Although Drake had a large stash of pills, consuming them one after another without breaks was dangerous, as his body wouldn’t be able to process so many pills so quickly. Not only would they start becoming less effective, but if the mana in the pills wasn't properly processed, they’d build up and cause him to suffer a terrifying backlash.

However, it was impossible to fight through this endless demon horde without consuming pills. Hence, Drake had no choice but to keep taking them. Not only him, but the others were in much the same position.

After recovering to an extent, Drake focused on the Silver Crane Sect disciples again.

Derald had laid Jordon on the ground and begun using his martial techniques to fight off the demons that were breaking past the other two Silver Crane Sect disciples. However, Derald, due to his injuries and exhaustion, was just barely holding on and preventing the demons from attacking Jordon.

Suddenly, a demon vulture swooped down from above and dug its claws into Jordon’s shoulders with a sickening crunch. Jordon screamed in pain.

Drake was about to rush to his aid when he heard him cry out.

“Everyone! Just leave me and go!”

Although everyone was focused on their own battles, his cry echoed loudly in their ears.

“Don’t be ridiculous, we’re not leaving you! Flaming fist” Derald cried as he activated his martial technique and punched the demon eagle, sending it flying and killing it instantly.

“Yea, he’s right!” the other Silver Crane Sect disciples agreed.

But Drake hesitated.

Of course, Drake ideally wanted to save Jordon as well, however, looking around at everyone’s exhausted states, he wasn’t sure how much longer they could keep this up. If Sylvia and the others didn’t arrive quickly…

We’d end up having to do that sooner or later.

‘If we left now with the four of us fighting to our full abilities without protecting him, we could break through the demon horde. But, if we take too long…’

Drake observed the demon horde becoming larger and larger by the second while everyone was becoming more tired and weak.

‘… We may not be able to break through even if we wanted to.’

Maybe it is a good idea to just…

Drake shook his head. ‘What’s wrong with me?’ he scolded himself. ‘The old me would not even entertain such an idea…’

Thinking so, Drake threw another round of solar barrage at the encroaching demons on his side to hold them back before running towards the Silver Crane Sect disciples.

“Crescent slash! Solar barrage! Chain lightning!” Drake unleashed a torrent of attacks, activating his artifacts and martial techniques one after another, killing dozens of demons at once.

With his support, the Silver Crane Sect disciples managed to get a moment of rest which they used to quickly consume some pills and recover. After a few seconds, they felt their strength returning and joined Drake in defeating the surrounding demons.

“We have to get going!” Drake cried. He tossed several healing pills to Jordon while rushing back to his position, before beginning to run forward again. No one had any complaints.

Derald picked up Jordon and began running again, followed closely by the other two Silver Crane Sect disciples.

Jordon consumed the healing pills. His bleeding stopped for a few seconds before quickly restarting.

Drake internally sighed to himself while the other Silver Crane Sect disciples grew worried about him.

As they ran, their speed slowly decreased. The progress they had been making was gradually eroded as an endless number of demons continued to be attracted to the battlefield and ran to join the fray. Despite the hundreds and hundreds of demons they had killed so far, there were still over two thousand demons surrounding them now.

Even Blaze, the strongest of them all, found himself downtrodden. Using the dragon form had taken a large toll on his body which he barely recovered from, while Helen’s death weighed heavily on his mind.

After ten more minutes, their speed slowed to a snail’s pace.

Drake’s mind flashed back to the time of his first mission where he, Elwin and their soldiers were ambushed by the large demon tide. He recollected helplessly watching them die one by one, before looking at his party again, who were in the same miserable condition as they were back then, despite everyone here being so much stronger.

‘If we don’t leave him now and break through, then all of us will…’

Drake shook his head and looked at the Silver Crane Sect disciples.

“Everyone, we have to –” before Drake could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by a loud explosion.

“Mountain splitter!”

“Rain!”

Hearing those familiar voices, Drake froze. The Silver Crane Sect disciples stared into the distance in disbelief, before their faces slowly broke into smiles.

“They’re here!” everyone exclaimed. Even Blaze was brought back from his sense of despair and became enthusiastic. The entire atmosphere was uplifted.

With renewed vigour, everyone exerted all their strength and more to launch a new flurry of attacks on the surrounding demons.

Due to Sylvia’s guidance, their group avoided most large demon hordes. Hence, they were still full of energy. Sylvia, Farisa, and the Silver Crane Sect disciples cut through the demon horde like a blade, quickly reaching Drake and the others.

“Jordon! Derald!” the Silver Crane Sect disciples cried before running towards them.

“Blaze! Drake!” Sylvia called out. She had never seen either of them like this – as if they had reached their breaking point, physically and mentally. However, her expression turned serious and she jogged up to Drake. “Where’s Theo and the dark mages? And Helen?”

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Drake sighed. He knew how much Sylvia cared for Helen. So, he didn’t want to break the news to her in this situation.

“Let’s get out of here first,” he replied. Sylvia wasn’t happy, but seeing the enormous demon horde, she knew it made sense to prioritise escaping first.

Sylvia’s group worked together with Drake’s. They fought vigorously, killing dozens and dozens of demons every second as they dashed through the horde. After a few minutes, they finally broke through the demon horde.

“Ahhh…” Drake sighed as he inhaled fresh, open air in what seemed like ages. If he could, he would lie down right here to rest; not just him, but the rest of his party was also in the same position.

However, they knew that they couldn’t do that. They needed to put plenty of space between them and the demon horde first so they couldn’t catch up.

So, everyone drew on their last reserves of strength and continued running.

After half an hour, the sun was high in the sky and the dust storm began picking up once more. This reduced the visibility for Sylvia’s pixies, making it difficult for her to detect demons.

“How far away is the next inheritance?” Drake asked Sylvia, jogging next to her.

“Not too far,” she replied. “If we don’t encounter any large demon hordes, we should make it there in an hour.”

“We need to rest for a bit, and Jordon needs healing. Are there any places nearby without demons where we can take a break?” Kurt asked, catching his breath after every few words.

Sylvia looked at everyone and saw their exhausted states, especially Drake’s group, and realised he was right. She closed her eyes for a second before opening them and coming to a standstill.

“We can rest here,” she said, before adding, “But not for long, there are demons some distance away. They may reach us in another forty or fifty minutes. We need to leave by then.”

“Okay, that’s fine,” Kurt replied.

Hearing their conversation, everyone else also came to a stop. Drake, Blaze, and the two other Silver Crane Sect disciples all began gasping for breath while Derald and Jordon collapsed on the floor. Jordon fell off Derald’s back and landed with a thud. He was completely unconscious.

Even while being carried by Derald, certain demons had approached from their back and the sky, and landed some attacks on him. By now, Jordon had lost so much blood and was riddled with injuries, including deep wounds, broken bones, and more. He was heavily injured and in extremely critical condition.

Ivan looked at Sylvia and spoke in a panicked voice. “Help him! Please!”

Sylvia nodded and walked towards him. Once she was close, she knelt down and observed his condition. She noticed the rising and falling of his chest. It was very slight, indicating that his breathing had become very weak, but it was still there.

‘This… is not good…’ she thought, but didn’t voice her concern. She closed her eyes and palms and gathered her mana. A second later, she opened her palms and a green light flew out. It revealed itself to be a white pixie spirit, decorated with green patterns.

This was the most powerful rank two healing spirit she knew which could heal broken bones and deep wounds.

‘If this doesn’t work then…’ she stopped that train of thought and ordered the pixie to heal Jordon. The pixie buzzed and flew towards Jordon.

However, just as the pixie came close, Jordon’s breathing came to a stop.

Sylvia’s eyes widened and Ivan grew pale with worry.

‘HEAL HIM!’ she screamed in her mind.

The pixie spirit obeyed and placed its hands on Jordon’s chest. Mana travelled through the pixie, activating the healing runes in its palms, and poured into Jordon’s body. Nothing seemed to happen on the surface, but Sylvia could feel that the mana was working to heal Jordon’s internal injuries, like his broken bones.

Several minutes passed as his bones were mended one after another. Then, his wounds slowly began closing. However, throughout this entire process, Jordon’s breathing did not recover. His chest laid completely flat, showing no sign of moving.

Ivan noticed this and became increasingly agitated. He didn’t say anything initially to not disturb Sylvia, but now, he couldn’t contain himself any longer.

“What’s going on? Why is he still not breathing?” Ivan asked, panic ringing in his voice. Hearing his cry, all the other Silver Crane Sect disciples gathered around Sylvia and Ivan.

But Sylvia didn’t respond and focused all her energy on healing Jordon’s injuries. Ivan bit his lip and let her work without disturbing further.

Several more minutes passed.

Sylvia finished healing all of Jordon’s wounds but his breathing didn’t recover. She could tell that his heart had stopped beating a while ago and would not recover. Realising this, she sighed, before standing up helplessly.

“What? How is he? You’ve healed him, right? Will he be okay? Why is he still not breathing?” Ivan asked one question after another. Seeing Sylvia’s expression made his heart sink, but his mind didn’t want to accept reality.

Sylvia sighed and turned towards him. “I’ve done everything I can. There’s nothing else I can do. He’s… gone.”

“No…” Ivan whispered, stumbling backwards. “No… that can’t be true!”

Ivan knelt beside Jordon and began shaking him. “Jordon, wake up! WAKE UP! Don’t die on me you bastard!”

The other Silver Crane Sect disciples also gathered together. Even Kurt’s face became aghast. However, he quickly controlled his expression and put on a brave front to appear strong for his fellow disciples. Unfortunately, his eyes betrayed him and Sylvia could see how deeply Jordon’s death affected on him.

She sighed and started walking away, giving them some time alone.

Drake, Blaze, and Farisa were sitting together some distance away, meditating and recovering their strength. They had naturally seen everything as well, but they weren’t so close to Jordon so didn’t feel strongly about his passing.

As Drake watched, Sylvia walked towards them and sat down with a sigh. More than the others, she felt a little depressed and regretful. If she had activated her dryad’s avatar and used her flower of life to heal Jordon immediately, it was quite likely that he would have recovered. It was an incredibly powerful spell that could rapidly heal even serious injuries.

However, using it would take a huge toll on her body and mana, and knock her out of commission for a while. Even after she recovered, returning to her peak strength would take an even longer time. Given how they were constantly surrounded by danger from demons and dark mages, she didn’t want to put herself at a disadvantage and chose not to use it. But seeing Jordon’s death, she slightly regretted that decision now.

Sensing her worry, Drake placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “It’s not your fault,” he whispered.

After all, I would have done the same thing…

“Thank you,” she replied softly.

At the end of the day, she didn’t owe them anything –certainly not putting herself in danger to help them. She quickly recovered from her emotions and turned towards Drake and Blaze.

“So, what happened? To Theo and the dark mages? And… Helen?” she asked. Farisa also glanced at them curiously.

A flood of emotions rose within Drake again. He shared a glance with Blaze who became quiet, indicating that he didn’t want to explain. Drake sighed and cleared his throat. Then, he began explaining.

He told them everything from how they met Theo and the dark mages, how the battle unfolded, how Theo severely injured Jordon, and how Blaze captured him. He then mentioned the dark grand mage’s sudden appearance.

Sylvia furrowed her brows and Drake continued.

As Drake recollected the following events, the same, dark feeling welled up within him once more. Drake took a moment to suppress it before describing everything else. He explained how they were going to strike a deal with the dark grand mage there, but how Theo flipped at the last second and killed Helen.

“What!?” Sylvia gasped, eyes wide in shock.

At the same time, Derald and the other two Silver Crane Sect disciples who had travelled with Drake and Blaze described their experience to the rest of their sect disciples.

“I still don’t get it – how could they get away? Didn’t you say Blaze had captured Theo? Wasn’t that the perfect opportunity to kill him? Why didn’t he do it?” Ivan asked confused.

“Because, the dark grand mage showed up,” Derald explained.

“Immediately?” Ivan asked again.

“Well, no… it was… a few minutes later…”

“Then why didn’t he kill him in that…” Ivan’s voice trailed off as he seemed to realise something. His eyes widened and he turned towards Drake’s group. His mind flashed to Jordon’s image and an unspeakable amount of rage built up in his body.

“YOU!” Ivan screamed, running up to Drake’s party.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Kurt screamed, running behind him, followed closely by the rest of the Silver Crane Sect disciples.

Ivan’s scream instantly alerted Drake’s party. Seeing Ivan approach them furiously, Drake and the others became wary and stood up. He walked till he was several metres from Drake’s party and pointed.

“You! You guys never intended to kill Theo, did you?”

Kurt and the others caught up to him and looked at Drake’s party confused. However, they didn’t reply.

“You… you were planning on exchanging his life for your party member, right? So you put all of us in danger, just to save one of your own? And lied to us, saying you wanted to kill them!” Ivan stared daggers at them one by one – Blaze, Sylvia, Drake and then Farisa.

A few moments passed.

Slowly, realisation dawned on the other Silver Crane Sect disciples as they began to understand what Ivan was saying.

They started glaring at Drake’s party.