"That's not brave. He was simply an Idiot."
Cilia stopped her movements as these words left Ace's mouth, she then turned around and saw Ace glancing at Helt's head with pure disdain.
An intense wave of anger engulfed her and just as she was about to call him out, Ace continued.
"Protecting others? Protecting the weak? Heh, you have to be strong if you want to do that, and for that, you have to stay alive. Just fighting randomly knowing that you don't have any chance to win is just plain stupid, not brave.
No, actually, the whole thought process of trying to protect others is stupid.
What? Did he listen to too many bedtime stories when he was young? Was he unable to come out of that happy-fantasy world?
Was he thinking that he will gain some sort of unknown overpowered power to deal with the beast?" Ace chuckled.
Cilia was about to refute but Ace resumed, "Sacrificing your own life to protect some strangers? Who does that? I mean, didn't he just hurt you, your wife, because he died? Doesn't that mean he values some random strangers more than his own wife?" Ace questioned and Cilia paused, thinking what Ace just said. Obviously, she knew that Helt valued her more than those strangers but…
Wasn't Ace right?
Was it worth it to sacrifice his own life, ruining not only hers but Helda's life to protect complete strangers… wasn't that…
"Plus, you aren't someone without any faults either" Ace continued and Cilia looked at him with an unsure look.
"You could have tried to stop him, if he didn't listen, you should have just run away alone" Ace spoke and Cilia narrowed her eyes.
"Of course, I am not telling you that you should have betrayed him… but if you would have done that, there was a slight chance that he would have followed you back. Obviously, doing this you won't be able to regain his love and trust for a long time but if you think about it, it was a small sacrifice considering that the life of someone you loved could have been saved"
Ace answered and suddenly Cilia remembered something.
Didn't Helda do the same thing? Was she also hoping that Helt would follow her?
Helda and Cilia, being Helt's wives, have always been competing among themselves about being closest to him. Obviously, they weren't enemies, but they still competed for Helt's love.
And even though knowing full well how her betrayal will affect Helt and their competition, she chose to do it.
She then remembered how Helda was unwilling to show her face and ran away as quickly as possible and Cilia started to suspect that what she was thinking was true.
And Cilia would realize that she was right soon when she sees Helda's last letter along with her Magic Core when she returns home.
(Author: If anyone didn't get it, this means that Helda would have killed herself before Cilia would return home.)
"Grrr"
As Cilia was thinking about all this, she heard a sound and realized that the beast, who has never stopped until he devours the whole target, had stood up without caring about Helt's body and was looking at Ace.
She soon collected herself and stood up. "Though not very strong, I am still an earth mage, I can be of help," she said with a determined gaze, to which Ace chuckled, "You don't need to worry about it, I'll deal with it myself"
"It's not the time to be overconfident!" Cilia snapped.
"Weren't you just talking about how we should not fight a losing fight!?" She questioned.
"I did" Ace chuckled again,
"But when did I say this was a losing fight?"
As Cilia was thinking about what Ace was talking about, Ace starting walking towards the beast leisurely.
"Grrr"
The beast then dashed towards Ace and Cilia noticed that since it arrived, this was the first time the beast ever ran.
'It's fast' Cilia thought inwardly and just as he thought it would punch Ace, Ace dodged the attack leisurely, as if the speed which was fast for her was nothing for him.
An amused smile appeared on Ace's face as he mumbled while dodging the beast's mindless attacks, "You aren't something living, are you? Does that mean you won't feel any pain?
Well, that's heartbreaking… I wanted to vent my frustration…
Oh well, I should just get it over with"
*Bam*
*Thud*
Saying that, Ace punched the beast with his bare hands. The impact was so strong that Cilia felt it while being more than 250 meters away, which surprised her a lot.
The beast flew back due to impact while Ace made a disgusted face as he glanced at his fist where some part of Beast's decaying skin got stuck in between Ace's knuckles.
"You're disgusting…" Ace muttered irritatedly as he cleaned his fist thoroughly via water magic, completely unbothered about the fact the beast just stood up again as if nothing happened.
Cilia who was still in shock when she felt the power behind Ace's punch was even more shocked when she saw the beast standing up as if nothing happened, no, this time, it actually looked a little hurt. A part of his skin fell on the floor, it looked like it was detached due to the impact.
Cilia's eyes beamed with hope when she saw that and she couldn't resist shouting, "Amazing! you were able to hurt him all by yourself, maybe just a few more punches and you can win!"
"No way will I touch that thing again!" Ace rebuked.
"Then how wi-" Without giving her time to question, Ace waved his hand and Crimson Red Flames engulfed the beast.
Cilia was spell bounded by the radiant flames, she couldn't believe that this man was able to summon such a beautiful fire without a chant.
But she soon came out of her reverie and shouted, "That thing has some sort of magic resistance! The flames won't work"
In answer to that, Ace smiled,
"There's nothing you can't burn with fire"
As if on cue, the calm and beautiful-looking fire turned violent and their intensity increased drastically.
*Whoosh*
The surrounding temperature increased and the flames grew brighter and brighter. Soon, the legs of the beast started disintegrating into ashes before its whole body followed the suits.
Cilia received another shock for the day and couldn't believe that the beast, which many people combined couldn't even harm, was now being defeated by a single man and that too with a single, chant-less spell.
As the scorching flames engulfed the beast's whole body, leaving only the head, Ace walked towards it and looked directly into its eyes. There was no trace of the earlier leisurely smile on his face. He looked serious, deadly serious.
"I am here on a family trip with my family and I will remain here for more than a week, so I suggest that you don't attack again.
I don't know who you are, neither do I care, I would have annihilated you if it wasn't for that I have to return to my daughter (or she'll be mad... very mad),
But heed this, if you dare to attack again and try to ruin my little Nightingale's trip, no matter where you are, I will find you, and I will kill you.
As painfully as possible"
Saying that, Ace turned around as the remaining head was engulfed in the flames and turned into ash.
Though Cilia was confused about who Ace was talking to, the one who was on the receiving end of that scary expression was sweating profusely inside the darkroom, where everything that was happening was being projected on a screen before the screen showed those violent yet beautiful crimson flames engulfing everything and everything blacked out.
"D-Does he knows a-about me?" The man who was watching the screen mumbled in fear. Clearly shocked about everything that happened.
Everything was going so well for him when he saw that his creation, the one which he sacrificed many years of his life to make, was able to defeat so many people without any problems.
He was delighted.
He was now a step closer to his actual goal.
But then, he appeared.
The man who single-handedly defeated his strongest creation. His years' worth of work, with a single spell. Not only that, but the man also left a message.
That man... was terrifying…
Even he himself can't defeat his creation so easily, but that man did it.
"No… I should calm down… He isn't coming for me… if he knew where I was, he would have killed me… Nothing is wrong, plus, my experiment succeeded, it won't be long before I reach my goal. I just have to calm down…
And about test number two…
I will do it when I make sure that this man isn't near… or maybe I should just change my position altogether.
Once I achieve my goal, I will then deal with this man.
I would love to see that arrogant-looking man kneeling in front of me, waiting to listen and complete my orders just so he could impress me!"
Thinking all that, a confident smirk appeared on the man's face.