Despair [2]

Confusion and fear spread once again. The adventurers had only their swords to fight against the monsters, so the result was clear. Relics, battle aura, artifacts… Everything stopped working.

Even the knights who were more equipped, wearing armor and holding giant shields, couldn't withstand a single blow from the monster's tentacles without their battle aura.

Their swords didn't even pierce the monsters' skin. And there was no hope of beating these creatures with physical strength alone.

People were being crushed like bugs, and while agonizing, their life defiling before their eyes.

It was a scene out of a nightmare.

"Kuh… Kukuku. This is quite violent…" Even someone like Yvanksi was now covered with wounds. "Are you still alive, my friend?"

"Huff… Huff… Oui, but this is bad…" Christopher fell to his knees, despite saying these words.

And things weren't better for anyone else.

"Princess!" Manou couldn't throw her axe anymore and was cornered. Her physical ability was outstanding, and she could probably survive this if she was alone, but she protected the other women, her companions. "Just go! You don't need to worry about us."

"Hmph…" Manou squinted her eyes. Would she really run away for her life? Her? The future queen of the Barea tribe?

"How did it all come to this?" Even Caesar was at his end wits "What the hell happened?"

Zoe and Boris were lying on the ground, and he was also half standing, not capable of doing anything but watching his followers being eaten alive.

Only dozens of monsters were left, but it was like putting dozens of lions inside a room full of chickens.

They were completely helpless. People started to run away, abandoning their friends while they were being devoured alive.

And monsters didn't wait for those who still tried to process what was happening to them. The monsters knew only how to destroy.

People were screaming. People were suffering. People were dying.

"What is this? This is hell…"

"Why did this happen? Why?"

The adventurers and the knights' morale hit the rock bottom, almost as if they gave up trying to fight back. They were terrified by the thought of dying even though hope was within their grasp just a minute ago.

"Protect the Emperor!" George shouted, but it wasn't like that would change anything.

Thud! The knights of the red Lily were being annihilated one after another.

"Guh…" Garcia was one of them. Her bones were shattered in pieces, to the point that she couldn't even stand, coughing blood.

"Garcia!" Laurence shouted, but it wasn't like anyone could save her. They were all in a difficult situation. There was no time to even turn back and look at their fallen comrades.

"I have already said it at the beginning," the cause of this despair spoke. Calmly, Lucian reminded the adventurers of his words. "If you are worthless, you will die."

"You bastard! What are you saying at times like this?" George finally snapped. It was as if Lucian was adding salt to the wound.

Garcia was gravely injured because she was facing directly against a monster when she suddenly lost the ability to use her power and her battle aura.

How could he say these words when people were dying? How could this man look that calm? How could he just stay there, not doing anything? Is he a monster?

Not only George, Caesar, Solomon, Rezalea, Manou, Yukino, Yvanski, Christophe, and Valentina, all the main characters of this story, they all looked at Lucian.

Lucian was calm. He didn't even move an inch all of this time. He didn't help. All he did was observe and talk like he knew everything.

In that situation, anyone would be unnerved by his arrogant attitude. More and more people began to ask, what was his problem?

People were dying. People were being killed. Did he not feel anything?

A hero would put himself in front of everyone and protect them from enemies. A hero would never let anyone die. A hero would use his power to create miracles.

But that was why everything a hero did would be meaningless in the end. Their sacrifice would be worthless. The world would remain the same.

In the end, in front of despair, humans tend to push their weaknesses on someone else. They needed a reason for everything that went wrong. They needed a simple explanation for things that were beyond their comprehension. Lucian understood that.

Lucian didn't need them to understand his actions. He wanted them to understand their own weakness. He was not a hero. He would do anything for the sake of his goal.

"In my hand, there's a ball of light," Lucian continued, his voice transmitted to everyone. He didn't care if they listened to him or not. "That's the reason why you can't use your power. But all of you can't see it. If you want to be able to use your power again, use your imagination, and find the answer if you want to live. What you need to do is simple. All you need to do is to look at the ball of light."

"….."

"…..."

"….."

"Are you joking? Bastard!" George shouted. He had completely lost his composure because Garcia was in a critical state.

Keeping up against the monsters and trying not to die was already hard enough. This was not the time for riddles.

"Lucian, stop this, please," Rezalea said with a pained expression.

They looked at Lucian's hand, but they didn't see anything. There was no such ball of light. And it wasn't like they had the time to think about such a thing.

"Then, there's no use in struggling to stay alive. All of you are already dead," Lucian repeated. "It doesn't matter if you die inside of the Abyss or here. Your death is inevitable. What I am showing you is a way to overturn the inevitable. A different outcome. Now choose."

"You bastard!" George shouted in rage.

"All of this would have happened sooner or later. I just sped up the process," Lucian answered.

"Bastard!!" George shouted, and the other knights shared their feelings.

"Don't blame your weakness on someone else," Lucian said. "Look around you. No matter what you do, nothing would change, because you don't even understand why is this happening. And, I didn't do anything at all. I am just stating the obvious."

It wasn't like Lucian could accurately predict the future. But he considered all of the possibilities.

This time, though, he didn't even need to do anything much.

The incident inside the elevator. Zebal's rampage. The merchant. The blacksmith. Rita. Everything appeared to be going too smoothly. As if all of the pieces were already gathered beforehand.

Of course, Lucian was aware that. But it didn't change what he needed to do.

He didn't care about who was behind this, and even if their intervention made it easier for Lucian to execute his plan, it didn't really change anything, because he was focused on the bigger picture, in which all of those coincidences were just replaceable pieces of the puzzle.

Even if it were to follow a different path, he still would reach this stage and would say these words to humans gathered in a single place. It didn't have to be them.

"Huhu~ This is quite troubling~" Valentina said these words in a playful tone, but her eyes were serious.

"Lucian… What are you trying to say? I can't understand you at all…" Rezalea raised her voice. She sounded like she was wavering. She didn't know what to say or what to do.

"….." Solomon didn't say anything. He understood that what Lucian was doing might be the only way...

"And there are some of you who has the potential to reach the next level." He finally revealed his true intentions.

After that, several metallic cubes emerged from within Lucian's sack.

"It's your choice. Use these to save yourself… No one else would save you."