The Path of Ruin

A blue sword flew out of his sight with a speed that even Kael had difficulty seeing.

The spear that was about to pierce his skull suddenly snapped, and the eyes of the man holding it widened.

Kael quickly squinted. He could feel the eon moving behind the tree, exactly where the old man had been.

Using his ability only on the man in front of him, he removed his own presence, moving behind him as fast as he could at the same time. Then... another wave of hot air blew over him.

The man's body, accompanied by his screams, shielded him from the hot air. And as the attack passed them by, Kael kicked him hard in the head.

He didn't have time to wait a second. So without even checking if he was dead, he turned his eyes to the old man... and used his ability once again.

The last time, the old man had managed to block his ability because there were too many targets for him and he had to divide the eon.

Now he targeted only him, pouring his eon all over him.

And even though the old man tried to block his ability again, he only half succeeded.

Kael's image fogged up before his eyes, almost disappearing.

But he didn't care much about that.

Things were getting troublesome now. He had to take these two brats much more seriously. Having lost so many men, he couldn't afford to lose any more!

'Where's the second one?'

Out of the corner of his eye, he looked back for less than a second. The blue-haired brat was fighting with other two Bearers. And it wasn't as if he had an overwhelming advantage. On the contrary, his situation did not look particularly good.

'Then I can focus on the one in front of me!'

He turned back in front of him, his eyes on the blur that was already moving towards him.

'He wields a dagger, and his physique is much weaker than mine. I can finish him off in one blow.'

His speed was a bit of a problem, yes...

But all he needed was one blow.

He used his ability, sending the hot air into the blur. But this time, instead of staying where he was, he pushed himself a little and followed his ability, attacking himself.

The blur... avoided the wave of hot air by throwing himself quickly to the left. But that was exactly why the old man was on the move!

He swung his axe at a diagonal angle towards where Kael had dodged the attack. But the blur, Kael, was fast. He managed to avoid the axe by quickly stepping backwards.

The old man pointed his hand at him, sending another wave of hot air close by.

Kael ducked as far as he could, even laying himself almost completely on the ground. In this way... he dodged the old man's ability once more.

But... now that he was lying on the ground, he was quite vulnerable.

The old man turned his axe over and swung it at the blur that lay beneath his feet. This time, his attack would reach him, he had nowhere to run!

At least he thought so.

Because, as the axe was closing in on him at full speed, Kael wrapped his feet around the man's legs and, supported by them, spun himself sideways around him.

As soon as the axe cut where he had just been, he leaped to his feet and tried to drive his daggers into the old man's back...

But then he saw the palm facing him, hidden under the man's armpit, and his eyes widened.

He loaded his arms with as much eon as he could and quickly pulled them in front of him, ducked his head, and threw himself aside.

He had managed to act fast, yes...

But this time, his evasion of the attack was not perfect.

The heat wave permeated his arms, if only for a second. He felt his hair burning, his skin almost shriveling. The hot air was going to pass through the gaps between his fingers and arms and seep into his whole body... and in fact, it did a little.

But just then, Kael managed to get out of the path of the attack. He quickly put distance between himself and the old man and checked his condition.

There were burns on his arms that looked quite large. Part of the piece of cloth he was wearing was blackened by the heat, almost to the point of burning, but... it wasn't as bad as he thought.

As he checked himself... the old man pulled his axe out of the ground and smiled broadly.

"I told you, you will die."

The blur whose figure he couldn't quite make out... didn't give him any answer.

The old man suddenly felt all his senses strangely jumbled.

'Does he still have eons left?!

He was aware that Kael's ability should consume eon like crazy. But... Kael kept using it over and over again!

His opponent's eon reserves were... truly staggering.

He paused, realizing that even though all of his senses were going crazy... one of them was actually not affected at all.

And that sense was... the sense of touch.

He could feel his clothes, the light wind against them, the slight warmth of the sunlight, and more... he could feel them all.

'Behind me!'

As soon as he felt the change behind him, he contracted all his arm muscles, turning his axe behind him as fast as he could while using... his blessing.

The function of his blessing was a bit... complicated.

It multiplied the momentary force of all objects he touched according to their momentum.

In short, the more instantaneous the speed of his axe, the greater his explosive power. And to facilitate this, his agility increased with every second he used his blessing.

It was a pretty decent blessing for someone with a built body like his.

The only problem was... the greater the force his grace multiplied, the more eon it absorbed.

That's why he always saved his blessing for the final attack and used it as a surprise at the last moment.

'He is done!'

The swing of his axe and the spinning of it happened almost simultaneously. Only a handful of Pursuers, let alone Followers, could have seen that attack!

And Kael couldn't see it either, of course.

Even though his attack was instantaneous, the old man could feel the body his axe sliced through. And as he completed his attack... there was indeed a blur before his eyes.

A blur split in two.

"Heh."

He took a step backwards to keep his axe steady, realizing that the fingers holding the handle were red from the sheer force, but he didn't care.

Slowly, his senses returned to him. Slowly, the blur hiding his opponent disappeared...

"I told yo-"

But then he swallowed his words.

His eyes widened in an instant.

The blur he had sliced in half with his axe... was not his opponent.

It was his ally, the Bearer whose head was missing.

He looked around quickly, trying to protect himself. He tried to see Kael, to understand where he was.

And he saw him... collapsed on the ground not far from him.

Kael was gasping for breath. The glint in his eyes had completely disappeared, back to their original color of brown.

'Did he run out of eon...?'

The old man narrowed his eyes. Unsure if this was also a trick, he kept his axe in an alert position, ready to attack and defend himself at any moment.

"Now... what are you planning, brat?"

Kael raised his eyes slowly, meeting his. Then he let out a deep sigh and dropped himself to the ground.

"I'm not planning anything, I'm out of eon."

If he really ran out of eon... then his chances of winning were zero now.

The fight between them was already over.

And he had... accepted that?

"Look behind, idiot.."

The old man's eyes widened at the voice behind him. He turned his eyes back and found the blue-haired young man, Matthew, in front of him, holding a blue sword.

Behind him, where he had just fought, both Bearers lay motionless on the floor.

'Are they... already dead?'

He tried to defend himself with his axe, using his blessing one last time to finish Matthew off with an unexpected block followed by a quick counterattack.

But then, his whole body stiffened. The pain he felt in the back of his head made the whole world blur and all the power drained from his body.

"You idiot, who do you think you turned your back on?"

Kael's voice echoed in his ears.

The moment the old man had turned to Matthew... he had thrown one of his daggers right at his head.

But he didn't even understand what had happened. Chapter Read:

Because the next moment, Matthew's sword severed his head from his body... and he collapsed to the ground just like that.

"Huuuuuh..."

Kael took a deep breath, his brown eyes fixed on Matthew.

"So... only two Bearers were enough to challenge you that much?"

Matthew threw his sword over his shoulder and smiled.

"Believe me, they both had the most frustrating blessings I've ever encountered."

Then he held out his hand to his friend on the ground.

Kael rolled his eyes as he gladly accepted the hand and stood up.

"Keep making excuses."

Matthew said nothing. Kael, meanwhile, stretched as he stood up, causing a few of the bones in his back to crackle. Then he turned his eyes to the trees in the forest.

"Let's be quick, we need to rescue the nobles. There shouldn't be many of the gang left after the ones we killed here."

Then he paused, his brow furrowing as a thought occurred to him.

"Wait... Did we kill the regular guards whose feet you cut off?"

Matthew just stood there, frozen in place.

"I guess... no?"

And Kael let out a much deeper sigh this time.

"I'll have to... search the forest a bit, then."

It didn't matter if they lived or died, actually.

But... when he had the opportunity to feed his curse for free, why would he pass it up?

"You head towards the nobles. I'll be right behind you."

And, strangely enough, Matthew didn't question him and nodded his head.

"Fine by me."