Chapter 13: Ch53. Blood flood (Arrival of the storm)
The landscape passed by me like a blur, and all that mattered to me was getting at the school so I could prevent whatever that was going happening.
You won’t... Be able... To save them...
Everything made sense.
Quintus was a spy in the Shadow guild, while being a full-fledged member of the Dawn guild, because he was a Blake.
However, he didn’t want to just raid Nests and keep humanity safe from the Beasts.
He wanted power, and he wanted to rule, so he somehow became a member of the New Dawn guild, uniting his thirst for power to his will to kill regulars.
Of course he would end up saying yes.
And of course it wouldn’t end up well for him.
Even though I couldn’t explain what happened with him and Yuri for now.
My holowatch beeped and Nadia appeared on the screen.
"What happened to Nikolai? His readings disappeared all of a sudden."
I stopped, unable to speak.
Nadia looked at me while I looked to the ground and I heard her cry, completely unable to shed even a single tear.
Her voice sounded bitter and a bit dead after that.
"Run, don’t go to the school. The place is surrounded by the guilds and they’re being wiped out by five wielders."
I was about to ask her what she meant by that when she ended the call.
Yeah, I’d hate me if I was her too.
I actually do.
But I still couldn’t just run away, no matter what people said, so I pressed forward.
I had to stop it.
Whatever it was.
And when I arrived at the school, I was ready to encounter a scenery of tragedy, but what I found was worse.
Way worse.
Quintus went to the Black Market in order to me from arriving here on time, and the New Dawn guild had advanced their attack schedule.
Kids and teenagers were sprawled all around, dismembered, bleeding, headless.
And in the center of the school, members of the Shadow guild, the Golden Scythe guild, Marchers, and even the Dawn guild were fighting against five individuals.
Nadia was right, those five people were practically wiping the floor with all the wielders there.
The sky got dark and it started to wind harshly. The rain came a few seconds after that, washing away the blood and everything else.
But it didn’t take away the smell or the sound of fighting.
"Kurt..." I heard Evellyn’s voice nearby.
Faint, but there.
Only that I couldn’t search for it, because all the five people fighting the wielders turned to look at me, and the wielders clashing against them suddenly froze on their spots, as if they were nothing but puppets, and their puppeteers made them go absolutely still.
When they saw me, every single one of them started speaking at their own time, completing each other’s sentences.
"If it’s not..."
"The prodigal son..."
"The broken one finally comes home."
"How does it feel to be with your family again?"
"Did you come to accept the blessing of joining the Red Flood?"
I didn’t recognize four of them, but I could see Octavius’ face there.
But instead of having his usual blue eyes, his irises were completely black, and his pupils were white.
He just looked like my father, but I knew it was just like Quintus.
A puppet for the strange crystal.
The other person were a girl with short hair, big muscles, bright red eyes, wearing a shirt with the sleeves ripped off.
Her pants were also a bit tattered.
The rest of them were just deformed things that, probably once, looked like human beings.
They had four arms and three fingers in each hand.
And every single one of them felt incredibly powerful.
"What do you want?" I heard myself asking, even though I didn’t want to say anything.
Then I heard one of their voices right behind me, and again, my senses didn’t warn me of their approaching.
"What do we want?"
And then another one of them, by my side.
"We want to take what’s ours."
And one by one, they all approached me.
"To feed on Its life force."
"To purge the weak from the face of this puny planet."
"And feed on the strong."
"Why?" I heard myself asking again, and all of them answered at the same time.
But when they spoke, I felt it resonating inside me.
"Because it’s our nature, to feed and become stronger. To rule and be worshiped."
I didn’t understand. I couldn’t.
"You say I’m broken, but then why did I come across you in the first place? Why was I given this powers if not to save everyone from you?"
For the first time in the day, my senses blared like warning sirens, and I jumped, dodging what could be a deadly blow from all five of them.
"You misunderstand it, young Blake." One of them said, seemingly not surprised for my dodge.
"You haven’t been given anything." The other said.
And Octavius’ body finally spoke.
"You were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. You weren’t chosen as our vessel, that’s why you’re broken. Because you didn’t choose to be assimilated by me."
"You’re just a coincidence, a mistake."
"And you’re about to be fixed, just as it should be."
Their arms became like tentacles and shot towards me in incredible speed, so I summoned the [MIDNIGHT SISTERS] and activated [GHOST STEPS OF A THOUSAND FEET] to keep up with their speed.
I cut, dodged, pierced and evaded as fast and hard as I could, trying to keep their sharp tentacles at bay, but after a while, my stamina felt like dropping incessantly, and one of them pierced my shin, sending an insurmountable wave of pain through my whole body.
I fell to my knees, but when I tried to get up again, I felt a hand holding on to mine.
When I looked in the direction of its touch, my heart skipped a beat.
"Evellyn...?"
She looked at me with almost dead eyes, but her grip on my hand was still strong.
She was still alive.
"Kurt..." She coughed a mouthful of blood.
"She tried to stop us, can you believe it?" I heard Octavius’ voice speaking, and all attacks ceased.
I slowly got up, still holding Evellyn’s hand, carefully taking her out from the pile of rubble she was under.
"Don’t look down." Her lips moved, and there were tears in her eyes.
But I did look down.
And I regretted it the instant I did...
Shit...
She had lost her legs and was bleeding dry.
I needed a [FULL RECOVERY] now, but I didn’t have any!
"Don’t worry..." She mumbled. "Just... Promise me..."
I didn’t want it to happen.
Why did it turn out like this?
She wrapped her arms around my neck at the same time that I heard all the five beings saying "I’m tired of waiting. Just die anyways."
But that was what they wanted.
It wasn’t what I wanted.
Right then, I wanted to rip holes in each one of their skulls.
To rip off each of their limbs, even if they seemed to grow back.
It didn’t matter, I would make them feel pain.
I was going to make them suffer.
"I promise you... No matter what it is. I promise you..." I heard myself saying to Evellyn.
But I knew what she wanted me to promise.
I always knew.
She wanted me to find a version of our world, where the both of us were alive, and where the both of us could live.
Together.
In peace.
I just didn’t know if it was even possible, but if I died there, I would try.
That’s why I promised her.
But at that time, all I wanted was to fight, even if it was reckless.
Even if I didn’t make it out to be the rogue I thought the system wanted me to be.
So I got up, limping, and remembering when I had my true awakening, I forced the system aside, focusing everything I had into moving as fast as I could.
Keeping my mind away from the pain.
And thinking only in dealing as much damage I could to those bastards who didn’t know who they were dealing with...
