Chapter 29: Facing His Ex-Comrades

Luke’s parents soon noticed him approaching them and stared at him with open, friendly curiosity, which wasn’t surprising given he was still wearing his hood.

He had never taken it off all this time, ensuring no one would recognize him.

They probably thought he was a visitor to the town and were curious about why he was walking towards them.

Without stopping his steps, Luke reached up to his hood, his fingers brushing the edge, and hesitated.

Should he remove his hood?

These were his parents. If he was going to reveal himself anyway, he might as well show his face to them.

But what if they reacted poorly to his appearance?

Luke struggled with indecision, his hands gripping the edge of his hood tightly. It was only when he was a dozen feet away that he made his decision and pulled down his hood. Light shone down on his bare face, temporarily blinding him.

After blinking away the spots in his vision, he got a good look at his parents’ expressions.

Unfortunately for Luke, it was his worst fear come to life the moment his parents saw him as their expressions shifted from confusion to shock to horror.

That wasn’t the expression of parents greeting their long-lost son.

Even so, he forced a smile and said, “Mom, Dad, I’m home.”

“It can’t be,” his mother whispered, leaning against his father for support.

This father pointed a finger at Luke as he said, “It’s impossible. You can’t be here.”

Their words stabbed deeply in his chest.

Ignoring the pain, he said, “You don’t seem happy to see me. Why is that? Could it be that the so-called heroes spouted some nonsense to you?”

Neither of his parents responded, only taking a couple steps back as if afraid to get close to him.

Even though he knew this was a possibility, it still tore at his heart to see his parents reject him like this. Perhaps if he explained everything, they would come around.

“Mom, Dad, you shouldn’t believe anything they said. They’re a bunch of traitors and liars. If it weren’t for them, I could have come home years ago,” he said, unaware of how twisted his expression became.

He unconsciously took a step towards them, and his father blurted out, “Stay back, you monster.”

Luke froze.

“Someone help! Heroes!” his mother cried out, clinging desperately to his father.

Why wouldn’t they listen to him?

He was their son.

Shouldn’t they give him the benefit of a doubt? Why? Why were they calling out to those backstabbers?

As he was about to take another step towards them, he heard something coming towards him and quickly sidestepped a couple paces. Several arrows landed around where he previously stood. He looked in the direction they had come from and spotted Maison notching another arrow.

The sight of the man made Luke’s blood boil as he hissed, “You.”

Suddenly, a thunderbolt shot towards him from above.

Luke scrambled out of the way as the thunderbolt struck where he once stood, but he couldn’t stand still as more thunderbolts showered him from above. He swerved out of the way, barely avoiding getting electrocuted by them.

He landed a decent distance away from his parents as the rest of his ex-comrades arrived on the scene with his siblings.

“Mom, Dad,” his siblings cried, rushing towards their parents.

“It’s okay. The heroes are here,” his mother said, holding his siblings close.

Staring at them with a pained expression, Luke unconsciously muttered, “Mom, Dad.”

“What’s going on? Who is that?” Dominik demanded, clenching his fists.

“Idiot. Don’t you recognize him?” Jackie said, twirling her daggers before pointing them at Luke.

Dominik blinked and stared at Luke for several moments before his eyes widened in disbelief.

“It can’t be him,” he said in a daze.

“Ruthie, I thought the seal was supposed to keep the evil god from escaping, so what’s going on?” Maison questioned, aiming another arrow at Luke.

“It’s supposed to, but we were warned about this. I just never expected Luke to fall this far,” Ruthie said with a sorrowful expression.

The sight of all his ex-comrades right in front of them made every muscle in his body tense.

They were all gathered together. This was his chance to get his revenge. He couldn’t allow them to escape his grasp when they were this close.

Without hesitation, he lunged towards them as he drew his sword.

His weapon glimmered in the sunlight as Maison shouted, “Watch out! Here he comes!”

“We can see that,” Jackie snapped as the group got into defensive positions.

Luke swung his sword at Ruthie, but the others had already anticipated his attack. Dominik and Jackie surged forward to protect her as Ruthie shot up into the air to avoid Luke. He barely noticed his family fleeing the scene after Maison ordered them to leave.

All he could think about was taking them down and inflicting as much pain as possible on them.

He deflected Jackie’s and Dominik’s attacks with his sword while dodging Ruthie’s magical attacks and Maison’s arrows. His eyes scanned the battlefield, searching for an opening, but his ex-comrades refused to give him room to breathe.

It seemed that his ex-comrades had improved their teamwork while he wasn’t around.

Luke gritted his teeth as he felt himself being slowly backed into a corner. Then Jackie managed to get past his guard and slash at his side, drawing blood. He winced and stumbled away from her.

Unfortunately, this was enough to change the course of the fight.

Dominik swung his blade and struck hard against Luke’s sword that had been barely raised in time, causing him to stumble even more. Not wanting to let the opportunity slip, Ruthie unleashed several fireballs at Luke. They were followed by Maison’s arrows.

Seeing the incoming attacks, Luke’s eyes widened. Before he could get out of the way in time, the fireballs landed, kicking up dirt and dust everywhere from the explosion.

The group stopped their attacks, keeping their eyes on Luke’s position. None of them let their guard down as they waited for any signs of movement. When the dust cleared, there was no sign of Luke anywhere.

He had vanished.