'Run or fight?'

That question lingered for a long moment in Dante's head.

BAM!

Suddenly, Clara moved her spear aside and punched the sword, throwing it back again.

Dante ignored her strange behaviour and attacked, treating it like every other attack she landed. But then, he noticed that the relic was shaking.

'No, it's…'

He squinted and noticed another detail. The shaking effect was affecting every segment for a moment before moving to the next, as though the force of her punch was moving…

'Shit, it's literally moving!' Dante's heart sank as he prepared himself for the impact.

The force was moving toward Dante through the sword, and he couldn't do anything about that!

His relic was literally a part of Dante's arm. What would he do in this situation, chop it off?

Dante focused his mana into his body, and secretly used his demonic energy, doing his best not to leak any of it.

If even a small amount of the demonic energy left his body, all that would be for nothing.

'Ugh!'

Eventually, the force reached Dante's body, shaking every single cell in it.

His internal organs shook aggressively, including his brain. Only his heart, lungs, and liver were still in a good condition.

All Dante's facial holes leaked some blood, and all of Dante's bones and muscles were in pain.

For a moment, Dante's thoughts stopped working, but he quickly restored them.

'What the… what… What the hell was that?! Does she have the Force Aspect?!' Dante wondered, struggling to think clearly, as he spat a mouthful of blood and controlled the segments to dodge another punch.

The Force Aspect was a rare aspect that could be gained from a few domains. One of them was the Body Domain, which specialized in the physical and biological aspects like the Muscle Aspect and Blood Aspect.

As the name implies, the Force Aspect could create and manipulate the concept of force itself, making it one of the best aspects for close combat fighters.

'If she was hiding that all this time, then what else are they hiding?' Dante felt immense danger.

He was now uncertain of whether he could kill them if he released everything or not.

Clara and Adrian were holding back. It was obvious that each one of them was likely on par with Baron Ash, who overwhelmed Dante even when he used his silver Ether.

Now, he might have to fight two of Baron Ash, maybe three if the fox was counted.

'Should I run or risk everything and keep fighting?'

Choosing one was hard, but eventually, Dante decided to play it safely.

'I would rather be a coward than an enemy of the Mercenary Guild!'

As that thought crossed his mind, his sword suddenly shrunk and all the segments connected to each other before the relic returned into Dante's arm as a tattoo.

A part of him wanted to fight and absorb their spirits, but Dante was intentionally rejecting it.

Although he didn't fear death, he wasn't willing to die meaninglessly. He wouldn't let his greed control him when running away was clearly a better option. He was already feeling the mental corruption invading his mind.

Additionally, he wasn't a brave fool who would choose dying as a warrior rather than running to live another day.

With no hesitation, Dante used Shadowstep, melting into a nearby shadow and reappearing inside the formation.

"No you won't!" Adrian roared, his eyes gleaming with burning flames as he snapped his fingers.

SNAP!

A giant fireball launched toward the formation, burning everything like a furious meteor.

BAM!

Just then, a silver bolt shot out of the formation and pierced the giant fireball, splitting it into two halves. The bolt lost some of its power, but it continued moving forward.

"This again?" Clara frowned, making a layer of stone cover her own body and spear.

CRACK!

But when Clara tried to block the bolt, it shattered her spear into pieces and pushed her two steps backward.

Once again, Clara and Adrian were shocked. That spear was an artifact!

But the most shocked person was Dante himself.

'Did a silver bolt push her only two steps?!'

Although it lost some power from the fireball, it was supposed to be strong enough to pierce the heart of someone as strong as Baron Ash. A giant fireball wasn't enough to make it weak.

'She definitely created and manipulated some force to keep standing against my bolt. Her spear that shattered into pieces is proof of that.' Dante analyzed before finally leaving.

BOOM!

The two halves of the fireball finally landed on the formation barrier and shattered it, releasing the blinding gas-like shadows. But Dante was nowhere to be seen.

"I'll cover your nose and body, it might be decaying or poisonous." Clara said before covering her entire body with a layer of stone. Then she did the same to Adrian.

With insane control, she designed the eyes area to let only the light enter, the nose area to filter the air, and the ears area not to block the sounds. Her feat spoke volumes about her experience with her aspect.

She even made an adorable stone armor for her spirit, ensuring that it'd stay safe.

Afterwards, they rushed toward the treehouse, only to find out that they lost their vision.

"They are not normal shadows, the light of my flames is limited!"

They finally understood the real purpose of the gas-like shadows, but they didn't let their guards down. That might be only one of its effects.

Deep inside the treehouse, Dante passed by the library and put all the books into his ring before continuing to the formation room.

"...Welcome back, ahem." Ruby greeted him with a nervous smile.

"Oh, I forgot about you." Dante didn't give her more than a glance. He immediately focused on the formations.

Using the stored mana crystals, Dante recharged the shadow formation, recreating the shadow barrier to surround the treehouse.

'This will slow them down when they try to leave. They'll either have to break it again or return inside the treehouse and destroy the formation itself.'

Next, his eyes landed on the emergency escape formation, which Ruby was already standing on.

Dante gave her a gentle push and summoned his dagger relic, aiming its blade at the centre of the formation.

"Wait! If you do something, the formation will lose the location we put on it!" Ruby warned with panic all over her face.

Dante nodded: "That's the point. That means they can't follow us. We can remake the formation later if we return."

"Oh, I see."

Dante poured a small amount of his mana into the formation. The runes instantly lit up as they devoured the mana of the stored mana crystals.

Before it could activate, Dante placed his hand on Ruby's head and channeled his mana and spiritual energy. After a moment, their bodies and their belongings were entirely covered in shadows, except for the dagger.

And the next second, Dante and Ruby disappeared.

TING!

The dagger fell to the centre of the formation and decayed the runes. Before it could go any further, it turned into a wave of light particles and flew in a specific direction, passing through all the walls, mud, and snow.

Clara suddenly stopped moving.

"What's wrong?" Adrian asked with concern.

"The heat signature is now far away." Clara frowned as she looked at her fox with a raised brow: "He either found a way to hide his heat signature or he truly disappeared… somehow."

Adrian frowned too upon hearing her explanation. They both ran toward the last place he was in and found a broken formation.

Clara crouched and examined it carefully, using the light of her spirit to see the runes.

After a moment, she stood up and explained: "It seems to be a shadow formation. Apparently, it's like the technique that he has been using to teleport himself. It's supposed to send him to a marked shadow that is far away from here."

Adrian's eyes twitched: "Are we supposed to follow him now? How far is he exactly?"

Clara sighed: "I can't know how far he is, only the direction, which means he's already out of my range."

"Damn!" Adrian clenched his fist and hit the wall.

"But there is a problem…" Clara added: "The direction I see leads to a dangerous territory. If we followed him and found out that he entered that dangerous territory… we might have to stop and make some preparations."

"Huh? Why would we stop? Preparations for what?"

Clara smiled bitterly: "Because it's a death zone."

¢¢¢

'Damn her, my eyes and nose are still bleeding!' Dante sat on the ground and wiped his face with a piece of cloth, feeling pain from every small movement.

That force attack was truly strong. If he hadn't used his demonic energy, he'd have had to deal with more than some blood.

"Ah… yes, a death zone."

Behind him, Ruby laughed softly: "There is no place better than a death zone for escaping, right? Why did I accept this idea when I made it?!"

"Yes, it's perfect." Dante nodded confidently.

Suddenly, a crazy smile threatened to appear, but Dante suppressed it.

"Of course, it's a good place only for someone like me, not for you. You can leave now and find those mercenaries." The moment Dante said that, he looked at the sight in front of him in awe.

The land in front of him didn't contain a single tree.

It was a complete frozen land, coated with a thick layer of white snow, and there was no sign of life anywhere.

There were a few hills here and there, but that was everything. It was empty, cold, white, and silent, like a wide desert of snow and ice.

That was the White Abyss, a name that suited that area's nature so well.

Despite the empty-looking surface, Dante didn't dare to let his guard down.

After all, the White Abyss was the only death zone in Ashton Kingdom, a place that only Rank 3 beings and a few Rank 2 experts dared to enter.

But for Dante, it was a good place to trap and fight the bastards who wanted to kill him for defending himself.

'I'll return to the treehouse someday…'

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