Chapter 158 - Fairness

The Serpent Summoner's serpent slithered through the ground armed with his knife aimed at Adam Rosa's neck. But the Reaper noticed something for a split second and turned around, dodging Gavin Khalil's surprise attack. "I see that you are here now, Gavin. Judging from your Anima cells, my hunch was right about you, both you and Luken really turned out to be one of the strongest Slayers that the Corps have right now. It would be a shame if I took all three of your heads right at once. How would that bode well for Niflheim?" Adam Rosa said with a smirk.

"Some backups have arrived. They were also Seraphims as well. We took care of most of them already.. I do not know how the others are faring, however, me, Zach, and Vale went straight here to assist you two." The Serpent Summoner reported in as soon as he got close to his brother and Luken. "What about Yin and Suna?" The Commander asked. "I still have no reports coming in from them, I am sure Ignis knows to regroup with the others after, let us just place our trust in them." Gavin replied back.

"I am proud of you, Gavin. You are capable of leading a whole mission on your own now." Artorias said as he smiled. "Yeah. I am doing what you should be doing yourself, brother." Gavin shook his head. "Anyway, you two do not look like you are going to be that useful, you both look like shit." The Serpent Summoner said to them. "Heh. You do not look that good either, Gavin." They were referring to the status of their bodies, all the wounds and tattered clothes that they were wearing were all indicative of all the hardships and fatigue they had been experiencing ever since the start of the mission for the Sword of Alacrity.

"The three of us against Adam, then. Even though we all look like shit." The Basilisk Slayer said. Perhaps the Serpent Summoner's summoned beasts and monsters would be the one thing that they needed in order to add to the firepower that would bring Adam down. Gavin summoned the two headless swordsmen and Ryoko, as well as the Serpent. "Look at you three. My pride and joy…" Adam Rosa thought to himself, but it was not something that he could really mouth out. Because if he did, they might not go all out against him. Which was the last thing that he wanted to happen.

Adam Rosa wanted to fight them till their dying breaths. It was the ultimate end for soldiers and Slayers like them. Their fight went on as Adam Rosa was noticeably on the backfoot now. He was already struggling against only the Commander and the Basilisk Slayer, now with Gavin joining the fray, he had to go all in or he would be whittled down slowly until he had exhausted everything that was in his tank. "Luken and Gavin have to go first, these two are definitely top tier and I cannot have them slowly trying to make my moves sloppy by interrupting me. These are my pupils, they know how I move. And after that I have to take Artorias. This could get troublesome for me." He said to himself.

After about twenty minutes of non stop fighting, Artorias was ready to come through with his plan to end it in one go. But before they could go through with the plan, Adam wasted no time in letting them compose themselves and adjust. He ran straight and was fully prepared to take Luken and Gavin out in one go. His rapier was targeted at the Serpent Summoner first, however, his brother, the Basilisk Slayer noticed it and quickly shoved his brother out of the way.

And just like that, Artorias Khalil now had the Reaper's rapier dug straight into his heart. But it was not only going to be the Basilisk Slayer that was going to go down, he wanted to bring his dear friend along with him as well. Before Adam had pierced his sword straight in his heart, Artorias wanted to make it even. His great sword was already lifted up so that Adam would just get skewered right into it. The adrenaline rush that was flowing in the Reaper's blood made his reaction delayed, he had not noticed that he was also mortally injured by his dear friend of old. "H-How…" Adam coughed out a considerable amount of blood, as would someone who had a great sword embedded directly into his stomach. "Did you think I was going to let you kill these two like that?" Artorias replied back with a smug grin. 

Just as Luken and Gavin were about to rush in and finish Adam off, Artorias waved his hand and non verbally told them to calm down and hold their weapons down. The Serpent Summoner hastily pulled out his grimoire and got rid of his creatures, replacing them with small healing snakes. Luken was too shocked at what the hell just happened right in front of him, even though they had already expected to kill Adam, they did not put the fact that he would be able to bring Artorias down into the equation. "Do not bother, brother, my wounds are too deep to have your snakes heal it. The same goes for this asshole here, is that not right, Adam?" "Y-You idiot! What the fuck are you doing?!" Adam shouted out. "What seems to be the matter? You do not look like the person who was ready to sink his sword deep into his best friend. Why are you in tears?" Artorias was laughing as if he was not dying at all. With the Basilisk Slayer's great sword stabbed into his stomach, Adam was no longer in any condition to fly away because of the sheer weight of Artorias' sword. And with Artorias' chest stabbed by Adam in return, they were both going to die at any point now. They were just trying to force the wounds to not bleed out with sheer Anima cell manipulation but it was not going to be this way for long. 

"Both of you, j-just stand down, we both cannot do anything about our death at this point. Let us just have this moment together. Just like the old days." Artorias smiled as he said that, but his smile was unlike any other he had shown so far, there was no animosity behind it. Adam Rosa attempted to struggle out of it, but even he was finding it far too painful to get the massive sword out from his stomach. "T-This cannot be…I-I can't end it like this!" He shouted out while trying to get the massive blade out of his body.

With what little strength he had left, Artorias actually placed some of that into his fist and punched Adam, just to knock some sort of sense into him, for one last time. "It is too late, idiot. We are going straight into hell at this point, we might as well enjoy the minutes we have left here alive." Artorias said. Gavin was starting to tear up at the thought of his brother dying. Even Luken was holding off his emotions as he sat there, just looking straight at the three of them. He got up and could not manage to act numb any longer anymore, all of the rage that he managed to control so far just came gushing out. He also wanted to have a shot at Adam as well. "Why did you fucking kill my sister?! I trusted the Six Blades so much so that I even asked her to join the organization! I trusted you, Adam…" Luken had to held back by Gavin. "Stop it, Luken!" his friend exclaimed.

Adam stared at Luken as his lips turned pale, as well as his skin. "I-I wanted to bring my mother back…" Adam said as he revealed a summary about everything that had happened which caused him to do what he did. After he said that, all of them actually calmed down for a bit. "I still will never forgive you for what you did." Luken said nothing and sat down. "It has been hard without you in Niflheim, Adam. It really has been." Artorias said to his best friend. "Couldn't you have handled it without me, mister ranked one?" Adam joked around the fact that the Basilisk Slayer was the highest ranked Slayer in the Corps now. "Are you kidding me? I did not have to do everything, your pupils were doing the heavy lifting, even that scumbag Ignis Silva was pulling his own weight out there." Art replied back.

"W-Were we not enough for you, Adam? I thought we were your family, every single one of us in the Six Blades that time, we thought we were enough." Tears started to fall from the Serpent Summoner's eyes as he said that. "Yeah. I do not know the answer to that, Gavin."