The girl landed on her feet with her fists clenched. That cute face twisted with an anger that didn’t belong to soone her size. Green magic was leaking from her body in suffocating waves, crackling around her tiny fra like a storm that didn’t know it was too big for its container.
She spoke through returning tears. "I knew it from the beginning."
The tears that had stopped earlier ca flooding back, riding alongside the rage. "I knew you were from that demon clan. The sa clan that took my life while experinting on in last cycle."
Jax felt the weight of her pain hit his chest. He tried to calm her down with a steady voice. "No, you are getting it all wrong again—"
"Don’t try to fool !" She cut him off with a sharpness that didn’t match her tiny body. "And don’t you dare think I am just a child! I have lived longer than you can imagine!"
She started counting on her fingers. Childishly. Holding up one after another with serious concentration until she ran out of fingers at ten and realized the math wasn’t going to work with just two hands.
She gave up the counting and said with frustration. "I have regressed more than ten tis now! I have been tricked and fooled by so many people who either wanted dead or wanted my power!"
Her voice cracked. "And I know you are one of them."
Then the crying started for real. "I am tired of all this. I have even tried to kill myself but the next mont I open my eyes I co back in ti just to endure more pain and more suffering. I don’t know what I have done to deserve this."
Her tiny shoulders shook. "Is it because I once stole food back at the orphanage? Or is it because I was angry at god for the death of the headmistress?"
Jax felt his chest go heavy. He reached out to wipe her cheek and said gently. "I am here to help you."
She slapped his hand away with every ounce of strength her small palm could carry. "If you really want to help then please just kill instantly! Like you did to those soldiers! Because I don’t want to go back to that labyrinth of demons. I won’t be able to handle that pain again."
Jax and the four girls behind him heard the pain behind that voice. The kind that shouldn’t exist in a child. The kind that had been carved into her across lifetis.
Jax thought for several seconds. Then he unsheathed his blood-soaked sword again.
"Fine then."
He turned to the four girls standing on the other side. His eyes found Athanasia and he spoke with a voice that had already made its decision.
"You asked what I would do, right? I have made up my mind. I will protect this child. I will make sure this girl doesn’t suffer anymore."
His grip tightened on the sword.
"I will give her a new life worth chasing. I will teach her how to control her power and make her strong enough to face any bastard who dares to harm her. And only when that is done will I take my leave from this world."
Athanasia replied with her usual flat tone. "You know what you are saying, right? You are going in the complete opposite direction of what the quest was designed for."
Delphine joined in without hesitation. "Don’t be ridiculous. No matter how innocent she looks, she will destroy the world. And you want to protect her?"
Evangeline spoke with concern in her voice. "Maybe soone is playing with his mind. That would explain what the dungeon ant by high difficulty. There is no way the quest was this simple — just kill a child in her low form."
Jax looked at his sword while moving to stand directly in front of the girl. Shielding her with his body. "Think whatever you like. But rember this. If any of you try to co in my way, I won’t hesitate to add a few more heads to today’s count."
The girls went silent at the weight of that sentence.
Delphine saw her revenge being served free. She raised her bow in a fluid motion and a mana arrow materialized as she pulled the string. "Fine then. I won’t hesitate to bring you down either."
She released it.
But before the arrow could reach Jax it vanished. Mid-air. Along with the bow in her hands.
Athanasia had walked close to Jax with her hand raised toward Delphine. She had nullified her magic with the sa ease soone would swat a fly.
She turned to Jax and spoke. "What will that even accomplish? Saving her ans bringing the apocalypse. And even if that sohow doesn’t happen, we won’t be able to return ho. So what will you do then? Or is it that you don’t want to go back and you’ll drag us all into your own twisted gas?"
Jax t her gaze calmly. "Who said I don’t want to go back? I have people waiting for . I have a job that needs to be done."
"Then how?" Athanasia pressed. "Killing her is the only option to return."
A slight smile crossed his face. "A forced choice isn’t an option. It is a test to see how quickly you will abandon your soul to survive. If the currency this dungeon demands for our passage ho is the blood of a broken child, then paying that toll ans we have already lost."
He looked down at the girl behind him. "I will not buy our salvation with her tragedy. If this world refuses to give us a path back, I will make it bleed until it begs us to leave."
Athanasia raised an eyebrow. "How so?"
Jax looked at the sky with a calm that didn’t match the words that followed. "I don’t know yet. But there are already a few ideas popping up. Like destroying this world with my own hands. Killing every single soul I co across. In that case, I assu the very gods of this place will have to show up and apologize. Won’t they?"
The resolve behind those words didn’t feel like a joke. Not even slightly. And the girls had no response.
That’s when Athanasia smiled. "All those rumors were true about you. You really are one insane bastard."
She thought for a mont. Then said. "Fine. I won’t cross your path. I will just observe where your ambition takes you."
She turned and started walking away.
Lavinia got excited imdiately. "Professor, too! I am on your side! I didn’t like the idea of hurting this little cupcake anyway!"
Evangeline sighed with the exhaustion of soone who had already given up trying to be the rational one. "I don’t know what to do. But for now I will just follow you and see what is really happening."
Delphine seethed through her teeth. "You have all gone crazy. Is this so kind of magic this girl is using on you all?"
Nobody answered. They simply ignored her.
Lavinia nudged her shoulder playfully. "Oh co on. I know your heart is screaming to pinch the little doll’s cheeks."
Delphine hissed. "Shut up."
She turned to Jax with venom still in her eyes. "Fine. I will leave the girl and this professor alone. For now."
She turned away. But the look on her face made it very clear she wasn’t done.
Jax got on his knees in front of the child. Patted her hair gently and said. "Sorry, little one. I won’t be able to accept your request of killing you because I still have to raise you."
The child was clueless about what had just happened between the adults. She didn’t understand the quest, the world, the dungeon, or any of it. But she could tell Jax was trying to protect her. Or at least trying to act like it.
She instantly moved back as anger flooded in again. Her hand shot up and a magic circle appeared around Jax’s neck. Glowing green. Tight.
She spoke with the authority of soone who had been betrayed enough tis to build a detection system. "I won’t fall for your evil tricks. I have placed a truth spell on you. Your head will blast off if you lie even once."
She steadied herself. "So now answer my questions honestly."
Jax didn’t panic. The girls around him did, but he simply sat down on the ground with a smile. "So what is it?"
"Who are you?"
"Well, I am a professor."
She tsked cutely. "Forget it. Are you associated with the demon clan?"
"Never heard of them. Are they scary?"
She hissed in frustration. "Fine then let’s get it straight. Did you really an every single word you said right now? About protecting ?"
Her heart was racing. That angry face dropped into sothing fragile. Sothing that was silently praying to every god listening that for once the answer would be real.
Jax said. "Every single syllable."
The spell around his neck didn’t activate. His head remained attached.
"And since you have that spell on my neck, let add a few more truths for it to test. I am not here to use your power. I am not here to trick you into a cage. I am here because a child who has suffered this much at this age deserves to finally have soone stand between her and the cruel world."
He looked at her directly. "You are done running, little one. As long as I am breathing, your nightmares end right here."
The spell stayed dormant. Every word passed.
The girl was completely confused now. Her defenses had been built across lifetis and this man was walking through all of them without triggering a single alarm.
She said quietly. "I still don’t get it. Why are you doing this? Why do you want to protect when you know every single person in this world is after ?"
Jax smiled. Then leaned close to her ear and whispered sothing that only she could hear.
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