Chapter 54: I Will Save You, But Don't Chase After Me

He was upside down right now, and if his technique linked, he would end up hitting the ground massively creating a deep crater. So he relaxed his leg, didn't complete the technique, holding himself back, and thus his body regained his momentum and started rotating again.

When his body became straight, he unleashed his full technique, hitting the air violently and feeling a severe pain along his leg muscles.

However, it wasn't the time to be distracted, as he had moved, unwillingly, under the effect of that huge cloud of smoke, heading slightly away from the place of the monster.

This wasn't in his plan, as he didn't predict the huge damage of the oil. Just as he was looking for any thread of hope, a line of feathers passed rapidly across his face, to finally find a familiar body under his feet, carrying him away.

It was Birdy with Lily on its back and a very worried look of horror over her face.

"No, no, return, return back now!"

Arthur didn't even stabilize his body or say a thanks to the impressively timely appearance of her as he asked her to return. She was about to open her mouth to say something but he hurriedly said in a decisive tone:

"Return back now, there is no time to waste."

He was panting and his clothes were already tattered in many places, clouded with the black smoke even turning his face into black color.

Lily swallowed what she was about to say as from the urgent tone of him she realized how bad the situation was. She hurriedly ordered Bridy to take a sharp turn and that was enough to make him lose balance, but he caught the long feathers of Birdy at the last moment.

His body was full of injuries, either superficial or deep hidden ones. His leg muscles were torn in many places and even his mouth had a long dried line of black blood that was enough to express how dire his situation was.

However he didn't give up, he knew if he didn't act now, linking all the steps he had done so far together with this last step, he would lose this opportunity and next time this arrogant monster wouldn't give him a chance to act.

Just as Birdy flew just adjacent to the place of that monster where a thick pillar of black smoke kept rising up with extreme high degree of temperature, Arthur let the feathers go, to fall freely from this altitude directly with great momentum towards the ground.

As he just adjusted his body with a very painful move. He tried to prepare himself, enduring this pain by thinking that the worse had yet to come. He used his senses to scan the area confirming the place of the monster, which seemed to receive a hit it didn't count for.

It was now standing still with a thick fire emerging from it. Arthur knew this would be risky but it was the only way he could think of to deal with this monster. The thing that made him more depressed was the fact the guardian monster was even way stronger than this one.

If he had such a hard time dealing with such a monster then how could he deal with that guardian? Arthur knew his luck was great but he doubted it would be enough to make him defeat that guardian now.

Pushing away these random thoughts he focused, greatly focused, on the place he was falling rapidly towards. His prior plan was to fall directly above the monster but now he couldn't achieve that, and he was extremely glad he couldn't.

If he fell from such height facing all this black smoke with a very dangerous high temperature then he would have been burnt long before he reached the monster.

Now he had the luck to skip this, but he had to shift his fall to enter this smoke, endure the burning as much as he could, and be - hopefully - awake when he reached the monster.

Gritting his teeth while his mind playing silly games on him, picturing the pain he would be subjected to, he shifted the direction of his fall using his leg technique to fall directly above the monster, violently entering the black smoke and fire region.

Once there he was welcomed by a thick and extremely scorching wave of heat with a thick veil of suffocating smoke that made him unable to breath. He couldn't open his eyes normally without feeling burning pain inside them.

Luckily though he was using his senses to search for his location, and thus when he couldn't see anything he knew his exact position.

He used his leg technique to push his body slightly upward before rolling up his body upside down, extending his hand downward, piercing through a burning layer of extremely violent fire, and touched the hard shell of the monster.

"ENTER MY RING!"

He screamed, out of pain, suffocation, and burn as the huge body of that monster vanished, with the huge fire and that thick pillar of smoke.

The place he was just falling into had miraculously changed from hell to paradise for him. However he had no strength left in him, and the short distance he had from the ground seemed like a mile.

And he simply smashed there.

It was like the monster had tortured him over and over again. His whole body was covered in burns and even his muscles appeared under his skin. His hair was burnt, even his eyelashes were stained dark grey from ash. His eyes were red, extremely red like they were about to burst at any moment.

He was vomiting blood from time to time, yet he felt everything despite the numbness spreading into his body.

He felt it when Lily reached him first, cried on his side like he was dying. He felt when every single member of his little team reached here, to be extremely shocked by the devastation and the horrible state he was in.

The most shocked and even crashed beside him was Ron, who couldn't help himself and screamed like he had already lost a brother. Arthur was touched by all of their reactions, even the newly joined to his team were extremely shocked and sad.

The huge explosion that happened here was already enough to alarm every single living being in the radius of tens of miles, if not hundreds of miles.

Everyone of his team rushed here fast to be shocked by what they saw. None of them knew what happened, none except Lily who was so devastated that she couldn't stop crying into the warm embrace of Amelia with only one word on her little lips: I'm sorry!

Arthur knew his body condition was very critical and he didn't expect this to be the end result of this clash. He had already faced many tribulations before but it seemed his soul was ironclad and his body was a clay.

Every breath was so painful and tiring that he started to hope not to breathe again. He even closed his eyes when the lights around him started to fade away.

He wasn't able to retain his consciousness, even when he tried to. He had failed for the second time in a row he failed in a great test and he didn't deserve another chance anymore.

'Don't think like that, I will save you.'

This sweet voice echoed in his mind, like a warm spring that could heal even the deepest wounds of the soul.

Amidst the darkness of his soul a light shone so bright that was enough to enlighten everything around him. He couldn't bear to look at it, so he closed his eyes and opened them to be met with a face so beautiful that he even forgot to breathe.

This face was familiar, so familiar to him, but he couldn't tell whose face was.

The face just giggled as the light that shone a brief moment ago came from her, and without any notice she leaned over him, kissed his dry and burnt lips passionately like it was the last kiss between the two.

This moment froze the time itself. The whole world was silent, still, not moving forward in respect to this moment, which seemed to last forever.

The face moved away from him, ending the kiss he dreamt not to end and she chuckled in a way he never saw before.

'Unfortunately I can't be with you anymore, I have to return to my clan residence, and I won't be able to leave there anymore. Don't cry for me, don't look for me, I will always live happily knowing you are living happily as well.

Thanks for the brief moments we had, these were priceless moments to me and thanks for your help, I now evolved and can join my real clan.

If you ever wanted to remember me, remember my name, Zilia. I want you to live prosperous, be happy, and rule over this world with your might. I will always cheer for you even if I can't ever see you again. Good bye my love."

The soft voice echoed in his ears and he was given a long hug before the angelic body and face of this goddess started to turn into spots of lights, so shiny and beautiful that even the sun couldn't rival them.

Eventually her body vanished and the spots of light faded until they dimmed and disappeared.

And finally the whole world regained its clarity, its vitality, and its brutality. Arthur sat up in his place, looking in a shocking gaze, without a single scratch or injury over his body.

It was as if the dying version of him a moment ago was an illusion in the eyes of others. They opened their mouths agape and even retreated a couple of steps before they screamed, ran towards him, and gave him very passionate hugs that were full of tears and cries of joy.