SYSTEM ASCENSION

"You killed Roche."

"I...I..." Natalie didn’t have time to figure out why Elias was asking the questions again. He only saw Elias’s hand closing around the black sword again.

"No! Wait!"

The sword came down on his second hand, caving it off. Just again, another blood curling cry escape his lips.

He tried to crawl or wiggle free, but Elias just loomed over him, bringing down the sword and driving it into his stomach.

The scream cut in his throat, body convulsing in pure agony.

"You removed his eyes."

Elias hand reached out. "Let’s test how fun that is."

Laura behind them was trying to peep out of the cage of swords when everything suddenly dropped. Elias was no longer controlling them.

This gave her time to act. She scrambled off the forest floor, and streched her hand and snapped her finger.

"Ability activate!"

She was gone in a blink. One moment, she was in the small space without acid, and another moment, she had gotten to the forest.

The sound of Natalie’s gagging voice caught her attention. She ran, tracing the sound, but by the time she arrived, one of his eyes was already gone. The socket wept red and black. He could barely make a sound.

In Elias’s hand... the missing orb gleamed wet between his fingers.

"NO!

Laura’s scream echoed through the trees.

Elias didn’t acknowledge her.

He crouched, lowering himself to Natalie’s level as if amused. With a sudden jerk, his hand shot forward, fingers plunging into the bloody hollow of the youth’s remaining eye.

"No! Stop!" She stumbled towards them.

Natalie could only gurgle as Elias yanked, and with a sickening rip, the second eye came free.

Blood poured down the Natalie’s face, as Elias rose, holding both eyes in his hands now. With one shove, he forced the eye past broken teeth, down his throat.

Natalie gagged, choking, blood bubbling from his lips as he struggled in blind horror.

Elias suddenly grinned.

"It’s funny. I forgot why am doing this."

He straightened up and glanced at the girl.

[Elias Morail]

[Kill count: 208]

She was suddenly sprinting straight at him.

"You killed my brother!"

Elias blinked, as she got to him.

"I’ll kill —"

Smack!

A single slap sent her tumbling across the clearing. She rolled several times before crashing against a fallen tree.

The forest fell quiet again.

Laura slowly pushed herself upright, tears streaming down her face.

"I told him that we shouldn’t mess with you..."

Elias turned away.

"You’re not human." She continued to mumble. "You’re not..."

"Then what is a human?" He picked up the black sword.

"Huh..."

"Humans are a species that mainly abore two things. Good and bad." He raised the sword in the sunlight watching as it faded into the wind just like every other weapons.

"You said I’m not human because I killed your brother," he turned back and walked to her. "Let’s assume your brother is so innocent and I killed him. Doesn’t that make me more of a human than you who try to justify yourself?"

"What?"

"Humans are piece of shit generally. Justifying yourself makes you a bigger piece of shit."

He halt, and grasp his head.

"Someone told me that... Was he my playmate back in the days. I don’t remember."

Her expression shifted from grief to something frighteningly calm.

"...You know," she said softly, wiping her face, "my ability isn’t fire. You must have predicted that too."

She gave an exhausted laugh.

"I can mark anyone or anything I touch."

She raised her hand.

"And once they’re marked, I can send them to anywhere I imagine. I touched both of them earlier. Quil and Yvonne. Guess where I’ll send them..."

He raised a brow.

"I can’t beat you, Elias, but I can make sure you loses the people around you."

She snapped her fingers.

Nothing happened. At least not in Elias eyes. Yvonne and Quil were not here to begin with, so he wouldn’t see them vanish.

"I sent them," she whispered, "to the most dangerous place in this entire sector."

He conjured a dagger, and sent it.

"I hope you cry Elias!"

"And you won’t be alive to witness it." He taunted. "My win."

He watch her face conjured in grief and fear as the dagger struck her head.

[Elias Morail]

[Kill count: 209]

Silence returned to the forest for a short while untill he suddenly remembered the problem Laura created.

"The most dangerous place..."

He turned around. It was obvious where.

The pit.

Although Mona had taken out most of the creatures in it, the pit cannot always be empty.

"Aah... headache."

He turned towards the desert area, and dashed off. Other players scrambled out of the way at the sight of him.

The sprint back to the pit was twenty minutes max, and he wasted zero time.

He dropped into the pit, the impact cracking the stone beneath his feet.

Silence and minimal darkness greeted him.

There were no screeches or chittering like he’d expected. Only the occasional drip of black blood from the ceiling.

His dark eyes swept across the cavern.

The floor was a graveyard.

Crawler corpses lay scattered in every direction, their severed limbs tangled together. Several Nulls had also fallen, their lifeless bodies piled against broken pillars. Fresh claw marks scarred the walls, and deep gouges carved through the stone showed just how violently someone had fought.

The previous carcasses and bodies were still there too.

"..."

He followed the trail of blood his eyes caught. Red blood, not belonging to the creatures.

It stretched deeper into the cavern.

Finally he arrived at the end.

His eyes immediately darkened at the sight.

Quil lay against a slab of broken rock, his chest rising only slightly. The lower half of him was gone, and only the energy around him was keeping him alive.

One eye was swollen shut. Blood had soaked through his clothes, collecting beneath him in a dark pool. Around him were dozens of Crawler corpses.

Elias stopped beside him.

"You good?"

Quil let out something that sounded halfway between a laugh and a cough.

"Never... being better..."

Elias looked around.

"Where is Yvonne?"

"She should be good. I blasted her out so..."

He returned his eyes to Quil.

His vital energy wasn’t stable. He was still bleeding out.

"Anything you want to say?"

Quil raised his one good eye.

"Would you remember?"

"There is only a fifty percent chance." Elias didn’t deny it.

Quil let out a rasp chuckle. "So it’s a gamble..."

His head rolled against the stone. "I was suppose to lead my house. I was capable,"

Elias stepped closer. "And?"

"I’m...dying here..."

He smiled weakly.

"My mother and junior siblings will end up as playthings for my father’s remaining wives."

"Then it’s their fate."

Quil paused a while before frowning.

"You don’t know how to comfort anyone at all."

"I haven’t even comforted myself."

"Right..." He smiled again. "I didn’t expect you to show up this fast."

Elias didn’t reply, because he couldn’t. He had dashed over here as soon as he thought of the most dangerous place in sector seven, but why?

"I came from Dashed...known as the Ring," Quil’s eyes drifted shut. "Please visit my family."

Elias didn’t reply.

He just stared at the youth for a considerable amount of time.

The silence was broken by the familiar voice of Mona.

"He’s dead."

Elias blinked. "I know."

"Are you sad?"

"..."

Without another word he turned away.

"Life is fleeting. Death is a luxury." Mona scoffed. "I didn’t like him to begin with."

Elias climbed out of the cave.

His top priority now was to find the last person. The one he was familiar with from the beginning.

He walked back to the forest under the hot sun. With no more voices and commotion, the pain in his injured leg began to throb. His limp subconsciously returned.

His hands were worst. He could barely use it.

He looked around.

The number of participants had receded below two hundred so it was not surprising that no one was in sight.

He finally got to the forest edge.

Then he noticed something.

Some surviving participants had come together and were on a wary stance. Some has drawn their weapons.

All aimed at him.

He tilted his head.

"What are they—"

Sight of blood caught his attention. His body stiffened. He turned his head to the sight.

His eye caught a familiar figure. Not standing like he’d expect her to. She was pierced to a tree with what looks like an ability, and an arrow was sticking out her forehead.

He took one step closer. They moved back.

He stretched his battered hand.

"...Yvonne..."

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