A white serpent circled his waist and rested its head against his neck, hissing without stopping.

The serpent was Einstein’s summon, Leomaris knew it well enough. But a black mage’s summon didn’t serve. It conquered.

It would wrestle control of Einstein’s body and refuse to release it until Einstein was dead or the creature had won completely.

’It controls poison. If I can just hold on a little longer...’

Einstein pressed him hard, landing one attack after another. A dagger was all Leomaris had, and it wasn’t enough to push back, only enough to keep dodging. And even that had a price.

His ribs scraped and ground against each other, his chest dragged him down like a weight, and his spine felt one breath away from breaking.

The only way to avoid the attacks was his Sixth Sense, and that was the problem. His body was nearly on autopilot, moving without warning, without any care for what it was putting him through.

’Tch... the darkness isn’t helping.’

The serpent lunged while his mind was elsewhere. His body answered before he did, blade dragging across the hard scales with a scrape.

The sound cut coldly through the air, and that was all he registered before Einstein’s leg drove into his gut and sent him crashing into the ground.

Einstein didn’t wait. Another attack came before Leomaris had even landed, but his body forced itself off the ground on its own, the strike missing completely.

Einstein’s fist cratered the ground, cracks spiderwebbing out from the impact. Leomaris gulped back bile. If that had connected, there would have been nothing left to salvage.

’Think, Leo. Think! You just need to confirm the poison.’

His attention shifted to the serpent. He needed it to spit its poison and needed to analyze it before he could nullify it. His only real chance at survival, and even then, survival wasn’t promised.

He slipped past another attack and performed the Mercy of Death, a slash across his own chest, too fast to follow, and then immediately opened the distance between them.

"Shit! It didn’t work."

Einstein’s expression was pure agony, but Berserkers didn’t work that way. He could feel, maybe, but he could only react like a corpse. And that made him harder to kill than anything.

Leomaris watched as the serpent dragged its tongue across the cut he’d left, and the wound closed as if it had never been there.

A dagger wasn’t enough, he knew that now. The technique demanded more than it could give, and without a proper sword to end them both at once, Einstein would never go down.

Noise reached him almost immediately, and he knew the other cadets were coming. But he was down here with this monster, and even if Einstein died, walking away wasn’t going to be easy.

The serpent’s hiss hit like a physical thing. Leomaris’s hands went to his ears before he could think, the sound pressing in like it wanted to split his skull.

"I don’t think it responded well to the cut."

The serpent didn’t wait. As soon as the words left his mouth, it lunged, all aggressive serpentine motion, and spat a jet of blue liquid at him.

He dodged just enough for the liquid to scrape his hand and no more. Einstein was already behind him, bearing down.

The risk was obvious, letting the poison near him at all could get him killed, but Leomaris stayed anyway, heavy heart and all.

The poison hit, and his skin lit up with it, his hand locking up entirely, but he barely had a moment with either before Einstein’s fist drove into his gut and sent him crashing into the wall.

He felt everything inside him shift and reshape, and ignored it.

He clenched his poisoned hand, stopped the blood flow, and got to work: teeth, legs, his other hand, whatever the wall and floor could give him, tearing his clothes apart and binding the hand firm before Einstein reached him.

His legs shivered. Blood trickled from his nose. His posture was a wreck. And still he rose, his remaining hand gripping the dagger like it was the only thing keeping him upright.

The left hand was swollen and gone, nothing there, not even his fingers would move. He felt his brain register it, felt his breathing begin to slow with it. He smiled anyway.

"You should’ve assumed I wouldn’t face you without preparing, Einstein."

A soft smirk tugged at his lips as he locked eyes with Einstein’s blue gaze.

"Null."

The moment the words left him, the serpent panicked, and Leomaris didn’t waste it, his blade tore through the air and slit both Einstein’s throat and the serpent’s in one clean motion.

They dropped to the floor. Leomaris sighed and walked past them, sluggish and worn, making his way toward the only window that faced outside.

He’d never planned for Einstein. He was supposed to have the upper hand, that was the whole point. But the story had changed too much, and depending on the novel now was depending on something that no longer existed.

He’d researched the poison Einstein’s summon used in the novel for exactly this reason, so he could nullify it when the time came. It cost him his hand to know it was the same. But he stood a chance now.

He made it to the window, barely. Vision hazy, one hand braced against the wall. One look outside and his hopes crashed.

The wrong side. There was nothing from this direction but the endless fall. The passage to the citadel was nowhere in sight.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

He didn’t even get the chance to curse his luck. His body was already falling, like it had pushed past everything it had. He tried to fight it. It wasn’t enough.

The pain and anxiety sharpened something in his mind. It had all started with a desire to avoid death, so desperately felt that it had led him into this citadel, hoping to prevent himself from being killed after provoking a renowned organization.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

’If only I’d been a little braver... damn it, this sucks.’ 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

His head pounded and every inch of him was demanding rest. Before he even realised it, his eyes were falling shut.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

’Fuck sake...’

The floor came up to meet him. Everything went dark.

—

After what felt like an endless slumber, Leomaris finally woke.

He lay face down on the cold stone floor, his poisoned hand stiff and numb beyond control. Every pulse of pain shot straight into his skull, making his vision shake.

But the pain barely mattered.

Explosions thundered outside. Steel clashed. The distant roar of flames echoed through the citadel walls. Alfred.

The cadets had arrived.

A weak breath escaped his lips.

He could still be saved.

Then his body tensed.

Someone else was there.

"Who’s there?"

His voice came out rough as he forced himself upright. The room was dark, thick with dust and smoke, but he could feel it clearly. Another presence was breathing in the same space as him.

That made no sense.

Einstein was dead. Leomaris remembered killing him.

Before he could turn fully, the floor above suddenly caved in with a deafening crash. Rubble slammed around him, and in that same instant, a sword drove through his back.

The blade punched out through his chest in a spray of blood.

"Arghhhhh."

Leomaris choked violently. Hot blood spilled from his mouth onto the floor.

He tried to turn, but another explosion outside lit the room for a split second. Flames flashed across the attacker’s face, just enough to show a cold stare before darkness swallowed it again.

Then the sword twisted.

Agony ripped through his body so hard his knees buckled instantly. He dropped to the ground, trembling, his heartbeat pounding against the steel lodged inside him.

Sweat rolled down his face. Blood pooled beneath him.

But stronger than the pain was the confusion clawing through his mind.

’Am I going to die?’