Just like he had feared, Ryan never planned on letting them live.
Even when he had said maybe, Myles had never believed it. Not Ryan, or the thing living inside his body now. That promise had been nothing more than mockery.
Myles grit his teeth and dug his fingers into the ground. Pain screamed through his body as he tried to push himself up again.
"Stand up... I have to stand up."
His arms shook. His legs barely responded. He forced himself anyway, dragging his body inch by inch, refusing to stay down while the others faced death.
Ahead of him, Ryan walked toward Victor and Nadine.
He rested the spear casually on his shoulder, his posture relaxed, almost bored. His eyes looked down at them without warmth or hatred. Just indifference. Like a man staring at insects or ants caught beneath his feet.
"It’s too bad," Ryan said lightly, a crooked smile spreading across his face. "You all spent so much time together." He chuckled. "Now you have to watch me betray you. Must be unbearable, yeah? Heheh."
Nadine forced herself to lift her head, blood running from the corner of her mouth.
"Who... are you?" she demanded. "What are you trying to do?"
Ryan sighed, as if genuinely tired of the question.
"It’s not something a mortal like you can understand," he replied calmly. "Trust me. Knowing the answer wouldn’t help you at all right now."
Victor said nothing. His fingers tightened around the handle of his cleaver. His stance shifted ever so slightly.
Nadine noticed it. She did the same.
They didn’t need words. They both waited for the same thing, an opening.
Ryan continued, his voice carrying quiet contempt. "Even now, after tasting a little bit of Ether, you still can’t do much." He gestured lazily toward the battlefield. "You managed to kill that thing, sure. But it wasn’t a true being born of Ether."
His eyes flicked to the scattered black dust. "You... and that monster... were merely adopted by it."
Then he lowered the spear and aimed it straight at them.
"So now," Ryan said simply, "just die."
Victor suddenly moved first.
He reached into his inventory and pulled out a second weapon. A jagged cudgel of black stone and metal with surface studded with uneven spikes. He slammed it into the ground with everything he had left.
Ether pulsed outward and the ground beneath Ryan lurched violently.
Ryan’s body staggered because of the effect of the skill Victor had used.
Nadine lunged. She surged forward with her quarterstaff and activated her skill mid-stride. Ether flared along the staff as she brought it down in a crushing strike.
The blow landed. Ryan was hit.
Energy surged back into Nadine’s body. Her wounds closed partially in an instant. Pain dulled as her HP recovered sharply, even as her MP dropped dangerously low.
She didn’t hesitate and spun, swung, and struck again and again. She poured everything she had left into the staff. Her teeth clenched as she forced her body beyond its limits.
Victor threw the cudgel aside and charged in after her with his cleaver again as he rejoined the fight.
From the ground, Myles watched with wide eyes.
For a moment... It looked like it was working. Hope flickered in his chest.
Then Ryan laughed. The sound was sharp and delighted.
In a single blur of motion the spear snapped forward.
It pierced Victor’s stomach.
At the same instant, the shaft twisted and drove into Nadine’s chest.
Their blood sprayed into the air.
Both of them froze before collapsing heavily onto the ground.
"No!" Myles shouted.
His voice tore from his throat as despair crashed down on him.
Victor and Nadine lay still.
Ryan stood over them, spear dripping red, his smile wide.
Myles’ eyes turned bloodshot red while staring at the scene in front of him. Disbelief flooded his mind so violently that for a moment he thought it had to be a dream. Like a nightmare his body would wake up from any second.
Then Victor didn’t move.
Nadine didn’t move either.
Reality crashed down on him.
A scream tore out of Myles’ throat. It didn’t sound like a human scream.
The sound was feral and raw, filled with rage and grief so dense it drowned everything else. His thoughts shattered as anger swallowed what little restraint he had left. His reason cracked, and only animal instinct took over.
Ether surged hard and unnaturally. It flooded into his body as if something unseen had ripped open a gate and forced power inside him from an unknown source.
His veins burned. His bones cracking. His muscles tightened until they felt like they would tear apart.
Dark smoke exploded outward from his body in the shade of red, blue, green, and black.
The colors twisted together, wrapping around him like living mist. It clung to his limbs and coiled around his torso, pulsing in time with his very quick heartbeat.
His eyes darkened rapidly, the whites swallowed as if ink had been poured into them and left to soak.
Myles suddenly jumped up. He stood straight.
His posture was no longer broken or trembling. He looked at Ryan with pure hatred carved into his gaze. His lips pulled back into a snarl, saliva dripping from the corner of his mouth as a low growl rumbled from his chest.
Ryan turned toward him as if realizing something.
For the first time since the event began, his expression changed. The calm was gone, the amusement vanished, and the laughter died in his throat.
His eyes sharpened. His posture changed. He stared at Myles as if seeing him for the first time.
"What do we have here..." Ryan muttered, his voice no longer mocking. "You..." His brows furrowed. "What happened to you?"
Myles didn’t answer. He didn’t even register the words into his mind.
The ground cracked beneath his feet and he vanished.
In the next instant, he was right in front of Ryan.
Ryan didn’t look surprised. His eyes narrowed.
SRATT!
Myles stabbed his Fangblade into Ryan’s chest. But Ryan wasn’t fazed by it.