Chapter 140: Decision

Just before he could slide down Felix’s windpipe, a hand suddenly grabbed him from above, and Kaelen looked up to see who it was.

"Master Kaelen, what are you doing?" Lysandra asked from above, staring at him in profound confusion.

"Lysandra, you have to let me go. This is the plan. All you have to do is keep the Titan busy from outside while I search for his heart from inside—"

"No." She immediately refuted.

"W-What?" It was Kaelen’s turn to be confused. "This is the only way. We can’t spend forever trying to break his natural defense. We have better chances from the inside, where the tissues aren’t as hard as his skin."

"Then let me go instead."

"What? No. You can’t. Only I can do this, because only I have the ability to scan inside his body to find the heart more efficiently."

"It’s too dangerous, Master Kaelen."

Kaelen frowned.

"What are you guys doing?! He’s healing fast." Kaelen heard someone scream from outside and looked up to see Felix’s neck tissues healing and reconnecting at an incredible speed.

"Lysandra, let me go now. This is an order."

"I’m sorry, Master Kaelen, but I don’t follow orders with your life on the line. We don’t know what’ll happen down there if you go in. So it’s either I figure it out myself when I get down there, or none of us are going."

Kaelen gritted his teeth.

’What the hell? She doesn’t even follow orders?’

This made Kaelen realize one thing. Unlike the Supreme Elder Dragon and all his other shadow summons who were bound under his authority, Lysandra wasn’t.

She evolved to have one hundred percent free will, and could do whatever she wanted at any time she wanted. She wasn’t bound under him. She simply chose to follow his lead of her own will even though she was much stronger than he was and at the peak of her existence.

Why?

"Master Kaelen, please come with me. We’ll figure something out, and if worse comes to worst... then I’ll simply transform."

"Huh?" Kaelen looked up at her in confusion.

The way she’d said it didn’t sound like it was a natural occurrence like the Supreme Elder Dragon could do.

If she was confident her transformation could take out the Titan, then why was she reserving it for the worst-case scenario?

What happens when she transforms into a Transcendant Dragon?

Kaelen exhaled softly.

"Alright—" Just as those words escaped his lips, the last strands of muscles and nerves suddenly snapped his neck back in place.

"Kaelen?" Black Rose and Yelena called out simultaneously, before they saw two figures rolling across the Titan’s shoulders and breathed a sigh of relief.

Felix’s hands moved at lightning speed to crush Kaelen and Lysandra, who barely made it out before they were both trapped inside. Kaelen had barely reacted when Lysandra shoved off the shoulder and spiraled downwards, while she immediately grabbed her sword just as the palm came down on her. But there was no cut.

Felix’s fingers wrapped around her and pulled her up.

"What? What’s going on?" Kaelen blurted in shock just as he activated Reaper’s Angel Wings and shot forward.

He appeared before Felix’s hand in an instant, which was holding Lysandra, and aimed at his wrist, intending to slice it deep enough to damage the nerves controlling the fingers in order to free Lysandra.

Supreme Flames.

Slash—Crack!

"...Huh?"

Kaelen paused to stare at the Primordial Tier swords in his hand, which had spiderweb cracks across their surfaces.

For some reason, he felt the only reason the swords survived getting shattered on impact was due to the Supreme Flames coating them. But even that wasn’t enough...

Kaelen slowly turned his head towards the wrist he had struck.

...to make a dent.

"What the hell is going on...?"

That was the exact same spot Lysandra had sliced in one clean strike.

At that moment, something suddenly activated in Kaelen’s mind.

The Colossal Titan’s fingers.

That was also the same as the ones Kaelen had sliced off earlier without the use of the Supreme Flames. But Lysandra had failed to cut through them and set herself free.

’I understand it now... it can’t be.’

Kaelen’s eyes widened, and he shot forward with his cracked swords at once. This time, he didn’t go for the wrist. He went straight for the neck. The same spot he’d sliced before.

Crack!

Shards of his broken swords flew across his face, and Kaelen froze on the spot.

His speculation was correct. For every body part cut, it healed ten times stronger.

Felix wasn’t just a regular player. If he was trapped inside Evolution Online for ten years in real life, but a thousand in-game, it simply meant he couldn’t find a way to log out all those years... just like an NPC.

Kaelen’s eyes spread further in shock and disbelief.

The Colossal Titan was not a race for players. Felix’s starting point was never the base world.

Felix was never a player until recently... he was a mob boss.

An endgame dungeon final boss.

Kaelen wasn’t certain, but for a fact that even at Tier 50 he couldn’t still tell the evolution realm of Felix... the man likely only broke free from the shackles of Evolution Online himself after reaching a certain point in evolution.

Felix was a player, yet hasn’t displayed any of his skills yet. Not because he didn’t have any—even NPCs do. But because he hasn’t been given a reason to.

They weren’t winning, they never were. Felix had always been toying with them.

"Master Kaelen?!"

Kaelen snapped his head towards Lysandra dangling over Felix’s mouth now.

"Run. I’m going to transform."

"R-Run? Why...?" Kaelen suddenly trailed.

"Milord, you can’t let the Colossal Titan eat her." SKD suddenly appeared beside Kaelen. "They also have the ability to extract the abilities of their prey when devoured."

"W-What?" Kaelen blurted in shock. Not only was Felix the second person besides him who could steal abilities, but SKD’s revelation had just made Kaelen understand that if Lysandra hadn’t stopped him from going down the windpipe...

"Master Kaelen, you have to get away from here!" Lysandra screamed.

"Milord, you can’t let the Colossal Titan eat her." SKD immediately chipped in.

"Kaelen, make your choice." Naomi whispered from below.

The voices began overlapping each other, and Kaelen’s vision grew hazy as several memories began flashing across his mind.

***

"Kaelen, there’s something I want you to understand if you have to make a difficult choice."

"What’s that, Mum?"

"I want you to understand that you can’t save everyone. But if you truly wish to save everyone, then some sacrifices have to be made for everyone to live."

...

"Son, if you ever succeed me one day, I want you to always remember one thing. You have to be willing to put your life on the line to save the people you truly care about. That’s what makes you a true leader."

...

"You could’ve gotten us both killed in there."

"I-I’m sorry. I was too scared to move."

"I want you to always remember that hesitation will only get you killed. Do it before you think it. Even if it doesn’t work out as planned, you wouldn’t live with the regrets and guilt that you could’ve done something when you had the chance. My name’s Kaelen... what’s yours?"

"My name’s Yelena... thanks for saving my life."

***

"You have to decide, Milord. What are you going to do—" SKD trailed off as Kaelen’s hand, which had been clasped around his face, slowly fell off, and playing across his lips was an unhinged smile.

"What’s there to decide, SKD..."

"When we’ve already won."