Chapter 12 [Unacceptable Truth]

Four days later something strange happened, the Grimoire Of Gluttony which was lying on the ground near Alph suddenly started floating and opened up by itself.

It flipped to Dane's page and a strange mix of golden and red light burst out from it, materializing into the figure of a man before solidifying as, the now vastly different from before, Dane.

He wore an exquisite white suit with golden and red embroideries.

His white hair and aged face had an extremely holy and noble aura about them making him look like a dignified saint.

"Master...." He looked at the petrified Alph and anger flashed in his eyes.

He quickly stepped in front of him and a golden knife materialized In his right hand.

The golden knife had an exquisite appearance and it was overflowing with holy aura.

He gripped the knife tightly and stabbed it into Alph's chest.

The stone surface didn't pose any hindrance to the knife and it easily pierced through.

Not stopping there, he summoned another golden knife and this time stabbed it in his own chest.

"Cough- With this, I declare my sacrifice!" He shouted out and as soon as he did, both of the golden knives turned into golden light and entered their bodies.

Alph's body quickly started to de-petrify and Dane's started to turn into stone.

"Gaaaghhh!" Alph took a harsh long breath and fell down on the ground.

"Dane!?" He looked at the petrified Dane and couldn't help but feel confused, why was Dane petrified and why did he feel so weak?

He could only remember that he was trying to comfort Saila after she had seemingly gotten rejected by Kane and for some reason he got worked up and grabbed her shoulder.

Saila had probably taken it in the wrong way and she had kissed him.

Everything after that was a blank and now he suddenly woke up with his body feeling extremely weak and Dane standing there, petrified.

He looked around himself and his mouth widened in shock.

"What the hell happened here?" The tent had been blown away and there were visible signs of battle, not to mention the frozen orc who had broken into pieces.

Before he could stop to think, his gaze landed on a female body not too far away from him.

Covered in dried up blood, there was a large hole in her chest and her face was frozen with a tragic expression.

"RIRI!!" Alph immediately rushed towards her.

He brain was having a hard time coming up with proper reactions, he didn't even know if he was having a bad nightmare or if this was reality.

He hesitantly checked her pulse, and sure enough there was no heartbeat.

"N-No... T-This isn't real!!" He tried to deny reality, he couldn't accept what he was seeing.

He hurriedly went back to pick up the Grimoire Of Gluttony.

He opened the Grimoire and flipped through the pages, not even bothering to read the changed introduction page and Dane's page, he went directly to the page of the Draylion.

[Summon: Cool Down 1 Day 13hrs left

Assimilate

Observe

Complete Control

Last Moment]

Sure enough it was under cool down which meant it was also killed, he noticed the new option below Assimilate.

Without thinking much, he ordered to use it and suddenly his vision blurred as a stream of scenes flashed in his brain.

"Cough!" Alph fell down on his knees as his heart started beating erratically, he was having struggle breathing.

He had just had a vision of Saila blasting the Draylion into ashes with a lightning.

"W-What does it all mean!" Alph didn't want to realize the truth, the truth that it was Saila who had killed Riri and attempted to kill him as well.

With a sliver of hope, he went to the Orc's page and used the Last Moment option again and this time he clearly saw what had happened after Saila had kissed him.

Him turning into stone, the Orc fighting and getting frozen by Saila as she contemptuously mocked Alph.

"Gaaah! Gaaah! Gyaaaah!!!" He shouted out, rage and unwillingness to accept reality were rampaging inside him.

*How could this happen? Why? Didn't they know each other for years? She was acting for so long? For what? The treasures from the cave? This is bullshit!!!*

His thoughts were chaotic and with no cave of tranquility to calm his emotions Alph was on the edge of breaking.

"Sniff-" At some point his eyes had started to overflow with tears.

Bitting his lips till they bled, Alph pushed himself off the ground and unsummoned Dane.

He didn't know what ability Saila had used but knowing how powerful the grimoir was it probably wouldn't affect it.

True enough, when he summoned Dane again he was back to normal.

Alph didn't even notice, or care to notice, Dane's change of appearance and temperament as he ordered him to search around the area.

He himself didn't wait and started to push his body, walking towards the double rivers.

He soon reached the boulder Kane and Saila had been sitting on and there he saw Kane or what used to be Kane.

His eyes were closed and there was a gentle smile on his face, his lips were slightly pushing outwards, as if he was kissing someone.

Looking at the petrified Kane, Alph grinded his teeth in anger barely holding himself from passing out with rage.

The hole in his chest had shut down any hope of being able to be saved, Kane was also dead.

"Master, I found two male bodies. One of them seemed to have tried to escape but was frozen and broken into pieces the other one seemed to have died unaware." At that moment Dane suddenly appeared besides him and reported.

"E-Eveyone... She killed everyone?"

"Hahahahaha, friends? We were friends??? She used to bring us towels? Look after us? Why.... WHY!!!"

Alph finally snapped and broke out in a crazed tantrum, his nerves almost bursting from the pressure, before falling to his knees.

There he silently wept for what felt to him like an eternity, his before slowly standing back up.

"Dane, is there anything you can do?" Although he didn't have any hope left, he just asked for the sake of it.

"There is nothing I can do, Master," Dane expressed in a solemn tone.

"I see..." Alph didn't say anything else and started to move.

"Give me a blade," Alph gazed at Dane and demanded.

"Master...." Dane was hesitant, he could feel that Alph was in a very unstable emotional state, he feared what he was thinking of doing.

"I said give me DAMN BLADE!" Alph suddenly screamed, his brows were furrowed but his eyes were blank.

Dane was left without choice, he summomed an exquisite dagger before handing it to Alph.

Alph took the blade and silently looked around before going forward to start digging in the dirt.

"Ah Master let me help you, your body needs rest," Dane finally understood his intentions and spoke.

Afterall, Alph had just spent 4 days in a petrified state so his body wasn't in a good condition either.

"Shut up..." Alph however disregarded his concern and continued digging.

As he dug, the blade accidentally slipped and caused an injury on on his thumb but Alph didn't feel any pain, he just kept digging as the crimson blood slid across the blade and into the dirt.

"Enhanced Heal!" Dane quickly casted a 6th tier healimg spell, causing the wound to instantly heal.

After digging for a long time, Alph slowly stood up. In front of him was a 4 feet deep pit large enough to fit am adult human body.

He carefully picked up Riri and laid her inside before throwing the dirt back, he continued to do the same for the rest of them including the petrified Kane.

As he was still a normal human, doing so took a lot of effort and time, however Alph disregarded his physical exhaustion and continued to push himself.

Hours later, with the sky having turned from dark to bright, Alph was done and at that moment he collapsed and fainted.

His body and mind finally giving in to the exhaustion.

"Master!" Dane hurriedly grabbed him before he fell down.

He had let Alph push himself despite knowing his mental turmoil because he knew that whoever these people were, they were very dear to his master and that burying them was a way of bidding them goodbyes.

Nonetheless Dane felt weak and useless, he felt that it was all his fault that his Master had ended up in such a situation, if only he was there maybe he could have stopped all this from happening.

But there was no use lamenting the past, Dane knew that he couldn't change it, he just had to make sure from now on he would be by his Master's side to help him through all hardships and achieve all of his goals.

Dane gently laid down Alph on the ground before going back to gather the important things like the Grimoire Of Gluttony, the pouch containing the rest of the Golden Lotus and anything else of value among which was the map that Kane used.

Since Kane liked to keep a track of things, the map was marked with their current location and reading the map, which wasn't hard for him since his intelligence was now even above normal humans, he figured out that they were headed towards the town of Ruid.

Having had figured out the destination, Dane once again picked Alph up and started to make his way towards the town.