World's Last Hope-Chapter 67: Again

Eric opened his eyes tiredly. He didn’t feel rested, but one in the death zone never does.

Shifting his gaze to the girls, he saw that they were still deep asleep.

With a sigh, he glanced at the massacre that had happened just before he got to sleep.

The ground below the branch he was staying on was still covered in the acidic blood of the colossal monsters that had died not too long ago.

Though it seemed that most of it was already gone as it had begun to pour into the large hole Aria had managed to create.

The guardian... or at least that was what they believed to be the guardian before, was nowhere to be seen.

It seemed that after killing the colossal monsters, it went back into its cave.

The small spiders and larvae of the butterflies were nowhere to be seen, as the ones that had managed to survive the battle with Eric and Olivia had long fled the scene after seeing their colossal counterparts being so easily defeated.

Truthfully, no one could blame them. Everyone with a right mind would flee as fast as possible after seeing such a gruesome massacre.

Yet Eric and the girls had decided to sleep over the bloody mess. How ironic.

"Doesn’t that mean that we are already mentally insane?" Eric wondered. "Or maybe we always were, as only insane people would try to challenge the corruption."

His thoughts were interrupted as Aria slowly turned in her sleep, and a moment later she opened her eyes.

It was clear that she too didn’t feel rested, but there was not much choice in the cursed place.

"Good morning," Eric greeted the slightly disoriented Aria.

"Ah, good morning," she answered as she stretched her arms behind her back.

Shifting his gaze to Olivia, Eric wondered if he should wake her up, but in the end decided against the idea.

Whatever option they chose, they would need to have all the strength they could get.

Glancing at Aria, he spoke quietly, "I have come up with two possible solutions to the current problem, but I’ll explain after Olivia wakes up."

With a nod, Aria walked forward and sat next to him, appraising the grand massacre.

For a second, Eric’s heart skipped a beat as he looked at her face from so close.

Was it weird to feel like this in their dire situation?

Or maybe because of the situation and the constant fear for his life, Eric felt like he didn’t want to have regrets going forward.

Taking a deep breath, trying to calm himself, he spoke, "Aria."

Hearing her name, she shifted her gaze to Eric’s crimson eyes.

"Once we get back to the city... I want us to go on a date,"

Surprised for a moment by the sudden invitation, she grinned.

"Sure, but where did this come from?"

"I... just feel like if I’m going to die today, I want to do it with no regrets," Eric answered honestly.

"No regrets, huh... I can respect that," Aria’s eyes shined bright blue for a second.

’No regrets...’ His own words echoed inside his own head.

Moving his hand to her waist, he slowly brought her closer to him. In response, she wrapped her hands around his neck as their lips touched.

"You can be quite direct, huh..." Aria teased.

Eric chuckled. "And you, of all people, say that?"

Enjoying each other’s company, they watched the thick acidic blood slowly pour into the hole as they waited for Olivia to wake up.

After some time, she woke up with a grunt, placing her hand on her face. Looking around, she grimaced. "Oh gods, I hoped this was just a bad dream, but we really are stuck in this situation."

Hearing her voice, Eric and Aria turned their gazes toward her.

"So, have you come up with a plan?" Olivia asked, staring at Eric.

"Why me? Can’t it be Aria?"

"Yes, maybe the princess has a plan, but usually yours are the ones that work, no matter how insane they might seem."

Scratching the back of his head awkwardly, Eric responded, "Well, you could say I have something of the sort."

*****

"So, in short, that thing we saw wasn’t the guardian of the cathedral?" Aria raised an eyebrow.

"But that doesn’t make sense. You say that it’s born from the accumulated corruption in the cathedral, right? But in that case, why would it kill the guardian already present?" Olivia added.

"I don’t know. This is what the system told me... and it has yet to be wrong about anything."

Eric extended his finger to the side. "So, the only choices are, we either run away, meaning we came here for nothing..."

He extended a second finger. "Or we somehow manage to enter the cathedral under the nose of that monster and liberate it."

"But once we do, we’ll have to leave, right? Wouldn’t we be caught in a trap by that thing?" Aria asked.

"I don’t think so. It doesn’t have a soul, right? So maybe it’s bound to the cathedral. In other words, if we manage to cleanse it, the monster should disappear as well." Eric tried to make his voice sound firm, even though he wasn’t entirely confident.

"The question is—"

"Even if we manage to enter the cathedral, would I be able to cleanse it?" Olivia finished Eric’s thought.

Usually, Olivia would have been confident, but after Eric told her that his system had warned him the cathedral was virtually impossible to cleanse, she began to have second thoughts.

"Maybe you aren’t going to be alone," Aria spoke, catching both of them off guard.

"What do you mean?" Eric asked, while Olivia’s eyes narrowed, seemingly understanding what she meant.

"You mean that Eric could enter as well, right?"

Eric, clearly confused, had to ask for clarification.

"I entered and helped you battle the corruption?" Eric glanced at Aria.

"Yeah, somehow you entered out of nowhere and became the only person I could rely on."

"Wait, how much time did we spend there?"

"A few months," Aria answered.

Eric’s eyes narrowed as realization hit him. That was why Aria had suddenly gotten so attached to him—they had spent months battling alone against her own memories.

He would have wanted to ask much more, but he knew this wasn’t the place nor the time.

He shifted his gaze to Olivia, who was deep in thought.

"Can you do it again? Enter the corruption?" she asked.

Eric took a moment to respond, "If I’ve done it once, I’ll be able to do it a second time."

Seeing the confidence in his eyes, Olivia grinned as she spoke.

"Then we’re taking that cathedral!"