Death, Devotion, Dissonance

'I have to do something…' 

The same thought appeared in Phel's head once again as he stared at the bloodlust that was becoming more and more prominent in Decatur's face. The siege on Evin's location had taken an entire day and night for the group, but so far, they weren't able to make much progress on that front. 

Instead, Decatur's side was gradually accumulating injuries and stress. Four students lay on a makeshift bed inside the room opposite of Evin's: two of them holding a bloodied bandage over their eyes, and two of them sustaining a bleeding from their limbs. Another student, who was more seriously hurt, was taken to the Infirmary due to a serious injury, but thankfully, he didn't seem too heavily injured.

At this point, Phel didn't know whether he should cheer for Evin or Decatur's side. His newfound friend stood true to his warnings and made sure to seriously hurt at least one person on Decatur's side whenever the group tried to rush towards his location. And these five seriously injured were the product of four attempted rushes through the corridor.

The first time, Decatur simply rushed at Evin's location after he got his eyes fixed while ordering everyone to move as fast and unpredictably as possible. Obviously that didn't end well for the group since everyone was trying to run erratically while keeping their eyes protected, which resulted in two students stumbling over each other, leading the whole group to experience the sensation of being constantly bombarded by lesser spells. Even now, Phel could feel the stinging pain from the blue bruises on his back, legs, and forearms.

The next time, Decatur made everyone gather wood from the Temple to use as shields against Evin's barrage, but while they were busy gathering the shields, Evin had turned the stone rubble on the ground into tiny little bullets. In front of these stones, the wooden shields were equivalent to jack shit, and one of the students even got a piece of stone lodged into their leg and was taken to the infirmary.

The third time occurred at night, when Decatur was sure that Evin was sleeping on the other side of the corridor. Phel couldn't really blame him for the thought, because Evin had disappeared from the other side of the corridor for a bit. Long story short, it turned out that he was still on the other side of the corridor. Two students' eyes fell victim to his Air Bullets that time.

The fourth one occurred at dawn, but it was much smaller than the previous ones and its purpose was just to make sure that he was still inside the room. Sure enough, when the student passed the halfway mark of the corridor, Evin dutifully began shooting spells at him. He shouted to not bother with cheap tricks and after urging everyone to just hand over Decatur; he disappeared out of sight again.

No one could tell whether Evin was sleeping during these moments he disappeared behind the corners of the doorway or he was just waiting to ambush anyone else trying to pull a fast one on him. Perhaps if Evin didn't retaliate so harshly to the previous attempts, then maybe the students in Decatur's camp would constantly be trying to harass Evin… but after being bombarded by his spells and seeing one student being carried away to the infirmary with a stone stuck on his thigh, most students desire to test the waters became non-existent.

'But this time, there's no way for Evin to survive this,' Phel thought as he thought about the next plan.

Aside from Decatur and him, who were keeping watch here, two students were keeping patrol on the 1st floor, making sure that Evin wasn't escaping through anywhere, while the rest were busy gathering the commoner students on the Island. 

Decatur finally realized that his current forces weren't enough to cross the corridor and had worked out a proper plan this time. They would gather the commoner students and afterwards, two groups will start to breach into the underground from above, while the group here would push a giant stone slab through the corridor. 

It would be a bit hard on their skins, but it would be possible because every noble student could strengthen their bodies to a certain degree.

Against a three-front attack like that, even Evin wouldn't be able to do much. Phel didn't think that he could do much to stop the students from pushing through with the giant piece of stone as well. 

And considering his actions against Decatur's group since yesterday, it wasn't hard to guess what would happen to him after he gets cornered. 

'I have to do something…' the thought appeared in Phel's mind once again.

Every time he imagined the enraged Decatur releasing his pent-up frustration on Evin, always a tragic scene occurred in Phel's head. At worst, Evin would die and at best he would be crippled. But considering Evin's actions so far, it wouldn't be weird of the two of them killed each other. 

Phel knew what was going to happen, but he was powerless to stop it. He tried convincing Decatur to forget about this meaningless revenge of his, he tried to strike at his conscience, he pleaded with him, he begged him, but regrettably, nothing worked. 

Decatur was like a possessed man, his entire being and existence dedicated to wiping out Evin from the face of Alvox. 

'Shit… And why did Evin have to provoke him so much in the first place?' Phel cursed. 

Thanks to Phel's constant nagging, Decatur finally agreed to leave Evin alone after he quite the Academy, but because of Evin's actions the past two days, the situation became virtually unsalvageable.

No matter how powerful Evin was, it was impossible for him to survive the attacks of everyone in the Academy year, and no matter how coveted or talented he was, it was impossible for him to stand against an entire county.

'Shit… I thought that the Duchess would definitely not allow Decatur to act like this right after he gets in power, but his Gehenne's words hold much more power than I imagined…'

As the sole heir of a Viscount family, Phel was naturally well-versed with the kingdom's system. Although Gehenne said he would let Decatur do as he wished, it wasn't possible to do so without the Duchess Klavd's permission. But since the Duchess agreed to it without raising any issues, it meant that she trusted Gehenne's judgement a lot more than what was considered normal.

But to be fair, aside from his personal vendetta with Evin, Decatur was probably going to do a good job of ruling over the County. From the moment he could speak, Decatur was raised to be the next Count. He knew the county's situation like the back of his hands, so as long as nothing too serious occurred, he would be able to run the county without breaking a sweat. As the one who spent most of his time with Decatur, Phel knew exactly what he was capable of. 

'The only major flaw he had was his obsession with being better than others… He was getting better for the past two months after Evin started to gradually surpass him, but after Lady Alix's death, something in him snapped and he turned out like that.'