Death, Devotion, Dissonance

The boy's sudden declaration was met with flat silence, as everyone slowly turned their heads towards him. The brief pause allowed Phel to see that on top of the nobles originally attacking Evin, there were also a few elite commoners that were following Lopar. The injured nobles had also joined the fray, as Phel could see the student who had his thigh penetrated was pushing against the giant rock with zealous hatred. 

Aside from Dagan and Bella, this was basically everyone in the original 1st year Combat class. Considering that Phel and Arza were on Evin's side… it basically meant that it was a 3-versus-21 situation. The odds were definitely against them, but since Evin was kind of able to hold back the 12 nobles, then Phel and Arza just needed to take care of the other 9 people.

'No that's not right. To make it a proper 3 vs 21, Evin needs to get on this side of the corridor. So it's technically a 2 vs 21 until then,' Phel concluded and felt a tinge of regret at acting so hastily.

"Is that Arza?" a voice from behind the giant rock interrupted the silence. But contrary to Phel's expectations, it sounded quite cheerful. "Do you need any help with that?"

"No need. Just focus on getting through that giant rock!"

Phel was quite shocked at how casually these two were taking this. But as he was having some trouble processing what was happening, Decatur interrupted his thoughts.

"Phel! What the fuck are you doing?" the acting Count shouted. 

Feeling the need to properly explain himself, Phel cleared his throat. "I-I'm taking Evin's side. I don't agree with your desire for r-revenge!" But what came out of his mouth was a much simpler stance. Perhaps considering the fact that he stuttered while only saying these lines, it was for the best that he said something simple.

"Then do what you fucking want!" Decatur shouted out with venom in his voice. Turning to the nobles and the students he gathered, he spoke, "We'll take care of these two first."

"Guys! Why do you even allow him to order you around like this? Just because he's acting as the Count, doesn't mean you should obey his words all the time!" Phel tried to appeal to the others.

Hopefully, he looked around, but he wasn't able to see the reaction he wanted. Everyone only looked annoyed that Phel was bringing up a topic that they didn't want to think about. They looked back at him, as if asking, 'Do you think we can stop just because you say so?'.

Phel wanted to tell them to think about the act of killing Evin, but immediately realized it would be a bad idea. First, they were in the Temple, and everyone was forced to commit murder to a certain degree so they definitely wouldn't feel so bad about killing someone else. Second, Evin was constantly harassing them from beyond the corridor, mercilessly hurting them, so they would want to exact revenge on him some way or another. 

"Save your breath, Phel," Arza said as he patted his shoulder. "The problem here isn't as complicated as you're making it out to be. We're here to save Evin and that's it. While it's nice to get help from the students here, it's not such a big deal if they refuse."

Obviously, Arza's words rubbed everyone around the wrong way. 

"Who are you to speak down to us like this? You've never even managed to beat me in the mock fights, have you?" one of the students spoke.

"Of course, I haven't. After all, you're such a boring opponent, who's only worried about keeping yourself safe," Arza smiled. "It's too much effort to get through your turtle-like defenses with my Gestures. It's easier for me to wait until I can just train enough to smash through them later on."

Phel really didn't know where Arza got this confidence from. He didn't hold a high ranking in the class, and although it was impressive for him to achieve that with a barely working Chanting method, it was still hard to see him as someone reliable. Phel really didn't know why Evin held Arza in such high regards.

The other guy definitely looked offended at the remark, but he kept a mocking smile on his lips and asked. "And what makes you so sure that you'll be able to break through my defenses now?"

A wall of earth appeared in front of the student as he spoke. The student's spell gave off a faint metallic luster, so while it couldn't be considered completely metal, it was definitely something to brag home about. 

For the users of Tenarak, most of the time, their dream was to be able to create use metal as their main material for spells. It usually took them quite some time to achieve, so the student being able to at least mimic it at his age was definitely a big achievement.  It wasn't a fluke that he was one of the stronger people in the class. 

But even seeing this seemingly impossible to penetrate defense, Arza pulled out five lodestones with a smile and loudly began to chant.

"May the Empress grant me bones harder than the Tower and muscles stronger than Heroes.

May she bless me with eyes to see stopped time, and fists to shatter false realities.

May she grant me legs that defy nature's boundaries, 

And may she watch over me, as I offer her this victory."

As he finished the chant, in the blink of an eye, the five lodestones were emptied as if they were being sucked up by a Talisman, but the change in Arza's body wasn't so easy to distinguish. Aside from his eyes, which turned slightly pinkish, he looked the same as always. His muscles didn't become inflated, or his skin didn't become rough and sharp like how every other World of Life user transformed. 

'He couldn't have wasted five lodestones' worth of mana just like that, right?' Phel couldn't help but imagine the worst.

Although the Chant was unique in its own way, but in Phel opinion, it lacked the sincerity that other Chanters had. It wasn't a joke to say that some Pleading Chants made listeners want to tear up, or when some Demanding Chants made others subservient. Arza's Chant contained no emotions whatsoever. Sure, it was serious enough, but it was definitely lackluster by Phel's standards.

However, during this moment he was feeling doubtful of Arza's capabilities, the red-haired boy blurred out of his vision, and Phel's ears heard a loud shattering sound coming from in front of him. 

With disbelief, he glanced towards the source of the sound and saw the shield of pseudo-metal crumbling into two, with Arza's fist lodged in the middle. 

Seeing the fierce and arrogant grin plastered on Arza's face, Phel felt what he usually felt when Evin or Bella did something unreasonable. But in this case, the feeling was multiplied by tenfold, just because of how simple and awe-inspiring the concept of strength was. 

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