Death's Door

But now, in his hands is a certain tool, a ring as black as coal. It was a ring imbued with the power of G.o.d of death, Olim himself. Olim was Desolai"s master, so as Desolai"s Servant, Nur was indirectly Olim"s subordinate as well.

Olim pretty much stated that he is unable to help me, time is not his domain, but death is. The problem is, however, due to the curse, I can never truly die, I will only be sent back.

Nur was tired of this cycle, he could only wish that he would find his master soon.

Speaking of my master…Mrakus told me I could find her in this city, but according to Olim, I am nine hundred years in the past. Was Mrakus lying to me, about finding my master? Then what about the weapon capable of killing Chronos? Was that just a lie as well?

But after entering the city, he found that there indeed was a small castle owned by a n.o.bleman, called the Holy Land. It was a pretentious name to give to a castle, by appearance alone it was anything but holy. Nur heard rumors that he only named it as such in order to gain favors with the G.o.d worshipers.

Speaking of worshipping G.o.ds, apparently inside the Holy city, many G.o.ds walk among humans. Human beings that received blessing from G.o.ds are called demi-G.o.ds, the term Nur found confusing due to the fact that those people were not actually related to G.o.ds by blood.

While each G.o.d could give blessing, the blessings given by the big five were held in higher regards than others. The big five were the primary G.o.ds that reigned over the secondary deities, five G.o.ds that embodied elements of fire-Ignis, Water-Aquorion, Earth- Terros, Wind-Ventus, and Lightning- Naiza. Those were the five primary G.o.ds that were held in high regard. Demi G.o.ds blessed by them had stronger blessings compared to the others.

However, there were other primary G.o.ds, but those five were held in special regard, there were five sects within the city, each worshipping their respective G.o.d. The only G.o.d that was held in higher regard than the Big Five was the king of G.o.ds, Solaris.

While the big five were the enforcers of their ruler"s will, the one who was held as the main G.o.d was him, Solaris, the primary of Light. For eons he gave blessing to none, deeming them unworthy of his grace, but this generation of demi-G.o.ds saw a miracle. One man, by the name of Leon Revilles, was born with the blessing of the Sun G.o.d himself. The t.i.tle he held now is of the Knight of Light, a member of Heroes, and the humanity"s strongest protector.

Just being inside the city was enough to find out so much information. But the scariest part was the number of demi-G.o.ds in this city. While I only encountered Knight of Light in the city of Oran, apparently he was there on patrol duty, he is originally from this city, and there are hundreds of demi-G.o.ds here. I was barely able to get away from one; I have no idea what I can do if I am surrounded by a squad of demi-G.o.ds. Let"s just hope that does not come to pa.s.s.

I chose to wear the ring on my left hand. I shall only use it when it is an emergency; the powers are one time use only. If I die I will inevitably come back, but if I get stuck in another infinite loop like with the Knight of Light, I will not hesitate to use the ring to kill.

However, right now my goal is to sneak into the prison where the demon is being held.

Nur managed to find the location of the prison, but getting into it would not be easy, but Nur had no choice, his freedom was at stake. Even if he didn"t mind dying, he couldn"t do so. He will be forced to live, but as long as demon lords have her, he will not be free. He will be stuck in another never-ending loop.

Nur briefly considered the idea of using the power of the ring on the demon lords before remembering that only two powers of the ring could kill, and there were three demon lords. Even if he somehow kills the two of them, the third will finish him off. Then he will be back again, starting the loop all over again.

He needed to avoid that. If possible, he needed to get Sariu out without resorting to using the power of the ring. It was his triumph card, not something he wanted to waste.

* * *

Well, sneaking into a prison is easier said than done.

Attempt #1: End result- Nur didn"t make it past the gate, the guards ended up skewering him with their swords. They weren"t even using mana, but without Sariu"s power protecting him, he was just as flesh and blood as everyone else.

Attempt #2: Nur managed to enter the prison, at least. Apparently the demon being held there, according to the rumors is one of the Demon Lords, captured after a skirmish with the demons.

This particular demon tried to buy time for his allies to escape; the allies were those three demon lords apparently. Then this particular Demon Lord was captured and sent to this location in chains due to the barrier preventing the other demons from entering into the city. Demons can only enter through the barrier only if humans maintaining the barrier allow them to, otherwise they sustain a lot of damage when their distinctive demon aura is detected by the barrier.

Then, wouldn"t it have been easier for those three demon lords to find a way to suppress their demon aura or at least alter it so that they wouldn"t be detected? Why were they so desperate? They could have found a way to sneak inside the city if they had enough time. So what exactly is the deal here?

Nur found the answer to his question while trying to overhear the conversation between the guards. Arin Draco, the captured Demon lord was scheduled to be executed in six days. It will be a public execution where even the royalty shall partic.i.p.ate.

That deadline. A day ago, the demon lords gave me a week, so that is why. When the time runs out, the Demon Lord will be dead.

If the Demon Lords had more time, they surely would have found an item or a witch to disguise or alter their auras, but with the only witch they have found already made contract with someone. With the execution deadline approaching, they had no choice but to rely on the demon that she made a contract with. With no other way, unable to enter the city themselves without sustaining ma.s.sive damage and not enough time to prepare any other means of sneaking into a city, they truly were desperate to rely on a complete stranger, even under a threat, to accomplish their goals.

Needless to say, Nur ended up being found out after listening too keenly to the conversation between guards, not noticing the large man behind him with an ax. Single swing and his head flew off his shoulders.

Attempts #3-7: Nur tried to fight off the guards with a stolen sword. Unfortunately, they knew how to channel mana into their weapons, Nur"s sword ended up being destroyed, and once again he was cut up into pieces. Trying that couple more times ended with the same result. Not being able to use mana or magic in general made for a huge handicap.

Attempts #8-9: Nur tried to make the guards chase after a suspicious sound, which was in actuality another person he paid a silver coin to make that sound. When there were less guards, he tried to sneak in, thinking he could overwhelm the guards with the element of surprise, but it turns out he severely underestimated the number of guards inside the prison.

This Demon Lord is regarded as an extreme threat. They have no less than thirty guards inside, all of whom are trained mana users.

Nur simply stood no chance.

Attempt # 10: Nur managed to sneak in, but this time, his mind bent at destroying the prison. If he cannot beat the guards, he will just have to destroy the prison. In his hand was a bottle of flammable oil, in his other hand a match.

If the prison burns down, then the guards will forced to flee, at least some might die during the chaos, allowing Nur to go past them and free the demon, who is most likely resistant to fire.

This plan was flawless, at least until Nur"s left hand, the hand he was holding the match, was cut off with an air slash. One of the guards used a long ranged wind magic slash, severing Nur"s hand, the hand he had the ring on. Nur fell, clutching the stump of his left hand.

As soon as the guard came to finish Nur off, the captain of the guards told him to not to kill Nur.

"Keep him alive, the interrogator wants to have a chat with him."

Nur did not know at that time that he would not be coming back from this "interrogation"…