Chapter 159 - Misunderstanding

I was at a loss.

Seeing Leon accuse me like I did some sort of irredeemable crime made me feel strange.

Weren't we just walking through the labyrinth?

What could I possibly have done?

Osric seemed to share my thoughts. He looked towards Leon with a bit of confusion.

"Is something the matter?"

Leon stepped out of the range of my crystal and took a deep breath.

"I understand now. The reason you decided to do all of this."

I blinked a few times.

"Huh?"

Leon narrowed his eyes.

"You are attempting to kill the two of us!"

Osric looked at him with confusion.

"What?"

Leon cleared his throat.

"You simply laid out too many clues."

He raised a finger.

"For starters, it does not make logical sense for you to want to be here. You told me your motivation was power, yet you decided to come here, a place that you know doesn't have any valuables that will further progress you down that path."

Leon raised another finger.

"Then, there's the fact you so conveniently had the method that let us descend into this place. That crystal acted as a key, meaning you have some relation to this place."

His chin lowered ever so slightly.

"However, nobody has been here for centuries. That much is clear from the thick layer of dust that covers the place. Despite that, you already knew everything here like the back of your hand. In other words, you are the owner of this place!"

Leon picked up one of the nearby papers and showed it to me.

"You are the person that wrote all of these things! Getting people to trust you before killing them for the sake of your mad experiments."

I leaned forward slightly to get a better look at the paper. Sure enough, it was a story where the writer made friends, but deceived them before killing them deviously and using them for experiments.

Leon tossed the page aside, letting it flutter to the ground.

"The reason you lured us down here was to get a stronger subject to experiment on, wasn't it? You have some ability that negates mana, which you used in order to make the mana in this place so thin."

He smirked.

"However, that won't be enough to stop me."

For a moment, I was convinced. Then I remembered the person Leon was talking about was me and I definitely didn't do all of this.

Like, I literally saw the person responsible resurrect before... killing himself.

I raised my hands up with a bit of helplessness.

"You make very valid points, but-"

Before I could finish my sentence, Leon lunged towards me. His staff traced an arc right towards my skull. I leaned backwards, just barely dodging in time.

The wind from the strike blew aside my hair, giving me a sneak peek of the horrifying force behind that attack. I had a feeling that if I was hit, my skull would crack open.

And then I would die.

I threw the fireball above my hand towards the ceiling and yelled.

"Calm down for just a moment!"

An explosion resounded within the room, shaking the room and filling it with ash and debris. It somewhat obscured vision, but would hardly do anything now as I was standing right in front of him.

After missing with his staff, Leon quickly followed up with his fist, sending it towards my abdomen. Though I doubted it would kill me, it would probably cripple me to a certain extent.

And so, as the fist traveled, my eyes widened and my pupils constricted.

Then, disappeared.

I reappeared within the range of my crystal. The lingering flame from the fireball made the room slightly visible still, but quickly died out, sending the room into darkness. Feeling that this wasn't going to end easily, I pulled out the stalk of the black fruit and attempted to attach it to the crystal.

As I brought it closer, my knuckle hit the edge of the crystal. Then, I could see the entirety of the room as though it was lit up. For a second, I was confused. But then I remembered how I was able to see through the dark by holding onto a smaller crystal.

During my revelation, I noticed that Leon was charging straight towards me. As for Osric, he was looking around confused, still not really understanding the situation.

Not wanting to get hit by Leon, I ran to the side. However, despite the fact it should've been dark, Leon perfectly changed his direction towards me. The moment he was in range, he swung his staff at my shoulders.

I leaned back, letting it brush by me.

A sharp bang rang out. Leon's staff hit the side of a stone platform, causing it to shatter into pieces and scatter in the air. After realizing he missed, he threw his fist forward, but it was to my side.

I didn't have to dodge, but I teleported away anyway as it was probably a bad idea to stay near Leon.

The strange difference in how Leon attacked was quite apparent to me. Before, he swung his staff at my head, aiming to kill me, then tried to stagger me with his fist. Now, it seemed he was doing so randomly.

...Like he couldn't see.

Yet, Leon turned to me straight away once I reappeared. He did not go for me immediately, giving me time to think. Leon turned to Osric.

"Are you going to help, or not? You want to be put on a table and sacrificed for some madman's experiments?"

My eyelid twitched.

"That's not what's going on, seriously!"

Leon scoffed.

"Don't believe him! He presented no evidence to support his claim, while I laid out true reasoning."

My eyebrow twitched.

To be fair, Leon did lay out somewhat reasonable evidence. However, it really wasn't me that did it.

Osric furrowed his brows, clearly confused. However, he eventually came to a decision.

"Alright, I will trust your judgment, Earth Emperor!"

Osric stepped out of range from my crystal. Then, his body lit up. Arcs of lightning jumped around Osric's body, occasionally zapping at his surroundings. While they didn't do anything to me directly, there was something else that happened.

The room was lit up.

It was still pretty dark, but the light was enough to make out my figure. And so, Leon charged towards me once more. I had placed the stalk onto the crystal, which wrapped its roots around it.

However, the plant was growing too slowly to make a significant difference. I needed to use the growing spell, but to do that I needed to stop the crystal's pulsating as it got rid of the nearby mana.

Osric turned to me and flicked his sleeve. A thunderbolt snaked towards me at frighteningly fast speeds. For a split second, the entire room was lit up. Yet, once that thunderbolt got within range of my crystal, it disappeared.

...I think disabling the crystal right now wouldn't be the best. Especially because I wouldn't have been able to dodge that thunderbolt.

Leon clicked his tongue.

"Osric, continue bringing light to the room. Do not get too close to that crystal as it will nullify any magic. Since I am confident in the strength of my body, I will fight head on."

As promised, he dashed towards me.

"If he ever drops the nullification, attack him with your spells!"

Osric nodded.

"Understood."

The corner of my lip twitched.

"I'm seriously not your enemy!"

Unfortunately, they didn't listen to me. Leon charged towards me once more. I kept my eyes on his staff as I expected that to come at me first.

However, that was not what happened.

Leon suddenly bent down slightly and extended out his leg, sweeping it towards me. I was a little flabbergasted because there was a stone platform in the way. My initial belief was that his foot would get caught, but...

A deep boom resounded.

The stone platform was directly smashed into pieces. Leon's leg continued to sweep towards me as though nothing was blocking it in the first place. In response, I jumped up, avoiding it. Yet, the next moment, Leon's staff traveled straight towards my head.

My eyes widened while my pupils constricted. I teleported away and commanded the crystal to get closer to me. The stalk of the black fruit was still wrapped around it.

Leon turned to me once more. But before he lunged forwards, a crumbling sound came from the top of the ceiling. Then, six skeletons of various sizes fell from the roof. They had different types of armor and weapons in their hands.

Upon seeing this, Leon smirked.

"They are the people this madman killed! Now that they are here, they should attack their killer!"

Osric nodded.

"Good foresight!"

One of the taller skeletons with a giant saber approached Osric. In response, he looked up at the skeleton.

"...Your killer is over there."

Then, the skeleton brought his saber down.