Chapter 142, White Mask returns – Part one

 

“That was awful…”

 

“It was awful for me!”

 

Alice yelled at a sickly looking Nick.

 

“S-sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose. And you know… Thank you very much. I feel like a goddess or an angel came for me.”

 

“Eh…. R-really?”

 

Nick said so sincerely, since Alice had just saved his life in the nick of time. He was not complimenting her for her beauty or anything, but Alice was a little embarrassed.

 

Nick felt as though she would be easily fooled by a bad guy.

 

“More importantly, why are you… Ah, I don’t even have to ask, you’re here after Garosso right?”

 

“That’s right.”

 

Alice nodded.

 

“…Attacking from the front but cutting the back. It’s that technique.”

 

“It’s an assassin’s skill.”

 

“I can’t deny that…”

 

What Nick saw matched what he heard from Alice before.

He thought Garosso could very well have slaughtered Alice’s colleague from the back, and he was not interested in covering for him anymore.

 

“Is that a technique of All Martial Arts?”

 

Although she looked embarrassed before, Alice now looked at Nick with very sharp eyes.

 

“I don’t know, I’ve never seen it before. It’s not like I know everything about All Martial Arts either. I don’t even know why he attacked us.”

 

“Well, we can talk about that later, I should get going. Oh, and take my mantle and give it back after you’ve washed it.”

 

Alice stood up and winked, before setting foot on the rock wall.

She then stood on it as if gravity had flipped ninety degrees.

 

“W-wait! Take me with you!”

 

“…No.”

 

Alice looked as though she was pondering it, before refusing with a cheerful smile.

 

“Eh?”

 

“This is the safest place right now. I’ll come back for you later.”

 

“You’re kidding?”

 

But Alice simply smiled, and Nick realized she was serious.

 

“Do you want to leave?”

 

“Of course! I can’t just sit here!”

 

“Then, don’t rely on me and leave on your own. I like kids that try their hardest like you were doing before, but not spoiled babies.”

 

“Like before…”

 

A thought suddenly popped into Nick’s head.

How was he saved from falling?

Alice saved him just in time, but he was almost there.

He was moving as though he was being sucked into the wall.

 

“Give me a hint Alice.”

 

“What?”

 

“You ran on the wall, but it wasn’t because of some magic item or something special about your body. It was some sort of technique right?”

 

“You’re asking for a hint, but you’ve pretty much got it figured out.”

 

Alice giggled. She was actually complimenting him, and not being sarcastic.

 

“I see…”

 

“Good luck… I think you can do it.”

 

Alice waved her hand as she walked on the wall one step at a time, as if she was purposefully showing it to Nick.

 

“…Alright.”

 

Nick composed his breathing.

 

His joints hurt, he was full of scratches, and due to the position he was in, his left elbow and right knee were throbbing with pain.

He felt as though he would not clear his head unless he threw up again.

 

Still, he started moving his limbs, and slapped his cheeks to motivate himself.

 

Nick thought back to when he was in a trance. He activated both Heavy Body and Light Body at the same time to control his position when his body was spinning.

 

“…No, I didn’t hold back the rotation, I rotated in the opposite direction.”

 

Many things started connecting in Nick’s mind.

Alice walked on the wall, much like he saw Olivia do before.

No, Olivia did more than just walk on the wall, she flicked him away just by touching his cheek.

The strong impact that Nick received was as though something rotating at a very high speed touched a chess piece.

 

“Heavy Body. Light Body.”

 

Although he was not moving, a gyration was generated in his body, as though he was becoming a spinning top.

 

“Uoh, watch out…!?”

 

The sudden increase in speed made Nick lose his balance and almost fall.

One false move would send him falling down the mountain again, and yet a smile started forming on Nick’s face.

 

“I see, I see, that’s what it is… You could’ve just told me about this pain in the ass technique.”

 

Nick composed his breathing again, and started activating his magic.

 

◆

 

After being sent flying by Karan again, Garosso started mumbling while still on the floor.

 

“…The grandfather of my grandfather’s grandfather had a pretty high status in society. I heard he was something called a samurai, that protected his country.”

 

“Don’t care.”

 

Karan figured Garosso realized he was losing and was mumbling to confuse her, and did not let her guard down.

 

Garosso had been completely pushed back, and his katana was broken.

Anyone could see Karan had won, but she could not shake off the feeling that something was not right.

 

“So if my home, my ancestor’s country was still around, I wouldn’t just be Garosso, I’d be Garosso Kataoka. I’d have a family name, isn’t that incredible?”

 

Said Garosso as he undressed from the waist up.

At that moment, an intense feeling of dread ran down Karan’ spine. It was not fear of the unknown. She knew what it was.

She would never forget how she was almost killed by ‘that’.

 

“Sharah!”

 

Karan slashed at him from the shoulder down.

 

“Too late. Or am I too late? I should’ve put this on before it came to this.”

 

Suddenly, Garosso’s arm was covered with black gauntlet, and undressing his upper body revealed a shining white jewel between his heart and stomach.

 

“This is… White Mask’s…!”

 

“Yes, I am the next White Mask. When it looked like their country was about to collapse, my ancestor made a contract with someone important in the evil god’s side. ‘Give me strength, and my descendants will be loyal for seven generations’. I’m the last generation, so I had to live like a ruffian whether I like it or not… But that’s enough. People always complain that I ramble too much.”

 

As he spoke, the black armor covered his body.

 

“Once I put this on, I’m a slave till I die, and I can’t even die by my own hand. Ahh… I wanted to play a little more…”

 

A sword appeared out of nowhere, and a sleek white helmet covered his head.

 

“This again… Give me a break…!”

 

Said Tianna, and her fellow party members present all felt the same way.

Garosso looked exactly like the white Mask they fought before.

 

“I pity you.”

 

“Then how about you give up!?”

 

Tianna furiously answered Garosso’s sarcasm.

 

“Sorry, but this isn’t something we can solve by talking.”

 

“I agree. Stop trying to confuse them with your talking.”

 

“What!?”

 

“Butterfly sword, Swallowtail longsword.”

 

A woman suddenly attacked him.

Her beautiful curvilinear movements fascinated even Karan with its polish.

 

“Ah… Alice!?”

 

“You have a sacred garment… Ah… I should’ve taken Nick and ran.”

 

Said Alice of the Order of the Sun with a sarcastic smile.

Her attack had left Garosso with a deep slash from the shoulder all the way to his midsection, but it closed itself as it let out smoke. The black armor then covered the hole as if it were alive.

 

“A visit from the Order of the Sun? Sounds like bad news.”

 

Said Garosso with an amused tone, not sounding at all threatened.

 

“You probably have more people with you, but they couldn’t keep up, right? Let’s just get started.”

 

Said Garosso, but Alice seemed to be in no mood to respond to his jabs, and quietly held up her sword, with cold sweat running down her face.

 

◆

 

Tianna grinded her teeth out of frustration for not being able to do anything.

 

There was no point in firing her magic bow, as she would be hit before completing the two steps, aiming and firing. She could even be taken as a hostage and get in the way. Tianna’s calculations were correct, and that was why she stood still.

 

“Sem… Is my master alright?”

 

“I did what I could. The rest…”

 

Sem whispered. All he could offer was a vague response.

 

Basically, nothing could be done unless they escaped this situation.

She wanted to either blow away this cruel reality by charging at the enemy in front of her or leaving everything and running, but she managed to clear her head of those sweet temptations.

 

Tianna started thinking as hard as she could. There had to be something else she could do.

 

“T-Tianna…”

 

“Shh…”

 

Tianna got close to Bellocchio without drawing Garosso’s attention, and stopped him from speaking loudly.

 

“Master, don’t talk…”

 

“The boss is dead, so the barrier will be relaxed for a short time.”

 

“Eh?”

 

“In order to bring the boss back again, the labyrinth… It is only for a short time, but if you do it now…”

 

Bellocchio’s words continued, and Tianna focused as hard as she could to hear everything.

 

“For one second…. Just for one second… You can stop… The sacred garment.”