Harvy stood frozen in shock at the sudden death of Aileen. Sure, he knew that one of them might die but after they refused to release his mana shackles he reasoned that he would be the one.

And he actually hadn’t noticed the guard was still alive. The man played dead so well. Even without Agnes urging him to heal Aileen, he continuously tried but the spell could not bring the dead back to life. Healing touch was a spell that worked to restore and was efficient for anything that wasn’t life threatening and amputations.

For example, Agnes’ injury when she fought Noet. It looked big but wasn’t life threatening in the slightest. Yes, she’d bleed to death after like 2 or so hours but that wasn’t counted as life threatening so it helped. And the spell also worked slowly. One cast wasn’t going to solve anything except if it was a cut from chopping onions or something.

He slowly recovered from his frozen state and gave a silent prayer to Nerphia for her. He glanced at Noet who finished what he was doing with Agnes.

Harvy felt like the relationship between them had changed ever since that day. He’d only seem them interact for minutes and he could figure that out.

He narrowed his eyes at the sobbing Agnes and the thought that he could kill her now and she wouldn’t even be able to defend herself crept into his mind. Once the thought surfaced, he couldn’t remove it.

He glanced at Noet who was in thought and figured he’d give it a try. He didn’t have to lose much, anyways. If he kept going with them, they’d surely kill him when his use ran dry. Now that Aileen was dead, their whole team had nobody to hold them together. She, Bertha and May were the only reason why Harvy stayed in this group. And all three were dead.

He had grown fond of Agnes after a while but that quickly turned to hate when he discovered what she really was. He felt completely betrayed and appalled to find out she was a demon, half or not.

And it was no secret that he disliked Noet so sticking together with these two wasn’t going to amount to anything but his demise, Harvy decided.

He muttered the spell for air rocket and watched as it snaked towards Agnes unnoticed. At least he thought it was unnoticed until a spear appeared in its path. The spear shattered but that done its job as the swiftly moving ball of air missed Agnes by a hair’s breadth boring a hole into the wall instead.

Harvy looked up to see a furious Noet and he sighed inwardly, glancing at Agnes. Like he thought, she didn’t notice anything. Still in her own world.

Noet gripped the spear in his hand tightly then suppressing his anger, let it drop to the ground. He moved towards Harvy, who didn’t even bother to look guilty and grabbed him by the throat then slammed him into the ground.

“I see you have nothing better to do” Noet snarled.

“Did you really think I was just going to sit and accept all this bullshit?” Harvy spat in his face.

“You… do you really want to be stuck here?” Noet asked.

“Honestly no. But I’d rather be stuck here than be an accomplice to freeing a demon” Harvy retorted.

Noet strengthened the choke on Harvy’s neck until the boy began to cough and wheeze. To which Noet just sighed and let go.

He glanced at the shattered mana shackled and cursed inwardly at Agnes’ emotional actions. He grabbed Harvy by the shirt and walked away. The boy wasn’t even struggling.

Honestly, even if he did, nothing would come out of it. Harvy had been fortunate to fight against Noet before and he would like to keep that memory exactly where it was- in the recesses of his mind.

Noet walked on until he found a suitable place after which he simply flung Harvy down.

“Wait…” Harvy had said when he realized what Noet was about to do, “No. Noet….”

He was already falling before he finished speaking. Noet waited till he heard a thud then he left.

He could help but think of how terrible everything was going. He hoped that the disturbance in the city wasn’t subdued yet or else he was royally screwed.

He walked back into the archway to see Agnes sitting upright and staring at Aileen’s dead boy. She turned around at the sound of his footsteps and Noet froze mid-step. Her eyes were no longer all blue like they were minutes ago. One of her eyes had turned purple.

He wondered if it was a permanent change but otherwise said nothing of it.

“Let’s go” he said and she nodded, getting up from the floor. She looked almost like she usually did after a battle in the colosseum, Noet noted.

He walked up to the elevator and it opened. He entered it and waited for Agnes to enter but she didn’t move.

“What is it?” he asked holding out his hand so it wouldn’t close.

“Wasn’t there a problem with it being an elevator?” she replied, raising a brow

“Ahaha” Noet gave an embarrassed laugh, “I was a bit confused” he confessed.

She nodded and entered the elevator. It closed after a few seconds and they slowly rose in the air. Neither of them bother to chat. They were on their guard throughout because the moment the elevator opened again, they’d be thrust into battle.

The elevator stopped for a second midair, then swiftly moved to the left, then forwards with such velocity that they almost tumbled forward.

The thing finally stopped and opened. Agnes brandished her claws, covering it with Ki, ready for action while Noe covered his hands with Ki. Their number had dropped from four to two so they were going to have to go all out instead of conserving it like last battle.

The sight that greeted their eyes was outstanding.

A very empty dining hall with no soul in sight. Noet blinked a few times and slowly retracted his Ki, making sure they weren’t just hiding to ambush them first.

His spy had told him that they were in the underground colosseum but he didn’t believe it. It would seem this underground colosseum was more than just a cover for the royal palace’s experiments. The place underground was ginormous and had definitely taken years and lots of money to build.

“So…” Agnes finally spoke. She was still on guard, her Ki shining brightly over her claws.

“It would seem we’ve been unnoticed so far…” Noet said uncertainly.

“That’s impossible. Or was that place completely unmonitored?” Agnes was confused.

“I don’t think… actually, let’s get out of here”

Agnes nodded to that and the two quickly left the colosseum through the elevators that took them to the arena.

The arena was completely empty and the rotten smell of dead bodies and blood assaulted their noses.

“Oh my fucking Bermia!” Agnes exclaimed holding her nose, “Did they leave all this shit for days?”

“Apparently” Noet nodded stoically and moved towards the audience seat, “Follow me”. He jumped over the platform that separated the arena from the audience and his feet landed on something soft. He didn’t even bother to look down but he cringed, “That is disgusting”

“This is the epitome of laziness. Oh my fucking! EW!” Agnes exclaimed as she jumped after him. No one would actually believe this was the same girl sobbing madly earlier.

“Let’s keep going” he closed his eyes and grudgingly opened them again. Agnes followed him as he walked downstairs… oh wow, there was a stairs. She hadn’t noticed that before. Well, even though it was her second time in the audience seat, the first time she wasn’t exactly in her right mind.

Come to think of it, she’d never actually been able to see the audience leave. No, no one underground have ever stayed to watch them leave.

“This is usually covered with an illusion spell” Noet suddenly said, bringing her out of her thoughts, “Even on the day you went mad, the illusion spell was present”

“I didn’t go mad” Agnes refuted him.

“Well, I think you did”.

“No. I could just barely myself. I did not go mad”

“My nose is closed and I can barely breathe, Agnes. Can we not have this discussion?” he replied.

She grudgingly shut up.

“Anyways, the illusion spell is down now but as far as you knew where it is the illusion spell doesn’t really matter” Noet finished what he was saying earlier.

“I can’t believe Aileen’s gone” Agnes said suddenly.

“… Well, she is” Noet said crisply.

Agnes glanced at him but didn’t say anything else. She shifted her sight to taking in her surroundings. They soon reached a hallway that had other stairs most likely connected to other parts of the colosseum. There were also tables here and there which Agnes wondered what they were for.

They soon reached the brown wooden gate. When Agnes and Noet left the gate, they could feel the air change.

They immediately released their noses and took huge gulps of air.

“Oh sweet fresh air. Thank you goddess” Agnes couldn’t help but cry out happily.

Noet was quiet as he stared at the colosseum behind him. Then he smiled.

“Why did the smell suddenly go away?” Agnes asked. There was no way a simple wooden gate would make the hideous smell of rotten bodies just vanish.

“The royal palace has been quite lazy. They just erected a barrier to keep in the smell and left” Noet clicked his tongue.

Agnes began to nod her head in understanding then she immediately brandished her claws and covered them with Ki, immediately charging towards the area she felt movement.

She grabbed a girl who was trying to hide herself and immediately moved her claw to behead her.

***

King Alejandro drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair as he stared at the golden doors idly. Something seemed to occur to him and he called, “Guard Captain”

One of the gold door moved and a guard, covered in chainmail armor walked in. He didn’t get very far from the doors before he stopped and bowed, “You called for me, Your Majesty”

“What time is it?”

Tanyl was confused as to why the King was asking but answered anyways, “It’s sometime after noon, Sire”

“Then they should have left…” Alejandro muttered.

“Huh? Sorry, I couldn’t pick that up… if you could…” Tanyl bowed.

“Oh” Alejandro made his voice loud enough, “It’s nothing. Gather some boys and go clean up the colosseum. It’s dirty”

“Yes? But Sire you specifically asked us not to cl---” Tanyl began.

“Yes. And I’m asking you to clean it up now” Alejandro interrupted him.

Tanyl was dumbfounded.

“Go” Alejandro waved his hand lazily.

“Yes, Your Majesty” Tanyl bowed again and walked backwards out of the throne room.

***

“Agnes! Stop!” Noet screamed, rushing towards her.

Agnes stopped mid-swing, looking at Noet with a confused expression.

The lady in her arms wiggled free and ran towards Noet, crying, “Leader”

Noet accepted the small woman into his arms and patted her head, “Sorry”

“Leader! My life flashed before my eyes!” she whined.

“Yes, Yes. Sorry” Noet kept patting her head and told Agnes that he would explain later with his eyes.

Agnes just stared at the scene in front of her stunned but said nothing.

The woman was an elf and judging by her sky blue diamond, she wasn’t a high elf.

The woman finally calmed down and threw a glare at Agnes then looked behind Noet for something.

“Huh? Where are there?” the lady was confused about something.

“Ah” Noet scratched his head, “They’re dead… at least I think so”

“Huh?!” the girl exclaimed, “What am I here for then??? I’m missing all the action!”’

“Ha-ha” Noet gave a nervous laugh, “Sorry, Lysa”

Lysa sighed and gestured towards Agnes, “She’s fine, right? You said the blonde doesn’t need anything”

Noet nodded and began the introductions, “Lysa, this is A---”

“Raena” Agnes interrupted him, “I’m Raena”

He looked at her for a while and nodded, “And Raena, this is Lysa”

“It’s not nice to meet you” Lysa smiled at Agnes.

Agnes smiled back, “You too”

The older looking woman’s smile twitched and she looked at Noet, “How many enemies where they that two died?”

“Why is she here?” Agnes asked before Noet could answer.

“30 opponents. One was a mage,” Noet said to Lysa and turned to Agnes, “She is here to remove Aileen and Harvy’s brand”

The eyes Agnes used to look at Lysa couldn’t help but change. This woman was an advanced magus!

“30? That’s smaller than we thought though?”

“I know but circumstances didn’t allow the other two to survive” Noet shook his head.

“Oh well,” Lysa shrugged and turned to Agnes. The words she wanted to say were stuck in her throat as she noticed something odd in the way Agnes looked at her.

Noet noticed something odd too and felt compelled to say, “She is magus”

“Huh? I know” Agnes nodded, “Being an advanced magus is quite impressive. I was just surprised”

But for an advanced magus she was quite easy to kill… almost kill.

“Who is an advanced magus?” Lysa stared at her incredulously.

“You…?” Agnes sensed there was something wrong here.

Lysa burst out laughing, “Well, I’m flattered but no. What gave you that idea?”

“I thought only an advanced magus could clear the brand”

“What? No. Who told you that?” Lysa was stunned.

Luken, Agnes thought but didn’t say. He had said only an advanced magus could remove the spell. Luken himself was one but he didn’t know the spell to remove the brand.

“Perhaps that was the story in the colosseum?” Noet said thoughtfully, “I didn’t realize you thought that. Well, it’s good we cleared that”

“How did you get the spell to remove the brand?” Agnes was curious.

“So inquisitive” Lysa noted, “It’s not really a spell. Brands like that are simply mana weaving”

“Mana weaving?” Agnes was confused.

“Talk later. Let’s go” Noet announced, his eyes fixated at the rising clouds in the distance.

“Impressive isn’t it?” Lysa smirked, “You told Ianan to go big and he went ginormous”

Noet tore his eyes away from the view, “I hope he doesn’t get himself killed”

“He’ll be careful, Leader” Lysa smiled.

“I hope so” Noet nodded, “Let’s go”

They both moved in unison while Agnes followed. Soon they reached 5 brown horses tied to a tree.

Lysa walked up to one, “Go home, Glynn” and then patted another, “You too Flynn”

The two horses neighed and galloped away gathering dust.

Lysa fetched black cloaks from a bag she had slung over her shoulder and gave Noet and Agnes one. They quickly wore it and Noet and Lysa jumped onto one horse and waited for Agnes to do the same.

“I’ve never ridden a horse” Agnes said, as it looked like they hadn’t realized that fact.

“Oh, come sit with me” Noet shifted forward. Agnes nodded and climbed onto his horse.

Lysa reached out and patted the other one, “Sorry, follow the others, Jeon”

The horse neighed in reply and ran off.

“You talk to them?” Agnes was in awe.

“Yes. I have nature affinity” Lysa smiled.

“Nature?” Agnes questioned.

“I told you two to talk later. Please” Noet broke into the conversation that was about to begin.

Agnes knitted her brow. She felt a bit odd being ordered… was it an order?

“Sorry, Leader” Lysa chuckled, “She just has so much enthusiasm”

Noet smiled at that and kicked the horse. It sprang into motion, galloping. And from the sound behind them, Lysa was following quite closely.

Agnes watched as the buildings past her by as they ran. There were people who were a tad stunned at the noise the horse made. Angry shouts for running through the streets but they seemed quite used to seeing horses simply rushing through their streets and they made way with ridiculous speed. One notable thing about them was not a single semi could be seen.

Well, they were going quite fast and Agnes couldn’t see every single person as some were in their buildings but she had an inkling that there probably wasn’t any semi at all. Which meant she hadn’t seen any slaves. It’s not like semis were the only slave candidates. Look at Noet for example, he was a pure human but he’d been in the colosseum as a slave but for some reason no one seemed to have any slave. Or maybe it was just this part of the Kingdom?

Agnes sighed deeply and turned back to look at the thinning colosseum. They had gone quite far and she could barely make out the building in the distance.

She couldn’t help but feel happy and sad that she’d left. The way she departed from the colosseum was definitely not what she envision that she’d have to go through to leave the colosseum.

She knew that Luken had died because of his connection to her and felt very regretful. If only she hadn’t agreed to date him, he’d still be alive.

Images of the people she’d spent the past few years with flashed through her mind. Aileen. May. Bertha. Harvy. Fortren who dies a long time ago. And even Marshall.

She wondered where everything went wrong. She’d been so careful yet…

Bertha and May. She’d personally sent them to meet Yama. A bitter smile floated onto her face. Even though she’d killed them she didn’t feel much then and didn’t feel much now. She had felt terrified of herself at that. Were her emotions getting numb and was she becoming more of a monster?

But her dad wasn’t a monster. Even when he walked around in demonic form he was still kind and handsome. At least she thought he looked handsome. So why was she like this? She at least felt relieved when Aileen’s death hurt her. She wasn’t unfeeling. She wasn’t a monster.

Luken would definitely say she was a monster though. “A beautiful one if I might add” he’d say.

As her thoughts once again wandered towards Luken and she couldn’t stop the tear that ran down her cheeks. He was dead. Every time her thoughts went towards him, she remembered that fact. Maybe it was something to thank Noet for that she didn’t go crazy every time she remembered her dead lover.

“You cannot get angry” he’d said.

Well, she wasn’t angry per se, she was frustrated. Frustrated at her lack of power, frustrated at her current situation. Furious that this sort of thing happened to her…. Ok, so she was angry. She immediately tried to calm down before she got even more riled up.

She felt Noet in front of her tense up and realized that she had strengthened her grip.

“Sorry” she mumbled and released her grip but he hadn’t heard her.

She tried to remove bad thoughts about Luken and think of the good times they’d spent together over the years. That wasn’t really working but it was working.

It would take a long time before she could truly accept it though. But even if he was dead, she wanted to keep something from him. She didn’t have anything tangible which sucked. If she knew this sort of thing would happen she’d have told him to…. She paused her thoughts there. If she knew this sort of thing would happen she wouldn’t let it happen.

And I’m getting angry again, Agnes realized. It was a bit odd. Yes, her emotions made her act before think sometimes but she knew how that felt. This was different. Her tendency to anger seem to have shot up by magnitudes.

She shook those thoughts out of her head. She didn’t want to think about that now. She wanted to think about him.

Raena.

She could almost hear Luken say her name. Perhaps using the name he always called her was perfect. That was tangible … maybe.

She looked forward at the slim back of Noet and narrowed her eyes. Noet. Noet was a mystery but if there was one thing she knew, she definitely couldn’t trust the man. She joined him to escape because she really had no other choice and she’d taken his pills because there really wasn’t much of a choice either.

However, Noet wasn’t someone you wanted to trust. From what she knew, 90% of the words that came out of this man’s mouth was a lie. But being in the colosseum, it was important to stay with whomever would keep you alive the longest.

Agnes had known Noet for years and the more she knew this man, the more she didn’t want to know. However, just like he had said once, people loved puzzles. His cryptic nature just made her curious even though she didn’t want to be.

He’d told her during their discussion that he got the most part of the escape covered but the extent to which he had made her flabbergasted.

He had a freaking magus under his control and even though he was a colosseum slave, he’d apparently managed to create some kind of group.

Agnes glanced at the huge wall of smoke in the distance. And a group that could accomplish such a thing in the Kingdom of Ferasi.

To Agnes, Noet was the kind of man that would sleep with you today then slip poison into the breakfast he made for you the next day if he decided you were useless to him. On the other hand, if you had value to him or piqued his interest, he'd treat you like a gem.