Afterlife Dream

The leader and the priest did not move, and neither did the guards. It seemed that they were trying to gauge my seriousness. I gritted my teeth and pressed the blade against Alana's neck. Thinking that she would die, the young woman cried even harder.

"Papa, save me!! Wahhhhh Papaaaa...!!!"

The fury on the leader's face melted in an instant when he heard the wail of his daughter.

"Alana... don't panic. Don't worry, Father will save you!"

The leader went to kneel in front of the priest.

"Priest, please. My daughter. My only daughter. She is innocent."

There was no compassion in the priest's eyes. He gave the leader a look of disdain. "Four sacrificial offerings in exchange for your daughter's life. You should be thanking the Gods."

All of us ripped our eyes open in shock.

The leader was trembling all over his body. He crawled toward the priest and held onto the hem of his cloak.

"No... Priest... No, my daughter... my only daughter... Please, I will get us more sacrificial offerings..."

The priest ruthlessly kicked the leader away.

"PAPA!!!" Alana screamed when she witnessed the scene.

"Where will you get more sacrificial offerings if you let these four people go free? Don't you think they will warn their people not to come here anymore?"

The priest flashed us two rows of teeth.

"You have to kill them. For the continuity of your own tribe. Your daughter's sacrifice will not go unmentioned."

The leader was not able to do it. He crouched on the ground, banging his head again and again on the ground.

"Please, no... There has to be a way. Please."

"Papa!!! Papa!!!"

Alana was thrashing around in my grip. It was almost as if she forgot that she was the one being held hostage.

The priest clicked with his tongue impatiently. "Useless trash!" he spat at the leader. "I will do it myself."

After saying those words, the priest inched closer toward us. He had no weapon while we had weapons and Alana, but for some reason, we ended up being the ones who retreated from fear.

Then HellWitch stepped forward.

"HellWitch, what are you doing???" I hissed at the girl. "Get back!"

HellWitch shook her head. She brandished her sword in front of her chest.

"I will deal with him. You three, get out of here."

"No!" Cecilia shouted. "HellWitch, we will go back together!"

HellWitch's back trembled slightly.

"I know," she said. "When you are done... come back for me. I will be waiting here for you."

"Then I will also stay," Cecilia decided. "I will not leave you alone."

I was conflicted. I did not want to leave anyone behind, but the priest did not care about Alana at all and we needed to get our weapons as soon as possible. Next to me, SakuraChan went to her knees.

"SakuraChan, are you okay??" I shouted.

"Mm... I just... need to heal, that's all."

There was no more time to waste. With great reluctance, I hissed at Alana in my grip.

"Show us where you hid our weapons, now!"

Alana shook her head in desperation. "I don't know. I don't know!!!"

The leader jumped to his feet and approached us in a hurry. "Don't hurt her! I know where the weapons are stashed! Let me take you there! Please!"

Meanwhile, HellWitch and Cecilia were already engaged in a battle against the priest. Two against one.

I glared at the leader. "Why don't you go and get them for us. I will wait here with your daughter."

The leader shook his head desperately. "I can't. I promise, I will not do anything funny. I need to get Alana to a safe place."

Next to me, SakuraChan breathed heavily.

"I can help carry your friend!" the leader offered.

Fat chance.

"And let you take her hostage???" I shouted.

"No... please, I don't mean it. Let's just go down from here first, alright?"

"Sakura, can you walk?" I turned to look at SakuraChan who was extremely pale from losing too much blood.

"No," she said decisively. "I will stay here with HellWitch and Cecilia. Antares, you have to go alone. So sorry. I will not be able to help much. Here."

SakuraChan slipped her sword into my belt. "Use this just in case you lost that one. As soon as you have the weapons... please come back and rescue us."

There were tears in her eyes. I nodded and went with the leader down the mountain.

The leader led the way. He kept stealing glances at me and Alana, making sure that his daughter was still breathing. I had to snap at him in order to make him move faster. "No need to keep looking back at me like that. I am not a villain, unlike all of you. If I say that I will release her, then I will release her. Just get me the weapons now."

"C-calm down," the leader nervously said. "I am just making sure... Let's hurry then."

The leader took me near the settlement area where the prison stood. Next to the prison was a tiny hut.

"Wait here," he said before going inside the hut.

After a while, he reappeared with our weapons. HellWitch's sword, Cecilia's bow and quiver, and also SakuraChan's and my own staff.

"Put them down on the ground and retreat ten steps," I ordered him.

The leader did as I demanded and retreated anxiously. His eyes never left his daughter who looked so pale that she might just pass out soon.

I took the weapons into my inventory and spread my Angel Wings.

The leader's eyes turned round when he saw that I had wings.

"You... Are you a God???"

"No, of course not," I wrinkled my nose in disgust. I did not want to be referred to as a God if the other Gods were some perverse beings that required human sacrifices to bestow their blessings on living creatures.

I pushed Alana toward her father and took off from the ground.

I flew as fast as possible toward the top of the mountain, all the while praying for my friends to be safe. Just then, a rumbling sound was heard and the mountain itself started to shake violently. I did not know what was happening, but I knew that it was not a good sign at all.

"Faster, faster," I told my Angel Wings. "We need to go there now..."

When I finally arrived at the top of the mountain, the scene before my eyes knocked the air off my lungs.

SakuraChan was lying motionless on the ground. Cecilia was fighting against five guards at least. The other five guards and the priest himself were cornering HellWitch. Only two more steps and HellWitch would fall into the lake of lava.

"HELLWITCH, MOVE ASIDE!!!!" I screamed with all my might.

HellWitch moved aside and I pushed the guards and the priest with both hands hard in the direction of the gaping hole.

"AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"

They all screamed in horror when they fell through the hell hole. HellWitch collapsed on the ground. The other five guards who saw that their priest had gone into the hole immediately retreated and ran down the mountain.

"The... the mountain is collapsing," Cecilia said, out of breath. "Antares, did you...?"

I quickly distributed the weapons to Cecilia and HellWitch. We all ran toward SakuraChan, who remained motionless on the ground.

"SakuraChan, hey! Hey! I have your staff!!!"

In my panic, I was not able to pat her gently on the cheek. Her fair cheeks quickly reddened, but she was still not waking up.

Thankfully we were still in a party. I stood up and cast Heal on her.

Her wounds remained the same. She also did not wake up.

"What is happening?" I asked. "Why is Heal not working?"

HellWitch solemnly put a finger under SakuraChan's nose while Cecilia took her wrist and felt her pulse.

"Antares, she's dead."

I stared at HellWitch and Cecilia in disbelief.

"But... she's..."

"She was wounded seriously," Cecilia said, tears slowly streaming down her dirty face.

Players who died in Afterlife Dream would be resurrected in a safe area after a while. I was sure that it still applied in Summer Rainforest. Where would the safe area be? Of course the settlement area, where the tribal folk lived.

"Let's go to the village then," I told the two girls. "She will respawn there. It is the safe area here. Then we will go back together."

Meanwhile, the mountain started shaking more violently.

"Let's take her with us," I said, putting one of SakuraChan's arms around my neck. "Come on. Let's go."

There was only one problem. Only two of us could use Angel Wings now that SakuraChan was dead. Cecilia was not strong enough to carry either SakuraChan or HellWitch. I could only carry one of them.

Heaven knew that we tried. Cecilia could not take off if she was dragging anyone with her.

In the end, we had to make the hardest decision ever.

We had to leave SakuraChan's body behind.