"Argh... shit!" Arthur groaned in pain as he removed his armor, revealing his skin completely melted into a strange, bloody goo.
[You have suffered severe corrosion damage, seek medical treatment immediately!
-30 HP]
[You have untreated severe injuries; your HP will decrease at a rate of 0.5/S].
Fighting to ignore the terrible pain, Arthur waved in the air and a green liquid potion appeared in his hand. Without hesitation, he swallowed the liquid, his face contorting, not from the pain, but from the horrible taste of the liquid.
[You have drunk a 'lower healing portion 1x'.
+27 HP]
Suddenly, the skin on Arthur's back began to heal at a rate visible to the human eye, but even that wasn't enough to completely heal his wounds.
Not far behind Arthur was the hole through which they had entered the cave. Wild roars rang out as the creature tried desperately to break through the thick walls that separated it from its prey. A futile attempt.
Gabriel stood a few feet from Arthur, his eyes empty and his expression strangely depressed. In his heart and mind, Safira's voice, saying that she loved Arthur before she disappeared, still echoed as if someone had driven a burning iron into his chest.
He was completely overwhelmed by the bitterness of that feeling, and for some reason, he even felt remorseful.
"Hahaha" Gabriel laughed.
'A holy son who regrets saving someone...' He gritted his teeth bitterly, 'how pathetic...'
Gabriel would have liked to shout these words, but he held them in his mind before he turned to Arthur's figure, who now only wore the lower part of his armor.
His gaze fell on Arthur, or more precisely, on his spatial ring. It was something simple that Gabriel had never paid attention to before, but now that he looked at it closely and noticed the faint signatures of mana emanating from it, his eyes widened.
"What kind of monster was that? I've never seen anything like it." Arthur began to stand, but stopped when he felt a metallic chill on his neck.
"What the hell are you doing?" Arthur asked as he turned to face Gabriel, who had his hand outstretched, and the blade of his sword pressed against Arthur's neck.
"Where did you get the ring?" Gabriel asked as his face distorted and a piercing anger appeared in his eyes and voice.
"Why does it matter to you?" Arthur tried to take a step back, gripping the hilt of his sword, still unsure of Gabriel's intentions.
"That ring belonged to Baron Greg of Dunul, the man we came to find!" Gabriel said before asking again, "Now answer me, where did you get this ring?"
Hearing these words, Arthur shuddered and hesitated for a few seconds before replying, "I found it on the floor of the cave and-"
"Bullshit!" Gabriel shouted, pushing the blade of his sword against Arthur's neck, causing a small stream of blood to appear and flow down Arthur's chest.
"It is impossible to take control of a space ring from one person and give it to another without the presence of the original owner's body!" Gabriel had even more hate in his voice. "Be honest, or I'll rip your head off right here!"
Hearing this, Arthur's face fell, and his gaze went to Gabriel's face, trying to find a way out of this.
"I already told you the truth!" Arthur replied.
Hearing this, Gabriel gritted his teeth and pulled his sword back, gripping the hilt tightly. He was ready to rip Arthur's head off right then and there, but he stopped himself.
"Arthur, by the power granted to me by Aelius, I order you to surrender your sword and face justice! I will take you to Albrid and you will stand trial for Greg's death!" Gabriel roared, his voice full of resentment, and although he had chosen not to kill Arthur on the spot, his decision could condemn the young man to a fate far worse than death.
Gabriel knew this well, and in his mind, blinded by the hatred of the suspicions in his heart and the jealousy of losing his beloved, a fate worse than death was exactly what he wanted for Arthur.
Arthur clenched his fists so tightly that his bones cracked as he gripped the hilt of his sword. Gabriel's gaze and voice pierced him like a sledgehammer through the chest. He wasn't about to give in, and just one look from Gabriel made it clear that he didn't seem to have a choice.
"It doesn't have to be like this..." Arthur spoke, but was interrupted by a warning from the system.
[Quest: Getting to the outside world 3/5.
General: You are in a dark dungeon, survive the adversities and find a way out!
01: Choose a path! (completed)
02: Danger ahead! (completed)
03: A horde of hobgoblins! (completed)
04: The fall of a holy son
Kill Gabriel, the 100th holy son of the Church of Aelius.
Rete: A
Rewards: 130 XP, 8 prestige, 5 attribute points for each attribute, a way out of the dungeon.
Failure: Death.
5:?]
At that moment, especially when he saw a new condition in the mission message, Arthur understood. His will no longer mattered. It was kill or be killed.
Without a second's hesitation, he drew his sword from its sheath, and the moment his cold gaze met Gabriel's hateful gaze, they both advanced. Their swords sliced through the air, carrying Arthur's crimson energy and Gabriel's golden energy.
In that brief moment, a memory of a past dream was revived in Arthur's mind, and the world seemed to split between red and gold as their swords clashed fiercely.
"There is still time to retreat, surrender and face justice!!!" Gabriel shouted as he was thrown more than 10 paces.
"Never!" Arthur replied, his feet dragging on the ground and opening a rift that stretched for more than 5 meters before he finally stopped.
"Then you will die by my hand!" Gabriel roared and gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, channeling the golden energy into his blade before raising it above his head and cutting at Arthur, sending a slash of golden energy through the air.
Arthur's eyes widened at the sight of the crescent-shaped mass of mana approaching his body, and he barely had time to raise his sword to defend himself before he was struck by the attack.
"Shit!" Arthur cursed and was thrown backwards again, feeling a searing pain as Gabriel's magical attack shattered into hundreds of pieces that flew out and tore at his skin.
Arthur barely had time to recover before another blast of light swept toward him. Clenching his teeth, Arthur threw his body to the side as Gabriel's attack hit the ground and shattered again into dozens of tiny pieces that cut like razors.
"Son of a bitch! Does your mana ever run out?" Arthur roared as he ran toward Gabriel, who continued to unleash his magical attacks.
In the time it took him to catch his breath, he was back in front of Gabriel, swinging his sword at his opponent.
"This time..." Gabriel raised his sword to Arthur's.
"I won't take you lightly," Gabriel's voice fell, and in the next second, a powerful golden light exploded from his body and flowed through his sword blade before a thunderous sound resounded, illuminating the entire battlefield.
In front of this light, the world fell silent, and even the beast that was still desperately trying to break through the stone walls to reach them fell silent and stopped its struggle.
Arthur's body broke through the curtain of smoke that followed the explosion of golden light and flew dozens of meters before finally collapsing to the ground.
"Ugh..." Arthur choked on his own blood as he tried to stand up, both of his arms nowhere to be seen, with only two bloody stumps connecting them to his shoulder, his hair completely vaporized, and all of his skin and flesh melting, turning his face and body into a bloody mess that revealed even his bones.
Arthur tried to scream from the pain, but he could not, his vocal cords were burned and his lungs were cooked.
At that moment, the only thing he wanted was to die, but his HP refused to reach zero.
Arthur, or at least what was left of his body, stayed there and watched as Gabriel slowly approached him.
"When I was six, I picked up a sword for the first time." Gabriel's hands ran over the blade of his sword.
"When I was ten, I killed for the first time." Gabriel reached the halfway point to Arthur.
"At nineteen, I'd already fought two hundred battles to the death, and I'd never lost a single one." Gabriel finally reached Arthur's body, and his gaze swept over it with a piercing coldness.
"From demons to men, all fall under the light of Aelius, the light I shine on my sword!" Gabriel kicked Arthur's kneeling body, causing him to fall backwards to the ground, the boots of his armor sinking into the melted flesh and an unpleasant stench entering his nostrils, but he paid no attention, just enjoying the desperate and painful look in Arthur's eyes, whose eyelids had already melted over his eyeballs, causing hellish pain and obscuring Arthur's vision.
The truth was far crueler than Arthur could even imagine. The title of Holy Son was not just a pretty name. Gabriel was a top being of the younger generation, someone Arthur would have trouble matching even if he had been born and raised in this world, someone who would be part of the backbone of one of the largest and most powerful organizations in the world.
The truth was that Arthur had lost this battle before it even began.
"I curse your body," Gabriel stomped on Arthur's chest, causing him to cough up large gulps of blood and groan in pain.
"And I curse your soul to the seventh hell, may it burn for all eternity." Gabriel's foot sank into Arthur's chest, destroying his ribcage and then his heart.
At that moment, Arthur's body became inert, and his eyes lost their life.
Gabriel sighed in victory and removed his feet from Arthur's chest before turning away.
But there was one thing he didn't notice. From a small cut on his cheek, a single drop trickled down to his chin and dripped onto Arthur's open chest.