CHAPTER 53: A NEW PROMISE

The woman’s voice was a lot different from the girl I was used to hearing so I didn’t exactly know how to react in this current situation.

"What will I have to do to keep myself from staring this battle over...?" Artemis asks with a bit of worry in his voice.

He could feel her breathing next to his ear. "Promise me that you won’t kill Isabel no matter what." She responds.

I can tell that something about Isabel worries her so it makes sense that she’s asking but I don’t get the reasoning behind it. What’s the connection to Isabel?

She’s the one who rules over this continent for the cult of Nyxoria, leaving her alive would leave the control to them. Even if it’s not really under any control of the cult, they still have a way to build up armies.

But I’ll die otherwise if I don’t make this promise so what else could I possibly do...

"Time is running out Artemis, make a decision before it’s too late." She says with a bit more urgency in her voice.

Everyone finally reaches Artemis as he sits there with one hand gripping his sword as he looks down towards the ground. "I promise I won’t kill her no matter what." Artemis replies with a serious tone to his voice.

The feeling of pain from his chest disappears as the wound closes, leaving a scar where it once was. He was no longer on the cusp of death but was the promise really worth making in the long run?

"Gasp!" Artemis lets out as he looks up from the floor.

"Glad to see you’re alive man." Shimada says before letting out a laugh of relief.

Amelia hugs him as Cynthia and Liora stand there looking down at the blood around him. They realized that he couldn’t possibly have survived this without some sort of miracle.

A promise to keep the one person alive that we didn’t want to keep alive to begin with, what a damn promise to make. Isabel better have some good reasons for me when that time comes.

Liora was lucky to be spared because of what she provided in the long run— Plus Liora also is a lot stronger than I expected her to be so she makes a good ally.

Will Isabel even deserve that kind of opportunity or will this promise be made for the downfall of this party in the long run. There’s a lot of questions that I don’t have the answer to right now, but I’m alive, that’s what matters.

"I’m so glad you’re alright." Amelia says as tears run down her cheeks.

Artemis lets out a small chuckle before speaking. "I’d be leaving you all to Shimada if I died, I couldn’t do that." Artemis speaks with a bit of a laid back tone.

Cynthia and Liora laugh as Shimada shakes his head. "I would’ve did just fine taking care of the ladies here, I am pretty good at handling their needs!" Shimada shouts with pride.

I’m glad everyone is okay, we made it through a tough battle together and I doubt it’ll be the last one we have. There’s a lot of different leaders ahead of us in this fight so I’m expecting a lot of pain and suffering.

We’ll get through it all together but that’s what awaits us.

"What will happen to this place now anyway?" Cynthia asks while facing Liora.

"People will eventually clean everything up and with the cult gone from here, they might even fix the reputation eventually." Liora answers with a bit of happiness in her voice.

It would be great if this place could go back to how it was before the cult of Nyxoria took over. That would give two amazing places to gather unique goods to keep on making it through the journeys.

"We should probably fix that armor of yours before we continue traveling though." Shimada says while looking closely at it.

My armor was mostly fine except for the destroy pieces of the chest plate where the reaper cut across me. That guy was strong and I’m sure if I didn’t attack like I did, that would’ve been the end of this attempt.

Putting me back in a random spot before the battle happened, I don’t even know if it’d be close to the same outcome or not. Each fight is bound to be different if I die and come back to do it again.

"We’ll have to find someone along the way, I’ll be fine until then." Artemis says with no worry in his voice.

It was time for us to begin traveling once again after everything that just happened, maybe rest could be the next priority after we get out of Helfri. This place doesn’t feel like it’s smart to stay in with all the death lingering around.

"The Kingdom of Theos, it will be the next best place for us to find any clues on where Isabel could be." Liora suggests with a bit of confidence.

Theos isn’t a kingdom that I’m very knowledgeable about so I guess this will be an interesting sight for me.

"Out of the four kingdoms on this continent in surprised that Theos would be the one we head for next. It makes sense though." Shimada chimes in with a bit of a bitter tone to his voice.

I’m assuming he doesn’t like Theos very much but that’s not important right now since we are looking for another cult leader. I’ve got to remember that Isabel can’t be killed no matter what as well.

The reasoning for that better be given to me at some point or another, but knowing my luck, it won’t.

The party begins traveling once more after making sure they had everything they needed for the journey. Theos was quite far from where they currently were so this time around it would take some time to reach it.

Shimada said that Theos is a couple weeks out from where we are, especially by foot so this will take some time. At least we will get a break from the cult of Nyxoria for the time being as we make our way there.