Chapter 105

this is a fictional story by realTensai

The colosseum like arena faded away, leaving them back on the school grounds at the same place they had been before. However, even though nothing held them back anymore, they couldn’t move. All they did was watch how their friend, their classmate, their team comrade lay motionless on the ground, his blood expanding as if betraying him. But as the flowing blood slowly approached them, their time resumed and reality took over.

“Dane!” Sekki shouted, his voice cracking in pain.

He ran to the lifeless corpse of his friend, tears pouring down his face. Alvis heard them shout, he heard them cry, he heard their pain. He could see how Xing and Ulmi held back Diane, who wanted to avenge Dane.

However, even though Alvis could see and hear all of this, it didn’t reach his brain.

Nothing entered his head as he just stood there.

No, he wasn’t standing—he was frozen, caught in some inescapable limbo between reality and the void. His legs didn’t move. His chest didn’t rise. His heart didn’t beat.

He just existed.

Dane lay motionless, his blood expanding across the dirt, reaching outward as if trying to pull him back.

But he wasn’t coming back.

Alvis’ lips parted, but no sound came out. He tried to breathe, but his lungs refused. His fingers twitched at his sides, but his arm felt detached from his body, as if it belonged to someone else.

Someone stronger.

Someone who hadn’t failed.

His own breath felt foreign, like it belonged to someone else.

Then realization began to whisper.

A tiny, gnawing voice in the deepest part of his mind.

Dane isn’t moving.

Dane isn’t breathing.

Dane isn’t coming back.

The ringing in his ears rose into a screeching wail.

Dane is dead.

Alvis’ energy vanished, and he fell to the ground, this thought robbing him of his last strength.

Dane is dead.

Yet, this sentence wouldn’t leave him alone. It possessed his entire being, filling the void in his heart with something far more dangerous.

“Die, die, die, die,….” Alvis muttered as the dark energy within him rose.

All he could see was one person. The sole person responsible for everything. For all his pain.

“Alvis…” Nero said, her gaze shifting from Alvis to Gilsymbato, the one who robbed Alvis of his best friend.

Yet he wasn’t the one Alvis’ hatred was concentrated at.

“Why can’t I just die already?”

The sole person responsible for everything; for all his pain. The person he hated the most. The one who should just die was no other than himself.

Alvis smashed his head against the ground, almost cracking his skull open. He teared the ground, his nails and fingers breaking. His blood merged with the ground, forming chaotic lines as he tried to rip apart this world.

“Why am I so useless? Why does everything I do lead to the same outcome? Once again, I couldn’t protect Dane. Even though I so desperately tried to keep him away from danger, he still died right before my eyes. What use does my intelligence have? What use does my strength have? What use does my rationality have if I still fail over and over again? Why can’t I just succeed in the first try? Why do I always have to go through hell first just to achieve something so simple as keeping my friends alive? Is all I’m good at dying and trying again? Is my death really my only worth? Then why the hell can’t I just die already?”

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Once again, Alvis smashed his head against the ground and this time blood spilled out from his forehead.

“H-Ha..Haha, I promised myself to live a life with no regrets. To live fully while staring down death. To live like a human. But how can I keep living in a world where my weakness caused the death of hundreds of people? How can I keep living in a world where my uselessness caused the death of my best friend? Can I even live like a normal human whilst carrying all the scars of failed pasts?”

I’m sorry, Lia, but I’m still too weak to live a life of no regrets.

Alvis raised his head and was about to smash it into the ground again, but suddenly two people held him back. As he shifted his gaze to the ones pulling at his body, he saw Nero and Chao.

“We can’t give up yet!” Nero said, tears running down her eyes.

“This isn’t like you, Alvis,” Chao shouted, his teary eyes filled with an intensity Alvis had never seen from him before. “Do you think Dane would want you to just throw away your life?”

They don’t understand. Only if I die can I save them. Only if I die can I somehow atone for my sins.

“Think about the people who are still counting on you.”

Alvis couldn’t move. Lia’s face popped up in his head, together with the rest of the student council and his classmates. They were still alive. They still didn’t give up.

A rush of heat steamed up Alvis’ body, and he started crying.

“I… I’m sorry, Dane! I’m sorry, I’m sorry,…. I couldn’t protect you…”

The hatred in his heart transformed into grief and sorrow, and the only way out for it was by crying. Alvis cried like a baby. Yet, whilst he was grieving on the ground, he could hear footsteps of someone approaching him.

“My, my, my, what a sight my eyes have arrived at. If this isn’t my favorite underclassman, Alvis Silva.”

Upon trembling eyes, Alvis raised his head, yet this wasn’t even necessary as he already knew who this was.

“William!”

“What? Don’t act surprised now. You knew I would come. No, you invited me.”

Alvis couldn’t respond, after all, he was right. It was a part of his plan, yet he didn’t predict that his situation would end up like this.

“You knew we fourth years wanted to attack the student council today, and that’s why you and your half giant friend went out to complete quests. You knew that Hercules and I only wanted to crush you two so to get us, the strongest and the leaders away from the rest of the student council, you decided it would be best to face us one on one somewhere else. This was your plan, wasn’t it?”

Once again, Alvis didn’t respond. He had seen through everything.

“Well, I guess it worked somewhat. Your friend took out Hercules, but as I see now,” he said, looking at Dane’s corpse with an amused smile, “they already met again on the other side, haha.”

“Don’t you dare disrespect Dane!”

“Or what?” William asked, still laughing. “What do you want to do? In your current condition, killing you won’t even be fun.”

Alvis clenched his bloody fist, yet this was all his strength allowed him to do.

“Let me tell you a secret,” William said, a bone chilling smile etched on his face. “You might think that you kept us away from the rest to give your team a better chance of survival. But what if I told you it was the opposite?”

“W-What?”

“You think you kept us away, but in reality, we kept you and your friend away. Now Jasmine can do whatever she wants.”

“Jasmine?” Alvis said, as he remembered their conversation in the library. He knew she was strong, but she didn’t seem like someone who would take part in the killing.

“Jasmine will lead the rest of the fourth years and annihilate the student council. She won’t even spare your little girlfriend.”

“You bastard! Shut up!”

“Hahahaha. Even I was surprised when Jasmine proposed to lead the attack on the student council, as she normally never takes part in my plans. But now that Jasmine decided to move, there is no one who can save them.”

Alvis’ brain spun as he couldn’t accept it, yet he couldn’t worry about Lia and the rest, as his own life was now in immediate danger.

“I’ve talked enough. Time to put an end to this,” William said, as his killing intent rose. Wind gathered around his palm, morphing into a deadly arrow. “This is what you get for defying me.”

Alvis wanted to move, no he had to move. But he couldn’t. His injuries, his missing arm, the pain, his brain damage, his empty mana core — they wouldn’t let him move.

However, as the wind arrow made its way to its target, an earth wall erupted. In the next second, Nero and Hibea dragged Alvis away to security.

“You’ve fought enough. We will take care of the rest.”

Chao’s earth wall immediately crumbled, yet the weakened attack only grazed his shoulder, making him bleed just a bit. However, Diane and Xing joined the battle, ready to take on William together with Chao.

“Nero, Hibea, I’m counting on you. Take Alvis away,” Chao shouted, as his bleeding shoulder slowly healed because of his Ashen Cloak. With trembling legs, he turned his attention to William, yet his eyes weren’t wavering.

“No, no, no… they don’t stand a chance. William, William, he will kill them!” Alvis shouted as his body got carried away.

“You want to run away?”

This was all Alvis could hear and as he turned his head, he saw how wind blades slashed Chao, Diane and Xing.

“No, please, no…”

However, Chao and the rest didn’t run away. With blood running down his small body, the fragile and timid Chao stood up again.

“W-We can’t just rely on Alvis. We have to take some of the heavy burden he is carrying. We will fight,… we will fight even if this means death!”

Please, no. I don’t want you to die. Not you too.

“Move, damned body, move!” Alvis shouted, cursing himself. “Why am I so weak? If I don’t fight now, they will die. My friends will die because of my incompetence!”

“You want to fight, don’t you?”

Suddenly, Hibea whispered these words into his ear. At first, her voice was soft, almost comforting. But as he looked her in the face, every hair of his stood up as his instincts warned him about something evil. Her usual smile had turned into a psychopathic smile belonging to none other than a great demon. Common sense told Alvis to stay away from her, to flee as fast as possible, yet he didn’t care.

“Yes,” he answered.

She stopped, her entire demeanor changing. Her crimson eye shone in a dark light, her demon side taking over.

“I’ve got a way that will let you continue fighting.”