"Dammit." Aster cursed. He saw the elephant attacking Nyle. "Let's take the opportunity and run!"

"No, we can take this opportunity to kill him." Cecil's eyes flashed.

"Why do you want to kill him so badly?" Aster asked while looking at the fighting scene.

Nyle was hitting the elephant, but the elephant was barely feeling any damage at all.

Effectively, all Nyle could do was run away.

"I told you already." As those words left her mouth, Cecil dashed towards the chaotic scene.

Ash watched the scene. His face showed mixed emotions.

Unwilling to drag him into the mess, Aster decided to just dash in.

He saw Cecil jumping on top of the elephant, using its height as an advantage to reach higher. After another jump, she sent an axe kick towards Nyle.

A kick from that height was something that even Nyle had to take seriously.

However, he couldn't, as the elephant kept pestering him.

In the end, Nyle gritted his teeth, jumping and dodging one of the elephant's attacks before blocking Cecil's axe kick.

However, even though he blocked it, he could feel his arms hurting.

'One or two more of these, and I'll be unable to use my arms to the fullest.' He assessed the damage.

Then, as he saw Cecil landing, Nyle smirked. He dashed towards her while she was still unbalanced and grabbed her arm. Then, he threw her at the elephant.

"Nyle!" She shouted angrily.

"You brought this to yourself," Nyle said. He turned around, intending to run away while Cecil was distracting the elephant, but at that moment, a person was blocking Nyle's path.

"Aster." Nyle gritted his teeth. "We knew each other for a week at most. Why the need to be so hell-bent on killing me?"

"You remind me of someone. Someone who was also ready to destroy lives in order to help herself." Aster coldly said.

"I see." Nyle nodded. "Then, we are fated to fight each other."

"I wonder about that," Aster said.

Nyle dashed at Aster.

Currently, Nyle was stronger than Aster.

If there was a comparison to be made, it was a difference between a normal person and a trained fighter.

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The trained fighter had an advantage with a better body, but the most crucial thing was fighting experience.

And that was something that Aster had greatly underestimated.

The moment Nyle appeared in front of him, Aster was ready for a punch.

But no punch came.

Instead, Nyle raised his leg, about to kick Aster.

Aster narrowed his eyes while quickly reacting.

'Not this again.' Just as he was about to block it, Nyle's leg shifted, going straight for Aster's head.

Thankfully, Aster had already been a victim of that move, and because of that, he had managed to barely react and block the attack with his arm.

That didn't stop him from getting knocked back slightly. It wasn't a big knockback, but it was fatal in that moment.

His guard had been broken, and because of that, Nyle could easily punch him in the stomach.

"Agh." Aster coughed blood. Nyle's punch was strong enough to injure him.

Aster could also feel his wound opening up. 'Dammit, I shouldn't have been so arrogant.'

At that moment, Cecil had arrived in front of Aster.

"Nyle, you are done for." She threw a blob of grass at Nyle.

Aster smelled a weird smell from the grass.

"Cecil, you actually kept it?!" Nyle shouted with rage. He couldn't believe it. "I thought that we got rid of it all after the sacrificial ceremony!"

"You weren't the only one keeping secrets," Cecil smirked, imitating Aster when he helped her.

"Dammit!" Nyle tried getting rid of the grass, but it was sticky.

"Let's run!" Cecil took Aster's hand before running away from the scene.

Meanwhile, the elephant attacked Nyle furiously.

As they were running, Aster asked. "What's that?"

"It's an object that attracts monsters," Cecil explained.

"I see." Aster wanted to ask about the sacrificial ceremony, but he refrained. 'Now's not the time.'

From the very beginning, all survivors were running away.

Because of that, when the group reached the 'outside door', they saw all of the survivors furiously trying to open it so they could access the rest of the temple.

Thankfully, a guard was keeping them away from the door.

"Guys," Cecil shouted.

"We are leaving the temple. Follow me."

One of the people from the group looked at Cecil, Ash, and Aster. "You got rid of Boar and Nyle. Only the three of you are left. How do we know it's not another sacrificial ceremony?"

"You can either trust me, or you can stay here. I am leaving either way." Cecil coldly said.

She approached the door, and no one from the group dared to object or stop her. They even made way for her.

Following her were Aster and Ash.

"Sorry, Ash." Aster lowered his head.

Because of his decision to stall Nyle, Nyle was dead. Ash's friend. But Aster strongly believed that Nyle had to die. 'If such a person somehow survived, I can't imagine how strong he could become. It would become terrifying.'

"No problem." Ash nodded.

'He isn't grinning, but he isn't dejected either. I guess that's good enough.' Aster felt like sighing.

The group which consisted of three explorers and over thirty survivors, left the survivors' corridor.

They traveled for two whole hours.

Some of the kids were carried by the other survivors and explorers, while some resolutely decided to walk by themselves.

After a painful process of carefully making sure that every survivor reached the boss's arena without falling down the 'elevator', Aster, Cecil, and Ash arrived in front of the door that led outside.

"It really has light!" A survivor shouted.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!" Another shouted even louder.

The kids who went through so much were joyful, while the explorers were solemn.

"This is it," Aster said.

He opened the door, allowing the survivors from the temple to bask in the moonlight.

It was night, but everyone was able to see clearly because of the moonlight.

And they saw the beauty of the outside world again.

All they needed was to carry the survivors two floors downwards. It wasn't hard.

Aster looked down.

And he saw survivors from other temples.

"Are you Nyle's friends?" A person from another temple grinned. "Welcome to the Holy Land Of Darkness. The forbidden area of Cursed World."