Chapter 28 — The Best Person in the World

Chapter 28 — The Best Person in the World

Pov: Damon

Damon frowned.

“What…? Why did Alisar come back? I didn’t even notice when he appeared. And… he killed Roder.”

He spat sharply to the side.

“Idiot. Overconfident fool. If he had simply run away after teleporting, maybe we would’ve let him live. But now… now he walked right into our hands. Yes, he caused us some inconvenience by killing Roder. We’ll have to find a replacement. But now he’s a corpse. And he’s still babbling something over there… moron.”

Damon sharply raised his hand toward Alisar.

A cold thought echoed in his mind:

“Die.”

A fireball the size of a soccer ball flared to life in front of his palm. A heartbeat later it shot forward and slammed straight into Alisar. Damon didn’t even consider stopping — on the contrary, he began releasing fireballs one after another.

Second.

Third.

Fourth.

Fifth.

Roder’s body, lying on the ground nearby, also caught fire from the blast of magic.

“That’s it. Over. That’s the price of your arrogance. Died from your own stupidity.”

Damon was ready to hear screams of pain, agony, Alisar’s desperate cries… but he heard nothing.

Maybe the noise of the flames drowned it out.

Or perhaps Alisar died so fast he didn’t even have time to scream.

Damon didn’t catch a single sound.

After a few moments the flames weakened enough for him to see what remained on the ground. The air was thick with a heavy smell — the stench of burnt flesh. A body continued burning. But there was only one body. Roder’s.

And Alisar… was nowhere to be found.

“Damn… slipped away, huh?” flashed through his mind. “But whatever. I still hit you. You won’t last long — not with that poison and those burns.”

He shouted loudly:

“Hear me, Alisar?! You’d better run as far as you can! I’ll find you and burn you alive! No matter where you hide — I’ll find you!”

Damon shouted as if his voice could tear through the air itself, reaching into any crack where Alisar might be hiding.

Soren and Brann quickly moved in, taking positions on either side of Damon, forming an improvised defensive circle. Right now, that was the only correct thing to do — none of them understood from which direction Alisar would strike next.

That coward… Alisar.

Suddenly Damon heard something sharply slice through the air. He spun around — toward Soren — and for a brief moment it seemed to him that he saw Alisar. Without hesitation he fired several fireballs in rapid succession. But Alisar vanished just as quickly as he appeared, and not a single shot hit anything.

“Coward, running again? Just because you have some teleportation skill? Yeah… skills like that are perfect for cowards like you,” Damon spat out loud, breathing heavily.

At that moment he heard a dull metallic sound — something falling onto the stone floor of the dungeon.

It was Soren’s sword.

Or rather, only half of the blade.

Soren let out a rough, wet, broken sound.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you?” Damon stepped closer and put a hand on his shoulder.

But Soren didn’t turn around. His knees buckled, he collapsed onto one knee and nearly fell forward, but Damon managed to catch him. He turned him around — and saw it.

Soren’s neck had been cut. More than halfway through. Short, pulsing jets of blood burst from the wound, splattering everything around in dark red.

“Damn… stay with me! Stay with me!” Damon frantically grabbed a health potion. He tore off the stopper, brought the bottle to his friend’s lips, and tried to pour it in.

But Soren was no longer breathing. His body had gone limp.

“Damn… damn… damn!” Damon cursed, crushing the empty bottle in his fist. “Roder could still be replaced… but now Soren is dead too. Replacing two people — that’s already a problem. If I’m not careful… that bastard will kill all of us.”

He stood up. His brother — Brann — was staring at him, pale. There was real fear on his face. He had never seen his brother like this: the hands holding his sword were trembling.

“What…? My brother… the one who fears nothing?”

Damon looked at his own hands. They were also trembling.

Damn…

“This isn’t right. Others are supposed to fear us. Not us. We’re the ones who kill people. We torture. We hunt. The weak are supposed to tremble when we break and kill them. Here, in this place… we’re supposed to be the predators.” he tried to convince himself.

But they were only words.

A desperate attempt to calm himself.

Useless.

Cold fear was already creeping toward his heart. Toward his soul. His breathing was fast and uneven. His heart hammered wildly. Panic squeezed his throat. He whipped his head around again and again, trying to understand from where Alisar would strike next.

Tap.

He heard a sharp sound and almost fired a fireball in that direction… but realized just in time — it was only his brother, not the enemy.

“Yes… we should leave now. As fast as possible,” his older brother, Brann, said.

Damn… he had almost killed his own brother just now.

Yes, Brann was right. They needed to leave. Immediately.

The faster — the better.

“Yeah, brother. Let’s get out of here,” Damon said and took a few steps after his brother.

But then he froze — because his brother suddenly stopped moving.

“What’s wrong, brother?” Damon asked, glancing around anxiously, expecting Alisar to appear at any moment.

His older brother didn’t answer.

His head suddenly snapped backward, as if the neck could no longer hold it.

And then it fell to the stone floor and rolled toward Damon, leaving behind a long smear of blood.

Brann’s body collapsed immediately after, splashing blood across the stone tiles.

The head rolled until it bumped against Damon’s foot, stopping there — facing him.

He watched the life leave his brother’s eyes.

“No… no… NO! Brother!” Damon screamed in panic.

He began firing fireballs nonstop into the darkness — in any direction where Alisar might possibly be hiding.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Until his mana ran completely dry.

“Brother… brother…” his voice was shaking and cracking.

He fell to his knees and took his brother’s head into his hands.

His brother.

His dear, beloved brother.

The closest person in his life.

Had just died — because of that coward Alisar.

The brother who protected him as a child.

Who taught him.

Who showed him how to kill people, how to make money.

The same brother who once risked his own life to kidnap the village chief’s daughter — simply because Damon liked her.

His older brother had done everything for him.

He was everything for Damon.

And now that brother was dead.

Killed by that cursed Alisar.

“Where are you hiding?! COME OUT! I’LL KILL YOU!” Damon screamed until his voice broke. He cried, shouted, tears streaming down his face. “I’LL KILL YOU!!!”

He didn’t care about anything anymore.

The most precious person to him had just died.

And that filthy Alisar would pay for it.

His mana was gone, but he still had a short sword.

Yes… if he had no mana, he would kill Alisar anyway.

With a sword.

With his own hands.

And then… something strange happened.

The world started spinning.

He saw the ceiling.

Then the stone floor of the corridor.

Then the ceiling again — everything twisted, as if his body was spinning in the air.

His head was rotating… and during one of the turns he saw something ridiculous, impossible.

He saw his own body.

Standing.

Standing right in the middle of the corridor.

Standing… without a head.

He couldn’t understand how that was possible.

How his body could still be standing there… if he himself was here, in the air?

And a moment later, he understood what was happening.

As his head completed the next turn, he saw his brother’s head.

Another rotation — and his own head struck the stone floor, bounced, and rolled forward, flipping several times.

Yes.

This was the end.

He wasn’t able to kill Alisar.

Cowardly Alisar.

That coward.

That monster.

The one who destroyed the dream he shared with his brother.

The one who killed his good brother — one of the best people in the world.

Damon’s consciousness slowly began to fade.

Even now he was full of rage.

Even now a final thought flickered across his mind — a curse, directed at Alisar.

And then his consciousness went out completely.