Parting

By forcefully overloading his veins, acupuncture, and meridian with mana. The poison that's afflicting Arthur's body has been burned off along with some of his boiling blood.

With the poison gone and his senses back to normal, he can now control his mana as efficiently as before, preventing it from rampaging inside his body. Although he would still be crimpled after the skill ended, he would no longer explode, and he was also able to regain all his sanity.

"You're truly amazing, hahaha" Barktus laughed full of fighting spirit.

"And you're an assh*le!" Arthur retorted, once again rushing toward Bartus.

Barktus threw arrow after arrow, trying to impede his advance but with his elegance and technique back, he dodges them with ease.

Twisting and turning his body like a snake, Arthur arrived a couple of steps away from Barktus.

Seeing this, Barktus didn't run like earlier but instead, he welcomes him. "Come!" He roared, grabbing Emmanuel's greatsword, using it as his own.

Slash after slash, stab after stab, every time their two weapons collided the whole tower shook.

Emmanuel can only watch helplessly from afar before finally shaking his head and returning to where Vanya is.

He had already accepted that there is nothing he can do here and realized that what he needed to do now is focus on what he can do, and that is to protect and help Lucy.

When he arrived at where Vanya was, the latter was already dead but she died with a smile on her face.

Seeing another one of his comrade passed away, sadness filled Emmanuel's heart, he can help but think of all the situations he has been in, what is happening right now, and the monstrous army of orcs waiting outside. 'Am I cursed? Is everyone around me destined to die? Can we survive this? Can this nightmare ever end?'

Various questions bombarded Emmanuel's mind as he approaches Vanya's corpse but when he kneels before her body and closes her eyes, it all vanishes.

He closes his own eyes and prays, something he wasn't able to do with the remains of his previous squad.

Finding some sort of closure, Emanuel steels himself and crosses every doubt he has left in his mind. 'I'll get you home' He promise to himself as he puts Vanya's body inside his inventory.

He wouldn't let what happened to his old squad happen again. He promise to at least give them a proper burial, he owes them that much.

Only after Vanya's corpse is taken care of that Emmanuel realizes Lucy is nowhere to be seen.

'Where is she?'

Emmanuel quickly puts Ron and Sergeant Jessie's corpse in his inventory. He then looks at Arthur, who is fighting toe to toe with Barktus before going down the tower to look for her.

...

In the middle of the tower, Emmanuel finds Lucy covered in blood, digging a hole in the tower walls and putting something in them.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

Lucy is startled and immediately draws her gun.

"Calm down, it's just me," Emmanuel said, he was not really that scared of bullets now as he was before, what he was afraid of is the unwanted attention that the sound of gunfire might attract.

Seeing that it was only Emmanuel, Lucy dropped her gun and continued staffing the tower with explosives.

"Hey!" Emmanuel called out again but Lucy didn't reply and instead tossed him a pound of explosive.

"This is C4! Are you planning on blowing us along with Barktus?"

Lucy remains silent, neither agreeing nor denying it.

"You!" Emmanuel approaches Lucy and grabs her hand. "I know you want revenge for what happened with Vanya but this is not the way."

Hearing her sisters name, Lucy cannot hold it anymore and tears started falling down her face like a waterfall. She shoves Emmanuel's hand and return on planning bombs.

Emmanuel's heart shook looking at Lucy's pain expression. He knew the feeling of having someone die right in front of you. He understands the feeling of worthlessness and the desire to take revenge, to kill the bastard hurt you with everything of your being.

It happens to him when No.5 saves him at the cost of his life, causing him to lose himself, putting everyone in a dangerous situation.

Emmanuel picked up the C4 on the ground and started planning it. "F*ck it"

He wasn't planning on stoping Lucy from taking her revenge. He was not a hypocrite, he only knew No.5 for a day but Lucy knew Vanya long enough to call her sister. If he had lost it for someone he just met, imagine what Lucy is feeling.

Emmanuel only knew one way for her to move forward and that is to see it through.

But helping her plant the explosive doesn't mean he had given up. He would still think of a way to get out of here.

Realizing what he was doing, Lucy stopped for a second and looked at him. "Thank you."

"Your welcome, but you have to calmed down, nothing good will come out if you let your anger consume you. We still have to get out of here first before I allow you to push the detonation."

"I know" Lucy said, giving Emmanuel the detonator. At this moment there are no more tears in her eyes but only determination.

"Good." Emmanuel said, putting the detonator in his inventory.

After being silent for a second Lucy said. "I already found a way to get out of here."

"What!" Emmanuel couldn't contain himself, hearing what Lucy just said.

"Why didn't you say anything?" He asked gripping her shoulder tightly.

"Ahh" Lucy groaned in pain, realizing his mistake, Emmanuel immediately let go

.

"Sorry, let's hurry in up, so we can go."

With newfound a hope, Emmanuel started digging with much more vigor.

….

At the top of the Archer tower.

Barktus brandished his greatsword at Arthur.

Arthur was able to dodge by taking a step back but when he was able to make a counterattack, he trips, allowing Barktus to land a punch at him.

"Ha! ha! Ha!" Arthur wiped the blood on his lips and tried to catch his breath.

"It seems that it was about time you reached your limit," Barktus said, allowing Arthur to rest.

"Shut the f*ck assh*le, we're not friends!" Arthur grab one of Barktus arrow laying on the ground and threw it towards Barktus.

Seeing Arthur futile straggles, Barkus just shakes his head and casually dodges it.

It was a big mistake, spotting a lax in Barktus movement, Arthur uses this as opening to land a punch of his own.

Barktus is wrong when he said that Arthur was about to reach his limit because he had already passed it minutes ago.

Arthur's whole body is in a great deal of pain, magnitude above compare to anything he had ever experience before. The only thing the is fueling him now is his willpower.

"Phe! You hurt my heart, I thought we are already friends." Barktus said, cracking his neck "I'll make you pay for that."

Barktus dash toward Arthur and started his assault. As time when on, he's becaming more and more acustom to his new found strenght, giving Arthur a much harder time keeping up.

It was at this moment that Lucy and Emmanuel arrived at the top of the tower, bringing great new.