"Run!" Said Bro as he ran jumping over the sleeping bag.

Ashleen followed him activating her 3rd person's perspective.

"Oh, my bag!" It was near where it was a campfire a few hours ago. There were tons of creatures following them. An earthworm-looking thing was just a few meters away from them. There were many cockroaches, grasshoppers, crickets, and bugs of all types. These were not regular sizes though, the cricket was as big as a horse. If anyone was scared of insects this was going to be their worse nightmare coming true.

She looked at her bag. It can't be left behind. She ran towards it, the cricket following her was startled for a second as she suddenly turned and was facing it, but it used its front leg to attack Ashleen. Bro looked at them and wanted to help but Ashleen was quicker and dodged it efficiently. She ran to the bag, dodging attacks, and swiftly picked it up while she ran back towards the bro. She didn't realize till now that close combat can be used in multiple ways. She felt agile and fast.

"Don't use that."

"Huh?"

"Your skill, don't use it,"

"Oh okay."

Does he know about it? That was unexpected... Is there a mana concept in this place too? Shw turned it off thinking about it.

They ran for a long time. Bro was taking care of the bugs coming in the front while Ashleen took care of the rear. Fortunately, both of them got out of their range in about 2 hours of painstaking efforts.

"Where are others?" Asked Ashleen looking visibly concerned.

"I don't know" replied Bro as he walked towards the river. Sun was rising in the east in front of the river. Bro washed his face and wiped his sword clean before putting it back in the sheath.

Where would have others gone? Fatty can take care of himself in this situation but Wu was usually taken care of by bro. "I wonder if they are alright..."

Bro glanced at her "They are." He said and sat on a rock nearby with closed eyes. That's how he sleeps. Anywhere anytime but rarely completely asleep.

Ashleen walked towards the river and washed her face as well. Demon's close combat came in handy last night but now all her clothes were sticky and dirty, partially because of the dirt and mud and partially because of the body fluids of the creatures she killed. Though more than half of the spots of fluids she got on herself were from the ones bro killed. Every time he moved his sword it would go piercing deep in the insect. It was feeling disgusting.

"There," She said handing over a water bottle and canned rice container to him.

He took it without any words and closed his eyes back.

That is when she talked to Anik.

Bro is helping, even his friends are lost now. It's such a guilty feeling.

Half A Day Later

"You'll find the Earth Master soon. These creatures are his weapons."

"How do you know? And how do you know about Earth Master as well? And why was he attacking..." She looked at him.

Ashleen has a bad feeling about this.

'Bro' in front of her smiled, his smile changed into a grin as he walked towards her slowly. "Because I am the Earth Master."

Don't go to earth master! Stop finding him! It was all a trap.

Ashleen received a message from Anik but it was too late.

"Wo wo wait!!" Ashleen was panicking a little.

'Bro' walked towards him slowly and steadily with face facing the ground, looking like a ghost.

"Mann you are looking creepy! Stop!" She wanted to run from there, but she was against the Earth Master. If it were just bro it was going to be too difficult, leave alone now. Roots were holding her feet and hands down. She could not use close combat anymore either.

But wait he's using bro's body...

"Oye Mr. Master, are you insane?" Ashleen's voice was now fearless and irritated. Dying is a different thing but why is this guy using Bro's body?? This is simply absurd!

The person in front of her flinched.

Is he not as strong as I thought?

"Why are you using his body? That's absurd"

"What do you mean?"

"You see, Bro is the kind of guy to keep it to himself and he is a silent type of person, super strong but never starts a fight etc etc."

"So what's wrong"

"...You aren't air brained, are you?"

He lifted his head to a normal level and glared at her. Somehow She wasn't feeling scared anymore. Fear doesn't get to her a lot. It usually turns into frustration sooner or later.

"You are literally asking me what's wrong with that don't you see something wrong with it?"

"...I am strong, aren't I?"

Ashleen covered half her face with her palm in astonishment.

"Come here," She said while gesturing at him to come over with the other hand.

"Huh?"

"Come here, man! Sit with me." Roots loosened her hands a bit and Ashleen sat cross-legged on the grass.

'Bro' glared at her but quickly lowered his eyes after meeting the clear disappointment in Ashleen's eyes. The more she talks to him more she feels like he is nowhere like bro.

He walked over to her and sat beside her silently.

"See," She said in a very soft tone "You are strong I agree." 'Bro's' eyes lit up "But" His eyes went down again "You are not like him"

"He's cool and I am too"

Ashleen controlled hard but broke out laughing. After laughing like a lunatic until she was half dead, barely able to breathe she calmed herself down. She took a deep breath and wiped the tears off of her face and looked at him again. Never in her life, she would have imagined that she'll be able to witness this face of the 'bro'.

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She smiled again and continued "He for sure is cool but for you hmm" She sat in a position showing she was thinking deeply. 'Bro' looked at her with anticipation. "You are even better." She wanted to say you are not cool but looking at those eyes it's almost impossible to bring those words out.

He looked at her with a wary look,

"I mean you see that's exactly why I said you are insane. Why choose him when you can choose many better people." his ' wariness' seems a bit less but it wasn't enough.

"By the way, I can help choose a better candidate to match your energy soon."

"You will?"

"It might take time though, you see you are such a personality" Ashleen smiled with a tone of mischief "But one condition"

"What?"

"Answer a question."

"What question?"

"Even though you are the Earth Master but why were you attacking me?"

"Oh about that" His innocent smile wore down and he brought back his creepy smile. "I almost forgot about that, I'll have to thank you for the reminder"

Ashleen flinched and planned to run away, bag was still on her, once she was out of his reach she can survive for a while with this. Roots tightened giving small cuts on the skin.

"Since you talked to me, I'll give you a choice before getting my task done." He said leaning towards her.

"...What?"

"You need to fight me, I know you are aware of that fact," He noticed her sneaky moments as she planned to run away "Trying to run away is useless, you should know that. I am the Earth master, where will you go after running away? In the air?"

Oh right, he has been with me since the very beginning...

"What was my choice then?" Ashleen tried to sound firm.

"Aww, you don't need to sound firm girl. I already saw through that one."

"..." Ashleen gave a weird reaction to this sentence. She sat back up straight, looking into his eyes.

"What? What are you trying to do this time?"

Ashleen slightly tilted her left, closed her eyes, opened them, and stared into the sky as if trying to figure something out. She tilted her head to the right and looked at him closely.

"...wha... What?" Said 'bro' sounding anxious.

Ashleen snapped with her right hand still tied and looked at him with a concerned face.

"...speak"

"You weren't diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, were you?"

"..."

Ashleen looked at him softly and continued "It's okay it's not a big deal, you see people carry tons of fake faces as well, at least yours are real...I guess" Ashleen is not a psychiatrist so naturally she doesn't understand the concept but when it comes to guessing and making stuff out of thin air, rarely anyone can beat her.

"I am done with you" He moved his hand to her neck. She wanted to react but it was too late and momentarily not possible. "I wanted to play for a bit but that seems useless now." He said standing up, pulling Ashleen along as the roots went back. "Your choice was to decide to chose the one to fight with, your 'bro' but since you are too eager to talk this out then I have no interest."

...

"Sir! Why are you doing this?" said Anik trying his best to negotiate with the Wind Master.

Wind Master moved closer to him, and when Anik tried to back down he felt a strong resistance from behind. Wind master was using his ability to stop Anik from moving. He stopped trying to run away anymore.

"You saved Xie Yun, I'll give you a chance."

"...What" Anik lowered his head, he knew what the Wind Master wants to say.

"Play spy for me. Get me closer to the demon."

"He doesn't trust me at all. He got no trust in anyone at all except for Ashleen."

"Then why do I think he does trust you?"

Anik lifted his head to look into the eyes of the Wind Master, "You know it's useless to give me this kind of choice."

"Of course Of course, I've read this book, you hung yourself when you realized you failed to protect her. Was that because you lost your power??" Wind Master said as he looked at Anik with curious eyes. "No, you don't look like the type to chase power..." "Was it because she dies?" He smirked.

Anik looked at him and fell silent. Why did he hang himself?? This world is different from the normal one... Did I need to kill myself? He thought as his brain was slowly losing focus.

No! I won't let people close to me die anymore! No matter what! I am finally strong enough to protect people now, I won't do the opposite no matter what.

Anik felt a turbulent wave of countless emotions in his heart. He won't betray her no matter what. His sole purpose here is to change the ending.

"Oye oye, don't worry. We've upgraded since the last fight with the demon, you know when we fought with your king and queen."

"What do you mean?"

"We don't need to kill the host anymore, as long as the four masters use their power at the same time we can force the demon out without fail." He looked at Anik's troubled face. "I'll return the previous king and queen to you personally if you help me with this."

"...wh...What do you want?" There were cracks in his voice but he kept it together.

"Bring the guard down for Ashleen, make her feel safe so she won't be careful when we arrive."

Is it that simple? Why does this all sound so stupid? He thought as he looked at Wind Master while controlling his expression.

"Is that it?"

"Do you think that is easy?"

"I do think so"

"Demon doesn't choose his host so carelessly. The people he chooses are always too careful. Ashleen might not even be her real name."

Anik is aware of this thing, he has read the original work after all.

"Previous king failed to do so." "That's how this ended up this way."

Anik sneered in his heart. Wind Master is too naive to play this role. He just said they don't need to kill anymore, which means they already killed the queen. Then he said, he'll personally return them back. Then he said the previous king failed to do so means they used this trick earlier as well and how that ended is no secret to anyone. There doesn't seem any drastic upgrade at all.

"...I'll...try," Anik said with his face still low.

"You are smarter than I expected Mr. But don't worry Earth Master got your dear Ashleen already.

"What do you mean? How do you know?" Anik looked at the Wind Master trying to move but the wind around him stopped him from moving.

Ashleen can you hear me??

"You should know you are not the only one who can use anatomy and Mayday trust, shouldn't you?"

So my body gave me in, earth master and he had been here for many years so naturally they knew of mayday trust. They were in contact all along?

"I don't think you are necessary anymore. Are you?"

Wind Master moved closer as he held Anik's neck.

...

Ashleen struggled for a while with Earth Master trying to choke her. As soon as the roots went back she tried hard to get his hands off but when it comes to physical strength she's not a match for him. Ashleen tried to speak but the voice didn't come out at all.

Last choice she didn't want to use it but there is no choice now... A move every guy is scared of! Go Ashleen.

She thought and used all her force to kick, the guy in front of her sneered. "I am earth master, aren't I?" Ashleen's foot hit a piece of rock instead, earth master used it to stop this kick. Ashleen thought it would hurt but she felt nothing, her vision started blurring with her ears buzzing heavily. She heard the Earth Master say something but her brain was not working anymore. Soon there was no more struggle as Earth Master let go of her neck, she fell down, laying there motionlessly.

Instead of looking at her, he looked at her still working '3rd person's perspective' which floated over her body before disappearing from there. At least she would like to see how Anik, Akansha and her sister were doing before she dies completely.

Ashleen used all she had and traveled to Anik's current location. The scene she was greeted with was Wind Master pinching his throat. Anik was not struggling at all, but taking a closer look he was actually unable to move.

Wind Master noticed her faint presence and got distracted. Anik used this split second as his chance. He concentrated all his mana near his core to make a poison. He moved it to his neck.

Wind Master noticed it and quickly tried to retreat his hand, forgetting about the wind pressure against him and Anik using this chance held his hand tightly with no mood of letting it go anytime soon. The poison was subconsciously moving to his neck slowly to reduce the risk of hurting himself. But Anik forced it and in less than a second it was flowing from his neck to Wind Master's hand. Wind Master realized Anik won't let go of his hand so he used all his force at once. Killing him became his priority. He can find a way to deal with this little amount of poison later but at this rate, if any more of it is transferred Wind Master might die instantly.

If it were a normal person, he would have died as soon as this poison reached Anik's neck.

Ashleen looked at the scene horrified. Her consciousness was fading slowly but she tried her best not to die before Anik is done dealing with this master. If she died, Anik's power will be reduced and he won't be able to do anything anymore.

She felt bad. Why did she plan on saving the previous king and queen? One needs to be careful with their decisions. She always took life lightly. Ashleen had no problem with her dying but Anik... he didn't deserve it. They didn't get to know each other, just what does she know about him except his name?

If I were to get another chance, I'll cherish it.

Anik's body turned slightly blue in a few seconds because of the backlash of his poison and because of a lack of oxygen. Wind Master sneered and in a split second Anik was done. No poison, no struggle. He was motionless. Ashleen felt pain in the back of her throat as she looked at them. Wind Master sat down immediately trying to deal with the poison that entered his body, but within seconds he realized that he is incapable of doing so.

Ashleen felt that she got a message from the system but she lost consciousness before she was able to read it.

Anik received a text at the same time as well, but he had no way of seeing this anymore at all.

"You had a choice, Anik, you could have died the way it happened in the future prediction. At least you could have prepared yourself but you choose this."