Chapter 178 A Change Of Heart

Chapter 178 A Change Of Heart

Lyrian looked back past his shoulder to see Spade's blade avoid his neck by mere centimeters, with Spade right behind him. He was seconds away from turning around to face him when a sudden streak of familiar white light blitzed across the tower top and appeared between him and Spade.

"Leon!"

Lyrian said, excited to see him block Spade's path as he turned back around.

Leon had decided to use the rest of his strength to provide a helping hand to Lyrian. The pain he was feeling was temporary, it could be solved in the future. Right now, he had more important things to do.

With no other distraction, Lyrian, let down his guard slightly by focusing purely on retrieving the golden-tiered core as fast as possible, as all other things narrowed out from his vision.

As he neared 5 feet away from the body of the beast, Silvus noticed him, his anxiety going up by several folds. Suddenly, he was thrown to the ground. Since he wasn't paying attention, Glis decided to not hold back and take full advantage.

"Ice Skewer!"

She yelled as a small spike of ice jabbed through Silvus' palm and into the ground, forcing Silvus to let out an excruciating, pain-driven cry.

'He won't be able to escape if I glue him to the ground. Now... for the core.'

Glis thought to herself as she turned around. However, she was shocked to see Lyrian so close to the beast.

Silvus was flustered. Not only was he going through immense pain, but also knew that Lyrian was mere feet from getting the golden-tiered core.

"CEDRIC!"

He suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs, not afraid of scratching his vocal cords.

"Do what you came here for! Your only job!" nO-velUsb/c/o)m

Just as Lyiran reached the body of the Pheon, his blade was suddenly knocked out of his hand. In that split second, he looked down to see Cedric below him, having knocked away his weapon with the touch of a sword.

Cedric grabbed onto him, his sword placed onto Lyrian's neck as he fell onto his back.

Although Lyrian was in trouble, he couldn't help but think, 'What he came here for?'

Silvus' words confused him since he had been wondering how Cedric got into the exam in the first place ever since he saw him for the first time. However, this thought was the least of his worries, as Glis dashed across the field on her skates and used an ice-blade to quickly slice through the body of the Pheon.

She was desperately looking for her core, with no one else to stop her, but three things forced her to not be able to instantly retrieve it. Firstly, her sword was made of ice, dull. Secondly, the body of the Pheon was ginormous, so cutting through it took a while. And lastly, she had no clue where it was since many creatures had cores in different parts of their body.

Lyrian, on the other hand, knew the answers to all of these problems. His blade was sharp as could be, as he knew exactly where the core was, at least, he imagined so, since he had retrieved it from Yin, the Black Kailion. And as for size, it didn't really matter, since he knew where it was anyway.

However, the thing that stopped him right now was nothing other than Cedric, who had latched onto his back. As soon as they fell to the ground, Lyrian grabbed onto Cedric's sword, making it so Cedric couldn't cut his neck.

"You should have just eliminated me when my guard was low, you idiot. Why knock the sword away."

Lyrian retorted, quickly pushing away his sword from the negatively leveraged position that he was in.

"So you couldn't cut the Pheon and find the core."

Cedric quickly replied.

"That's not your job! You peasant! You were hired only to kill Theageld!"

Silvus suddenly screamed, unable to filter his words due to his rage and immense pain.

Alten was shocked to hear this, taken aback by those sudden words.

"What? Hired?"

Lyrian said, piecing together the puzzle. It all kind of made sense now. How Cedric, an extremely low-class noble, barely even considered one, from a city in the outskirts, was able to enter such a prestigious exam.

From the very start, Cedric had been trying to fight and kill Lyrian, so that fit in as well. Lastly, what also confused Lyrian was Cedric's guilty looks. Lyrian remembered that Cedric began looking so guilty when he said he trusted Han, Hugo, and Cedric himself after defeating the Black Kailion.

Lyrian imagined that Cedric looked guilty because he thought he didn't deserve to be forgiven or trusted since he had been trying to fight Lyrian the entire exam. That was kind of obvious.

However, it now made even more sense, since the true reason was because Cedric was hired to kill Lyrain, someone who trusted him even after everything he did.

Now, hearing Silvus lash out at him so angrily, Cedric couldn't help but show his expression once again. The words that Lyrian said back in the Flatstone Mountains resounded in his mind like flashbacks.

They were impactful words that touched Cedric. At that moment, he realized how great of a person Lyrian truly was. After everything they had been through, to trust with a smile on his face... it was like something only an angel could do.

However, Cedric also knew the other side of things. Back then, a short while after Lyrian defeated Silvus in the preliminaries, Cedric's family was approached with an offer by imperial forces.

Since Cedric was the person who knew Lyrian the most, they offered Cedric and his family a fortune, along with a higher status if Cedric was able to go in as a spy and eliminate Lyrian.

Of course, Cedric accepted, his eyes blinded by greed. But throughout his time in the exam after Lyrian's powerful words at the Flatstone Mountains, Cedric was considering whether that decision was the right one to make.

And now, at this very moment, he had finally decided...

The boy's grip on Lyrian's neck suddenly loosened, as Lyrian looked back with a hint of respect in his eyes.