Chapter 51 - Nerun's Resolve

Desperation was seizing Nerun as he saw Sagat approaching. He was in a bit of a hurry to finish off all the "intruders" in his lair, but he knew he had to escape quickly, otherwise either of the two Qi Emperors fighting in the centre of the lair could kill him if they found him. It was partly fortunate that Maikal had chosen Roland to attack, otherwise he would have died for sure. It was this sense of helplessness, rare in Sagat, that brought out his cruelty and rage even more, especially towards the people who had intruded into his lair, and towards traitors like Roxanne.

Sagat had appeared in the cells for several reasons. The first and most important of these was that his treasures, his money and many of his accumulated resources were not in his office as many would believe, but were stored in a space ring that he had hidden in a place that no one would think of. These were the cells of his lair. On the other hand, he wanted to take the woman Roland desired. After all, it was likely that the lady at the moment was too weak to defend herself.

Ailan stood in front of Eliana, both trembling with fear. Sagat barely glanced at them, as he walked towards the back wall of the cell. He didn't seem to be paying any attention to anyone else in the cell after killing Roxanne and seriously wounding Silvester.

Ailan tried to move slowly towards the cell entrance to escape, when Sagat, without even turning to look at him, hurled a rock at his leg at breakneck speed. Ailan's leg disappeared before he even noticed it, and he fell to the ground while screaming and holding what was now the stump of his leg. His beloved natural agility, his dreams for the future seemed to vanish under the cruel reality that stalked him. Eliana struggled to cover the stump of Ailan's leg with parts of her dress in an attempt to stop the flow of blood so that her brother would not die from the bleeding. She was crying profusely.

"I didn't give you permission to move. Just because I don't play with my food, doesn't mean I'm going to kill you right now," Sagat said without even turning to look at them. While he was going to kill them quickly, he certainly wanted them to suffer during these last moments of life they had. Everything was under his control after all.

Sagat finally reached the opposite wall of the cell and reaching into a secret compartment he pulled out a space ring.

The woman in the central cage looked at everything with a cool head. Inwardly she seemed to be resigning herself to what her future would be, and was thinking about how to give Sagat a final blow with what was left of her life. At that moment she heard a very soft voice, coming from Nerun, which said "Big Sister Arbak, if I give you something to regain your strength with, can you stop Sagat?

Arbak thought little of Nerun's words, after all, what miraculous material could an orphan have to enable him to regain her great and majestic power. However, considering that these were possibly the last vital moments for both of them, she said "If you really have something that can help me regain my power, forget about Sagat, not even the Qi Emperor who arrived could ever get so much as a glance at me". Arbak's tone of assurance and authority was one that did not even leave room for doubt.

Nerun stared at her and without Sagat noticing he pulled out a bottle with a pure whitish liquid inside. When Arbak saw the liquid, her pupils constricted. Before she could say anything, Nerun said, "These are three drops of Millennial Stone Milk. That's all I have, Elder Sister Arbak, can they help you?" said Nerun with fear in his voice. He feared that Sagat would hear him and prevent him from helping Arbak. At the moment he had his head down as if he was sinking in despair and with his small body he tried to hide the movements he was making.

Arbak responded directly into Nerun's mind. "Two drops is enough to restore much of my strength. But it will not be instantaneous. I will need at least 10 seconds to do it. In those 10 seconds Sagat has more than enough time to kill you all multiple times, and when he notices that my strength is recovering he won't let me go either. I can promise you that he will die with me, so at least I will avenge your deaths," Arbak said in the same proud tone, but at least there was a tinge of hope at the end of the tunnel.

Nerun was only silent for a few moments, and then said with full assurance, "I will give you those 10 seconds. I ask only that you please save the life of my brother Silvester, as well as Ailan and her sister. They are all in this predicament because of me. I should have given this to you earlier as a thank you for helping us, but my father had told me that no one could know that I had it in my hands. I was originally going to ask his permission to share it with you, but everything was rushed. I made a lot of mistakes and now Roxanne is dead, and Silvester is about to die. Ailan has lost his leg. I will not let anyone else suffer for the mistakes I made. Never again."

Nerun's last words sounded almost like a scream, and without a second thought he took the bottle and removing the stopper took a drop of the whitish liquid which fell into his mouth. Arbak tried to stop him by extending her arm, but before she could do anything Nerun had already drank the drop. Nerun then dropped the bottle into Arbak's hands, who was wide-eyed and stunned.

In her mind what Nerun was doing was nothing short of suicide. The energy contained in a single drop of Millennial Stone Milk was enough for a Monarch, and even a Qi Emperor to lose control, more so for a child who wasn't even a Qi Master. Nerun would probably explode in the next instant.

At Nerun's shout, Sagat turned his head when he had picked up the ring. When he saw the bottle with the whitish liquid in Arbak's hands, he felt every hair on his body stand on end. Without wasting any more time, he sped off in the direction of the woman's cage. Two reddish halos surrounded his arm and a tiger's paw partially materialised, accompanying his attack on the woman as she was about to drink from the bottle.

At that moment, however, a small silhouette appeared in front of him and hurled a fist towards him. Everything seemed to suggest that the creature that appeared in front of Sagat would be destroyed beyond all doubt, but Sagat was knocked back by the blow several metres and the materialisation of his will became markedly unstable.

Sagat's eyes dilated greatly. In front of him was Nerun, who was clearly in a great deal of pain. His entire skin had turned a reddish colour as if his blood was boiling. The veins all over his body were exposed, turning a dark purple colour, a sign of the blood pumping inside him. Several of the veins pulsed hard and some threatened to rupture. Nerun's eyes however did not waver, with a strong golden halo surrounding the pupils. A voluminous mist surrounded Nerun, with at least 10 whitish snakes of Qi surrounding each limb and his head.

The drop of Millennial Stone Milk was indeed of an unsurpassed quality, an aggregation of natural energy from heaven and earth, which only Warriors and Adepts of levels 80 and 90 could withstand, and Nerun should have died without a doubt. Yet the energy of it was distributed throughout Nerun's 47 auxiliary meridians, all of them open and allowing Nerun to make use of them. This was not a permanent solution. In fact, Nerun's body was currently in a pitched battle for his life, and the balance between the energies that roamed his body were in a delicate equilibrium. Nerun's small body could withstand neither the great energy of the Millennial Stone Milk, nor the uncontrolled Qi of his open auxiliary meridians, and Nerun would not endure this state for long. It was more likely that he would die when this condition ended, and this would not take more than a few seconds.

But during those seconds, Nerun's power would reach unsuspected levels. Arbak wasted no more time, and immediately swallowed the two drops in the bottle. A tough race against time had just begun.

...

The central room of Sagat's lair was completely destroyed, the walls were full of cracks and holes and the cave kept shaking, threatening a collapse at any moment. Two silhouettes were exchanging attacks at breakneck speed, so that only their afterimages were visible. The only reason the entire lair had not suffered the worst was because the two combatants were holding back a little. The materialisation of the Will of both were responsible for the state of the central room.

Roland was still in that room, however he was on the periphery of the chamber, trying to avoid the shockwaves caused by the two powerful warriors.

"Wow Mikael, you're even worse than I thought. We've only been exchanging attacks for a few minutes and your panting is becoming more and more evident. You're finally looking more and more like what you appear to be, a hobo through and through," said Sylas mockingly.

Indeed, Maikal found his breathing a little labored, and heavy sweat beaded on his brow. Yet his battle spirit had not abated one bit. Inwardly he only wished that his "sons" could have escaped from the lair in time.

Sylas wasted no time in pressing Maikal further and clasped his hands together and said "<Corrosive Steel Web>". The giant spider behind him began to spit out a large amount of Qi in the form of a web that was intended to trap Maikal.

Maikal jumped at a great speed evading the web which when it touched the ground began to cause heavy erosion on the floor of the ground. When the Qi of the Warriors has reached the level of Emperor and above, there is a second qualitative change, in which they not only take on certain elemental power, but can also take on other physical properties, according to the Will of the corresponding Warrior. In this particular case, Sylas' web could not only trap his enemy, but also had a very strong corrosive power.

Maikal reached the roof of the cave and stuck his two legs into the roof to support himself while with his hands outstretched towards Sylas, he said "<Lightning Rain>". The giant Mastiff in the cave began to expel some of its fur, which turned into arrows with electricity that enveloped Sylas and his Spider Will.

As the arrows fell, a great wave of electricity filled the cave. When it ended, however, Sylas was nowhere to be found. Maikal standing on the roof, suddenly dropped and placing his hands together, Qi began to build up strongly in both his hands creating a sphere of power with which he fell to the ground and struck the ground hard. <Giant's Hammer>.

The entire ground cracked and sank several meters. From one of the cracks, Sylas shot out with high speed. While he had avoided the vast majority of the attacks, he had suffered some injuries, so a small trickle of blood was coming out of his mouth. Even with Maikal's old injuries, he had greater experience and power at his peak than the current Sylas. The problem was that Maikal was like an arrow at the end of its flight. His power was on the wane.

Sylas se acercó a Maikal y lanzó una fuerte patada, la cual se acompañó de la materialización de una pata de araña. El Qi de Maikal se hizo inestable en ese momento, y aunque puso una defensa presuroso, no pudo materializar su Voluntad del todo, con lo que sufrió de lleno el ataque de Sylas y rebotó varias veces en el suelo, usando sus manos y piernas para recuperar el balance. Sylas aprovechó esos momentos para perseguirlo con ferocidad y atacarlo sin cuartel.

Maikal defended himself with some difficulty, having to make concessions in territory and momentum, thus quickly finding himself in a precarious situation. However, he kept his cool and in a second, between Sylas' attacks, he opened his mouth and the mastiff's head quickly materialised, attempting to engulf Sylas and the spider legs around him. <Great Bite>

It was Sylas' turn to back away, with a couple of the spider legs destroyed by the giant Mastiff's snout.

"Looks like you still have a trick or two left. Let's see how long you can hold out," Sylas said again as he prepared to use a great technique. Maikal likewise began to build up his Qi when suddenly, they both turned at the same time in the direction of a part of the cave, where the prison cells were. An unbridled Qi was felt in that direction.

This Qi was powerful and threatened to destroy everything in its path, yet its instability was even greater than Maikal's, as if the next second it would disappear altogether. Sylas frowned a little, but it was Maikal who became a little nervous, because he felt in that Qi an all too familiar aura. Nerun's aura.

...

Elijah, Sub-Commander Saul and the soldiers accompanying him were now only a few kilometres away from Sagat's cave. In a few seconds they would reach its entrance.