Despite giving himself over to his power, Zeke's consciousness was still active. At the deepest part of his mind, his sense of will continued to exist.

So despite his memories being hazy whenever his attunement took control, he was still able to be 'present' in the loosest sense of the word.

But he feared that this time, he would never forget what happened to him. The event would be so memorable that it burned itself into the forefront of his mind for years to come.

The Tower of Arthurian Knights flew up to him and dominated his presence. That small, almost insignificant knight compared to his giant size, crushed into his stomach like a truck. Then as it summoned strength that seemingly came out of nowhere, Zeke became airborne.

He roared, not in a sense of rage or hatred, but in pain. Even in his mana form, pain pierced his resistances and hit him right in his soul. He wasn't sure how, but it happened in a blink of an eye.

The knight summoned barriers to fly across the air, using them as stepping stones while quickly getting around Zeke's huge body and putting both his fists together to slam the body down. Zeke's entire body caved again, this time landing on the ground and causing the entire forest to shake from the impact.

Zeke's giant form recovered fast and roared, swinging his giant arms to crush the knight. However, it just batted away the giant hand like a fly and punched straight down to his head, causing it to shift to the side, his cheek almost melting into itself.

Even in his giant form, Zeke was not a match for the knight. His large size only became a hindrance as no matter how he tried to punch, slap, claw, and swing his hands–the knight dodged them all with ease and delivered powerful strikes without rest. When Zeke thought he finally got the upper hand and caught the knight with a double palm-strike from both sides–the knight just summoned powerful barriers to defend himself. Then it jumped back up and kicked him on the nose, small streams of fluorescent liquid flying out everywhere.

His consciousness was waning. His mana was being drained faster than his regeneration can keep up. He can only go for so long before shriveling up from an extreme case of Mana Deprivation.

But he hasn't even hit the knight once. Not once. How can he just stop and let the knight go and chase after the otherworlders? He couldn't stop.

But it was too much. The knight was faster, stronger, and had better instincts than any monster should have. It somehow knew too much how Zeke fought, predicting where he would hit and counter attack fast enough to stop Zeke in his tracks.

He was at a loss. Just when the creature got the chance and tried to crush his face once more, jumping straight up to him with a winded up arm, Zeke was ready for more pain.

Then a flash of lightning flew right at the knight, piercing its body with a sword swirling with intense mana and electrical power. The figure of lightning flew to the ground, pulling the knight with her as her sword crushed the ground beneath, not only creating a large crater but also trapping the knight with her lightning-infused steel blade.

"Don't mess with us!" Mikella roared, her muscles tensing up as her lightning crackled and sparked all over them.

…..

She couldn't believe what she Identified while her sword was currently being blocked by the knight's gauntleted hands.

Tower of Arthurian Knights…

The name brought memories that she would rather forget. But she forced herself to not think it now as she forced herself to jump away before the knight could punch her head off.

Despite its giant size, reaching over a few feet above her, the damn thing was so fast and quick. It was no wonder Zeke was having a hard time if even Mikella couldn't quite keep up with it.

When she slid across the ground a few paces away, she took another gander at it. Zeke, meanwhile, stood by her side in his giant form. She was more than glad that Zeke wasn't just standing around like before, not knowing what to do after doing one thing.

The last time, he fought against the giant boss of the ruined fortress as his main target. Once he killed that, he stood stock still before Mikella managed to convince him to target the Lord of Bastion, or former Lord at least.

Still, the current target in question was still alive, but Zeke was still apprehensive on attacking it again. It meant that he still had a semblance of a conscious somewhere in that giant body.

As she examined her opponent, the more her body seemed to negatively react at it. She wanted nothing to do with this thing as its power was far beyond anything she could even comprehend. It didn't make any sense, but her senses were already screaming that she needed to run away.

The quest told them that the trial had started, that they had to take down the creature or else failing to do so would mean death. But the more she thought about it, the more it made sense that the system wouldn't force them to die against a creature they knew was too strong to handle.

Technically speaking, they can run away. And right now, that sounded extremely good.

But the moment the knight 'spoke', all thoughts of running away ceased.

Mikella… Ashton…

Her mind stopped working for a second to hear her own name coming out of that thing's mouth… or whatever it used to speak. Shivers crawled down her spine as her shoulders shook.

It couldn't be. There was no way. She knew then and there that the thing that almost killed them from back then died when the tower disappeared. However, it spoke her own name, and it shared the same name as their first tower.

Zeke… Parlow… Mikella… Ashton… The knight continued to speak, then it tilted its head aside as though in confusion.

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Where… is… Clara Ashton? She must be here… as well… for punishment.

Time stopped for the two. Mikella no longer cared for the strangeness of it all, and apparently neither did Zeke.

The two didn't even spoke a word to each other, not even sparing a glance. She knew, deep down inside, that Zeke and her had the same thought.

'We need to kill this thing'.

Zeke's giant form bent itself slightly along with Mikella tensing up all of the muscles in her body.

They didn't even blink. They acted as the two launched themselves at the creature.

Mikella roared, not caring anymore about control as lightning coated her entire body, her sword predominantly charging towards the knight.

She was the first to reach her target, but was shocked to find that her sword was stopped by a magical barrier, one so familiar that it hurt just looking at it again.

It was Zeke's Barrier Craft, or at least the skill he once owned. Her attack was completely stopped, even though she was already flaring all her buffs. The knight slammed her with a kick when she paused from the realization, her body launched like a cannonball across the field.

But Zeke's giant hand caught her body, stopping her from landing horrifically on the other side of the entire dungeon. He roared as he swung his other fist down at the knight, but once again it was caught by the barrier.

Taking her chance, she summoned her wings and took flight, then used a very rarely used skill, something she doesn't own herself.

It was her equipment's special skill, Darkened Skies. She hadn't used it before due to it being a 'one use a day' type of skill, but it would reduce someone's spellcasting by half of their original power.

She actually used it because she knew, deep within her magical senses, that she can target this special debuff onto her enemies, leaving Zeke to use his magic fully.

Dark clouds surrounded the fake sky above, thunder cracking and lightning snaking around the clouds. It seemed unnatural to see a sudden stormcloud appear out of nowhere, but Mikella somehow felt at home in these clouds, as though she became the storm herself.

Multiple weapons were pulled out from her storage pack, each one floating up in the air as her lightning ensued. She felt each spark burn the pores on her body, but the pain was nothing.

Each different type of weapon–all the spares she had, were now floating around her. Using her main sword as a conductor of sorts, she threw all the weapons she had on hand at the knight. They were all coated in angry lightning, capable of withstanding the sheer power thanks to Cru's craftsmanship.

The weapons flew like arrows as they aimed at the knight, but it conjured up a barrier. It blocked one, then two, then even more weapons, but soon the barrier started to crack.

That's when Zeke came in to stomp the barrier to pieces with his foot. It slammed onto the knight, destroying the layer of earth underneath and creating a shockwave that cleared an entire lot of the forest. Trees were destroyed, the ground was desecrated, and the very air sizzled.

At the time, they didn't think about the potential people that could still be there. Mikella didn't spare anything else a thought and neither did Zeke. The only thing on their minds was one thing–to protect Clara from this creature.

But once the debris and smoke cleared away, Zeke's foot was pulled away to reveal absolutely nothing in the crater he made.

Mikella's Dragon Eyes flashed, thinking that perhaps this creature somehow used some form of illusion. Instead, she noticed one strangely perfect circular hole dug deep into the earth. It was almost as if…

The ground right beneath the airborne duo blew apart, revealing the flying knight that was covered in a cylindrical-shaped barrier. However, the barrier had a small diamond-shaped tip at the top, spinning drastically like a drill as the knight's body flew towards Zeke again.

The barrier, if it was truly Barrier Craft, was not made to be used as an offensive spell. However, even Zeke would be tired out from the constant use of the barrier like the knight did, since it required intense heavy focus and a lot of mana without the use of runes to help support the action.

The knight, as expected, dispersed the barrier and dug deep into Zeke's chest. It was too fast for even Mikella to see, not letting her help as the knight distorted Zeke's giant shape.

The mana whirled and destabilized, as though something else was disturbing Zeke's mana. The air popped and a wave was let out from the two, blowing Mikella away from the intense air pressure exuded from the blast. Before she could even recognize the feat, the knight made the entire giant mana shape disappear.

The now normal human-shaped Zeke was held in the knight's gauntleted grasp, his neck tightly squeezed. It landed on the ground, still holding Zeke up. His mouth gaped open, his eyes were bloodshot and wide open. Rather than not breathing, he can't even handle the grip of the metal hand.

Mikella threw away all hesitation and flew at the knight, smashing her sword at it. But despite using all of her momentum, her Class skills, added with all the stats she had gained so far…

The sword barely scratched the murky black surface of its armor.

"No… no!" Mikella roared. "Let Zeke go!"

She roared again as she swung her sword, letting her lightning fly all over as she pounced at the standing knight. However, rather than even using its barrier, it just took her hits like it was nothing. She had spent so many resources on her desperate attacks, no longer having that same power it once held as it only showed slight scratches.

The knight just ignored her, even as she went around the knight to strike at whatever weakness she could see. But there was nothing. Her Dragon Eyes showed nothing other than just fighting against a wall that would never break. All the while, that damn wall was crushing Zeke's throat, causing blood to pour out of his mouth as he was unable to do anything. His body was covered in burns, caused by the usage of his attunement like how it happened before. He couldn't use his magic, his skills–nothing.

Just once, while Mikella was desperately trying to just hurt it, Zeke glanced at her. She looked back at him, filled with determination and desperation alike.

He spoke the words she never wanted the hear.

"...Run," Zeke garbled, possibly using his last words. "Run…"

Her heart sank in despair. She roared, defying everything that was dealt to them. She ignored Zeke's pleas.

She didn't want to die. She didn't want to leave Clara behind. But she didn't want to leave Zeke behind either. He must have wanted her to leave so she could be with Clara instead. But what could she tell Clara?

She left Zeke behind? How could she say that?

She screamed like a ravenous dog as she tried and failed to take the knight down. But it was like facing against Val when she went crazy with her Class Madness.

It was as though she was facing something beyond her stage. It was unfair.

And now Zeke would die, and soon this thing would go after Mikella. Then, it would go after Clara.

Before Mikella could be desperate enough to try something that would endanger her life. Before Zeke would try something that would cripple him for years to come.

Something broke through the sky above. A presence far too powerful for anyone to comprehend. Mikella, and even the knight stopped what they were doing. The knight's hand finally let go of Zeke's neck, dropping him to the ground.

But they all stared at the strange hole that was made. It was similar to someone throwing a stone through a glass window, revealing the sky cracked like glass with a black and purple fuzzy void through the hole.

From that hole, a figure floated down with wings made entirely out of golden energy on her back. Her long crimson hair flew about, her body covered in pristine platinum armor. Looking down at the ground, she howled.

"Finally! That took way too damn long!" The woman shouted, sounding nothing like how she presented herself.

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