~ Chapter 30: The cries of my spells ~

[Illsyore’s point of view]

With a speed faster than the human eye could see, she dashed towards Dankyun, who noticed the incoming danger and lifted his right hand up to block the first strike. He didn’t even flinch when he received the blow. The shockwave was so powerful, it shattered the window behind him into a billion pieces, and the impulse sent him flying through it. The frame was blown apart, and the wall cracked because of his sheer size.

Even after such a powerful hit, Dankyun still didn’t receive any damage and landed calmly on his feet. Nanya walked over to the hole in the wall and jumped after him. Meanwhile, I was left holding the head of the poor girl who died because of him.

Looking down at her contorted expression of fear and pain, I cringed and closed my eyes for a moment.

She didn’t deserve this… I thought and flew over to her torn body.

After placing the head down, I went outside, where a full-blown battle was taking place between the draconian Supreme and the Godlike teenage-looking teacher. The loud noises of their clashing strikes echoed on the walls of the dormitory and the nearby academy building, alerting both the soldiers and teachers of the ongoing battle.

I flew above them and watched as Nanya tried to get in close enough to land a strike on his vital spots with her steel gauntlets, but Dankyun’s sword was too fast and blocked each and every one of them. Behind him, I could see the effects of her brute force. The shockwaves rustled the grass, and the loud booms scared off any small animals or bugs hiding in the area. The students in the dormitory were already trying to get out of their way and find shelter in the main academy building, where the teachers instructed them to hide.

Being a simple observer in this battle wasn’t to my liking, so I prepared myself to engage Dankyun. I wasn’t planning on stealing Nanya’s kill, but I wanted to help her out as much as I could.

“Shellur Sou Yar!” I chanted and cast four [Explosive Jagged Ice Spear X4].

Sixteen Jagged Ice Spears formed around me and flew towards Dankyun. He jumped back and slashed the five closest to him. Two missed, hitting the ground at his feet. Another two managed to land a direct hit, but they didn’t even scratch him. As for the rest of the spears, they kept chasing after him until he swallowed them up in a wind tornado, but just like before, I didn’t hear him chant to cast the spell.

I found it incredibly strange that he was able to do something like that, but I knew it wasn’t technically impossible. From the little I knew, as long as someone figured out how to properly control the flow of magic in his mind and focused on the effect of the chanted words more than the combination of sounds, there was no problem in using any sort of spell. Unfortunately, I was far from attaining and using such a skill.

As soon as he finished casting the wind tornado, I saw Nanya jumping towards him. She used the voice command for [Fireball] and another spell I could only describe as a directional lightning strike. Dankyun slashed her first spell in half, nullifying it, but he didn’t notice the second one and received the full hit. His armor, however, remained undamaged. That was when Nanya charged at him again, trying to strike him down with her fists.

While she was keeping him busy, I didn’t hesitate and charged up 500 Magic Energy Points into a [Fireball]. The students were too far from a possible impact area, but the damage would certainly be considerable. I just hoped Nanya dodged in time.

“Ashur Nav Es!” I shouted, and my spell was launched at Dankyun.

“Hmph! Pathetic!” said the draconian, who kicked Nanya in the chest, sending her crashing into the wall of the dormitory.

Before my spell hit, he turned around and slashed it in half, causing a Magic Energy instability. Although the spell didn’t detonate, the mass of fire spilled over the ground around him just like water would out of a popped balloon. The flames singed the ground, leaving nothing but ashes behind.

I watched stupefied at how easy it was for Dankyun to destroy the attack that took the life of 24 assassins. Once more, I realized the actual difference in skill and power between ranks. I couldn’t compare Dankyun, a Supreme, with those assassins, who at most were Master Rank.

Nanya coughed and got up from the ground. The wall behind her crumbled down, leaving behind a hole.

Glaring at him, she lifted her hand up and shouted “Erater Elf Es!”

In that moment, fifteen Jagged Ice Spears formed around her and then flew at the smug draconian. He jumped out of the way, letting two pierce the ground, while he used his sword to deflect and destroy the others. Only one managed to pierce through his defense, but it was deflected with ease by his armor. I had no idea what it was made out off, but it did the same to my Explosive Jagged Ice Spears. They were deflected, and they didn’t even detonate upon impact. For a moment, I even thought I shot a dud.

“It appears this isn’t what I would call a fair fight. There’s an invisible partner helping you, isn’t there?” asked Dankyun with a confident smirk on his face.

“Why? Why did you kill her, Dankyun?!” shouted Nanya at the man.

“Hm? Oh? That little twerp? It’s simple. I deemed her to be a traitor towards me and the draconic species. We have no need for the likes of her.” he shrugged calmly.

“What? A traitor? How could Zoraya be a traitor? You are lying, you pile of donkey manure! She was a simple girl who wanted to become a healer and return to her village! She never had any intention of joining the army! Grrr!” shouted Nanya, letting out a growl at the end. It sounded animalistic, but it just proved how angered the teenage-looking teacher was.

“Oh, such filthy words! Alas, I can’t expect more from the likes of you. As for that draconian, I can guarantee that she was indeed a traitor to her kingdom and species! I did ask her, after all, if she knows where Ayuseya might be, and she dared to reply that even if she knew, she would never tell me! I felt insulted! Besides, it’s in the interest of the Teslov Kingdom for me to find her as quickly as I can. Gods forbid if something were to happen to her in this kingdom because she withheld precious information from me! That’s why I declared her a traitor. At the very least, I offered her the touch of a man before I killed her. Do not worry, I’ll let her family know of her… betrayal. They will certainly fall from their noble status because of this, but I do believe it’s a rather fitting punishment for the likes of her, don’t you think so?” he asked as he looked down at the tip of his sword.

“You are a madman!” I declared before Nanya could open her mouth, while the black fog of my killing intent spawned from the ground all over my territory and focused its darkest parts around Dankyun.

No matter what he said, me and Nanya already knew the truth, and that girl did nothing to deserve such a cruel fate. Dankyun did this only to satisfy his twisted thirst for blood, one which would be poured down all over my friends and those I cared about in this world if we didn’t put a stop to him.

“Me? A madman? That’s a bit absurd! I’m just concerned for the well-being of my species! The draconians are far more advanced and powerful than humans, elves, or the pathetic beastfolk on the third continent! Yet, we are degrading ourselves constantly by working with them and even helping them… Ugh! That’s why, I merely offered to all of those misguided draconian students the possibility of becoming my underlings and learning from the best of the best the proper ways one such as them should behave! Instead of seeing the generous offer I extended towards them, they dared to refuse and in that girl’s case even disobey my orders as a Supreme and future member of the royal family! That’s the very definition of betrayal!” he declared as he glared towards Nanya, since he wasn’t able to see me.

“Dankyun, you are the very definition of despicable and mad!” retorted Nanya.

I couldn't agree more with her statement.

“Too bad! I never asked your opinion anyway!” he smirked and charged at her.

Nanya jumped back, but she was too slow. His hand moved faster than the eyes could see, and slashed her with his sword. It went straight through her magic armor and connected to the physical one. Sparks flew in all directions and Nanya went flying towards the dormitory.

I didn’t even have time to react. One moment I saw her jumping back, and in the next I saw Dankyun appearing right in front of her. The windows on the entire left wing were shattered into tiny pieces, and the whole structure trembled. The side of the dormitory between the first and second floor was heavily damaged by the impact of her body with the floor between them. Luckily, the structure wasn’t made out of concrete, so it was cracked and shattered with ease, dampening some of the impact. Unfortunately, it put that entire side of the structure in danger of collapsing.

Most of the damage was where Nanya hit the building, leaving the upper room and the one below partially visible. Inside was a total mess, with pieces of the walls having smashed the furniture and glass from the broken windows was scattered all over the place. As for Nanya, she stopped close to the last room, falling down on the ground with an ‘oomph’. The barely hanging wall collapsed on top of her, covering her partially in rubble. As far as I could tell, she was still alive, but after such a powerful blow, I suspected she had at least one or two cracked ribs.

“Nanya!” I shouted instinctively, but instead of rushing there, I targeted Dankyun and created a barrage of [Seeker Fireball X18]. “Zir Navian Esy!”

One after another, big fireballs of at least half a meter in diameter went after him. The draconian saw the incoming attack and immediately tried to dodge and block them, but I was in control of each one of them. After the first two were slashed in half by his sword, I began to take advantage of their explosive effect and used it as an AOE. I ordered the fireballs to explode right when they touched his Magic Armor or at a few centimeters away from the edge of his sword.

The first ones took him by surprise, tossing him back a meter or so. The next ones, he tried to cut them, but the effect was the same, however, still far from causing any sort of damage to him. Actually, I couldn’t see even a single scratch on his armor, but the battle was far from over. My Magic Energy pool was far from being depleted, and I had yet to use my Emperor Rank Skill. My only worry was him using his Supreme Skill.

“What pathetic attacks! But I will admit they amuse me a bit! I’m guessing the one attacking is you, Dungeon Lord?” he asked with a smirk as he kept avoiding or receiving the explosions from my fireballs.

I didn’t answer. I focused on the battle, hoping that it would offer Nanya enough time to recover.

“Nya Nya Niku!” I shouted the voice command for creating a trap.

Under Dankyun’s feet, a spike trap formed, but since it didn’t have the enchant of ignoring a part of the Magic Armor, it simply threw him in the air when it triggered.

“Spike traps? Against me? Really?” he laughed.

“Eshun Naer Es! Jend Ashur Elf Es! Zir Navian Esy!” I shouted the voice commands for [Wind Scythe], [Explosive Jagged Ice Spear], and [Seeker Fireball X18].

The first one cut the air and slammed into him, sending the draconian flying towards the academy, the jagged ice spear flew through the air and aimed at his back. He turned around in midair and slashed it in half, but I detonated it and tiny ice spikes pounded his Magic Armor. I finished by bombarding him with seeker fireballs in a randomized pattern. He defended himself from a few, but for the rest it was nearly impossible to do so.

“Serus kar!” I chanted the voice command for [Telekinezy] and targeted Dankyun.

I tried to surround him with this spell, but I couldn’t get a good grip on him because his Magic Armor was too dense. Putting more Magic Energy in this spell didn’t work either. He was still trying to figure out where I was, completely ignoring my attacks on him, but I was invisible to everyone except Nanya and Ayuseya.

With no alternative left, I tried to surround him with my spell entirely. It worked, and I slowed down his fall.

“What’s this?” he asked surprised.

It didn’t seem like he recognized the spell. Turning around, I pretended I was baseball player and used Dankyun as a ball. I tossed him as hard as I could towards the forest on the other side of the academy. His body went flying through the air at an incredible speed, breaking the sound barrier and creating a sonic boom. The shockwave spread around, and the next thing I saw were the effects of his body slamming into the trees. He passed straight through a couple, shattering their trunks into tiny pieces and breaking in half a couple of others.

My initial intent was to fly over to assess the damage and give the finishing blow, but then I heard one of his soldiers.

“Kill them all!” he shouted.

Looking down, I saw the students and teachers fighting against Dankyun’s army. The three commanders were holding off the teachers, while the soldiers were trying to break inside the school. Concentrating on the group of misbehaving draconian men, I created a hole under them and then summoned lava on top. It wasn’t much, just enough to block the entrance to the academy. I wasn’t going to let them kill the students.

“AAARGH! It burns!” screamed one of them.

“Get back! It’s the Dungeon Lord!” shouted another as he jumped out of the hole.

I probably killed some of them, but the rest backed away. Just to be sure, I created a few more arrow traps next to the windows of the academy, letting them trigger the moment they got too close. Creating enchantments would have been too much for me in that moment, so I hoped the teachers and students would be able to handle the soldiers now. An alternative was to use the AGLMC Lasers on the rooftop, but pinning them down one after another would have taken too much time. I had to go and kill Dankyun.

Curse my lack of Magic Energy and lack of sure-kill traps! At least I'm still in the green... I thought as I checked how many points I had left.

I ignored everything else.

After closing my status window, I looked in the general direction where Dankyun landed. A moment ago, he was there, but then he disappeared. He was heading fast towards Nanya, who only now managed to get out from under the rubble. From what I could see, the wound inflicted on her wasn’t too dangerous, but she was bleeding a bit and holding her chest with one hand. Worst-case scenario was that her injury was internal.

“Watch out! He’s coming!” I shouted at her as I flew over.

I tried to create some sticky traps between him and her, but he simply jumped over them.

“HA!” Nanya tried to punch him, but he avoided the blow and grabbed her hand.

Turning around, he slammed Nanya in the ground and punched her in the stomach. I shot a powerful [Seeker Fireball] at him, but the moment he saw her, he moved Nanya in the way, and I had to divert it towards the dormitory. The right wing of the building was engulfed in its flames.

“Let… go!” she tried to hit him in the stomach with her knee, but it didn’t go through his Magic Armor.

Lifting her up with one hand, Dankyun laughed.

“So pathetic! I can’t believe you are so pathetic, Nanya! Hahaha! And this Dungeon Lord is even more ridiculous! Does he actually believe a Supreme like me can be harmed by these pathetic attacks of his? Hahaha!” he laughed and then punched Nanya in the stomach, making her spit blood.

The black fog on my territory showed just how terrifying my killing intent was in that moment, but there was nothing I could do except to attempt to fuel my Emperor Rank Skill with all of my Magic Energy and risk fainting because of the use.

“Nanya…” I said.

I closed my eyes for a moment.

Dankyun is going to kill Nanya at this rate… He’s going to kill her and then me… then Ayuseya, then Shanteya… I thought and unwillingly let the draconian princess inside me hear my thoughts as well.

[Ayuseya’s point of view]

 When I heard his voice, a shiver of fear went down my spine and ended at the tip of my tail.

I looked up and saw a strange moving painting surrounded by a red lightning frame. On it, I saw Dankyun holding the young teacher who was also Illsy’s first wife.

I gulped and held a tight fist to my chest.

This won’t end well… I thought.

Looking down, I noticed that I was still in my nightgown. After I woke up, I didn’t really bother to change, I didn’t feel the need to, but I also didn’t desire for Dankyun to see me like this. Illsy could, he was my friend and my husband, but not that draconian bastard.

Sigh. Why didn’t I stay with Illsy last night? Me and my royal pride… Ugh! I wonder though… was that my last chance to feel his embrace? I thought as I flew towards my dresser.

As for why I thought that Illsy was going to give me up to him? It was simple… In order to save himself. In order to save Nanya. In order to save Shanteya and this school, that was the only possible logical choice, the only way to appease Dankyun.

But what if he doesn’t want to do it? I thought and stopped, looking down at the white dress I wished to wear.

It was simple and plain, very different from what one would expect from one of my status.

Do I want Illsy to sacrifice himself for me? I asked myself.

Shaking my head, I denied such a thought and took out the dress.

I can’t let it come to that! I can’t have Illsy killed because of me! If he lets me go, it will take a while before Dankyun realizes the connection between us. Illsy can use that time to flee from here… Yes, that’s how it’s going to be… I told myself, trying to shake away any fear I had of my tragic future.

[Nanya’s point of view]

 I couldn’t even react when Dankyun attacked me…

The pain I felt was terrible. The best way to describe it was the feeling of being impaled in the gut with a thousand needles. The sword’s blade was stopped by the hidden chainmail layer of my armor. Although on the outside it looked like plain, old leather armor, all of its layers had powerful damage reducing enchantments on them. My belt held a healing one, so I was recovering faster than normally possible, but I still had to infuse a good amount of Magic Energy in my body to stop my hemorrhaging innards.

When I got out of the pile of debris, I was aware of the battle taking place at the academy. Tuberculus and Paladinus were most likely on the front lines, trying to hold those soldiers off. The three commanders were the biggest problem, but in rest, they could all be handled with ease.

As for me, my problem was Dankyun. I wasn’t expecting him to be so powerful. No, he wasn’t powerful, but his armor and sword were out of the ordinary. They greatly boosted his abilities and had an increased protection factor. With certainty, they allowed him to go past 1200 strength points. I suspected he had even more in Agility, but not that much in intelligence. If only those points actually reflected how smart one actually was and not how powerful his magic attacks could be.

One thing I knew for certain was that my sword alone could increase its user’s base Strength by another 500 points. If his armor could do something similar, then there was no way of winning against him, but I highly doubted he was able to fully activate that ability. Chances were he could only use the sword at about 25% of its true potential, but even then it was incredibly dangerous.

Honestly, this was looking very bad. I could barely stand thanks to his blows. My armor was barely hanging there. My gauntlets were broken. Three ribs were cracked, and one lung was crushed as far as I could tell. I was healing, but not as fast as I would have desired.

In short, I was done for…

I was an idiot for charging at him like that… I can’t believe I let myself be ruled by emotions. If only I tried to first release my seal and then attack him... Then I might have stood a fighting chance… I thought as I felt Dankyun’s claws clench tight around my throat, cutting off my air supply.

I’m sorry Illsy… I closed my eyes.

[Illsyore’s point of view]

 Nanya was dying…

I had 4865 Magic Energy points.

I had only one target.

It was now or never…

“Neru Am Ur.” I whispered the chant.

An insane amount of Magic Energy poured into the spell, and I didn’t stop until it automatically cut itself off. This was at 4650 Magic Energy Points. I then released the spell in Dankyun’s direction. Around me, 220 [Infernal Glacier] spears were formed, each of them was far stronger than the original version, but what this meant exactly, I didn’t know. I only wanted to kill Dankyun.

I released all of them with him as the prime target, and they all flew as fast as they could in his direction.

Noticing the imminent danger, he released Nanya from his grasp and jumped back, they followed him at perfect angles unlike the [Seeker Fireball] and [Jagged Ice Spear]. The [Infernal Glacier] spears followed my exact directions: left, right, up, down, left, left, right, wherever I looked and wanted them to fly, they flew.

“Annoying little things!” said Dankyun before he tried to cut one of them.

The arrow exploded on impact, splashing the liquid fire on him. I couldn’t tell if it did any serious damage on his Magic Armor, but he tried to get rid of it quickly. This distracted him for a moment, and another managed to hit. After that, he was bombarded by a good number of them, hammering at his physical armor and Magic Armor.

I had no idea how much damage he actually took, but I could see his physical one crack, and I was certain he was pouring a lot of Magic Energy in his magic one too.

Can I win with this? I asked myself.

78 of those Infernal Glacier spears struck him, and 142 were left.

He jumped to the left and four of those arrows struck the ground, leaving a huge crater there. One managed to touch the rooftop of the dormitory and detonated, ripping off a good chunk of it. Now, the whole thing was half in flames and dangerously close to crumbling down. Another of those spears hit a tree, and it simply cut through it before it impaled itself at the root of the one behind it. The spear exploded, and the liquid fire engulfed the area, setting it ablaze.

These misses weren’t because of the spell itself. To blame was my lack of focus and inability to keep control over all of them at the same time. I was barely staying awake. My eyelids felt like they were each being pulled down by the weight of an entire tank. My whole perception felt sluggish, and I found it extremely hard to focus.

It reminded me of that one time in college, when I had to take a Mechanical Engineering exam and I didn’t sleep for over two days straight trying to get my report and homework done in time. My grade was mostly dependent on those two, so I had to finish them. Thanks to those sleepless nights, I felt like a zombie during the entire exam. I just wanted to get it over with and crash down in my bed.

Thinking about it, you could say I had a decent amount of training from my student years in regard to keeping my eyes open for such a long time. Even so, in these hellish conditions, I was keeping control over 130 something [Infernal Glacier] spears that flew at ridiculous high speeds through the air.

“Dungeon Lord, you are such a persistent little bug!” said Dankyun after he was tossed to the side by the explosion of one of those spears.

A dangerous fire was already spreading throughout the forest, threatening to burn it to the ground, but I didn’t care, I focused only on getting rid of Dankyun. I needed only one of those spears to land a direct hit on his flesh, and it would have been enough to kill him.

Four more went through the trees and aimed for his feet. He couldn’t dodge those. Two more cracks appeared on his armor. Another eight exploded behind him, above his waist, while two in front of him, at his feet, causing him to fall over. Another crack appeared on his armor.

I couldn’t take it anymore.

“AAARGH!” I groaned and screamed, sending ALL the remaining 100 spears at him.

With every drop of my remaining focus and energy, I aimed them all at his head and chest. If only one would land a direct hit, it would be my victory!

“ARGH!” screamed Dankyun as he tried to defend himself from the sudden avalanche of attacks.

The explosions soon followed, spreading liquid fire all over the place, pouring it over the trees, dirt, and rocks. Infernal flames spread all over the place, burning to a crisp anything they touched. The rocks melted, the dirt was singed, everything around Dankyun was burning.

Everything… except Dankyun.

“No…” I said in a trembling tone of voice when I saw him still standing in the middle of that hell.

He was breathing hard, his armor was in tatters, pieces of it were falling on the ground, but he only had a small cut on his left cheek. Nothing else, he wasn’t dead…

“How dare…” he said, and I blinked surprised “How dare you injure me!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.

“What?” I couldn’t believe it.

He can still fight… I thought.

“I’m going to murder you!” he screamed and then took a small purple crystal from his left pocket. “Repair.” he said, and the crystal turned from purple to transparent.

Under my astonished gaze, I saw his armor being repaired by the magic in that crystal. It returned to its initial condition as though it was brand new. There wasn’t even a single scratch on it anymore. It was like all of my attacks so far had been nothing more than a petty parlor trick, an illusion. Yet the forest around him was still up in flames.

“No! You can’t do that! That’s cheating!” I shouted.

“Cheating? Hah! Any self respected Supreme and Godlike adventurer uses these things! Well, anyone except that STUPID Nanya! She never wanted to touch a Dungeon’s crystal even after it was processed into this!” he shouted with a smirk and pulled out another crystal, this time a brown one. “Rejuvenation!”

The spell in the crystal vanished, turning transparent from a brown color, and Dankyun’s wounds were all healed up in the blink of an eye. It was natural to think that a respectable adventurer always had a potion of some kind at hand to heal their wounds and restore their energy, but even I knew their reaction wasn’t instant.

No, that has to be a spell of some sort… Maybe he can store spells inside those crystals. I thought as I looked at him in horror.

Was there anything else I could do at this point? I could barely keep my eyes open thanks to how tired I was, and there was no way I could cast another spell so soon. I needed at least a half an hour or so to recover completely, but if I closed my eyes now, it was certain I wouldn’t be able to wake up so quickly. Whatever I did, I had to stay awake and head back to my Crystal Body. Before anything, I had to send it inside my dungeon, where it could be protected. That was my only chance, my only way of survival.

I hated it, but there was no other way to survive this nightmare.

“Replenish Magic Energy.” said Dankyun behind me.

Those blasted crystals healed him and restored him to full strength! I didn’t even know such things existed let alone that he had so many of them. I hated my lack of knowledge of this world, but this wasn’t the time to complain about it.

Although I flew as fast as I could towards my Crystal Body, Dankyun was the first one to get there. He aimed his sword at the Inconel cage, and for a moment, I thought he was going to break through it in one slash, but the blade stopped in the first layer. The shockwave cracked and shattered the outer walls, revealing the metallic shine of my barrier.

I need to hurry! I thought as I rushed inside to prepare my laser defense.

“Interesting. A metal that can actually resist my strike?” he said when I passed by him.

“Serus Kar” I gave the command for [Telekinezy].

The lasers in my room moved and aimed at him, while the electric Power Crystal was activated. I waited patiently and watched Dankyun as he prepared his second strike. He wanted to cut straight through the metal walls in one go, but they weren't as weak as he initially guessed.

At the very least, I found out that a super-alloy was strong enough to stop super-psychopaths, at least for a while.

The blade fell on my Inconel walls and slashed through the first two layers, but not the third one. Since there wasn’t any sort of electric isolation between them, the electric power from my Power Crystal was unloaded through his sword and into his body. He screamed once and jumped back.

“That hurt!” he complained.

The electric charge wasn’t powerful enough to cause him any real harm, but it did stop him long enough for me to apply [Repair Room] skill. The cuts in the Inconel metal walls were repaired in the blink of an eye, but this constant use of my Magic Energy wasn’t helping me at all with my exhaustion.

I… I need to hold on… I thought.

Illsy, if you want to stop him, you have to offer me to him… That’s the only chance we have to make him stop this madness! suggested Ayuseya from deep inside my Inner Mind, but I didn’t wish to let him do so, I denied such a request.

No… never… I told her.

I was so tired, I could barely speak or think properly.

I must… I must stay awake… I thought and closed my eyes for a moment only to be woken up by another loud noise.

Dankyun tried again to cut through my walls, but the electric discharge and the thickness of the enchanted Inconel alloy kept him at bay. He cursed and struck the walls again. The whole cube I was in trembled from his strikes.

What… What was I trying to do here? I thought.

The fatigue was so great, I even forgot the reason why I went back to my Crystal Body.

Oh, yes… escape… I remembered and looked down.

Paladinus and ten other students were standing right under me. I couldn’t let my body drop, or I would risk crushing them or the teacher accidentally attacking me. Death from friendly fire sounded like a bad joke. I had to think of something else or tell them to move away, but sending out my voice felt so difficult.

“You are really starting to get on my nerves, Dungeon Lord!” shouted Dankyun, and I felt him move away from my cage.

What’s he up to now? I thought as I watched him from afar.

A moment later, my entire room shook and the students screamed in fear. I blinked surprised. For a moment, I thought he released his supreme attack, but the only area affected was my Inconel cage.

Focusing a bit, I realized why that was so. The fake walls covering it have been blown apart by a powerful [Fireball] Dankyun attacked me with. The first layer of Inconel survived, but this only seemed to have annoyed the Supreme even more.

The draconian came charging at me, slashing at my cage with his sword as hard and as fast as he could. A few pieces of it flew off and then reappeared when I repaired it, but I couldn’t keep up with his speed. Strike after strike, he pounded at the super-alloy until it finally gave in and allowed Dankyun to slip through.

“Finally…” he said with a huff.

He was inside.

Dankyun got passed my Inconel shell and stood just a few meters away from my Core.

I cursed in my mind and turned ON all the AGLMC Lasers around me. Six beams of concentrated and amplified light struck the draconian, eating away at his Magic Armor faster than any other spell could have. If a Master or Emperor Rank stood in his place, I highly doubted they could have withstood them for more than a couple of seconds.

“What’s this?” asked Dankyun as he looked at the strange beams.

He jumped to the left as soon as he realized how fast they were depleting his Magic Armor. My beams followed him wherever he jumped, but it was hard to pin him down. The laser moved too slow to catch up to him, a grave miscalculation on my side.

I cursed in my mind again and tried to pin him down, but he started laughing at my attempts. The electrified floor didn’t even seem to bother him.

“How about this?” he asked, and he pointed his hand at me.

Instinctively, I created an Inconel wall in front of me with the [Make a Room] skill. It blocked my beams, but then I heard something exploding on the other side, and a powerful flame engulfed the entire room. My Magic Armor withstood the heat until it came to pass, but the wall was bent towards me as if it had been struck by a wrecking ball from the other side.

Dankyun laughed.

As I tried to prepare my AGLMC Lasers, I saw the wall being cut into pieces by his sword. He was standing just a step away from me.

Release me, Illsy! shouted Ayuseya.

No! I told her.

“Eshun Naer Zer!” I chanted, and a powerful gust of wind pushed Dankyun back.

I aimed my lasers at him again. The beams were kept on him only for a second before he jumped out of the way.

Release me! It’s the only way! Please… said Ayuseya.

She was begging me now, but I found it odd. Didn’t she want to run away and be free of Dankyun?

No… I can’t… I said.

The constant use of my spells was draining my Magic Energy quite fast. One of the AGLMC Lasers lost power, and the beams on the others were getting weaker.

“Hm? Is it over already?” asked Dankyun with a smug look on his face.

He jumped forward and slashed in half one of my lasers. The pieces were scattered on the floor. I tried to focus the beams on him, but the draconian moved out of the way.

My movements and thoughts were sluggish. I could barely keep my eyes open. It was starting to hurt, but I knew I couldn’t afford to fall asleep or faint.

There had to be something I could do, something I didn’t notice, something I didn’t think of until then.

Illsy, please… If you really see me as a friend, then please… give up on me. said Ayuseya.

I can’t… you are my friend… Dankyun will harm you. I replied as I saw him slash in half another laser.

The bastard was having fun stripping away my last pieces of defense. I didn’t even notice when he destroyed the Electric Power Crystal.

Illsy, you’ve done all that you could, but Dankyun will kill you at this rate. He will kill Nanya and everyone else here… If you release me from here, maybe I can still convince him not to do it. Maybe I can at least try to save you… All of this was my fault to begin with. I thought Dankyun would go away peacefully, that he would leave once he saw I wasn’t here anymore… I was wrong. I sincerely apologize for my erroneous way of thinking… That’s why, please, release me! Once I’m taken by him, you can run away and grow stronger, or you can rebuild and maybe, one day, come to my rescue, but now… you are too weak, Illsy… You are too weak to face someone like Dankyun… said Ayuseya, but I couldn’t understand even half of what she said, her words were muddled with my own thoughts and fatigue.

Dankyun destroyed my last laser. The remains of my defense were all scattered about. There was nothing I could do to stop him from destroying me, nothing except releasing Ayuseya, but how could I do that when it would certainly spell out her doom?

Unfortunately, I couldn’t think straight with how tired I was.

I couldn’t resist anymore.

My Magic Energy was barely in the tens now. It was so hard to keep my eyes open, and it was hard to think about anything at all. Even Dankyun was saying something, but I couldn’t understand a single word of what he was saying.

Ayu… se… ya… I… I… the thought barely formed.

Illsy, it’s the only way… You’ve done enough. You tried your best… she said something else besides these words, but I wasn’t able to hear her.

It was hard to focus.

In front of me, Dankyun lifted his sword up and was ready to land the final strike, the killing blow.

Ayuseya… I release you…

Those were my last words before everything went black, and I fainted…