[Choose between those two quests. The reward and the penalty will be the same, no matter what you choose.]

[Reward: Sixth installment.]

[Penalty: Death.]

[Option 1.]

[Main quest: Fight Leviathan until it retreats.]

[Option 2.]

[Main quest: Fight the demon in your village until it retreats (3 minutes and 34 seconds passed since its arrival there).]

A few days ago, the day before the group surrounding the Loogam students would depart.

Mika, who was initially preparing himself to make a choice concerning Lily and Sylvia, was halted in his decision-making when the system announced a new main quest.

[What will it be?]

The system spoke softly to Mika who was still frozen up as he rejected the reality in front of his eyes.

"The village... Do you mean the village where I grew up...? The village where Mom, Dad, Eric and Ain are living...?" Mika muttered with a broken smile.

[Yes...]

He bit his lower lip.

Then, he hurriedly searched for a piece of paper and a pen.

[What is your decision?]

"I’m going to the village...!" Mika replied strainedly.

He wrote a small note stating that the others should leave without him tomorrow.

[I understand. It will be option 2 then.]

Mika grabbed his swords.

"I can teleport from here to the village, right?"

He readied himself.

[Yes. The village is a place where you have spent a lot of your time already. Thus, it is registered in the places you can teleport to from anywhere.]

According to Mika’s memories, he was able to teleport himself to three places from anywhere.

Mika did not waste any second anymore. His body was engulfed in light and dispersed, starting from below until he completely disappeared from his room.

And the next time he opened his eyes, he found himself in the vicinity of his village.

"!"

Mika was about to unleash his powers to get to the village in an instant, however, he was stopped from doing so.

[Do not use your powers yet. It would be wise to save up every single second for later.]

"..."

Mika gritted his teeth, pondering whether he should listen to it or not.

[Rushing will not change things.]

Thus, Mika ran as fast as possible towards the village.

"Now that I’ve chosen to go to my village, what will happen to the others?" he asked sternly as he ran.

The other option was to face Leviathan.

"They will have to face it without me, right?"

Knowing the system and experiencing all these quests, Mika understood that Leviathan would have crossed paths with his group whether he was with him or not.

[Yes.]

"Then, I will have to get back to Youra after this!" 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

[Unfortunately, that is not possible as you have not spent enough time in Youra. You cannot go back.]

"What?!"

[Without you, everyone will die.]

"So you’re telling me that I was choosing between the lives of the villagers and my friends?!"

[Yes.]

As much as he wanted to lash out at the system, Mika had no time for that.

"Just wait until I’m done here!!!" he shouted enragedly as he picked up his pace.

[...]

Soon, Mika arrived.

[6 minutes and 47 seconds passed since the arrival of the demon.]

Mika looked around the village which seemed untouched at first.

No buildings or houses were destroyed. The animals on the farms were also doing their things like usual. And neither were there any signs of a battle.

However, it was too quiet.

"..."

After carefully checking every house he passed by, Mika realized that no one of the villagers was at home.

"E-Eric...! Ain!" he shouted.

But Mika was anxious and slowly panicked.

The longer the silence went on, the faster Mika headed to his parent’s house.

"Mom! Dad! Are you there?!"

He slammed the door open but again, he found no one.

Now, extremely nervous, Mika went outside and headed to the chief’s building which was designed to be the biggest building in the village, in case, they had to find shelter from something.

Despair slowly clouded his face as he rushed there.

"..."

But his body gave up.

The despair succeeded in taking over completely, annihilating the smallest faint of hope inside Mika.

His fingers twitched. His knees were shaking as well as his legs until they gave up, making him fall on his knees. His dropping jaw could not be closed for a while and his eyes were wide open.

His heart rate went up tremendously as if it was about to jump out of his body. He breathed in and out at a very fast pace. Sweat increased on his face and rolled down.

[...]

The system was groaning silently as if it was in pain.

"AAAAHHHHH!!!" Mika screamed so loud that the neighboring villages should have heard him.

With his hands on the soil, he dug his nails into it as he had to burn the image in front of him in his mind.

In front of him was a pile of corpses belonging to every villager there.

Their bodies may have been still intact but each one of them had wounds, creating a sea of blood after everyone’s blood accumulated beneath the pile. That blood even spread out to Mika’s hands.

"..."

Shakingly, Mika gazed at his now blood-smeared hands.

He slowly got up even though his legs were still weak.

"...?"

Agape and having lost his will, he managed to notice something behind the gigantic pile.

The pile initially blocked off Mika’s view of the chief’s house but when he walked around the pile, he encountered an even crueler sight.

"Ah, there’s the star of our event."

"Tch. Took you long enough!"

"Wait, isn’t any of you wondering how he could get here so fast...?"

"..."

Martha, Beatra and Xander were standing confidently on the stairs leading to the entrance of the chief’s house.

And behind them was another mysterious person who was sitting on the stairs.

But Mika did not care in the beginning as his eyes were glued to the four tall and wooden crosses where four bodies were each crucified.

But compared to the corpses behind Mika, those bodies were beheaded.

Their blood ran down their bodies and dripped on the round objects beneath their feet.

"Hngh!"

Mika instantly held his hand in front of his mouth but that was in vain as he puked right away.

He vomited everything out until it was mixed with his tears and his remnants of rational thinking.

"..."

Fully blanked out, Mika headed towards the cross of a middle-aged woman.

He moved like an undead with no human emotions on his face.

And while he knelt down in front of the woman’s head, Martha and Beatra grinned in excitement.

"Tasteless." Xander commented quietly and disgustedly.

Mika lifted the head from the ground and wiped the blood away from the face.

"..."

Again, his lips trembled and tears were about to come out.

"M-Mom..." Mika muttered agonizingly.

He hugged his dead mother’s head tightly in front of the crucified bodies of his parents and the Sacra siblings who were all slaughtered in the same manner.

And once more, he let out a loud and painful scream as he mourned.

"Is he the one?"

The person, who had a deep voice belonging to a man, stood up and walked down the stairs.

"Yes." Martha replied obediently as she cleared the way for him.

Beatra, too, was respectful and made space for him.

"Understood."

The man wore heavy black armor which clattered with each step. No skin was shown on him. Not even his face as he wore a black round helmet with thin slits on it to look through. The helmet also possessed two horns which were poking to the front like a bull.

Furthermore, he dragged a long and wide black sword on the ground behind him. That sword may have the normal length of a long sword but its blade was at least two times wider than a normal sword.

The man, who resembled a knight, stood in front of Mika who was now lifelessly staring down on his mother’s head.

"I’m sorry, young man but we had to lure you here."

He raised his great sword.

"How boring." Martha stated disappointedly.

"Heh, not even the will to fight back?" Beatra huffed annoyedly.

The man’s sword was now at the highest point above his head.

"Any last words?"

[If you do not move, you will die. Everything you have done during all those years will be in vain.]

"Shut up... Every single one of you..."

Mika got on his feet.

"I don’t have any last words because I refuse to die here after seeing what you did."

His eyes were even more void of emotions than usual.

"All those years would be in vain? If I had known that all my efforts led up to this, then I wouldn’t make the pact with you in the first place!" Mika shouted irritatedly.

He drew his rusty sword and pointed at the armored man.

"You and those three bastards behind you, I will kill you all!" Mika declared coldly.

"I see." the man said indifferently.

"I, Dreyar, will now proceed with the execution of Mika Elbar, the wielder of Excalibur and secret weapon of the foolish angels."