A dull longsword and a heartbroken villager

Naruko's intuition told her that if she continued to stand in front of Bray, Marek would really shoot without any hesitation.

But so what?

Yeah, so what if the other side wants to shoot at you? Are you just going to step aside and let them shoot you in the mine?

"Although I don't plan to live very long, I still want to live to be 30."

"Just like how you all want to live to be 100 years old."

“However, without this idiot, my life would be incomplete.” Naruko suddenly grinned at Marek.

It was a hearty smile, completely different from Marek's dark and gloomy smile.

The next second, Naruko crouched down.

Marek, who was out of form, reacted a beat too slow and missed his shot.

"Swoosh!!!" Just as Marek was about to chase after the gun, a burst of steam erupted from the pipe.

The steaming sound was coming from right in front of Marek, from someone's arm armor.

A large amount of magic was transformed into high-temperature steam and powerful airflow through this arm armor.

"Steam?" Marek realized this before being pushed away by the sudden gust of air.

"I...didn't I manage to dodge it?" Marek said in a deep voice, brushing aside the steam with his left hand, his face devoid of a smile.

If he were in his normal state, he would definitely be able to react before Naruko could act.

However, he had been injured since his fight with Betley.

This state of my body not obeying my commands is really uncomfortable.

"Is it because of the injury that your reactions are slow?" Marek murmured, steadying his staggering steps.

All the coincidences made Naruko's sneak attack a success.

"Just how lucky do you have to be, Naruko-san?"

“Everything that has happened seems to have been a setup for you.” Marek looked at Naruko.

But they found that Naruko had already picked up Bray and used a grappling hook to hold onto the protruding rock above.

"Shut up! I'm just lucky, so what!"

"Levy!" Naruko called out to Levy.

Naruko herself doesn't have any particularly powerful abilities, but Levy does.

"Ugh!!!" Upon hearing Naruko's words, Levy immediately understood what to do.

The chill spread in the blink of an eye.

The temperature continued to drop, and even the ground gradually began to frost.

"Crack—" A massive ice wall blocked all of Marek's path.

Marek, trapped inside the ice wall, felt as if he were locked in a refrigerator.

However, the cold weather did not last long.

Marek looked up and saw a ball of fire, like the sun falling, hurtling towards him.

The flames were incredibly hot, yet strangely, they didn't melt the ice wall.

Fire and ice, two contradictory things, coexist.

"BOOM!!!!!" The enormous sound was muffled between the ice walls.

However, the loud noise was not silenced for long.

The ice wall quickly shattered, and a loud explosion was heard.

The ice shards shot out in all directions like bullets.

"Run!" Naruko shouted to Levy below.

"Oh!" Levy responded and, in the blink of an eye, climbed up the uneven walls on both sides.

"Cough cough..." Marek, who had been attacked by Levy, scrambled to his feet.

"What a mess." The once-clean military uniform was now covered in dust.

Marek, who always seemed so at ease, looked rather downcast at this moment.

"Bang—" Amidst the dust, without a second thought, he fired a shot at Naruko in mid-air.

"Ding!" But the sparks that appeared meant the shot had missed.

He just watched helplessly as Naruko climbed up with Bray in her arms.

Marek squinted, and could vaguely see that there were other people up there.

"Is this the end?" If he's persistent, it's not impossible for him to catch up.

There's no need for that.

He put away his gun, clutched his chest, and slowly walked into the darkness.

“It really is... a complete mess.” He should have known from the beginning that things wouldn’t go well when he was tricked by Beatrix.

"So, what should we do?"

One of the owners of the black ring is still alive, and two other rings have been preserved.

"How about I tell you what to do?" a mocking voice came from Marek's ear.

It was cold and malicious, just like the surrounding environment, making people uncomfortable.

“Like giving me a ring.” Gurid’s sharp eyes scrutinized the ring in Marek’s hand. “As the saying goes, bad luck just keeps coming one after another,” Marek murmured weakly as he lay on the ground.

“That’s absolutely right.” He had a very obvious bullet hole in his forehead.

Being visited by Betley and Gullid in turn, Marek felt that nothing could be worse than this.

Now, only Marek remains on the ground; Gulid has long since left this place of trouble.

Not long ago, a bullet pierced Marek's head.

But he is not dead yet; he is still alive and healthy, though he is slightly unable to stand up.

The two black rings he was playing with have also changed hands.

After shooting him and confirming his death, Gureed took two rings that did not belong to Gureed.

Normally, even if Gurid took these two rings, they would be of no use to him.

Because as long as Marek does not choose Gurid as the owner of the ring, Gurid cannot use it.

Perhaps "research" was Goodeid's real purpose in taking the ring.

To be honest, Gullid was really ruthless. To ensure Marek's death, he kept shooting Marek until he was riddled with bullets before leaving.

He said, "You dare to warn me with that kind of thing? I used to be your superior. You're the one who should be warned," and then fired without hesitation.

Unfortunately, Gullid didn't have the same shrewdness as Bray and couldn't see through the illusion.

Therefore, Gulid was unaware that his perception had been "deceived" by Marek.

From Gullid's perspective, Marek was beaten beyond recognition and hadn't moved for a long time.

In reality, Marek was only hit by the first shot.

Although the bullet hit him squarely between the eyebrows, it wasn't enough to kill Marek.

Marek struggled to raise his hand and picked up the bullet that had struck him from the ground.

He examined it carefully, feeling a sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, mixed feelings).

"Why did we fail so badly this time?" Marek asked, puzzled.

Then, he suddenly thought of something, and a smile began to appear on his lips again.

“Yeah, this time, I don’t seem to be very ‘excited’.” Marek realized, understanding why he had failed.

Not excited enough, not engaged enough.

This time, I felt like I was an outsider, just watching, simply watching.

“Yes, that’s right, that must be it.” Marek covered his eyes with his hands and began to talk to himself.

Without sufficient passion, how could one possibly create a compelling storyline?

"Eeya eeya, my dearest Marek, my most, most, most, most dearest Marek!!!!" An exaggerated voice rang out as Marek murmured.

The voice sounded as if it were filled with unbearable pain, as if it were lamenting Marek's plight.

"You have a hole in your forehead." The clown, wearing a mask and a tuxedo, squatted down and carefully touched Marek's forehead.

The mask bears a tearful expression, but the mask's owner's feet are kicking in a dance-like motion.

“Jonathan, you are still you.”

“I’m so envious,” Marek said in an envious tone.

"It's really enviable."

“Mr. Marek, it’s not a bad thing for people to change,” Jonathan said lightly, twirling his cane.

After Jonathan finished speaking, he used his cane to lift Marek off the ground.

“Speaking of which, you made the ring, but I’ve never even seen it,” Jonathan said to Marek, whom he had provoked.

He had heard that Marek had created a ring that could interfere with the wearer, and he was initially looking forward to seeing what interesting things might happen.

When he arrived, he only found Marek lying on the ground like a dead fish. What a pity.

"Hmm, has he passed out?" Jonathan waited a long time for Marek's answer, then turned to look at Marek.

Then they discovered that the other person had closed their eyes and passed out.

"That's right, you can also faint from severe injuries. After all, you and I are just human beings at the end of the day."

Jonathan and Marek are, in the end, just human beings.

---

As Jonathan took Marek away, Naruko dragged Bray from underground to the surface.

Naruko placed the wrecked ground down and began to pant.

“I never thought you were the kind of person who wouldn’t be afraid of death,” Bray said, looking at Naruko’s profile.

“I’m terrified of dying. Can’t you see I’m sweating bullets?” Naruko glanced at Bray.

"But I'm also afraid you might suddenly die."

"So shut up for now and stop complaining," Naruko said to Bray in a disdainful tone.

"Naruko, Naruko, Bray's leg!" Levy frantically circled around Bray.

Bray's leg was almost completely severed, but Levy didn't know what to do.

"Levy, don't be nervous." Naruko wiped the sweat from her forehead and began to comfort Levy.

"Naruko, what should we do with Bray?" Levy asked anxiously after stopping.

“It’s too late to look for a doctor in Heian now.” As she spoke, Naruko pulled a piece of paper out of her clothes.

"The quality is not bad." She looked at the paper-shaped magical tool and remarked with a slight sigh.

However, while speaking, she began to activate the magical artifact.

The magical tool that Nicol Bolas gave her was incredibly useful in all sorts of emergency situations.

“Let’s go back and find that priest. If that doesn’t work, we can always find the all-powerful little Nick.” As Naruko spoke, the circular formation began to slowly set up beneath her feet.

"So Levy, don't be nervous."

"It will be alright, everything will be alright."

There's still about half an hour until the magical artifact is fully activated, and there's a lot that can be done in that time.

She bent down and rummaged through Bray's pouch, finding a lot of medicine.

Bray, that idiot, even protects his waist pack during battle, but I have to admit, it's a really good habit.

Otherwise, Naruko wouldn't have been able to find the medicine in Bray's pouch.