her portal and disappeared. Not for long though, as she teleported behind Beatrice and tried to cut her head off.

Raven : "Sorry."

However, Beatrice immediately summoned herself and Raven away to another location.

Emilia was still healing Jens. Yang was their guard and looked around her to look for someone else if someone would try to hurt Jens or Emilia.

Ram : "What the hell are you?"

Masquerade : "You see, I was the one that hired the Witch Cult to attack the Oni Village. You see, these blades are infused with Demon Blood. I had to kill some Demons to create these Demonic Lyra Blades. Lyra, cute name, right? Well, I didn't intent to attack your Oni Village, but yours was closer, so I paid less and they attacked your village. Truly amazing! Your parents, indeed didn't die in vain, they're still in these blades! Truly amazing!"

Rem : "SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP! I'm done with this crap."

Rem closed her eyes and then suddenly, a pink horn appeared out of her forehead. Unexplainable what it was, she grabbed her morning star and swung with it towards Masquerade, but it went right through him and hit the wall of the mansion, collapsing the ceiling with everyone underneath it.

Ram : "El Fura!"

Emilia : "Huma!"

Rem : "Huma!"

Masquerade : "Hmm..."

Everyone shielded themselves. Ram created a burst of wind and pushed the falling wooden plankes away, Rem and Emilia both created a ice shield so nothing of the mansion would hit her.

Ram and Rem jumped on Masquerade and kicked him in the fountain, this time, they actually hit a solid hit on him. Yang took Jens on her back and put him on the ground a few meters away from the mansion in a grass field near the fountain.

Masquerade : "Ugh, my suit is wet. That really sucks. You know, I'm quite irritated. Not sure how you're doing this, but now, I'll really fuck you guys up. To be honest, I'm quite done with this shit!"

Yang : "Shut up you fucker! What the fuck did you do to my mother? That isn't my mother what I just saw!"

Yang was screaming towards Masquerade, he noticed the emotions Yang felt, yet didn't care and ignored her melancholy.

Rem walked towards Masquerade with her Horn, Morning Star and blood on her forehead. She was angry, no, she searched for vengeance.

Rem : "Al Huma!"

Rem created a giant pillar of Ice and fired it towards Masquerade, however he easily teleported it away to another place and with that being Rem's last Mana, she collapsed, she sat down on her knees while Ram was protecting her.

Then, the portal of Raven again appeared and an injured Raven fell out of it and Beatrice landed on her knees on the ground near Ram and Rem.

Beatrice : "She's... so strong..."

Beatrice lost consciousness and fell on the ground. Rem made her horn disappear and started healing Beatrice. Ram still pointed her wand towards Masquerade and didn't lose him out of her sight.

Raven landed near Masquerade, standing but injured.

Raven : "Ugh... Masquerade, finish this. Kill the boy."

Masquerade : "With pleasure!"

Masquerade collected Yang Mana from around the whole mansion and summoned a beam of light.

Masquerade : "Solar Akra!"

He released a beam of light. This beam was filled with an extreme amount of Yang Mana. So much that it would easily destroy everything on hit. Jens was still lying on the ground. Emilia created a shield, but it would impossibly protect her, Yang and Jens.

Yang : "JENS!"

Emilia : "JENS!"

But suddenly, Jens stood up and pointed his hands towards the beam of light. Without hesitation, he felt his the fear leave his body and found the courage to believe in himself. When the beam of light was about to hit Jens, the light got separated into thousands of small beams and disappeared.

Jens was uninjured, yet his hand were burning with fire. He opened his eyes and didn't even feel the fire. If someone would see Jens now for the first time, they would think he's a Fire User. But he clearly isn't, Jens is a Yin User, but this wasn't some kind of magic. This was a rare ability that not many people possessed. He just deflected and erased one of the most strongest magics existing.

He grabbed his sword which he had still on his back. He then finally opened his eyes and the flames of his hands disappeared and spread to his sword. His sword was flaming with burning holy fire.

Jens : "Raven... Masquerade isn't the one you think he is. I saw the truth. He's the cause of my amnesia. He's the cause of this bad story. But no problem. I'll be playing the protagonist and will fight... for a happy ending.

Raven looked worried and immediately grabbed her sword, but--

Masquerade : "Baria!"

He shielded himself with Yang Mana and the attack of Raven did nothing. Raven jumped back and Masquerade stayed calm.

Raven : "Who are you? You aren't Septimus?!"

Masquerade : "Septimus and Uta Pallas are dead. Like you've already--"

Suddenly, Nathan appeared. He came running from out of the forest and he had a sword in his hand with his Mana was storming inside of him. The wrath he felt was immense. He walked towards Raven, fearlessly. It was as if the Wind Mana was storming outside of his body. However, he clearly ignored Raven and walked passed her and stood in front of her pointing the edge of his sword towards Masquerade.

Everyone felt Nathan's immense Mana and everyone noticed him. Masquerade looked at Nathan and Nathan looked at Masquerade.

Nathan : "You're the one... You're the one that took Melissa..."

Masquerade : "Oh my god! You're right dumb ass. It took you too long to realize it."

Nathan : "Let me guess. Lucius von Rosewald is also dead?"

The Rosewald family is a noble family from Volakia and is related to the Roswaal family.

Jens : "Nathan? What are you talking about?"

Nathan : "Few years ago, when the Royal Family started to die, I had a friend. Her name was Melissa Lestrange. We met some guy seemingly named Lucius von Rosewald and he helped us defeat some other guys. But this guy took my friend away from me!"

Masquerade : "Truly amazing. I thought you were unconscious, how did you know?"

Nathan : "Why do you care? I'll destroy you. Where the fuck is she? TELL ME!"

Masquerade : "She's somewhere in Lugnica. We don't need her anymore. She's trash."

Nathan : "YOU FUCKER! AL FURA!"

Nathan released a beam of wind which had the form of a really thin tornado and it pierced right through the heart of Masquerade.

Masquerade : "Ah..."

Raven ran towards Masquerade and sliced right through his head. But the mirror appeared and he teleported away.

Jens : "Did you kill him Raven?"

Raven : "I think so... But I'm not sure... Goodbye... Yang and Jens"

Raven swung with her sword and created a red portal. She immediately jumped in it and disappeared.

Ram and Rem both collapsed, Yang started crying and Emilia ran towards Ram, Rem and Beatrice.

Jens : "We did it."

Yang : "Ye... Yeah..."

Nathan : "We'll kill him. I don't care about Raven. I'll fucking kill him."

Jens : "But Nathan, he said you were unconscious, how do you know it was him?"

Nathan : "Melissa once told me that the one she saw had an weird immense Aura. Few weeks ago, I learned how to read Aura and this guy was the exact same. Also, his voice was familiar. But that isn't important right now, go help Emilia, I'll check out where Roswaal is!"

Jens : "Got it!"

Jens ran towards Emilia. His thoughts where filled with questions on how the hell he blocked that super powerful attack. He felt a burning energy in his body at that moment and stood up when he felt he had to.

He saw Emilia sitting on her knees and Beatrice finally woke up. Ram and Rem were still unconscious.

Jens : "How is it going with them?"

Emilia : "Bad. Their aura is seriously shattered. Their internal organs are also exhausted."

Beatrice : "We did it... We protected the mansion..."

Jens : "But the mansion is destroyed partly? How did we protect it?"

Emilia : "Only one part of the Mansion was important to us and we succeeded in them not allowing to come there."

Beatrice : "Indeed. Emilia, I can handle this again, I suppose. Go find Nathan and find confirmation about where Roswaal is."

Emilia : "Got it!"

Emilia walked calmly, entering the mansion and Jens followed her.

Jens : "I can help you, right?"

Emilia : "Sure. Jens, you really did save me again."

Jens : "I... I went through so much pain. But you know what---"

Suddenly, Pack appeared out of his crystal and sat on Emilia's cat.

Pack : "Nya, Goodmorning... You're both alive, so I guess Jens really did save you."

Emilia : "He did... Nobody died, Raven escaped along with Masquerade. Right! Sorry, what did you want to say Jens?"

Jens : "I went through so much pain... But it's worth it."

Emilia : "Jens... Maybe you should leave me... It's safer for you. You got caught in so much problems because of me, maybe its better..."

Jens : "No, I want to stay here. I want to stay with you."

Emilia : "Oh but I refuse to endanger one more friend. I refuse to risk another's pain again!"

Jens : "You're free to do the things you want, but listen so am I! The only pain I know is when you shut me out. No matter what, you'll never walk alone, one thing I won't do is to let you go alone to face the fight, Emilia."

"I... I think I really do love Emilia...."

Emilia's beautiful amethyst colored eyes started to get watery until her eyes bursted in tears and she jumped in Jens' arms to receive a hug and cry on his shoulders.

Emilia : "Thanks Jens... Thanks for accepting who I am and... Staying with me..."

Her voice was hard to understand as she was sobbed the whole time. Jens wasn't sad because of her tears, he was truly relieved that Emilia actually cared about him and accepted him.

Jens looked at the hole in the ceiling looking at the sun which was about to go down, thinking about today and the relief of finally surviving Masquerade and Raven Branwen.

Jens : "I'll never leave you alone. I... I love you Emilia."

Hearing this, Emilia took a step back and wiped her tears. Looking at Jens worried and concerned.

Emilia : "L..Love? What is 'Love'?"

Jens : "Wait... you don't know what love is?"

Emilia : "I... I think I haven't told you everything about me, which I should've done...."

Jens : "Don't tell me something weird please..."

Emilia : "How old do you think I am?"

Jens : "I'm not sure. Seventeen, eighteen?"

Emilia : "Technically... I'm one hundred and seven years old."

Jens : "Wait what?! How are you still alive then?"

Emilia : "I'll explain it, but it's nothing to worry about."

Suddenly, the small spirit Pack jumped in Emilia's hands and looked at her.

Pack : "Lia... please let me explain it."

Emilia : "But Pack..."

Pack : "I was there that day, I'll explain it."

Emilia : "If you say so..."

Pack jumped in his crystal and disappeared. Jens and Emilia both walked the stairs, but Jens had only thought and that was :

"107... That's a big number. I wonder... how is that even possible?"