Scarlet gripped the hilt of her sword nervously. She knew that there were enemies lurking around on campus, their purpose still unknown. Scarlet counted herself fortunate to be near Samuel, who had raised his barrier to protect her and a few other teachers from an Enigma Ability. The unfortunate teachers and students caught were now frozen solid. At least they couldn't be hurt but this meant a reduction in the number of people who could oppose the intruders.

After linking up with the combat medical outpost set up by a few teachers and adventurers from the S-Rank group, Saint Cross, Scarlet requested to go alone in search of any other intruders. The colleagues who had accompanied her were all too heavily injured from their encounter with those crazed berserkers and Samuel had to stay behind and treat them. Scarlet could only mutter a silent prayer that she would be able to get out of this ordeal alive.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps coming from the hallway. Not wanting to take any chances, Scarlet hid behind a pillar, hoping to ascertain the identity of the stranger. Taking a peek, she realised that the stranger was dressed in black robes. He was bald and extremely skinny. Scarlet thought, "It seems that he's not built for physical combat. I should take advantage of the element of surprise and take him out from close range."

All of a sudden, the stranger stopped. He raised a bony finger, as though commanding something. Scarlet could only see a figure rising from the ground before it disappeared in a flash. Scarlet felt a chill down her spine as she quickly spun around.

Scarlet saw a gleam of steel as she instinctively jumped backwards to avoid the attack. She quickly drew her sword to block a few more attacks from the mysterious cloaked figure. All Scarlet could tell was that the figure was a trained swordsman like her, and the style it used was eerily familiar.

The intruder streamed its mana through its sword and swung it at Scarlet, who responded likewise. CLANG! The sound of metal clashing reverberated through the whole hallway as a gust of wind blew outwards from the 2 combatants, signifying the power put in.

The bald man Scarlet noticed earlier approached her and scrutinised her deeply, remarking, "Red hair, wielding a sword almost the same size as her body, you must be Scarlet Renard! Daughter of the esteemed Renard Family famous for its swordsmen! What a twist of fate, reveal yourself, my minion!"

The cloaked figure removed its cloak swiftly, revealing a pale man who looked badly stitched up, much like a zombie. Scarlet gasped in disbelief. The figure standing before her was her ex-lover, Seraph! Scarlet collapsed to her knees as she muttered incoherently, "Impossible…Seraph died 2 years ago, how could he be back here alive?"

The bald man replied, "Who do you think I am, woman? I'm the mighty Skull! 3rd in command of Night Wing! Hahaha, I totally enjoy your expression of disbelief! Even death can be circumvented by my Enigma Ability, [Zombie]! Though it's a pity that I can only raise 1 corpse at any one time, and the corpse cannot possess more mana than me when it lives. Nevertheless, finding this corpse and his magic weapon is a big fortune for me, and a big misfortune for you! After all, I know all about my cute little puppet's past life, it's a useful sub-ability of mine when I raise corpses."

Scarlet couldn't hear Skull as she was overwhelmed by the sudden influx of memories, the good times she'd spent with Seraph, up till the moment he sacrificed himself to save all of them from that cursed aberrant Titan. She would never be able to forget that day…

It was supposed to be a regular hunting expedition. Titans may be enormous and strong, but they generally lacked any intelligence whatsoever. Though they had quick regeneration rates, a slash across their throats should be enough to terminate them since that area had the slowest rate of regeneration.

Scarlet and her group, the Titan Slayers, were all experienced hunters who performed their roles to perfection. Samuel was the support, in charge of protecting, healing and strengthening the entire team. Heinrich and Kate, their magician and sniper respectively, were in charge of restricting and debilitating the Titans with their long ranged attacks.

Scarlet belonged to the main engagement group, which consisted of 3 individuals in total, the other 2 being the leader, Seraph, and Eric, another fellow swordsman. These three were responsible for felling the Titans like trees, with pinpoint slashes to their throats and nothing more. Normal Titans, who were clumsy and slow, stood no chance against their strength and speed. However, on that fateful day, they met a Titan unlike anything they've seen before.

It was almost completely covered in armour, save for a few minor seams. The area around its throat was especially heavily guarded, with only an extremely small seam found there. To make matters worse, this Titan exhibited speed and more importantly, intelligence.

It led the other Titans to assist it in its efforts to hunt the Titan Slayers down. Despite the valiant effort of the Titan Slayers, only a few regular Titans were killed and Eric was killed soon after by the Armoured Titan, who seized the opportunity when he was distracted to grab his body and crush it within his fingers.

The situation was only getting more and more dire as the hunters soon realised that they were the hunted. Seraph, the leader, decided to make the ultimate sacrifice as he activated his magic weapon, [Lumos] which shone so brightly that it blinded all the Titans present momentarily. Samuel took the opportunity to teleport the remaining members away to safety using his teleportation crystal.

Scarlet's last memory of Seraph was witnessing him being seized by the Armoured Titan right before she was teleported. That sight of helplessness would haunt her forever, seeing a loved one die before her very eyes. Even after that incident, she couldn't find Seraph's body to bury it and give him peace, causing her much grief...

Seraph's zombie eyed Scarlet with a blank expression. It was not supposed to possess any feelings, but somehow it felt difficult to raise its blade against her for no apparent reason despite its master's commands. It didn't feel that way earlier when it exchanged blows with her. Skull ordered, "Seraph. Activate your weapon now and finish her! Her body could be another useful corpse!"

Seraph stood motionless for a while before murmuring, "Pierce through darkness, [Lumos]." as its blade gave way to bright white light. Before it could leap to slash her, its mouth unconsciously twitched, "Free me."

Scarlet broke out of her stupor. Did Seraph plead her to liberate his soul from this living hell? If that was his wish, as his ex-lover she had the responsibility of putting him at ease. Scarlet quickly dodged Seraph's attack as she focused her mana onto her weapon.

Scarlet cried, "Bear titanic weight, [Busterblade]!" as her sword morphed into a gigantic great sword. Despite its size and weight, Scarlet's humongous strength allowed her to wield [Busterblade] with great ease and flexibility, twirling the blade effortlessly as she blocked several of Seraph's swift strikes.

Seraph suddenly activated the special ability of [Lumos], as light shone brightly from its blade, creating a flash bang effect. Scarlet quickly closed her eyes and started to rely on her other senses. She had sparred with Seraph before and had experienced this ability firsthand. Relying on her mana detection and other senses, she quickly slid under his incoming blade before leaping into the air, rapidly twisting her body which was parallel to the ground.

With all her might on top of the ability of [Busterblade] to adjust its weight at will, she swung her heaviest attack onto Seraph. Seraph blocked the attack with his [Lumos], but the weight of the attack created a shockwave under him as he collapsed to one of his knees.

Sensing his momentary weakness, Scarlet quickly made her weapon lighter as she performed a quick upward swing instead, knocking [Lumos] away. [Lumos] spun a little in mid-air before landing blade first into the ground. Scarlet raised [Busterblade] over her head as she prepared the final blow. However, before she could land it, she hesitated momentarily. After all, looking at the face of her ex-lover, she could not bear to slice him in half.

Seraph took the opportunity to quickly tackle Scarlet onto the ground, kicking her weapon away from her grasp. He then pinned her to the ground with his knees before gathering mana in his hands.

Scarlet closed her eyes as tears started flowing. She didn't know whether she should be sad that she's going to die or happy that she's going to join Seraph soon.

Suddenly, Scarlet heard the sound of flesh being pierced. There, she saw Seraph being skewered with his own weapon, [Lumos], through the chest. The blade retracted and Seraph was pushed away. It was Samuel that came to her rescue.

Samuel, with tears in his eyes, choked, "I'm sorry, Brother. However, I know that deep down, you would also prefer this outcome. For the woman that we both love."

Scarlet swore that she saw Seraph's lips twitch into a smile as he started disintegrating. After all, his core was destroyed and the damage was irreparable. Skull looked on, terribly disgusted. His teeth started clattering as he stammered furiously, "I-Impossible, m-my knight can't be killed so easily. He's not known as the Shining Blade for no reason! N-Now, you guys have done it!"

Scarlet sensed that Skull was gathering a huge amount of mana that gave an ominous feel. Does he intend to raise another corpse? Skull declared, "Even without my corpses, I'm strong enough to take you all on! [Abyss Grip]!" Several hands constructed from the darkness around Skull shot towards Samuel and Scarlet, threatening to tear them apart.

Samuel boldly declared, "You underestimate my brother's [Lumos]! It can be more than just a flash bang when dealing with the element of darkness. [Light Purge]!" An intense amount of light was emitted by [Lumos], erasing the hands of darkness with its brightness.

Skull was shocked, but he refused to relent as he created a huge wall of darkness in front of him. The darkness was too intense for even [Lumos] to pierce through with its light. Despite throwing some of his strongest Light spells at the wall such as [Light Buster], Samuel failed to break the wall down.

Suddenly, spikes emerged from the wall and Skull was about to order them to impale the pair when a symbol on his shoulder started glowing. He winced, "I'll get you two next time, you'll make fine additions!" Skull then disappeared in a flash as his wall of darkness dissipated.

Samuel embraced Scarlet with a tight hug as he stammered, "I'm so glad you're alright...and thank you...for giving me the chance to step out of my brother's shadow into the light."

Scarlet, who was instantly soothed by Samuel's warmth, a feeling she thought she had lost forever since Seraph's passing, replied with tears in her eyes, "Um...thank you too, for liberating me from the darkness in my heart." Scarlet then gave a genuinely bright smile, as tears of joy trickled down her cheeks while she reciprocated Samuel's gesture.