“AAAGH!” Erenduill screamed in agony whereas he desperately clutched his chest and scratched my foot in desperation.

Bizarre. I did not really feel pity for him. If I used to be in his place, certainly I would not be pitying myself, too. In any case, we had been each preventing for our personal trigger, proper? It needs to be logical to face the results, each good and dangerous.

I stared down at him with a chilly gaze, very contrasting together with his face that adorned this mixture of ache, panic, and… Concern.

Huh, though I did not really feel sorry for him, not even one bit, I wasn’t precisely completely satisfied watching him undergo, too. It was simply… It felt pure that in a battle, there can be a winner and a loser. Or possibly simply losers on each ends.

Properly, Eli disagreed with me on that facet, although. He believed {that a} battle may very well be settled with none profitable or shedding facet… Perhaps sooner or later I’d perceive. However for somebody like me who grew up only for the sake of my nation’s victory, it was exhausting for me to think about a battle the place there was no profitable or shedding facet. Both one misplaced, or each misplaced.

I let loose a brief sigh as I reminisced about Eli for only one second. I ponder once I would meet him once more? Was he even here–

“Get off me!” The elf king out of the blue shouted as he gasped for air and pulled out his dagger.

“Okay.” I swiftly pulled my heel out of his chest, dodging his slash as recent blood spurted out of his chest like a fountain.

“Kkh–!” He reflexively pressed the gaping wound on his chest, as if making an attempt to cowl the wound and cease the huge bleeding, however with minimal success.

‘STAB!’

“What occurred? Are you that nervous that you simply forgot you should not pull out in case of a stab wound?” I smirked, mocking him whereas I stomped my sharp ice heel on each his hand and chest this time, “right here, let me plug your arteries up once more. Aren’t I so good and obedient, pulling out whenever you instructed me to and plugging your wound again up whenever you’re gushing out blood?”

“You are… Mistaken in case you… Assume you’ve got succeeded!” He yelled in-between his heavy respiration, whereas he charged up his inexperienced ball utilizing his different hand.

“Am I?” I waved my hand and picked up an unconscious elf utilizing my psychokinesis, earlier than slamming his physique on Erenduill’s inexperienced ball, ripping the poor elf aside. Whoa, I forgot that the ball was too highly effective for a mere elf knight. Sorry, useless elf man. I forgot that you simply had been weak. Press F to pay respect.

“Come up, my monsters!” He yelled on the high of his lungs, which caught me off-guard.

Did he nonetheless have monsters in retailer? The place? What monsters?

‘ROAAR!’

Ah, geez. Annoying.

I clicked my tongue once I noticed a mess of mini blackies–mini tree monsters began to sprout and emerge from the bottom. Did he slaughter a whole race of tree buddies and stored them as his summons? Or contracted companions, or no matter?

Ugh, no selection then. I had to–

“Chae! We’ll maintain the monsters!” Jeanne’s voice startled me, who was simply beginning to make an ice sword out of my magic to start out slaughtering the mini timber.

“Sure, massive sister Chae! Please go away this to us!” Firiell additionally chimed in, which shocked me. I did not anticipate she might sustain with us.

I smiled, glad that they had been my subordinates.

“Seems prefer it’s simply you and me, then.” I stared again at Erenduill, who was beginning to look paler, method paler than his already pearly-white complexion.

“… I alone am sufficient to defeat you.” He scoffed and began to cost his inexperienced ball once more.

‘STAB!’

“Ah ah, it will be a waste to only throw this ice sword, you already know? So let me use it as soon as, okay?” I stated as I stabbed his wrist till his ball of inexperienced mana-thingy began to dim. Though my ice sword instantly broke, understandably so, too, because it wasn’t made by Koji, not less than it weakened him a bit.

‘BAM!’

He launched the ball unto me regardless, which hit me straight in my chest.

“Hmm, since when did you get this weak?” I smirked and taunted him, “see? I did not even take one step backwards.” I pointed in the direction of myself with confidence.

“Kkh–!”

I smiled as I noticed his eyes widen, his brow stuffed with sweat and his tooth gritting in anger… If solely he knew that that shit hurrrrttttt mannnn. Actually, the influence was nonetheless enormous despite the fact that he was already weakened. I managed to carry my place by hitting myself within the again utilizing my psychokinesis, thus serving to me to not get blown away.

However maaaaan, now each my chest and again harm! Ugh, I needed to weep however I needed to maintain again and seem unbothered to use psychological stress. I swear, they higher let me go to a spa in any case this bother…!

“Alright, time to essentially finish this.” I glared down at him, whereas deepening my heel stab.

“Ugh– Wh–“

“Freeze.”

‘CRACKLE!’

My eyes stared straight at him with out blinking, not even as soon as. I used to be in excessive focus, concentrating to muster my strongest, most managed magic to date. I directed my mana in the direction of the ice on my heel, flowing it naturally and easily.

Because the ice on my heel began to increase, freezing his hand, after which his chest, his pores and skin, muscle, and at last, coronary heart.

‘Crackle, crackle!’

“Hoo…” I inhaled deeply whereas I focused on my ice magic. I might sense the place every ice shard appeared and prolonged, and I might even really feel his muffled heartbeat, courtesy of his timeless, unrelenting coronary heart that was nonetheless making an attempt its greatest to maintain its proprietor’s life.

“Gah–!” He took one lengthy gasp, and stared at me with horror, till just a few teardrops appeared on the nook of his eyes.

I frowned upon the sight. Had been these tears of ache? Of concern, maybe, since he was dying? … Or had been these tears of remorse? However remorse of what?

… Though I understood that it was none of my enterprise, I nonetheless felt somewhat need to grasp him, to grasp what precisely introduced him up to now. Maybe it had been a foul behavior of me for a very long time, however I used to be at all times interested in my enemies’ ‘why’ and ‘how’.

Oh properly, it was in all probability already too late. In any case, what might one do with a frozen coronary heart? Even when he managed to kill me proper this second someway, he would nonetheless die of blood loss or an infection or one thing. It was a need to grasp that would not be fulfilled, anyway.

… Wait, no.

A frozen coronary heart, precisely. The crest needs to be okay despite the fact that it was frozen, proper? Nice, guess it was time to grab one other crest… However ought to I threat my life for an additional crest?

“Cease struggling. It may be extra painful for you in case you accomplish that.” I crouched down, lessening the gap between us. Me with my heel on high of his chest, and him, half-dying, mendacity sprawled beneath me.

“E… Eli… Cough–!”

“What..?” My ears twitched and my eyes went huge upon listening to the phrase that had simply left his mouth. Did I mishear? Did he actually simply say–

“Elias… That man will certainly… Discover you… And he’ll kill you.” He continued with heavy breathings.

For a second, I felt like I had frozen even time itself.

My coronary heart raced on the point out of him. What kind of relationship did they’ve? Since when did they know one another? The place was Eli proper now? … And would he actually kill me?

‘Crackle!’

“Aghh–!”

“What have you learnt about that man!?” I yelled at him and grabbed his collar in frustration as my chest huffed and puffed.

“You two… Know one another?” He requested whereas elevating his eyebrow, wanting genuinely confused, earlier than out of the blue smirking, “hmph. You are each people… And but… An elf like me is aware of extra… Than you do. People positive are unusual.”

‘SMACK!’

“Do not speak like you already know all the pieces.” My face scrunched up in annoyance, whereas he simply stared again at me with chilly, dying eyes after I slapped his cheek. Now, I used to be the unstable one as an alternative of him.

“Do you have got the appropriate… To say that regardless of not… Understanding his purpose?” Erenduill requested together with his fading voice.

… His purpose?

In fact I knew his purpose. I knew what he needed, what he was preventing for, and even right down to his battle to attain them.

However, Erenduill was proper.

That was Eli from just a few years again.

Not this one, the one who did not even acknowledge me.

I bit my lip in frustration for not with the ability to settle for that truth, and unleashed my frustration by bursting out my ice magic till his whole trunk and abdomen froze.

“… I do not take heed to final phrases.” I bitterly stated to Erenduill, as my eyebrows knotted right into a frown, and my imaginative and prescient blurred due to the tears that had been beginning to properly in my eyes.

“Ship my regards to… Elias. That human… I wish to see his dream come to fruition.” Erenduill closed his eyes, and smiled.

At that second, he resembled a child to me. Sleeping so peacefully, as if he did not even know what the phrase ‘drawback’ meant. As if the darkness and luxury of sleeping had been the most secure, the perfect locations to be… As if he wasn’t obligated to maintain himself anymore.

“Kkh–!” I frowned as my nostril began to show pink, and prolonged my ice all the way in which as much as his head, with my ice preserving his peaceable expression completely and immaculately.

I bent down, till it was low sufficient for me to achieve his ear, and whispered,

“…I envy you.”

As anticipated, there was no response from the frozen king. His peaceable expression was nonetheless unchanging. Good. I did not need him to listen to this, and but… I felt like I wanted to get this off of my chest.

I leaned again, my face only some centimeters away from his.

“… I actually, actually envy you.”

Drops of tears began falling on high of the ice adorning his stunning face, each glimmering beneath the light moonlight from above. How unfitting. My tears regarded so misplaced on high of his tranquil expression.

Whereas holding again my sobbing, I clenched my fists.

“… Rattling it.”