CHAPTER 395: FALL OF AN ALPHA? [13 - END]

[A Few Minutes ago]

While Lillian and Millis were battling the Alpha, Zeke continued to lie in a state of motionlessness as his mind slowly drifted off.

He had begun to dream of the past.

***

[23 December 2027]

After I had been left behind, the town was hit by a light snowstorm. It was truly a horrible day for someone stranded in an unfamiliar town without any money.

I couldn’t even access my bank to draw money out because they had stolen my phone and wallet. And I had found that a branch of my bank wasn’t located here either.

So just like that... I had to spend an entire night homeless outside in some random alleyway.

I was fortunate, however, to scrounge up some pocket change in between the cracks in the pavements—just enough for an energy bar and bread buns.

Although the snow had begun to pile up and the temperature dropped to a concerning degree for someone without shelter, I managed to endure as I utilised the surrounding rubbish as a makeshift shelter.

I...

I felt miserable.

...

The next day, I needed to find somewhere to work. But since today was a day right before the big holiday, most of the store had already either closed or weren’t in need of hiring.

However, I was able to find one place though...

"You... Want to work in the mines...? Right before the holiday?" The Manager, who went by Bob, looked at me with both scepticism and surprise.

"I need the money, sir..."

I was desperate.

"Well, uh... Sure. We’re short of men. We can get started after you hand in your resume and I can go through it I guess."

After I had been told that, I felt unimaginable despair. Of course, I would need something like a resume... But to think I would need it for some mining job.

Bob stared at me silently before catching a whiff of my smell. He reeled back at my scent, which I could understand.

I smelled horrible.

Fortunately, such a negative thing had allowed me to attract pity from the man and got me the job. He had even taken me to the site’s showers, which was truly a blessing.

After I was equipped with my uniform and gear, I was shown inside the mine and given a tour as well as training.

"Why do we still use explosives for this...? Can’t we just bring in some kind of machine to plough out a tunnel?"

"Huh? Are you serious?" The Manager asked me as he tightly held a bundle of explosives.

Then, while holding a lighter over its interwoven fuse, he muttered, "It seems that you don’t know much about the financial and labour sides of things in the mining industry, so I’ll just summarise it.

"Explosions of any kind are always going to be far cheaper compared to specialised machinery. They are also going to be smaller, which allows us to bring them around more easily."

Hiding behind cover, the Manager tossed it over and waited for the explosion.

BOOM!

As dust blows over us, Manager Bob added with a snicker, "Also, our mayor is kind of a cheapskate, if you haven’t heard. But... At least we can have some fun with these explosives."

"I see..."

"Look, if you’re still uncertain why we don’t request machinery, then all I can say is... That if we were to somehow encounter monsters during our mine, we could always just use these."

I looked down at the Manager’s hand and watched as he pulled out another bundle of dynamite. And seeing that he wanted me to take them.. I held my hand towards them.

***

{Your Trait [Fatal Survival] had activated. It will now go on cooldown for 3 days.}

Zeke’s eyes shot wide open as he spat out a glob of blood from inside his throat.

"Cough! Cough!"

His ears still echoed with the voice of the Jester’s soft and androgynous voice.

"So, that’s what that does..."

With a hiss, he sat up and measured his wounds: broken ribs, internal bleeding... And of course, bruises.

He ran a hand over his chest and arms, then flinched at the pain. Zeke took a glance to the side and found his shield, which was... What he had wanted to call it.

Flattened, punctured with several holes, and covered in dust and scratches. He scowled, "An entire month’s worth of income down the drain... I should’ve gone the extra mile for enchantments..."

Being able to afford something to be enchanted was a luxury for someone with his earnings.

He slowly pulled himself up to his feet before losing his balance and falling straight back down on his rear. He held the side of his head as it had become foggy from his loss of blood.

And it became much worse as his surroundings shook and the sounds of an intense battle echoed inside the open area he was in.

He looked inside his spatial ring, intending to find something to soothe his pain. But then, he instantly forgot as the world spun, as vertigo caused him to look towards another object.

Instinctively pulling it out, he found himself holding onto a bundle of dynamite.

He clutched it tightly in his hands.

He had remembered that explosives worked rather well on the monster... And if he recalled correctly, most of its armour had by now been torn off.

"I... I need a way to light it..."

As Zeke said this out loud, he noticed a dim light towards the side. And looking in the direction of the light, he found the flames of what he could assume to be a torch; a torchplant to be exact.

And it was just lying near him.

Zeke gritted his teeth and with a struggle... He reached over and grabbed it.

***

Lillian, having blown through the Alpha’s right arm with a water drill, looked past the beast and found Zeke standing before its eyes.

Zeke slowly held the flames of the torchplant with a cold light in his eyes as he spat out in a hoarse voice:

"Get out of our mine..."

Tzzz!

Once the fuse became lit, Zeke chucked it towards the Alpha before cloaking his body in invisibility—disappearing right after the dynamite detonated.

BOOM!

The Alpha’s body was blown back by the explosion, losing its hold and balance on the wall.

Millis, who still had plenty of mana for one last creation, summoned a large stone arm right beneath the falling abomination.

Having caught the creature, it rose towards the height of the ceiling before bending over and slamming the beast right into the centre of the nursery.

THUD!

As the stone arm slammed the Alpha into the ground with a loud thud, cracks shot out from the centre of the room as the ground suddenly broke open.

What was revealed was the massive hole that the Barrel Moles had dug through earlier.

And it was deep, at most a hundred metres deep.

At this point, the Alpha’s muscle fibre had already begun to decay and rip apart, both from Lillian’s poison and the accumulation of the brutal attacks on its body.

And yet... It still managed to cling to the last bit of vitality it had.

How could this have happened? How did everything go so wrong...? Was it a mistake to take home inside this cavern?

This was the Alpha’s first-ever not-beastly thought.

And it will be its last, for at the moment, the idea of possible escape appeared in its mind, it heard a soft and unhurried voice.

"Nine minutes... Nine minutes have passed..."

Lillian, who was crouched on one of the large pieces of falling rubble, looked down at the Alpha, which had locked its eyes onto her figure.

She still had one more minute before she would lose all information on how to perform the Crimson Nocturne.

But that didn’t matter.

For that was all she needed—just a single minute!

Watching as the Alpha’s body barred its fang at her and opened its maw for her to fall into it, Lillian dashed forward with all of her might.

And brandishing the Black Maw, which seemed to gleam a murderous light at the moment, Lillian flicked its blade through the air and directed the edge of the blade to the corner of the Alpha’s mouth.

"[4th Technique of the Crimson Nocturne...]" Lillian muttered slowly before roaring out with full murderous intent, "[SCARLET EMBRACE]!"

Slashing through the horrid creature’s fangs, Lillian’s blade bit deep into the corner of its mouth before sliding down it.

Then—with gritted teeth, clenched jaws, and glowing eyes—Lillian began to carve through the entire right side of the monster’s body as blood spewed out from behind her.

After slicing through the tip of its tail, Lillian looked upwards, finding the sky covered by a crimson blanket as the Alpha’s organs began to unravel out of the cleaved side.

And what she saw... Was a gory, rough image of a rose painted on a dark red canvas.

’It still isn’t dead!?’ Lillian widened her eyes, not having heard the kill confirm.

She scowled and got into position. But then felt her mind go blank and her stance lose its fluidity and structure. And as she felt her strength decrease, she realised that she had run out of time!

Scowling, Lillian held her hand out, intending to blast the Alpha with a full range of attacks, but then caught sight of a purple-haired Heroine spinning through the air like a saw blade.

Lillian caught a glimpse of Millis giving her a wink before delivering the final attack on the Alpha with her black sword.

Lillian’s body relaxed when she saw this. She sighed and prepared herself for the landing.

But right before Lillian fully turned to water, she smirked at the Heroine with a click of her tongue and muttered in playful frustration:

"Tch... Kill stealer..."

She wasn’t too bothered by this. Since...

BOOM!

They had won...

...

And that was all that mattered in the end...