“Aww great. Now what.” Victor commented when dawn rose.

In front of us now lay 10 armoured rhinos. Each rhinos was a good 10 meters tall just like on the first day. Behind them was an army of cavalry. Somewhere along 4 or 5 thousand all consisting of black knights. Their armour shined like obsidian and their horses were all pure black. This time Reis didn’t just stand like a statue, he summoned his own horse made of pure shadow. The horse had a very intimidating red eyes and its body was always exuding a thick black fog making the outline of its body a little vague. And the rest of his army of infantrymen followed behind him. Kobolds, goblins, resurrected armies and sabre-toothed tigers.

“Woah, no matter how you look at it those black knights look like an elite force. Even that guy has his own horse ready.” Iris said.

“Isn’t Rohan supposed to help us?” Victor made another useless comment.

Blessing of the goddess is activated

Your Mana regen increased by 50%

Your Health regen increased by 50%

Mana and health increased by 30%

Magical resistance increased by 20%

All stats increased by 40%

All damage received will be reduced by 20%

Faith increased by 200

Stamina regeneration increased by 100%

Stamina consumption reduced by 30%

Morale is at maximum

The buff will last until Maria’s praying is disrupted.

The cavalry and the rhinos marched slowly. Then the rhinos sped up its charge until it seemed like they were on full throttle. The cavalry then followed behind those charging rhinos. A javelin from a ballista was shot and hit one of the rhinos’ legs. It fell and rolled on the ground. A stone from a trebuchet also hit one of the rhino’s heads but the stone was destroyed instead and they continued to charge.

“Umm, retreat. Everyone retreat!!! To the second level!” I shouted while riding Swogystar. Everyone followed behind me. Some of us without a unicorn or Pegasus ran with our legs while the one that had the horse-riding skill climbed their horse and retreated at full speed.

#BOOM CRASH!!#

A minute later a loud explosion could be heard as the entire front wall of Trisia was destroyed. Stones were flying in all directions. Some car-sized stones hit the retreating infantrymen. Other smaller but still 1 meter in diameter flew in a higher directions. The rhinos all crashed to the ground or were buried by the rubble after the charge. But hardly any of them died.

“Alright! Everyone, charge!!!” I sounded a command. A horn then sounded for the charge. If we wanted to kill the rhinos, now was the chance. I had seen their strength and while they were weak, I had to kill them.

“Zeus strike!” El casted her spells.

*Tell the fairies to preserve their strength, we still have the enemy cavalry charging at us in 2 minutes* I told Baran at the second level. They, with their Pegasi army, will support us with magic.

We charged and managed to kill several rhinos. Some of us were sent flying. But unicorns weren’t so weak to die in one attack. After the rhinos were down (This time in less than 5 minutes, unicorn horn is really something), Reis could be seen atop the wall’s rubble. The cavalry was a little bit delayed due to climbing the rubble.

“Retreat! To the second level. Fairies!! Now!” I shouted even though I said second level, there was hardly anything left on the first level. Might as well call this one the first level if we survive this day.

Reis raised his black sword and charged down. Well, by the time he went down the rubble all of us were pretty much at the second level entrance. When he tried to chase after us the spells were activated. Lightning, water geysers, earth spikes, fire lizards. All came crashing down.

“He didn’t let up his attacks, he is still coming!” His knights seemed to have quite high magical resistance. But even so, many of his soldiers died in that magical rampage and he was still chasing us with his sword drawn towards the entrance.

“Ready your shield. Charge!!” Hasega said.

Since knights on horseback are better when charging, he had no choice but to sound a charge attack and so, a battle, unicorn vs black steed, at the second level entrance was fought. When their charges clashed, the unicorns and its riders started to take casualties. Even with Maria’s bonus, the enemy this time was simply too strong. The unicorn’s power is high but its rider isn’t. The paladins that rode the unicorns fell one after another and when the lone unicorn fought back it was surrounded and killed.

“ARG!!” Some fairies were caught and killed by black eagles. Some of the enigma spells were interrupted.

“Fairies, stop the enigma spells. Fight the black eagles!” I changed the command. We couldn’t let those fairies die here. When casting enigma spells, they become vulnerable and even slight damage to them might interrupt the spell. Rather than wasting mana on an interrupted spell it was better to fight them using normal spells.

After hearing my command, the fairies obeyed and air to air combat was initiated. Flying arrows and magic were shot one after the other. ”El, help them!” I ordered my fairy to help the others since I thought thunder spells seemed to be most effective when fighting air to air combat. But when I saw it, it actually made no difference. The earth fairies were able to make spears from earth and homing it in on the enemy. Wind fairies were spitting wind blades at the enemy. The water ones were shooting ice blocks or lances made of ice. They could defend themselves now I thought.

“Hello little girl.” Reis said. He was riding his horse in front of me. ”I would never have thought such a little girl could command an army well enough to fight on par with me. Let’s see if your combat skills are as good as your tongue.”

He then charged with his black steed. Swogystar proved to be an awesome steed as he managed to find an opening for me to dodge his sword and counter with light magic. It was practically Swogystar vs Reis now. Not me vs Reis. Seeing this, I resummoned El since I needed her on my side now. She casted Thunderstrike and lightning bolt at every chance she had while I handled the healing. I tried casting healing hand on reis but it healed him instead. But when I casted it on his dark steed, it seemed to lose some vigour. After that I began fighting the black steed instead.

Cornered, Swogystar flapped its wing and soared into the sky. But to my surprise Reis’ Black Steed managed to walk on air and chased us. Therefore the battle now turned into air to air combat. Magic arts were thrown at them while said man threw black balls.

“Come down here and don’t run away!” He sounded irritated. After analysing his speech, I concluded that he was a knight and therefore he wasn’t proficient with magic. If it is a magic fight, I might be able to win since all 3 of us (Swogystar, El, and me) were mostly magic users. We started circling in the sky while spamming magic at him.

“NOO!!” Hasega shouted as his unicorn was stabbed by a dark lance from Reis’ army. Like it was poisoned, the unicorn screamed in pain and was weakened. While Hasega tried to defend it another spear stabbed him and he died alongside his unicorn.

“Die now!” Reis said in a creepy and hoarse voice. A black aura enveloped him and he started to chant some strange words. The sky then turned dark. A dark cloud came towards us while forming a giant monster. Facing the monster Swogystar shined and the monster was erased.

“Ilusion spell?” I mumbled. At the same time Reis caught up with us and with a swing he slashed me and my steed.

You are dead

Countdown for penalty 24 hours.

You are revived by a pegasus.

Countdown penalty was erased

When I opened my eyes I saw Swogystar lying with a slash wound on his left side. The dark wound exuded a black fog, his face was darkened. Is he poisoned? No, he is cursed. I tried to cast cure poison but it didn’t heal him one bit.

After that a black sword came down and stabbed Swogystar right in his stomach. A black shockwave sent me flying and I took some damage from hitting the wall.

“Now, you have lost. Twice. I will kill you and then I will resurrect you as one of my underlings! Hahaha.”

#BOOM#

Stella came at the right time. She fired a laser beam towards Reis.

“Ahh, Serena.. I will make sure to make you mine again. If you just surrender carefully many lives could be saved.” He spoke with his dark voice.

“No. I will never surrender. You hardly keep your word anyway.”

With a different resolution than in the forest, Stella moved at lightning speed with her two rapiers. Even though I almost couldn’t see Stella’s rapiers, somehow Reis was able to block them with his shield. I tried to follow and help her but I was blocked by 2 other knights.

One knight charged at me with his two-handed sword and the other with a spear. I could dodge one or 2 safely but I was soon cornered. I couldn’t even fight back 2 of these opponents let alone defeating them. Even though I couldn’t hurt them, El could. She casted some lightning strikes at the spear knight. But they continued to corner me and drive me further away from Stella.

“Riri!” Iris jumped in to save me. Now the situation was 2 on 2. With a nod Iris picked the one with the two-handed sword while I picked the one with a spear.

Spear users are quite rare in Royal Road. Either it was because they are unable to hunt alone due to the system or because it is hard to use. Either way, this spear user had quite a lot of gaps in his attack. I could dodge his spear continuously. After dodging El countered with magic. This behaviour somehow became our habit. While I tried to become a meatshield, El is the one that did attacked.

Unlike me who was jumping here and there creating a boring battle where the spear stabbed so far away, Iris’ battle was far more fierce. He slashed here and there taking advantage of every gap he found. On the other hand, the enemy didn’t stand by idly either, his powerful slashes sometimes needed both of Iris’ swords to block. Sometimes he also managed to knock Iris down and almost split him apart with his powerful slash.

In the end after 2 hours of fighting, we managed to win with great effort. After beating my opponent, I help Iris with El’s magic. Our health was in the red when the battle ended. After casting healing spells I tried to chase Reis with Iris.

#BLAAR! BOOM!#

Some explosions occurred as many balls of different colours flew to the sky. It was Stella spell. Only she uses multiple elemental spells. I ran towards her inside the Tantalus Headquarters showroom. In there Ragnar, Hector, Arknum and Stella ganged up on Reis.

“How nostalgic Serena. So you are still in this place.” Reis threw his helmet. Brown hair and white skin. His face was quite handsome. Somewhere along Hector I guess. If not for his eyes that turned black completely. Iris then jumped in, running towards Ragnar.

Stella look terribly exhausted as she laid down with injuries all over. But they were not life-threatening. Arknum slashed downwards only to be repelled with an upward slash from Reis. While Hector slashed horizontally it was met with Reis’ shield. The two continued to exchange blows like that, Arknum was faced with Reis’s sword while Hector faced off with his shield. Ragnar on the other hand tried to find a gap in Reis’s defence and tried to slam him with his hammer.

However, Reis was too powerful. When he let out some magic, he knocked Arknum out of balance. When he tried to kill him, Iris jumped in. Crossing their blades, he tried to block Reis’s downward slash. Stopped for a moment, Reis was met with Ragnar’s hammer. Reis flew back crashing into some chairs and walls but he stood up again like nothing had happened.

“Man, he is invincible.” Iris commented.

“Huahahaha!! Of course. I am the controller of life and death. No one can oppose me!” He shouted while chanting some words. A curse? No dark magic.

“Enigma of the Dark God!”

“No way. To think he can do that too!” Elkami said.

“Well, I have to tell you little fairy, you are not the only one I have corrupted so far. But I can’t learn other enigma spells. The spell just changed to dark magic but I am satisfied! Hahaha!”

“Hades hand!” He continued. A dark magic circle appeared under his feet. A counter of 120 seconds appeared.

“Hurry up and hit him. We might be able to disrupt the spell!” Iris said as he charged towards him. All of us charged but he was able to fend us off with his magnificent swordplay. When El casted one of her lightning spells, the spell hit home but the spell wasn’t interrupted. The damage wasn’t enough to disrupt the spell. As we tried to inflict more damage, the counter then reached 0.

A hand made from shadow raised from our shadows and grabbed us. Then it pulled us towards the shadow. My feet started to sink. Everyone except El and Stella were grabbed into the shadow. El was chased by a shadow hand from somewhere but she nimbly dodged here and there.

“Hra!” Iris tried to slash at the hands but the ground still pulled him in like quicksand. We continued to sink one by one. Arknum who was in sitting position had already been swallowed by the shadow. A pile of loot them emerged from it. It was his sword.

“AHH! Stop there my shadow hand!” He ordered. Then we stopped sinking. But the hands still tightly grabbed our bodies.

“Well then. Let’s refresh our memories shall we Serena? About how you killed the other two? Hahahha” He laughed like a maniac when he walked towards Stella.

As she tried to stand she launched a piercing attack only to be blocked by Reis’s shield. Losing her footing, she was then hit in the abdomen by Reis’s fist. She was then grabbed by the head by Reis.

“Noo. NOO!” She started to cry as black fog engulfed her.

Then after that she stopped moving nor speaking. Her eyes lost its shine while she continued to gaze at nothing.

“Stella!!” I shouted.

“Damn it! You have completely lost it Reis!” Ragnar shouted.

“Reis? Ahh, please don’t call me by that name again. I am no longer a cheap actor. I am a god. I can control lives at my will. From now on call me Death Manager.” He was crazy down to his heart.

“Now my puppet! Go and do as your master commands.” Then Stella moved forward.

“Curtain bullet series spell xx# dark carnival!” She said that as a dark aura gathered around her. 20 dark balls formed around her and shot towards us.

#BLAR!!BLAR!#

Our Hit points were in a critical state now. A few more strikes and we would die. I had no problem with dying as I would revive in 4 days’ time. But Ragnar and Hector.

“Stella!!” I shouted.

“Ungh!” Stella moaned as she kneeled in pain. She was resisting the darkness.

“Ahh, my little puppet here won’t obey its master.” Death manager then grabbed her head again.

“Noo!” She resisted but then she soon turned back into her previous state. “Now kill them!”

“I will kill you. Thunderstrike!” El casted her lightning spell towards Reis. The Thunderstrike hit bullseye but Reis didn’t seem bothered by it.

“Damn it. Lightning.. ARG!” She was quickly unsummoned as a Darkball from Stella hit her.

She walked towards Iris and stabbed him to death leaving some japtem behind. This time, with a staggering step she slowly walked towards Hector. She raised her hand and poked him in his stomach with her rapier. She then put more pressure on her rapier. Slowly but surely the rapier dug its way into Hector’s flesh.

“Stella!! Stop it. Stella!!” Ragnar and I shouted but she gave no response. Hector could only watch his health bar slowly decreased bit by bit until it disappeared. Then with a tingling sound effect his body turned grey and into loot. An NPC body this time. A real Royal Road human was killed in front of my eyes. The man who watched this, Reis no, Death Manager was laughing. How could he laugh at a scene like this? How could he enjoy this kind of thing? If he wanted Stella, he already had her. Why not be done and leave? If he has a grudge against us, why not just kill us as directly and as painless as possible, why bring Stella into this?

“Stella.” Ragnar then called her softly. When Stella turned back, her eyes were full of tears. Tears kept flowing from her eyes as she slowly walked towards Ragnar like a corpse. Her expression was still dead, her body fully controlled even her eyes were still as expressionless as possible. Seeing this my heart ached, she was sad, so sad that seeing her eyes made my eyes filled with tears too.

“Reis! If you want to kill us, don’t make Stella do it! Just kill us already with your hands! Don’t make her sad anymore!” I shouted.

“Now Serena. Kill Ragnar. And after that, the girl.” Death Manager ordered.

Tears wet her face as she held her rapier unsteadily. It started with light poke just like with Hector. But slowly the blade continued to add its pressure towards Ragnar’s neck. Blood started to drip from his neck as her hands continued to shake terribly.

“Stella!!’ I shouted on the top of my lungs.

“Come on. Trust deeper.” Death Manager walked besides Stella while holding her hands. Her hand that had stopped was slowly being pushed by Reis’s hand.

“No. No.” Stella cried in a soft almost inaudible voice.

The rapier dug deeper and deeper. Ragnar could only watch in desperation as his health points were slowly decreased. He then closed his eyes as his health bar disappeared.

“Good. Now my little puppet, only one insect left. Hurry up and kill her. You will be my perfect puppet that way. Kill her now.”

“Yes..” She then walked towards me. The dark fog around her thickened. She was corrupted even more than before. Does she still have a soul inside that body? Or is it just an empty shell now? I felt terrified as she walked towards me with her rapier. I don’t even know why I am scared. This is just a game, I will revive again in a few days but I still felt afraid of being killed. Death Manager’s killing intent was so large. For such hatred to be harboured by a single human. How could this be...

“Stella..” I spoke as I looked her in the eyes. Her eyes were dead but somehow I still believed that her eyes had the ability to look at me.

Just like before, she raised her rapier towards me. She then poked my chest with her rapier. Tears started to flow from her eyes. Seeing that sad expression, sadness overwhelmed my fear. I no longer felt fear only pain and sadness. Not for myself but for the person that stood before me. She seemed so hurt, so sad, so full of pain.

“Stella....” I called her name believing that she could still hear me. I tried to call her again. Not to beg for my life but to tell her soul one thing. Her hands then stopped pressing the blade. It was as if she was giving me time to say my last words. Did my wish reach her heart?

“Stella... it is fine. It is not your fault. I will meet you again in 4 days to tell you again that it is not your fault. So don’t blame yourself and smile okay?” I tried to smile. A bitter one that is. My words were messed up. But somehow I wanted to ease her pain even a little. Seeing that expression, I just wanted to tell her that. After killing me, I will chase her again. Every time I meet her, I will say that it was not her fault. I will say don’t blame yourself. I am ready to give my entire life here in Royal Road just to say those words to her.

“Ri..Ri?” She then stopped her swords.

“What’s wrong? Kill her already!” Death Manager raised his voice impatiently.

“Ri.Ri...not .....fault.....smile..” She stopped. Death manager then walked towards us impatiently. He then grabbed Stella’s hands like before trying to stab me with Stella’s swords but it wouldn’t move.

“Damn it!” He then kicked Stella away. “So this is your hope huh? This insect here is the one that hindered you to become my perfect puppet!”

He then drew his sword trying to slash me himself but as he swung his sword down, a flying kick sent him flying 10 meters away and crashing into the wall. It was Stella. So she broke free from the curse. Awesome.

“I would rather go to hell than follow your commands any longer.” She then walked towards Death Manager.

“How, you should not be able to...”

“Fight poison with poison. Just like you have haunted me so far, I will give my soul to a demon so he can haunt you. Just like you have made me suffer all this time, I will make you suffer.” She then turned her head towards me.

“Riri, I am sorry. I have one last request after this. Will you fulfill it?” She asked with a gentle smile. Even though I knew that her heart must be torn apart by the death of her friends, even though dark fog still exuded from her body, even though tears still filled her eyes, she smiled at me again. A smile that she had lost since she met Reis again.

“Yes.” I smiled back towards her. The shadow hand was now gone with Death Manager being struck. His spell was disrupted.

“Now Reis. No, I should call you Death Manager right? Now, accept my curse!” She shouted.http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=350&t=3729&p=23806&sid=af9e5efeb5e2d5f93a3992a3c70f62cd#p23806http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=350&t=3772&p=23861#p23861

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Author note.

- this is the most tragic chapter with lamost everyone died.- Hmm. hope i can finish that fire emblem soon and continue to write nexct chapters.the weapon at those game was a pretty nice reference for normal weapon i am tired making new names for each weapons. iron then steel then silver. next might be gold and mythril, diamond. of course this only applied to normal weapons.

- as usual, comments, questions, critics and suggestions can be posted here or discussion topic.

- btw what do you think about the name death manager?