Wait, System! Stop Helping The Protagonist!

Ashton remained silent to these two girls’ ridicule. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to. He wanted to bicker with her heavily, bringing back his dignity. However, now was not the time.

There was a big elephant in the room that they had to address first.

"Girls, stop this right now! This fragile heart can’t handle your praises. Instead, we should talk about the iron cage in the middle. Tell me, what should we do?" Ashton spoke, remaining seated on his spot.

Anastasia looked at the iron cage and advised without a thought. "I think we should leave now and hide. The bones in my arms have shattered. Rias is unconscious; we don’t know if we can find any Filth to help him. Lovia doesn’t know how to fight. And you... you might be able to do something, but your condition isn’t also that bright enough to solve many issues we have."

Ashton stayed silent as he couldn’t refute Anastasia’s words. They were in much worse condition than the original two had in the book. All of this was the consequence of trying to speedrun the bosses without the skills and strength backing them up.

However, they couldn’t leave no matter what. It won’t matter what condition they were in, as the final boss was unique in a sense.

Nonetheless, Ashton couldn’t say they should still try to fight, as it could lead to his and Anastasia’s closeness disappearing. She didn’t mind recklessness, as Rias was pretty much full of it at the start. But she hated mindless recklessness, which couldn’t care about the consequences their partners might face.

Watching Ashton’s silence, Lovia knew it was her time to step in. "Anastasia, we can’t give up now. If we give up, all will be for naught."

Anastasia’s eyebrows furrowed as she questioned. "Why can’t we give up? Do you want all of us to die now?"

"I didn’t mean that." Lovia shook her head before carefully explaining. "What I wanted to say is, in this place, there is no place to hide. Even if we can, how are we able to reach that place without tired and broken bodies? From what I observed in this Filth Drop, I can confidently say Filth is the death trap and the lifesaving medicine at the same time."

"We can’t cower in this godforsaken place."

Anastasia opened her mouth, but no words came out. She didn’t know how to refute. She also experienced how these hellish Filths could take her life and also make her stronger and recover.

"Don’t worry about me." Suddenly a weak voice came from Ashton’s behind. They followed the source of the voice and saw Rias looking at them with his droopy eyes. "We have to go forward. We have to kill whatever is inside this iron cage."

"I... I have to kill it." Rias looked at the iron cage with a longing gaze. He didn’t know why there was a voice inside his heart that woke him up and was calling him to kill the thing locked inside.

Ashton cast a weird glance at Rias. ’Is this fate forcing itself? Does he have to kill the enemy that has his name written on it?’

Watching everyone wanting to not back down, Anastasia felt herself getting cornered. She bit her lips, speaking with annoyance. "Fine, fine. We will continue to fight. But don’t come back to kill me after becoming a Filth."

A smile appeared on everyone’s face, which was instantly broken after Anastasia asked. "So, who will break those chains?"

Her question left everyone stumped. Rias went back to closing her eyes, Ashton feigned sleeping on the ground, and Lovia just looked at her with big, innocent puppy eyes.

"Hmph, all that bravado for nothing." Anastasia sneered at everyone’s faces.

"Anastasia. At least let us recover a little. In our current condition even a dog can kill us." Lovia spoke on behalf of the other two.

"Fine, fine." Anastasia pouted.

Lovia decided to talk about their mundane stuff to remove the grumpy look on Anastasia’s face. "Hey, remember the cold, domineering CEO I talked about last time. He..."

The word ’CEO’ activated a neuron in Anastasia’s brain as she listened to Lovia’s story with absolute concentration.

Just like that, the boys rested with their eyes closed, while on the other hand, the girls chattered about their fantasies.

After an hour and so passed, Ashton’s eyes finally shot open. He was finally able to sit up properly. The first thing he did was gather a bandage out of the system space and wrap his right hand. He was in hope that his right hand would heal itself.

Unfortunately, the injury was too much, as most of the Life Essence was used to heal inside his body.

After he was done bandaging, he gripped his sword to see if he was able to swing it properly now.

’It still hurts when I hold the sword but not to the point that it would make me flinch in pain.’ Ashton pondered as he practiced a set of swordplay he learned in the Krestic’s mansion.

"You ready?" Anastasia asked, standing beside him. Her pair of arms is still limp. Only she knew how much her bones had repaired themselves.

"Good enough to marry your sister!" Ashton spoke, flexing his thin muscles.

Anastasia nonchalantly watches his boasting before turning her head towards Rias and Lovia.

Rias had his right on Lovia’s shoulder, using her as a support to walk.

"What about you two?"

"We are ready, Miss Anastasia." Rias answered with great confidence in his voice.

"Then let’s go break the chains." Anastasia signaled Ashton. "Ashton, take the lead."

Nodding his head, Ashton led the group.

It didn’t take long, as it was a couple of meters away from them.

Ashton jumped above the iron cage, looking at the chain that connected with the iron cage and the dome of the tower.

’Please just don’t give me any more surprises." Ashton took a breath before bringing out an axe.