“God damn you man, stop chasing!”

“How can this maniac still run? Bullshit!”

“The seed of the bitch doesn't get tired!”

Sharley wasn’t stop chasing, and to escape from him, Yu ran the fastest run of his life with Yurine in his arms.

Yurine was no longer able to cast healing spells on Yu, because she focus was on blocking Sharley's attacks.

Tired and without the support of the healing spell, running was very difficult for Yu. At any moment, his legs could fail him, causing him to fall and be killed by the crazed madman.

This led Yu to ignore the fatigue, to beg his legs to hold out and to run for his life relentlessly. What would happen to Yurine later if Yu died was also uncertain, so Yu's only concern was not only his death but also his daughter's health.

“What the fuck is this?”

“What happened?”

They were still inside the town and about to enter the forest. Yet the huge structure rising in the forest was bright enough to be recognized from anywhere in the town.

A fireball shot into the sky and exploded like a firework, and a dome of flames lit up the night, dispelling the darkness.

“I said, what happened!”

“Something is happening in the forest.” Yu answered Yurine as he kept running. “I wonder if it's Lylphia?”

She was the only fire mage he knew. If her rivals weren't more dangerous than he thought, it had to be Lylphia's job. Or at least it would be better if it was Lylphia's job than her rivals'.

If it was her job and she had to cast such a big spell, it meant that her opponents were too powerful to be underestimated.

“Three against two, I think they'll take it.”

“What's going on in the forest?”

Yurine couldn't fend off all of Sharley's attacks when she couldn't see. So she had to turn around and it was Yu's job to see ahead and run while she watched their backs.

“It's like a fire, but not quite a fire - YURINE!” A crystal sword whistled past his head and almost scared Yu to death. He screamed Yurine's name in fear. “What are you doing!”

“I left it because it wouldn't hit us, don't worry I have the control.”

“You were in control just now.”

“Look at me, human!”

The mention of the magic battle she lost against Sharley in the town made Yurine angry and she gently squeezed Yu's neck as she spoke in a scolding tone.

“Yeah, I took at you, cat. Tell?”

“Shut up and run.”

Following her instructions, he dived into the forest and ran towards the fire dome, hoping that Lylphia and the others were there and that they would neutralize their enemies before they arrived.

The trees were dense, making it difficult for Sharley to aim, and some of his attacks hit and shattered trees without needing to be defended by Yurine.

“Doesn't this guy need mana too? How can he keep casting spells?”

“I don't know.”

“Wasn't he your mother's apprentice, how is it possible to you don't know? Maybe she taught him.”

“I'm not a dark mage, I don't know what my mother taught Sharley.”

He was trying to zigzag through the trees and make it harder for Sharley to shoot them, but the zigzagging was slowing him down too.

“Your mother...”

As soon as he started thinking, he was punished.

“Ah! What are you doing?”

“I felt you were thinking something bad.”

“I was going to say, what did your mother have in mind when she apprenticed this lunatic?”

Yurine let go of Yu's two ears, which she grabbed and pulled. Yu's ears were red and he wanted to rub them, but he couldn't stop for that. He had to keep running for their lives.

“How many minutes has it been, you rabid dog! That's enough, let us go!”

As they moved forward, they encountered potholes, mud puddles, rocks and fallen trees. Yu jumped over them all, getting closer and closer to the fire dome.

His body was already at its limits. He was pushing himself so hard to run that he could have had a heart attack. He had to ask Yurine to support him from time to time with her healing magic.

“Fuck-”

Unbeknownst to Yu, who had planned to ask her for help, Yurine had managed to stop the incoming crystal boulder at the last moment. Sharley immediately sent crystal swords after it, and as a few of them flew past Yu, Yurine met the ones that might have hit them with her magic.

“I don't want you to speak so rudely.”

“Don't distract me! Keep going!”

Yurine unconsciously started to squeeze Yu's neck, making it difficult for Yu to breathe. With one hand he tried to open Yurine's arm.

“At least he doesn't run as fast as the others.”

If the person chasing them had run as fast as the girls who had opened the gap on Yu half an hour ago, Yu would have been caught before he got this far.

Although Sharley had a seemingly never-ending supply of mana and energy, the fact that he was running slower than Yu at least tipped the odds slightly in Yu's favor. If Yu hadn't been tired, he might even have been able to outrun Sharley and leave him behind.

“Stop running, coward! Stop and fight!”

Sharley spoke for the first time since the fight in town. Yu had a hard time understanding people like that. Did Sharley really want Yu to stop and fight him?

For one thing, Sharley could use magic, whereas Yu had completely average physical strength. If Yu stopped and Sharley killed him, would that make Sharley great?

“You’re the manest man if you have magic in your hands, whoreson.”

He was always annoyed that this happened in the anime he watched. High school brats that even Yu would close the book of deeds with a single punch acted like kings when they had magic in their hands.

“Is it punch-to-punch or is there magic?”

Sharley, of course, did not answer Yu's sarcastic question.

After running for a while, they were almost at their destination, the fire dome. They could see the walls of the dome through the trees, but Yu found it hard to look ahead of him as he ran because it was so bright.

As they got closer to the dome, the heat increased and became more oppressive with each step. Yu knew nowhere else to go, so he kept running, hoping to meet Lylphia and the others there.

Suddenly the dome began to rise from the ground. It gathered in the air as a gigantic ball and its brightness illuminated the whole forest like the sun, then quickly faded away and left the place in darkness.

“I feel something.”

The white cat ears on the top of Yurine's head flickered cutely, and there was a flicker of movement in Yu's face.

“I see it!”

After the fire dome disappeared, he saw the tunnel that was exposed. Then the smoke coming out of that tunnel started to come at him. The smoke was approaching Yu and Yurine in a storm, sweeping everything in its path.

“Fuck your...”

As the storm hit Yu and Yurine, it flew them into Sharley, who continued to chase them.

When Yu and Yurine hit Sharley, they rolled with him for a short time. Yurine separated from the two rolling men and crashed into a tree, while Yu and Sharley continued to roll.

First they hit a tree and changed direction, then they rolled down a slope. When they hit another tree, cones fell on them and they were able to stop.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Fuck you!”

Yu was confident in his ability to recover quickly. Here, too, he recovered faster than Sharley. Before Sharley knew what was happening, he grabbed him by the shoulders and spun around to come at him.

If he thought about it, or tried to get up and run away, or made any futile move that would buy Sharley even a second, he would die with a crystal sword through his body.

So he didn't think, he just put all his strength into his right hand and brought his fist down on Sharley's eye.

His intention was to punch him relentlessly until he was dead, but with the first punch Sharley's face collapsed and Yu's fist entered Sharley's brain. Sharley's skull shattered and cut off Yu's hand.

“What the fuck?”

Yu stood up in surprise. At that moment Yurine had jumped down from the slope and rushed to Yu's side, cutting him off.

But like Yu, she was shocked by what she saw. Sharley's face sank inward, his brain was crushed. She couldn't have imagined such a thing even if she wanted to. Especially not that it would be done by Yu. It was a sight beyond her imagination.

The only thing Yu knew as he punched him was that they would fight until one of them was dead, and that at best he would win the fight badly wounded.

Trusting Yurine beside him, he bent down to check if Sharley was alive and placed the back of his left hand on his chest.

“Shit, his heart's not beating, we've got the kill.”

“Why do you say it like it's a bad thing? I should have killed him months ago.”

“Yurine, this bastard's name has a fucking von, he's noble. Look, we're already on the police list, we're in court. And because we killed a noble man, especially one with an important family, should we get a bad name? Should we get in trouble? Should we rot in jail?”

Quickly overcome by the incredulity of the event, Yu expressed concern and looked in the direction of the storm that had blown them away.

Even though the fire dome was no longer there, the ground continued to burn.

“Let's throw his body in the fire and destroy the evidence.”

“Okay.”

Yurine agreed with Yu's thoughts and accepted his offer. They returned to Sharley's body to take him away, but there was a problem, they were both reluctant to take him to the fire.

“I don't want to carry this, it's disgusting,” Yu was the first to object.

“Don't be ridiculous, should I carry it? My noble body shouldn't come in contact with that thing.”

“But I'm so tired...”

“You killed him, you will carry him.”

“There is no killing, forget about it! We're pretending the scene that just happened never happened.”

“They must have seen him while he was chasing us.”

“If they ask, we'll say wolfs hunted him, or never mind. Anyway, there's nothing to do, but cast a healing spell on me, I'm going to faint.”

Yu took off his t-shirt that he had been using as a nightgown.

It was freezing, but he didn't want to hold him with his bare hands. He grabbed Sharley's leg with his left hand and lifted him up to drag him away.

“No way!”

When Yu lifted Sharley's leg and took the first step, the leg was separated from the body. Yu and Yurine looked at Sharley and the leg with their mouths open.

“Wow... Did I get a power up or something?”

Looking at the leg in his hand, the first thing that came to his mind was, of course, that he had suddenly become stronger. Just when he thought that the parallel world adventure was finally going to turn into something fun, the leg in Yu's hand started to disintegrate.

“I'd be surprised if I did.”

Sharley's body, which remained on the ground, was likewise shattered and blown away by the wind after being reduced to tiny crystalline dust. Nothing was left but bandages and a few scraps of cloth he had put on as clothing.

“What was that?”

“I don't know if someone is kidding us...”

Neither of them could make sense of what they were seeing. The most logical guess would be that Sharley had finished himself with magic.

“Anyway, like I said, we're going to pretend it never happened. We'll pick up the bandages on the floor and burn them and that'll be the end of it, we'll be out of this mess. Capiche?”

"C-capish?"

Yu used his clothes and his foot to pick up the debris on the floor without touching his skin. By this time, almost no trace of Sharley's pulverized body remained.

“I hope things are going well in the future.”

Yu's left hand carried the shirt and the pieces inside, while Yurine held his right hand and began the healing spell. Yu had that smug smile on his face that comes when his ego is at its peak.

He said, “See how I end this?” Even though he was surprised himself, he spoke as if everything was according to plan. “Who did you think I was in the first place? I am Yu Valarfin, the greatest man who ever lived or ever will live.”

Yurine silently listened to Yu's compliments to her. She was used to hearing them every day, but something was different now. Yu was speaking with much more enthusiasm now than on other occasions.

“When you fought in town, I didn't get involved because you wanted to fight alone. Otherwise, you know me, I'm a real go-getter. Sharley got on my nerves there too, showing off in front of you. I was going to take him down with one punch, but you were eager and I didn't want to spoil it, and it would have been an experience for you. If things had gone badly, I would have gotten involved and put the bastard in the ground.

And what else was I supposed to do? What, and get beaten up? Is that really what you think? Don't be ridiculous, it was easy for me. Actually, I thought for a while, maybe I should give him an advance. After all, who's Sharley to me? I'm stronger, I'm smarter, I'm better looking, I'm more charismatic, girls are crazy about me, I'm better at everything. I was going to give him an advance so that it would be a fair fight, and if you notice, I don't count being tired as an advance. If I wasn't tired, I wouldn't even need to raise my hand, I could just blow.

I swear he’s looking for a beating, he’s forcing me to kill him. Why do you have to come and force me to kill you? Run away to your parents, be a good son, they must be worried. See them, kiss their hands, apologize to them, but where is it... He's going to be a son of a bitch, he has to be. It's in their blood, they must be passed down from uncle to nephew.

But how the fuck did he see it? If your name isn't Yu Valarfin, if you're not even a thousandth as great as me, you won't push. If you ask me why, and do it ask me why? Why? Because I am Yu Valarfin, but not everyone is me, people who are not me should know how to give up. Anyway, it's a mistake for him to think that he's going to win against me. No! ‘Never give up, never give up, blah blah blah.’ Never give up is something that is said for me and people who are at least a thousandth as great as me. If you are not me, you will give up, if you are not me, you will fail.

Anyway, that's how you see it, what do you think? I'm so amazing, I'm wonderful, I'm super, I'm a man beyond dreams. Don't you think so?”

After Yu finished his self-congratulatory speech, he took a deep breath and saw Yurine taking a deep breath with him.

“What happened?”

“I get tired listening, don't you get tired talking?”

When Yu received no praise after his long speech, the corners of his lips curled down and he pouted.

“Why don't you praise your beloved? I got us out of trouble.”

“Well done, keep working for me.”

“Hmm... You accept that I'm your beloved, so that's progress.”

Yurine squeezed Yu's hand to hurt him. She was ashamed to let her feelings come out.

Until they arrived the burning area, Yurine used healing magic to heal the cuts on Yu's hand and to try to rejuvenate his body by making him forget his fatigue.

Of course, Yurine was about to finish her mana, so the spell didn't last long. Still, Yu was feeling better. He would be able to stay awake for a while longer, even if sleep overtook him.

There was an empty space and a tunnel in the middle of that space. When Yu couldn't see anyone inside the tunnel, he started moving towards the back of the tunnel. In the process, he threw Sharley's remains into the fire, along with his t-shirt. He was disgusted to wear that t-shirt again, even if he washed it.

Yu, who was wearing a tank top on the autumn night, was warmed by the fires on the ground. When they got to the back of the tunnel, he saw a girl standing over two people on the ground. This girl was Ana.

When he saw them, his face lit up with hope and he shouted for them to come. Not content with shouting, he ran to them, grabbed Yurine by the arm and led her to the people lying on the ground.

Yurine wouldn't let go of Yu's hand, so he was dragged along with him and brought to the ground.

“Lylphia's fine, but him! Him! Heal him!”

Normally, Yurine would not allow herself to be spoken to in the imperative mood, but this was an exceptional situation, so she kept quiet and leaned in close to him.

“It's too late, he's no longer alive.”

Ana's lips trembled and she began to cry.

“Is this who I think it is?”

His body was burnt, his hair was gone as what was left of his burning clothes clung to his body. Yu couldn't look at him directly.

“S-Sony...”

“What does that mean? How do we complete the mission then?”

Yurine's goal in this mission was to bring her mother back. If Sony died and they failed the mission, she could neither judge and avenge Salery nor enter the small library where they would research to turn back time.

Yurine could not hold back her tears, she turned to Yu, hugged him around the waist and started shaking him while shouting.

“Then what do we do? Didn't he tell us to bring him back? How do we do it? Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!”

Yu had nothing to say. He hugged Yurine and pressed her head to him. Yurine kept crying.

“Please... Please! How do we get her back now! Please! BRING MY MOM BACK!”

Yu bit his lip as Yurine hugged Yu's waist and cried. He didn't want to make a promise he couldn't keep, but seeing Yurine cry hurt his heart more than he could describe.

“I...”

Yu couldn't control his emotions and was about to make a promise when Ana jumped on top of him and grabbed Yu's shoulders and started shaking him. Yu's whole body was shaking.

“Sivina is still not here! Please let's go look for her!”

“Where was her?”

“She went after the killer!”

He was about to continue with his main sentence when a mesmerizing voice stopped him.

“Sony!”

As Yurine continued to cry, she kept her arms around Yu and turned her head to look in the direction of the sound. None of them could believe their eyes, it was a puppet.

Her wooden body shone, her jeweled blue eyes showed a vague concern, and her pink hair, woven of silk, blew in the wind. Although her body appeared to be made of wood, the movements of her joints were fluid, not mechanical.

When the puppet came up to them and picked up Sony, everyone gasped. No one in the room made a sound, everyone was watching the puppet without understanding what was going on.

“Sony! Sony! Sony!”

As they continued to watch the puppet, she continued to call out Sony's name. Her voice was mesmerizing, like a light, cool breeze in the summer heat, but it was as painful as it was mesmerizing. Yu felt her pain in his own heart.

He had once called out his sisters' names in the same way. Yu shed the tears for her that the puppet could not shed.

In fact, he tried to hide her tears, not feeling comfortable crying among the girls, but he was in such a state that he couldn't move.

Yurine and Ana were also crying for the puppet, even though she couldn't see it because she wasn't looking at them. Even though the puppet did not radiate a sense of danger, her pain was abnormally penetrating.

“Sony!”

The puppet bent down and its wooden lips touched Sony's lifeless, burnt lips. As the puppet kissed him, a shape of light formed above them.

When the figure was complete, a phoenix rose out of the flames. The light emanating from beneath the figure descended to the ground and covered the puppet and Sony's body. The light from the top of the figure rose up to the stars.

“Blessing,” Yurine murmured. She was the first to break the spell and speak.

As the light thinned and disappeared, the puppet and Sony's body reappeared. Sony's body was completely regenerated, there were no burns. Sony coughed and a smile spread across the puppet's wooden face.

“Nana...” Sony whispered.

Although he had come back to life, he was not joyful, but sorrowful. There was pain in his voice and tears in his eyes.

She put her head to his chest to hear the sound of his heartbeat as she hugged Sony with both arms. First the puppet's arms that were holding Sony were severed, then her legs were separated from her torso. Finally her head, which was resting on Sony’s chest, detached from her body and began to roll on the floor.

“NO!”

He tried to pick up the pieces of the puppet with his hands, but it was a hopeless, pathetic effort. He could only shout Nana's name and ignore those around him. When he realized that he could not bring Nana back, he formed a dagger of light in his hand and stabbed it into his chest before those around him had a chance to react.

“Yurine, don't let him die!”

Yurine ran to keep him alive, to keep clinging to his dreams, and spent the last of her mana on a healing spell.