Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

'Sadly, we can't. You'll have to get out of this mess by wading through it.'

Layla said and looked at the Hexen Bee that was immersed in an excessively large cauldron filled with a strange potion placed beside her. She sighed when she saw the bubbles still forming in the concoction her flying artefact was dipped in.

She carried on speaking without Eren asking her about it.

'I'll tell you before you ask. I can only guide Hexen Bee to a certain level, but I can't control it the way I want to. Let's just say that it has its consciousness that gets fatigued the more I use it. It is because I'm technically not someone who can use it effectively.

Eren smiled mirthlessly after hearing Layla's explanation. It sounded more like what used to happen to Alephee. He didn't understand how that stuff worked. But he at least realized that the young witch's flying artefact would remain inoperable for some time. It won't be the escape card he wanted it to be.

'You can't always have what you want in life, huh? Heh! It's not like I counted on things to get changed for me. So that's also fine.'

Eren sighed and retrieved his spatial artefact from his storage. He had Layla summon it in her own space shortly thereafter. Before preparing her makeshift array, she checked the artefact first.

If Eren could see Layla's personal space and what she was doing in it, he would see that Layla had emptied a couple of vials on the floor. Then used her powers to control the contents of the potion poured on the ground.

Soon the potions began to mix. A circle was drawn under Layla's guidance using the mixture of potions as its ink. The runs started getting drawn inside the circle. An array-eye started taking place around the area Layla was standing.

Layla appeared outside the array but she had left the butcher's artefact inside the array eye. She sat outside the array and closed her eyes. In the next second, the runes within the array start lighting up.

'It'll take us a while. Buy us some time.'

Layla commanded Eren while continuing to operate on the array. The latter did not have to do anything. Claho started speaking right after he confirmed that everyone from his team apart from those who were stationed to keep the array running had been summoned to the place.

"You vile devil, I knew there was something wrong with you the second I met you. The way you killed my soldiers. Don't think you'll die an easy death after doing something like that. We'll skin you alive before slowly killing you.

We already know that you use fire and lightning element spells and have taken countermeasures against you. You can't do shit in your current…"

Claho had let go of his previous plans to keep his identity hidden and make it look like the bandits did it. He confessed his identity by coming in front of Eren without a mask on. His intentions were clear. There would be no mercy shown for Eren. Not anymore.

Eren raised his hand and Claho stopped talking. Then he gripped his hands hard on his dual weapons before responding:

"No need to offer excuses. We are all rankers here. We know how it works.

I'd say the same thing I had said to someone before. At that time, I was the one who had ambushed him and he was the victim. He had done nothing wrong to me and yet I had gotten rid of him. Now, I'm on the receiving end of the so-called "unjust" treatment.

Things come full circle. Such is life, hehe."

Eren chuckled to himself as he spoke. He took a long breath before continuing.

"You want to kill me now because our truths are different. And I want to kill you because you brought that difference up of your own accord. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Despite all my efforts, if you can kill me with your setup and your advantage in numbers, you will prevail in our clash of truths. And whatever you say will be right.

If I can manage to kill you all despite the odds that are stacked against me, then whatever I say will turn out to be right.

The winners define the definition of justice after all!"

Eren pulled out a vial of potion from his storage. He uncorked it in no time and drank it quickly while keeping his gaze fixed on Claho. This was a mana recovery potion that he had consumed. But since it was the one he had gotten from the dungeon as the reward, it had other attributes as well.

Eren did not have any active ranking techniques at the moment. So even his passive mana recovery was a bit slower than usual. So he had to depend on the mana recovery potion to compensate for that.

The latter narrowed his eyes when he saw Eren using potions. But he concluded that Eren's desperate struggle was going to be in vain. Claho had an overwhelming numerical advantage after all.

So he let the guy drink his potion while commanding a few of his soldiers to change their positions and stay on standby. They'd move to attack Eren soon after this stalemate ends. Claho was cautious of the potion bombs Eren had used.

Although Eren couldn't use his elemental spells, Claho had come to realize that a few of his soldiers would die if they approached him carelessly. So he was buying time to attack him so he could launch a surprise attack. Coincidentally Eren wanted to buy time off too.

Claho started laughing maniacally after listening to Eren's speech.

"Hahahahahaha!

"The winners define the definition of justice."

I like that.

We at least agree on this thing. We had first thought of just messing with you a bit and testing all our gears at the same time. But I'll be damned if I let you walk out from here without facing the consequences of killing our comrades."

Claho gave a few orders to his squad members after he said this to Eren. The members started showing signs of movement while keeping tabs on their targets.

Claho continued his speech shortly afterwards.

"Maybe you were right in defending yourself. Maybe my comrades died because of their incompetence. And yet, what you said also makes sense. If we kill you here, whatever we assume to be or say out loud would become the truth.

On that note, I'll make sure that you are labelled as a cultist after we kill you. I'll make my brothers martyrs that died protecting ordinary citizens from a maniac like you."

Claho started closing down his distance from Eren bit by bit.

"It's as easy as snapping my fingers, you know. The army has special rights when it is given the reins to handle a particular region.

I'll just say that you were supplying the potion bombs on the black market. And when confronted, you killed my fellow squad members before you were subdued and brought to justice. The potions bombs are getting out of hand in Edinburgh. The laws for that have gotten stricter.

Look, we have a few potion bombs ourselves that we can say we seized from you. We could say that you were planning to do something in the city of Osan with these things found in your ID storage."

Claho showed a vial of potion bomb he had retrieved from his storage. He dangled it in front of Eren to make him see the supposed incriminating evidence behind his legally justified murder. The latter didn't get angry.

Now it was Eren's turn to laugh maniacally.

"Hahahaha! You bunch of numbnuts."

Claho stopped in his tracks when he saw Eren reply weirdly like that instead of getting flustered as he wanted. He heard Eren speak up next before he had a chance to demand an explanation.

"Those are counterfeits."

====================

AN: Skip this if you want.

I know I'm running late. The timing was just not right for me to write the end scene for VEH's Volume 02 as I thought it would be even though it was the weekend.

Everything is fine. I had just forgotten that this was a festive weekend here due to my busy schedule. These past few months have been kinda a blur to me with almost no social life at all. So I was made to change that about me for today.

I'll try to finish volume 02 as quickly as possible now that I've found some quiet time. I'll upload chapters as soon as I finish editing them.

By the way, do you remember the talk about the difference between truths Eren had with a certain someone in the past? The talk had taken place at the beginning of the chaos Eren had caused right after his time leap. It only seems fitting that we pay homage to that scene here at this point. ;)

PS: Happy Ramadan and happy new year to whoever is celebrating them today. ;)