My Servant Is An Elf-Knight From Another World

Chapter 35

Before I received an answer, I received a surge of pain that got me hissing in agony. Why? Ria unhook her talons from my shirt and allowed me to drop like a brick onto the hard concrete.

By the time I managed to get rid of the dizzying stars clouding my vision, I was already being met with the piercing, fiery stare of Ria's crimson eyes. Her arms crossed, her expression unreadable.

I saw her take in a deep breath, saw her mouth split open. Finally, the silent treatment was over.

"Dude," she said.

I felt my lips form into a frown. "What?"

Ria went on to firmly clasped her hands together almost as if in prayer then, to my utter dismay, went down on her knees and started pleading with me.

"Please tell me you have a better plan than that, please tell me you do. Please tell me I didn't bring you up all the way up here just so you can kill yourself. That'll be terrible."

This was seriously not the reaction I was expecting.

"But if the plan works out, I won't die, right?"

"Assuming you're related to Terestra, yes!" She argued, getting back up to her feet. "That, and a million other variables! It's more likely of a scenario of you dying than you pulling a solution out of your ass and somehow saving the day!"

"You saw it yourself, Ria! Ash stopped under my command! Adalia refuses to eat me because she thinks I'm Terestra and vampire venom doesn't even work on me!"

"What if you're wrong? What if you're just being arrogant? What if you're just having delusions of grandeur because the whole predicament is making you think you're someone important when you're not."

I paused for a moment to consider her words. "Am I having delusions of grandeur?"

"No!" She shrieked, her expression a jumble of emotions. "I just said you could be! I think you're right, but I wish you weren't. That way I won't have to agree with every suicidal whim that crosses your mind!"

"So the plan - "

"Might work!" She raised a quivering finger, her breathing unsteady. "Big 'might'. If you're aren't anything special... you're just simply throwing your life away. She will literally suck the life out of you - you're going to feel yourself slowly slip away, feel your heart slow to a crawl, feel your lungs gradually suffocate. It'll be agonizing and then you'll die. End of story. No Elf damsels saved. No Matriarchs vanquished."

"And if I am anything special," I countered back. "Then I am the solution to everything here, aren't I? All we had to do to prevent any of this at all was to have her drink my blood. If she is saved, then Ash is saved and so is everybody else."

"Well..." Ria's stare was still filled with uncertainty. "Guess we won't know until we try."

"Agreed," I said, limping past her. "So let's go test that theory out then, shall we? Help me out here."

Close behind me, I heard a loud groan escape her wide open lips. Heard her mutter under her breath begrudgingly, exhale a feeble sigh... but ultimately, she came to my side and helped me hobble ourselves closer to the fight.

Limping a step at a time as the walls shook heavily, echoing every slam, every crash, and every thud. The aftershocks only got more and more intense as we drew nearer to the source of it all.

As we passed by empty rooms, and vacant halls, I couldn't help but feel a different kind of unease from the one I was feeling right then... like something was wrong with the rooms and halls we trudged on through.