"Linda," I spoke again as I saw the dark energy beginning to swirl around the place where I threw the pendant and I continued,"Do you want to know… what Life and Death is?"
Linda observed me with a puzzled expression before seriously looking at me as she gulped and nodded.
The storm kept increasing in diameter before it engulfed the entire area around us and the place started turning darker and darker with each passing moment.
"Aidan!" I heard Rheo's voice from behind me as I observed him looking at his System.
[Emergency Quest: The Gates to Netherrealm has been found to be open. The crack between the two worlds has begun to enlarge.
Close the Gate to Netherrealm.
Reward: +50 Stat points, [Title: Guardian of Humanity]
Penalty: All stats will decrease by 10%]
It wasn't just him but everyone around me that had the same expression as Rheo.
I then looked at the Gates to Netherealm forming in front of me as the storm kept getting bigger and ferocious.
"Blood Sacrifice: Reaper's Retribution," I spoke as I reverse channelled all the mana into my blood and sacrificed its temporary physical power.
Then I began absorbing all the death energy around me before my veins started turning dark and so did my hairs and nails.
My eyes were pitch black before my clothes began to tear into pieces from the intensity and soon enough I lost my upper clothing, revealing the black pattern that has formed on my chest and back.
I then moved closer to the gate and applied dark mana into it, along with light mana that I generated from my body. Later I added even more light energy into it as the dark energy was absorbed from the surrounding as well.
'Normally it should have taken more than a week to break the gate but…' I took out the pendant-like artefact, and placed it at the hole in the centre of the gate which formed in front of us.
Soon enough, the artefact merged with the gate, and the gate began to open.
"AIDAN!!!" Shouted Lucas this time as he saw the barrage of messages flowing in his System.
I don't know what the System told them, but they were looking at me like I was a madman. It felt like some of them were contemplating whether to kill me or not, but before they could do so,
"Life and death… well… They are the two pieces of a seven colored gem, said to be the gift of Gods to humanity. And we are going to the realm where one of those 'gifts' rule."
I spoke and they, barely keeping their hold, looked at me… listened to me carefully.
"Let's go in. The others are coming," I spoke before I looked at them.
The first one to move was William… then Lucas followed… then Cristine did, and soon everyone except Rheo moved inside that gate.
"Are you sure we should be doing this?" he asked with a horrified face.
"Trust me. If I had a choice, I would have never done it like this," I spoke before vanishing behind him and then pushing him inside the gate as well.
I looked at the people arriving towards me and one by one they landed in front of me with an angry expression on their faces. Some were curious, while the others were expressionless.
'I should be able to manage this power for another 5 minutes before it starts escaping… should I fight them to make an impact on them and demonstrate the power difference or should I escape and move to Netherrealm,' I thought a bit about it before speaking,
"I will give 20 seconds before I move you out myself."
Counting them, there were about 17 people in front of me, but they were mostly S-Ranked, with only 2 of them being SS-Ranked.
"What do you want to achieve?" One of the old women asked as she observed me. She was one of the calm ones here and I didn't need to ponder over it as I spoke.
"Saving this planet."
"By opening the pathway to that monstrosity?!!!" A furious man spoke as he moved towards me and tried attacking as fast as he could but before he could even touch me, I clicked my fingers and he was thrown away back to his original place.
'I am barely SSS-Ranked here, but that isn't all. The atmosphere here is making me stronger every moment, while it is draining the energy of others,' I pondered before sighing and then speaking.
"I would love to play more, but I need to go. Sorry for your stats that you may lose, I will make sure to compensate you when I return. See you guys later," I spoke as I winked at them before smiling and moving inside the gate.
…
After I was gone, the people gathered there just stood there as the storm began getting absorbed by the gate before all the dark energy entered into the gate and the gate closed.
Soon, the gate vanished under the constant gaze of everyone present there, taking all the dark aura with it. All there was left was a silent lake surrounded by dead trees.
"Why did you let him go, Grandma?" spoke one of the younger guys looking at the old woman who asked me that question.
"He was too powerful for anyone of us to handle. I could see that he would never kill us for some reason unless we really press him but… we would be only making a fool of ourselves if we had fought him," spoke the old woman, and the others looked at her.
"So what are we supposed to do now? Wait here for them to come back? Heck, we don't even know if they are coming back," spoke angrily one of the younger women wearing a black suit.
"Wait for him… awaah… to come back and compensate for the loss of our stats," spoke a middle-aged man as he stretched and then began moving back to his place,
"I will be informing the master about it and see how he deals with it. You guys see how to deal with your own factions."
Soon enough, everyone started leaving as well, before there was only one person left there.
She was a beautiful girl holding an umbrella in her hand.
"Such a peaceful atmosphere… nothing like what the System messaged me. Did that guy know about this result? Or he simply didn't care? Makes me curious…" she spoke before moving towards the lake as she stared intensely at the bottom of it.
And soon she too vanished from there, as if she didn't even exist there.
Follow current nov𝒆ls on freew(𝒆)bnov𝒆l.(c)om