Ch.31: Sacrifice.

If you had a two children, one born with an overwhelming amount of magic power with below par skills and the other with little magic power, but exceedingly good skills, which would you save?

You could argue both sides of the case but when said and done, there is only one option.

And that is..

....

Floor 15.

The students were all doing different things as Griffith and his platoon watched with nods and smiles. In just a short time, they've accustomed themselves to the Dungeon and have proven themselves worthy of being summoned heroes.

Well, all but one.

'Nah, I need to train this bodies stamina and magic power because this....this won't do bruh..' Aric was sluggish and was the only person who seemed tired. This body of his wasn't the least bit of fit, coupled by him burdened with no cool gifts, making him have a terrible overall.

'Actually, can I even increase my magic power? It's been a month and yet, I've barely increased it..' When they were first summoned here, everyone started off with the base magic power of 1000. That was a lot for humans. Anyways, since they were summoned, everyones Magic power atleast went up to 1,500 while Aric barely made it past 1,010.

'Shit is scripted bruh. I hope I take a skill that increases Magic power or something..' He sighed as he barely defeated the skeleton. 'And the fact that I have to touch them before killing them is also annoying. I mean, if they were human then I could probably out smart them, fighting wise, but with monsters, they have patterns of attacks that are so random, they seem stupid..'

They would throw things, break things, they would sometimes look dazed then attack when someone gets close. 'Its scary to think that monsters are smarter than man. And these monsters are low leveled as well...'

He sighed and laid onto the ground. 'Man..I just wanna find Tory, kiss her, tell her how happy she makes me..' He kept rambling on with a smile on his face. He didn't know how long it would be until he found her but he can wait.

He wasn't gonna search because he was sure that fate would bring them together. Yes, fate. The same fate who gave him the fate of killing his father. Fate.

"Hey guys, look at this." They all looked over at the orange haired boy. He was pointing at a huge crystal that was stuck in the wall. 'Wait, don't touch that dude..' Aric slowly got up as he began reaching for it.

"NO! DON'T TOUCH-...!"

Despite his efforts, Griffith and everyone else disappeared as the orange haired boy touched the crystal. Arriving on a unknown location, they all fell down and hit the hard floor.

'Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't...shit..' He began crying from the pain he felt. 'Man...this body bruh. It has a natural instinct to cry on it's own..' Everyone slowly began to sit up, groaning in the process. 'What the hell is this place?' Everyone thought, even Griffith.

"Shit.."

Griffith said out loud. The classmates and knights became confused by his words. "What's wrong, Sir Griffith?" Kyle asked for everyone. Griffith started biting at his nails, looking around in the process.

"I've..never seen this part of the dungeon before.." It didn't take a genius to understand that they were screwed. If the lowest floor he ever got to was 46 and he's never seen this before, it must mean that they were lower than that.

Now, they could quite easily be on the 47th floor but each floor grew way stronger than the last in this and every other dungeon so basically, it didn't matter.

'Well great. This means we're dead, right?' Aric fully got up and dusted his clothes off. He then looked around the room, his sisters latching back onto his legs.

'A broken down castle...across this long bridge..' There was a castle that rivaled a Japanese high school across a long bridge that was no longer than the golden gate bridge. 'I wonder if we could find artifacts..' Artifacts would be something like a ring that increases magic power.

Aric is so knowledgeable in thing like artifacts or even how he knew not to touch that crystal because he reads a lot in his spare time. While history is boring, that's earth's history. They're in another world for Gods sake, he'll put something like not liking history behind himself.

'My top priority...is protecting Rei and Hima. They're shaking like their buck naked in the cold or something..' He placed his hand on their heads while looking at Griffith. He was ordering his men to go take a look at the castle while trying to calm down the students as well.

'He's stressed too, huh? Yeah, we're screwed..' Aric showed no change in expression to make his sisters worry less. As the knights walked across the bridge, they didn't know that the castle had a magic circle underneath it, only to activate when something comes into a close enough proximity to it.

"Everyone. Listen up. Seeing as the stairs to the next level are across the bridge, we'll have to wait for my men to make sure that it's safe. Can you all wait?"

There was a black space in the shape of a door to the side of the castle. That should allow them to go down or up. ""Yes Sir."" The students said in unison. They were scared but they still kept their composure.

The knights got into said proximity of the magic circle, causing it to glow purple and go cover the entire castle. Everyone flinched at the huge surge of magic power entering their head space. It caused some to fall onto the ground while it caused others to throw up.

'S-Such power..' Aric picked his sisters up and turned his back to the surge of magic power. The center of the castle exploding into a dust storm, making the room shake ferociously. As tension rose, so did a huge mammoth. Its horns rivaling a bus, its build being bigger than big.

Its shadow casted over the students with its red eyes locking onto them all. 'Whelp, God. It's been fun and all but I think I'll be back in heaven sooner than you realized...' He then remembered that he had to stay alive until said so. If he died now, it'll be for good.

""Big brother..."" The sound of his sisters crying also made him realize that he can't die just yet. Not until they're safe. Not until he gets them to the surface. 'I...found another purpose in living. Thanks for the opportunity, God..'

"Prepare to fight, men!"

He ordered his remaining solders to get into formation. A hoard of skeletons with armor and weapons were also summoned and they easily killed the knights that were close to them.

"And kids, you need to be ready as well.." He said while looking out the corner of his eye. He didn't like to see them fight in a battle like this but they needed all the power they could muster. Some students disagreed while people like Kyle and Mike jumped onto the opportunity.

"Okay, you two. Stay here while your brother helps his classmates.." He sat them down and kissed their foreheads. They then grabbed onto his shirt and shook their heads no at him.

"Pwease don't leave us...we're scared~..." Aric stared at them for a moment then shook his head. "I know. I...know. Truth be told, I'm scared too. But you know what's pushing me right now? You two. I...have to be brave enough to show you both that I'm not afraid to fight such a thing. Do you...understand that?"

They began to cry even harder and louder. "Aric! Come help us!" Someone shouted at him but he just ignored them. "Rei and Hima. Please help me...by showing me your beautiful smiles. If you do, we can push through this together. I know we can.."

He crotched up and left before he could hear their response. The horde of skeletons were making their way across the bridge, the mammoth sitting back and gauging the power level of the humans in front of it.

"Its level...this floor is level 56! Everyone! Be careful!" Griffith shouted out while pulling the long sword off his back. The knights then lined up on either side of him while the students stayed behind him.

'You have to live, Aric. This isn't some game. Death is death now. You won't get a second chance and will go straight to hell..' He didn't want to have a family reunion just yet and so, he had to stay alive.

As the skeletons got closer, the knights attacked. They were all trained by Griffith themselves and were very experienced. 'Wow..' Aric watched with a smirk and nod. 'In The Face Of Overwhelming, Just Give Up.'

He thought this as the skeletons were easily killing the humans. Like when he first met Tory, he showed that he wasn't a pushover, but also showed that he knew he was nothing in her presence.

"D-Damn it.." The more death and blood he saw, the more Griffith worried. The students talked amongst themselves at the groans and beads of sweat that appeared on Griffith's forehead.

After the small slaughter, they continued coming towards the students. 'Damn it, Griffith! Step up!' Griffith gave out a battle cry and rushed at the skeletons. Kyle had enough of sitting back and watching and so he did the same.

He told the students of a formation before he did and they were in said formation. Mages in the back while sword wielders and such were out in the front fighting. 'Yeah, imma just stay here. I don't have weapons, a dumb mistake on my part for not getting, and so I'll be useless..'

Griffith sort of held back the skeletons. It wasn't until kyle came in and fought them could you actually seen a turning point in battle.

His sword, Light Bringer, could turn anything black, good. Racist, huh? Yeah, anyways, he easily defeated the skeletons as Monsters themselves were the spawn of the 7 sins.

Any form of good could kill them. Even talking to them could possibly change their hearts but monsters will be monsters and so, good luck. The mages used fire attack spells and such and destroyed the skeletons too.

Things seemed to be going well until the mammoth had enough. The sound of thunder sprung out as it took slow steps towards the humans. Each step would leave a small crater while the ceiling would shake as well.

'It doesn't have skills, but brute force itself. I...yeah, fuck them classmates. Besides Hirito and maybe, just maybe...kaiyo, everyone can die for all I care.' He then turned around and his smile slowly faded into a frown.

"H-Help.." Rei squealed out as a skeleton stood over her and Hima. Aric didn't think about how the skeleton got past him as he dashed at them, his body turning into lines from his speed. The skeleton then brung its sword up and swung down on the kids.

It was stopped however as darkness filled its vision. 'Quick..' Surprisment snapped Rei and Hima out of their trance of fear as they looked at their brother. He had on a face they've never seen before and it scared them.

'I let this get past me, huh? Never again..' A being could mask their aura if they coat their body in magic. It only works if a being that the being is trying to hide from has a smaller pool of magic than them. 'I took swordmanships from it. But c'mon, Aric, you have to be more perceptive than this. The hell is wrong with you?'

"And I was just talking about protecting you two. Sorry for being-"

"Aric! We need you!"

Someone interrupted him but this time, he actually listened. The mammoth was running at the group of students in which he sighed. 'Yeah, I know my role..' Going into a run via a skip, he dashed over towards the group of students.

"Give me time sir.."

He sat down in front of them, crossed his legs and closed his eyes. "Yes!" Said Griffith. He knew Aric's role as well and went along with it. If it could save everyone, he'd sacrifice a student. 'I know, he knows, everyone's know..'

Aric wasn't the main guy in this story. He knew his magic was created for this very purpose. 'I..don't care though. If this can protect Rei and Hima...then that's fine.

God, you really are giving me the work this time. I never do things for others and here I am... protecting a group of people who I barely considers people..'

He went to the Realm Of Magic and started connecting his dots. 'If there was a reason..' He got to the 6th dot and looked at the 7th. 'Then do it now, Aric! Connect this fucking dot to save them!' You could see veins popping out his forehead and hands as he stretched the tiny line towards the 7th dot.

The mammoth eyes gleamed a bit as it saw the human sitting on the ground. It could feel it almost breaking through into stage two of their magic and so it decided to go for him. 'Jasmine. Ah, I can already hear your crying for some reason. Rei and Hima too. Wait, why do they sound so close...?'

He broke through.

When he did, he felt objects wrap around his waist. 'Rei and Hima..' He opened his eyes and looked down at them. 'What the hell are you doing?!' His eyes filled to be pitch grey in color as he unconsciously placed his hand on the ground.

When he did, the bridge cracked and a horizontal line formed from the sides of the bridge and behind him at that. 'No, I-I can't.... I CAN'T CONTROL IT!' He got up and wrapped the kids off of him. The ground underneath him was also cracking.

'Rei and Hima..' He slipped on air, meaning the bridge underneath him was broke. "I messed up, huh?" He smiled at them as he threw Rei up and used his free hand to quickly grab the edge of the cracked bridge. The mammoth was screaming out as it fell down into the dark pits of nothingness.

"H-Help him!"

Rei crawled back to the edge and said. She couldn't help him and she knew that. 'I-Im slipping..' He looked at Hima who was unconscious from too much anxiety and stress. 'I was joking about dying, God. C'mon bro, don't kill me like this..' All he could do was make jokes instead of taking this seriously.

The students and knights stayed back and watched as the little girl talked to the ledge. They didn't know how much weight the bridge could take right now and so they waited. The had to hold back Kaiyo and Hirito from rushing out however.

"Listen to me, Rei. I'm gonna pass your sister up to you and then I'll climb up, okay?" He sighed out. 'Liar..' She began shaking her head. "Liar!" She yelled at him. She knew when her brother was lying as he didn't have the best poker face.

"Y-You're gonna fall~..."

"Yep, I am. Unless you take Hima. Take Hima!"

He yelled at her and slowly pushed her up. Rei rapidly nodded and took her sisters hand. 'Damn it..' From 5 fingers, 4 now hung on. "Rei..." He gave out one last sigh, the world seeming to slow down as she looked one last time at her brother.

"I'll find my way back to you, okay? So don't worry. I.... I promise.." Her eyes slowly began to widen as out the corner of her eye, she saw his fingers coming undone. "No.." Kaiyo and Hirito managed to get through the blockade of knights and ran at the little girl on the bridge.

'If I actually die here, it'll be kinda sad but..I'll be happy. Happy becuase I knew that I was able to save my family. I..rarely got such an opportunity in my past life..' Memories of this body flooded through his head, causing a line of sweat from his eye to fall down into the dark void.

"I..promise.."("NOOO") His sister screamed at him as he showed a wide smile. 'If you had two children, one born with an overwhelming amount of magic power with below par skills and the other with little magic power, but exceedingly good skills, which would you save?

You could argue both sides of the case but when said and done, there is only one option.

And that is..

To Save The One Who Deserves It.'

....