"I´LL CUT YOU TILL THERE´S NOTHING LEFT OF YOU, DISGUSTING PIECE OF SHIT!" Alice yelled at the top of her lungs and focused the mana inside her.

"[Reflection]!" The mana extended from her body to the space around her, turning into copies of herself, ten in total.

Silver took a defensive posture. She still had so much mana. I need to be careful. I can’t let her trap me. He was still under the effects of [Iron skin], so she would have trouble trying to cut him, but the threat of the explosion was dangerous.

The ten Alice’s jumped at Silver with bloodshot eyes. Breaking her mask unleashed a fury she had been hiding for years. She was determined to destroy both of them. She wanted to stab them until her hands got tired and the flesh turned into a bloody mess. Over 20 daggers pounced on Silver.

The frenetic dance pushed Silver against the ropes. He managed to get used to the rhythm of Alice after a while, but trying to block and dodge so many attacks was impossible. Whatever direction he looked, a clone was attacking him. This wouldn’t look like a problem to a novice because there was a single Alice that could hurt him. If all the others were just smoke, then you wouldn’t need to guard with such caution. However, that way of thinking would lead to death.

BOOM... One of the clones exploded. Silver didn’t notice her until she was right on his back. Alice could use magic to turn the clones into explosions of great power. Silver only resisted the explosion because his skin had turned into iron; flesh would burn in a second. His priority was to keep dodging and blocking while running around the room. Being boxed by the clones could end his life with just a few more explosions.

CLANK… CLANK… CLANK… The sound of daggers hitting the iron was a premonition that Silver was getting closer and closer to his demise. The odds were stacked against him. Facing the situation head on was useless. He couldn’t think of a way out with the little mana he had left. In this situation, the mind searches for a way out; a solution, a memory emerged in Silver's head.

"Get up, you still have a lot more to do."

"AH... AH... YES!" Silver stood back up, grabbing the wooden sword with both hands. He was tired. His hands could barely hold the sword. His arms were trembling after pushing them well past the point of muscular fatigue. His legs could barely move anymore, yet he was still taking a fighting stance. His body was beaten, with bruises and blood.

The man in front was not impressed. In fact, if Silver couldn't even do something like this, then he would send Silver back and never train him again. It was the Supreme General of the army, Thane Ulick Rion. "Come on, this is just the 60th practice fight today. You need to complete at least 100 fights in a single day."

"Yes, Sir!" Silver yelled to pump himself back up with energy, but it was in vain. His body refused to continue with this hellish training. In only a minute, he was back on the floor as Thane smacked him in the face.

Silver didn’t do anything. He just lay there on the cold ground. He wanted to rest, to give up. It was only the third day he had been training with the Supreme General. Anyone would be honored to receive an invitation from him. Silver was surprised when General Gen took him as a pupil, and only a month later, he got promoted to Sergeant, and now, the supreme general himself was asking him to take him as a pupil for a week.

It was a dream come true, as a soldier Silver could not think of a higher honor. It felt too good to be true, and this was the result. The training of the supreme general was too much for Silver. His body collapsed in three days, exhausted and broken. Not even his will was enough to move him anymore.

I can’t do it. I’m not special or strong enough. I’m sorry, supreme general. 'the promise boy' broke down.

"I’m sorry..." His weak voice reached Thane, standing over him.

"Sorry? What are you sorry for?"

"…"

"You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m fine. Look at me. I’m not in any kind of danger. No one is trying to cause me harm or take my life. Are you going to say sorry when someone dies in front of you?"

"…"

"Are you going to give up on your life and stand down against your enemies? If that is what you want, then go for it. Not many people can choose how they die, but are you going to ignore the innocents in front of you? Most people don’t want to die; they want to live with their families and friends, they want to laugh and cry as they experience life. Is it okay for a knight to die and apologize to the innocents he could have saved in the afterlife?"

"…No…"

"Why did you become a knight?"

"To protect the people, the innocents, from those who want to take advantage of them." Silver stood back up, the shimmer of his eyes returned as he gasped for air.

"Then grab your sword! Bones, flesh and even metal can break, but the only thing that can’t break is your will, forge your will to be unbreakable! SO, WHEN YOU DIE YOU CAN LOOK INTO THE EYES OF THE PERSON YOU SAVED!"

"YES!"

Silver looked in front of him. Two clones were attacking, but beyond them, he saw a person. Thanatos was standing far back, the wounds on his body and the burn marks. If Silver died now, so did Thanatos. I won’t apologize. I’m going to save you now.

With a scream, Silver jumped away from the clones and, in a second, his skin returned to his normal color. Thanatos thought that he was finally out of mana to keep the spell active. Shit, he's going to die.

Alice didn’t let this chance pass, and launched all her clones to trap Silver. "DIE YOU DISGUSTING WORM!" With his back against the wall, Silver didn’t have a way out. The clones exploded one after the other. They covered Silver in fire and destruction. Not even the stone floor withstood the damage.

"Ah... ahahahahah... AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Alice's laugh was that of pure madness. She was finally content after killing one of the worms that caused her so much pain. Only one more before she could return to her Master. "Its your turn now." She turned toward Thanatos at the exact moment she felt the wind as someone dashed toward her.

Alice looked back and saw Silver dashing at her at max speed. How? You couldn’t have survived all those explosions? She saw Silver's body was back to the grey color, but the grey color was peeling off of his skin.

Silver dropped his protection on purpose to lure Alice. She fell for the trap. When all the clones detonated, Silver used the remaining mana he had to cast the spell again and withstand the damage.

It wasn’t a perfect plan; it depended on the fact that Alice was mad and angry enough to send all the clones at the same time. Furthermore, Silver took more damage than he expected, his leg and arm were burned, and one side of his face was also destroyed, giving him a horrible appearance. Still, he survived, and now he was dashing at Alice with his sword ready to take her head.

"YOU DAMN WORM!" Alice didn’t have any mana left. The only thing she could do was stab him with her daggers. She was still fast, but not fast enough to surpass Silver.

The daggers stabbed the air as Silver dodged right below them, and with the last bit of strength he cut Alice's head. With a loud thud, Alice's body, followed by her head, hit the ground. The fight was over.

Silver regained his breath as he walked toward Thanatos. Both were suffering from some heavy wounds. Silver extended his hand to help Thanatos stand up. He only hesitated for a second before grabbing the hand. As Thanatos stood, he looked into Silver's eyes. They stared at each other for a few seconds until Silver interrupted the silence.

"I’m glad you're safe. I'll take you somewhere safe now..." After finishing saying those words, Silver collapsed. Thanatos grabbed his arm, so he didn’t fall to the ground.

"Oh, calm down. You need to rest. You fought well." The unconscious Silver was taken by Thanatos and left on the side of the door. His work wasn’t over; he needed to capture Ennis.

He couldn’t run because of his foot, so he just walked down the only path that was open. Slowly limping and grabbing the walls for support, he almost fell when a hand grabbed him on the back.

It was Adel. He was hurt and burned on the side. Some bandages were wrapped around his head.

"What happened to you?" Thanatos asked him.

"Nothing important. You are way worse than me." Adel put Thanatos' arm behind his neck as support, and they continued walking.

"Did you find anything valuable?"

"Yeah, in the office of Ennis, is in the bag." He pointed to a bag hanging from his waist.

"Good, now we just need to capture the bastard. He mustn’t be very far in front."

Ennis was walking down in the tunnel with a couple of mercenaries. He felt a bit of anxiety as two tunnels were destroyed, but luckily the third one was open. Someone must have betrayed me. He sold our information to the Army and tried to block the tunnels. My slaves will be freed, but it doesn’t matter. I always knew that there was going to be a day when they tried to capture me. I built a mansion in the Nation of Los to hide in. I just need to wait a few months, or maybe a couple of years, until my allies can kill the useless king and capture the young prince. This is not even a setback to our plans.

Ennis reached the exit and was greeted by the forest and a single woman. "You are Ennis, right? Good, I was waiting for far too long. Thanatos isn't here; did you use your mercenaries to buy you time to flee?"

"What? A demi human like you doesn’t have the right to speak to me unless I speak to you first. Kill her." The mercenaries took her blades.

"Oh, so you don’t like me. That’s perfect because I also dislike you. On second thought, I hate your guts." Neo dashed, and she plunged her claws into the chests of the mercenaries, killing them instantly.

"W-What did you escape from the cage? Are you one of my combatants?"

"Combatants? Is that what you call them? How many people did you kill in your sick games, treating them as slaves for months? Don’t deny it, they told me all the things you did!" Neo got closer to Ennis.

"Don’t get any ideas. You think you can touch me?" He pointed with his finger. "You are a mere demi human, someone with no quality. To even get so close and try to touch me is an insult. You should be running in fear while you can. I’m going to capture you later anyway- AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Neo broke the finger with her hand, crushing him like a piece of wood. "You still haven’t realized? You aren’t going anywhere, you bastard!" She crushed the rest of his hand.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH. BITCH HOW DARE YOU. I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS." Ennis still looked at Neo with disgust as he spoke. "I'll have Alice cut all your fingers and pull out your teeth. No, that is too soft for you. I'll cut your limbs too and force all the slaves to have their way with you. You will be crying for mercy; only then will I grant you release."

"You are absolute scum. The only person who will pay for his sins is you, bastard!" Neo punched Ennis in the gut and made him puke.

The fine wine and food covered the dirt as Ennis was grabbing his stomach trying to breath. The sound of footsteps coming from the tunnel caught his attention.

"HAHAHA, you are done. Alice is here. She is going to make you pay after she sees what you did to me. Alice, don’t kill her; you just need to cut her limbs off. Then you can take her with us-"

Ennis stopped as he saw Thanatos and another man walking out of the tunnel. His mind couldn’t process what he was seeing. Where was Alice? Rak? The keeper of his garden? Anyone?

"Hi Ennis, I told you, didn’t I? You are going to pay with interest for everything you have done."

Ennis believed all his life he was above certain emotions, but seeing Thanatos smile in the middle of the forest made him feel something for the first time in his life: Fear.