*(A/N: When I was going through the chapters, I realized that I had mistakenly skipped chapter 457 and instead published two chapters which were 458. I have now corrected this... if you are one of those who are stuck with the problem in chapter 457, you can read it now. If you didn’t encounter this problem, you can continue.)*
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--Volu VII: Light Born from Darkness--
Dark corridors stretched before , and I had to choose one quickly.
I clicked my tongue and chose the leftmost one.
I passed between tal walls, who knows how many ters underground, where red lights flickered on and off constantly.
The only problem wasn’t my environnt or the fact that I was stuck here, though.
"Hah... ha..."
Every breath I took burned my throat because of the gases released.
"Ugh..."
My legs, already weak on their own, were aching from running.
"You can’t run, Aiden."
I couldn’t use any of my skills because I was out of mana.
"You were overconfident."
Caora was... also not an option.
"And now, you’ve reached the end."
The only thing I could do was move forward.
"To your own end."
I gritted my teeth, ignoring the voice of the person echoing behind , who seed not to be getting away from , no matter how hard I ran.
Still, I kept running. I passed through countless corridors, the empty ones, where strangely no one was blocking .
But, then... the inevitable happened.
First, my steps slowed, then I stopped completely.
I was no longer in the corridors lined with tal walls.
I was in a much larger room at the end of the corridors, I had reached a... dead end.
"Oh, is this where you escaped to?"
The room, unlike the corridors I had easily passed through before... was not empty.
There was a table, a round one with red colored screens on it.
And there were people sitting at this table. All in suits, with an absolute coldness on their faces.
"To the very heart of the whole underworld..."
They were all... my targets.
The bosses of the underworld.
The ones I planned to kill one by one.
"A perfect choice for your place of death."
I had finally managed to reach them, the distance between us so short that I could close it in less than a second if I hadn’t run out of mana.
But... there was no fear on any of their faces.
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Because they were all aware.
They had been watching from the beginning.
Who knows, maybe they had led here on purpose.
To see my death with their own eyes.
Knowing that I could do nothing.
I gripped my sword tightly, slowly turning around.
And... at that very mont, a figure erged from the corridor I had entered here.
His steps were heavy, asured. There were traces of blood on the white shirt he had rolled up his sleeves and the gray vest he was wearing. His thin striped trousers, the sa color as the jacket he was not wearing now, were clean, as if he had deliberately avoided getting them dirty.
As he stepped out of the darkness, he loosened his tie with his right hand and gripped the dagger in his left a little tighter.
"It must be... embarrassing to realize you’re going to die in front of the people you’re trying to kill."
His eyes, shimring with a purple glow, were almost full of pity.
Out of the corner of my eye, I looked behind , at the people watching .
Was there any way I could take soone hostage?
~whoosh!
Sothing, probably quite sharp, passed by my ear so fast that I didn’t even realize what it was.
But the shocking thing was... this sharp thing flew straight toward the table.
~tchink!
But before it even reached the table, it hit an invisible wall and bounced off, revealing itself to be one of the daggers that the man behind had just been holding...
"You can’t reach them, Aiden."
"Tch."
I ran my eyes over everyone at the table.
A hannya, two dwarves, and three humans.
There were six of them in total.
They were all... weak people in general. They had gotten where they were not by their strength, but by their intelligence and cunning.
And yet...
"It must have been easy to sit there."
I couldn’t stop myself from comnting, even though I knew each of their stories.
But I didn’t keep my focus on them for long.
I quickly turned to the man with the dagger.
But he wasn’t the next person to speak.
It... ca from behind .
"Saligia may have underestimated you. But it is bold of you to assu that we would do the sa."
Soone else spoke next.
"It is an amazing feat that you even made it here. Our heartfelt congratulations to you, Aiden Tenebra."
And another.
"And for that... you deserve an award."
Imdiately afterward, there was a change.
A huge red screen appeared on the table.
With soone I knew quite well on it.
For the first ti, I saw her with a smile on her face. Her black eyes were full of excitent over her victory.
She was probably the person assigned to take care of after I told her where my next target was.
Syla Formida.
"Hi, Aiden."
Her voice echoed throughout the room, in my ears.
"We last saw each other in Eshaware, right? After you made the king cleanse the palace there..."
She looked like she was having so much fun while talking.
"What did you say you were going to do at that ti? Was it ’Stop , if you can’? I think it was, right...? My mory is quite good."
She leaned back, her smile widening even more than it already was.
"Well, I did it! I stopped you. Thank you for letting know in advance that you were coming here. It really helped a lot."
She tilted her head slightly to the side.
"Heh. This is what happens when you get overconfident."
She narrowed her eyes.
"Death."
And... the room fell silent.
A silence that no one made a sound.
The silence I broke with a deep breath.
"Huuuu..."
I poured mana into the sword in my hand. It was covered in blue sparkles and quickly transford into its other form... into a cane.
I supported myself with it, making it much easier for to stand.
Then, though...
I simply closed my eyes.
"Oh?"
Not saying anything, not trying anything.
As if... waiting.
"So you’ve accepted it... I would have accepted it too if I were you, so don’t worry, no one will make fun of you behind your back."
That’s when I heard the man behind move.
He was taking a stance.
To kill .
"Ah, actually..."
And then... I heard another voice.
"I will because it’s so damn fun!"
The hum of the air between us as if it were being ripped open.
"Ahahahah!"
He was coming as she was laughing so hard.
"See you in the afterlife, Aiden! But don’t expect so soon!"
My death.
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