Tring- Tring-
Leon rang the bell outside Nathan's room again and again. The place the black cat led them to was Nathan's room.
"Maybe he is busy?"
Leon himself didn't believe his words.
The Nathan he had seen was a hardworking person who would either always be training or studying in the library.
It was worriso why Nathan wasn't opening the door when he was present inside.
ow-
Besides him the cat kept scratching at the door.
"We should break it."
"Hmm"
Leon stood in front of the door.
Every door in the dorm was made of very durable tals. They would have to attack seriously to break the door.
Lilith would have to use her stigma if she wanted to break it. With her firepower, it was entirely plausible that the explosion would heavily damage the corridor.
Thus Leon had to be the one to cut the door.
Leon raised the sword with his bruised hands.
For the past week, he had been training rigorously. Not to ntion using his stigma had drained him. Even he wasn't sure if he could cut the door in his current condition.
"Move"
A beautiful and srizing voice entered Leon and Lilith's ears.
Turning back, only now did they realize that the silver-haired girl had followed them.
Hesitatingly, Leon stood back and left the girl in front of the door.
A scythe appeared in her hands. Holding the scythe with both hands she slashed downwards.
Swish-!
-Thud!
With her single swing, the door was cleanly cut in half.
Imdiately all three of them sensed sothing unusual and rushed into the room.
In the living room lay a young man on the ground with his upper body naked. His damp hairs stuck to his forehead and his eyes despite being open were out of focus.
Black smoke filled the entire room.
Glancing around, they quickly found the source of the murky energy. His left arm.
It was no longer producing a sizzling sound but the smoke coming out of it only slightly lessened.
"Nathan!"
Leon and Lilith took a single step and started coughing. The black smoke went inside their nostrils and made them weak.
Their eyes widened as they realized the identity of smoke. It was Nether.
They didn't understand what was happening, only that Nathan was in danger. Covering his mouth Leon started moving forward.
Snap-
Suddenly, the sound of a snap rang out.
Fwoosh-
Within a blink, the entire room was engulfed with white flas. The flas, seemingly holy, started devouring the smoke without rcy.
Leon and Lilith's eyes widened in alarm only to realize that the fla wasn't hurting them.
"Susan"
Leon looked back at the silver-haired girl. It had been only a few minutes that he saw her abilities and what Leon saw now wasn't a thin, beautiful girl but an insurmountable mountain.
"We need to take him to the infirmary."
Susan spoke while picking Nathan in a princess carry.
A thin layer of white flas was covering Nathan's left arm, stopping the black smoke from spreading again.
"What!?"
Leon and Lilith didn't bother with how Nathan was being carried in this urgent situation. But even their mouth hung open when Susan, opening the window, directly jumped down.
In a panic, they ran to the window.
Even though Nathan had a low rank his room was still on the 5th floor!
"Eh?"
Lilith let out a weird sound when she saw Susan carrying Nathan in one hand and using her other hand to dig her scythe into the wall, slowing her descent.
***
"Wh..at happe..ned?"
Slowly, my eyes were regaining clarity.
(You took your sweet ti to co here, didn't you?)
"Heik!"
Hearing soone suddenly from behind I jumped in fright and instantly regained clarity.
(It's you scaredy cat.)
I found Eth looking at with an exasperated expression.
Wait, what was with that expression saying 'are you for real?'
Anyone would get scared if soone suddenly speak from behind!
(Let's et him.)
My face turned solemn when Eth looked towards the darkest place in the void. I understood what he was talking about.
VUP-
A single step was enough for to stand next to the veil.
VUP-
Eth also appeared beside .
Both of us were avoiding bringing up the topic of our quarrel. It was the exact reason why I hadn't co inside my soul imdiately after reaching Proficient Mastery.
Since that day both of us had talked drastically less.
"What happened to ?"
(We'll know after so ti. Presently, you are being diagnosed in Ward's infirmary.)
"I see."
So, I wasn't wrong. That cat had a high level of intelligence. It should have been the one to bring help.
p
VUP- VUP-
"What the fu.."
I finally understood why Eth previously said that I won't believe him.
I wasn't able to believe what I was seeing myself!
Through the black veil, which even light couldn't escape from, ca five golden chains and bounded a shadowy figure.
Every single chain held unimaginable power, strong enough to obliterate every awakener I had seen in this life.
Being cuffed for far too long black blood trickled from the figure's wrists and ankles.
Through his disheveled hairs, which once shined like a black night, I could see the last chain bound around his neck.
His horns were broken and his wings bent. The clothes he wore were torn and he didn't even have the strength to lift his head.
The demon that once felt omnipotent was now reduced to rubble.
'What happened to him?'
Before Eth could answer the demon spoke in a horse and broken voice.
-Oh, hero. Are you fin..ally here? Will you finally grant my wish after this end..less wait?
Similar to mine, Eth's expression turned strange.
'Did he lose his mind? His deanor took a straight 180 along with his appearance.'
Eth spoke in my mind.
(I don't know. When he first ca he was acting normally but with each day he beca more worn out until.. Well, he beca like this.)
'He isn't lying.'
The way Caim was speaking was similar to a prisoner who had lost all hope after years of confinent with no stimulus.
My brows creased and I focused on what both of them said.
'Can it be?'
With a certain theory in my mind, I spoke to Caim.
"Endless wait? It's only been a month since you were here?"
-What!?
Caim whose voice was broken and tired suddenly turned sharp. His body quivered and he started muttering to himself.
-It can't be…. It can't be… Only one month. One month?..... It can't be
The few words I could understand from his incomprehensible muttering cleared my doubts.
'Ti is distorted here.'
This would explain why Caim felt like he had been trapped here for an endless ti and why he was broken like this.
Even for a Royal demon like him, ti wasn't sothing that he could win against.
'So, what I felt when I first ca here wasn't an illusion.'
Maybe I did spend years walking here.
(What about , then? I feel like ti flows here normally, though.)
I stared at Eth.
Indeed, if my theory was correct then Eth should have already spent countless years here. Yet, it didn't seem like he had spent much ti here.
In the novel, the topic of souls was touched on very briefly. It was entirely plausible that I was wrong or maybe sothing was different about my soul.
'Do you rember that our senses are connected?'
(Ah!)
It seems like Eth understood .
Soone couldn't perceive two different flows of ti at once.
If Eth's senses were connected to as he had said then the flow of ti he perceived must have been from my perspective.
Before Eth was about to speak I raised my hand.
There was one more thing I needed to confirm.
"What do you an by Hero?"
For the first ti, the demon raised his head.
I flinched when I t his dull eyes. Now, I was sure that he had spent uncountable amount of ti here.
Those dull eyes had lost any light and wore by staring endlessly at the sa void.
It seed Caim's ntal health had deteriorated to the point he didn't even doubt my question.
Without any hesitance, he answered.
-Aren't you the hero? The Hero who had been prophesied since the Dark Ages.
"Prophecy?"
Caim opened and closed his mouth a few tis until he started speaking.
-The past has drowned in the sorrows and the present will devour the future.
- Bound by the chains of misery only ashes remain of once splendorous world.
-There is not but one way for the end to arrive. The warrior of the beginning.
-The monarch that rules over the beginning and the end.
What was this prophecy? This wasn't sothing I've ever read.
I massaged my forehead. With every passing day, new things that weren't ntioned in the novel kept popping up.
But it seed Caim wasn't done.
-Only the sacrifice of the hero that has defeated ti itself can bring a peaceful end.
This ti it was the end of the prophecy.
"How do you know that this warrior is ? I don't think it ntioned anything related to ."
-The energy you command. Isn't it Aether? The source of beginning and creation itself.
My eyes widened.
Caim was talking about Ether, wasn't he? In the novel, Ether was said to be the second Aether.
From how it was shown I don't think Ether and Aether were much different.
But Ether wasn't supposed to belong to .
The rightful inheritor of Ether was Leon.
At this point, my brows creased.
'Did I fuck up by stealing Ether?'
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