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The transformations of the 5 Knights of Cleppe still alive - except for Jean - came to an end. They were almost humanoid, 2/3 of the size of a human, their bodies covered with a subtle black aura, like a delicate veil, except for their hands and legs, their fingers replaced by claws, their eyes as black as those of a bottomless abyss.

The next moment, red and gold circles appeared on the skin linking their bellies, hearts, and faces and then disappeared. Each of them stopped emitting an aura as if all the energy in their bodies was being used efficiently.

Two Knights of Cleppe charged at Claire; the other two tried to convince Jean.

"Jean!" A Knight of Cleppe shouted, "What are you waiting for?"

Jean bowed to the ground. "I'll do anything!" he shouted, "My death should not be easy? Then enslave me for the rest of my life, resistant to a null hope! I am ready to sign any contract, to go through anything! Make my death an emotional and material profit! Make me regret saying those words: That you are so incompetent I prefer torture to death! "

"Jean!" shouted another. "They killed them! They slaughtered Cleppe! You've always run away from Cleppe's pain resistance! You'll just die in pain!"

"Yes! They slaughtered them! And we can't do anything; we never can! They have enough to kill us now and still can in the future! But if I accepted to become this thing, it is not like you: you did it to progress, as they accept the mediocrity of stability to allow the true talents to appear and for the universe to progress. They live for progress! But I progress so that I can live!"

"Cleppe has done everything for you!" Said the other angrily, "and you won't even accept to fight when you are going to die?!"

"I'll accept even a billionth of a chance! A millionth of a second more! Yes, they gave me everything, everything! Their values! Their paths! They created me as I am, as they wanted me to be, for their interests. I gave it back to them, but now I have to fight for my own. Remain blind as long as you want: their model has collapsed; you don't have to support it.

Instead, focus on that life of yours, of all those who really, literally make you go forward."

The Paladins were not attacking, surely to cut their losses - every second tiring the transformed Cleppe's Knights, binding them against each other -, or to make them suffer more.

Emilie had made herself invisible and looked across. The fight had begun between Claire and the two Knights. The two Knights charged at her, manipulating their energy like never before, firing in all directions at once, seemingly unaffected by distance, controllable even after it was launched. It was a fighting style that allowed them to take on multiple opponents simultaneously.

Emily turned away and moved silently toward the barriers. She had to be careful: she didn't want to test it, but she had no choice: she had to get out now, in case they bombed the area. Or at least get closer to the barriers. A tragedy had happened, but in the end, her doubts and goals were real and attainable: Cleppe and Nirl had the evolution she was looking for, the one that had taken as many of Serguine's lives as the enemy gangs had taken.

A few dozen seconds passed, the battle of the Knights still active. Claire had just lost an arm she restored directly, using this bait to cut off more of their body parts.

It was a butchery that did not consider the body, using it as a tool, a means of this world. This was repugnant to Jean. They were just monsters that had taken shape, that had, through their ego, wanted to form themselves into a body and dominate everything. The universe was progressing, and after them, who would dominate? They could already make conscious artifacts and remember the system.

What an evolution! This was not the way to evolve, to fulfill the needs of a body. To evolve, to progress in society just made their inhabitant remove a weight from your shoulders they placed themselves.

Then, you had to replace it with the one you had chosen in the hope that you could handle it well. It was as simple as that, but to improve one's life, some people thought it indispensable to increase and progress. What a load of crap! Greed had no limits. The more you wanted something, the more you had, the higher your expectations.

They ran away from their problems, and the only meaning of their life was the one given by what had created them; so egocentric that they would prefer the way of their people, the way of their body, to the others because they thought themselves better, more suitable. They took the wealth of their land for granted and would see no logic in submitting. And then, they would sacrifice themselves for their children, rebelling when their ideas did not pass, creating the strong or destroying the weak.

Their life purpose was neither noble nor vital, just progressive. They had somehow become the laws of the universe that the strong exploited to their heart's content.

Jean resisted his rage and continued to plead. As long as one of his cells was still alive at the end, he would have won.

An aura appeared on the horizon, speeding across the battlefield.

"I-It's Ludovic!"