After Paz had been ruthlessly defeated, the mercenaries' morale had been completely shattered and the group had been routed, however like he had said earlier Arulo really was not going to let a single one of them go.
The mercenaries had all ran in varying directions in an attempt to flee, but Arulo easily let his men handle the escaping remnants and looked over towards Leon and Aurora.
"Well, I guess I ought to finish this up. Accept your death with honor and at least you'll die knowing that you didn't make it annoying for this knight."
Of course, Leon wouldn't go down without a fight, but he really didn't really see a way to get out of the current situation. He might've been able to escape if it had been just the heavy spearmen, but Arulo was on a completely different level.
Leon's speed had always been a strength for him, but outrunning a man who had been moving so fast that Leon could barely catch his afterimage? It was simply impossible.
In Leon's mind, he was miserable. He kept repeating the same sentence over and over again.
'I'm so screwed. I'm so screwed. I'm so screwed…'
Even though in his mind Leon was beyond desperate, he summoned another wind weapon and flung it at Arulo who was slowly walking over. The moment he flung the wind weapon, he picked up Aurora and shouted at the maid.
"RUN!"
Arulo merely looked amused by the Leon's attempt and swatted the near invisible blade with his hand, while looking at Leon running away with the little girl.
"Putting up a fight eh? Well I guess it makes things more enjoyable to kill."
If he really wished too, Arulo could probably catch up to Leon in a breath or two, but he decided he would take his sweet time and enjoy the hunt. Meanwhile, Leon was still sprinting uphill in the opposite direction, he didn't have a plan to escape but wanted to bide time to think.
Although Aurora suspected that Leon was not a bad person nor an enemy just based on the fact that he had rushed to Paz's side, she still squirmed and shouted at Leon while throwing a tantrum in Leon's arms.
"L-let go of me this instance! I can walk myself! Plus what about sister Beaudu?"
Leon could only assume the little girl was referring to the maid, but he couldn't carry the both of them and would rather save the little girl instead of both of them. Hearing something close to him, he prepared to see a raging, one-handed lunatic, but his eyes bulged out in surprise as he saw the maid keeping up with him.
At the moment, Leon was exhausted, slightly beat up from the attacks, and carrying a small little girl, but he was still quite fast and a normal person wouldn't be able to keep up with him no matter how naturally athletic they were.
Seeing the maid keeping up, Leon could only reach one conclusion.
'Are all the people serving this little girl soldiers and warriors?'
Making eye contact with the maid, Leon felt like the maid was reading his soul and mind through his eyes before she spoke.
"I don't know why you are helping us, but it seems like you aren't hostile. Even though I am not as strong as Sir Paz, I will buy you time."
The maid stopped running and turned around.
"So please find a way to save the young miss."
Leon continued to run, but the little girl in his hands started to cry.
"Sister Beaudu! Don't go!"
Aurora continued to struggle and tears started to smear onto Leon's burnt clothes.
"Save sister Beaudu! Turn around and help her!"
Painfully ignoring the little girls pleading, Leon could only sadly respond to the girl.
"I'm sorry...but you should know we can't afford that."
Leon bit his lip at the thought but just told the truth.
"I'm too weak to help..."
Aurora started to shriek.
"Why are you so weak! Sister Beaudu..."
While continuing to run, Leon didn't respond out loud but replied in his mind.
'It seems like I'm always too weak.'
By now Leon had made his way further up the slowly elevating cliff, he heard an explosion behind him and turned around to find that Arulo had caught up to the maid and easily disposed of her. Aurora tried to look behind them at the sound of the explosion, but Leon wouldn't let her look at the gruesome sight and used his body to block her sight.
Although she didn't see it, Aurora wasn't stupid and realized that her maid had most likely already perished. She sobbed quietly. However, Leon felt something quickly approaching and looked horrified as he saw Arulo instantly catch up to him.
Arulo looked at the two and just smirked.
"Can we stop playing this foolish game? Your fate will just be the same."
Leon knew he couldn't really escape from Arulo due to the difference in speed, but also the fact that they were quite high up on the cliff even though they weren't close to the top. Kicking himself in his mind, Leon tried to figure out anything that might help him.
'Cmon Leon, think! What to do...what to d-'
Stopping himself, he turned around to face Arulo with a potential plan. Standing face to face, Leon smiled nervously as a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face.
"I guess asking you to go fuck off, isn't really an option."
Arulo laughed a little bit at Leon.
"Haha, at least you know it's futile. Any last words?"
Leon held Aurora with one hand and used her to cover his other hand as he reached into his pocket.
"Well, that's funny."
Arulo looked at Leon like he was crazy.
"How's that even remotely funny?"
With a cheeky smile, Leon replied.
"Cause I was going to ask the exact same thing."
With a swift motion, Leon took out the blood marble he had received earlier from his blessing and crushed it onto the ground with his foot.
At first, nothing happened, the golden liquid in the marble merely disappeared in the earth and Arulo looked at Leon with one of his eyebrows raised.
"Was that supposed to do somet-"
Before he could continue, a small tremor shook the earth. Leon slowly backed up to the side in an attempt to put even more distance between himself and Arulo. Meanwhile, Arulo was on guard from that tremor since it had randomly occurred after Leon had crushed that marble.
"What are you playing at? Wha-"
Before Arulo could finish his sentence, a giant jolt shook the entire ground beneath them, and a deep rumbling sound resounded from the ground. It was like the earth had suddenly awoken and roared.
As the shaking started to get more intense, cracks started to appear everywhere. The ground on the cliff started to show small and giant cracks, while Leon could tell more cracks were also appearing on the land around them as well.
However that wasn't the end of it, pitch-black storm clouds abruptly covered the once clear and blue skies. A crack of lightning struck down from the clouds as a violent storm rolled in. Rain poured down like heavy rocks pounding against the land. The winds suddenly picked up in speed and tree's started to rustle intensely.
Arulo suddenly turned as white as a ghost. Even though he was powerful. The destruction around him looked like hell had suddenly erupted all of a sudden and he turned towards Leon.
"H-how did you cause this? It doesn't matter, since all I have to do is kill you."
Squatting down, Arulo was about to make a lunge towards Leon who was still holding Aurora, but before he could launch off the ground beneath him cracked and the ground broke apart. Losing his footing, Arulo fell to the ground and he screamed as he plunged into the earth, but he wasn't the only one.
Soon dozens of screams rang out from below Leon towards where the mercenaries had been and Leon could only assume they were also swallowed up by the earth. Leon himself was not experiencing better luck.
His vision looked like the earth had started vibrating violently, due to the shaking. In fact, the earth had started to shake so vehemently that the only way Leon was still standing was because he had stabbed Ensis into the ground and held on for dear life.
The previously quiet Aurora screamed in the wake of the destruction and shaking, not being able to do anything Leon could only clutch her tighter with one hand. Before Leon could try to get himself out of this predicament. The floor under him started to crack and Leon looked horrified as he stared down at the ground.
Giant cracks spread out across the entire ground and sectioned him off from the main part of the cliff since he was closer to the side, Leon felt the ground start to slowly move and could only curse.
"Oh shit."
A loud crack erupted from beneath Leon and the part of the cliff he was standing on suddenly crumbled beneath him. With nowhere left to stand, Leon, started to plummet from the high height as the giant's rocks started to fall with him. He started to scream with Aurora as he clutched her with both arms as he held Ensis with one hand.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
His voice slowly got further, until nothing could be heard but the roaring of the earth as it continued to wreak havoc.