In addition to the shadows that Condel had pulled out to duel Glen and the shadows that he took out again, there were about seventy shadows surrounding Zich and Glen. Glen glared at Zich menacingly; although it was his first time receiving a look like that from Glen ever since the regression, Zich didn’t feel anything. He actually felt calm instead since that was the way Glen had always looked at him before the regression.
‘It was creepy how he kept looking at me with benevolent eyes like he was some kind of saint.’
“What are you going to do now, sir!”
“What?”
While eyeing the shadows coming from all around them, the two shouted with their backs against each other.
“Everything is ruined because of you!”
“What did I do?”
“Our opponent was losing his will to fight! It’s because of your words that he began to move again!” Glen was right. Zich sneakily picked the right words to provoke Condel back into action again. If Condel had lost all motivation to continue fighting, Zich planned to use an even more direct method. However, Zich had absolutely no intention to admit this fact. He couldn’t act however he wanted as he did before the regression.
“No, all I did was exchange a couple of words with him! At most, we just had a little argument!”
“So, in other words, you provoked him!”
“It’s not because of me, but because that guy’s personality is trash! Ask anyone on the streets! Try to explain what happened to them: that an evil guy who picked out only lovers to kidnap and kill was showing signs of repentance with your words; then, he suddenly exploded back again with a couple of words from me!”
Glen didn’t know how to respond. Anyone could see that Zich was right. Condel might have shown a reaction to Glen’s words, but it was impossible to prove that he was actually going to repent and stop his evil deeds.
“Anyways, it doesn’t change the fact that we have to defeat him! Although it’s difficult, we just have to wait a bit. Since you bought us some time, our forces will join us soon!” As soon as Zich said this, he felt a presence on the other side of the passageway. It was Zich’s companions and Lara. The new group of people looked at Zich and Glen, who were besieged by shadows, and shouted at them. Hans, Snoc, and Lara straightened their swords and rushed towards them. Lyla and Elena prepared spells from a distance.
Condel noticed them and thought, ‘Damn it!’ Although he wanted to beat up the swindler who tried to trick him with lies and the bastard who mocked him and his lover, he couldn’t waste any more time here. Not only were Zich and Glen considerably skilled fighters, but the guys rushing towards them right now were also formidable.
In the end, Condel retracted his shadows back. Then, he ran inside the room.
“Damn it!” Glen tried to chase after him and stopped. Further beyond this area was Condel Siede’s territory. If they went in there rashly, it was dangerous. At the very least, it would be impossible to survive by himself.
“Glen!” Thankfully, Lara called his name and ran towards him. Lara’s skills were considerable and would be of great help to him.
‘If only she carried a shield, she would be more useful!’ he thought. The stability formed between a team with a swordsman and a shield master was on a different level compared to a pair of swordsmen who used swords. In addition to the frustration that he felt because the situation was not unraveling according to his plans, the anger he felt towards her made him more annoyed. Yet, the patience he had accumulated through a long period of experience helped repress this annoyance down from appearing.
“Thankfully, you don’t seem to be hurt anywhere,” Glen said to Lara.
“Yeah, it’s thanks to those guys.” Lara pointed at Zich and his companions.
Glen raised his eyebrows. On top of his argument with Zich, he was now indebted to Zich’s companions. To be specific, the ‘just Karuwiman Honorary Knight, Glen Zenard’ would have thought all of this as being indebted to them. Thus, Glen bowed his head and said, “Thank you to all of you guys. Thank you for saving Lara.”
“Ah, no. There’s no need for you to lower your head, Glen. I’m the one who received help.”
“Aren’t you my companion? Also, my heart felt very heavy for leaving you there like that.”
“That’s because I couldn’t keep up with your pace, and that’s why I said I will remain behind,” Lara replied.
Listening to this conversation, Zich thought, ‘I suppose that’s why Lara Browning was left behind.’ If she hadn’t been able to match his speed, she would have been a hindrance. That had also been the reason why he left Hans and Snoc behind. However, the two situations were completely different from each other. Glen and Lara had gone ahead to the secret base by themselves; the situation was one where Condel could appear suddenly at any point in time. If Glen had left inexperienced Lara behind and gone ahead in such a situation, one could interpret that he had given up on her life. On the other hand, Zich and his companions had been chasing after Condel. In other words, the ones remaining behind had no chance of meeting Condel by themselves. Furthermore, there were masses of troops following behind them.
‘Did he think it was fine for her to die?’
If Glen was really the trash human that Zich thought he was, Lara was simply one of the many tools he held. A tool he valued very much to the point he personally brought her around to places.
‘It’s weird for him to throw away a tool like that.’ Then, a thought suddenly popped up in his head, ‘I heard he was suggesting the shield to her. Is it maybe because the Lara Browning he wants is not the current one but the one who carries around a shield?’ Judging by the situation right now, Lara Browning hadn’t thrown away her sword yet. If he thought of it like this, Glen might have really thought that it wouldn’t have mattered if Browning died.
‘No, even if that’s not the case, there might be a reason why she became less important to him.’
Zich carefully observed Browning and Glen.
Lyla approached Zich. “What are you doing? Aren’t you going to chase after Condel Siede?”
“That’s all right.” Glen replied to Lyla and continued, “Ms. Lyla, it’s a dead-end over there. There’s no place to run away to.”
“Is that so?”
“However, since the space beyond this door is his territory, we have to pay the utmost precaution.” Glen put one foot past the iron door.
Then, he turned his head and looked at Zich and said, “I’m going to try persuading him one more time. I hope you don’t hinder me again.”
“Mr. Glen, I already said I have no intentions to hinder you. I also don’t think that’ll work on him anymore. Anyway, I have no plans to stop your attempt.”
Zich pointed towards the inside of the door. “You should go in first. I sincerely hope that your words that can even make a villain shed tears, work again.”
Their eyes met for a moment. Glen coldly turned his gaze away and went past the iron door. Lara followed behind him with a puzzled look on her face.
Lyla asked, “What happened?”
Zich gave Lyla a brief summary of what happened.
“He’s getting mad at you for no reason. Logically, you didn’t do anything wrong. How would anyone know that some crazy guy would go crazy like that with a few words?”
“Yeah! You know me so well!”
“But that was your intention, right?”
“…What intention?”
“Do you think I don’t know what you’re like?”
Zich shrugged and Lyla glared at him. He acted like he did nothing wrong.
Lyla said, “Well, I won’t say much about your actions, but just tell me why. Why did you try to provoke him again?”
If everything went according to Glen’s plan, this situation would have ended by now. Did Zich just want to fuck Glen over? Lyla didn’t think that was the case, and she was sure of this when she saw Zich’s face. He was currently making a smile that was fitting of a Demon Lord. Hans and Snoc took a step back, and Elena grabbed the edge of Lyla’s sleeve. Zich’s smile was scary to that extent.
“I merely compared the two and made my judgment.”
“What did you compare?”
“I compared between ‘realizing that everything you did was useless and collapsing on the ground with an overwhelming sense of emptiness’ or ‘using any means to achieve your goal and being unable to reach your goal when it’s just within your sight.’ I judged which one would make someone angrier and more regretful.”
“…And what was your decision?”
“Of course the latter.” Zich continued while sliding his feet past the iron door, “Condel Siede has to shudder in resentment and anger after seeing that his goal was crushed by an obstacle—me.”
Lyla thought that Zich’s back looked like a snake licking its tongue and crawling towards its prey.
* * *
The tunnel beyond the iron door was not very much different from the tunnel outside. The only difference was that the tunnel was now smaller. A tunnel that was too cramped for three people to walk side by side continued on. However, the tunnel soon changed.
A liquid substance touched the ends of their feet. However, it was not ordinary water. The liquid was not transparent; it was completely black as if someone had liquefied darkness and spread it all over the ground.
Zich shouted to his companions, “Be careful! I think it’s going to start soon!”
They could now hear sounds of battle; it was probably the sound of Glen and Lara fighting Condel. Zich also stopped running and began walking.
Slide!
Not a lot of time passed since they switched to walking. There was a stir on the surface of the liquid substance on the ground, and a black shape sprang up.
‘Is it a shadow?’ Zich held up Windur and stared at it. ‘It’s not a shadow.’
However, it was probably something similar. Even though their bodies were like the liquid substance they were stepping on, their movements and appearance were very similar to Condel’s shadows.
Ssssssssssssssh!
Shadows began to rise all around them.
“What is that?” Lyla frowned.
“I also don’t know. To be safe, let’s call them liquid shadows.”
“I’ve thought this since a long time ago, but you seriously have zero naming sense.”
“I have a whole ton of fighting sense though.”
While Zich and his companions thoroughly crushed all the liquid shadows that came out from everywhere around them, they continued to move forward. The liquid shadows were definitely stronger. Even though they were weaker than shadow humans, they were stronger than normal shadows. Moreover, there were shadows that came right under their feet and ambushed them, so it was troublesome to fight them off.
However, Zich and his companions were able to defeat them smoothly. Zich and Hans blocked the shadows that were coming towards them and counterattacked. Lyla gathered the liquid shadows coming towards them and burst them together. Elena also attacked the shadows with a few magic attacks that she was now skilled with. Snoc raised the earth up and made a space that the liquid shadows were unable to reach. As they progressed forward, the space in front of them suddenly expanded.
They reached an enormous open space. The space was filled with black liquid all over the floor. In the center of the space, there was a topography that sprung up like an island. They saw that Glen and Lara had already reached the island, and shadow humans were surrounding them. While Glen was surrounded, he continued to shout things out loud; it seemed as if he hadn’t given up on trying to persuade Condel.
However, judging by their situation, it didn’t seem effective. There was only fury on Condel’s face.
‘Yep! Good job! Don’t listen to his words! Just ignore and crush him!’ Zich passionately cheered on Condel inside his mind.
“Zich.” Lyla tapped Zich’s shoulder. “Look at that.”
Zich looked at the area that Lyla pointed towards. She was pointing at the center of the island. There was something on top of a structure that was piled up as high as if it was supporting a sacred sacrifice to the sky.
Her skin was pale as if all color had been washed away, and there was no trace of life on her face. The figure that was half-swallowed by a black liquid was definitely a person’s corpse. Even though he had never met her before, Zich was able to instantly recognize the corpse.
‘Sia Rubrent.’
It was definitely her.