Chapter 28: Escaping

"*cough* once you are outside, huh? I doubt you will make it." Weneg said with a cold smile which sent shivers down Zero's spine.

"We Gravekeepers never let those who steal from us leave alive." Weneg continued.

"Steal? You were the ones who stole from the Empire first." Akame retorted.

"So that's what they told you, well, it doesn't matter. You will all die here, hehe"

"What the hell does that-" Green wanted to ask but Zero interrupted him.

"That means we have to run away and fast." Zero said before noticing the 3 assassins from the other unit putting some pills into their mouth. He wondered where they have hidden them but maybe he would rather stay in the dark.

"?" Everyone turned to Zero with a confused expression.

"We can take all of them out, you have even said it yourself, most of the strong Gravekeepers are already dead. We also can't just leave Guy's body lying here..." Cornelia said while looking at Guy's body.

"Of course, even he must be aware that most of his allies are already dead. If his allies can't kill us then only this tomb can. He probably activated some self-destruct mechanism, we should go while it's still on the timer. Guy would want us to get out alive, especially you, Cornelia!" Zero said with narrowed eyes which made Cornelia avoid eye contact with him. Zero went to quickly grab his things.

"Hehehe, you are a really strange human. I have never met someone like you. You kept spouting something about thorns and games, including words I have heard for the first time yet you managed to find out everything, I commend you for that...However, I haven't activated any mechanis-" Weneg said while glaring at Zero with a smirk. He couldn't even finish his words before he finally succumbed to the poison.

*RUMBLE!* "What now?!" Green shouted as the entire room started violently shaking.

"Fuck, he was the trigger itself! Run, I still remember the way I came here but the path is blocked by the rubbles of the traps, we will need Cornelia's Pulverization King!" Zero took the last look at Guy's body before running from the room, following the path he took before.

The others followed after him with Cornelia to be last to leave the room while glancing back at Guy. While they were running through the halls, they noticed a few Gravekeepers in the distance but when Akame wanted to take care of them, they suddenly dropped on the ground, having bloodied backs.

"Don't get distracted by them, they must have run away from someone on our team." Zero shouted as he continued running without paying further attention to them. After a few minutes of dodging rubbles falling down on their heads, they arrived where Zero got split up from others, the path blocked by the rubble.

"Let me! Pulverization King!" Cornelia took the place at the front and swung her gauntlet at the rubble.

*BANG!* Worthy of its name, the rubble got almost completely pulverized. Cornelia threw one more punch and created a wind vortex to get rid of the smoke.

'With Guy, we would be able to get out of here easily but I am glad for Cornelia's presence since she is comparable to Guy when it comes to sheer strength and destroying things.' Zero thought while running behind Cornelia who seemed quite fired up. Maybe she wanted to destroy a few things or kill a few Gravekeepers to vent out.

'After all, she kept rejecting Guy so she might feel slightly guilty now. Even though he liked to gamble and visit brothels, I think his feelings for Cornelia were genuine which is only sadder. The question is whether she realized it or not. If not...I would rather not tell her, I bet even Guy wouldn't want her to feel guilty or even sadder.'

"The exit!" Kurome shouted and picked up her pace.

"Kurome, above you!" Akame shouted with a horrified expression as she saw rubble falling down right above her sister's head.

'Tch!' Zero quickly swung his arm and several black snakes flew towards Kurome and bumped into her at full speed, knocking her to the side.

Seeing this, Akame sighed in relief before glancing at Zero's back with a grateful look in her eyes.

Since Zero was right behind her, he didn't even wait for her to get up and grabbed her petite body amidst running towards the exit.

"We haven't introduced each other yet, name's Zero! Nice to meet you!" Zero shouted with a smirk, throwing a quick glance down at Kurome under his arm before dodging another rubble falling down at his head.

"Can't it wait until we are outside?! A-Also, thanks for earlier." Kurome shouted with a blank expression before she looked away from him and thanked him.

When they finally got outside, the exit they used got blocked very quickly. They looked up at the tomb and they saw how it was slowly collapsing from the highest levels to the lowest, releasing large smokes of dust to the surroundings.

*cough* "Let's move a safe distance from the tombs." Zero said while covering his mouth with his free hand. He was still carrying Kurome but he completely forgot about her since she was too light.

Everyone agreed with Zero's idea so they distanced themselves from the tombs.

"Are you alright, Zero?" Akame approached Zero and asked him while giving a small smile to Kurome who seemed quite annoyed by now.

"Ehm, can you please put me finally down?" Kurome interrupted.

"Oh, sure, sorry. I didn't want to make it seem inappropriate, it's just that your sister is really light. I also have no notable injuries" Zero said to Akame and put Kurome down.

"Why are you apologizing to my big sis?!" Kurome was completely lost why he would apologize to Akame instead of her.

"Haha, take it as a compliment, Kurome! Also, don't worry Zero, you prevented her from getting injured." Akame laughed at Kurome as she hugged her before she started talking to Zero.

"Kurome, this is Zero. Zero, this is my little sister I told you about, Kurome." Akame introduced them properly and Zero could see that she was feeling really happy despite Guy's death but he couldn't blame her since it probably hasn't settled in yet.

"Nice to meet you...thank you once again for your help" Kurome nodded her head while strangely looking back and forth between her big sister and Zero.

'Oh no...is she misunderstanding something?' Zero obviously noticed her wandering eyes.