Chapter 60:

“Bladeless, look out!” Cale said shortly before conjuring a shield directly above her head. Immediately after, a circular disk of flames collided against the shield, breaking it apart and sending the warrior flying.

Fortunately Bladeless wasn’t your ordinary warrior and, despite the force of the blow, she was able to stabilize herself mid-air before gracefully landing on her feet.

To her side, Cale was about to cast another spell but she stopped him from doing so.

“What’s your problem?”

“...”

“Copying me? What stupid shit are you pouting?”

“...”

“Ok so he uses the same spells as I do, that doesn’t mean he’s copying me,”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“Kuh, fine! I’ll leave it to you,”

Their bickering was interrupted by the hissing arrival of another snake, followed by a couple of its friends.

Cale clicked his tongue in annoyance before casting a decent-sized Fireball and immediately getting rid of two of them.

Bladeless followed suit with her own attack as she slashed the area around her in a wide arc, severing all the remaining snakes.

The both of them looked at each other for but a moment before the warrior dashed toward Rine with shocking speed.

Helping her along her charge, Cale bombarded her snake-infested surroundings with spell after spell, allowing the warrior to focus solely on her attack.

Their cooperation paid off as she was now staring into Rine’s eyes with blazing sword at hand.

She swung down mightily and blew his shield apart; not intending to stop there, she then pushed heavily with her leg and closed the distance between them even further. Now within spitting distance, she then began to issue a flurry of strikes. Fire danced around the two as every one of Bladeless’s attacks was being blocked by a new shield which was, in turn, destroyed a beat later.

But soon enough, she proved too overwhelming and Rine was now being pushed back. Whenever he tried to cast a bigger spell she’d always stop him before he could; furthermore, he was also too busy conjuring shields to focus on anything else. Before long, Rine was forcefully blown back with deep wounds running along his forearm but that was not all as right on his tail, Bladeless followed him with her arm wound back to strike.

Bladeless’s eyes flashed with excitement at the thought of finally ending the fight, in the corner of her mind, she vaguely recalled the high-commander telling them not to kill the target, but she cleverly chose to ignore it. Besides, Cale probably wanted him dead more than her.

‘That was Cale’s....’ she thought back to when Rine had first materialized a core out of thin air.

She swung out, fully expecting her hit to land, but just as the blow was about to connect, her eyes widened in shock. Staring into Rine’s eyes, she could see a kind of madness only the most resolved of men dared to harbor.

Danger! Every inch of her screamed.

Below their feet, fire started to materialize.

“{FireWall}!” Rine spoke before cackling. He made no moves to retreat from Bladeless’s attack, rather he dove forward as if accepting the sword.

Seeing the provocation in the man’s eyes, Bladeless snorted before gritting her teeth. She considered tanking the attack and following through with her own, but Rine’s spells were indeed powerful; she didn’t want to imagine the damage she’d receive from taking one head-on.

Making up her mind, she lunged backward just as a wall of flames erupted from the ground she stood on. As soon as some distance was placed between them, a ball of fire flashed by Bladeless and heavily collided against the Firewall, causing shockwaves to spread out and destroying the wall.

Appearing from the ruined spell, Rine was smiling viciously while he released another spell.

“{FlameFangs}!”

Suddenly, a massive snake head materialized from flames around him and it pounced toward Bladeless. Truly angered, she stabilized her stance before swinging heavily with her sword-hilt, the resulting Aura slash cleanly bisected the snakehead into two before clashing against Rine’s shield. However, Bladeless had no time to celebrate as the two half-heads suddenly let loose miserable cries as their flesh writhed and convulsed before each fully forming into heads of their own.

The warrior once again clicked her tongue in exasperation as she dodged the combined strikes of the two heads. Bobbing and weaving between the two, she would also send out slashes toward Rine’s shield. She didn’t dare attempt to cut the snakes down in fear of only multiplying their numbers.

“This is insane!” Cale thought as he hurriedly cast his own spell. Unlike Rine, who seemed to conjure spells instantly, he had to take his time.

Watching Bladeless flutter to and fro as she handled both snakes expertly, Cale assessed the battlefield. By now, the commotion from the earlier baby snakes had died down as most of them were dispatched. But that didn’t mean that everything was fine.

Rine’s little stunt heavily altered the natural course of this war. Now, instead of fighting each other to the bitter end, adventurers from both sides were simply standing around, unsure of how to proceed. It was only under the menacing threats of the palace warriors that some adventurers reluctantly continued to battle.

“It's all gone to shit…” Cale muttered with annoyance yet his smile betrayed his true thoughts. Looking up toward the higher-ups discussing amongst themselves with Borris and Clint in the middle of them, Cale couldn’t help but want to listen in. Did this little shit disrupt their plans?

His smile widening, he found himself growing fonder and fonder of Rine.

Recalling all of the crazy things that happened prior, he soon began to laugh uproariously in a fashion similar to Borris.

“{FlameFangs}!”

Rine stood behind his shield as he watched both the well-dressed man and Bladeless battle his two-headed snake. It was clear that he was at a disadvantage, but anytime the scales would tip too far, he’d reign it back by retracting his shield and casting Dragon’s Breath on his monster. All in all, things were pretty even, which gave Rine enough room to look around the battlefield; upon doing so, his gaze would sometimes linger over a certain direction.

There, a sole female of young age stood guarding two young men. It seems like Calvin had long since succumbed to his wounds and was unconscious. Amelia had a haggard look to her that evoked one’s pity.

Perhaps in boredom, Rine began to make his way toward them.

His steps were light despite his injuries, his gait was lax despite the heavy sounds of battle coming from behind him, and the shield of fire that surrounded him gave him an almost ethereal presence.

Soon enough he appeared before the young girl. Upon seeing him, Amelia looked almost relieved and gave him a small but tired smile.

“I’m glad you’re ok-” But before she could continue, she was prevented from doing so by a hand that clasped around her throat.

…………………………………………

‘Why?’ Amelia struggled to say as she felt the force on her neck strengthen. The war had been far crueler than anything she could have imagined. The anxiety over her own survival coupled with the worry she felt over her brother and Rine tired her out mentally; and now, after physically exhausting herself trying to defend her friends, she was being hurt by one of them.

‘Why?’ She asked herself as she stared into Rine’s eyes. They were devoid of any emotion other than madness and to frame them, there was his cold and uncaring face. At times, Rine would appear calm and collected, reminding her a little of Cort, while at others he would cackle maniacally as if reveling in the mire of lunacy he was entrenched in.

Despite the horrific sight, she couldn’t help but reveal a slight smile. ‘It’s not Rine…’ She thought as her eyes closed.

Her arms dropped to her side and her body was going limp, a few more seconds and she would surely perish.

Suddenly her eyes fluttered open at the sensation of moistness on her face. ‘Blood?’ She thought.

Looking once more toward Rine she was surprised to see tears streaming from the maddened eyes.

She was further shocked to discover that she had yet to die. Evidently, his grip had loosened enough so as to allow her to breathe.

“R-rine!” She let out a strained cry but was shocked into silence at the sight of Rine grabbing the arm that was choking her with so much force that his fingernails dug into his own skin, causing him to bleed.

…………………………………………

Within the stagnant world inside Rine’s mind, the core hanging in the sky was covered in cracks. It spun slower than before and now took much more effort to maintain.

Underneath the dying sun, two figures could be seen, both bloodied and exhausted. Rine had his hand firmly grasping onto dark-haired Rine’s arm.

Behind Rine, a trail of blood leading to a bloodied cage was visible. It was as if Rine abused his own body to crack open the cage through sheer will.

(What are you doing?) Dark-haired Rine asked unamused as he shook off Rine’s grip.

“Enough!” Rine replied, looking up to meet the other’s gaze. Tears could be seen in his eyes.

Moments passed and silence reigned between the two.

Dark-haired Rine spent the time looking between the collapsing core and Rine. Finally, he spoke.

(Fine then. Do what you want. If I pushed our body any further, we’d probably die. Besides, you look like you finally know what to do,) Dark-haired Rine said before patting the other on the back. (Tag, you’re it,)

…………………………………………

Searing pain from his leg brought back the original Rine to the battlefield. Looking down he saw a half-conscious Calvin stabbing his leg with a sword. A cocktail of hate and anger could be seen in his eyes as if blaming him for everything.

Guilt wrenching his heart, Rine immediately let go of Amelia and opened his mouth to apologize, unfortunately, he didn’t get the chance to do so.

A splitting headache suddenly assaulted him and all at once, his body flopped onto the ground weakly. The shield of fire that surrounded him shattered into millions of little pieces and in the distance a horrendous yet pitiful cry could be heard shortly before a dull and heavy thud. All of Rine’s Origin came loose and his spells disintegrated into the ether.

Blood came gushing out of his ears, eyes, and mouth and all his wounds reopened. At that rate, he would soon die of blood loss.

But before that could happen a sharp Aura Slash made of flames tore apart his legs beneath the knee, opening up fresh wounds.

Rine couldn’t even scream in pain as blood had filled his throat.

“Rine!” Amelia screamed as she kneeled to support him.

Behind the two, Bladeless and Cale appeared atop the latter’s snake.

“So it’s finally over…” Cale said with mixed emotions.

Bladeless, on the other hand, was much more straightforward as she mercilessly sent out another Aura slash toward Rine and his group.

Amelia panicked and she conjured a barrier that looked all too feeble. Nevertheless, with a determined look in her eyes, she took a step forward and covered everyone else.

The result was as expected and the barrier fell in less than a second; the slash, not losing any of its momentum, came barreling toward her body.

She closed her eyes and resolved herself to her fate.

But such a fate was not destined to occur as the moment the attack came close to touching her, another person covered her with his own body.

Rine’s back was torn to shreds and he fell onto Amelia, causing both of them to tumble onto the ground. Thankfully, whether it was due to Bladeless holding back or to Amelia’s barrier, the attack was not strong enough to kill him yet.

Amelia and Rine landed on top of Calvin who groaned at the impact. After the fall, Rine slowly moved at an agonizing pace to cover up everyone, including Roe, with his body.

By the time he was done, the ludicrous sight of a young man using his small body to cover three of his friends from harm was clear for all to see.

Gasps could be heard from the surroundings as everyone stopped fighting. Soon enough the entire battlefield was silent.

Amelia was crying by this point and she held onto Rine’s head, cradling it.

Calvin watched all of this with complicated emotions flashing through his wet eyes.

The others around the group fared no better as they too knew not what to think.

Even Bladeless hesitated in sending another attack, but soon she gritted her teeth and did so anyway.

“Enough!” The powerful voice of Borris rang out and a massive amount of Origin began gathering around Bladeless’s attack, but it was too late as the attack had already reached the group.

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