Chapter 17: Guards of the Prison Realm

"Two seals were broken from the prison realm. So that means… two guards to fight."

There was a colossal titan on the right side and a colossal statue on the left.

SIGH~

Nero sighed.

"What will happen now?" Emilia asked.

"I need to defeat them to get out of here."

"But Dar—" Emilia stopped because she didn't want to speak Darius' name, and continued "... he left without any problem." Emilia didn't want to speak Darius' name from her mouth again.

"He was a mortal, and he wasn't sealed here. While Sophia and I were sealed."

"Can you defeat them?"

"Of course I can."

"But they are so big."

"Size doesn't matter." Nero placed Sophia on the ground beside Emilia and walked forward. "There is nothing I can't defeat."

Nero looked at his right and said, "This guard is for me." Then pointed his finger at his left, "And this one is for Sophia. But I need to take care of both."

Emilia bit her lips and muttered, "Can I help somehow?"

Nero looked back in surprise and said as he chuckled, "Your powers are still regenerating, so rest for now."

Emilia nodded with a disappointed look on her face.

Nero sighed and scratched his cheek, "I guess you can do something."

"Really?!" Emilia confirmed with a resolute expression on her face.

"Yeah, look after Sophia, would you? She is definitely not immortal, and I am damn sure about it."

Emilia's face slowly lost its resolution as she puffed her cheeks.

"Okay."

Nero shook his head as he sighed and glanced at the two colossal guards.

"Prison realm not only seals the immortals but also seals their powers and magic—and in this arena, that's active."

"Your magic and powers are also sealed?"

"For now, yeah-- until I defeat these two guards. Even gods must follow the rules of the realms."

"But how can you fight without your magic and power?" Emilia asked worriedly.

Nero stretched his hands and cracked his fists as he walked further. "I survived twenty years of my life without using them, so I am sure I can easily defeat these mere puppets."

"Let's see," Nero exhaled softly as he looked at the titan to the right. "It's called 'Zay', huh? And..." Nero then looked at his right to the statue and uttered, "It's called 'Say'? Talk about lame."

Nero spread his hands and formed fists, then joined both hands and clapped loudly.

Emilia watched Nero as he raised his right hand and swiped his thumb on all of his fingers.

"O~ blood of mine, heed my call and be my power," Nero muttered.

Blood came out from Nero's fingers, and it gathered around his arm. Nero grabbed the air around his right arm with his left hand, as if he was grabbing an imaginary sheath— and tightened his grip then pulled his left hand back— as if he was pulling out a sword from a sheath.

The next moment, Nero was holding a red sword made from his blood, and its edges were moving like the blood was still floating.

"I thought you said the power and magic are sealed here," Emilia commented.

"This is not magic, this is art— and art can't be forgotten or sealed."

Nero posed with a sword and took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. "I am glad I read that book."

Nero glanced back and forth at the statue and the titan, supposedly waiting for them to make any move.

The eyes of the statue turned to Nero.

Nero focused his gaze on the statue and waited for it to attack— but the titan attacked instead by punching the ground.

Nero jumped and dodged the punch, then hovered in the air for quite a while.

Nero didn't have any ability to fly, but he could jump and stay in the air for a while by making his body light.

Nero looked down at the spot where the titan punched and saw a crack.

"Why do I suddenly feel hungry?" Nero muttered and landed on the ground.

'As much as I hate to say, taking care of both guards at once would be hard— because I need to keep my eyes on both of them.'

'If one of them tried to attack Sophia while I am fighting the other— that's the last thing I want.'

Nero took a deep breath and raised his sword. "Don't make me angry."

Emilia was carefully watching Nero, but suddenly, her gaze fell on the statue— which was looking back at her.

Emilia gulped down in fear as she stood beside Sophia.

The titan once again punched, but Nero jumped with the speed of light and made his way to the titan's face— but the statue swung his sword down at Nero.

"Nero!" Emilia shouted.

Nero tried to block the sword with his 'blood-sword', but his sword broke just by the impact, and Nero fell to the ground— landed on his two feet and stopped right beside Emilia.

"Are you okay?" Emilia grabbed Nero.

"Yeah… I only read the first two pages of that book."

Emilia gave Nero a worried look and stared into his eyes.

"What?" Nero asked.

"You speak too much."

Nero's face twitched as he pushed Emilia to the side. "You just focus on keeping Sophia safe."

Saying that, Nero jumped into the air and launched himself at the statue. The statue once again swung its sword.

Nero was unarmed, but his face showed no fear— in fact, it was full of confidence. At the same time, the titan swung his hand to punch Emilia.

Nero jumped down as he yelled, "I thought I said 'Don't make me angry'!"

Nero jumped on the titan's hand and kicked to divert its punch— then, Nero immediately jumped back up and punched on the titan's face— which made the titan stumbled on its feet.

The titan moved his hand to grab Nero, but Nero jumped down, then again jumped up to kick the titan's face.

Everything was happening so fast that Emilia could barely see Nero fighting.

Nero repeated the same tactic for a while—then the statue started attacking too.

The titan was swinging its fists, and the statue was swinging its sword and spear.

However, Nero was overwhelming them even without using his powers.

"So… cool," Emilia muttered.