The battle between Kurono and Regnas was about to begin.
Regnas was very angry with Kurono, killed his men, destroyed his plan and now pulverized his favorite sword.
He had many motives to kill them.
But he was a barbarian.
Someone who was born in a hostile territory make children fight against huge monsters.
If the child survives, it becomes a warrior. But if doesn't survive, it's just manure.
Such were their laws.
Regnas grew up as the second strongest, always surpassed by the current king who disappeared.
He doesn't know what happened to him, but he was thankful he was gone.
Now he has a free way to do his own thing.
Regnas joined the cult to gain power, he was blessed with the name Berserk.
After remembering his reasons for being here, he marched straight to Kurono.
"I'll kill you quickly to make sure to accomplish at least me with the mission!"
Kurono thought as he saw him coming.
(Come to think of it. How should I deal with this guy?)
(I don't know what kind of strength I have, I don't want to kill him in one blow just like that anime I watched.)
(I must limit my strength, I will use reduction.)
The "reduction" skill allows you to divide a target into small amounts.
It can be the sugar in a fruit, the bitterness of a coffee, or someone's heart rate.
Kurono and Rei experienced it in the past and didn't like it.
But now Kurono will turn it into an ability that allows him to reduce his power by half so he can have a fair fight with his opponent.
An idiotic decision no doubt from him.
Now that he was at 50% of his power, Kurono covered himself from Regnas' kick.
It was strong enough to throw back his arm.
(U-Unbelievable.)
(Even at 50% of my strength, that kick didn't hurt.)
(I had a lousy posture, that's why my arm went backwards.)
(I must reduce it more, maybe to 25% to be at his level.)
"Reduce."
A strange sound Kurono made and his strength as well as speed reduced drastically.
After falling to the ground, he quickly sent Kurono a kick straight to his face.
This time his body was sent flying breaking some trees.
Red liquid similar to blood dripped from some of Kurono's wounds.
He thought.
(I-it worked!)
(With only 25% I'm at his level. He was able to hurt me so I can hit him without killing him.)
He stood up quickly.
"It didn't hurt since my nerves aren't connected to my brain, but I can see that hit is strong enough to kill someone."
Regnas at first was surprised.
"You... you survived that attack."
He bared his teeth in anger.
"Surviving an attack from me is offensive."
"I will kill you using all my power."
He pulled out a bottle, it was what he had stolen from Klyde earlier.
He ate all the pills.
"These pills are used by old people to reduce their age by a few hours. But their side effect is a monstrous release of magical power. That's why you must drain your blood after using them."
"Now that I ate them..."
His skin began to turn red like his eyes.
His muscles grew and so did his magic power.
"I have now officially become a Berserk."
"I'm going to kill you, you fucking beast!"
Kurono didn't back down and got into an attack position.
At that moment... the two of them threw themselves face to face causing a huge explosion of dust.
◇◇◇
"You're joking... right?"
"... It doesn't look like a joke."
Isaac and Oliver watched as Heinrich slowly turned into a kind of red gorilla.
His arms became hairy and huge.
His face was covered by a black mask that hid one of his eyes and his body was wrapped in a kind of cloth that was created from his sweat.
After having turned into an infernal.
Heinrich rushed at them at a great speed.
If it wasn't thanks to Oliver who detected his intense bloodlust, the two would have been crushed by the strength of his arms along with that great speed.
Quickly Oliver went to see a sword while Isaac prepared a spell.
"I don't know what happened to him, but we have to stop him, Oliver!"
"I know!"
Oliver after getting his sword, prepared to attack, he imbued it with magical power and the sword was covered in flames.
"Isaac!"
"Yes!"
Using a combo attack, Isaac cast a wind spell on Oliver's sword.
Waving it was launched a crescent-like attack that combined fire and wind.
The blades of fire impacted Heinrich, generating a large explosion.
He was a human being even if he turned into a monster.
He could easily be stopped was what the boys thought.
But when the cloud of smoke disappeared, they could see that their efforts were useless.
Heinrich had no damage.
What's more, the attack had only soiled his clothes.
He dusted himself off and got into position to tackle someone.
He quickly said.
"Ready, set..."
"Damage!"
Like a missile he swiftly launched himself at Isaac who he managed to ram and send into the sky a few seconds before falling to the ground.
After being heavily impacted, Oliver saw his friend's condition.
"Isaac, hang in there!"
He was in bad shape.
He was spitting blood, the fingers of his left hand were broken.
"You only touched him once... and left him in that state."
Sweat was running down his cheeks.
"He's so fast and strong that, without hitting us, just by using his muscles he was able to accomplish that."
"We can't beat him."
"That's true."
Heinrich stood behind him, raising his hands and bringing them together to make a large round rock.
"But I won't kill them right away. I'll make sure they suffer first."
His fists came down quickly as a scream was heard.
◇◇◇
*Gasp*
*Gasp*
"Did we lose him?"
"I-I don't know."
Al and Sig were running away.
Their clothes were covered in dust and blood.
Al said to him.
"What the hell was that?"
"First there was his weird confidence in this place, then he says something weird and turns... into a monster."
"He kills Alanson family-trained guards like they're rookies!"
"That guy is very dangerous. We should call for help and run away as soon as possible."
Al was showing his frustration in a low voice.
While Sig was silent.
(It's true that what we saw was so surreal.)
(But, that confidence he had indicated that he knew he would become a monster.)
(The real question is how did a human manage to turn into a monster?)
(We must escape from here and call for reinforcements so we have a chance to defeat him... but the human losses we will suffer to defeat him will be unparalleled.)
"Sig, duck!"
*Gale*
A strong wind swept through the area where the boys were hiding.
There were bushes and fallen logs.
Because of the hole formed by one of them, they were saved from the strong gale that pulverized the area.
Everything green was gone.
"Shit, he found us!"
Approaching with strange footsteps similar to pads being stepped on.
There was Ulrich looking repulsive near them.
He thinned so much that his bones marked his body.
From his hands to almost reaching his forearms two machine guns were replacing flesh.
His face almost disappeared completely.
His mouth and nose were joined to form a rifle barrel.
Ulrich could talk just fine, but he sounded like he was in a warehouse.
"You did manage to escape, prince and secretary."
"Killing their escorts was simple, the swords don't hurt me since they can't reach me."
"That's why I saved you for last."
Again he was preparing for the attack.
His cheeks inflated to the point of looking like a balloon the size of a small car.
The air sucked through a crack in the gun that is his mouth was sent to his stomach where all that compressed air was sent at once in one direction.
Causing a gale like gunshot to sweep everything in its path.
The boys dodged it thanks to the ten second delay it takes to charge.
But even with that, the machine guns in their hands didn't need to charge.
"Shield!"
Al manifested a shield that took care of blocking the bullets made of rocks, earth and magic power combined.
At the speed and rotation, they were launched, it was enough to destroy the shield.
That was why Al manifested another shield before the previous one was destroyed.
He was spending magic power like crazy.
Sig also attacked, pulled a dagger from his waist, imbued it with magic power and threw it against Ulrich's neck.
It worked, but he wasn't falling.
Not even blood was dripping.
Then Sig made the decision to take Al's sword and approach the front.
"Al, go get reinforcements! I'll distract him."
"Don't talk bullshit Sig! You're the crown prince and you must survive even if I have to die!"
After standing in front of Ulrich, Sig readied himself with his magic sword to attack.
"What good does it do me to be crown prince if I must allow others, including friends to die for me! I must prove that I can protect everyone!"
Sig charged straight at Ulrich.
"You really are a stupid crown prince."
He pointed his rifle at him.
"Die."
Several shots rang out as blood rushed.
◇◇◇
Rei's situation was bad.
He was being attacked from all sides by Klyde clones.
"Come on, let's go."
"Is that all you can do?"
"I actually find it pathetic that Calvin lost to a wimp like you hahaha."
Three of the six Klyde were attacking Rei in all directions.
The others were surrounding him and looking for an opening to attack him from behind or blind spot.
But as they did so, immediately a shield manifested itself blocking the attack.
The shield that Rei used was one that used its own energy.
That is, it was a shield linked to his heart,
He activated this suspicious ability seeing how easily Klyde's copies destroyed his shields.
He thought of this ability after his arm was cut off by Calvin.
(It's true that linking it to my heart makes me more likely to die if my body can't withstand it.)
(But it's the only way I can stand a chance against this guy!)
Rei understood that what he did was wrong.
But he wanted to defeat Klyde.
Without Kurono here, no one else could do it.
The end of the royal family, his fathers-in-law, Eli's parents and his brother-in-law, would be their remains scattered everywhere.
He didn't want to allow that.
"This is boring."
"Hey guys, I'll go take care of the royal family while you play with him."
"You could take the opportunity to escape while we're here."
"Understood."
Replied the copies.
Rei began to feel his heart clench as he heard one of them leave, but he must stop the other 5.
"Wait!"
"Worry about us, not him."
One of the clones moved faster and wilder, making Rei's heart clench.
"Gyahahahaha!"
"The royal family will be slaughtered painfully and slowly rest assured."
"After all, there's no one else to help you."
He was right.
Rei without Kurono could not defeat them.
He was alone.
One against six was an unwinnable battle.
That was what they all thought.
"Puah!"
One of the clones was pierced by a long piercing object.
Falling to the ground as it bled black pitch-like liquid.
Everyone turned around to see who caused that.
Rei, for the first time in his life, not only learned how important it was to help others.
He was also glad to have allies.
"Darius!"
"Rei, what the hell are these things?"
Darius came to the rescue.
"I was at peace in my room when a maid said the palace was under attack."
"I went to check my weapon and found a pile of corpses. I followed the trail of fresh blood as well as the noises and found you."
"That doesn't matter now! Darius, chase the guy that got away!"
"The royal family is in danger!"
"You're wrong about that."
They heard a high pitched voice come from the back of the direction where one of the clones went.
They watched as a body came flying over, split in half.
The clones swallowed saliva as they watched a man in golden armor approach.
It was Sieg.
"The old commander!"
Rei shouted in joy at the sight of him.
Sieg had arrived.
How was this possible if he was days away from returning?
"I had a bad feeling for days."
"I told my right-hand man that I entrusted him with the border until I get rid of this unpleasant feeling."
"I was right to come secretly and use the emergency exit that only a few know about."
(There's really such a thing!)
Thought the two boys.
Klyde's clones stepped back taking their own.
Rei, Darius and the newly arrived Sieghart moved into attack position.
"I don't need to ask, but I'll say it anyway."
"Duke Redblade, are those guys' enemies of the royal family?"
"They are."
"Okay. And, the young man next to you is an ally right?"
Rei looked at Darius and he nodded.
"He is. He is an ally of the kingdom."
"Understood."
Sieg stood in the middle of the two.
"I am Captain Commander Sieghart Hogan, I was granted this position to protect the royal family."
"You... I don't know who you are, but I swear you will not leave here."
Sieg was so angry that he decided to use both of his hands to fight. It was a sign of how angry and serious the situation was.
Rei couldn't help but ask.
"Hey, old commander, who's guarding the royal family?"
"It might be that one of these guys escaped and they're going after them."
Sieg flashed a smile.
"There's nothing to be afraid of, I've brought an escort that will take care of protecting them while we're here."
He pronounced the name of his escort.
"The ninth captain of the royal knights. Bret Elliott."
Rei made a doll-like face upon hearing that name.
"... Excuse me?"
The final battle was about to begin.