In This Rebirth, The Male Lead Is Mine [BL]

After the initial shock, Thalia’s expression turned solemn. Her gaze was firm, but undoubtedly he was feeling complicated inside. Against espers, she would not have any misgivings. However, against powerless common people, her duty and principle as an esper made her unable to take action immediately.

Rise did not give her any instructions either. While he often said he could sacrifice the world for everything to end, faced with such a situation, Rise could not easily slaughter everyone.

He admitted his morals might be questionable at times, but he was not that heartless yet. People called him ruthless. Part of it was true, but most of it was against those espers and the people who offended him.

This hesitation was only a moment. His mind suddenly became clear-headed. He finally answered some of the questions in his mind about the incident of the past.

While he had done a lot of things against humanity in the past, he had not truly slaughtered cities of citizens as opposed to rumors.

Rise was so shocked and confused when the crusade against him in the past was so united, as though he were the scourge that needed to be eliminated. Even the common people he protected and who often did not intersect in his life held such animosity against him.

Sure, there might be people fanning the flames behind the scenes, but the reaction of the crowd was too united and abrupt even for him.

It made him wonder if what he did truly deserved such a reaction. Was he truly that terrible of a human being? Rise had pondered about this for a while.

Now the answer was in front of him. So, everyone was truly just pawns, huh? As he looked at everyone around him. There was no hatred, as he expected. Instead, there was pity.

"Give us way. Just enough to pass through." Rise gave an order.

It was unfortunate that his ability had yet to return, or it would be a piece of cake to immobilize the crowd. His ability was helpful in large-scale situations after all.

Thalia was an S-class esper, and she had some means to subdue a lot of people, but ultimately, her ability did not have the same effect as his. Moreover, in terms of raw power, Thalia was more of a support and crowd control type.

Not to mention, she had to conserve her power for what truly was coming behind them. They could not afford to be worn down by the furious crowd.

Thalia nodded. She also knew what was more important. At least, she did not need to kill these people, subduing them was enough. This did not mean that there would not be any casualties either.

These crowds were already manipulated and would do what it takes to surround Rise and kill him, disregarding their safety. For this, Thalia was also helpless.

In her priority, Rise was undoubtedly at the first.

Thalia and Rise exchanged glances and nodded to each other. They needed to leave the incoming encirclement of the crowd first before the troublesome fellows arrived.

Fortunately, while Rise was not at his peak, keeping up with Thalia’s pace was enough. Perhaps because of the urgency he felt, his mana recovery was getting faster.

Rise even had the thought that releasing a weak force field was enough to subdue the crowd. Of course, he did not take action in the end. That was only a waste of his recovering mana.

What he needed to do was completely recover. For this task, he let Thalia take over as he followed her movements. The two of them ran through the path Thalia forcibly created for them.

Vines and branches sprouted from everywhere, parting the crowd. As a result, the weak even tripped over, making the already enraged crowd become more furious and crazy.

The mantra to kill Rise did not stop, and the tone became louder.

The two continued with their pace. Rise did not have the time to care or check about the condition of the crowd that was continuing to run after them.

Thali also continued to wave the vine in her hand, enlarging the area. Her attention was not just behind them but in every direction.

There were not only those people behind, even in front and on their sides; the people were beginning to gather.

Rise took a deep breath and gritted his teeth. Sweat began to pool in his back and so in his forehead, trickling to his cheek. He was beginning to get exhausted, but he could not afford to stop.

Even a second of rest might be crucial for their safety. He could not help but curse his state. It had been a while since he felt this kind of exhaustion.

He was already short of breath. It was as though his lungs were too weak to even catch a slight bit of air.

Damn it. Mitchel, that bastard.

Rise did not stop cursing himself either. How dare he lower his guard? Well, even with how much he blamed himself for that, everything already happened.

Due to the pain of even breathing, Rise chose to let his mind wander. He absolutely could not pay attention to his state, or the exhaustion would swallow him whole and make him stop.

Their situation was beginning to turn dire. Despite not being able to fully pay attention to the situation and his surroundings, he could sense an alarming crowd gathering towards their direction.

This was a small green zone city. However, its population was still large. As a green zone, no matter how small, it still houses over six million residents.

And to think all of those six million people, excluding the disabled and children, were fervently pursuing them.

The darkness had also become thicker. Rise could even feel an intent of malice directly approaching him.

Fuck. Rise cursed inwardly. He knew it was the author’s malice, which in turn was also the world’s malice against him.

Rise bit his lips and glanced at Thalia. He did not know how long they had been escaping the crowd, but it should be over an hour already.

Thalia did not exude any kind of exhaustion on her face. She still diligently parted the crowd. She might not be tired yet, but Rise knew that what they were doing was only wasting Thalia’s mana, which should be reserved for the people behind them.

And those people were almost at their location.

This won’t do.

The city gate was far, and in fact, Rise did not know if this anomaly would stop once they left the city. If that happened, they would truly be at a dead end.

Unless Rise also recovered, then they had two combatants.

"Thalia," he called as he gasped. Rise paused and then took a deep breath. He let himself catch his breath and pointed at a building.

It was not the highest building, but it could still overlook the city.

If escaping was almost pointless, with no end in sight. They could only face it head-on and wait for his recovery.

Rise’s expression became firm.