40. Monster (part 1)

Character : Felicia Fiore, Monster

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One by one, I woke everybody up.

All it took was for me to touch their heads with my thumb, then I transferred my dark fire origin to my thumb that is touching their heads. I made sure that the fire is by no means hot at all, and only moves the darkness attribute that exists within the dark fire. 

As a result, it allows me to communicate with them inside their nightmares, telling them what they're seeing is only fake.

After only ten seconds for each person, everyone woke up. It took a while for them to recover from the nightmare they just had, and whilst they recovered, their eyes watched the battle between the fire and void that was happening at the other side of the room.

BOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PRANGG!!!!!!

PRANNGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By himself, Nathan is facing the ruler of the dark republic, 'Zero', and even pushes him to give his all.

The dark republic president Zero uses two longswords on both hands, one colored black and the other colored white. His use of the darkness origin was the best that has ever been displayed in front of me. He creates shadow walls in mere milliseconds, and his creativity with the creations were worlds beyond anything I've ever seen.

The shadow tails, dark walls, he also has the ability to merge with the ground and ceilings thanks to the darkness shapeshift technique. And for some reason, it felt like there are more to his abilities than what he is showing now.

I realized that Nathan is truly giving his all, but he is being careful as to not cause too much explosion in this underground laboratory. We don't know what the blue liquid is on the left wall of the tubes, and we don't know how deep we are underground. If he causes explosions unnecessarily, not only are we going to be affected, but the ceilings could collapse.

After waking the last person up, I turned my focus back to Nathan and Zero and ran after them. The two were fighting in such a high speed combat, and I found myself a small gap between Zero's shadow tails. Very quickly, I threw a dark fire wave at him, and Zero quickly lifted a dark wall to protect himself.

BOOOMMM!!!!!!!

And yet, for whatever reason, the dark wall shattered. My dark flame wave exploded right in front of his face. 

"Gaaahh!!!!--" Zero shouted from the dark fire melting his helmet, and he hurriedly took them off.

Nathan used this chance to leap forward and swung his fiery sword. His sword grazed his body easily, and Zero shouted from pain once more. He jumped back while holding his burned face, and he stared with cold menacing eyes at us.

The black knight is now standing right before the giant tank that is filled with the bright blue liquid. We still do not know what the liquid does, so I should be careful.

I prepared myself for another fire wave at him, but Nathan seemed to be frozen on the spot. I turned to him and realized he was facing the black knight with shock, possibly because he recognized his face.

The black knight has taken off his helmet. The left side of his face was badly burned from my dark fire wave, but the other half was still healthy and handsome. And seeing his face, Nathan must've recognized them.

"Nathan?" I asked him because he was too shocked to say anything, but he finally spoke his mind.

"Headmaster…?" Nathan muttered the word, and the black knight only grinned at him.

"So you've seen this face before…" The black knight mumbled, and Nathan's confusion tripled.

H-Headmaster...? Who--

"Headmaster Hendrick!?" From behind, the others began to arrive. At the very front, Miss Hilda, who is the vice headmaster, looked like she just saw a ghost, and the academy students were also quite shocked.

Looks like this face is quite famous within the academy. I don't quite get it, but it must be because we are facing the headmaster of the academy of Ellennoire… or not?

"Sadly, this isn't a reunion for you related to the academy. I know none of your faces." Zero said to everyone who was from the academy, and now I understand the situation.

"Twins?" I asked Nathan, and he shook his head.

"I heard twins, no matter who the parents were, will always have the same origin..." Nathan mumbled, and Miss Hilda agreed.

"That's right. If they're twins, then they will have the same origin no matter what. And based on his face, it doesn't look like they're merely twins. Even his hair style looked the same." Miss Hilda even analyzed Zero's face.

Since the battle seemed to be halted, Zero took off his combat pose because everyone seemed to be asking questions from him. And seeing this act of his, Nathan decided to grab this chance.

BOOM!!!!!!

SHRESHH!!!!!!!

In an instant, Nathan arrived right in front of the black knight. He used the technique that I taught him, the micro explosions movement right below his feet, to move very quickly towards Zero. His blazing sword slashed Zero's chest widely, spurting blood all over the place.

"Whoever you are! You are dead!" Nathan shouted as he charged up more fire energy to his sword, and he swung them downwards.

For a split second, I saw Zero moving his sword to block Nathan's move, and I was already right next to him to stop the sword.

FTANGG!!!!

I smacked the sword away just in time when Nathan lowered his sword. Everything happened in a split half a second, and Nathan's blazing sword has now made its way to Zero's face without any obstruction.

BOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The powerful explosion caused by his sword swing threw me backwards. I jumped back and wiped the dirt from my face, and Lily arrived next to me to see if I'm okay.

"I'm okay. I have immunity to heat." I said to Lily, and I approached the smoke once again.

As the smoke clears, everyone can see the results well. Nathan is now standing with his right left foot above Zero's bleeding chest, and a massive slash wound was found on his neck all the way to his left jaw. Nathan's swing really wounded him on the neck, so it seems like this is it for the black knight.

"You've grown… so strong…" Zero muttered while coughing blood, and Nathan only stared down at him coldly.

"And you are much weaker than I expected." Nathan replied with his genuine thoughts, and I too find this is quite odd.

From what I've heard, the Fiore village is the strongest human settlement in Avenor. The average combat abilities of the people is more or less similar to elite knights from other kingdoms. Their leader, my father and teacher, holds the knight general position within the Fiordall kingdom's military. Their bloodline is said to be purer compared to Fiordall's royalty.

And yet, a monster came and rampaged on the same village, and he killed everyone. Every single combatant, all by one enemy. To think that such a powerful monster is now lying underneath Nathan's shoes like this.

Something is off. Zero might not be the one who massacred the village. And yet, he knew so much about me and the village itself.

"Why did you come and massacred my home village?" Nathan asked one more time with such a cold tone, and Zero only formed a grin.

"Like I said… it was for sport!" He said with such a genuine smile, but Nathan isn't buying it.

"You think you can fool me with such a reasoning?" Nathan once again asked coldly, but he also lowered the tip of his blade. Pretty soon, the tip will touch the wound on Zero's neck, and he might just end Zero right there.

"Hahaha! You're smart! In that case… will you spare me if I tell you?" Zero asked with such an annoying grin, and everyone knew that Nathan isn't ever going to let him go.

"I'll forgive you if you can give me a good enough reason." Nathan said to him, and we all know that there could be no good reasoning for murdering an entire village.

However… that is the reality and truth.

"In that case, let me tell you about a prophecy that came a thousand years ago." Zero said with such a serious tone, and Nathan looked like he was disgusted.

"… Nope. Not buying it." He lifted his sword and got ready to stab.

"Wait! Wait! Wait! I'm being serious! A child of the fire origin will one day unleash the apocalypse!! That is the truth!!" Zero tried his best to keep Nathan from killing him, and Nathan only looked so confused.

"And you think I'd just believe that?"

"The child will bear the strongest flame to ever exist! The 'Hell' fire! And he will melt the ice that has frozen the beast of apocalypse! Please trust me!" Zero sounded like he was repeating the story from a children's fantasy book or something.

Very quickly, I had a thought.

"This?" I lifted my hand and created a black fireball above my fingers. "This is the hell fire you meant?"

"What!? No, that's an insult to the real hell fire! The true hell fire is colored green!" Zero said angrily at me, and I only became annoyed at hearing him talk.

"Can we just get rid of him and talk to the headmaster?" Lily said next to me, and I can't help but agree.

Nathan turns his gaze back to Zero, and he is more than ready to lower his blade. "Any last thoughts before we go to the headmaster?"

Zero knew that he was going to die here, so he only tried his best to look around. He then decided to say one more line aloud.

"Uh… Don't kill me?"

JREBB!!!

Very easily, Nathan just landed his sword deep underneath his neck. Blood spurted out from the wound, and he pulled it out once the kill was confirmed.

"I don't like this." I said aloud, and everyone turned their eyes to me. "He was so calm, even when he knew he was about to die."

Everyone agreed to my words, and we all just turned our eyes back to the dead body. Zero is still there, not moving, so we can't really tell what's going on.

"Maybe we should--"

ZRIIINNNGGG!!!!!!!!

In an instant, a bright golden light appeared right where Zero's body was at. Nathan's words were cut off, and he jumped away from the burning light that somehow appeared. Everyone else also prepared themselves for what was about to come, and the blinding light finally died down after a while.

Standing right next to the dead body is the golden knight. If I recall, he is one of the elite knights amongst the dark republic. The light origin, 'Two'.

"He is 'Two'!! Jonah!!" Nathan shouted, and Jonah angrily started rushing ahead. Everyone else too started running forward, but it seems like our opponent has no intention of holding back.

Two lifted his hand forward, and a powerful pressure can be felt in an instant.

"Everyone dodge!!!" I shouted, and Lily next to me reacted just as fast.

Lily used her water origin to cast many water tentacles very quickly, and she grabbed ahold of all the legs from the ones who were jumping forward. Once she grabbed them, she pulled very quickly, and the beam of light was released.

VWOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The light beam was massive, and it truly did not feel like a light beam at all. Everyone simply lied down on the floor to avoid the deadly light beam. After a while, the light beam disappeared, and we all noticed how bright the world has become.

The light beam was aimed upwards behind us, and it pierced through the ground until it finally reached the surface. This underground laboratory turns out wasn't as deep as I thought, and we can see the skies from the hole that was formed only ten meters away on the walls behind us.

Seeing such a massive and powerful light beam, everyone became massively terrified. That beam was truly deadly, and Jonah, Nathan, and a few other soldiers who jumped forward would've died if it wasn't for Lily.

We… need to get out. We can't win this fight.