Chapter 9: Desperate Struggle, Part 2.

Collapsed buildings and corpses were all that were at the center of the battle, Hans maintained a life-and-death struggle against the aberration, although none had a clear advantage, Hans knew that the aberration would end up winning if the fight was postponed too long, since the natural regeneration of the aberration gave him the advantage in endurance fights, on the other hand, he would only continue to accumulate wounds.

Nor could he use his mana to continue empowering every attack and ability of his, Hans had spent a quarter of his mana and at least 100 years of his lifespan to speed up his barrier spell without it losing effect.

The aberration used its bone blade to launch various attacks, however, Hans noticed that the aberration did not launch random attacks, in fact, each one is well thought out, as if the blade was being wielded by a swordsmanship master and not by a mere monster.

Considering that, Hans was more careful when approaching the aberration, avoiding its attacks and only attacking when he saw an opening, however, the tables turned at some point, the aberration launched a slash that was able to create a cut that traveled several km, hitting the barrier and creating disturbances in it.

Hans moved quickly and placed himself behind the aberration, hitting the aberration in the back of the head, creating a great rumble as it crashed to the ground, the aberration collided with the force of a meteorite destroying everything inside the barrier as if a bomb had been dropped.

This time the result was quite good, the aberration showed difficulties to get up, there were even many wounds on his body because of the crash.

- 'This idiot is more resilient than he looks' -

At this point Hans was exhausted, he spent more than half of his mana just erecting the barrier and causing a few wounds to his enemy, but at this point he was already confident in defeating the aberration, now he could only wait and pray that those outsides could come to help, although they had someone from the fifth grade.

Taking a few seconds to recover, Hans continued to observe the aberration, it was looking at the ground and its grip on the blade looked weak.

-My... lord..." - I murmur the aberration.

Hans struck a defensive pose in anticipation of a possible attack.

- Ughhh, my... lord...-

The aberration rose from the ground, it did not look at Hans, instead, it stared at a certain point on the barrier, Hans followed the aberration's gaze and knew what the creature wanted to do, Hans tried to prevent the creature from making any moves, but it was too late.

The creature with its blade launched a thrust with great power behind the blow, the thrust hit a small point of the barrier where the energy oscillated a little.

Upon receiving the blow, the barrier began to undulate and after a few seconds, the barrier vanished as if it had never been there in the first place.

Suddenly the beast disappeared and reappeared again on top of Hans.

-Shit! – Hans shouted, he tried to defend himself from the attack with several defensive spells, but the aberration did not even flinch and unleashed a blow so strong that it caused the same havoc as Hans' previous blow.

The aberration waited a few seconds, but, seeing that Hans did not react, it decided to continue on its way without wanting to continue wasting time.

Meanwhile, Hans, who until a few seconds ago was relatively well, was now unconscious and with many wounds on his body.

. . . . . . . .

The earth shook, wreaking havoc in several places, some streets sank and several buildings ended up collapsing, on the other hand, Franz and Nepheli had to help Ana and William who could not stand because of the tremors.

Nepheli even had to summon shadow, their beast hired to help them along the way, even though they were forbidden to summon their beasts as they were still ordinary citizens, both Nepheli and Franz knew that the situation was no longer suitable to continue complying with the laws.

Many others did the same, causing even Harold the man in white to scream.

- If you have a way to keep moving, use it, the current situation no longer allows us to follow things as the law dictates, any inconvenience later, I will take responsibility! Harold shouted.

Hearing the cry of the warrior Harold, who were still hesitant to use their skills and hired beasts, they gained confidence and did as Harold told them, helping the common people in the process.

However, that did not make things easier, along the way many people had died or ended up being left behind by the damage.

- Franz, you're fine! – Nepheli asked worriedly, she knew that Franz until just a few moments ago had been knocked unconscious.

Franz nodded, telling him not to worry and to keep running.

On the other hand, both Franz's father and the warrior Harold and Ron and Robin's group were worried, they knew about the illusory barrier and unless someone could break it, following the current path would be the same as going to a dead end, but with no other option, it was the only place they could go at the moment.

Pummmmmmmm!

Suddenly while everyone was running, the earth shook and Franz felt as if the world itself had been turned upside down and although he did not understand what was happening, he took his father in his arms and Nepheli did the same with Ana returning shadow to her storage clock.

- Nepheli! Franz shouted, scared by what was happening, but he didn't have time to think when his whole world turned dark.

Franz felt the air coming out of his lungs, even so, he refused to let go of his father who had been knocked unconscious in his arms.

Franz felt his arms break as he tried to move the debris on top of him, but there was no effect, causing Franz to curse, unfortunately he had not long practiced mana and since he was a soul practitioner, his body was only stronger than a well-trained ordinary person.

Time passed and Franz was getting weaker and weaker, causing the debris on him to begin to crush him.

Franz closed his eyes, he had already given up by now, blaming his weakness for not being able to do anything.

But a miracle happened, the debris on top of him began to become lighter little by little, Franz could even see a figure on him, however, he could not discern the figure well because of the light that hit his face.

- My lord - said the voice.

Franz was confused, the words were for him, of that he was sure, but why did he feel so familiar, not only with those words, but also with that voice?

In front of him was a beast, he had an upright figure, resembling the posture of a knight, but both his face and his hands were more like a demon than a knight.

But Franz was not scared, in fact, he felt a hint of nostalgia when he looked at this creature, many emotions swirling in his chest with no idea what it was.

The creature smiled and began to speak again.

-My lord.... What was promised.... I did it–

Confused, Franz wanted to ask what the creature was talking about when he felt a sharp pain in his eyes causing him to scream and writhe in agony.

- ¡Aaaaaaghhhh, Aaaaaaghhhh! -

"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts a lot," Franz thought as he tried his best to take his hands off the aberration on his face.

The creature had pierced his eyes and the pain was such that Franz's screams were no different from that of a dying beast.

However, no matter how much he shouted, whether it was his family, Nepheli, those accompanying his father, anyone, they were all unconscious.

And it wasn't just pain, the feeling of being burned alive was heartbreaking, there was no shortness of breath, at times there was no feeling at all and like a violent wave in the sea, the feelings of pain and helplessness hit Franz again.

And perhaps it was only his imagination, but, while the aberration tore out and burned his eyes, Franz heard not one, but several voices, some screaming for help, others shouting and shouting his name and others only cursing him.

But Franz knew that those voices came from nowhere but his head, tears came from their empty sockets, at least he wished that his family and Nepheli could live well.

Sleep invaded him, in the end he gave up and his hands that fought with all their strength ended up falling, he no longer had strength.

The screaming stopped, Franz was unconscious and the aberration pulled his hands out of his eyes, laying Franz on the side of the road and disappearing without a trace.

. . . . . . .

- It's gone, the barrier is gone! –

Large numbers of people watched as the huge trees disappeared without a trace, but when they saw what was behind, they were all surprised, if someone could describe it, it would be like seeing the end of the world, buildings, and corpses of all kinds were the only things in sight.

People swallowed, wondering what could have caused all this disaster, but without time to think, they began to look for traces of survivors.