Chương 49: Chapter 48: An Angry Trisha Arrives

Arriving closer to Uru, I could see his unwavering expression as he refused to back down. Having slashed my sword, Uru decided to take it head-on despite his visible look of exhaustion. Raising his arm, he coated it in some dark substance and threw a punch towards my sword. This resulted in me being pushed back, as the force was too great. Despite his visible exhaustion, Uru still had plenty of power left over. Not wanting him to recover, I continued my onslaught to try and wear him down even further.

Somehow Uru managed to block all my attacks and recovered just enough energy after pushing me back to counter again. This continued as I looked for a weak spot to take advantage of to gain an upper hand. Seeing the unfavorable situation, Uru suddenly gathered a lot of magic power toward one large attack. It seemed he was trying an all-or-nothing gamble before he lost and died. I wanted to stop Uru, but he was gathering magic too fast, and the attack had ballooned to half the size of the throne room.

The attack was made of complete dark energy that could swallow whatever it touched, and I could feel the danger it was giving off. Since dodging wasn't an option, I started to gather up my strength and launch a large attack too, as stopping it now was impossible. The instant the large dark energy started moving towards me, I unleashed my charged-up attack, intending to slice the dark ball and defuse the situation.

Upon contact, I was barely holding up as the ball came down on me, making it so I could no longer move. As I continued to push and drain the ball of energy, I was starting to get tired myself. Pushing every little bit of energy I had left, I gave it everything I had and finally sliced through the dark energy, leaving me completely exhausted. On the bright side, Uru was now lying on the floor, completely exhausted and unable to move. Seeing this, I dragged my beaten-up body towards him, wanting to claim my kill.

Uru was unable to speak as he looked up at me in anger. Ignoring the utter hatred in his eyes, I slowly brought down my sword to end his life. The instant I ended Uru's life, my system showed me a message: Level Up: 8922 I had leveled up again and was approaching the level of a high-level God. I was enjoying my rise in power, but I was too exhausted to continue to laze around. Quickly recovering some energy to move, I left the area, trying to escape like I always do.

However, near where I was supposed to meet up with Freed, I heard a yell somewhere close by.

"FREED! Let me through right now or die!" a familiar voice yelled.

"If my brother suffers in any way, then I'll make you suffer before killing you!" Hearing the voice, I knew it was Trisha, but this time she sounded very angry. It seemed she caught on to our plan and came here to stop us from killing Uru. Since Freed is weaker than her, I couldn't just leave him be to suffer her wrath all alone. I quickly rushed over to see the current situation. Once I arrived, I saw Trisha frantically attacking Freed.

The situation was very unfavorable, as Freed was constantly on the defensive, and every attack caused him more injuries. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Still having the element of surprise, I pushed through my exhaustion, since I still wasn't fully recovered, and slashed with everything I had left. The slash wasn't as powerful as I would have liked, but it did draw attention away from Freed as Trisha turned in my direction.

What happened next shocked me, as despite my surprise attack, Trisha easily blocked it with just a wave of her hand. I instantly knew this was not an opponent I could take on, even with my full power. It didn't take Trisha even the slightest effort to stop my attack, so anything I tried would be worthless. Unsure of what to do, the situation turned completely unfavorable, as I now had the full attention of Trisha.

"It's you!" Trisha yelled, having recognized me.

"How come you are alive despite going into my brother's castle?" Not wanting to answer, I quickly tried to make my escape since I now had Trisha's attention. I could lead her away from Freed, but I was unsure how I would escape afterwards. Still, I had no time to think and decided to figure it out later.

"Wait!" Trisha screeched, seeing me leave.

"Do you think I'll let you escape? I don't know what happened between you and my brother, but I'll make you regret coming here and causing trouble!" After Trisha finished speaking, she rushed at me with blinding speed. Despite me having a head start when escaping, within just a few seconds, she appeared in front of me. At this point, I didn't know what to do, as I was still exhausted from fighting Uru and Trisha was significantly stronger than me.

Still, I tried looking for a chance to escape, but what happened next shocked me. Without saying anything, Trisha launched a strong, blinding attack of light, not caring if I lived or died. As the light got closer, I was unable to dodge and could only accept my death. Freed suddenly appeared between me and the light, standing there to take the attack in my stead. Still injured from his previous battle with Trisha, Freed stood there unmoving despite the danger.

Unable to help in any way, I watched as Freed took the attack and managed to absorb all the energy that the attack had entirely with his body. The result, though, was that his chest was blown open, and a large, deep wound appeared that looked completely fatal. I started to regret coming to try and help, as now neither of us could escape. While I was being filled with despair, Freed, still clinging to a sliver of life, managed to turn around attempting to say something to me.

"Quickly, escape right now," Freed muttered with his last few breaths.

"I'll hold her off for a few moments, even if it costs me my life." Understanding that if I didn't move now, we would both die, and unable to save Freed, I could only reluctantly run away by myself. At this point, Freed was already on the brink of death, and there was no way to save him. Though I wanted to help, I still retained my rationality, as I knew if I stayed, his sacrifice would be for nothing.

The moment I started to run, Trisha immediately tried to block my way, but Freed managed to squeeze out whatever energy he still had left and held her back, which bought me some time. As I continued to run, I managed to travel quite some distance from where I was previously. I then suddenly heard a loud explosion behind me and quickly took a peek. What I saw was a large explosion where Freed and Trisha were. The explosion didn't last very long, as the area soon cleared up.

The moment the area was visible again, I only saw Trisha, somewhat disoriented, standing at the center of the explosion with Freed nowhere to be found. Seeing that Trisha was coming to her senses, I continued my escape, not wanting her to catch up. As I continued to run, I started making guesses about what had just happened behind me. It seemed Freed really did have some kind of secret method and managed to hold Trisha off.

The fact that he disappeared, though, probably meant he sacrificed himself to give me a chance to escape. With the very likely chance that Freed was dead weighing on my mind, I was very sad, but I motivated myself to continue my escape. Several days later, I managed to come back to Freed's forest, having finally managed to escape Trisha. Freed's forest was the same as usual and was by far the safest place that I could think of now that Freed was dead.

Now that I was alone for the first time since I ascended to godhood, I didn't know what I would do now. I had spent the last fifty years with Freed, which was a very long time for a normal human. In this time, I had become very attached, as he was the master who had taught me to become strong. Now without guidance, I no longer knew what to do. Trisha was far too strong for me to take on with my current power, and I had no help to face her.

Going outside the forest was suicide, as Trisha must be frantically searching for me now that I killed her brother. With all these thoughts weighing on my mind, I could only think of the worst outcomes. I was now at a dead end and could not think of a solution to solve my predicament. While I was still deep in thought, I suddenly noticed something strange happening. My system window was still working properly despite Freed's death.

Curious about what was going on, I opened the window, where I was greeted by a message left by Freed. As I read through the message, his final words shocked me.