Chapter 444: Last Stand Against The Tide [Part 2]
The sand pulled Solstice inward while he pulled outward. Both forces reached an equilibrium, which kept Godfrey in the same place, enough for the stones to keep breaking him down and once he was down, both him and Solstice would be buried.
Two birds with one stone.
How many would have died if he hadn’t stepped into this dungeon? It almost felt as if he was being punished for stepping up.
But even if he had not, he would still bear the burden. A collapsing world meant his future would be cut off.
There was no option. None at all. And this wasn’t a fair fight. One blow was enough to fatally wound a demigod. The elements themselves were fighting against him.
How could he fight that?!
At this moment, Godfrey felt helpless. Hope slipped out of his grasp. More of his knights were sinking into the sand. Dirge had lost almost all her shadow wraiths, and they couldn’t be revived like always.
Everything he had worked for could be lost here, including his life, his friend and Isolde.
He couldn’t imagine the pain she was going through seeing her dragons fall. All this, he bore, and still couldn’t cry.
All of a sudden, an idea came to his mind.
’This isn’t a fair fight, so... why should I play fair!?’ With that, he activated Telekinesis and Will Freeze, pausing the entire sandstorm. The fierce wind, the sand, the dust, the flying knights, the struggling dragons, his sinking knights, the running stag monsters.
Everything paused.
Will Freeze couldn’t do this. Telekinesis could, but it would require an exorbitant amount of mana, a decade’s worth.
And because of that, the skill didn’t even last a second.
Godfrey had just added Will Freeze to let it all happen quicker and, just as he thought, in an instant, everyone vanished. All his knights, Solstice, Isolde, and her dragons.
All of them were gone. Since he couldn’t retrieve them, he simply expended the last of his mana, and the world’s mana system did the rest.
Without mana, all summons were to be taken back to the soul space, and that was what happened. He simply forced a greater authority to intervene, saving what was left of his crumbling forces.
Godfrey dropped to the ground. No armour, nothing, just a badly wounded man without mana to heal.
One of his arms was limp. Mana ran out before it could heal. There was a sudden peace, but then Godfrey remembered Isaac.
He shot to his feet and saw his friend sinking once more.
Without mana, his Immortal Armour was also gone. With ragged breaths, Godfrey raced toward Isaac.
The ground loosened the closer he got, forcing him to use more strength. At one point, he was swimming in a sea of sand just to get to his friend, who was going deeper.
"Isaac!"
Godfrey shouted, his eyes red. He was tired. His body screamed. Each movement caused pain, yet despite the odds, he kept going until he grabbed Isaac’s collar.
Then Godfrey gathered his strength and, with a loud roar, jumped off with the strength of a King Tier. He flew high and landed, almost falling but steadying himself.
Once more, the ground began to sink, a landslide into oblivion. Godfrey saw a stag herd not far from them, but he couldn’t reach them.
He was unable to gather his strength. Even breathing right now was hard.
As they sank, Isaac shot a web, and it latched onto one of the stag monsters. He grunted but held tight as the stag dragged them out, yet the landslide kept chasing after them until Godfrey was able to get close enough to mount the stag with Isaac.
The moment they mounted the stag, the desert couldn’t attack them anymore. The storm, however, grew worse, but Godfrey held strong. These stag monsters were huge, eight-foot-tall beasts. Big enough to carry him and Isaac comfortably.
Strangely, other stags began to run after them. The divided herd all turned.
This normal-looking stag they rode was the boss all along! An unassuming female, and the other four were the males.
No wonder its horns were smaller. These deer monsters all looked like stags, so it was hard to discern the female from the male.
But all this flew out of Godfrey’s head as he looked at Isaac, who was smiling. The horn of one of the demigods was still in his abdomen.
"I... guess we won... right?"
"We did. We did!" Godfrey laughed, but his eyes moistened. His lips trembled as he watched Isaac grow paler.
"We’re almost there. Just hang on. We’re almost there..." Tears pooled in Godfrey’s eyes as he stared at Isaac’s relaxing face. He had bled so much he couldn’t bleed anymore. Peace had taken his pain.
"C’mon! Isaac!! Isaac, please... WE’RE ALMOST THERE! PLEASE!!"
Godfrey’s entire body trembled, tears running down his face and gathering at his chin as he watched his friend’s eyes lose their light.
"Arghhh!!!!"
His scream tore through the desert. He kicked the stag monster without a shred of mercy, forcing it to go faster and faster.
He kept hitting it, all semblance of reason flying out the window. He kept hitting.
And hitting, and hitting as tears fell from his eyes.
Then the stag monster ran through the red gate.
"Dad!"
"DAD!!!"
He screamed at the top of his lungs as he stared at the woods. Without mana, he couldn’t teleport to his mother.
There was no help, and so an exalted demigod, hailed as the Angel of Staten, broke down and wept.
He wept... like a child.
The stag monsters he came out with surrounded him. Four angry demigods against a mana-less man.
He was defenceless.
But as they charged at him, space suddenly twisted like a black hole had appeared, stretching the demigods and the stag monsters like spaghetti.
They died instantly. Blood splattered everywhere.
This made Godfrey lift his head, and he saw Percival and Lucy running toward him.
The moment he laid eyes on them, strength filled his bones, and he lifted Isaac.
