Varian's knees cracked under the heavy pressure of strong rank 6s and his knees dug into the ground.
His skin cracked open and his bones started to creak. His muscles swelled and ripped apart. In a blink, a perfect young man turned into a bloodied warrior.
Varian was alone, surrounded by three powerful enemies. Surrounding them was 20 rank 6 elves, 2000 rank 5 elves and 20,000 rank 4 elves along with millions of lower ranks.
Traitor Numan threw out a ball out of his pocket and the space around them solidified, preventing any teleportation.
"It's a treasure I got on the 30th floor, it works pretty well." Numan gave a friendly smile but the bloodlust in his eyes was too obvious.
The elves wanted to attack first but Reaper took out a glowing fruit and the crowd fell silent.
The rank 6s elves looked at each other and nodded lightly.
Reaper didn't immediately kill Varian but send a wisp of black aura into Varian's body.
Varian's eyes widened as his skin began to melt like it touched lava.
"Arghhh!"
Reaper looked at Varian's eyes and muttered. "I'll see how long those eyes of yours will remain sharp. I'll kill your confidence before I kill you!"
"Arghhhh!"
"Stop!" Maria summoned her spear to fight but Princess Bella and Prince Sohan grabbed her arms.
"You'll die if you go!" Sohan screamed into her ear.
"B-But he saved our lives…" Maria came to her senses and stopped, her words growing weaker and weaker. "Even if he uses the treasures that can kill rank 6, he can't win. He'll die too!"
"There's nothing we can do! We need to leave!" Princess Bella's voice grew anxious.
Maria bit her lip and said. "B-But if I use that trea—"
"Don't be ridiculous! We need those treasures for the mission! If we use them now, we're abandoning the mission!" Princess Sohan berated. "No matter how much he helped us, we can't sacrifice the mission for one individual. The stakes are too high. I'm sure he'll understand."
"W-What are you saying?"
Prince Sohan went through a series of complex and intense emotions before he said. "This is the only chance we have."
"What?"
"We'll cross the deepness, reach the place and do our damn job!" Prince Sohan took a step forward and jumped over the darkness.
"It's a big risk we're taking. If that man injures them enough, we can escape their pursuit and also get away from the elves. It all depends on him." Princess Bella said and followed after Sohan.
Maria looked at Varian's body being melted by the corrosive dark aura and bit her lip.
If not for him, she'd have stumbled a lot and would've taken a long time to climb the floors. And if he hadn't broken her seals, she'd still be a rank 4. Without him, the Reaper could've easily killed her.
"D-Damn it!" Maria closed her eyes shut and jumped.
— — — — —
"Are you disappointed? Despaired? Your 'friends' left you. They abandoned you. To die like a mutt on the streets." Reaper couldn't smile but his glee was too obvious.
Half of Varian's body melted away, the other half was desperately trying to regenerate itself but the black aura was far more powerless, easily suppressing his regeneration and eating him away bit by bit.
The injury itself was terrific but more so was the pain.
It was as if thousands of ants were crawling everywhere on his body, digging into flesh with their sharp and unforgiving mouths, tearing tiny bits of himself and eating it away. The flesh and blood he regenerated were almost instantly devoured.
Again and again and again.
Varian's vision was blurry and he couldn't speak properly. He's in a horrific condition, to say the least.
"Should we stop for a while and let him recover?" Numan crossed his arms and asked.
Reaper was about to answer when he stiffened.
Not just him, but Numan and the silent Trihound also turned to Varian with a bizarre expression.
Their eyes were filled with shock and disbelief.
'No, I must've heard it wrong. There's no way this guy laughed.'
But as they looked at each other, they realized that the other two had heard the same thing.
'No, it must be an illusion. Which madman would laugh in his condition? They'd all be rolling on the ground, begging for death and the end of the intense pain.' Reaper killed too many and none could face his brutal torture.
Numan, on the other hand, felt like someone was laughing at his traitorous past. 'I surrendered after some torture and allowed them to trample me like however they wanted. I even killed my own mother, wife, and children because I was afraid…'
The scenes of a past he pretended didn't exist flashed in his mind and overwhelmed him.
The look in his mother's eyes, when he raised his sword at her, was still crystal clear. It was something he'd never forget.
"Damn you!" Numan raised his axe and chopped it down.
An arm rolled on the ground.
"Cry! You fucking wannabe hero! You disgusting piece of shit! You can't feel me! You're a coward! You're a damn coward!" Numan's axe swung in the air with afterimages.
Pieces of flesh and bones splattered on the ground. The warm blood of the young human formed a puddle under him.
As he saw that his opponent was already pushed to the point of no return, Numan stopped and looked at him with a fierce gaze.
The eye of this man…blood was flowing out of that bright eye and wincing from the horrible pain inflicted on his body. But there was no fear in that gaze.
"You!" Numan's fury soared with the man in front of him acting as the reflection of what could've been.
Varian's consciousness was clear even though his senses weren't. He didn't have much of a choice but to bear the pain.
He already used the Fairy Dew to heal himself and didn't have any option with that. Toy Sun was useful but the explosion would kill him as well because the space was blocked, stopping his teleportation.
The Tear of Maiden was an effective poison, except his speed wouldn't allow him to ambush them. If he was laying down a trap, it'd have worked. But he's in front of them and wouldn't be able to do it.
The thief of the tower's mask wouldn't help as he's already on their radar. Broken Seed was useless here.
Belt Of The Brave—his only hope—wasn't activating.
'It activates when I'm on the verge of death. But these guys aren't trying to kill me. They want to torture me. They want to break me.' Varian's emotions started to fluctuate but he pushed them down and calmed himself even in the face of inhumane pain.
'But that guy, he's emotionally unstable! Traitor Numan, was it? I think I know why…'
Varian turned away from Reaper and stared straight at Numan. He stopped regeneration in other parts for a moment and focused on his mouth.
It healed back in a blink and a mocking voice left it smoothly. "Do you think everyone is like you, Numan? There are people, there are animals, insects. Then there are traitors like you.
You folded under a little pain, crawled under their crotch like a bitch, and did whatever they asked you to do. I bet you even sold your mother and wife to the—"
The axe, glowing with a menacing purple aura, reached Varian's head in the blink of an eye.
Reaper reacted in time and grabbed Numan's axe handle to slow it down. Even though it was a last moment move, Reaper was confident Varian would only suffer a major injury at most.
But at this moment, Varian moved using his limited mobility.
He jumped up—towards the axe.
BOOM!
<The Belt Of The Brave activates>
A blinding silverly light enveloped Varian and only his voice remained. "Wash your necks and wait."
