"So, try to die quickly, will you?"

  The moment the man spoke, Raze's instincts screamed from every direction. He leapt aside just as fire erupted where he had been standing but before he could feel relieved, the ground beneath where he landed exploded as well.

  He barely managed to twist his body at the last instant, the blast throwing him backward. Ellara, who had been clinging to him, was flung off his back and hit the ground hard.

  Her body trembled uncontrollably.

  ‘Tsk… she's already lost it.’

  Raze thought grimly.

  There was no clear way out of this but giving up wasn't an option. He drew his sword and held it firmly in front of him, his gaze locked onto the man.

  "Oh? So you want to fight, huh?" The man sneered. "Fine. I'll entertain you."

  In an instant, countless fireballs formed in the sky, blazing as they shot straight toward Raze.

  Raze didn't retreat.

  He lunged forward instead, sword steady, charging straight at the mage.

  ‘Mages in this world rely almost entirely on magic… their physical bodies are weak. If I can get close to him… then maybe I can—‘

  He dodged one fireball after another, his aura reinforcing his physique just enough to keep him alive but the moment he closed in, the mage's lips curved into a smug grin.

  A translucent shield snapped into existence.

  Raze's sword slammed into it and in that same instant, a fist drove straight into his abdomen from inside the shield.

  He couldn't react as the punch landed cleanly.

  All the air was knocked out of his lungs as his body was sent flying backward before he crashed into a tree, the trunk shattering on impact as wooden splinters pierced into his flesh.

  "Did I forget to mention…" The man said casually, his smirk widening, "…that I'm a first-class warrior on top of being an expert-rank mage?"

  He rolled his shoulder lightly.

  "That bitch from before might have damaged my core a bit but even she couldn't do anything to my aura."

  Raze barely heard him as his ears rang violently and his vision swam red before an immense amount of pain flooded every inch of his body from that single blow.

  As a child, he had read stories about heroes and about how they defeated enemies far stronger than themselves through sheer will and conviction.

  But unfortunately for Raze… he wasn't a hero. If anything, he was just a kid raised as a tool, forged in darkness and trained to capture something even darker.

  ‘Should I just give up?’

  The thought surfaced quietly but not because of the pain as pain meant nothing to him. He had endured far worse from his childhood as his mother had made sure of that. He had been trained to withstand torture, to survive being broken and to survive leaking information if he were ever captured by residents of this world during the mission.

  Pain had never been his breaking point. So if he gave up now… It would be for a very different reason.

  He wanted to give up because the situation was simply hopeless.

  He had barely taken his first steps on the path of both mage and warrior, and no amount of physical training could bridge a gap of four entire ranks. It wasn't arrogance or fear, it was just reality.

  ‘And more importantly… What did he even have to lose?’

  ‘What was there in his life anyway?’

  He knew better than anyone how pointless struggling could be. Even if he somehow survived, he would still be nothing more than a puppet, his fate chained to the whims of those who had created him, at least death would be freedom… Freedom from orders, from missions, from the restrictions put on him by the Empire and from that cold woman who called herself his mother

  ‘What could be better for a slave than freedom?’

  Maybe, just maybe, if gods truly existed, he could ask them what he had done to deserve a life like this.

  So he stopped struggling and didn't fight back.

  And yet… his sword refused to fall from his hand.

  Even now, his fingers wouldn't loosen their grip as the sheer instinct, carved into his bones since childhood, held it in place.

  Never let go of your weapon.

  He lifted his head slowly as he saw Ellara was still on the ground, crying through the pain, her body trembling uncontrollably while Lyla stood frozen, staring at him with despair written across her face.

  Meanwhile, the mage walked toward him at an unhurried pace, boredom etched into his expression.

  "That's all?" He said lazily. "Was that really the best you could do?"

  "Tch… and here I thought you would be different. From the way you reacted to my arrival, so calm compared to the other two, I thought you were special. Guess I was wrong as one punch was all it took."

  Raze didn't react.

  He didn't care about the insults. He was going to die anyway, so what was the point of getting angry over a few words?

  Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

  "Tsk. All you spoiled noble brats are the same." The man continued, his voice dripping with contempt. "Raised in comfort, thinking you have seen hardship, walking around like you own the world, acting as if your lives are some great tragedy when you have never even tasted real suffering."

  "You have never known what it's like to survive on the streets without parents."

  "How could you?" He sneered. "How could spoiled brats like you ever understand that kind of despair, when your oh-so-lovely parents handed you everything the moment you asked?"

  His voice shook, not with rage directed at Raze, Ellara or Lyla specifically but with a deep, festering hatred for nobles as a whole as if every word was from a lifetime of resentment.

  Raze bit his lip.

  Luxury…

  Parents…

  Love…

  ‘Since when had he ever received any of that from his mother?’

  His life had been worse than a slave's since the moment he was born. The woman who gave birth to him had hated him from the start and the Emperor had branded him with a slave seal for the sake of a mission. From that day onward, his fate had never been his own.

  Every time he tried to love someone, they were taken away from him and now this man stood here, telling him he had lived a good life.

  For some reason… that thought ignited something ugly inside Raze.

  He had truly wanted to give up but those words dragged out memories he had sealed away for years.

  His own screams and the faces of those who had cared for him only to be killed because of him.

  Julie, his first maid, who treated him like a little brother, Ron, his swordsmanship instructor, who had acted like an elder brother, Sebastian, the butler who had cared for him more than his own life and all of them were killed by his mother because of him.

  And then there were Luna, John, Will, Maya, Gretta, Kyle, and Lena, people who had died trying to protect him, people who had had no obligation to do so.

  ‘If I die here… won't their deaths be for nothing?’

  That thought struck deeper than any blow and something hardened inside him.

  Raze didn't want to survive but perhaps… surviving was his punishment. To live on, carrying the weight of everyone who had died for him.

  Dying without trying meant running away from that burden. So he stabbed his sword into the ground and forced his trembling body to stand upright.

  ‘No.’

  ‘I won't die without trying my best.’

  He focused, his aura, his mana and something deeper… something the people of this world called innate mana. He poured everything he had into his sword, not caring if this was his final moment.

  He was ready to die as long as he did his best to survive.

  The mage watched him with amusement.

  "That's a good start." He muttered. "It's only fun when you struggle."

  Even though it wasn't necessary, the mage began preparing his strongest spell. This wasn't out of mercy, it was out of respect for a boy who refused to collapse quietly.

  Raze didn't notice and he didn't care.

  As the three energies within him collided and intertwined, something new began to form. A dark wisp emerged from his mana core, faint at first and then it stopped the flow of innate mana and took its place.

  A malicious presence erupted from his body.

  Within a small distance around him, countless beasts felt it as animals fled in blind panic, abandoning nests and territory alike as if an apex calamity had just awakened.

  Raze himself didn't understand what it was but the mage felt something was wrong. His expression finally changed as he released his spell.

  "Inferno."

  A massive sun, formed purely of condensed mana, tore through the air toward Raze.

  Raze's blue eyes ignited, glowing like raw plasma as he swung his sword forward and a colossal wave of sword energy burst forth, fused with mana, aura and something that had been with him suppressed since birth… something that had only just awakened releasing all the accumulated resentment at once making the output of attack far beyond what his body could endure.

  The recoil hit instantly as bones in his arms shattered, organs ruptured under the strain and blood sprayed from his mouth as his body collapsed, already breaking apart.

  But the attack didn't stop.

  The wave tore through the air, screaming as it collided with the blazing sun and for a split second, the two forces resisted—

  Then the sun was split in half.

  The mage barely reacted in time, twisting his body away but it wasn't enough as one of his arms was severed cleanly, blood erupting as it fell uselessly to the ground, pouring out without end.

  The strike continued past the mage and slammed into the ground behind him, carving out a massive crater.

  [TITLE: THE THIRTEENTH PATHHOLDER IS CREATED]

  [………………]

  [………………]

  Raze's vision blurred, blood streaming from his eyes as countless translucent status windows from the world's will itself appeared in front him but he didn't even spare them a glance as the mage was still alive and more furious than before.

  "You bastard… How dare you?" The mage snapped, staggering forward as he clutched the stump of his severed arm, forcing mana into the wound to stop the bleeding. "I'll kill you."

  His other arm had been blown away by that woman earlier but somehow he had managed to heal it using the Elixir he had acquired from an ancient ruin… but now… even his other arm was gone and this time, there was no elixir to heal such injury.

  Raze couldn't move as his body refused to obey, all he could muster was a faint smile.

  ‘At least… I tried my best.’

  The mage formed another fireball as the spell ignited in his palm before he threw it towards Raze but before it could reach him, a blur cut through the space between them as a man appeared.

  He stood casually, a long black jacket draped over one shoulder, unable to hide the dense muscle beneath. His black hair streaked with gray framed a sharp face as he calmly took a drag from a cigar.

  With a single casual downward motion of his hand, a shockwave exploded outward and the fireball vanished instantly and even the ground split apart under the sheer force.

  "Are you okay, kiddo?" The man asked, his gaze briefly flicking toward Ellara as he exhaled smoke slowly. "Good thing I made it in time after getting the news from your father."

  Ellara froze and then her eyes widened as she finally snapped out of her despair.

  "P–Principal Ragnar?!"

  The man didn't answer her right away. Instead, his eyes shifted to Raze.

  "You did well, kid." He said calmly. "You can rest now and let the adults handle the rest."

  The mage went completely still, his face paled as he recognised the man.

  Ragnar Dawnbringer, an Ascendent Demi-God rank martial artist.

  —

  Ragnar prepared to end the battle and take the children to a healer, especially the blonde boy, whose body was clearly breaking apart from the inside even as he remained standing.

  He couldn't comprehend how the boy was still conscious as the pain alone should have been enough to make even the toughest warriors pass out cold and yet… the boy was conscious.

  More than that, Ragnar was curious about the energy the boy had emitted, even if only for a few seconds, that surge was what had allowed Ragnar to pinpoint their location so precisely in the first place but that could wait as he needed to eliminate the pest first.

  Ragnar shifted his stance and the air itself stopped but just then something tugged lightly at his trousers.

  He paused, his gaze dropping toward the blonde boy who was lying on the ground bloodied and yet his blue eyes burned with unwavering determination as he looked at him

  "Please… leave him alive." The boy muttered, his voice weak but resolute. "He is not yours to kill."

  With those words, the boy finally lost consciousness.

  Ragnar paused for a brief moment then a wild grin slowly spread across his face. "So… he wants to kill his enemy himself, huh?"

  ‘How interesting.’

  He straightened and turned his gaze toward the mage, his expression turning cold. "Leave."

  The single word carried overwhelming pressure as Ragnar suppressed his presence just enough so the mage could move again.

  The mage shot one last venomous glare toward Raze before bowing stiffly to Ragnar and fleeing as fast as he could with one arm missing.

  Once the pest was gone, Ragnar looked back at the unconscious boy and lifted him effortlessly onto his shoulder. He then picked up Lyla, who had already passed out from pain long ago and turned toward Ellara.

  With a casual swipe of his hand, space itself tore open as a rift formed in the air.

  "Let's go." Ragnar said calmly. "We will get your friends healed up."

  He stepped into the rift and Ellara followed without hesitation, leaving behind the ravaged battlefield and the trace of a fight that should never have been survived.