I regressed and became the Sword Ice King-Chapter 430- Festival 161- The Sun Comet 10

’He gives up?’

His thoughts echoed.

’Why?’

Reeling away from the torrent of questions, Louis tilted his head while his brows arched in curiosity.

"Why would I care if you quit?" He asked.

The fact that Nicho still stood despite his constant trail to take his head was annoying enough.

Now, this?

’This is what she called it, right?’ His tone dripped with annoyance.

’A rage bait.’

Nicho chuckled in response.

He took a step forward and staggered– wincing in pain as he fell to the ground.

For a moment, quiet hung in the air and tension brewed between the two.

A constant whirl of sparks, ready to start a fire.

Only, one was controlled. Placated in a way that could never burn into something more than what it was.

Calm.

Nicho didn’t need a fortune teller at this point. After all, there were no more trump cards to pull out to defend himself.

If they continued this fight, he would die.

Not just any death, but a gruesome one.

’Just looking at him gives me goosebumps.’ His thoughts lingered. ’He’s so thirsty for my blood, it makes me want to throw up.’

With a heavy sigh and a dismissive movement of his arm, he broke the tension.

"Why the hostility, Louis? Don’t you know your little girlfriend’s life is in my hands?"

Louis’s eyes flickered wide for just a second.

Just before his mask of deadly indifference took over.

Now, neither of them wanted to spark a fire.

Though, one wanted not just a fire, but a hailstorm.

And Nicho wasn’t that person.

’Damn...’ He thought to himself while they continued to stare at each other.

’He’s calmer now, but that only makes me feel worse.’

The La Teuer family were no joke when it came to aura.

That was for sure.

"What...did you say?" Louis asked.

His tone dripped with malice and something more.

Thick and heavy, with crimson hue dripping from it like choked blood.

Nicho sat without a word.

He let the question linger.

Arranging his thoughts in order.

One false move was what drew the line right now.

Between a safe escape and an inevitable death.

"The captured students..." He began after a moment of deep contemplation. "...I imbued my energy– Miasma, into their systems."

Louis raises a brow.

"To put them unconscious..." He concluded, more to himself than to Nicho.

After all, Mana injection was a technique the Assassins used as well.

Capturing and Torture were two of the vices they committed where the Mana injection is used without restraints.

Though, in their case, Murderous Intent is used, instead.

And its effect varied with the concentration and thickness imbued.

If you want them dead, then increase the thickness, and if you want them barely alive, reduce it to a lesser form.

Nicho nodded in reply. "Yes." He said.

"It seems like you know it. Then, that’ll make explaining a lot easier."

Louis folded his arms in wait.

"Don’t kill me, and I take the miasma out...kill me, and they will remain the way they are for the rest of their sorry lives."

Louis’s frown deepened.

Now, he let his thoughts invade.

Contemplation at its finest.

His decision was split between two personas.

The murder man who was made by the La Teuer household required him to kill his enemy immediately. Still, the boy with emotions, who was taught how to love, wanted Mariam’s safety above all else.

’How annoying.’

He said with a click of his tongue when a thought crossed his mind.

A startling realization in the span of events.

’The Mana reflux...why isn’t it working on them?’

Technically, what the mana reflux does is to pull out both mana and aura, from whoever is within the diameter of its effects.

Miasma too, because of the source of the explosion...so why?

"If you’re wondering if the Mana reflux would work, then don’t."

Glancing at Nicho, Louis’s lips twitched at the corners ever so slightly.

"Interrupting my thoughts is annoying." He said

Nicho chuckled with a smirk.

"I just thought I should clear it up.

Foreign mana doesn’t go to the dantian or the heart. It goes to the brain.

What the Mana Reflux does is pull natural energy from the natural sources...invaded particles are anchored there for a reason.

Thus it’s difficult to withdraw foreign energy..."

Louis shrugged.

"Then we cause an even bigger phenomenon.

If the Mana Reflux isn’t strong enough to pull foreign particles, then we’ll just make it strong enough."

Nicho’s lips twitched.

"That’s where you’ll be seriously wrong...if you did.

Because not only is the foreign entity pulled out...but whatever was anchored to it."

Louis’ eyes narrowed for a moment in confusion, but then they bulged open.

Understanding at its finest.

’would pull their sanity as well...their conscious forms...the spark that should be there when it’s time to actually wake them up...’

They couldn’t have that.

’Hah...’

Louis sighed.

’What a mess.’

Murderous Intent worked that way as well.

Invading a captured person’s mind, and breaking them from within.

Pulling it out forcefully would do about the same damage.

Impair them mentally, temporarily or permanently in the most extreme cases.

A useful tool in torturing that neither mana nor aura could achieve and one of the few quirks of the La Teuer Household.

At this point, he had ended up in the same conclusion as anyone who would want to save a loved one.

Nicho needed to be alive.

At least for now.

’But...damn it.’ He thought. ’It’s not only dangerous letting him go simply because I want to save people...but it’s also dumb! He’s an Executive of the Red Peacemakers.’

It was ironic as it is that he was even able to bring Nicho to this low point.

But that would have been impossible if not for the Mana Reflux effect.

Who was to say it would occur again, and if it did, Nicho would be a lot more prepared than he is now.

He was too much of a threat to keep alive.

With Louis’s thoughts muddled by the plague of hesitation, Nicho glanced away.

He had observed the boy long enough to tell what went through his mind, and a solution, or what could be it, sparked in his head.

Nicho raised his right arm and tapped his left, immediately grabbing Louis’s attention, who went alert.

Then– CRACK.

Louis’ eyes flared open in shock as blood gushed into the air like a water fountain.

Spilling against the iron foothold like spray paint with a sharp, clunk sound.

Then, with a confused gaze, he watched as Nicho raised his uprooted left arm into the air like a trophy.

Dangling about in his grasp, while blood spilt out in the horrific stillness that surrounded them.

The confusion deepened, and Louis’ expression completely twisted into confusion; he couldn’t comprehend.

’What?’

"Here," Nicho said with an even tone.

Not an ounce of dread nor pain in his voice.

Just the calm of a man who has been through enough pain to consider this normal.

"I swear, I won’t hurt anyone until I leave this place, alive."

Silence.

Louis and Nicho stared into each other for gods knows how long.

Searching for something they couldn’t find.

A deeper string hidden behind the depths of death and inhumanity within their eyes.

It sparked. It shimmered– then it grew dark.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Louis’ voice whipped against the Pipelines like a crash cymbal in a drum set.

Though, there was a difference. An obvious one.

And that was weight.

His voice carried a weight no instrument could ever replicate, and it was made evident by the sudden coldness that emanated from the air.

"DID YOU SERIOUSLY THINK AN ARM WILL CUT IT?!"

He continued.

"YOUR VERY EXISTENCE IS A THREAT NOT JUST TO ME, BUT MARIAM AS WELL!"

His chest rose and fell.

"WHY THE FUCK! WOULD I LET YOU LIVE!"

He gripped his arms tightly against his sides.

Daggers vibrated with the hum of anger that bore deep within him.

He clenched his teeth as his eyes glowed deep red.

A shudder of murderous intent was hidden beneath his dilated pupils.

His breathing began to even out. A cage quickly restrained the outburst of emotions that clouded him.

Nicho waited for that to occur.

Just before he dropped the arm with a subtle roll of his shoulders.

"So even a Professional Assassin like you shows your emotions every now and then."

His tone dripped with something warm. Foreign. Alien.

It crawled into Louis’ stomach and made him churn. Made him disgusted.

"You Son of a bi–"

"If you wanted to kill me, then you would have already, Louis."

Louis choked on his words as Nicho cut him off.

"You know I’m right. You care about her, don’t you? Enough to abandon your code as an Assassin."

Louis remained silent.

"You try to fight it, but you can’t. You resist it, but it only makes you hesitate more."

Still, he said nothing.

"Instead of losing yourself more, why don’t you just turn a blind eye to this once?

For the sake of your lover...and better yet, for the sake of you."

And the silence continued.

An eerily, melancholic one where the air held stiff with presence, and the drippy sound of blood as it gushed down the foothold.

The iron smell assaulted their noses.

Though it was a meagre sensation amidst the tension that lay bare in front of them.

It made their skin prickle with goosebumps, and their muscles clasp and release at every second.

Alertness was still in play.

It grew with the ticking clock they knew was beginning to run out.

Sooner or later, something. Someone would interfere, and it could just as well tip the sides easily in any of their favour.

Luckily for Louis, someone arrived in his.

CLAP. CLAP. CLAP.

A slow clap echoed in the air as their bodies flinched in shock.

They stared at each other before glancing towards the source.

Down the foothold, at the opening of a pipeline.

There, a familiar face stood.

"That was a nice speech" Ciara’s voice projected in the air. Easily tearing off the tension between them.

Her condescending gaze landed on Louis for a second, before it shifted back to Nicho.

"Though, I find it embarrassing for you that you would try to talk your way out of death."

She clicked her tongue as she placed her hand on her waist and leaned forward.

Pouting her lips as she said...

"How shameful of you."