How many minutes had passed?
How long had I been running?
I had no idea.
I guess it had been more than five minutes.
Without looking back even once, I had been following the dark corridor ahead of the whole ti. I was running—doing the only thing I could do.
Before long, I reached a junction. I had to choose one of the corridors stretching to the right or left.
I clicked my tongue and chose the one on the left.
I passed through the tal walls, who knows how many ters below ground, as the red lights of the alarm—which had been blaring nonstop and was starting to drive a little crazy—flicked on and off endlessly.
Of course, my problems weren't limited to that.
"Hah… ha…"
The leaking gases had started to seep deep into my lungs. I was able to filter out a significant amount at first thanks to Sith. But once there was nothing left but toxic gas along the corridors, there was no 'clean air' left for to inhale.
Every breath I took felt like it burned my throat.
"Ugh… cough!"
My breathing aside, my legs were starting to give out too. I was using as little caora as possible, holding as little mana in my body as I could. With everything piling up, sharp cramps were starting to shoot through my already rather weak legs with every step I took.
This is what happens when soone who can't walk properly without a cane is made to run this much. And the wound on my left leg wasn't making things any easier.
"You can't run, Aiden."
That irritating voice, which I hadn't heard in a while, seed to echo everywhere. As if it had been watching my struggles all along… and had finally grown bored.
"You were overconfident."
I didn't answer. I didn't have anything to say anyway. So, I kept doing the only thing I could do.
"And now, you've reached the end."
I kept moving forward.
"To your own end."
I clenched my teeth. And also ignored the voice speaking right behind . It was as if no matter how much I ran, no distance was opening up between us.
I passed by countless rooms. I chose a random one from countless junctions, whichever seed to work for . All the while, no one stood in my way. No one tried to stop .
He had been right when he said no one but he would deal with .
And he also had been right… when he said he alone would be enough to stand against .
Leon Vincus was a man I could hardly hope to defeat, even if I used everything I had. In fact, he was soone I could barely even escape from…
But I didn't stop.
In the end, the inevitable happened.
I hadn't entered a single room I'd seen so far. So of their doors were actually open, as if inviting inside, but I'd ignored every single one.
Now, though…
My steps slowed involuntarily, then stopped completely.
I was no longer in corridors lined with tal walls on all sides. I had reached the end of them, a massive room so dark that its far end was not visible.
I had reached a dead end.
A dead end from which I could not turn back.
"Oh, is this where you escaped to?"
Leon's voice echoed once more.
The room was as dark as the corridors I'd passed through. But it wasn't as empty as they were.
In the center stood a round table, with red holographic screens floating above it, seemingly reaching all the way to the ceiling. Six people were seated around this table. Each was dressed in the finest suits I'd ever seen, their faces bearing an absolute coldness.
On the screens in front of them were… mostly cara footage. Countless footage of the corridors I had passed through.
"To the very heart of the whole underworld…"
And with that, I realized.
I... hadn't arrived here entirely by chance. I had been guided here. They had wanted to reach this place eventually.
They had wanted to co to them.
After all, they were all… my targets.
These six people were the rulers of the underworld—and thus of Black Blood.
One hannya, two dwarves, and three humans.
They were the people I had planned to kill today, one by one.
Right in front of , they were staring at my pitiful figure with an unnerving calmness. As if they had known this would happen from the very beginning.
"A perfect choice for your place of death."
I had finally managed to reach them. Even if it was just a tiny bit different from what I had planned, I was here. The distance between us was so short that if I wanted to, I could be right in front of them in less than a second.
But… there wasn't the slightest trace of fear on their faces.
They had no reason to be afraid.
They were all aware.
They'd been watching from the very beginning.
They'd seen that Leon was much stronger than and that I had run away from him like a coward.
With him nearby, they had no reason to fear .
I gripped my sword even tighter than usual. I slowly turned around, toward the dark corridors I'd co through.
And… just then, as I'd expected, a figure appeared.
His steps were the sa as when we first t. Heavy, but asured. There were a few bloodstains on his white shirt—my blood, of course. But there was nothing on any other part of his clothing… as if he'd carefully avoided getting them stained.
As he drew closer, he loosened his tie with his right hand and gripped the last remaining dagger in his left hand just as tightly as I did.
"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 filled with pity. It was as if he were feeling that 'embarrassnt' he spoke of in my place.
I glanced over my shoulder at the n watching .
Could I take one of them hostage? It would certainly make my job much easier…
~whoosh!
But my thoughts were abruptly cut short by sothing whizzing past my ear. Even though I was standing still, it had missed .
Its target was… the table I'd glanced at?
~tchink!
But before it could reach the table, it seed to hit an invisible wall and bounced, falling to the ground as I saw… that it was the dagger Leon had been holding just now.
"You can't reach them, Aiden."
"Tch."
It was as if he'd read my mind. He'd anticipated my attempt to reach them and had demonstrated, practically, why I couldn't.
I narrowed my eyes, then shifted my gaze from the dagger on the floor back to the n at the table.
"It must be easy to sit there."
But I didn't keep my focus on them for long. Even though it seed like they were planning to have a little fun at my expense… I couldn't risk taking my eyes off Leon for too long.
So I turned back to him quickly.
And the mont I did, a voice echoed through the room—a voice that wasn't Leon's.
It had co from behind , from the table.
"Saligia may have underestimated you. But it is bold of you to assu that we would do the sa."
Another spoke afterward.
"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 after that, a change occurred.
One of those red holographic screens on the table appeared between Leon and .
On it… was soone I recognized very well.
It was the first ti I'd seen her with a smile on her face. Her black eyes were filled with excitent, reflecting the triumph she'd achieved.
Syla Formida.
"Hi, Aiden!"
Her voice echoed throughout the room, resonating in my ears. Her voice carried the sa excitent and joy as her expression.
"We last saw each other in Eshaware, right? After you made the king cleanse the palace there..."
"..."
"What did you say you were going to do at that ti?"
She took her eyes off for a mont. She brought her finger to her chin as if she were thinking.
"Was it 'Stop , if you can'? I think it was, right...? My mory is quite good."
She leaned back, her smile widening slightly at first. It was as if she were trying to hold herself back…
But she failed. The expression on her face suddenly changed as if she'd gone completely mad.
"Well, guess what?!"
She slamd her hands on the table and jumped to her feet.
"I did it!"
Her eyes, wide open, were fixed entirely on .
"I stopped you!"
So of her hair had fallen across her face because of her sudden movent, but she didn't even care. She burst out laughing, unable to stop for several seconds.
"Thank you for letting know in advance that you were coming here! It really helped a lot. If it weren't for you, we could never have stopped you! Oh, the irony! Puhahaha!"
She laughed again. Then, as she wiped the tears from her eyes, she licked her lips as if she'd seen her favorite al and tilted her head slightly to the side.
"Heh. This is what happens when you get overconfident."
She narrowed her eyes.
"Death."
And… the room was engulfed in silence.
A silence where no one uttered a sound.
A silence I broke by taking a deep breath.
"Huuuu…"
I channeled mana into the sword in my hand. It was instantly covered in blue sparks, quickly transforming into its other form… into a cane.
I also withdrew the tiny bit of caora I'd been keeping active. A sharp pain spread throughout my body, and a ringing began in my ears. The only thing holding my left leg together gave way, and it felt like it would buckle the mont I stepped on it.
But I didn't utter a sound. I didn't let my expression falter. I leaned on my cane, which made it much easier to stand.
Then, though...
I simply closed my eyes.
"Oh?"
Without saying a word, without trying anything.
As if… I was waiting.
Syla's voice echoed through the room again. Though it was quite hard to make out because of the ringing in my ears, it was also surprisingly clear.
"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."
I heard Leon move just then.
"Ah, actually…"
He was taking a stance, ready to kill . He had deprived himself of his only weapon by throwing his dagger at , but he didn't need it against anyway. He was stronger than , after all. By a lot.
I wasn't sure exactly how I'd managed to hear it with my injured ear. Maybe its condition wasn't as bad as I thought it was. But… I didn't really care about it.
"I will because it's so damn fun! And I'll do it until the very end of my life! Like... The idiot who brought about his own end... I wonder how much more stupid he could have been? Ahahahah!"
Then I heard the whistling sound coming from between Leon and , as if the air were being torn apart.
He was coming.
"See you in the afterlife, Aiden! But don't expect so soon!"
My death.
"Ahahahah!"
Like that, the last thing I'd hear before my death would be Syla's unceasing laughter.
…
…
But it didn't happen.
"Syla…"
Because the mont that word left my mouth, Leon had stopped his fingers—which were about to snap my neck—at the very last second.
"Huh?"
And Syla had stopped laughing, too.
"What, do you have a few last things to say or sothing?"
I opened my eyes, which I'd kept closed until now. The screen showing Syla's image was right behind Leon's face, his fingers only a few milliters from my throat.
"I'd be delighted to hear it! Are you going to apologize? Beg for your life? Ask to work for us? Go ahead, say it!"
As if granting permission, Leon took a step back with a slight sigh, moving away from .
But his eyes were still on . He was at a distance where he could incapacitate the mont I so much as twitched a hair. From this point on, he wouldn't let try anything.
I had no intention of twitching a hair anyway.
"Do you know how dungeon portals form naturally?"
"Huh?"
Syla's eager expression, which had been waiting for to beg, vanished the mont I asked the question. Her smile faded. Her eyes narrowed as her eyebrows lifted slightly.
"What are you even babbling about?"
She had no idea what I was talking about. She was looking at as if I'd finally lost my mind.
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