The Villain's Story

"Ha..."

A gasp escaped the mouth of the sword saint, as he stumbled backwards. He fell to the ground, coughing up blood.

A searing pain was felt on his lower abdomen, his armor had evaporated and revealed an injury that seemed like cancer. It was a wound that oozed the color of blue, and spread out in cracks. His blood seeped out.

He used his sword to balance himself, wondering how and why Alan had suddenly fallen unconscious to the ground. However, he was in no state to ponder for long.

The blow, he failed to block, was devastating...even though it hadn't even hit him completely. The black sphere on the tip of Alan's fist filled him with such fear he stopped thinking, and acted on instinct, using whatever time he had to try to block it.

But he simply wasn't fast enough...and if Alan hadn't fallen unconscious, he would have died. There was no doubt in his mind.

The missing piece in his armor was proof that the blow would have killed him. His body wasn't strong enough...but then.

'Why did he...fall?'

The question plagued, as he used a valuable potion to get back to his feet, however the wound still remained, and it stung like a bitch.

He stood up, and went close to Alan, bent down and examined his body.

"All his vital signs are okay... So why?"

He could also sense the seed of aura that had sprouted, therefore...he was led to one conclusion even after examining his body for so long.

"Perhaps the bloodline ran out of energy..."

Bloodline energy was different from mana and aura, so perhaps that was the case... Maybe Alan's Phoenix bloodline, as overpowered as it was, couldn't support the state of aura for any longer.

Perhaps the body had to finally succumb to the power, and collapsed.

But...his current state did not show that that had happened...it was as if he had just gone asleep.

"..."

He decided to just forget about it right now. And took care of his injuries and waited for Oliver and the rest to come.

He couldn't heal the wound on his abdomen no matter what. All he could do was stop the pain with the help of potions. He figured Oliver would have a better solution to it. He waited for them, but during his wait he looked at the surroundings.

"Huh?"

They seemed...weird! The mountain peaks, as destroyed as they were, the meteors that had fallen to the ground, the snow...nothing was there anymore!

The sky, as odd as it seemed, was farther away, and he soon saw Oliver and the rest rushing towards him, he came to a realization.

One that sent a shiver down his spine.

The mountain range had been flattened.

"Haha..."

He let out a bitter laugh, staring at the sky where the large eye was a few moments.

Shortly after, Oliver appeared and went towards him.

"Are you good?"

He asked, worried about his friend. He looked at the wound on Arken and grimaced. Sabrina bent over towards Alan, casting a few healing spells with a complicated expression on his face, One that was almost guilty.

"Take care of him first, He's more injured than me."

Arken said to Oliver, worried about Alan more. Although he spotted no outside injuries, he suspected that his internals were probably a mess.

"I already checked him with a skill, he's fine...you however..."

Like he said, Oliver already used an inspection skill on Alan when he arrived here, checking to see his condition first. He already knew Alan was relatively fine, just asleep. Also, he had Sabrina to check on him as well, who was already a great healer.

Arken's injuries were more serious. The wound on his abdomen was worrying him. He could feel a large amount of mana within it, that was slowly invading Arken's body, evident by the fading color of his face.

He had no time to even argue about what had happened, the mountain range flattening, and the vortex in the sky, as well as Arken being forced to use his strongest techniques...and how Alan still seemed relatively unharmed.

He picked Arken up with the help of his magic, and told Logan to pick Alan up, although he could teleport, his ability to do so wasn't as powerful as Alan's. He could only manage short distances and not do something as reality breaking as planetary teleportation.

They both rushed to the portal, along the way they made routine stops to treat Arken, whose wound pulsed. The blue lines spread throughout his body, and Oliver and Sabrina used their entire arsenal to heal him. He was coughing blood more often now.

"Just...hurry back home."

However, Arken used a special medicine in his inventory and could finally walk. He urged the rest to go back home to Earth as soon as possible, and despite having their doubts, they obliged.

They hurried back, meeting no resistance by any monsters or other creatures and finally entered the portal back to Earth.

Oliver took both Alan and Arken back to shield, to personally take care of them, Leaving Sabrina and her grandfather behind.

"Sigh..."

Logan sighed, feeling the headache that was coming on. Now that everyone knew of the existence of the portal...the complications that would arise would be difficult to deal with. It would be very exhausting.

"Also, What did you back there?"

Suddenly, turned around and looked Sabrina right in the eyes. Sabrina, who clearly hadn't expected this, froze, and stuttered as she spoke.

"Wh-what do you mean?"

Logan, a bit surprised at his granddaughter stuttering, said.

"You're smart enough to know lying is useless, Sabrina. I saw you hide a blue crystal or something in your robe."

However, his granddaughter did not respond. As suspicious of the situation as he was, he let it go and told her.

"We will talk about this later."

He left, leaving the girl frozen in place. Unsure of what to do, She sighed and followed her grandfather, preparing to take a while to process what happened and also...how to apologize.