This fight had been brutal.
Almost all of them died, and two of them actually did.
Tracy…
Bormine…
Kyle took a deep breath as he looked at the corpse of the Late Knight.
'A fucking Late Knight. Fucking crazy,' Kyle thought.
People at this level could move at 300 to 500 kph, which was unimaginably fast for normal people.
Their fastest member, Tracy, had only been able to run at 200 kph max, and she needed to use all of her Ether to push her body to such speeds.
Kyle remembered the destroyed mountain on the peninsula.
Sulfur had done that, and he was "only" in the Early Third Realm.
Kyle also remembered what Theodor had said about Transcendents and the Colossus.
By now, the feats these beings could accomplish didn't seem impossible anymore.
Falk walked over to Kyle and looked at him.
"Everything okay?" he asked with a careful voice.
"Yeah, everything's fine," he said before looking at Tracy's headless corpse. "Well, almost."
Falk also sighed.
"Where's Horatio?" Kyle asked as he looked around.
The two of them looked around and saw Horatio lying on the ground near one of the trees.
Kyle and Falk ran over and looked at him.
Horatio was breathing heavily, and his Ether was extremely chaotic and weak.
Kyle remembered the powerful attack Horatio had unleashed.
This attack had had more power than Michael's Spell, which was unreal.
On top of that, the attack had been way too fast.
This was not a level of power someone in the Initial Second Realm could unleash, even with an Aristocrat's Body.
This was simply not possible.
And yet, Horatio had still managed to do it.
If it weren't for Horatio, they would all be dead.
His attack was what turned everything around.
"You must kill him," Theodor spoke.
Kyle narrowed his eyes.
"Falk, make sure Horatio is fine. I need to do something very important," Kyle said.
Falk was a bit confused.
What could be more important than their current situation?
Yet, he believed in his leader and nodded.
The next moment, Kyle ran into the forest, and when he was alone…
"Excuse me, but what the fuck?" Kyle asked. "Horatio just saved my fucking life! I'm not going to kill him!"
"You have to!" Theodor said.
"Why?" Kyle asked.
"I can't tell you," Theodor answered.
"Yeah, well, then I'm not doing it," Kyle said.
"You have to!" Theodor shouted.
"I'm not your fucking tool," Kyle said. "If you want to explode, go explode. I'm not going to kill him!"
"This is not about you!" Theodor said. "This is about the world!"
"Explain," Kyle demanded.
"No," Theodor answered.
"Then, go fuck yourself," Kyle answered.
"Kyle!" Theodor shouted.
Kyle, who had just turned around, stopped.
'Kyle? Did he just call me by my name?' he thought in shock.
Theodor had never before referred to Kyle by his name.
It was always imbecile, foolish inheritor, inheritor, idiot, dwarf, and other names.
He had never used Kyle directly.
"For once, you have to trust me!" Theodor said with urgency. "You have to kill him! You are obligated to kill him! And even if you can't kill him, you have to tell your Guild Chief about it. If you don't kill him, he will!"
"It does not matter if you kill him. He only needs to die! If you can't do it, let someone else do it!"
"But he has to die!"
Kyle narrowed his eyes in anger.
"Horatio saved my fucking life! I'm not betraying him!" Kyle said.
"Do you want millions of innocent people to die?!" Theodor shouted.
"Are you crazy?" Kyle asked. "How is Horatio going to kill millions of people?!"
"If he survives, that will eventually happen!" Theodor shouted.
"Proof!" Kyle said. "I want proof. I want an explanation! I am not going to do shit without that!"
Kyle could feel Theodor's frustration and rage.
Several seconds passed.
"What I am about to tell you is the most important and secretive thing I have ever told you. If anyone, and I mean ANYONE, hears about this, you will be killed. You must never talk about this to anyone. You must never speak of it again until the rulers of the Skysand Kingdom tell you about this themselves! Am I understood?" Theodor said with urgency.
"I will never speak of this again," Kyle spoke seriously.
Kyle could hear Theodor taking a deep breath.
"Remember when Silvester's son spoke about that world-ending threat? The one that was dealt with by the Duchess of Twilight?" Theodor asked.
Kyle remembered his talk with the Chief.
"Wait, are you saying…?" Kyle asked.
"Yes, your friend is eventually going to turn into one of those," Theodor said.
"What? How?!" Kyle asked in shock.
"The Cult of Final Fate," Theodor said. "From time to time, they choose a champion and infuse them with the purest power. Have you seen his attack? Have you seen the tentacles and eyes around him?"
Kyle shook his head. "I couldn't pay attention to him. I was too busy with the Late Knight."
"I did, and I saw them, " Theodor said. "Those tentacles and eyes are manifestations of the Cult of Final Fate's God."
"God?" Kyle asked.
"Yes, God," Theodor answered. "The Champions of Final Fate are incredibly strong. Even Hieronymus can't fight them."
"Yet, they are only champions. If the champions are already this powerful, their master must be unimaginably powerful."
"But if the master had the power to appear in our world, they would have already done so."
"This means their master resides somewhere outside this world."
"An unimaginably powerful being that resides in a space outside this world. The word God seems the most fitting."
Kyle took a deep breath.
"And Horatio is one of these champions?" Kyle asked.
"Undoubtedly," Theodor answered. "He will grow stronger and stronger, and eventually, he will fulfill the mission for which he was born."
"Destroy the world."
Kyle furrowed his brows.
"That seems… unbelievable," Kyle said. "I mean, people are selfish, right? You constantly remind me of that."
"So, why would you want to destroy something? When you're so strong, why not just take everything for yourself? What's the point of destroying everything?"
"That makes no sense."
"It doesn't," Theodor confirmed. "That is if you are residing in this world."
"If the enemy has a military stronghold that you can't use, would you not destroy it?" Theodor asked.
"I mean, yeah," Kyle answered. "But this is a world. Also, life is life, right? Just take the world for your own."
"What if the enemy isn't life? What if the enemy actually isn't alive?"
"What if it is some kind of fundamental force?"
"Existence versus anti-existence."
Kyle seemed a bit unsure.
"Theoretically, yeah, but do we know that's the case?" Kyle asked.
"It is the running theory for the Cult of Final Fate's motivations," Theodor said.
"So, the Cult of Final Fate wants to kill everything, right?" Kyle asked.
"Correct," Theodor answered.
"Okay," Kyle said.
"Then, why did Horatio save my life when he could've just left?"
"Why did he risk his secret identity just to save us?"
Theodor didn't immediately answer.
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