“Sallera?”
“That’s me, your Lordness.”
Somani’s heart beat faster.
“But… what are you doing here?”
Sallera had a calm expression as she answered.
“To battle you, unfortunately.”
Somani went silent, staring into the elf’s calm eyes.
The voice spoke. “We order the prisoners to proceed with the fight, or there will be consequences.”
‘Don’t,’ I urged.
Somani did.
“I refuse!”
The result was instantaneous. A shock wave went through Somani, dropping him to the ground as his muscles locked.
The pain was immense. Somani tried to resist, but only helplessly convulsed on the ground as foam formed and spilt out of his mouth.
His eyes rolled in place as he fought for consciousness.
A while later, the shock went, but its effects, pain and burnt flesh, stayed.
‘Somani, you have to fight. There’s no other option.’
‘No, Cello. I won’t fight a person whom I consider an ally. They can’t force me!’
“I r-refuse,” Somani challenged. Although it was barely audible, our imprisoners still heard.
AHhhhhh
Another shock… his heartbeat stopped.
Somani lay motionless on the ground, with random seizures.
I pumped the kid’s blood while expanding his chest for air before it happened…
Unless he lost all his Mana, Somani couldn’t die; that was what his class title promised.
Mana surged, creating new tissue to replace the destroyed.
In a few seconds, Somani was back alive.
‘They just killed you. Stand up and fight, or more pain and death will come.’
‘I fear neither!’
‘What about our goal? Do you think the System will allow this behaviour?’
The kid was as stubborn as ever. Clenching his jaws, he shakily stood up.
‘There has to be another way.’
The smell of burnt flesh was intense as smoke rose from Somani’s skin, while his eyes were dry and blurry.
Shaking his head to clear his mind, he spoke with a broken voice.
“S-Sallera, do you-u wish to fight me?” Somani asked, his voice cracked.
Somani intensely focused on Sallera, trying to gauge her intentions. His eyes were a bit blurry, but nothing was going to stop him.
Sallera stood, silent. Neither her posture nor her expression revealed anything.
“Sallera?”
Somani stepped closer. More steadily, thanks to his rapid healing.
“No, your Lordship.”
Somani smirked, being validated.
“Then y-you won’t h-have to. W-we’ll find a way o-out. T-Together.”
The girl wasn’t done talking.
“But I have to.”
The elf’s skin shone green with Mana; she charged us.
Boov!
Surprised, still weak, and close, Somani was too slow to react, resulting in a misaligned lower jaw as his vision darkened.
The subsequent attack was instantaneous: a punch that caved in his maxilla.
I took control, stopping her barrage with a Mana-infused bone disk.
Boov
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It shattered in two punches, but that bought me enough time to get back on my feet and try to gain the initiative, until…
Somani gained consciousness, retaking control.
He tried to blurt something, but was in no condition to do so; only blood spurted as his healing ability fought to hold his face together.
The Elf seemed a bit surprised, maybe intimidated by the gruesome scene or the boy’s tenacity, her eyes growing wide.
Jumping away, she shot a Mana bolt.
Refusing to hand me control and defend himself, the attack ripped through our stomach muscles before exploding inside.
Boom
Blood flew everywhere as the surviving organs spilt on the ground.
Somani fell onto his face.
Sallera didn’t approach, opting to shoot another bolt from far away.
Mana infusion mitigated the damage, keeping us in one piece—I had managed to force some control.
‘Somani! She wants us dead!’
The kid ignored me.
“W-Why?” Somani muttered after a few failed attempts.
The Elf either didn’t hear or ignored the kid, focusing on the quickly growing Mana bomb between her hands—she was ruthless.
Somani tried to get up, but his wounds weren’t healed yet; his shaking hand slipped on the pooling blood.
I tried to gather the blood and form a bomb, but a Mana bolt, summoned by Somani, vaporised it.
The kid was suicidal.
Why isn’t the contract working?!
The kid had clearly gone against our shared goal, but for some reason, the System Contract refused to enforce its laws.
Can it be… intention?
The System had previously discarded our experimental attempt to activate the contract, probably seeing through our exploitative intentions. That meant the reverse could be true. An unreasonable action with a good intention wouldn’t break the contract’s clause.
But… the dream.
In the manufactured dream, Somani was convinced that his actions of fighting my control, backed by good intentions planted by the Dream Weaver, were the right choice, but the Contract still got activated.
The System… It’s a wise and observing judge.
I focused on the kid’s inner thoughts.
He… he knows he’ll win, but wants justification. Justification for his morals.
“I said~Cough Cough~why?!”
The Elf continued to enlarge her Mana Bomb. It was now half her size.
Half-healed, Somani rose shakingly.
Sallera threw her bomb.
“As you wish.”
It tore through the air, twisting and wreathing in astonishing speed.
Somani used his will—[Primus Will], while I threw a hastily created Mana Bomb.
Boov!
My counteroffensive was evaded by a sudden jerk from the enemy bomb; it still exploded close to the girl.
The elf’s Mana Bomb, on the other hand, diminished until it lost half its size upon reaching us.
Boov!
The heat from the explosion burned our skin, fat tissue, and some muscle, but through using infusion, we… were still alive and standing.
I encased Somani in a bone shell before flying away spardioucly as we were basically blind.
Boov
Boov
Boov
Explosions ringed around us, some even hitting us, but with Mana infusion, the bone shell mostly held.
Crk!
Somani kicked the shell before charging his opponent; his wounds were reasonably healed.
Bolts formed behind Sallera before they shot out, honing in on us.
‘Cello, help.’
I activated [Hive Mind] and [Primus Will].
Using the advanced computing power, I simultaneously focused on the myriad bolts; I then tried to dismantle them.
Able to create so many bolts… impressive.
Unfortunately, unlike the Mana Bomb, the bolts were harder to dismantle, being backed by the elf’s unoccupied will.
Two bolts hit us, but only broke skin due to infusion.
We reached the Elf.
She disappeared.
Right, she can teleport.
‘Where is—‘
‘Above!’
Although my spherical vision had shrunk, I was still able to perceive the Mana bolt before it hit us.
I threw Somani away with biomancy.
Boov!
Sallera was flying high above us, two new Mana Bombs beginning to form next to her.
Instead of pushing her before she formed the bombs, Somani stopped.
‘What now?’
‘One final chance.’
“At this rate, you’ll deplete your Mana before you kill me. Tell me why you, who was ready to give her life for me during the tournament, are fighting so vehemently to kill me, and… I’ll spare you.”
Sallera’s cold eyes didn’t show any emotion as she threw the bombs.
“A bluff, huh?”
‘Bring me to her,’ Somani asked of me, his eyes now cold.
Finally.
I shot Somani off the ground and towards the elf.
Boov!
Boov!
We narrowly outmanoeuvred the Mana Bombs by changing their direction a bit using [Primus Will] and increasingly better aerial movement skills.
‘Cello, I wanna make this quick. Can we use the new skill?’
‘No need, she’s not that strong. Plus, I don’t want them to know about it. Yet.’
“This is all you can do!” I taunted through Somani.
‘From where did you learn this?’ Somani asked as we tried to locate the girl.
‘Nightly torture sessions.’
Sallera wasn’t stationary, flying away as she flung attacks at us.
The chase continued.
‘What is that?’
Mana wires interwove into such a complex tapestry that it was mind-boggling, and then…
Swish!
Somani’s torso exploded.
The attack was so fast that it appeared as if it had spawned in us.
I quickly moved what remained of Somani away while infusing his body with Mana.
Another hit.
Boov!
This time, the damage was minimal, but we were still sent flying.
I have to dismantle the tapestry.
I kept on moving, explosions ringing next to or against me.
‘Somani, what’s the furthest you can control Mana from you?’
‘Maybe… thirty feet?’
I gave Somani some instructions while we closed in on the elf.
Her attacks intensified, but with [Primus Will], good manoeuvring, and some bombs of ours, ones that got intercepted, I managed to get close enough to dismantle the bolt-slinging machine.
Sallera teleported away.
‘Now!’
Boooov!
The girl had teleported to our blind spot, so I figured that placing a few anticipatory bombs, hidden by the havoc of battle, and exploding them when Sallera teleported, one ought to catch her.
You have killed Sallera, Complec Mage Lv. 112
Primus Magus has reached Lv. 71
Well, that was easier than I thought.
Sallera lay on the ground behind us, her left side completely blown off.
‘Place me down.’
Dropping Somani on the ground, he walked towards her.
A single vacant eye stared into the ceiling. Once blue and mesmerising, now unfocused and… dead.
Standing above her dead body, he stared for a second before turning away.
‘You did the right thing… for our goal, everything will be spent,’ I consulted the kid, but unlike the sad feeling I expected, Somani was filled with rage.
Undulated rage.
“I will avenge you.”
***
Somani lay inside his cell; he was silent.
He suddenly stood up and started pacing around.
‘Cello, I know you’ve been plotting something for a while now. I didn’t want to intervene, noticing your intentions to keep it a secret, but I can’t take it anymore. If you’ve found something, a way to escape this hellhole, I want to be in on it. I want to help.’
‘I actually have, and was intending to share it with you, although you probably won’t be of any help.’
Suddenly, the room turned red, signifying a new battle.
‘But we’ve just won…’
Two battles, this close to each other, had never happened before.
‘They’re plotting something. Be careful.’
Somani internally nodded as he started circulating Mana through his skin, and skin only. Anything more, and the expenditure would’ve been too expensive to keep up for too long. This was a trick that, after maxing out all his class skills and realising he couldn’t evolve them, he had tried to learn.
The door slid open, revealing a lengthy corridor.
Taking a deep breath, Somani entered.
‘It’s going to be Tob,’ Somani shared what I was fearing.
I didn’t respond.
‘Those bastards! They’re taking revenge on me for not sharing my class secrets! They want me to kill my teammates!’
I decided to try to calm the kid down, to help him see reason.
‘Tob means nothing for you, Somani. He’s neither a family nor a friend—just a temporary ally born from a forced circumstance.’
But the kid refused reason.
‘So what? That doesn’t mean I should do as they desire and kill him.’
‘And? Are you going to forfeit our goal? Should I remind you about our Contract?’
Somani shook his head internally.
‘I do remember the Contract, and if you do so, too, it prohibits you from harming my friends. Keep that in mind.’
‘So, let me presume this. You’re going to let this so-called friend kill you. Excellent strategy.’
‘No, I’m going to give them what they want. Knowledge.’
Can he do that? No, the System won’t allow him. Still, he might blurt something out before the System decided to intervene. I have to stop him.
‘You’re going to share our secrets for a man who’d probably kill you with no second thought if it lets him live.’
Somani quickened his strides, ignoring me. He had already decided; his teammate came before our precious class secrets.
‘Somani, you know the System Contract won’t allow that. You’ve just killed Sallera, so just kill the giant, and we’ll enact my plan and escape.’
Somani stopped walking.
‘Enact it now. I want to save Tob with us.’
‘That won’t work. My plan needs days, if not weeks, to work.’
“Proceed forward,” the voice urged.
Somani started walking again.
‘So are you going to kill him?’
The kid went back to ignoring me. He had already decided—Inact his desire even if that meant losing control to me.
Seeing the corridor’s end near us, I decided to try one more time.
‘Kid, if you give them our secrets, just to save this fat giant… believe me, it won’t end well for us.’
Somani smiled.
‘When you take control, you won’t be able to kill Tob. I consider him a friend.’
That… that had completely eluded me.
Breaching the corridor’s end, our eyes took a moment to adjust to…
Another elf?
Thankfully, it wasn’t the giant. Just a girl, even younger than Sallera, wearing simple white robes, with cascading golden hair, green eyes, and pointy ears.
She looked very similar to Sallera.
Oh, no.
Somani clenched his fists.
“What’s your… do~ahm~you know Sallera?” Somani asked, his voice cracked.
The girl brightened at that.
“You know my sister, Mister? Could you take me to her?”
Anger, dark and hate-filled anger, surged, making Somani’s vision hyper-focused.
‘She…. She was protecting her sister.’