Shadow Rogue

A person whose love turned into hate, sacrificed one’s self, and ended up as a monster; all just to repair or to forget his love. But in the end, is harming the person he loves.

An absolute tragedy!

Truth to be told, Rui admired Halief a bit. Daring to love, daring to hate, that is a true man! However, he’s just admiring Halief’s attitude and personality, but he absolutely disagrees with his methods.

For their love, sacrificing themselves is alright, or maybe even paralyzing themselves. However, he harmed so many people instead.

The death of Halief’s love had caused him to drag those he loved, his best friends, and a whole bunch of innocent people together with him into the grave!

Halief’s actions made Rui think of one man — Cao Cao*!

[T/N: Famous Warlord in Chinese History of the Three Kingdoms period — Wiki]

I would rather disappoint all the people in the world, rather than to have them disappoint me!

A person who is completely self-centred, and thinks of himself as the greatest king. Someone like this, perhaps he really loved Kris, but she was definitely not his greatest love. His greatest love could only be himself!

You reap what you saw, and thus you should bear the responsibility!

Rui had always believed in that. No matter what you’ve done or why, you will always have to take responsibility for your actions.

Halief’s actions not only hurt Kris and Ronnie, he had also hurt the Village Chief and the blacksmith, not to mention the innocent who had died as well as their families. Even if he gave a million reasons, even if what befell him was worth the sympathy of others, what he had done was set in stone, and the repercussions of his actions were unchangeable.

What Halief had done was more than enough to send him to the depths of hell. Even despite all that, Kris still foolishly believed in trying to save his soul — it could be said she was naive, or just too kind?

According to Kris, Halief had either died or had suffered a fate worse than death. Still, Rui did not want to comment further. After all, this was still a game despite how real it felt and the emotions it evoked in the players, it was ultimately a fictional world.

If this was the real world, Rui would have slaughtered Halief without any hesitation, but things were different in the game world. However, since Halief was likely the end boss of the Lost Mines, Rui would eventually have to kill him.

Putting Halief aside, since he would have to pay for his wrongdoing eventually. Rui was a firm believer of the term, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”.

“So, where is Ronnie then?” Rui questioned Kris after she had calmed down.

“Ronnie! He’s with Halief now. All this while, they have been fighting each other without any rest.” Kris said with a sob.

“Alright then, let’s not delay any further and head out now.” Giving a look of confirmation to Yezekael and the rest, Rui nodded, “Let’s rearrange our backpacks and get ready!”

After redistributing the potions, Rui and the party followed Kris into the depths of the mines.

The long tunnel was extremely dark, but luckily Kris had the Heart of Angel for illumination, or the party might have had some problems continuing.

After walking for some distance, they reached a wide hall. Although they could only see a little inside it, it seemed rather archaic. It seemed like it used to be either a palace or a grand temple in the past.

“Halief, you devil, I will definitely kill you today! Go to hell!” All of a sudden, a loud and crazed cry resounded through the wide hall, almost numbing the party’s ears.

“Ronnie, it’s Ronnie! They are fighting again!” Upon hearing the voice, Kris’ tears started flowing involuntarily again.

“Wait, you better not go in.” Rui stopped Kris who was about to charge ahead, shaking his head at her. Was she kidding, Kris is main person of interest here.

Halief committed such acts of evil because of her, while Ronnie had also become a monster because of her, duelling with Halief until this day. If she rushed forward, who knows what would happen. Furthermore, Rui had never had the habit of letting a woman charge ahead in front of him.

“Leave it to us!” Rui told the teary Kris with a determined look. With a glance to Yezekael to hint his intentions, Rui stealthily moved towards the sound with his dagger drawn.

Bang!

Rui was just able to make out the two figures, when all of a sudden, one of the figures was thrown back by the other, landing heavily on the ground in front of Rui.

Ronnie!

Looking at the NPC name on top of his head, Rui immediately knew who he was.

“You can’t defeat me Ronnie!” The darker shadow uttered in a vicious voice full of venom, which made everyone shudder. Needless to say, that person was definitely Halief.

“You bastard, kill me if you can!” The fallen Ronnie wiped the blood from his lips, shouting in anger at Halief.

“Kill you? Why would I do such a thing? Your cursed fool, neither human nor ghost, cursed to be stuck forever between worlds, unable to reincarnate. It’s so great for me to see you like this, suffering forever! Fall and be corrupt, to wander this dirty and evil world forever! Mwahahaha…”

Halief’s voice was cold but loud. The sheer venom in his voice was staggering, filled with maniac glee. Anyone who heard such a voice would be filled with disgust, and also cold with fear.

“You devil! You will go to hell for this!” Ronnie’s eyes were filled with rage and killing intent, and he vehemently scolded Halief.

“Hell? Hahaha…” Halief’s crazed laughter rang out, resounding in the whole chamber, making it shudder.

“Ever since you and Kris announced your marriage, I have already had one foot in hell. Since Kris rejected me for you, I have been living in hell ever since!”

Halief’s sombre voice silenced Ronnie, whose expression was full of pain. Rui couldn’t see Kris’s expression since she was far away, but he guessed she was likely having the same feelings.

For a couple of childhood companions, to have someone who was like a brother turn into this state, and having themselves as the originator of it — even the most hard-hearted person would be stirred up, let alone the kind Kris.