665 He killed his teammates!? (1/2)

”Let's surrender, Master.”

Izawa's words caused everyone in Seiji's party to fall silent for a moment.

”Earlier, you used such underhanded means to prevent me from surrendering. Why are you suddenly saying this now?” Kanna looked at her Spirit-branded Retainer.

”That's because earlier, I believed that it was a bad idea to surrender without even trying. But now, I believe that it will be too dangerous to remain here. For Master's safety, we should surrender now and leave here immediately,” Izawa spoke seriously.

It was quite evident why Kanna's loyal Spirit-branded Retainer suddenly changed his mind. It was due to the way that the enemies who attacked them had died!

The enemies had all become nothing more than withered corpses that were frightening to behold. It was only natural to think that continuing to participate in this tournament would be extremely dangerous.

”I'm happy that you've finally come to my way of thinking. But…” Kanna sighed. ”I think it's too late now.”

”I agree,” Seiji added.

In the current situation, it would be far too foolish to think that it was still possible to leave safely just by surrendering in the tournament.

Ever since the black mist appeared everywhere, the tournament rule where ”one could leave safely after surrendering” was probably completely useless.

”The Bloodwine Spirit which acts as the judge of the tournament is able to use magically enforced contracts to prevent tournament participants from attacking others who are defeated or surrender in the tournament. However, it's unable to stop non-tournament participants, such as the black mist or all those ghostly figures… My guess is that anyone who surrenders will instantly be swarmed and attacked by a large number of ghostly spirits, or something even worse.” Something flashed in Seiji's eyes. ”In other words, we're currently in a highly dangerous location. The only reason why we're still alright is because of the Bloodwine Spirit, or perhaps I should call it the ritual tournament contract's existence.

”This entire island is currently under the effects of the Bloodwine Ritual tournament to drain spiritual blood from the losers and finally create a powerful Bloodwine to be awarded to the victorious team. The tournament contract should have a preceding effect over the Spirit World creation ceremony that the Revenge Alliance is probably trying to perform here. That's why this black mist is unable to directly harm the tournament participants. Only if a ghostly spirit invades a tournament participant, or when some tournament participant is defeated or surrenders, will the black mist be able to absorb energy from them. Basically, this black mist is stealing their physical bodies and souls as sacrifices to create a Spirit World.

”All of the above is merely my hypothesis. However, I don't wish to experiment to see if I'm on the mark. Nor do I wish to see any of you experiment.”

”…Do you see now, Ryuuno?” Kanna sighed.

Izawa nodded.

”I'm sorry, Master…”

”Let's not waste words here. The most important thing right now is how to survive.”

”One possibility is to win and become the final overall victors of the tournament,” Seiji stated. ”However, I think that's a really low probability.”

”Even if that works, if only one team can survive this entire tournament… I don't think that Izawa and myself are capable of defeating you and Kagura-san, so we're still going to die.” Kanna shrugged.

”If I sacrifice myself, it should be possible to defeat Haruta-kun,” Izawa spoke seriously.

”Even if it's a joke, I don't want to hear it. I want to hear it even less if you're being serious, Izawa-kun.” Seiji smiled bitterly.

”Shut up, Ryuuno,” Kanna ordered, displeased.

Izawa fell silent.

However, he secretly resolved himself. If he and Kanna were forced to fight with Seiji Haruta in the end, he would sacrifice his very life if need be to make sure that his Master Kanna would become the final victor!

”Another possibility is that we follow the request of that mysterious voice and go to stop a certain person,” Seiji continued. ”The person this voice wants us to stop is highly likely to be the creator of the Spirit World creation ceremony here on this island. Only by stopping this person will we be able to dispel this realm of black mist and let all of us survive. But, the problem with this is that we currently have no idea who this person is. And even if we find out who this person is, if he or she isn't on the enemy Red Team, it'll be difficult to discover them.”

In the first round group stage of the tournament, the Bloodwine Spirit only provided the tournament participants with the magical minimap ability to sense the names and locations of tournament participants on the other team. Since Seiji and his group were all on Blue Team, they were unable to sense the other Blue Team tournament participants. Of course, they were also unable to sense anyone who wasn't a tournament participant.

”Even if we find out who this person is and find them, the next problem is whether or not we can stop them,” Kanna added. ”Are we really strong enough to deal with someone who's powerful enough to create an entire blood sacrifice ceremony to create a Spirit World?”

”That's right, that is indeed the final and most important question.” Seiji sighed.

If that person was extremely powerful to the extent of being undefeatable, then it would be useless even if Seiji and his group discovered this person. That was because reality was no game. There was no guarantee that the hero would be able to defeat the demon king.

”But if we don't try anything at all, we'll never learn anything… and we can't just sit around here and do nothing,” Seiji spoke in a heavy tone. ”I want to find out who this person is! Although I don't know who he or she is, there's still a few clues.”

Seiji felt that there was an over eighty percent probability that the person behind the strange black mist on the island was the leader of the Revenge Alliance!