Chapter 180: Traitor (1/2)

Layn continued to watch over the girl for over an hour. At this time, he didn't care even the slightest bit about anything that was happening around him. His focus was fully and solely dedicated to supporting Irea's effort at recovery.

But that didn't mean the time itself had stopped.

”Keep running, fool!” Antion shouted, calmly jogging after the escaping traitor. There wasn't a single bead of sweat on his forehead or expression of anxiety nor tiredness in his eyes. From his disposition alone, it was clear that he considered his current hike as nothing more than that.

The same couldn't be said about Befrel. Roughly a hundred steps ahead of Al, he was using every last bit of his energy, magic, and cultivation to keep his legs moving. Yet, despite pushing himself to his limits, he just couldn't shake that annoying pest off his back.

'Damn it all!' Befrel cursed in his thoughts, constantly pushing himself to his limits. His body was soaking wet from all the sweat he produced, yet he didn't feel cool at all.

Even though the open plains were nowhere nearly as harsh as the desert itself, it didn't mean the sun didn't do its work there. Under the constant assault of its warm rays, Befrel continued to lose his strenght with each passing second.

'I was so close, I was so damn close!' he moaned with disappointment in his thoughts. Even though he was desperate, his desperation didn't give him any additional energy. Rather than that, it seemed to be a massive leach on his soul, sucking his mental will to resist his fate.

'It's all because of that whore,' he thought. For a moment, his thought mellowed down, sprinkled with the mead of achievement. 'At least she got what she deserved now,' he thought, recalling the moment when his state-of-the-art spell fired off.

She managed to divert it, preventing Befrel from starting a massive conflict between the two entities that the Star Emperor could have trouble subjugating. And while that meant the end of Befrel long and harsh mission, it also meant that there would be no chaos that would allow him a swift escape.

Tick.

Befrel tripped on a random stone protruding from the grasslands. Or rather, protruding from the ground, but fully invisible under cover of thick and high blades of grass sprawling all over the massive plain.

'Dang it,' Befrel thought, feeling how all the hope of ever returning home vanished from his soul. Even though he knew he couldn't outrun that damned traitor of a perfect, he still hoped that some kind of miracle would save his life from the hands of that damned bastard.

But the great Gods didn't seem to look at him with favor today.

That's why Befrel didn't bother to stand up. 'I didn't have a huge advantage over him,' he thought, expecting to feel the man's kicks and fists at any given notice.

'Any moment now,' he thought, even going as far as to close his eyes to prepare for the inevitable. 'What's taking him so long?' he asked himself, but the sudden prospect of opening up his eyes and checking the situation was just too scary for the man to handle.

For as long as he had his mission, he was willing to brave through the greatest dangers and act as a friend to the monsters that shouldn't exist and people who allied with said monsters.

'But now that my mission is fulfilled, I have nothing to worry about anymore,' Befrel thought, ready to depart from this world at any time.

But Antion continued to refuse to touch him.

'Heck, I tripped a long while ago. Did something kill him?' he thought, unable to hold the pressure of ignorance. Forcing his body to act, Befrel opened his eyes up before pushing his upper body up.

And there he was. Standing exactly a hundred feet away from him.

”Stand up and run,” Antion said with a cold look on his face. He didn't even hold his weapon, proving that he didn't even consider Befrel to be his opponent.

'That damned bastard,' feeling the sting of the insult to his pride, he clenched both his teeth and his hands. 'Well, being in his position, I wouldn't bother acting kind either,' Befler thought, suddenly feeling the remorse.