Back on the three that had escaped, Angil rested against a large tree and tightly held onto his shoulder. His breathing became strained and he coughed up a little blood which made him grin a little. When Ajax saw the blood that came up with the cough, he ran over to him and stared at it mortified.

“I can’t believe I got poisoned so easily.” Angil painful groaned, “I really have gotten old.”

“Angil, tell me what I can do to help you?!” Ajax exclaimed.

“I am afraid there isn’t anything that can be done.” Angil said, “Not on such short notice, especially given what the poison is made from.”

“You, it was your friend, so you must know how to get rid of it, tell me, quickly?!” Ajax hysterically said.

“Um…he wasn’t really…my friend.” the boy said shyly while stepping back a little, “I have some herbs, maybe it will slow the poison.”

“Don’t bother child, Ajax, our training will have to be cut short.” Angil said with a smile as blood drained from his lips, “I won’t be leaving you alone though.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Ajax asked as he started to tear up.

“I saw what you did for the boy, and what he did for you…I didn’t sense…any murderous intent from him…even in battle.” Angil replied, “That is why…I brought him, watch over him, and child, you do the same for Ajax.”

“I will try my best.” the replied as he suddenly got red.

“Someone of your power shouldn’t talk like that Angil, it’s unbecoming.” Ajax said as Angil reached for his cheek, “You’ll bounce back and everything will be alright, like before.”

“Don’t worry… I could have gone any day now, not even magic…could have sustained me much longer.” Angil said, his tail tore open a wound in his chest, “I choose you to inherit my power.”

“I don’t understand.” Ajax said.

“There isn’t any time to explain.” Angil said, “Take my powers into you, use blood sacrifice…feel my mana and absorb it.”

“Angil, you can’t die yet so there is no need for that!” Ajax cried out, Angil took his hand and place on the wound, leaving him no choice but to do as he was told.

The crimson blood glowed like an illuminated ruby crystal and floated upwards, in the shape of small droplets, into Ajax’s palm. Tears constantly fell, as if one for each drop of blood, during the whole process but Angil only looked on with a smile the entire time. When it was over, Angil reached up and wiped away Ajax’s tears.

“Well, now you can teach me how to use the new skills, and we can continue to have lunch and dinner, see, you can’t go yet.” Ajax said, he put on a trembling, teary smile and tightly grabbed onto Angil’s hand.

“You will be fine, just remember what you’ve learnt so far.” Angil replied, he slowly started to close his eyes and smiled, “Survive…I know you can…and please, don’t…become…like him.”

Angil’s body began to emit a yellow glow, and sparkles started to rush into the air, like water blasting from a geyser. Starting at his lower half, Angil’s body slowly dissolved into more sparkles and started to vanish from Ajax’s grasp. Ajax could only assume that Angil’s body was being turned into mana droplets, as if returning itself back its source of origin, and so maybe Angil will still be with him in spirit. However, the thought did nothing to comfort him as he watched death unfold before him.

Angil fully vanished with his eyes closed and a smile on his face, leaving only his clothes behind as well as an Ajax that was desperately grabbing at the sparkles that continuously slipped through his fingers. When the sparkles vanished as well, Ajax crouched down and broke into tears, his wailing overwhelmed even the wind itself.

The boy stood there and watched in silence, too afraid to speak or make a sound that he thought would be disruptive. He reached out towards Ajax, with his other hand he covered his heart, and he started to cry as well. He subconsciously stepped towards him, but stopped when he was suddenly glared at.

“This is all your fault.” Ajax quietly said and clenched his fist, “If you people hadn’t shown up, Angil would still be here.”

“I…ah…um.” the boy stuttered, he stepped away and pulled his hand away.

“You all caused this!” Ajax shouted, black spikes of ice erupted all around him and rushed towards the boy.

The boy gasped and stepped away as quickly as possible, his gaze never broke from the spikes and his heart raced the closer they got. One spike grew immediately after he lifted his foot, throwing him off balance, and caused him to fall down on his butt. He closed his eyes and let out a terrified scream.

When Ajax heard the screaming, the memory of what Angil told him in relation to the boy flashed back into his mind, and the spikes stopped growing. A second later and the boy would have been impaled directly between his eyes by the tip of the spike that had his legs parted. He saw the look of terror on the boy’s face when the ice shrunk back into what appeared to be its shadow, the boy just sat there and trembled. He got up and stepped towards the boy and held out his hand.

“I’m sorry, Angil wouldn’t have wanted me to do what was about to happen, not after saying to watch over you.” Ajax said, it was evident that the boy was too afraid to look him in the eyes, “What is your name human?”

“Mm…my name, it’s Nat…haniel.” the boy stuttered and finally made eye contact after a gulp, “Nathaniel Izureko.”

“My name is Ajax, Ajax Arthurian, Angil gave it to me.” he said, “Let me help you up.”

“I see, given the power and skill he showed, it was clear to me that he had a name.” Nathaniel said, looking at Ajax’s hand for a second, he took it and pulled himself off the ground then quickly bowed, “I am sorry for being involved in his death, please forgive me!”

“Pfft…it’s okay, you don’t need to bow, it wasn’t your fault.” he lightly chuckled, “I should be thanking you for trying to stop them.”

“No you really don’t have to.” said Nathaniel, he blushed and looked down, and tapped his left leg on the ground, “I should be thanking you for saving me when I fell, and for sparing miss Lena just because I asked.”

“Like I said, I had no intention of fighting, much less killing, any of you.” he replied, “So you don’t need to thank me.”

“I still think I need to.” Nathaniel softly said.

“Fine, if you really want to, then come give me a hand.” he said.

Nathaniel nodded and the two of them created a mound of dirt exactly where Angil disappeared to act as a grave site. Ajax planted a blossoming tree branch at the top of the mound, while Nathaniel lined the rim of the mound with several small stones. Nathaniel stood up and started to pray, and Ajax quickly closed his eyes to show some reverence, though he wasn’t sure what deity Nathaniel was praying to, much less if monstered could do the same.

When the prayer ended, Ajax stared on Angil’s clothes for a brief moment and then decided to don them in his honor. He put on the white T-shirt then jacket but kept on his red trousers, though he folded Angil’s pants to take along with him. Then a thought dawned on him, he had used blood sacrifice on Angil, so that must mean that he inherited some of Angil’s many skills, maybe even some he never got to see in person.

“Whatever I was able to get from you, I am grateful for them.” Ajax softly said and drew the A rune.

When the screen appeared, he saw the new additions to his formerly small assortment, they were; Mist Duplication, Water Resistance, Frost Resistance, Heat Resistance, Avatar of Water, Black Ice Shot, Demonic Snow, Corrupted Ice Strike, Water Tornado, Aqua Slash, Water Bind, Aqua Shield, Destructive Torrent, Domain of Oceans, Drowning Chains, Gale Storm, Freeze Delta, Trident of Doom and Scolding Burst. There were some that were separate on the list, though he couldn’t make out their names and they were blocked by a lock and chains. Unlike the others, nothing appeared when he touched those ones, they only flashed and said locked.

Even so, he was shocked at all the new skills that he had obtained, which made him wonder how much Angil truly had given his reluctance to show them the first time around. It made him question if he was even able to master and use them as well as Angil did with the ones he was able to witness.

“Wow, did you get all those skills from him?!” Nathaniel asked, suddenly appearing over Ajax’s shoulder and looked at the screen.

This sudden appearance startled Ajax and he quickly turned to look at Nathaniel, and only by having him up close in this calm atmosphere could he neatly take in all of Nathaniel’s features in full detail. outside of those beautiful emerald eyes that caught his attention first, the long emerald hair that complimented them was both shining and stunning. In addition, he could tell how soft Nathaniel’s skin was, especially his cheeks that got caressed by his hair.

Nathaniel’s light strawberry pink lips resembled two soft pink pillows, and their flawless shine made it appear as if Nathaniel was wearing lip-gloss of a similar color. Furthermore, the sweet scent that Nathaniel was emitting smelt heavenly to him. He wanted to lean in to smell more of it but when their eyes made contact both of them slightly blushed and quickly separated.

“Um…are you wearing like perfume and lip-gloss?” Ajax embarrassingly asked while scratching his cheek.

“No this is just how I naturally look and, well smell.” Nathaniel softly replied with a small smile and tapped his fingers together.

“I see, ahem, very interesting.” he said.

“Right, so is there is anything else I could do for you, given things?” Nathaniel sheepishly asked.

“No, no, it is quite alright!” he frantically exclaimed and waved his hands around, “Again, it’s not your fault and even so you helped me enough with the grave.”

“I know but I still feel bad for being involved.” Nathaniel replied, he rubbed his left arm and stared at the ground.

Whimpering could be heard coming from Nathaniel, making Ajax sigh and brought him into a hug and patted him on the back. This sudden act of comfort took Nathaniel by surprise and he looked up at him with teary eyes and then hugged back. Ajax smiled when he got hugged back.

“It’s okay, what matters is that you tried to stop them.” Ajax said.

Nathaniel sniffled and then nodded, slowly he stepped away from Ajax and wiped his eyes. He gave a smile and thought to himself on how he could make it up to Ajax in a way that would be more substantial than crying and apologizing since he saw that Ajax would rebuff him every time he apologized. He looked away for a brief moment and then gasped as an idea came to mind.

“Would you um…like to come back to the inn I am staying at in the capital?!” Nathaniel asked.

“Oh well…” Ajax stuttered with clear hesitation, given how the group had reacted to him just being a monster, in addition wanted his head for being a demon, he wasn’t too excited to visit a city that was potentially filled with more humans that maybe thought the same, though when he remembered Angil’s request, and his inhibitions were overturned, “Alright I’ll come with you, I cannot avoid humans forever after all.”

“Oh fair warning, this country is kind of human centric, monsters are seen as lower than dirt.” Nathaniel quickly said. “Demi-humans are more accepted than monsters but they get treated as second class citizens, slaves for the most part.”

“I have noticed the sentiment to monsters, I am glad you don’t seem like that at least.” he replied and slapped his face, “But what is a demi-human?”

“Well I never shared the views of the church.” Nathaniel replied, “In the simplest sense, a demi-human is a human that has one parent that was a monster or another demi-human, it’s a human that was born with monster blood in their veins.”

“I see, I kind of want to see one now.” he said and tried to picture what one would look like, “You sure taking me to that capital is a good idea?”

“I will take care of everything, I promise.” Nathaniel replied, “First, I need to find out where in the forest we are.”

“I can take care of that, my wing feels healed enough.” he said, he grabbed Nathaniel by the hips and opened his wings.

Ajax jumped off the ground and flew as quickly as possible above the trees so that Nathaniel could look around. Nathaniel gasped when he was suddenly dragged off the ground, especially given how he was held, but he tried not to move around too much given Ajax’s injury. When they were able to get an unobstructed view, Nathaniel surveyed the area and pointed in a particular direction, which Ajax quickly flew in.

“By the way, before you said this country, what is this country even called?” Ajax asked.

“It’s called Mestoria, well the official name is The Empire of Mestoria, or the Mestorian Empire.” Nathaniel replied, “I thought a kind demon such as yourself must have come from Oxus, so you would know all this.”

“No…I am actually not from this world.” Ajax said.

“What?!” he exclaimed and threw them off balance a little, “You are a starling!”