The last act
The room felt silent. Thanatos fist was covered in blood, his left arm was missing, and his foot was bent and broken. He took a moment to regain his breath and then went to the remains of Grul. He managed to open the giant hand and take his arm from it. It was at that moment that he heard the sound of clapping behind him.
From the balcony, Ennis was applauding Thanatos' victory. His face was full of ecstasy. The fight was everything he wanted and more. Seeing Thanatos win against the half-troll gave him indescribable pleasure. "You are a man of quality. Thanatos, I saw you defeat the abomination that had ruled these fights for the previous six years. You have quality beyond that of what Grul had when he was born." He extended his hand in a cordial manner, while his eyes were full of desire.
"Work for me, Thanatos. I would give you whatever it is that your heart desires; riches, women, men, exotic food and drinks, or animals. Just serve me right at my side and I promise to give you everything you want." Ennis's desire to possess Thanatos as part of his collection was evident. "I need you, after seeing you now. I can't possibly accept you being of someone else. Be mine and mine alone, not like a slave or hiding in the tunnels like Grul. I want you at my side for the rest of your life."
Thanatos and Alice were shocked after hearing Ennis's confession. The first to speak was Thanatos. "You really are one crazy bastard; your champion died a minute ago and the first thing to cross your mind is asking me to work for you. I already told you, the chance for mercy was a long time ago. I'm going to drag your ass to my base."
"Please reconsider. I'm the one showing you mercy. If can't have you right now, then I would kill you. The possibility of you being under the ownership of someone else is unbearable." Ennis' eyes became filled with obsession. He wasn't looking at Thanatos as a person but merely another possession. "You have desires, don't you? Your heart needs to satiate your desires. I know this because I have quality too. I don't care how depraved or degenerate your desires are, I'll make them come true. You don't need to hide your true self anymore. I'm the only person in the world who can understand you. I'm the only person who has a higher quality than you. That's why you can only be happy by following me. Please don't waste your life. Please Thanatos be mine."
"Shu up. I don't have anything to hide, not since I came to this world. I already have people who understand me; you could never be one of them." The memories of his companions were enough for him; Neo, Adel, Eric, and Lia. "You're just a small rich noble with sadistic tendencies, nothing more." He tore a bit of his clothes to stop the bleeding in his arm.
"I see... Then you left me with no other choice." Ennis's face turned sour and his eyes filled with sadness. "Alice"
"Yes, master!" She broke free from the silence and began to move again.
"Kill him."
Alice jumped down into the arena doing a stunt. Her face was covered by a clown mask; her eyes and mouth were the only things visible. Her expression of joy was unrestrained. She was about to punish the worm who had the audacity to reject the offer of her master. "Mmmyyyy pleasure hehe…"
At that moment, the doors opened with tremendous force. "Master, we come to escort you out!" Two mercenaries entered the room. One of them was the one that stood guard while Rak was dealing with the captain of the army.
"WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU COULD COME HERE!" Ennis turned back and screamed with pure anger.
"I-I´m sorry Master, but the boss Rak ordered me to take you out of the mansion. There is an undead fighting the boss, and possibly more in the halls. We need to escort you out." The mercenary explained the situation as best he could.
At the same time, Thanatos noticed that his Death Knight was killed. He didn't notice it during the fight since he was focused on fighting Grul. He hoped that the Death Knight at least managed to close the other tunnels.
"Undead? How is that possible?... Fine If that is what Rak told you, then the best thing for me to do is leave this place. I trust you can deal with him alone, Alice?"
"Of course, Master has nothing to worry about. I'll deal with him in five minutes and catch up with Master. There is not going to be any problem." Alice waved at her master like a little kid putting on a performance.
Ennis looked at Thanatos one last time. "At least your memory will live in my heart." After that, he disappeared behind the door with the mercenaries.
"Aaahhh, well, let's get back to dealing with you-" Alice turned back to look at Thanatos, but her vision was obstructed by the claws aimed at her face. Thanatos launched a surprise attack to kill the clown woman quickly and then pursue Ennis.
The claws didn't reach her before Alice disappeared into thin air. Thanatos tried to find her, but...
"You poor thing, you are so slow now. I mean, is it normal when you were fighting so much with Grul and you also have a broken foot." Alice was right beside him, talking without a care in the world. "But this is normal after all. An insignificant and disgusting worm like you only deserves death, HAHAHAHAHAHA."
Thanatos tried to strike back, but the edge of a dagger cut him through the stomach all the way to the chest. He kicked at Alice while recovering from the damage. The kick landed right at her side, but she disappeared, turning her body into smoke. Is it some kind of illusion magic? Where did she go?
"Please try a little more. The more you squirm below my shoe, the more fun it is." Four Alice's surrounded Thanatos. All of them held two daggers aimed at him.
Thanatos tried to defend himself from all the attacks, but that was impossible. The daggers passed through him like a ghost, and only the real Alice cut him on the legs. He tried to cut her, but she jumped back with ease. "If you hadn't had to fight Grul before, then I would definitely lose to you, but no one can fight at 100 percent all the time. This is your limit." Another cut in Thanatos's chest.
Thanatos didn't have any energy left, but he still tried to fight back. He managed to attack a couple of the copies, but they only turned into smoke the moment he hit them. He concentrated with all his mind and found the real Alice.
The clones can't hurt me, I only need to pay attention to the pain the real one is inflicting. He felt the cut on his back and turned quickly with his claws. Alice just made a simple gesture with her hand.
"[Reflection: Explosion]" Alice's body cracked like glass when Thanatos hit her, and an explosion consumed everything around him.
BOOM... The explosion echoed throughout the room, and the smoke dissipated, leaving only Thanatos' burned body on the floor. His skin was burned all the way from his face to his legs. His arm took most of the damage, leaving his hand burned like a stick of wood in a bonfire. He was glad he could still feel pain; that meant his nerves weren't completely destroyed.
"Ooohhh, are you done already?" Alice appeared in front, standing over him with an amused expression. "If only Master could see you now, he would realize you don't have any value. You may be strong, but so what? I'm strong too. I'm always training for Master's sake, learning new tricks and jokes to amuse Master. Because nothing me makes happier that hearing Master praise." Alice hugged her own body.
"My master is my reason for living. He's everything that I could ask for. I just want to stay by his side for the rest of his life. I want to make him happy no matter what, because seeing Master smile makes my heart race like if I was about to die, hahaha." She twisted her body while laughing at herself.
"And you, you made Master sad. A disgusting, useless worm like you dares to make my master sad." She looked down at her feet. Thanatos was looking back at her, barely conscious. "You deserve to be tortured for hundreds of years, disgusting worm." She began to kick him in the head.
Like a madwoman, she kicked Thanatos's head and body like a sack of straw. Merciless, she kicked him, making the burned skin break and sending a few teeth flying from his mouth. After venting her anger, Alice regained a bit of composure. "I want to make you suffer so much more, but Master is waiting for me. I don't want to be away from Master for longer than I need to." She raised her daggers over Thanatos, preparing to deliver the final blow, but the laughter stopped her for a moment.
"HAHA... HAHAHAHA… Crazy bitch." Thanatos used the last of his strength to look Alice in the eyes while speaking; his eyes were still full of life. "You're barking at the wrong tree, ahahaha. That bastard is never going to love you, no matter what you do for him. He's incapable of feeling love for anyone else other than himself. Even I could tell after meeting him once. You would never be more than an object to him no matter what you do, ahahaha…"
"That's plenty for me." Alice plunged her daggers into Thanatos's head, killing him...
"[Slash]!" A white slash cut the air and almost cut Alice in two. She jumped backwards from Thanatos, looking at the intruder that stopped her from killing the useless worm.
Standing in the room was a man wielding his sword. He managed to reach this part of the labyrinth just in time to save the life of the man on the floor. He recognized him immediately. That poor man was the friend of Lady Lia, Thanatos. He grabbed the destroyed arm on the ground.
"Please hold on." He got closer to Thanatos and gave him a potion of healing. Thanatos put his arm around his shoulder and the potion reattached him. The rest of the healing went to his skin, and he recovered a bit of his burned hand. He was still burned and his foot broken, but at least he could hold on a bit longer.
"Of all the people that could have saved me, of course it has to be you…"
"I take it that you remember me then."
"How could I forget you." Thanatos rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"Then please wait a bit longer while I deal with this woman." Silver took off his cloak and prepared himself for the battle ahead.
"Sergeant of the King's army, Silver Alexander Kendall. Stand down peacefully if you value your life!"
"I get to kill two worms in a single day. How lucky for me, the master is going to be happy when I tell him. Hehehehe…" Alice's laugh was different; it was a fake laugh. Her face was hidden behind a mask, but her mouth and eyes were enough. They could tell she was going mad with rage.