Lara Browning gradually lost strength in her grip as the shadows surrounded her.
Seeing her, Condel thought, ‘Is she the only one?’
This passageway led to an important base and was the reason why he moved immediately as soon as it was revealed. The only one who had managed to trespass into this place was the woman in front of him and Condel would do almost anything to rip apart his flesh into pieces and step on them.
Condel thought if only this woman had come before the others, there was a low possibility for anyone to have reached his secret base yet. However, Condel didn’t have the time to prove it at this point. Zich continued to run after him, and Zich’s skills were nothing to laugh at. Condel wouldn’t be able to escape a battle against Zich if he interrogated Lara for information. Furthermore, there were many support troops also coming from behind. Thus, Condel ran across the passageway again.
‘He is going ahead.’ Zich was disappointed. Although he hoped Condel would battle Lara and had his feet tied that way, it seemed clear that Condel wouldn’t place that much attention on Lara. Zich saw Lara fling her sword all around her as the shadows circled her. Clear streams of mana shot out from her sword.
‘She really does have talent.’ Since Lara had been a member of the hero party that defeated Zich, it was guaranteed that she would have talent. Her skills he saw at first glance.
‘But she hasn’t reached her full potential yet.’ It looked like she was struggling to defeat the shadows, and Zich attacked one of them.
Crash!
Even while attacking Lara, the shadow sensed Zich’s movements and transformed into an indeterminate shape to block Zich’s attack. Yet, Zich had expected them to react this way and swung his sword again. Then, one more time after that and another time after that. At the wave of attacks, the shadow formation began to collapse.
Slice!
After they were sliced, the shadows disappeared. Slight openings formed between these gaps, and Zich targeted these points.
Craash!
Zich blocked the attacks that were going towards Lara.
“Y-You are…!” Lara looked at Zich in surprise. However, Zich didn’t look back at her. He also didn’t ask questions that ought to have made him curious like why she was alone, where Glen was, and so on. He only placed his focus on keeping track of Condel’s presence.
‘I think I’m going to lose him soon,’ Zich thought. Although their distance had shortened a bit after Condel hesitated when seeing Lara, it wasn’t that big of a difference. If he helped Lara and finished off all the shadows here, Zich knew that he would lose Condel for sure.
‘I don’t need to go that far.’
What was most important to Zich right now was to screw Condel over. At the same time, he also didn’t plan to leave Lara to fend for herself.
“Hmph!” Zich took in a deep breath and ran towards the shadows.
“W-Wait!” Lara shouted from behind, but Zich ignored her. He rushed into battle and the mana enveloping Windur swirled intensely. As if he had given up on blocking, Zich aimed to drive the shadows away with a series of strong blows; of course, since he paid almost no attention to defense, he gained several wounds from the shadows’ attacks. Still, Zich’s attacks showed no signs of stopping.
Crack!
One of the shadows split into two from top to bottom.
Pierce!
Another one burst from the mana that seeped inside after Windur pierced its body.
Crunch!
Another one cracked under Zich’s mana. However, the price of all these attacks was high. Blood flowed down from Zich’s body.
“Hey! Are you all right? I-I have some potions with me…!”
“Listen to me.” Zich ignored Lara’s worries. “Since I’ve finished off three of them, it will be easier for you to handle them now. Of course, since four more shadows are heading this way, you won’t be at ease for that long.”
As Zich said, the shadows that he evaded before were rushing towards them now. If those guys joined the fight, the battle would become more challenging. Lara’s face stiffened, but she didn’t fall into despair.
“I-I’m fine! If we combine our powers—!”
“So, you should try your hardest to endure it. I’m sure you can endure for at least a bit with your skills.”
“…Sorry?” Lara asked foolishly, but Zich didn’t plan on talking to her any longer. He penetrated through the line of shadows and ran past them. He also didn’t forget to gulp down a bottle of potion to heal his injuries.
“…Huh?” Lara was left dumbfounded by the situation that had passed by her like a storm. However, because the shadows rushed towards her again, she had no choice but to jerk her body back into action.
“W-Wait…!” she cried out, but it wasn’t as if the shadows would stop moving because she told them to. Lara hastily swung her sword and commenced her fierce battle again. She soon recollected her mind as the shadows that had chased after Zich began to rush to her now. In addition to these four shadows, the number of her opponents had now increased by one. Her movements began to become unstable while the wounds on her body began to increase.
‘What? Am I really going to die here?’ Lara couldn’t accept this reality. She felt like she was dreaming. However, the shadows rushing towards her were all real, and the pain she felt from her injuries was also real.
Lara had been prepared for death ever since she followed Glen in his travels. However, she thought she would die by Glen’s side or while she was protecting him—not at a passageway in a who-knows-where basement. She was soon filled with fear. Her breathing became rough while her muscles twitched involuntarily. She was continuing the battle with the training and experience she had accumulated until now, but the trajectory of her sword continued to shake.
Lara gritted her teeth and tried her hardest to gain her senses back. However, she couldn’t overturn this battle just by simply regaining her senses. At the moment when Lara thought she really was going to die—!
She saw a light. This was not a metaphor; she really did see a brilliant light. The light lit up the dark tunnel and pushed back the dark shadows. The life-threatening desperation she felt disappeared, and Lara was able to gain some breathing room. And that space increased when the earth around her rose and pushed back the shadows even further.
Tap!
Lara saw that someone stood in front of her. She looked at him and she recognized the person holding up a dazzlingly bright sword.
“Are you all right?”
It was Hans.
* * *
‘Is it about time for her to be saved?’ Zich glanced back. ‘If she’s still alive, she has probably met Hans and Snoc by now.’
Zich didn’t just leave Lara alone to fend for herself; even though it didn’t seem like it, he really planned to save her. Zich calculated her skills and the timing of when Hans and Snoc would arrive and decreased the number of shadows accordingly.
‘It would be a very close battle though.’ However, if Zich stayed longer, he would have missed Condel. ‘Well, I did my best. If she doesn’t survive, that’s just her fate.’
Condel didn’t seem like he was trying to get rid of Zich anymore; he didn’t release any more shadows and didn’t show any signs of trying to block Zich. All Condel did was run.
‘Did he run out of shadows?’
Regardless of Condel’s reasons, this was not a bad situation for Zich. Condel and Zich’s strange chase continued. However, it seemed as if Condel had reached his destination as he began to slow down. Then, his movements completely stopped. Likewise, Zich stopped and maintained a suitable distance from Condel; he also raised his guard. Their gazes headed in the same direction.
Glen Zenard. He was standing in front of them.
“I have been waiting for you.” Glen’s calm and soft voice usually brought peace to everyone listening to him.
Condel looked at Glen and then looked back.
He said, “…Did you go in?”
A door was behind Glen. It was an enormous door made out of iron; considering how big it was, the door probably was also thick in width. However, that wouldn’t have hindered Glen, and as if to prove this statement, the iron door had a huge dent on it. Even though the door was sealed shut, it didn’t seem like it would be able to block intruders from coming in anymore.
Glen replied, “Yes.”
“Is that so?” Condel’s voice got lower. Even a completely oblivious person would have realized how angry Condel was.
Glen let out a sigh; it was loud enough for everyone to hear. “You don’t have to worry. I didn’t touch any of the items that were inside.”
“…What?” Condel was surprised as if he didn’t expect this answer at all.
“You can go in yourself and check.”
Condel menacingly asked, “…What are you scheming?”
“I’m not scheming anything. I just thought that there was no reason to ruin the things inside.”
Condel quietly glared at Glen. He probably had no idea what Glen was talking about.
“Actually, I roughly know what your ability is.”
“…!” Condel was shocked.
“I was able to find out about this secret tunnel because I knew about your ability. I also admit that your ability to hide using your shadows is impressive. I’m sure that’s the reason why you were so confident even while getting arrested because we don’t have sufficient evidence to detain you for long. However, since I know about your ability, it was an extremely easy feat for me to find out about your tunnel.”
“…It…doesn’t seem like you’re lying.”
“Of course. And I can also guess your goal.” With a completely self-assured voice, Glen continued, “I guarantee it. No matter how hard you work, Sia Rubrent will never come back alive.”
“!!!” Condel’s movements stopped. He looked at Glen as if Glen had hit the mark, or as if his secret had been found out. Regardless of which one was true, one thing that was certain was that Glen’s words definitely had a negative impact on Condel.
“Your ability is to control shadows, and you make those shadows from taking them out of the corpses you killed.” Glen’s words rang out in the cave.
Condel glared at Glen as if he wanted to kill him, and Zich quietly watched their exchange.
“I also know that you can take out quite a lot of shadows from one corpse. And the shadows you take out from the same corpse can clump together and become a shadow human like the ones that ambushed our team. I also know that this shadow human can wield a great amount of strength. However, no matter how powerful your ability is, it can never bring back a dead person.”
“…I was wondering what you were trying to say but…” Condel let out a small laugh; but from his laughter, there was a slight sense of relief in his words. “I already know that. Stop saying nonsense and move away from that door. If you really left the things inside untouched, I won’t kill you.”
However, Glen didn’t move. “You put another shadow on top of the shadow that you want to bring back alive.”
Condel’s expression stiffened.
“You add on only a small fraction of the shadows that come out from other corpses to the shadow you want to bring alive. You do this because if you put the shadows from the same corpse, it will contaminate the purity of the shadow you want to bring alive. If you keep adding on shadows from different corpses to the original shadow, the shadow human you want to bring alive would become extraordinarily stronger than the other shadow humans—yes, like the shadow human you made from Sia Rubrent. If you put back the strengthened shadow human back into the corpse, the dead person resurrects. How about it, did I accurately guess the information you possess?”
Condel didn’t reply.
Glen looked at him pitifully and said, “I’ll repeat myself again.”
“…Shut up.”
“Your plan to bring back Sia Rubrent alive…”
“I told you to shut up.”
“…is all useless.”
“Shuttttt uppp!” Condel rushed towards Glen. Condel’s shadows and Glen’s Tornium loudly clashed against each other.
Zich quietly watched all of this and thought, ‘Crazy bastards. They’re completely engrossed in their show. What a fucking joke.’