CHAPTER 40: FALLING HEAD

Swish!

Kyle crouched, dodging a slash with high speed before cutting upward with both his swords.

His swords only scratched the baron’s thick arm, then with a brutal kick, the baron launched him away.

"Hehehe."

As Kyle fell to the ground, he looked excitedly at the blood on the edges of his sword.

So what if he caused only a few scratches? So what if his enemy was a damn monster?

’He bleeds, so he can die!’

While the baron’s leg was still above the ground after he kicked Kyle, an arrow struck the back of his knee and shattered, spreading more ice across his leg. Annoyed, Ash looked backward, but couldn’t find the archer anywhere.

’She only attacks when she is certain I wouldn’t find her. She also takes advantage of my fight with her partner instead of trying to help him.’ Ash analyzed as he blocked another attack from Kyle.

She could have shot the arrow earlier to save Kyle from the kick, but she waited to make a more critical hit, and Kyle didn’t seem to mind that.

Ash really hated the lunatic enemies, and now he had to fight two of them.

But that didn’t reduce his fighting spirit at all. If anything, it increased it as his pride was now in the line.

’Losing against two lunatic elves? NEVER!’

"Demonic Dawn Ray!"

"Ice Wall!"

¢¢¢

’His Spirit value is 83?!’

A bit far away from that fight, Dante was sitting on the ground as Elizabeth was healing him with light magic.

Every few seconds, a golden light would burst out of her hands and cover Dante’s injuries.

That magical light closed all his wounds, removed his exhaustion, and was now fixing his internal injuries and his right arm.

Dante stared at his legs. They were covered with a strange black exoskeleton, but even that was disappearing by her light.

’Can she heal corruption? Is this why the Light Aspect is needed in order to become a saintess candidate?’

Dante looked at Elizabeth and muttered: "Thank you..."

That wasn’t only for her, but also for Fafnir who brought her and others here. He communicated with them by inscribing words on the snow.

Fafnir, who was in the form of a shadow, scratched his head, as if embarrassed by his master’s compliment.

"No need to thank me, hehe." Elizabeth let out a soft laugh as if it was nothing, but her expression said otherwise.

She felt like she had failed as a saintess candidate, blaming herself for all the deaths around her. Hearing Dante’s gratitude made her feel much happiness and relief even if she didn’t admit it.

In her perception, if she refused to gather the villagers for help or if she thought about a better way to get their help secretly, she’d have prevented all this from happening.

But Dante didn’t blame her. He himself didn’t understand how the baron knew about them, so she didn’t deserve to be blamed alone for that.

Feeling his condition improving, Dante finally took a better look at them.

Other than their tattered clothes and the ashes covering them, Elizabeth and Skylar didn’t seem to be injured at all. Maybe they had had some injuries before, but Elizabeth probably fixed them. They were also wearing masks which they probably had taken from dead knights.

Skylar was standing silently at the side, looking at Selena’s corpse with a dark expression.

As for the villager, she was the woman with the strategist class. Both of her legs were missing and she was standing on two legs made of stone magic while looking at Dante sharply.

’Oh, right... Luna told them about me.’

Through Fafnir’s senses, he heard Luna telling them that Dante was a demon and that he had helped her.

That had shocked them and made them hesitate in following Fafnir, thinking that Dante was bringing them into a trap. But they followed him anyway because of Kyle.

And now, Dante was truly surprised by the fact that they decided to heal him instead of keeping him injured. Well, the strategist tried to argue with Elizabeth, but Elizabeth insisted on helping him.

"B-by the way, have you seen Selena or Max? We couldn’t find them anywhere."

At Elizabeth’s question, both Dante and Skylar paled.

But at the same time, Skylar looked at Dante with a glimpse of hope.

Elizabeth was blind, but she was able to move alone and sense nearby things somehow. She knew that a corpse was near, but she didn’t know that it was Selena.

As for Skylar, he didn’t know what happened to Maxwell, so he hoped that Dante would say anything about him.

Dante hesitated for a moment, looking at Selena’s body as he finally said: "I don’t know where Selena is."

Then he stared into Skylar’s eyes as he took a deep breath: "I don’t know where Maxwell is either, but I remember that he tried to protect Selena with his body before the explosion."

"They are likely together... somewhere."

Elizabeth looked at him with disappointment, while Skylar bit his lower lip as he understood the hidden meaning.

Dante didn’t lie. He wasn’t talking about their bodies, but their souls.

Had they reincarnated? Transmigrated? Went to the afterlife? Vanished from existence?

Dante had no idea.

And neither he nor Skylar intended to tell Elizabeth that her knights had died, not yet.

The mist was still there, and whether the baron would lose or win was unknown. There might even be some of his knights left.

Elizabeth was a blind girl who had relied on her knights for nearly everything. She must have been so close to them, and knowing that they had already died might cause trouble if they needed her help.

"What shall we do now?" Dante asked, trying to change the topic and feeling that he could move again now.

The strategist observed the fight. The elves were clearly weaker than the baron, but they had great teamwork and the baron was heavily damaged, so the result couldn’t be determined easily.

"If Ash wins, then we analyse his condition and attack if it’s bad. If not, then I personally will run."

Dante and Skylar nodded, then Elizabeth suddenly stopped healing Dante—she was finally out of mana, but she had done enough.

"Thank you again." Dante finally stood up and took three sets of clothes from his storage before throwing one to Skylar and one to Elizabeth.

Seeing Elizabeth’s confusion, Dante explained while hiding his embarrassment: "You can’t see but... we are all partially naked."

"Oh, thank you." Elizabeth happily accepted the clothes and wore them immediately.

The strategist glared at him sharply, but he acted as if he didn’t notice.

’Yeah, keep looking at me as if looking at a monster and you’ll stay half naked!’

As they waited for the result of the battle, Dante cast another Jinx secretly—ignoring Kyle’s request to never interfere—before glancing at his right arm. The centipede’s color returned as dark as before, and now he could use it again.

It seemed like this relic was able to repair itself somehow. As for his cloak, Dante couldn’t feel it at all since that explosion.

’What a shame, I liked that cloak.’

Dante and the others kept watching the battle, dodging and blocking some of Kyle and Ash’s missing attacks.

Finally, the battle seemed to reach its climax as both Kyle and Ash breathed heavily.

Kyle had several burn marks and bloody wounds, but his smile never shook.

Ash, on the other hand, was supposed to be already dead if the normal standards were used. With half his body frozen, a hole on his side and another on his chest, one missing arm, and an arrow head stuck on his right eye, it was a miracle that he was still standing.

Ash’s veins popped in his neck as he charged toward Kyle and roared, releasing a sound that was a mix of an eagle and a lion.

Even from this distance, Dante felt a hidden pressure pressing on him again.

’It’s an ability.’

Facing that demonic monster, Kyle laughed crazily and swiftly drew a runic structure in the air with his swords.

An identical clone of Kyle, completely made of ice, materialized and stared at Ash with a cold, emotionless face.

Simultaneously, Ash’s eyes shone as a pair of golden light arms appeared on his back, each one of them wielding a greatsword.

But unlike the golden arms, Dante noticed that each of these swords came as shining particles, similar to his cloak and ring.

’They are relics.’

Dante cast another Jinx and watched in anticipation, turning his centipede into a shield just in case.

Bam!

Kyle and his clone kicked the ground, launching themselves toward the baron and leaving holes where they had stood.

Crack!

Together, their swords snapped Ash’s first greatsword, but the clone’s swords shattered.

Crack!

Ash’s second sword snapped as well, but it managed to shatter Kyle’s clone before that.

The last sword, one that was wielded by Ash’s real arm, was about to clash with Kyle’s swords, but suddenly—

CRACK!

A spinning arrow struck into Ash’s frozen shoulder and shattered a piece of it, weakening his grip right before the impact.

Clank!

With a swift move, Kyle deflected Ash’s sword and aimed with his other sword for the baron’s neck.

Under Dante’s shocked gaze, Kyle’s legs finally touched the ground while the baron fell to his knees for the first time since the start of the battle.

And the next moment—

Thud!

Ash’s head fell into the ground, and his Wheel of Luck vanished as weel.

The baron was finally dead.

"Phew, that was a bit hard." Kyle chuckled as he looked at the head casually, as if this was the only normal result. In his heart, he had won the moment he decided to kill the baron.

"He did it." The strategist muttered under her breath, a wide smile spreading across her features.

All the others were also happy, but no one celebrated. How could they celebrate after almost getting wiped?

Just then, Kyle’s sharp gaze fell on Dante.

’I hate my life.’

Dante’s muscles tensed as he prepared himself to run, but just then, Kyle clicked his tongue.

"Tsk, consider yourself lucky for helping her."

Kyle brought a dagger out of his pocket and started digging into Ash’s skull.

Finally, Dante let out a breath of relief.

Everything was done.

Slash!

Dante turned around instantly as he heard the sound of cutting flesh.

’Oh, I was too focused on the fight and forgot about those things.’

Fafnir had just killed a walking corpse that tried to catch Dante off guard, cutting it in half.

The mist was still there.

"Sh-shouldn’t we now search for the others? Something might happen to them if we don’t help them quickly." Elizabeth suggested, but no one responded for a long moment.

Skylar sighed: "Yes, we should."

They still had to deal with the corpses and search for any survivors. The baron’s attacks didn’t target only the inn.

As for telling Elizabeth the truth...

’This will have to wait for the morning.’