“[Constellations Sword Strike]” Arthur muttered a skill name with his cold deep voice.

 

Albert’s eyes widened again! 

 

‘No way… that’s…’ He was astonished by the sight.

 

How could this be? Constellations Sword Strike was a skill that only the light element magic user could use. Not to mention it was a very rare skill that only some specific classes could have access to, like templar knight.

 

But Arthur wasn’t a templar knight, and more than that, he was a dark element magic user. Even if he managed to learn and activate this skill, the elements would clash with each other, which would result in the self-destruction of the user.

 

‘Is he trying to suicide?’ Albert began to wonder.

 

If that was the case, then it would only finish his objective, which was to eliminate the demon and the traitor.

 

Though, in the depth of his heart, he still felt pain by the thought of Arthur dying. Even though he was a traitor, he was still his teacher whom he respected.

 

But a duty was still a duty. He was a templar knight who swore to protect the country under the name of the goddess.

 

So as to respect his honor and Lord Arthur, he chose to watch this quietly. He lowered his sword and got out of his stance.

 

‘Good bye, teach.’ He bid Arthur farewell in his mind.

 

But—what happened next left him astonished once more!

 

Arthur began to draw his sword in the pattern of a zodiac sign.

 

Sagittarius! 

 

An image of a centaur pulling back a bow appeared in the air. But unlike before, it was now pitch-black in color and had a dark aura swirling around it!

 

Albert’s eyes widened in surprise for the nth time! 

 

He panickedly raised his sword up and got into a defensive stance!

 

Sparks went flying as Albert deflected the first strike in rapid succession. But right after, the next strike came rushing at him again!

 

Albert deflected the second strike with all his might. And as expected, the third strike also came right after!

 

Albert began to panic as he retreated backward and tried his best to dodge the next strike. Though, he still received some damage to his armor, and some hits even managed to pierce through his armor and landed on his skin!

 

Albert gritted his teeth to endure the pain as he began to back off.

 

His hands were busy deflecting the strike, while his feet were also busy retreating and dodging. His injuries kept increasing as the time passed by.

 

Albert realized that if this keeped up, he would get seriously injured or even become cripple. And in the worst case scenarios, he could end up dead!

 

Swiftly, he raised his sword into a straight diagonal line and began casting a spell—

 

[Light Defensive Spell: Light Shield]!

 

A shield of light appeared in front of Albert as it nullified the incoming strike into tiny sparks of black light.

 

Though, his shield got shattered instantly!

 

Albert casted the spell again and created another light shield. Just like the last time, the shield nullified the strike, then got shattered instantly.

 

‘Tsk! If this goes on, I’ll…’ Albert clicked his tongue as he created another shield of light.

 

Albert realized that he was now in serious danger. Each of his shields could only nullify one strike, and then it would shattered instantly.

 

It’d only been the 7th strike, which meant there were still 5 more to go!

 

Albert wasn’t confident that he could defend against all of it. He was fatigued and felt his mana draining at a rapid pace.

 

He’d just use his ultimate skill which drained his mana pool a lot. He felt that his mana pool was about to run out soon.

 

A shield of light shattered with black sparks went flying everywhere. Albert created another shield as it shattered right after.

 

His breath became rugged as he panted heavily. Sweets rolled down his face and he felt his body getting heavier and heavier.

 

He felt like he would faint at any moment now. His eyes were about to close but he forced himself to stay awake.

 

With a shaking hand, he raised his sword into a straight line and created another shield of light.

 

But—this time, it only formed into a faint shield of light that kept on and off like a broken light bulb.

 

Scorpio!

 

The next strike came as it formed into an image of a scorpion. It came rushing toward Albert and easily shattered the faint shield of light!

 

It was getting nearer and nearer. Time seemed to move in slow motion as Albert felt his death approaching.

 

He tried to raise his sword to at least block a hit, but he couldn’t. His shaking hand went limp as he began to stagger and was about to fall down.

 

Though, he managed to stay standing with the support of his sword.

 

The strike came so near now as it was a few inches away from him. But then—

 

A blinding light suddenly appeared in front of him with the sound of electricity sparks!

 

On instinct, Albert closed his eyes and all he could hear was the sound of electricity sparks and the sound of something shattering.

 

Not long after, the sound subsided and Albert opened his eyes. He was completely fine from that last attack, so he assumed that that electricity sparks must have shielded him from that last attack.

 

‘Lightning element….’ Albert thought as he started to have an idea of who might be behind this.

 

And as he expected, a voice suddenly rang out from the side.

 

“Hey, you almost died right there, eh? Albert.” 

 

Albert shakily turned to the side and a faint smile appeared on his face. “So you finally came, huh? Nadia.”

 

In the direction Albert was looking at stood a beautiful woman dressed in a purple robe. She had purple hair and purple eyes. There was a cane and a tome in each of her hands.

 

“Yes, your big sister has arrived. Now just go to rest and leave everything to me, okay?” Nadia said with a smile.

 

Albert smiled weakly and closed his eyes. His body fell forward, but when he was about to touch the ground, he suddenly stopped falling and kept floating there.

 

Beside him, Nadia was pointing her cane toward him. She raised her cane upward, and Albert’s body spun around and stopped in a laying position.

 

She then waved her cane sideways. Albert’s body floated to quite a far distance and gently laid on the ground.

 

Nadia then turned toward Arthur. 

 

“Good morning, Lord Arthur. Thank you for waiting patiently~” She said with a smile.

 

Arthur didn’t respond. He just looked at Nadia emotionlessly.

 

Nadia sighed and shook her head. “Geez, how rude. You’re not gonna at least greet your old friend?”

 

Arthur still didn’t respond, he just kept standing there quietly.

 

Nadia sighed again. “You’re so cold, Arthur. Well, whatever. I think we should finish our business here.”

 

A tome in Nadia’s hand slowly floated up and opened. It hovered above her hand, while her other hand pointed a cane toward Arthur. 

 

“Let’s end this, traito-”

 

“D-Dad?” 

 

Nadia couldn’t finish her sentence as she was interrupted by a girl’s voice. She turned to the direction the voice came from.

 

There stood an extremely beautiful girl with long black hair and bright blue eyes. A violent black aura was swirling around her body as she stood there, staring at Arthur with wide eyes.

 

Arthur turned toward her and called out her name—

 

“Luluka.”

 

He said calmly as his emotionless face seemed to soften a little.

 

Seeing this, Nadia lowered her tome and her cane, and cautiously looked at the girl. She then tried to recall her memory. 

 

‘Luluka? Arthur’s daughter?’ 

 

She’d never met her before, but she’d heard a lot about her. Arthur liked to brag about his cute daughter whenever they met.

 

‘So that’s his daughter, huh?’ Nadia thought. ‘Yep, she’s a cutie, alright.’

 

‘But—too bad…’ 

 

A tome in Nadi’s hand floated up and opened again as her other hand pointed a cane toward Arthur.

 

‘She’s the daughter of a traitor. I have to eliminate her!’

 

Nadia then changed the direction of her cane toward Luluka. A ball of golden lightning began to form on the tip of the cane.

 

It then came rushing toward Luluka at the speed of light!

 

[Lightning Strike]!

 

Luluka was still in shock and couldn’t react in time. She swiftly turned toward the lighting that came rushing at her, and then—

 

The sound of electricity sparks rang out loudly, accompanied by the sound of grunting.

 

A smell of burned meat kicked Luluka’s nose as her eyes widened!

 

In front of her was her dad with his hand spread to the sides, shielding Luluka from the attack. Black smoke rose up from his torso.

 

“D-Dad..?” Luluka’s head went blank for a second. 

 

She was trying to process the situation. The shock she’d just received was too much for her to think things straight.

 

“Argg…” Arthur grunted as he gritted his teeth to endure the pain.

 

But then his body staggered a little.

 

“Dad!” Luluka snapped back to reality as she supported her dad. “Dad! Are you okay?” 

 

She quickly went to the front and saw that Arhur’s torso was completely charred with black smoke still rising out of it.

 

“D-Dad!” Luluka began to panic, seeing such a serious injury.

 

She tried to find a way to cure the wound, but then she suddenly heard a chuckle. Luluka looked up and saw her dad looking at her gently while chuckling.

 

“Calm down, Luluka. This is nothing. My wound will heal soon enough.” He said with a smile.

 

Then, Luluka suddenly realized that her dad had the pendant of regeneration with him. She sighed in relief and suddenly felt the urge to pout at her dad for making her worry.

 

Seeing Luluka pouting face, Arthur continued chuckling as he patted Luluka’s head.

 

The heartwarming atmosphere made a certain someone start to feel left out. She furrowed her brows and clicked her tongue upon seeing this scene.

 

“Oi oi, didn’t you forget that I’m still here?” Nadia said in an annoyed tone.

 

Hearing this, Luluka swiftly turned around and looked at Nadia.

 

‘This woman…’ She furrowed her brows and gritted her teeth. ‘This woman dared to attack my dad.’

 

Luluka began glaring at Nadia as she got into a fighting stance. Her eyes started flickering between red and blue as she felt like she was about to lose control.

 

But then, a warm hand suddenly placed on her shoulder. “Luluka, don’t worry about her. I’ll take care of it.”

 

“But, dad.” Luluka wanted to protest.

 

“It’s fine, Luluka. Just leave her to me.”

 

“No, dad. At least, wait until your wound heals up for a bit.”

 

“C’mon, Luluka. Your dad is stronger than you think.”

 

“But dad….”

 

The father and daughter duo kept arguing as to who’s gonna be the one to fight against Nadia. Nadia saw this and her brow started twitching. 

 

Veins started to pop up on her temples as she clenched her fist tightly.

 

“Hey! Stop ignoring me!!” Nadia exploded.

 

Three balls of lightning appeared at the tip of her cane as it shot toward Luluka!

 

*Boom!!!*

 

A very loud explosion rang out as Arthur grabbed Luluka and carried her out of there.

They arrived a few meters away, but then another three balls of lightning shot toward them again!

 

Just like the last time, Arthur carried Luluka and dodged the attack swiftly. 

 

*Boom!!!* *Boom!!!*  *Boom!!!*  *Boom!!!*  *Boom!!!* 

 

Nadia kept attacking Arthur and Luluka with Lightning Strike constantly. Though, Arhur managed to dodge all of them with an insane speed!

 

“Tsk!” Nadia clicked her tongue and began casting another spell.

 

[Lightning Blast]!!!!

 

She pointed her cane toward the two and a huge blast shot out from the tip like a huge golden laser!

 

“Dad! Look out!” Luluka panicked.

 

Arthur kicked the ground and started dodging. Though, the range of the attack was too large and Luluka knew that they wouldn’t be able to dodge this.

 

She tried to cast her blood shield, but Arthur stopped her.

 

Time seemed to move in slow motion as Luluka saw Arthur smile at her gently. 

 

The background behind him was completely white as the blast kept closer and closer.

 

‘Dad, what are you..?’ Luluka was both panicked and confused.

 

Arthur’s smile deepened as he muttered to his daughter—

 

“Goodbye, Luluka.”

 

Luluka suddenly felt a warm sensation rushing through her body. She wanted to say something to her dad, but she couldn’t.

 

She felt as if she was drifting away somewhere. And then—

 

The blast swallowed both of them whole and turned everything into white color.