Chapter 168 Who Do You Serve?

Jacob Stockton was a young man in his early twenties. He had only been serving in the army of the Empire of Light known as the Holy Army for less than a year now, so his rank was still quite low. He had yet to gather enough merits to be recognized and promoted.

Initially, Jacob had thought that this would be his chance to shine, but ever since the battle against the defenders of Fort Bender had begun, he had been feeling uneasy.

'This is no righteous cause...' He thought to himself as he blocked the attack of a warrior on the opposite side with his sword. His blade flashed and he struck the man at the back of the head with the butt of his sword, knocking him out. He did not want to kill any of them. Because he felt it was not right. Unjust. Unfair.

Why did these innocent men and women have to die just because a Necromancer was hiding within the city? Why did General Amelia have to drag everyone down just because she needed to get rid of this Necromancer? Could she not just wait until he left the city to swoop down and eliminate him?

All this thoughts built up within him until he could not take it anymore. What set him off was the sight of one of his comrades cutting down a defender with a sadistic grin on his face. The woman fell down, still alive, but badly bleeding.

"You lunatic!" He growled and dashed forward. In a couple of seconds, he arrived beside the duo and kicked aside the man from the Holy Army, before bending down beside the injured woman.

"Heuk!" She spat out a mouthful of blood as she glared at Jacob. Her arm lifted up from the ground weakly raising up a dagger, but she froze when she felt a soothing warmth flow through her injury. Jacob was healing her!

A warm, green light lingered over her injury and quickly healed her. The torn and flayed skin was soon knit back together, with the only sign of her injury being her torn armor and the blood around the location of the injury.

"Y-you saved me?" The woman stared at Jacob with surprise. She was sure that she was not hallucinating the insignia of a white star on his armor. He was indeed a soldier of the Holy Army.

"Yes. I apologize for what is happening. I do not agree with the driving reason behind this battle." Jacob was a man of principles and he did not hide his thoughts from the woman.

"What the hell are you doing?!" The man that Jacob had knocked down jumped to his feet and growled. His eyes glowed red with murder.

"..." Jacob stared at the man with a conflicted expression. This was someone who he would laugh and joke around with on a normal day, but now that he had seen his ugly side, he felt he had lost the ability to speak.

Seeing as Jacob refused to reply him, the man picked up his sword and dashed forward to meet Jacob in combat. They were both B rank fighters, but he had more experience on his side. However, before he could reach Jacob, a black shadow flashed by him.

Whoosh!

Eyes wide, the head of the man was sent flying through the air, a trail of blood marking its flight path.

Thud!

A large figure stormed by, followed by others. One of them stopped by Jacob, and he raised his head, taking in the features of the Armored Centaur General that stood before him, raising its glaive up above its head.

Whoosh!

Jacob's eyes snapped shut when he saw it bring down its weapon to his neck. He would have tried to resist, but he knew that it was pointless. He was a mere Low B rank. How could he possibly stand against a High B rank like that?

A second passed, but nothing happened, causing confusion to swim through his mind. When he opened his eyes again, he could see the woman standing in front of him, her arms spread wide as she blocked the Armored Centaur General.

"Leave them." A deep voice reached Jacob's ears and his head snapped in the direction of the voice. There, a tall, red knight slowly walked forward. The Armored Centaur General nodded its head and turned around, rushing off to kill more enemies.

Nero stopped beside the two humans, but his cold, burning gaze was pinned on Jacob.

"Who do you serve?" He asked slowly.

"W-what?" Jacob slowly stuttered.

"I see your heart... It is in the right place. I offer you a place beside my master, but you must cut free all old associations." Nero extended a hand to Jacob. The burning fire behind his visor and the bloody, red aura around him gave him a terrifying image, but for some reason, his tone of voice was much more steady.

"I..." Jacob wanted to refused, but one look around him showed him just how mad the soldiers of the Empire of Light was. A good number of them had deranged expressions on their faces as they fought. It was almost as if they derived joy from killing. How could they call themselves righteous when they did this? Even Amelia was looking like a witch as she bared her teeth at Richard.

'Is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life?' Jacob thought to himself. He had no family in the Empire, and he was someone who usually stuck to himself. He only had a few friendly acquaintances back in the Empire, but they did not matter to him.

Ten seconds passed before Jacob looked up at Nero and took his hand, standing up. Nero nodded at Jacob, and in the next moment, Jacob felt a fire burning within him. He could feel himself getting riled up. His muscles bunched up, filled with incredible power.

[You are under the effects of <Berserk Moon>. All offensive skills +40% effectiveness.]

Jacob stared at the screen in front of him with shock. He looked up at Nero who had already began walking forward. His grip on his sword tightened and his eyes burned with a fire. He was a B rank fighter. He would save who he could, do what he believed was right! He was not going to let the soldiers of the Empire kill innocents!

Turning to face the woman he had saved, he nodded at her. "Come with me, let's help those in need."

.

.

Leon watched the battle unfold from the top of the walls. His jaw was locked tight as he watched. He could see people being felled left and right, so he sent a few of his summons to help where they were needed. He had not unfolded his entire army yet, but brought out only three thousand of them. Even though their numbers were not many, they were enough to totally flip the situation on its head.

Beside him, Nedra stood, her eyes peering down at the fighting going on.

"Won't you go down?" She asked.

"No. I may not be the brightest, but I'm not that stupid. I won't make it easy for Amelia to catch me." Leon shook his head as he prepared another spell. A giant ball of black fire was hovering above his head. He had been condensing the fire for a while now, and it looked like a ball of black magma that gave off a scalding heat.

'Ah, it's ready.' Leon felt that the spell had been condensed enough and suddenly tossed it forward. The ball of black magma shot forward, before slamming into a shield conjured by the mages on the opposing side. The shield held for a few seconds before crumbling under the might of the spell.

Boom!

A terrible explosion shook the walls of the city, originating from the site of impact. A dark sphere of black fire spread outwards, easily consuming a couple hundred mages at once. The rest around them immediately broke away from their formation, making the intensity of the bombardment raining on Gustavo's shield to lessen considerably.

At that point, another explosion of light erupted on a different part of the battlefield. Leon turned his head to get a good look at the fight between Richard, Gustavo, and Amelia. He had been paying minimal attention to them and now it seemed things were wrapping up on that end.