Chapter 209: Flatboard Princess

For Sage, the world didn’t freeze into sharp clarity or stretch into cinematic frames like stories often portrayed. Instead, everything imploded inward, as if reality itself had folded into a suffocating point deep in his chest.

Sound disappeared first, the clash of steel, the rumble of collapsing stone, the roar of a battlefield unraveling, until only a hollow ringing remained, thin and distant, like the echo of something precious shattered beyond repair.

His thoughts didn’t race or spiral; they simply stopped. Ideas like distance, danger, mana, enemies and even the war raging around him lost their significance in an instant so abrupt and total that it felt less like shock and more like erasure.

Inside him, something cracked. Not loudly, not violently, but quietly and insidiously, like a fracture forming only after pressure had built for far too long. It didn’t announce itself until the damage was already done.

This was a sensation Sage hadn’t felt in years, not since that rain soaked night filled with regret. He remembered kneeling beside a lifeless body inside a hospital, realizing that no amount of knowledge, preparation, or strength could turn back even a single second of reality.

Now, that same cold void spread through him, hollowing out his chest as if something essential had been ripped away. Initially, it wasn’t pain, pain requires awareness, this was pure absence. The unbearable realization that something irreplaceable was slipping away.

His face drained of color, turning ashen, his lips trembling silently. His body reacted before his mind could catch up, muscles moving purely on instinct as he reached forward with trembling hands, barely able to control them.

His knees buckled, crashing against the shattered stone below him as he caught Mina’s falling body against his chest. She felt far too light, far too fragile to be real. The dull, broken clank of her shield hitting the ground beside them echoed ominously, a final sound amidst chaos.

Her shield, once whole and glowing with warm golden mana, was now ruined, shattered with half of it missing, the remaining metal warped and cracked beyond recognition. It lay discarded on the fractured ground like a promise that had failed.

Mina’s small body sagged limply in his arms, her head lolling against his shoulder, her golden hair covered with blood. Her face was terrifyingly pale, drained of warmth, lips faintly blue as if the life within her struggled to stay anchored.

Blood soaked through her armor, transformed into nothing more than a broken shell of shattered plates and torn bindings, exposing wounds that made Sage’s breath hitch painfully as he traced them with his eyes.

They were everywhere: deep gashes marred her sides and shoulders, some cauterized by residual mana, others still bleeding sluggishly. Her legs were streaked with blood and ash, one bent at a painful angle that churned his stomach.

Bruises festered beneath her skin in dark, angry patterns, evidence of internal trauma that even Sage’s untrained eye couldn’t ignore. Though she lay unconscious, her body revealed her suffering; her brows twitched faintly, and her lips parted with shallow, uneven breaths, accompanied by soft, broken grunts that escaped despite her state.

Her muscles twitched intermittently, signaling pain so intense that even unconsciousness couldn’t mask it.

Sage knelt there, cradling her fragile form against his chest, his arms wrapped around her as if sheer will could keep her whole. His mind went blank, void of thoughts and logic, consumed only by the unbearable weight he held.

He stared at her face, unblinking and unfocused, grappling with the surreal reality before him.

Mina, the girl who had endlessly complained, who trained with stubborn determination despite her small body, and who offered unwavering smiles as she looked to him, felt strikingly still and impossibly delicate, like shattered glass beyond repair.

For a moment that stretched infinitely, the world faded away.

Across the battlefield, the leader of the black-clad knights frowned, irritation flashing across his face as he glanced from Mina’s crumpled form to Sage’s kneeling figure.

He hadn’t missed his mark entirely, but the outcome was not what he had planned. Before he could capitalize on the moment and finish what he had started, danger surged from all around. Four 4-Star Master Knights, who had been guarding Sage earlier, moved in unison, abandoning their previous fights without hesitation. They launched themselves at the leader from multiple angles, their blades slicing through the air with lethal precision.

Their attacks came swiftly, driven by instinct and fury rather than strategy.

Moments later, five additional Master Knights joined the fray, emerging from the chaos of battle, drawn by the unmistakable threat the leader posed. The air vibrated as their auras clashed, and for the first time since the skirmish began, the leader was forced to retreat, his calm demeanor shattered as he deflected strikes from all directions.

Despite being a 5-Star High-Level Knight, the overwhelming number of coordinated Master Knights disrupted his rhythm, forcing him onto the defensive.

What followed was catastrophic.

Their fight tore through the plaza at breakneck speed, flashes of light racing through the air as combatants blurred beyond the perception of onlookers. Shockwaves erupted with every clash, carving craters into the ground and sending debris hurtling like shrapnel. Sections of the Guild Hall crumbled as stray blows struck their foundations, and walls imploded inward from the sheer force.

Trenches clawed into the earth, extending for dozens of meters as if gouged by a colossal beast. Buildings around the plaza collapsed one after another, unable to withstand the raw power unleashed by the clash of high-tier knights moving at full speed.

To anyone watching from a distance, the clash between the leader and the Master Knights looked like pure chaos, a dazzling spectacle of streaks of light colliding and darting apart in a whirlwind of fury. Each collision was marked by earth-shaking booms and violent ripples through the air.

The ground beneath their feet was no longer a solid structure; it had been transformed into a scarred wasteland, a testament to the relentless power unleashed in battle.

But none of this registered with Sage.

He was blinded to the craters forming just meters away. The deafening explosions and shockwaves that rattled his bones were completely lost on him. If the battlefield had crumbled around him, he wouldn’t have noticed. His entire world had shrunk to the fragile, broken body in his arms. Nothing else mattered.

Slowly, agonizingly slowly, life seeped back into his vacant stare.

His eyes flickered, finally focusing as tears welled up uncontrollably and streamed down his cheeks. He clutched Mina tighter, his trembling hands almost fearful that she would disappear if he loosened his grip. His chest heaved with uneven breaths, each intake shaking, each exhalation dangerously close to a sob.

“M-Mina…” His voice faltered, barely rising above the chaos around him. As he tried again, desperation seeped into his words. “Mina… please… please wake up…”

He pressed his forehead against her hair, his shoulders shaking as his composure shattered entirely.

“Flatbread Princess…” he whispered, instinctively using the nickname he haven’t used for a lonh time, a tenderness in his voice that cut deep.

“Hey… you’re not allowed to sleep right now… you hear me?”

With agonizing care, his fingertips brushed her cheek, terrified she might break under his touch.

“You were just complaining… just a moment ago… angry that you couldn’t go with Valeria …”

His breath caught painfully. “You can’t just leave like this… not now… not when you finally stopped calling me boring…”

Tears blurred his vision, falling onto her blood-streaked armor. “Please…” His voice dropped to a shattered whisper, stripped of strength. “Don’t do this to me… I already lost someone once… I can’t… I can’t go through that again…”

He knelt in the heart of chaos, clutching a child to his chest as if he could barricade her from the harsh reality surrounding them. Warriors fought and fell, stone fractured, buildings crumbled, but Sage was trapped in a silent bubble of grief, isolated from the world by a pain so profound it drowned out everything else.

Then, slowly, inexorably, something shifted. The tremors coursing through his body eased, his breathing slowing though it remained heavy and uneven.

He lifted his head slightly, tears streaming down his face as his gaze moved past Mina’s broken form to the distant struggle where the leader fought valiantly against a dozen Master Knights.

Against all odds, the man was still standing and still fighting, even gaining the upper hand. His attacks were precise and devastating, pushing his opponents back inch by inch, demonstrating sheer superiority.

Sage’s eyes darkened. The grief he felt didn’t fade or dissipate; instead, it compressed, folding in on itself and morphing into something dense and volatile. Tears continued to fall, but beneath them, a deeper emotion stirred, an emotion older and far more dangerous than sorrow. Rage.

This rage wasn’t the explosive, uncontrollable fury of someone inexperienced; it was something colder and heavier, rooted deep within his soul.

The mana around him began to tremble. At first, it was subtle, a slight shimmer in the air like heat rising off stone. But then the fluctuations intensified, mana currents warping unpredictably, as if reacting to forces they couldn’t comprehend.

His soul energy surged outward in slow, oppressive waves, weighing down the surroundings with an overwhelming pressure. Loose debris vibrated, small stones rattling against the ground as if in fear.

Sage clenched his jaw, his teeth grinding together as he tightened his hold on Mina just a bit more, protective even in his fury.

“I’m going to kill you,” he muttered softly, the words dragged from his throat through gritted teeth, devoid of theatrics or grandiose declarations.

There was no shouting, no dramatic vows, just a promise whispered with unnerving calm, forged in grief and sealed with an intent so absolute it felt inevitable.

His gaze locked onto the distant figure again, bloodshot and burning, as the mana around him continued to swirl.

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