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Ruler Vol 5 Chapter 36

 

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Author: Anit666

Editor: Weasalopes

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【Sam’s POV】

 “We will!”

First of all, how the fuck are these guys managing to arrive at such perfect times? Sherry and Cecile came right when I was about to deliver the final blow to Michael, and then these guys came right when I was about to push Michael over the edge by making him fight Sherry and Cecile.

I turned towards the middle cavern from where the voice had originated, and as expected, the other classmates were there.

Hmm, is it possible that they were hiding in the cavern, waiting for the right moment to interfere? I mean, their answer fitted just too perfectly in our conversation for it to be a mere coincidence.

“You guys will handle him?” I asked.

“Yeah, we will.”

The one to answer my query was Kamia, the same girl who had pinned the blame on Thor when they lost to me during our first training session.

Hmm, now that I see it, everyone one is here. Does that mean that they passed their Trials, or are there some like Michael who are hiding, waiting for their chance to strike me?

“Why?”

“Huh?”

“I mean, why do you want to handle him?”

“Because he’s our friend!” She proclaimed proudly.

“Really?” I crossed my arms. “Weren’t you the guys who blamed Michael for the deaths of Arthur and Susan? How can he be your friend?”

“Guh!” Kamia groaned, as if my words had delivered a powerful ‘physical’ blow to her.

“Because.” Thor took the stage now. After stealing a glance at Michael, he continued. “Because Michael is our leader.”

“Oh? You call him your leader even though he’s in that pitiful state?”

“What?!” Michael retorted.

“It is exactly because our leader has been led astray that we, his subordinates, his….. comrades, must work together and bring him back on the right track. That is our responsibility, our wish, and our atonement.”

Now that is an answer I really like.

“Atonement, huh? Does that mean you realise the sins you’ve committed?”

“Shut up, Samael!” Michael hollered. “Don’t drag them into our fight, they have nothing to do with this!”

If Cecile was not holding him back, then Michael would have attacked me by now. That was how enraged he seemed.

“Yeah.” Thor bit his lips for a moment, but his clear, sharp gaze did not waver. “It is our time to give penance.”

I looked over at the other members of the group. Some of them had the same eyes as Thor, others were sighing and had decided to go with the flow, while the rest couldn’t give a shit. But all of them realised what it was that they must do here. All of them had understood that Michael’s current condition was partly their fault.

“I see.” I nodded. “Alright then, go ahead.”

I’m interested in how this will turn out.

So, I turned around and started walking towards Phiria.

“Hey, where are you going! I’m right here!” Michael yelled at me.

Did this man listen to what we were talking about?

But before I could say anything, Thor interfered by standing between us.

“Aren’t you ashamed, Michael? You were supposed to be our leader, yet you went ahead and failed the Trial?” Thor glanced at me and gave me a light nod, so I resumed walking.

“Thor…..” Michael’s voice softened a bit. “You don’t understand anything. You guys have been mind-controlled by that demon, and it is up to me to liberate you guys. So, please, step aside.”

“What? Mind-controlled?” Thor frowned. By now, everyone else was also standing by his side. “Why the fuck would you even think that?”

I had the same reaction, ya know.

“Don’t worry. I’ll free you guys shortly.” Michael continued without paying heed to Thor.

“Michael!” Kamia jumped in. “We’re sorry, Michael! Their deaths were not your fault!”

Oh, this is getting interesting. He has been presented with new targets to lay the blame on, so will he follow logic and condemn his own classmates?

“Kamia…..” Michael muttered, and then his voice turned hoarse and heavy. “Sammaaaaaaelll! Just how far have you manipulated my friends?!”

Well, of course he wouldn’t do that. After all, holding his ‘friends’ responsible for the deaths of Arthur and Susan would go against his image of ‘wanting to care for his friends’. And so, he once again made me the culprit.

“Hueh?” Even Kamia was flabbergasted, and Michael caught that.

“Everyone.” He spoke in a soft, soothing tone. “None of you are to blame for their deaths. Yes, it’s all because of Samuel that they died.”

Even his dialogues aren’t making sense any more. Like, didn’t he just skip too many steps before declaring Samuel as the culprit?

“Aaah?” Thor grunted in a cold voice. “You know what, everyone?” He took out his sword. “I don’t think words would have any effect on him. So, let’s just beat some sense into him.”

That’s ma boii.

“But…” The others tried to protest.

“Do you honestly think he’ll listen to us? Only after a thorough beating would he understand the silliness of his words. Yes, just like what Sir Samael did to us.”

Yo! That was straight up uncalled for.

“I-I see.” Kamia winced, but nodded in understanding.

She held her staff in her hand and stood in a battle-ready stance. The others followed, and the group soon got into formation.

“Guys…” Michael eked out a soft mutter filled with grief.

The tanks stood in the front, followed by the warriors and finally the magicians and archers. Sherry joined their ranks, while Cecile, after mulling over it for a bit, made her way to us.

“Not going to fight with them?” I asked when she got closer.

“This is their own matter, so they must solve it by themselves.”

“Fair enough.”

Cecile looked at them for a bit, and then faced me.

“Is this what you were aiming for when you called us here?”

Well, yes. This was my goal when I asked Sam II to find the remaining members of the class and bring them here. The second stage of turning Michael into a puppet required him to face his own friends. I wanted him to question himself once again, and that’ll happen when his friends would try to convince him to share the burden with them.

How it goes from here remains to be seen, but I’m prepared even for the worst-case scenario, so there’s nothing to worry about.

“Nope.” But of course, I wasn’t going to tell Cecile about this. “I just wanted some support because Lantz here has been fucking useless.”

“You were just handling things so well that I could not find the opportunity to interfere.” Lantz chimed in to defend himself.

“Yeah, right. Someone told me that you were actually enjoying yourself.”

“What? Who did?”

“It was I.” By now, Sam II was also back. “I saw a grin on your face, you know. Right, Mary?”

Phiria simple nodded; as usual, she couldn’t bother to converse with lower lifeforms.

“By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask this.” Lantz pointed at my hands from which a large amount of mana was still oozing out. “What is that?”

“Berserk.” I replied.

“Berserk?” Cecile tilted her head.

“A skill which increases my stats explosively for some time. Of course, after it is over, my stats are halved for the remaining day, and my body hurts like hell.” I lied as naturally as I breathed.

I mean, I couldn’t really tell them that that was just my normal power which I released after decreasing the number in the ‘Limit’ skill. That’s why I was letting out this enormous amount of mana from my hands, to show them that I was using some type of skill, which in this case, would be ‘Berserk’.

“I see.” They nodded.

And so, we focused on the fight going on in front of us.

“Please!” Michael pleaded while exchanging blows with Thor. “I don’t want to fight you guys!”

“You brought this upon yourself, you dumb fuck!” Thor replied.

The next moment, Thor was pushed back by Michael. Just then, Tom, a large burly guy, came crashing down on Michael with his Warhammer. Michael jumped to his side to evade it, but the place he landed was like a quicksand, and his feet got momentarily stuck in that.

7 poles formed from lightning fell around him and formed a barrier to entrap him. Lightning arcs flowed from those poles and burned Michael.

“Ugh!” Michael grunted, and then cut apart those poles with his sword which was now glowing white.

He raised his sword overhead, and just like the tournament, the sword’s size grew exponentially. He slammed down that enlarged sword on the ground and blew away both the quicksand and those that were coming towards him.

Around 10 of the guys were knocked back by that powerful impact and rendered unable to fight. Thor had barely managed to evade the shockwave by jumping back, but he ended up landing close to Sherry.

Realising this, he looked at her awkwardly for a moment while Sherry-

“‘Maximise Strength’, ‘Maximise Speed’.”

-cast buffs on him. Thor looked at her in a daze, and Sherry snapped.

“What are you doing?! Go and save Michael!”

Thor’s mouth was left agape for a moment, but he recovered himself swiftly, and with a fearless smile, proclaimed.

“Yea, leave it to me! I’ll make sure to save your Michael! Make sure to go on a date with him when this is all over, alright?” He winked.

Huh?

Even Sherry was thrown off by his words that came out of nowhere. But before she could say anything, Thor had already charged in towards Michael. ‘What the hell?’, Sherry mouthed before continuing to support others.

Yeah, what the hell indeed, Sherry. Did Thor finally give up on her after going through the Trial? To be honest, I find that hard to believe. I’ll need to investigate some more before coming to a conclusion.

The battle between the classmates continued. Michael had higher stats due to his awakened state, but that gap had easily been bridged by sheer numbers. Even after sacrificing his sword to use that skill, Michael still had 25 Heroes to deal with. Without a weapon, Michael was temporarily forced to use his hands, and not a moment went by when he was facing less than three enemies at once while being under fire from the magicians and archers.

But even after facing such an uphill battle, Michael had the upper hand. He had more experience and power than his opponents. He had already salvaged a weapon from one of his fallen friends, and was fighting with expertise he had never shown before.

The use of his weapons was masterful; there were no wasted movements and he was targeting his opponent’s vital points, forcing them to go on the defensive. Then, he was simultaneously using simple magic spells to hinder the magicians and archers.

He was literally controlling the battlefield.

His fight reminded me of a certain someone, a Hero I had worked with in another world a long time ago. I had later received news that he had turned into a Demon Lord and had acquired a peculiar title related to fate.

Hmm, maybe I should visit him sometime.

“…..Marvellous.”

“Hmm? What is?”

Oh, shit. I got lost in nostalgia and ended up muttering that.

“I’m talking about them.” I lied as I pointed to the battlefield in front of us.

“Oh?” Cecile clearly wanted me to elaborate.

“Look at these guys, especially Michael. Before we came here, Michael wholeheartedly believed that the deaths of Arthur and Susan were his fault. Even when his own comrades hated him, shunned him, blamed him, he did not hate them for it. Instead, he took all the burden on himself and continued to work hard so that he could become strong enough to protect them.”

“That is indeed true.” Cecile nodded.

“And that’s the reason for his current state of insanity. And these guys, they realise that. They know that they are partly at fault for cornering Michael. And now they’re facing that sin head-on and trying to rectify it. Not everyone is capable of that, and that’s why I thought their conviction is marvellous. Of course, Sherry is an exception to all this- she had never blamed him after all.”

“I see.” Cecile again nodded. “And you’re right. Sherry is an exception.”

Whew. That was close. She sure bought that bullshit well considering it was made up on the fly.

Of course, my words themselves weren’t lies, but they weren’t the complete truth either. Part of the reason why Michael took that blame was the despair born from losing his close friends, Susan and Arthur. It was because of that closeness that he felt as if his heart had been ripped to shreds, and he had no choice but to blame his own self for their deaths lest he would have fallen into madness.

Because if he did not do so, then their deaths would have been meaningless.

And the only one to realise that fact was Sherry. That’s why she did her best to support him. But in the end, her support was not enough; it might have stopped Michael from falling into madness, but it still wasn’t enough to bring him back from the edge of despair.

As we were chatting, the battle had mostly ended, and in the worst way possible.

Most of the frontline fighters had fallen (by which I mean they were unconscious without any major injuries). Only some of the magicians, Sherry and Thor were remaining. Thor was pretty beat up himself, yet he still refused to move out of Michael’s way, but standing was all he could do in his current situation.

Of course, Michael himself wasn’t unscathed. His left arm was twisted in the wrong direction, while his entire body was covered in cuts and bruises. Holding a sword in his right hand, he circled around Thor and started walking towards me. In his way were the magicians and Sherry, who were standing pretty close to us, but bypassing them would be an easy task for Michael.

“Samael, you twisted motherfucker!” He shouted, again. “How dare you make me fight my own friends! I’ll kill you!”

Ugh, this is getting repetitive and boring. Like, can’t he just shut the fuck up and come at me? I feel my brain cells dying every time he speaks.

“Let’s end this!” He shouted once again, and a torrent of mana exploded out from his body.

Veins popped up on his entire body as his muscles swelled. With the sword in his hand, he kicked off and headed straight towards me.

While I sighed in my heart and prepared to receive his attack, he closed the distance between us within the blink of an eye.

By now, I was so tired that I just decided to let him impale me to spice things up a bit.

But as the brown colour fluttered before my eyes and the sword that was supposed to stab me stopped mere centimetres from my chest, I realised what a mistake that decision was.

“Gaagh!” The brown-haired girl standing before me cried as her heart was sliced.

The world around me instantly slowed down to a crawl, thus forcing me to register every aspect of this scene in disgustingly high detail.

 

This scene… of Sherry being stabbed by Michael.

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