Lars ran towards Ricky in one leap.

However, he had to back down due to the slashes he suffered from the chimera.

Looking at Ricky, he spoke while being a little annoyed with the chimera.

“This place is dangerous, so go inside. Is the inside okay?”

“Yes yes.”

“Don’t come out until I say it is safe.”

Ricky nodded without saying another word.

It felt comforting to meet Lars, but anyone could see that things weren’t going well.

As he’d realised he’d only be a hindrance, Ricky was about to go back to the door, but before he could, the Chimera made of an ogre and a demon horse moved.

Heeing!

A horse roar escaped from the ogre’s mouth.

The sound was different, as the face belonged to an ogre, but no one laughed.

That’s because the monster was coming at Ricky.

Great leap!

They were far from each other, but before he could realize, the monster was right in front of Ricky.

“Stop it!”

Lars’ command fell, and he moved faster than anyone else.

The shadow knights tried to move, but the other Chimera stopped them.

In the end, only Lars went towards Ricky.

Lars clenched his teeth and drew his sword into a diagonal slash.

A slash of light, that exerted absolute destructive power on the evil opponent.

Kwaaah!

The ogre screamed.

His sound waves were enough to distort the whole area.

Under that wave, the slash from Lars was disturbed.

His slash would never reach the monster.

The horse legs were ready to stomp the boy along with the door.

Ricky stood there blankly waiting for the horse legs to fall on him. Even the size of the hoof was as large as Ricky’s head. And if crushed by something like that, no one could even recognize him ever again.

‘No!’

Lars suddenly remembered the scene where he was crushed by the carriage.

Even then, if not for Jamie, Ricky wouldn’t have been saved. But now, Jamie wasn’t there. No one else would be able to protect Ricky but him.

All power concentrated on his lower body.

The floor around was crushed. The cloak of light shortened rapidly. The time limit he had reduced as it was due to excessive use of power.

Lars shot like a beam of light.

‘One blow.’

Can he reach Ricky?

The distance narrowed at tremendous rate, but it was the same with Chimera and Ricky.

Despair began to set in on Lars’ face.

“N-NO!”

He swung his sword.

The dazzling light fell. But it didn’t reach the hooves of the horse.

The shadow on the monster covered Ricky. Pressing him to death. No traces of life would remain.

Bang-!!

Roar.

And detonation.

A hazy smoke spread in all directions.

Nothing could be seen.

Lars’ feet touched the ground. It was the first time in his life that he had such a long fight. But still, he was late. It was too late to do anything.

A scream burst out.

He finally realized that it was the end.

‘I can’t protect h…’

“Kuak…

And then came the Chimera’s groan in dust.

At first, he thought that he heard it wrong.

Why was the Chimera groaning? Did the slash reach it? did the balance shake and then he was hit by the slash?

It wasn’t that.

It didn’t take long to realize that.

A faint light began to leak out in the dust.

“…?”

A familiar light.

The dust gradually settled.

And there, a boy was surrounded by light, looking at him, with his strange hands and shocked eyes.

Ricky looked at Lars who was shocked.

“Brother…?”

“You.”

Lars reached out towards him by moving away from the chimera that was under the rubble.

The monster under the rubble was glaring at Ricky.

“Let’s talk later. Just come here now.”

At Lars’ beckoning, Ricky quickly ran behind him.

The soft light around him has disappeared. It wasn’t clear what just happened, but it was certain that Ricky’s life was saved because of it.

Lars put his hand on Ricky’s head and said.

“You did well.”

He wasn’t sure what happened.

But Ricky replied brightly.

“Yes!”

Lars grinned and looked at Chimera again.

The shadow knights were in the battle with another chimera. But they would soon win it.

‘The time I have left is only about 10 minutes.’

It was slowly reducing.

“Go up.”

“Up?”

Lars nodded and pointed to the entrance.

There were no more enemies around, but it was safer above than inside the building.

Most of all, he didn’t have the confidence to protect Ricky if another chimera popped up. And he knew that miracles only happen once.

“Keep an eye on the entrance.”

“… okay.”

Ricky knew that he was nothing but a hindrance.

As Lars showed, he moved to the entrance.

Meanwhile, the ogre chimera got up from under the rubble but hadn’t moved.

He moved and sent Ricky up.

Ricky, who was struggling to climb up the broken stairs, looked back at Lars and said.

“Brother, you need to definitely come up.”

The one who used to be called Mister was now called Brother.

Lars smiled and raised his hand.

Seeing the confident look, Ricky went upstairs confidently.

And once he disappeared, Lars’ expression hardened again.

The ogre chimera began to move.

One of the shadow knights shouted.

“I will support you!”

“No!”

Holy power was shaking.

Although he wasn’t a Master yet, a power which no one could ignore was flowing through Lars.

Lars spoke as he approached the ogre chimera.

“I will kill him.”

The one who tried to kill Ricky.

He would never forgive it.

‘What is this?’

As he climbed up, Ricky felt a strange sensation.

As the monster was about to crush him, he felt a tickling sensation in his chest.

And then a strange light came out of his body.

Something soon spread around. The monster came for him, but nothing happened. The huge body of the monster bounced back.

From then on, he could feel the unpleasant energy from the monster. He didn’t know what it was, but he had a feeling that it felt similar to someone.

‘There were a lot of such ones in Lival.’

Bad people.

What he felt from the monster wasn’t much different from what he felt when he saw bad people.

It wasn’t just that one monster. He felt the same thing from the horned spider monster that the blank knights were fighting.

Something like ‘evil’, but Ricky didn’t realize it.

It was important to get away from there. It was dangerous to climb broken stairs, but was even more dangerous to stay down there.

And now, he was safe.

Ricky somehow managed to climb up.

He crossed the room and opened the door leading outside.

“I… It is the way out.”

It was a hot night compared to the cold basement, but even the heat felt refreshing to Ricky.

Hope that he can escape.

“Ouch…”

As soon as he came out, the tears he had been holding back flowed.

Ricky sat down on the floor, clutching the soil with his hands and sobbed. He thought that he was out of despair. That in the future, he would be able to live happily with his little sister.

He didn’t expect a rosy future.

But now he felt betrayed. The sweet hope was all fake. The bait for the future made him search for more despair.

He remembered Anna who would still be in church. His poor little sister wouldn’t couldn’t see.

Thinking of her, his anguish grew even more.

“Damn it, Zen… Zeni… ugh!”

God is bad. It was a short time, a short month, but he was fully devoted to god.

He hated bishop Lincoln, Zenith and people of Zenith who called themselves servants. He hated them all.

The boy got up. Eyes red with anger and tears.

“I will never forgive you.”

Shino’s corpse in the basement.

Many people have been sacrificed for that.

If he completely managed to escape from this abandoned place, he wanted to tell the world about what Zenith had done.

And with Lars on his side, the information would be taken credible.

So, he had to wait for Lars. Ricky looked at the door. And then stopped his hands from putting into a praying position.

There was no God to pray to. So he didn’t want to.

“Brother will come back aliv…”

It was then.

His head throbbed.

And his body staggered as nausea rose.

Ricky felt his heart hurt. The light flowed from his body and then disappeared.

His gaze was directed somewhere else. Quite far away, there, he felt an unpleasant and ominous aura that he had never felt before.

Ricky walked towards it like a possessed person.

Crash!

Four trees couldn’t withstand the power of the tentacles and were broken.

Jamie kept his distance, striking away the tentacles.

The doctor shouted at Jamie’s movement.

“How long do you plan on running away!”

The doctor, who jumped high, started to flap his wings and fly.

At the same time, the tentacles on his body went for Jamie.

Bang! Bang!

Roars echoed in all directions.

‘Such power.’

Jamie didn’t know what kind of tentacles they were, but they held a lot of power in them.

And he knew that avoiding it was the best.

‘The problem was, he hasn’t even used magic yet.’

In terms of magic, he was superior to the doctor.

But if he was a chimera, and then if he started using magic, the doctor would be a troublesome opponent to Jamie.

Jamie hit the tentacles with his shielded hands.

The shield cracked, and it was soon converted into mana and reabsorbed by the body.

If it wasn’t for the full-body breathing method, Jamie would have already been defeated in the battle.

‘Enough of magic.’

There was a lot of magic he memorized.

However, it wasn’t right to use magic indiscriminately. He had to be careful when using it.

Jamie avoided the doctor’s attacks as much as possible, while keeping his eyes on him. At the same time, it was funny to see the doctor obsessed with him.

‘Let’s not turn it bitter.’

The lost power will be regained someday.

For now, he had to focus on creating a situation where he could use his current strength to the fullest.

“Annoying! Annoying! Annoying!”

The tentacles of the angry doctor kept falling at him.

It was as if a child was flinging things.

Frowning, the doctor yelled.

“I will come and kill you myself!”

Another pair of wings protruded through his back.

With two pairs of wings flapping, the doctor glided at a great speed.

Jamie clicked his tongue as he watched the doctor close in the gap in an instant.

“Tch.”

[Dark Dimension]

Darkness took over the space they were in.

Either way, not caring, the doctor laughed.

“Kuahahahah! Dieeee!”

Tentacles wrapped around his right arm.

And then suddenly the size of the tentacles began to grow as they came to crush Jamie.

Jamie didn’t look away from his opponent.

It wasn’t difficult to dodge as the tentacles were huge and slow. The question was how to counterattack it.

‘The tentacles are protecting him like armor.’

The tentacles from the left arm wrapped around the doctor’s body in a spherical shape.

Considering the tentacles’ defence, it would be impossible to break them.

‘For now, I will avoid it.’

A huge shadow covered Jamie.

And his tiny body sank into it

Bang!!!

The ground cracked, and trees were scattered in all directions.

The doctor clenched his tongue and once again released the tentacles.

“Dark Magician bastard!”

The only thing he was doing was dodging. But the doctor had enough of it.

The corner of his mouth rose.

A blue light flashed in his eyes. It was nothing special. It was nothing but mana. However, that was all that was needed to see the world in a new color.

“Should I go for one, one after another?”

He didn’t want to simply kill the one who was making him angry. He wanted Jamie to be in pain, excruciating pain. Little by little, making Jamie beg for his life.

And for him to act like he would give him mercy.

“Yeah!”

The doctor yelled out.

Despair is born in hope.

“You will never run away.”

The obnoxious black space looked dangerous, but Jamie’s movements have been overlooked.

The doctor smiled and moved the tentacles again.

Each tentacle kept going to a different place, all drawing a line.

Before long, a completely continuous line was drawn.

Huge hexahedron.

“Tentacle Magic.”

[Tentacle Hurricane]

Hundreds of tentacles swirled around in a giant magic circle made of tentacles.

Jamie fell from where he was hiding.

“Damn magic!”

Jamie looked at the gigantic magic which could rip through the forest.

The storm of tentacles wiped out parts of the forest without a trace.