Ch 35: Freeing Captives [pt2]
The king had not realized what kind of situation he was in. He continued to use his power unchecked and Alex kept on dodging the attacks.
His current self was not strong enough to take on King Saar and his army at the same time. So, dodging their attacks and finding a time to counterattack was all he could do.
The good news was that Baron Luke and the others had already escaped the chamber. The king would no longer be able to threaten Alex with their lives. But that meant little when they were all still stuck in the golden city.
“You were abandoned by your friends and now you will become the first sacrifice to my lord. Are you feeling regretful or lucky? Which emotion is dominating your mind?”
King Saar asked as he forced another batch of soldiers to attack Alex. The soldiers were immature and were no match for Alex’s instinctual style of fighting. He was letting the knowledge inside his brain guide him.
But that did not mean that Alex was any good at fighting either. His coordination sucked and his punches sometimes lacked power.
The sword he was making out of magic was still not stable enough for him to utilize. And the king had noticed this and that was why he tried to overwhelm Alex like this.
“This is all useless. You will not be able to hold on for long. Can’t you feel your power lessening? It is because the time for the sacrifice is near. Now, I shall activate the circle of sacrifice.”
King Saar held his hands out to gather his magic. The magic in the city rushed toward King Saar and covered his body in brought gold. Then, it all travelled into the vessel King Saar had prepared and a path began to open.
Alex watched this in equal part fascination and equal part horror as the earth began to part a little and magic rushed out of there. It was all gold and the brightness of this hurt Alex’s eyes.
‘What the hell? I thought Mahiru said that we broke the connection. Then where is all this power coming from?’
Alex asked as he looked down. At this rate, he would be consumed by this power for sure. He had no defences against such a huge rush of power.
‘Don’t worry. This is all latent power that was stored here after previous sacrifices. It will not harm you and it will soon fizzle out. You need to aim for that time to make your move.’
The goddess spoke softly inside Alex’s mind. She was back as suddenly as she had gone away and the rudeness of this made Alex’s mind hurt. He put his hand on his forehead to rub it a little.
“What’s wrong? Did seeing all this power make you realize how powerless you are against my lord? It is about time you figure it out.”
King Saar boasted as her held his hand up. Power gathered in his hand before he let it call on the golden city beneath.
‘He’s all out of power. Now, it is time for you to attack. Don’t worry, I will help you out. Here, this shall help you out when I am not there to help you.’
A cross appeared in Alex’s vision along with various writings. It looked just like a VR screen he had once been forced to play by a young master. That had not been a pleasant experience for Alex and he felt uncomfortable to experience something similar.
But he pushed through his feeling to attack the king in front of him.
[All systems are online. The user is entering tutorial mode. Kindly aim and unleash your energy in the X-range. It will increase the chances of hitting the opponent by 50%]
50% was not great odds, but it was better than 0% so Alex did as he was instructed to do. He gathered his energy and harnessed it into a solid shape. He needed it to not fizzle away before it reached the king.
‘Concentrate and let your desire out. You want to win, right?’
No, that was not right. This was not Alex’s desire. What he desires was something grander and more difficult than that. He did not merely want to beat the kind, he wanted to dominate the king.
He wanted the king to fall from his position and experience the same lows Alex had experienced in his life.
‘Your desire is so twisted but maybe that is why we get along so well. Now go! Go and take down that king in front of you.’
The goddess commanded and Alex gathered his power in his hand as well. It hardened into a spear which he chucked toward his opponent.
The king was still stuck in the vortex of his power. He could not feel anything going on around him. So, he also did not notice when Alex threw his spear straight at him.
“Now, it is time for you to become one with abundance. Let the power of Lord Plutus consume you.”
The king was pierced straight in his heart. He did not even get to react before the spear went through his body.
He looked down in disbelief as that happened and then looked back at the kid in front of him.
“W-What the hell did you do? How did you gain all this power so suddenly? I…”
King Saar asked as he watched the kid walk out of the golden flames unharmed.
The flames should have consumed the kid fully and made him regret ever setting foot in this place ever again. But on the contrary, it only served to make the kid stronger.
“I did not gain any power, but you lost yours. Your connection to your god, I served it before coming to face you. But you did not even notice that, right? You were too busy playing around to notice this, right?”
Alex was now taunting the king. The playing fields had changed and Alex suddenly felt as if he had the upper hand now.
“Y-You stupid human. I thought I could bless you and teach you. That was why I was excited when I first saw you. But now I know that it was my mistake.”
“I should have finished you as soon as I got that weird feeling from you. You have greed inside you but it is not suited to Plutus. Now, I shall execute you.”
Alex did not expect King Saar to be as fast as he was. He was also bulky and had a lot of power behind his strike.
When Alex had taunted King Saar, he had forgotten to consider the extra time King Saar had spent in the tower. It was far more than Alex’s and that mattered a lot when it came to one’s physical powers.
Alex could use the magic he had been bestowed, but he had no experience casting spells or using them. He needed to experiment and bid his time if he wanted to use any skills.
But King Saar’s speed and strength left him no time to do so.
‘This is so tough. I don’t know what I can do to help myself out of this situation. I need someone to be the distraction while I kill King Saar off.’
………………………
“Run. Quickly run away from the hall. We need to get out of the city.”
Baron Luke was the one who ran the fastest. He was afraid for his life and he did not want to risk it.
On the other hand, the slaves were worried but they knew they needed to protect Baron Luke. He was a burden they could not help but carry.
“W-We need to get Mahiru first. She must be in a nearby room. Please, we cannot leave her here.”
Ashura requested as he ran after the group. But he could feel that he needed to turn right if he wanted to find Mahiru.
He was desperate to help the younger out but no one else liked this idea. Baron Luke looked especially pissed off about this.
“What the hell? No, we will not go and find Mahiru. My life is in danger here and I refuse to risk it to save a mere slave of mine. You all will follow me outside right now.”
Baron Luke protested this move and he even gave Ashura an order. What he did not expect was Ashura biting his lips and deciding to turn away from him anyway.
“I-I am sorry but I cannot follow you if Mahiru is not there. The only reason I decided to bear this curse and come into this tower was because of her. So, if she is not being saved, I have no intention of saving myself either.”
Ashura admitted before he turned down the hallway and toward Mahiru’s room.
Baron Luke cursed and he was about to leave Ashura and Mahiru to die when Kurina interfered in his raging moment.
“Baron, maybe we should follow Ashura. I can hear a lot of footsteps heading our way from the outside. We might need to take a detour this time.”
Baron Luke cursed under his breath as soon as he heard those words. But in the end, he decided to follow what Kurina had said.
He was too big of a coward to do anything otherwise.