Despair

We were sitting in another glorious place, the cafeteria. The food was definitely better than even the damn president's meals. It did make it hard to focus on the serious conversation that was going on though.

"Why did you propose this battle?", asked the black hair guy, who I still haven't learned his name.

"Well I believe we stand more of a chance now. I know Galldred was banned from fighting because of his rampages, but I believe you would be a good replacement", she responded.

I totally forgot she gave me that name. "Mark" definitely feels more weird than Marklenkuinshinten. And what did she mean by Galldred's rampages? That wimp couldn't even hurt a fly with broken wings!

"What will you do if I said I wasn't going to participate in the battle? Afterall, all your mother told me was to protect you", the black haired guy smiled devilishly.

"Are you really going to turn your back on the Lady last second?!", yelled August at him.

"Yes I am. What are you going to do about it?"

Lady Dom raised her hand to silence them. Honestly, I hated the change in her eyes. She definitely felt crueler and evil. Maybe I should use this chance to get out of this.

"How about this? I can promise you a guaranteed victory against that pretty boy if you take me out of your harem afterwards", I proposed.

"Fine", she agreed without a second thought. It's almost like she put all her focus on winning this battle.

"Are you really going to agree on those terms?! People would be suspicious if he actually won, and you took him out of your harem right after!", August tried to ruin my plan like an absolute pri-

"I don't care. If I can make the prince feel even a bit of the humiliation that I felt, I would do anything!", she declared with twisted determination.

Did I forget to mention that we're in a cafeteria? Anyways, that pretty boy was actually a prince? What the hell! What if he actually is kinda strong? Nah, my stand Cream is invincible! Except for the huge glaring weakness it has, but it should be fine.

"By the way, could you explain in better detail how the fight is going to go down?", those bandits didn't really know much about nobles.

"Well it's a 3v3. The harem leader can only boost her 2 harem members with mana, but isn't allowed to fight. Also, because this is a battle betting something, we will be fighting to the death", August actually didn't yell for once.

If I remember correctly, a popular spell in the academy called "perfect clone" lets nobles control a perfect clone of themselves whenever they want to fight to the death. It's only used in the academy because to control the clone you have to get in a specific range of it, so it's impractical for real battle unless you can hide yourself.

Finally, lunch time ended, and we were headed towards an arena inside the academy. They offered me armor, but I refused. With Cream I knew that I was either going to struggle, or give them ptsd!

"Hey mark", Dom pulled me to the side.

"What is it?"

"Please. I need to hear it from you"

I was definitely confused by this, She seemed to be on the verge of crying, having a panic attack, or wrath.

"Promise me you'll kill them"

Well I didn't see this coming.

"Uh sure…"

With that she left. I had a weird feeling in my chest. Is this what people call empathy?

Prince's pov:

We were finally about to start the battle. I wished so badly to rid myself of that wench, but I finally found a reason too.

"P-please be safe out there. I don't wanna see any of you d-d-die", I heard my sweetheart say.

At first, I was interested in her because she was originally a commoner, but I gradually grew to love her. I loved her blond hair, her doll-like blue eyes, and that innocent face that makes me forget about all the two-faced nobles who try and approach me.

"We'll be fine! You should be more worried about Domestica hahhahah", laughed Bollen from the breaker family.

To my knowledge he had the gift to gather air and break them into loud explosions. Truly a versatile gift. With my sweetheart's, Lucia, abnormally high mana supply, we should beat them in no time.

As we got into the arena I could hear a loud uprise of cheering for us. When I looked at my opponents, I was decently surprised.

Instead of having her normal members fight for her, she only had August and a new member. This was going to be tricky since I had no way of knowing his ability. From my knowledge Domestica prefers quality over quantity in her harem.

"He looked pretty normal though. He had plain brown eyes with black hair. The only abnormal thing about him was the clothes he was wearing. He only had underwear on him…

"Let's skip the banter and go straight to fighting", I heard August say. It was unusual for him to be so serious, but it made sense given the circumstances.

We both got into fighting positions. The overlooker for the battle finally started counting down.

"3"

"2"

"1"

"D-D-D-DUEL!!!!"

Which buffoon hired someone with a speaking problem to overlook our battle?

Ignoring that, I quickly started forming barriers. My gift was the ability to form any barrier in any shape as long as I had mana.

I saw August turn into his famous "Akuma Mode". This gift allowed him to increase his overall power tremendously, while also allowing him to shoot out fire with his mana. You could tell when he was in this mode when red lines grow all over him.

Surprisingly, he punched the ground as hard as he could sending dust and debris into the air. He wasn't the type to go for underhanded moves like this. I immediately set up a powerful barrier to avoid sneak attacks, but nothing ever came.

We waited until the dust settled down, but August was just standing there charging up the biggest fire blast he could.

"Bollen! Surround my barrier with air!", I ordered him. If we could survive this we could have the upper hand!

I felt Lucia's hand touch my shoulder, but I didn't look back. I had to focus on August. That's when I felt a sudden drop in my mana. This only happens when my barrier is broken!

"Prince, Lucia! A part of the air I surrounded the barrier with just disappeared!", Bollen warned.

"Wait! What happened to the other guy! He disa-", I heard Lucia yell before she was cut off.

"WHAT THE HELL?!?!?", I heard Bollen yell. I quickly turned around to make sure Lucia was safe.

I almost threw up! The only thing left of her was her disembodied hand that was on my shoulder! She was completely gone in an instant! I let my guard down against that random guy! August was just a damn distraction!

"H-how could this happen?"

What gift could just randomly kill somebody like that!? The worst part is that whatever it was, was inside my barrier.

"Wait! We need to worry about August's fire blast", I yelled!

Fortunately, I focused more mana on my barrier, and the fire blast didn't do as much devastating damage as it would have. It was definitely flashy and almost blocked my vision though.

"Bollen we have to move! Whatever killed Lucia could target us next!", I ordered.

No response.

"Bollen?"

He was also gone! Dammit! What killed him, just what in the world killed him! How was this happening! I was prepared to move on with my life, but somehow, Domestica added a freak into her harem last second!

I was about to run away. I don't know where, but I just knew I had to run away! The moment I took a step, I fell. It was almost like the ground underneath me disappeared. When I looked though, I screamed.

"My leg got cut off?! But I didn't even feel a thing!!!"

Then I saw it. Something was drilling the ground around me! It was slowly spinning around me and getting closer! Because of the dust that was surrounding us, I could see its shape. It was a large ball?

I watched in absolute despair as all the barriers I put up to stop it were destroyed! It passed the barriers like they weren't even there!

I realized that it was already too late for me. All it took was 2 more spins around me, and it would finally kill me…

I-I didn't want to die! I knew I wouldn't die for real, but I could still feel the pain! I was scared of the pain it was going to inflict on me. I realized that it was specifically torturing me. That thing could've killed me instantly, but it went for my leg. It even started to circle around me to cause me more despair.

When the ball reached me, it slowed down and took it's time to destroy me. I tried to crawl away from the pain, but it just kept slowly consuming me. I finally stopped crawling when I felt it consume my other leg.

Instead I focused on not screaming. If I couldn't win, I had to at least protect my image! Frankly, this thought was the only thing keeping me sane from the pain.

Then...it stopped.

It started to uncurl? At first I couldn't understand what I was seeing, but then I looked at it more clearly. It was justified to call it a monster. Weirdly enough, it had Its legs in its mouth, and a head? Oh yeah, it was that random guy…

He got out of the monster and said something. I couldn't understand it, as the blood loss was already getting to me. All I could truly see was his shit-eating grin.

All I could see was that terrifying monster raising me up from the ground. It opened its wide mouth, probably hoping to eat me. Then I saw the thing that probably killed my friend and lover. Its mouth only held the darkest void I would ever see in my life. It was endlessly dark, and full of despair.

Then my vision went black as I faded into darkness.