Chapter 63

Nikami POV

I kept my guard up, staying low as I healed my bleeding hand. A large chunk of it was eaten by the shadow claw and cuts were there from the ice shards. Thankfully, it wasn't that deep, so I healed those first.

My breathing got heavier, this wasn't supposed to happen, this wasn't in the game, everything… Where did this go wrong? I bit my lip, trying not to whimper and show weakness because of my limp arm, staring at the girl.

"Hm? That's it? You're just giving up? Your mana is basically like the ocean itself, so I doubt you ran out of it... And you have a lot of attacks!" The masked girl asked and giggled towards me, wondering why I just stopped there.

"Because of her." I smirked, hearing the footsteps from the door, as it slammed open and a frantic Yasachu came out of it.

"Shi-shiromoru-sama?! Sorry I'm so late, wh-what happened..?" She glanced over at me, her eyes narrowing down at my arm that was hurt and cut that was slowly healing.

"Shi-… romoru-… sama?" Her eyes widened at my bloodied arm, immediately turning her head towards the masked girl and froze.

"You are late. Really late." I protested, scoffing. Then I stopped my smirking when I saw that she froze.

Was… Is it just the shadows around the room, or did Yasachu's eyes seem dead?

All of the shine that was always on her face, especially in her eyes, her aura of happiness and brightness suddenly just went out like a light switch.

"Fuck!~" The masked girl exclaimed, knowing that she probably is done with but said it in a happy manner.

"Though, it is extremely dark here, so I quite obviously have the advantage!~ You may counter my element, but you, a light user, are still very weak when it comes at night time." The masked girl pointed over at the standing and frozen Yasachu.

Everything happened so fast, I only saw a flash of light from Yasachu's small body and the masked girl got thrown into the wall, pinned there with solidified light arrows.

"ACK!"

"Huh…?"

"How… Dare you hurt her…?" Yasachu spoke in a serious demeanor, her usually high and quiet voice turned cold.

"Ahahahaha… I-I never thought I would see you like this! You, out of all people...Seems like it worked perfectly…" The masked girl snickered, looking down at her body, multiple light arrows pierced through her flesh and yet, she kept on grinning. As both of our blood dripped into the floor like a twisted rhythm, the face behind her mask swirled into insanity as well.

"Haah… How amazing of you…" She looked up with a bright smile, directed towards Yasachu.

I blinked in confusion, I couldn't even see what happened.

"Yasachu really is the main character... Just a second and then the girl who broke through my ice so quickly is pinned through the wall… Not only that, the masked girl seems to stare at Yasachu longingly now… Did she fall in love with her too?" I asked myself in my head, groggily standing up as I kept on focusing to heal.

"Fall… In love with Yasachu…" I stared towards the shorter white haired girl, seeing myself making my heart give flutters as I did. As much as I hated to say it, she saved me. There was a very small chance I could have survived by only using my ice magic…

"You two are interesting, not much of a match for me, however." She laughed once more.

"For endless void covering the world, oh spirits of darkness, help me turn my enemies into nothingness too, " She casted, the solidified light flickered weakly as seeping darkness took over it like a hungry sludge.

"Tch." Yasachu clicked her tongue, starting to see how strange this girl was, she lifted her hands up, about to cast a spell before I grabbed her hand with my healthy arm and took a deep breath.

"It's fine, don't waste your mana and destroy this place… She's something. She also ate away my ice with the darkness, we can't do anything with this girl." I mumbled towards Yasachu, and as the bleeding masked girl fell down to the ground and coughed up blood, the red slowly turned into a dark substance as well, her red eye gleaming in the darkness.

"WATCH OUT!!" Yasachu pulled me closer to her, just barely missing the arms that were reaching for my back, as she pulled me, I saw the masked girl's shadow claws reach for Yasachu's back as well.

"!" I heard Yasachu cast, and summoned glowing hands that protected my back from the claws, but the claws somehow devoured them in the process.

I bit on my lip to the point of making it bleed as well, I stopped my healing and focused on her shadow claws for now.

"!" From the ground and the walls came out a multi-layered wall with both Ice and rocks, however, the shadows bashed into it as well and shattered it into pieces, clawing into Yasachu's back, a pain of shriek came from the girl as the shadows dug into her back.

"UAAAAGHHHH!!!" This caused her to stop her cast and the shadow claws reached out for me and grabbed me away from her.

"Teamwork is cute and all~ But~ I'm just on all sides~ You two can't do anything!~" The injured masked girl managed to stand up even from all of the injury that Yasachu gave her and kept on giggling.

"YASACHU!!" I called out, reaching my hands for her but got kept on being held back from the claws. They were sharp enough to cut through my clothes and skin, a wail came out of my mouth as my bleeding continued.

I saw Yasachu being pulled up by a shadow claw from the neck, she desperately gasped for air as she held the solidified dark claw and managed to cut it with the use of light magic. Freeing herself. I blinked at that demonstration.

“Tch… Damn it… I should be able to do something right?! I’m Nikami Shiromoru! I should… Be able to get out of this situation…” I thought to myself, grumbling as I tried my hardest not to cry due to the pain of the claws digging into my bones, then, finally, I thought of a way out of this mess. As I saw the choking Yasachu gasping for air, I took a deep inhale and yelled out...

“Yasachu! Take my hand! Get rid of the arms behind me! Just cut them even if it's just a few seconds!” I yelled out to her so she could hear, even if my voice was rowdy, I was still calm as ever. Staring in anticipation.

“Oh no you don’t!~” The masked girl's red eye glowed as she used her solidified shadow to put as much pressure around her wounds as possible, still grinning.

The smaller white girl shot up, about to say something but then stopped herself in her tracks as she saw my calm face. She nodded and reached for my hand and as soon as we held it together, I prepared more spells and she made light solidify around her hand and tried to chop the claws off me and got attacked in the process. Her arms got all cut up but she succeeded in cutting all of the claws off me.

“! !” I yelled out, clenching her hands tightly and pulled her near me as the ice surrounded us like a barrier, an ice pillar erupting from the ground and lifted us up in the air. The ice came in contact with the ceiling and cracked, instinctively, Yasachu embraced me.

“!” She casted, adding another protective layer around us, it was smaller than my ice orb but it certainly was tougher since when we bashed through the ceiling my spell broke but hers stayed.

As we smashed through the ceiling, a rumble could be heard as the whole dorm shook because of it. The moon's light shone down on us as we were now out of the dorm and high up in the sky.

“Oh? So that’s your plan? Are you serious? Bahahahaha! Even if you're far, I could still cast, and besides, being on a flimsy ice pillar I could devour like that is a death wish!” The masked girl chuckled even more, pointing over at us as she walked toward the pillar, stepping over the rubble and looked up at us. Her injuries were all covered by darkness, and it seemed like she was fine even after what Yasachu did to her.

“Judging from your mask and that you were extremely surprised when I ran out, I know for a fact that you don’t want your identity to be found out. The girls surely have been woken up by the shaking of the dorm. Not only that, the knights in the school would be able to see us from a far and come to us straight away. Now, will you stay and risk yourself or get out of here?” I spoke out to her, now starting to heal myself in the process, I was bleeding pretty hard, and my vision started to fade away. I needed to stay awake, who cares if my mana runs out?

“Pu… AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!~ Clever girl~ You really are one of the smartest girls in this school~” The masked girl calmly laughed once again.

“Embracing her like that… Doesn’t your heart feel like it has shards coming out of it? Isn’t it painful? I feel that way too. More of a reason to kill the world.” She spat, her voice changing its tone again, but then went back into a more cheerful demeanor right after.

“Isn’t it exciting?! Seeing the world in front of you starting to glare at me full of hate, I twisted her like this! This is sooooooooo funny, This shouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for me! Aren’t you proud?!” The masked girl started to babble, and when I glanced over at Yasachu, she was indeed glaring over at the masked girl.

“Well, I’m off, see you two next time~ Good luck~” She winked at us before stepping into the darkness and disappearing as suddenly arrived earlier.

A shiver came down my spine as I felt the bloodlust from her eyes, Was… Was this girl really the same bright and cheery main character? Wait, the world...

World?

“Kill… The world…?” Upon a sudden realization, I stared over at Yasachu, my world was starting to spin, going all white.

“The… World… Is a person…? And it’s Yasachu…”