"No!!" Alfis shouted, his eyes wide and bloodshot, his mind trying to process what just happened.
Deremiah on the other hand, stared speechlessly and even thoughtlessly at the cliff where Mist had struck before falling into the molten river. He searched for many ways he could shift the blame in that moment, but Mist's death was undeniably his fault.
"You!"
Turning his head, he saw Alfis leaping high into the air and coming down on him with a speeding fist.
Deremiah quickly rolled out of the way and Alfis's fist struck the ground where he had been. Frantically, Deremiah began to crawl backwards, using his feet and elbows to drag himself on the cracked earth.
"What are you doing?" he asked through a groan.
Alfis's eyes flashed. "What am I doing? You lied about your Path's Threat Level, you increased the difficulty of this Corridor. Now Faya and Mist are both dead because of it! Because of you!"
Deremiah's eyes narrowed. 'This hypocrite. If I wasn't here, he was eventually going to kill both of them anyway.'
Watching Deremiah look at him with no response, Alfis's anger only rose. "Don't you have anything to say for yourself?!!"
Deremiah stopped crawling, teeth gnashed and brows furrowed. "Look, we can't get into this now. That Paragon beast is still trying to kill us!"
Alfis extended his hand and grabbed him by the shirt, yanking him up until they were nose to nose. "Don't you dare tell me what to do, you lying slumm—"
Instantly, his voice faltered, trailing away as though it had been choked by a dreadful realization or a terrifying sight. His eyes were locked onto Deremiah's, but there was something unnameable staring back at him. Something that made his stomach twist and his pupils tremble.
'Wha— What is this? What is that presence... that entity in his eyes? Why do I feel this sudden pressure? Am I... afraid?'
Alfis remained locked in his gaze, he was unable to look anywhere else. His body felt frozen, kept in place by the unseen and unnatural force. His heart kept pounding, every hair on his skin had stood and his body was subjugated by this terrifying force.
'No, no. I can't be afraid. He's just a One Marked participant. But even so, how could that be possible? One Marked participants can't have that high of a Threat Level. A Threat Level high enough to increase our overall difficulty. Did he lie about everything? And if that's the case...'
He stared at Deremiah's deadpan face. '...then how powerful is this guy?'
"Alfis!"
"Huh?" The noble was jolted back into reality and he turned just in time to see his brother Dane let out a cry as the Moltenshark's tendrils ensnared him.
"Dane!" Alfis yelled, letting go of Deremiah and sprinting toward the Paragon.
Dane tried his best to fight back, firing arrows at the beast's face, but they ricocheted harmlessly off its armored hide. Alfis stopped midway through his run and searched the ground for weapons.
His eyes caught Deremiah's sword sprawled on the ground and he eagerly raced towards it. Arms outstretched, he tried to grab it by its hilt and pick it up, but his entire body jerked at how astronomically and surprisingly heavy it was.
"What the— " he strained, looking at the blade with wide eyes. 'What kind of sword is this? How does he wield a sword that I can't even lift?'
Deremiah picked himself from the ground and watched on from behind the elevated earth. He saw Alfis get frustrated, giving up on the sword and running towards Pallock who was also hiding behind a fallen tree.
At first, Deremiah thought that Alfis was going to borrow Pallock's gauntlets and use it to fight the beast. That seemed like the only sensible option. But to Deremiah's astonishment, he had underestimated Dane's character and his desperation.
The noble boy grabbed Pallock by the shirt, despite his weight, he managed to pull him from his hiding place and dragged him closer to the Paragon beast who was about to eat his brother.
"Take him!" Alfis screamed, pushing Pallock in front of him and holding him still.
Pallock whimpered in fear and tried to struggle free. "What are you doing?!" he begged.
'What is he doing?' Deremiah thought.
Alfis ignored Pallock's voice, holding him still. "Take this one, please! He's fatter, full of meat! Please, take him and let my brother go!"
Deremiah's eyes widened. As helpless and frustrated as Alfis felt, it didn't justify any of this. And even so, it was still a stupid plan.
This was a Corrupted Paragon, and it had already killed two of their friends. Why would it want to do an exchange when it was going to eat all of them anyway?
'Stupid,' Deremiah thought. 'If you're going to play the sacrifice act for your brother, why not sacrifice your own life instead of someone else's?'
Either way, the Paragon didn't care for Alfis's pleas anymore than Alfis cared for Pallock's. After a gruesome roar, it pulled Dane closer into its opened jaws, then snapped it shut around him.
Dane was gone in an instant.
"No!!!" Alfis bellowed pain and spit. Rage trembled through his body and he pushed Pallock aside. "No!!" he cried once again.
That was when he decided to take Pallock's gauntlets, locking them onto his clenched fists and narrowing his eyes with venomous anger. "You'll pay for this, you bastard Paragon! I'll make you pay for this!!"
Letting out a painful cry, Alfis activated his Technique, [Power of a Crowd], and as Deremiah watched, four new versions of himself, split out of his body.
He could see that the noble hadn't mastered the Technique yet as creating the clones caused him visible pain. However, Alfis still attacked with his clones, all charging at the beast which wasn't just surprised to see more prey, but excited by it.
As Pallock crawled quietly into safety, Alfis shot out multiple blasts at the Moltenshark, while his clones hacked and slashed using the small knives he had in his pockets.
But the relentless Paragon was barely even phased. The gauntlets did manage to get some reaction from it, but the beast crushed the clones with ease, either a thrash of its tendrils or a slash of its claws.
It tore through them one by one.
And soon, barely even a minute after he attacked, the Paragon got hold of Alfis and opened its jaws to reunite him with his little brother.