Chapter 54 – Between Hope and Despair (6)

“I’m sorry…” Aleen heard the girl speak.

With a weak voice and tears in her eyes, Aleen saw how the girl used her, still useful, hand to grab the scythe-like claw of the monster.

Aleen could not understand.

Why did she stop the attack in his place? Why did she sacrifice her life for him?

Seeing the tearful face of the girl, Aleen felt a strong pain in his heart, and his face contorted.

But before he could speak, the monster retracted its claw.

The girl, however, did not let go of it. Due to it, her body was brought together with the claw towards the monster's mouth.

Turning towards Aleen briefly, she smiled sadly and then looked to the monster again. Its face was big and ugly, and its jaws were opened like a spider, waiting to devour her.

But before it could eat her body, she opened her mouth.

Then, she screamed.

And her skill was activated for the last time.

Many things happened at that instant.

Firstly, the monster was stunned briefly by Ana’s skill. Despite being of a level much higher than her, the monster could not resist completely the stun when it received Ana’s shout at point-blank.

Secondly, the entrance of the nest was destroyed, and D’vina, Caira, and Cir fell from the roof towards the center of the room together with the level five queen. Despite it, they were unable to reach them before the level four monster gets rid of the stun and kills Aleen and Elvila.

And lastly, lightning appeared around Aleen.

Maybe it was because Aleen had been trying to activate his skill desperately all this time, but it came out of cooldown a bit earlier than normal.

When Elvila noticed it, she made one last bet and activated her second skill.

At that moment, Aleen felt a great amount of mana flowing towards him, but he ignored it.

He ignored the four level five falling from the entrance of the nest, and even the lightning coursing through his body.

At that moment, he only wanted to do something.

… He wanted to kill this monster.

So, when he saw Ana activating his skill, he instinctively took a step forward.

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!”

His body moved a great speed, and he appeared before the monster in an instant.

With all his strength, Aleen sent all the mana in his body and the surroundings inside his sword and thrust it forward.

But at that moment, he saw the monster moving.

Despite suffering from Ana’s stun, the monster was able to react when facing Aleen’s extreme speed.

It was not enough to activate a skill or move its body away, but it could at least to use its mana to defend against Aleen's attack.

But despite it, Aleen continued thrusting his sword.

He ignored everything, and his mind stopped thinking. The only thing in his mind was how to kill the monster before him.

And the lighting inside him gave him the answer.

At the instant when the sword touched the monster’s eye, a thin barrier of mana appeared, but it only stopped the sword for an instant.

Because at the next moment, all the lightning inside Aleen’s body rushed towards the sword.

Like a railgun, the great amount of lightning accelerated the sword to an impossible speed, creating a blinding light that illuminated the surroundings.

It was a crude use of his skill, only possible due to the immense amount of mana granted to him by Elvila’s second skill.

But in this situation, it was more than enough.

Before the monster could react, the sword of lightning went through its eye, and destroyed its brain, killing it instantly.

A second later, the sound of thunder filled the room.

When the light from the skill finally disappeared, Aleen stood before the monster with his hand extended. His face was expressionless, but filled with sadness, and the sword in his hand had disappeared.

Before the people on the surroundings could understand what happened, the level four monster fell to the ground.

Aleen finally reacted when he heard the sound of the monster collapsing.

Quickly, he ran towards the claw that was impaling Ana. His body stumbled due to the lack of strength, but he ignored it and continued running.

There, he saw her smiling softly.

With blood flowing from her lips, Ana looked towards Aleen and opened her mouth.

“It was a beautiful light.” She said, so softly that Aleen found hard to heard her voice.

Aleen only smiled back sadly.

Looking to her body, he knew that she did not have any possibilities of surviving.

The monster had crushed her heart completely and destroyed many of her internal organs. The only reason that she was still alive was thanks to her willpower.

But even it was becoming to fade.

Aleen came near her and lowered his body. Kneeling before her, he grabbed softly her hand and asked with a sad tone.

“… Why did you do it?”

Ana simply closed her eyes when she heard his question.

Then, with the most beautiful smile that Aleen had always seen in his life, she looked towards the light coming from the destroyed entrance and spoke.

“You know, it feels like crap when you abandon someone… I don’t want to feel like that again… I don't want to leave behind the man that saved my life...”

Aleen closed his eyes and bit his lips when he heard it.

When he opened his eyes again, he heard Ana speak for the last time.

“... You know, I wanted to see my parents again…”

And then, she fell silent forever.

Ana was Aleen’s first friend inside Dimensional Paradise.

And she also was the first one that he saw die.

During the entire time, Aleen did not shed even a tear.