Building An Empire Starting From The Labor Camp In Exile-Chapter 52: Secret and reasons

’What in the bloody Borderland is going on?!’ Atrox thought with surprise. Everything happened so fast that he didn’t have time to process it, and he couldn’t even react.

’Arvas tried to kill me, but Kren stopped him. Didn’t the bastard want me dead anyway? Oh, he didn’t want my essence to go to waste!’

"What are you trying to do, Arvas? Did you just try to kill the sacrifice? The biggest one there?" Kren asked casually, his eyes shining with some kind of feverish light.

Arvas’s face tightened. "Cut the shitty pretense, Kren. We both know you’re not here for the Nyxori! Not for us—me!" 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

’Well. This is...’ Atrox couldn’t believe his eyes. What exactly is going on now? Kren was pretending? About what?

Kren smiled, like a wolf. "Whatever you think you know, trust me—you really don’t know anything. Now, step back, and maybe I’ll pretend this didn’t happen. I might even let you live."

The two of them looked at each other, their swords between them. Slowly, Arvas began to move back, disengaging his sword. He saw the three Knight ranks form up behind Kren, their weapons pointing at him.

Atrox moved his eyes from one to the other, more confused than anything, but he wanted them to keep fighting and was glad that his head was still on his neck.

Arvas chuckled darkly after creating some distance between them. "So I was right after all. I’ve been suspicious for about a month now. You tried—really tried—to hide it, but you are not the real Kren!"

’What?!’

Atrox waited for Kren to deny it, but the man just shrugged, his dark eyes darker. He passed the Soul Drainer to one of the Knights. "I might just kill you."

Arvas used his other hand to clear the hair from his face, and Atrox saw his eyes for the first time. They were yellow, a gleaming yellow like that of a beast.

Yellow and black eyes clashed, holding in the silence that followed.

Then they both reached behind them into their shelves at the same time, retrieving glass potion bottles, and crossed the distance between each other in a flash.

As they ran at each other, they poured the liquids on their swords. Kren’s sword glowed like liquid lightning, and Arvas’s like molten flame.

Their swords clashed, accompanied by a wave of force and a shockwave. The ground beneath them cracked, the impact throwing stones and dust into the air.

The Knight ranks quickly gave them space, but Atrox and the others were frozen in place.

And then the two began to fight.

Liquid lightning and flame whipped through the air, each blow followed by arcs of lightning and fire that tore through the ground. They moved with such speed that they were nothing more than blurs. Atrox could only keep track because of the silver and red flashes.

’So this is how Alchemists fight? Isn’t that a little too strong? They’re using abilities outside their Order! That’s Elemental, right?’ Atrox watched intently, drinking in everything he could see.

This was the first time he had seen a fight between people two ranks above him, and he didn’t want to miss anything. He used the electrifying feeling running through his body to fuel himself and threw his essence against his body, flooding it to break the spell on him.

The air hummed and cracked as energy clashed.

Arvas created space between them by throwing arcs of fire. He flew backward, a new potion bottle appearing in his hand, and poured it on his sword.

Kren flicked his hand, casually throwing out a lightning arc that fizzled out before it reached Arvas. He smiled and adjusted his glasses. Atrox was surprised he still managed to keep them on.

"So, you’re the one who tried to kill him. You’re the one who tried to kill Atrox," Kren said. He rested his sword on his shoulder, and the lightning didn’t burn him—it dimmed. "I see it more clearly now. Unfortunately, you failed."

Arvas shrugged. "Of course I tried to kill him. I suspected he would be very instrumental for you here. But he’s stronger than I thought. No matter, though—I’ll kill him now."

The air Atrox was breathing was yanked out of his lungs, and he would have gagged if he weren’t frozen. ’Arvas was the one who sent those assassins?’

Everything he thought he knew was flipped upside down. ’I thought it was my stepbrother! Shit! The enemy was right in front of me! Arvas! What in the bloody Borderland is going on?’

Kren said, "I won’t allow you to kill him—not while I’m here. I’m going to open the Forbidden Door. I should add my essence to it."

Atrox was getting more and more confused. What was the motive behind Arvas trying to kill him? And why was Kren set on opening the Forbidden Mark Door...wait, the Forbidden Mark!

’That mark that turned my life upside down and has been a thorn in my side ever since—it’s interfering again?’

Arvas’s eyes flickered to Atrox, and his face softened for a moment before hardening again. "I won’t seek your forgiveness, Atrox. It’s the nature of things for the stronger to do as they will with the weaker. You’re unlucky to have such a powerful core. Sacrificing you alone should open one of those doors.

"You’re confused about why I sent assassins against you? Simple—I didn’t want you to be Kren’s sacrifice. I didn’t want you to open any of those doors. That’s one thing the one who possessed Kren’s body took special interest in since I detected it. He took special attention to you, and I didn’t want to know why.

"So I planned to kill you before we entered here. I planned to kill everyone and collapse the tunnel to the ruin." Arvas sneered at Kren. "Do you think you’re the only one with a secret organization backing you? Do you think you’re the only one with a mission in this Borderland? Eh, tell me—tell me, the one who possesses Kren!"