"...."
"...."
"...."
God this is awkward.
Why is no one saying anything?!
Quinn had sat back up and was looking in our direction without uttering a single word.
My hands were on Amelia's shoulders as we both looked back at him.
Like statues, all of us kept staring at us for a minute straight.
Ahhh!
I considered speaking something out of sheer awkwardness at first, but looking back at my history of making situations like these even more awkward, I stayed quiet.
Wait, now that I think about it…
My shirt was unbuttoned. I was grabbing Amelia. Her eyes were swollen, making it clear that she was crying.
"....!!"
I quickly let go of Amelia and took a few steps away from her.
"Ahem."
With a dry cough, my eyes darted over to Quinn, and I gave him a serious look.
Sensing the situation, the necromancer got up on his feet and matched my gaze with the same energy and perhaps a little caution.
Good, he was cautious of me. It means that he was finally starting to see me as a threat.
It's understandable since he got his ass whooped by me for being overconfident, not just once but twice.
Kwish—!!
Swish—!!
"Don't even think about it."
Quinn suddenly clenched his fist, and I watched as darkness began to rise from his feet, signaling his attempt to summon his shadow slaves.
Judging by the amount of darkness surrounding him like a vortex, I can only assume he was about to call forth Shiya.
Reacting quickly, Amelia nocked a mana-infused arrow on her bow and aimed it at the necromancer.
While I applauded her reaction time, I knew that she wouldn't be able to stop Quinn if he managed to bring out Shiya.
I can't do anything against the two of them either now that I'm too weak to use my armor again for a while.
So I did the next best thing.
I brought out my Edit Pen from the smart bracelet on my hand and pointed it at him, at the clothes he was wearing, to be precise.
"....?"
Needless to say, seeing an ordinary red quill pen, Quinn was more than confused.
'What is he trying to do with a pen?' – thoughts like this were clearly visible on his face.
"....."
However, seeing the deadly serious look in my eyes, Quinn decided not to make any moves.
He had already seen me pulling some less-than-possible stunts so he probably didn't want to risk anything.
Fear is a survival instinct.
If you see a lion while walking down an empty street and you don't feel fear, you'd either be stupid or a quiet American kid with a shotgun in your backpack.
You fear a lion because you clearly know that it's capable of killing you if you keep approaching it.
That's why you feel fear. It's your mind telling you to avoid your doom by turning around and running away.
Right now, Quinn felt something similar. His instincts yelled at him to back down and heed my warning.
Wise choice.
If he hadn't stopped casting the spell, I would have caused a spike to erupt from his clothes and impale his abdomen in an instant.
"Let's just have a civilized conversation," I said as I stored my pen in the dimensional storage of my smart bracelet. "Because if you decide to attack me now, I will go for the kill."
Quinn appeared hesitant and had a look of frustration on his face. Despite his inner conflict on whether to attack me or not, he reluctantly agreed to my proposal.
Again, a wise choice.
Although I know I can't truly kill him since he's the Perfect Necromancer – someone who walks on the boundary of life and death daily, I can surely hurt him really, really bad.
And somewhere deep in his gut, even he knows that to be the case.
Nodding after seeing him back down, I raised a hand in front of Amelia, and she responded by lowering her bow.
"Amelia," I said, not averting my eyes off Quinn even for a second. "Thank you for helping me out. You can return to your apartment now."
Amelia looked at me with a frown. A hint of concern was visible somewhere in her eyes as she asked, "Will you be fine with him alone?"
"Are you worried about me?" I raised my eyebrows, but Amelia didn't reply.
She merely looked at me with a conflicted look before turning around and walking off.
Only after she left the vicinity did I open my mouth to speak with a short chuckle, "Damn, we really messed this place up, huh?"
Around us, several broken tombstones stood in front of some wrecked graves.
A sign reading 'Respect The Dead' was hung at the entrance of the graveyard. Clearly, we did a very bad job in that regard.
And for some reason it made me laugh.
Perhaps because I was the one who wrecked most of the graves here by using Mana Burst.
"Just get to the point," Quinn, however, displayed no interest in the state we had rendered the graveyard in. "What do you want?"
Taking a deep breath, I answered, "You know what I want. I want you to work with me. Switch sides and be my ally."
"Hah!" Quinn scoffed at my statement as if I had said something ridiculous.
"I'm serious, Quinn," I pressed. "I know you don't want to associate with Kai. Just switch sides and work with me instead."
"Of course I don't want to associate with him, but do you think I have a choice?" Quinn replied with a scowl. "Not only is he strong enough to kill me, but he's also smart enough to get away with it!"
"But–"
"And even if I admit you are as smart as him, you're not nearly strong enough!" Quinn continued, not giving me a window to speak. "You may have defeated me, but Kai is a beast incarnate. You can't ever defeat him!"
Damn.
Is he THAT scared of Kai?
After taking a deep breath, I paused for a moment before speaking. "You were right," I admitted to Quinn.
Perplexed, Quinn asked, "What?"
"I mean about what you said earlier," I clarified. "We're just barely old enough to be called adults. It's not fair for us to be conscripted and sent off to fight in wars. This world is in chaos and we're caught in the middle of it."
As I spoke, Quinn gazed at me expectantly.
"Individuals like Kai Wiseman use chaotic times like these to climb to power," I said, placing a hand over my heart. "But I won't follow in their footsteps. My goal is to end this war and create a better world. A world where no child will ever have to fight, no one will have to lose their loved ones, and no sons or daughters will be left orphaned. I'll build a world of peace. It'll be a world where we can be free."
At the core, Quinn Darkstar is just a boy who was forced to fight on the Northern Border. There he fell in love with a girl and lost her to an unexpected vampire attack.
All his life, somewhere deep down inside, all he ever wanted was to bring an end to this war-filled world– the world that took everything from him.
But along the line of his life, after facing setbacks after setbacks, he finally gave up.
The final straw was drawn when he helped the Vampire Monarch awaken.
Instead of thanking him, the Monarch absorbed Shiya in front of his eyes, erasing her from existence.
Subsequently, the Vampire Monarch mind-controlled Quinn and made him attack the Union Military, resulting in the deaths of millions of people.
Knowing that Kai Wiseman may have been behind all of this, manipulating Quinn from the shadows during his time at the Global Academy, it's heartbreaking to imagine how tragic Quinn's life must have been.
He had been someone's puppet his entire life, starting with his father's, then Kai Wiseman's, and ultimately the Vampire Monarch's.
Maybe that's the reason why whenever his monologues appeared in the novel, he always talked about freedom – something he never had.
"You will end the war?" Quinn looked at me skeptically.
"I will," I replied earnestly.
I wasn't lying.
If I wanted to survive, I really needed to end the war. I needed the Union Military to win against Vampires and Kalis.
"So you tell me, Quinn," I stretched my hand out to him. "What will you do? Will you help Kai accomplish his selfish pursuit of power, or will you help me create a world where we can be free?"
Quinn's hands trembled as he contemplated my words. "But you're not strong enough to go against Kai."
"Not now," I replied. If Quinn is right and Kai really defeated him and all his shadow slaves, then I really am not strong enough to defeat him right now.
The emphasis, however, is on 'right now.'
"But I will bring him down," I declared. "I will destroy Kai Wiseman after the King's Tournament in four months."
"You're crazy!"
"Am I? Maybe I am. But I have already proved myself to you, haven't I? I have defeated you twice even though I'm considerably weaker than you."
"But that's only because–"
"Because you underestimated me both times, that's right. But I still defeated you. I predicted every move you made, every trap you set, and I countered them all in advance. Kai Wiseman will meet the same fate. I will bring him down."
"..."
"Decide, Quinn. Do you want to be scared of him, or do you want to break free of this war-filled world?"
Quinn looked at me as if he was looking at a madman. As if I was someone who didn't know what I was talking about.
"Are you serious?"
"I am serious, Quinn. I give you my word."
But after a long, silent consideration, Quinn nodded his head and gave me the answer I had already predicted him to give me.
"Fine. I'll work with you."
