Chapter 45: Ah, there you are!

Away from Damon’s shenanigans, was Alistair trying to talk sense into a turquoise haired girl, while simultaneously trying not to die.

“Jayden, please stop this madness, I can help you!” Alistair exclaimed as he for the nth time avoided the blade poised to cut his throat.

Alistair had been devastated when he didn’t find Jayden at the institute. Though, he didn’t for a second doubt that she had failed the entrance exam. So he thought something had to have happened that stopped her from coming to the institute as they had promised.

And as fate would have it, he thought right. But what he didn’t expect, would be how severe the situation was. Jayden had joined the dark cult, and became a heretic.

“Stop it?” the turquoise haired girl chuckled. “Why should I?” An imperceptible energy burst from her body.

Alistair suddenly felt his body becoming heavier, it took twice the effort to even raise his sword.

“Damn it!” his eyes narrowed. He knew Jayden’s ability, after all, she had awakened before him. She could increase the gravity in a certain diameter, but it depended on how much aether she poured into the ability.

Jayden charged at him intending to capitalize on Alistair’s sudden loss of balance to finish the fight.

Alistair seeing that, had no choice but to also use his ability. Intense golden light surged, shrouding his body for a brief moment, before suddenly disappearing.

When the light disappeared, the increased weight Alistair had been feeling, vanished almost entirely.

Clank!

He blocked her sword with the shaft of his spear. Her eyes slightly widened, mildly surprised that Alistair had been able to shrug off the effects of her ability, and block her attack.

But that was it, only mild surprise. If he couldn’t do that much, his title as the crown jewel of this generation would have gone to waste.

“I see we’re taking it to the next level huh?” Jayden smirked as the black smokey aura emanating from her body surged wildly, and dark veins began appearing all over her body.

The gravity in the area suddenly increased considerably, more so than before. Alistair’s knees almost buckled, and adding to the fact that her sword was still pressing down against the shaft of his spear, he wasn’t in a good position.

Alistair gritted his teeth.

“Jayden, please stop. This isn’t you.” He pleaded almost in tears. The Jayden he knew was so kind that the thought of harming others wouldn’t even occur to her, not to talk of kidnapping little children.

His words meanwhile finally got to Jayden, though, not in the way he hoped.

Her leg snapped up at him in a brutal kick to the head, but he pulled off a block with his forearm, before flickering backwards.

“This isn’t me?!” Jayden let out a hollow laugh. “What do you know about me?!” She raged. “It’s because of you that they came after me in the first place!”

Alistair paled. Of course no matter how dumb he was, he could piece two and two together. The ’they’ she meant was most probably the dark cult. And the reason they came after/recruited her, was due to her connection to him.

He never felt more anger at House Drake and himself than at this moment. If they hadn’t announced to the whole world that he had awakened an omega ranked physique, perhaps the dark cult wouldn’t have targeted his best friend. And then there was he who blissfully enjoyed the fame and attention.

“…Jayden…I…” He opened his mouth, but couldn’t even formulate a coherent sentence.

But Jayden wasn’t at a short for words.

“Save your words, the only way this is ending, is when one of us ends up dead.” she declared coldly.

Alistair stared at her with mixed feelings. No matter what, she was still his childhood/best friend, and he was partly the reason she had gotten caught up in all these heretic business. He had to save her, no matter the cost.

But before that, he had to subdue her, make her see what was wrong and right again, then find a way to safely break her contract with the Darkwalkers.

This whole time Alistair had been on the defensive, he hadn’t at one time made an effort to attack, but now, that was going to change. It didn’t matter what boost she had as a heretic, he was a minor rank above her, and then there was his ability.

Seeing Alistair’s distracted expression, Jayden clicked her tongue.

’He’s not taking this seriously.’ she frowned. ’Does he have a death wish?’

She didn’t talk again, instead a huge tyrannical burden bore down on Alistair’s body, before she rushed at him.

But this time, Alistair didn’t only react, he also attacked. He parried her sword, before his spear swept down in an attempt to sweep her off her feet.

“If you’re not going to listen, I’ll make you listen.” he declared.

Jayden coiled like a spring, as her body shot off the ground, completely evading the sweep. But Alistair wasn’t done, far from it actually.

“First art: Upthrust!” he exclaimed. His gold hued spear traced a straight line after her, she tried to use her sword to block, but she was still wide open.

But since Alistair wasn’t aiming to kill or injure her, he deliberately aimed for the sword.

Clang!

Her sword bent inwards due to the force of the attack, but she didn’t try to resist the force, instead, she went with it, and got sent flying straight into a building.

Alistair didn’t hesitate to follow, but just as he got to the hole her body had made in the building, a pressurized jet of air slammed straight into his body. Thankfully he had used his spear to block the lethal part of it, so he only got sent sliding a few dozen steps.

“Jayden, please listen to me, if the others get here, I won’t be able to help you.” Alistair once again pleaded.

“You think I need your pity, or mercy?” Jayden’s voice echoed as her figure slowly stepped out of the hole in the building.

“Hahahaha! Don’t make me laugh.” She cackled. “When they get here, I’ll kill you all together, it’s only right, after all, you all are stuck up bastards who think they’re better than everyone.” She got hysterical towards the end.

By this time her figure had become fully visible to Alistair. The black veins on her body had grown even more pronounced, and the dark smokey aura around her had more than tripled.

She sucked in huge amounts of air into her mouth, and shot out another pressurized jet of air at Alistair. But this time he didn’t make the mistake of blocking, instead he completely dodged it.

Alistair had made up his mind, he had to take her down before the rest of his classmates arrived. It was the only way to save her. To him, it was a forgone conclusion that his classmates would win, after all he had seen them fight.

Especially Rose, Fabian and Anastasia. If any of those three came here, there was no saving Jayden, which was why he had to act fast.

He didn’t wait for Jayden to attack again, instead he launched himself at her.

Fist and kicks flew, she swung, he parried, delivered a brutal punch to her gut that knocked the air out of her.

Keuk!

Normally that would off someone for a few moments, but her recovery as a heretic was pretty exaggerated. The next moment, she fired her pressurized jet of air at point blank.

But Alistair dodged it with merely a slight tilt of his head, and retaliated with a much more reinforced punch to her chin, aiming to knock her out.

Her body shifted to the side for the slightest of moments as if she went into a daze, before she suddenly sprang up, her sword bending in an arc to cut Alistair’s throat in one fell swoop.

Clang!

Her sword instead met his spear. Alistair gritted his teeth, and launched into a series of punches and kicks focused on disorienting at her. She couldn’t even muster a single defense, talk less of offense.

If she was an enemy he wanted to kill, she would have been dead a hundred times over, but since he wanted to knock her out without harming her, he didn’t use his weapon.

With a last hook to the head, the world flickered before her eyes, then she lost all vision, and the dark aura around her reigned itself in.

Alistair didn’t waste time, he hoisted her on his shoulder, and bolted away from the chaotic area.

He soon reached the city gates, and sneaked out without anyone noticing him.

But once he got into the road passing through the jungle, he felt Jayden’s body stirring awake. Not wanting to risk it, he put her down at the base of a tree.

“Calm down.” Alistair said just as her eyes opened.

“Isn’t it ironic? even though I’m mad at what you’ve done, I couldn’t bring myself to kill you.” He smiled wryly.

“Kill me, I don’t want your mercy! You’re the cause of the situation I’m in anyway!” She glared at him furiously.

Alistair winced at that, but he composed himself.

“I hope the next time we meet, you’d see the mistake you’re making, and have the will to change. You’re safe for now, but if I were you, I’d quickly leave this place.” Alistair said turning away from her.

“Until we meet again.” he said vanishing from his spot.

Jayden glared at the spot he vanished from with a hateful gaze. ’I’ll kill you one day, just you wait.’

Just then, a sing song voice that broke her out of her thoughts, sent chills down her spine.

“Ah, there you are.”

**********

THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT EVERYONE, AND SHOUTOUT TO #AGUNDAM ON THE GIFT.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep