Chapter 94 Volume III – Chapter 15: Purple-Eyed Man

When we received the message from the Academy, there were about two hundred meters between us and the nearest of the marked places. As we were trying to escape our pursuers, we luckily ran right into it. We should have been happy, but…

“Aiden, something is not right.”

I heard these words as an earthen spear flew past me and I started to sweat instantly. Not because of the spear but Celine’s words.

It was said by Celine, Celine Potenbea, who had the Sixth Sense skill. If she felt that something was not right, then there was a big problem.

“Like what? What do you feel? What do your instincts tell you to do?”

Celine frowned, squinting her amethyst eyes.

“I don’t know, just… something feels wrong. Like something bad could happen at any moment.”

I glanced around, looking for something in particular to catch my eye, but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t see anything abnormal. The battles were going on, explosions, spells, blood, guns, screams, and curses, but nothing else.

“Hey! Come here!”

I reflexively turned around when I suddenly heard someone shouting at us in a deep voice.

The shouting man was in front of the security center, a marked ‘safe’ spot. He was wearing the uniform of the security guards, and behind him stood a few others like him.

“Get behind us and get inside the building. We’ll take care of the ones behind you!”

When I saw the men pull out their guns and focus on those chasing us, I knew for sure that they were on our side.

Still… what had triggered Celine’s skill? What was dangerous here? That’s what I wasn’t sure of.

When we arrived in front of the building the man had told us about, the security headquarters, both Celine and I stopped running. We were almost out of mana, out of breath from running and our muscles were burning. But when I saw Celine turn to me and smile, I sighed and smiled back.

“We did it, I suppose.”

It was exhausting going through all that chaos. The warm feeling of being alive was comforting.

“I guess so… Do you still feel that weird thing?”

Celine stopped smiling. She looked behind her, where the guards and members of the organization were fighting.

“Yes, but it’s lessened a lot since we passed them.”

So the ‘danger’ is behind us?

I took a deep breath and turned to the closed door of the building.

If we’re out of danger, there shouldn’t be a problem. On top of that… I’m really tired, I want to rest, to think.

“Then le-”

My words were interrupted by the sight of Celine suddenly flying off to the side. My mouth remained open and my eyes widened rapidly.

“Celine!”

I quickly turned in the direction she flew in, trying to figure out what had happened.

She was about seven meters away from me. She must have bounced off the ground because she was covered in dust and her head was bleeding.

I reflexively tried to run to her, but as I took my first step, someone suddenly appeared right in front of her.

He had a big smile on his face. He must have been in his mid-twenties with his tall and skinny body, brown hair down to his neck, and stubble, but none of that mattered.

What mattered were his eyes, eyes that glowed with the purple color of chaos.

He was not a human, he was a wiera who knew how to use caora.

“Hi!”

The man bowed as if he didn’t care about me, lifted Celine’s body, and looked at the trees in the distance without even looking at my face.

“And goodbye!”

The man grabbed Celine and dashed into the trees, disappearing from sight in an instant. All I could do was watch.

My eyes widened again as I froze in place, barely able to process what had happened.

I can’t lose Celine, she’s too important to the story. And besides… even though we’ve barely spoken, she’s a friend I smile at side by side. She is one of the first friends I made in my life.

On top of that, all these events happened because of me. While so many people are suffering because of me, I cannot and will not leave someone close to me.

If I try to ask someone for help, I will waste time, the enemy has gates that they can use directly. I… have to be quick.

I clenched my fist, wiped away my hesitation, and dived quickly into the trees. Even though the man had long since disappeared from sight, the small traces he had left behind could be followed. That’s how I found my way, passing through the trees as fast as I could.

Finally, when the trees suddenly became sparse, I realized I was about to emerge into a clearing. I slowed down, bent down, and observed what was in the clearing.

The first thing that caught my eye was Celine’s unconscious body, though she was not the only one there.

The floor was full of unconscious students. No matter how I looked at it, there were more than twenty students here and all of them were at least noble, if not noble, at least high in the ranks.

So everyone here was a ‘target’.

When I looked for the device that would open the gate, I saw a small box lying on the floor not far from me. It was the device that would open the gate and it was closed, so I had time.

I quickly turned on my watch, logged into the messaging app, and typed a quick message without using the holographic screen so that my location would not be obvious.

I needed support as I couldn’t beat this guy on my own.

As I finished typing the message and was about to mark the recipients, I heard a sound, and in my momentary distraction, I accidentally clicked on a different part of the screen.

“Oh? Welcome!”

My eyes widened, I didn’t even have to look up to realize that the voice belonged to the man who had captured Celine.

If it wasn’t for the Absolute Mind, I might have jumped out of my skin in the midst of this sudden situation, but I drew my sword and swung at him without thinking twice.

The man dodged my sword with a slight step back as if it were nothing.

I took advantage of the momentary gap to look at the screen of the watch on my wrist and saw that it was off.

I typed the message, managed to select a few recipients I wasn’t sure who they were, but did I send it? I’m not sure, my hand slipped when the man suddenly appeared in front of me.

I may have selected someone irrelevant, but more importantly, I hope I was able to send the message. After all, I don’t have anyone in my contacts who will do nothing in response to my message. They will definitely contact someone in charge, but if I couldn’t send the message… Then I’m facing a big problem.

“I see we’re angry?”

The man simply took a step toward me. The moment he did, I sent three wind blades at him in quick succession, but he dodged my attack again, and not only that. After dodging the wind blades, he grabbed my clothes and threw me hard into the center of the clearing, not even letting his smile fade from his face.

I had a hard time understanding what had happened when my world was suddenly turned upside down, and when I made contact with the ground and my whole body trembled in pain, I realized again how strong he really was.

I tried to stand up with difficulty, and when I looked at him I saw that he was just standing there, and he still had that disgusting smile on his face.

The bastard… he’s toying with me. Is there no way for me to win?

“Uh, aren’t you the guy at the top of the target list? Hahaha, I didn’t expect you to come to me on your own two feet. My luck is pretty good today.”

I swung my sword at him again, but this time he caught it with his bare hand. Blood oozed from his palm, but he didn’t care and shook his hand hard, and then the sword broke into pieces in his hand.

“Go to sleep now!”

He clenched his fist, stretched it slightly, and swung it directly at my face.

Although the preparation of the punch was reckless and slow, the punch itself was fast. So fast, in fact, that I almost couldn’t see it, and it was almost impossible to avoid it. The best I could do was to defend myself, but with the strength I felt earlier, how long could I defend myself?

It was a gamble, I had no choice.

I used my mana to protect my face, gritted my teeth, and poured additional mana into the Absolute Mind.

The moment the punch hit me, my brain throbbed, and in an instant, a sharp pain shot through my head as if my entire skull was vibrating, and not only that, it spread throughout my body. The world was spinning, my vision was blurred, but the Absolute Mind, empowered by my mana, managed to absorb it all.

I took a few steps back, my whole body was shaking from the shock, but I managed to stand up, and the man’s fist was right in front of me, he looked quite surprised.

All this had happened in just one second, this was my opportunity.

I drove my broken sword with all my strength into the man’s outstretched arm, and then, ignoring the blood splattering on my face and the screaming of my muscles, I pushed the sword through the man’s chest.

The broken sword opened a wound almost twenty centimeters long from the man’s arm to the center of his chest, where even his bones were visible. There was so much blood pouring out of the wound that a normal person would have collapsed from blood loss.

The man in front of me just kept smiling.

“Whoa, what the hell did you do?”

My eyes widened when I saw the green glow above the wound and I involuntarily took a step back.

Is his wound… healing?

Wh- what is this monster? Or… does he have some skill related to regeneration or healing…?

“Wow! Even though you were able to do this because I allowed it, I’m intrigued.”

Allow…

Did he say “allow”?

What did he mean? Did he deliberately let me cut him open because he was curious to see what I could do?

Despair swept through my body, and everything I had heard replayed over and over in my mind. Yet I didn’t want to believe it, I refused.

I will not lose here, I will not give up so easily after the things I have been through.

I quickly looked around to see if there was anything that could help me, but as soon as I did I felt a heavy pressure on me.

“You look like you’re trying to find a way out of here by ignoring me. Like there’s a way to win even if you’re scared… No, there’s not even fear in those eyes. It’s strange… I haven’t met such determined eyes in a long time. And I was getting pretty bored, how about we play a game?”

The smile on his face widened, then his body disappeared.

The next second I felt a sudden, sharp pain coming from my feet, so sharp that I could hardly restrain myself from screaming.

My feet were loosened, and I collapsed to the ground, realizing that I was having difficulty standing on them. So when my eyes turned to the source of the pain in my feet, I felt dizzy for a moment.

Blood was flowing violently from both of my ankles, watering the ground.

He had cut my tendons and not only that, he had opened a deep wound. My feet were literally on fire.

“You know… although you probably don’t know, it gives me pleasure to surprise people, to see them angry with me, to see them hate me… things like that.”

With each word, desperation slowly began to seep through the barrier of my mind, affecting my thoughts.

How could I get out of here when I couldn’t even move except crawl?

At first, my intention was to stall the man with the message I sent until backup arrived, but now… I was scared.

I was scared of never seeing Clara again, scared of losing my new life when I was finally free of my old one and happy.

“But first… we need to make sure you don’t do anything bad during the show.”

He approached me, bent down, and took out a dagger from inside his jacket.

The moment I saw the dagger, my eyes widened.

I have to get out of here, I have to escape no matter what. If I stay here, this man will torture me to death… I-

As my thoughts were racing, I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder, and I gritted my teeth to keep from screaming.

He plunged the dagger into my shoulder, the purple glow in his eyes intensified and the smile on his face grew wider.

“Did it hurt? Don’t worry… We’re just getting started!”

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