Nameless King

“Hey! What should we do? I’m getting tired of running away from this huge thing!” Erza shouted.

Wain looked at the slabs with a pensive face and pondered.

‘I was able to destroy the slab, but it instantly recovered, given previous experience, only if we break all the slabs, the golem’s armor will fall, and we will have a chance to fight it.’ Wain thought, and his eyes sparkled, he had a plan.

“Erza! Try to get away from him and jump on the second slab. We have to break them at the same time!” Wain said and flapped his wings.

“Are you sure?” Erza yelled, but Wain didn’t answer. She frowned but decided to trust him.

Bam.

Once again, the golem attacked, but Erza did not dodge this time. The golem’s arm swept in front of her, and Erza jumped on it and ran forward toward the golem’s head. The monster was puzzled and tried to crush Erza like an insect with his second hand, but she leaped forward to dodge it.

Erza bounced off the golem’s shoulder and attacked the slab in midair. Wain did the same because of all her strength and hit the slab’s center with her fist.

Crackle.

The two slabs shattered simultaneously, and Wain and Erza fell down. The golem quickly reacted and attacked Wain.

“No!” Erza exclaimed and rushed to help Wain, but suddenly the golem stopped.

“Huh, I wonder if it’s luck or precise calculation?” Wain smiled, looking at the golem’s hovering fist in front of him. As he expected, the slabs did not recover as they were destroyed simultaneously.

Crackle.

A loud cracking sound was heard, and the golem’s bulky armor fell to the ground.

Erza immediately seized the opportunity, and dark flames appeared around her fist. She hit the golem in the head with all her might, and it shattered into pieces, then the golem’s massive body fell to the ground, the room trembled, and dust spilled from the ceiling.

“Phew… That wasn’t easy, but it looks like this trial is over.” Erza muttered.

“Yeah, but I can’t see the altar. Isn’t it over yet?”

“It looks that way.”

Wain headed for the walls, and Erza stared intently at the golem’s corpse. She worried that the monster might have recovered, just like the slabs before it.

“Hey, Erza, want to help find a way out?” Wain said and looked in her direction, but Erza ran toward him with a frightened face for some reason.

Wain’s gaze fell on the golem’s corpse, the cracks in his body glowing.

“Fuck…”

Boooom.

The golem’s body exploded, and a wave of fire consumed everything. Erza created a dark barrier around them and covered Wain, but the flames were too strong and broke through the barriers. Erza was in a lot of pain as she took the entire blow, but she still wouldn’t let go of Wain and continued to protect him.

“Are you okay…?” Erza smiled weakly and passed out.

Wain caught her carefully and looked at her back. It was covered with burns and wounded in many places. He felt a strange emotion. It was the first time in his life that a woman had protected him, and yet she wanted to grab him. It was an unusual combination.

“Ah, it seems I have no choice but to take care of you, and everything happened exactly as you wanted.” Wain muttered, and the Ring of Damned glowed. Several pills appeared in his hand, and he put them in her mouth.

Then he put her on the ground with her back up and used the ointment Artur gave him. It was a top-notch ointment that was effective for treating.

Wain could kill Erza right now, and it would solve a lot of his problems, but he couldn’t do that to someone who had just possibly saved his life.

‘Erza is in Third Chronicle, and she’s suffered such serious wounds… If she hadn’t protected me, that blast could have torn me to pieces…’ Wain thought of applying ointment to the burns.

“Well… Oddly enough, I didn’t even take care of Eva like that. In a way, Erza was able to get me close.” Wain sighed.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

Suddenly, one of the wreckage survivors of the explosion began to tremble. It flew up and fell apart. A small wrench was left floating in the air and headed toward Wain. He caught it and looked puzzled.

‘It’s key… But where should I put it?’ Wain thought, and suddenly one of the walls moved.

The wall went up, and behind it was a simple wooden door, with an old keyhole.

Wain nodded, but he didn’t hurry. He decided to wait until Erza came to his senses. He was sure they had plenty of time as the challenges and strengths of the participants were different.

…

Erza opened her eyes and saw Wain smoking away. She stood up and felt intense pain all over her body, but her wounds were no longer as terrible as before.

“You healed me.”

“Oh, you’re awake. Yeah, you don’t have to thank me, we should go, we’ve been here too long.” Wain said, tossing out his cigarette and heading for the door.

“Thank you? Hahaha! Inerian would never stoop to thanking a man!” Erza said arrogantly and, ignoring the pain, went after Wain.

‘How proud she is…’ Wain sighed and took the key out of his pocket.

He opened the door, and they went inside.

“What is it?”

It was pitch black ahead, and only two tables, each with a coin on them. One coin was black, the other was white.

“I don’t know, but we definitely have to make a choice.” Wain said and looked at Erza, “Any ideas?”

“Yes, we’ll do as I say. You take the black coin, and I’ll take the white one, and it’s out of the question!” Erza uttered and walked over to the table.

“Whatever you say.” Wain shrugged and picked up the black coin.

For Wain, unlike Erza, the coin’s color was not important. It was a roulette wheel anyway.