Chapter 27: Maniac Monday (1)

Casting a small healing spell on Lumiel, he made sure that the boy would survive until helps for him arrived.

The shadow had already disappeared through the wall, and Steven could barely feel its presence anymore; sprinting outside, he could see.

The dark creature was being forced through another wall, but Steven kept up with its unnatural speed, jumping from house to house, as he finally found some guards below.

**Cafe, down the street, someone is injured,** As he continued following the shadow, he watched it fly over a small lake.

**You’ve got to be kidding me.** But he didn’t hesitate for a single moment as he simply continued walking through the air, not letting it escape.

But its speed only seemed to increase, as its arms and legs slowly dissolved, only a flying dark spot remaining.

Landing on the grass on the other side, he continued his hunt, their distance only shrinking each second.

His goal wasn’t to catch it but rather to find the rest of the body, as it led him forward towards the great hall.

Worry rose in his body. Was he attacking the students? If so, why didn’t a single one of his alarms go off?

As he was forced to watch it disappear in one of its walls. Letting out a soft breath, he raised his arm, summoning a storm of wind.

Shooting it forward in four blasts, a perfect cube fell out of the wall, barely enough for him to run through.

Standing inside a dark-side chamber, he couldn’t see anything except the giant amounts of mana of the students next to him.

He had also lost track of the shadow completely, but that didn’t seem to matter at all. Just after summoning a small light in his hands, he could see red marks filling the entire ground.

Somebody had been dragged through this area recently. Following the lead, the blood only became more and more; whoever had found Franclin first would be long dead by now.

As he finally found he was unlucky prey and another. Overall three bodies were lying just in front of him, their bodies dismembered; Steven stared at their empty eyes as he walked past.

’’Mr. Bright, how nice of you to come here to fulfill my target.’’ Laughter echoed through the walls. ’’Your stupid friends really fucked my altar up.’’

As something dark started forming in front of him, draining all the darkness of the room, the candles began to burn once more, lighting it like daylight.

As the goo finally connected into a human-like shape. "Sadly I don’t have enough time to chat with you today. After all, your teachers aren’t far away," as he stepped close, barely a meter away from Steven.

The man in front of him could barely be older than himself, but his hair had already turned completely white, and his outdated student uniform was tainted in dark red.

’’Maybe I will murder them too? After I found this princess and her crew and added them to my collection." He could watch his smile turn mad as Franclin finally stepped away, widening his arms.

As three shadows rose from the ground, forming into the bodies of Edward, Lucy, and Lumiel. ’’I will rip them apart, watching their blood dry on the floor as they will become my eternal servants,’’ Franclin yelled as the three moved towards him.

Steven didn’t answer to his provocations; instead, he simply sidestepped the first attack and let the other two clash against each other. With a clean jump he closed the distance. ’’I pray for their souls to let you burn in hell.’’

As Franklin’s laughter finally stopped, his smile twitched for just a moment until it returned. "You could barely hold onto one of my shadows. What do you think you’ll be able to do against three?"

As a deformed arm tried piercing him from behind, his barrier activated, stopping the attack entirely. Slowly turning towards the confused shadow, he grabbed its arm, pulling it closer, and with a single movement of his hand, sliced its head in two.

But even then it continued to regenerate as the two others tried their luck; he blocked one with his elbow and evaded the second. As he could feel Franclin gaining distance behind him.

"You might be powerful, but it won’t ever be enough to kill them as a Bright." His laughter was strong, as if he were trying to downplay something.

With each second of the fight continuing, his disadvantage only seemed to grow more and more; each step became too late to fully evade an attack as the first hit connected with his body.

Slicing his thigh open, Steven could barely evade losing a leg. "Don’t disappoint me so much, Mr. Bright." Franclin continued his monologue as Steven barely jumped over another attack while punching a hole in a shadow just for it to continue moving.

As he continued to evade everything just enough to survive, Franclin seemed to grow bored as he started shooting dark arrows towards Steven to end it early.

As a new wave of attacks rained down on him, Steven made a fatal mistake by miscalculating a single step, as one of the shadows cut his foot clean off.

Stumbling to the ground, the attacks finally stopped. As Franclin walked up to him, the enjoyment visible on his face.

’’You did well for one of your kind, but sadly your road ends here and now.’’ As he pulled out an old rusty knife from his pocket, piercing it into Steven’s arm.

The three shadows also started piercing his back; the fight was over.

Slowly rising to his knees, Stevens’ face changed for the first time since the start of the fight.

As a soft smile formed on his lips, he stared at the confused Franklin.

As he slowly lowered his head towards the many bleeding wounds on his body.

But instead of blood there was pouring something that looked like pure light.

’’Caught you.’’

As his smile turned unnatural.