Miss Mathilde!?

Paralysis glued my body down the ground. I ordered my limbs to move but they’re resisting. I lost my voice to speak even.

Elara shouted in my stead, “Miss Mathilde!? Why are you here!?”

Miss Mathilde walked towards the monster without a touch of fear in her. This is also the time I realized that her hoarse voice wasn’t of her sickness, rather it’s natural.

“Dion, I’m already here. Please, go back home…”

Dion? That giant creepy disgusting monster… was that kid!? In reply to that, the static that wrapped my head became a clear crispy voice of a boy.

“Mom? Mom… How are you alive?”

It really was Dion! That’s notably a thief’s voice! But how… how did a human became a monster? Was that even possible?

I recalled every moment his name was mentioned in my memory. If this incident happened after Dion left the city, and the Harswell Forest was involved, there might be only one suspect involved…

Eliot.

Did Elara realized it too? But will she believe that Dion was that monster? After all, only the two of us could hear his voice.

Miss Mathilde slowly reached out for the Gaswing’s mouth, trying to calm it down. She caressed the side of its blade like she’s rubbing an infant after birth.

As Mathilde saw his son’s body lying inside the monster’s body, her eyes widened with her drawn eyebrows. She gasped, freezing in place, hanging her mouth open as tears fell down her eyes.

With shaky lips, she whined. “D—Dion, it’s alright. I’m fine. Everything’s fine. You don’t have to worry anymore. So please… let’s go home.”

“Mom? Is that really you!?” Dion replied with telepathy for which I could hear too.

“Dion, my son, you don’t have to do bad things anymore. I will do my best to give you a good life… a life with no suffering… a breakfast that will fill our stomach… I will stay healthy until you grow up…”

She continued rubbing its mouth… until the Gaswing moved its head upward, preparing another swing. Not only me, but everyone widened our eyes and gasped for something we didn’t expect.

“You’re not my mother! She’s dead! She’ll never come back anymore! You’re all lying!” The voice screamed, which deafened my mind with a headache.

What should I do? I couldn’t even move from this fatigue. Is there something? There must be something…

There was only one way I could help.

From the distance, I squirmed my hand with a gesture pointing at Elara. With my remaining muscular energy, I whispered, “Save them.”

Elara’s blade enhanced, glowing whiter, while green aura surrounded and healed her body. Even though the healing took time, I should risk this last amount of mana I had for them.

But my expectations were completely off. The Gaswing swiped its head to Miss Mathilde, and the only thing everyone could do was shout.

From that attack, huge specks of dust filled the air, leaving no view visible. Before me, a gruesome fate happened when the son crushed his mother. With only smokes stalling my view, tears watered my eyes.

If I continued training up my limits… If I’m just stronger… This shouldn’t have happened. I would have saved—What!?

After the smoke cleared up, we saw the monster’s mouth hit a purple translucent barrier. Miss Mathilde and a boy were standing inside it.

“A barrier!? How did that happen?” Everyone, including Elara, asked in confusion.

I’m curious on how they see Xenos, or is that boy really a ghost? His entrance was somewhat cool… but only I noticed him.

He’s literally the universal plot device. If not for him, Miss Mathilde might have been dead by now. Am I really in the right mind? Why am I praising him?

My eyelids pulled itself down, closing my view. No matter how hard I tried resisting, I couldn’t fight it. I couldn’t feel my body anymore.

I’m so tired.

***

“Miss Vena! Miss Vena! Are you alright!?” Elara cried and shook Veniara’s body, trying to wake her up. She left her glowing blade down the ground.

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“She’s unconscious, but her mana might have been continuously sucked by that blade by now.”

Elara squinted at him for seconds before replying to the boy. “……Aren’t you the Rutherford prince? Why are you here?”

“I’m already used to not being noticed—”

The Gaswing roared a burst of air that stretched the trunks, but like Veniara, Xenos can hear the voice inside the monster through telepathy. The conversation between Dion and his Mom continued.

“You’re a fake! You’re not my mother! Mom just died, not because of her sickness! She was killed! I still have to kill that murderer before I surrender myself to peace!”

“I’m your only mother, Dion. I’m completely alive—”

“Lies! Lies! You’re all liars! Not even a person were willing to help us… Not even one. It’s my fault Mom died… It’s those people’s fault for not helping you, even right after they saw you suffer! Those people deserved to die!”

“You’re wrong, Dion! If it’s not for someone’s help, I wouldn’t be here. I was cured by—”

“That’s not even possible! We don’t have anything! Anyone! There’s no one willing to help us! They don’t even understand our suffering that we never deserved! Why!? We did good things for others… Why won’t it turn back?”

“Dion… I understand you, but— Argh!”

Suddenly, Xenos grabbed Mathilde as a hostage and pointed the glowing blade at her neck. A purple barrier surrounded them from the outside.

Later, Elara realized that the blade in Xenos’s possession was hers. She bared her teeth and flared her nostrils in breaking the shell with bare hands, but it won’t budge.

“What are you doing, you kid!? Give my blade back! Do you want to become the enemy of the kingdom!?” She growled.

Xenos didn’t utter a word at Elara in response. Instead, he waited until the monster reacted to him.

“Who are you!?” Dion, the monster, shouted through telepathy while accompanied by a roar to a normal human ears.

“I’m the killer of your real mom.”

“W—What did you say!?”

Xenos crossed the blade a centimeter away through Mathilde’s neck. He smirked at the monster, provoking it.

“Do you see this blade here? This pure-glowed sharpness will soon travel through the flesh of your Mom. Do you want to see your mother die again… and in front of you?”

“Damn you! Free my mother!” Dion smashed the barrier a couple of times, but it didn’t leave a dent even. The Gaswing’s glow dimmed bit by bit until the strength of its hit weakened.

Since Xenos was declared the dark lord candidate of the Western empire, his dark magic affinity reached its peak like Veniara’s case for the light affinity.

This magnetic exploit resulted in him resisting the monster’s attack completely. Dark magic resists the same kind of attacks, but it’s the opposite for light magic.

For fighting dark type monsters, it’s recommended to have a light affinity for attacking and a dark affinity for defending.

“Why are you angry? She’s a fake, right? What makes you so concerned? Your real mother was dead anyway.”

“Free my mother, you damn devil! Don’t kill my mother again! Please, I beg you! I don’t want to see my mother die again!”

For its last smash, it’s foot slid beside the barrier causing it to loose balance and fall down the ground. The impact created an aftershock. Its body lost its glow, not enough to light the area around it.

Xenos threw the blade out the barrier, and Elara caught it. “Its weakness is the remaining eye. Freeing him was your job.”

Elara grimaced at him first, not sure of his actions until seconds after. Her face flushed up to her ears, chuckling fake after getting Xenos’s intention.

“I admit. I was too dumb… Thank you for your help,” Elara replied with a smile of agreement.

She spun her dagger in her palm before posing her stance. With her heavy foot kissing the ground, she launched herself and climbed the weakened monster’s head.

The remaining eyeball lies exactly right below her. As she raised her dagger with both arms over her head, she muttered.

“I will never forgive you, Eliot.”

As Elara dug the sphere with her blade, the monster’s body glowed brighter than before, like a smaller sun inhabited it.

The moment the ball cracked, Elara jumped of the enormously shaking monster’s body. Xenos grabbed her inside his barrier and watched the outcome, blinding their own eyes.

Bang!

A loud explosion deafened everyone’s ears as the gooey blood of the monster scattered from its center. Mathilde, concerned about her son, broke free from Xenos’s grip, but the barrier didn’t let her go out.

“Dion!” She shouted with drawn brows, thinking that her son’s body exploded as well. Knocking the shell with force, she kneeled on the floor, crying.

As the site cleared up, a blue, transparent metal ball containing Dion’s unconscious body rested on the very center of the zone. When Mathilde noticed it, calmness overtook her emotions.

The three approached it. Elara cut through its soft skin, releasing Dion together with a pool of dense liquid that lacked fragrance. Mathilde caught the unconscious Dion through her hands.

With tears flooding her face, Mathilde rubbed her cheeks to her son’s face, hugging him tight. “I’m sorry… You shouldn’t have suffered because of me… I promise to give you a life worth living.”

Xenos and Elara just witnessed another episode of Motherly Love, not until Bjorn waved at Elara with a shout.

“Miss Elara! The young girl here is unconscious! Please hurry! She seemed hurting!”

“Vena!” Elara gasped, breathlessly rushing towards the unconscious lying body of her owner. She raised her to the ground, calling her name repeatedly with her dry mouth. Unlike before, Veniara’s teeth clenched as she winced.

“Her body reached the critical point for the lack of mana. From her expression, she must still be using her magic unconsciously. Worse comes to worst, if isn’t resolved as quickly as possible, it will take away her lifespan.”

“This must be the reason,” Elara muttered, raising the glowing blade in her hand. “How should we stop this, Prince? Milady’s life was in danger!”

“You can call me Xenos. She should be supplied by a mana from a manabank equivalent to hers.”

“B—But Vena’s pool was higher than the average! She was the saintess candidate. It would be late if we brought her back to the city to cure her! What should we do!? There’s no one with the same manabank as hers right here!”

“Actually, we do.”

Xenos approached Elara and stole Vena’s body from her. He closely witness the tender lips and closed, peaceful eyelids of Vena lying in his arm. He leaned his head to collide his lips to her’s, kissing her for a long time.

Nobody expected what he was going to do. Everyone’s mouth hanged open, for which a mosquito could enter anytime. Silence broke through until Xenos released his lips after ten seconds.

The crowd goes ‘Ooooh!’ But Elara excreted her wrath by baring her teeth as she noisily breathed. Her head boiled red… for which she couldn’t forgive him.

“LAY OFF MILADY, YOU SNEAKY BRAT!”