Chapter 53: Ch92. Grasp
Kurt couldn’t move a single muscle while his other version attacked him mercilessly.
Punches flew like rockets and kicks went in like hammers.
He felt the pain, but his will didn’t waver for a single moment, because of a single thought that could change the entire game.
If proved right.
"Why aren’t you saying anything, other me? Are you by any chance afraid of dying here?" The other Kurt chuckled. "Do you remember how you made me look ABSOLUTELY WORTHLESS to the system back then? How you were able to mimic almost every single one of my movements like it was NOTHING?"
And he landed another blow on Kurt’s stomach.
This one couldn’t go unnoticed, and the young Kurt fell to his knees, vomiting a mouthful of blood.
"Yeah..." Kurt’s other version stopped in front of him, crouching down and looking at him straight in the eye. "It was as painful as the punch you just took. But do you want to know what was even more painful than that?"
The younger Kurt raised his head to face his other version.
"What...?" He coughed some more.
"Nourishing the system with my own energy until you were strong enough to give me yours." The older Kurt scoffed. "I never imagined that someone would take so long to only achieve level two! But them you enrolled into that fancy academy and got inside a real Nest for the very first time... Boy, I was glad to see you finally getting some results." He smiled. "I understood that I’d finally get out of here and meet my end of the bargain."
The older Kurt’s hands crackled with red energy, and from out of nowhere, he summoned them.
The [MIDNIGHT SISTERS] glistened in his hands with a threatening aura.
"It’s a pity that you won’t live much longer to see it through, though."
And the older Kurt slashed against the younger Kurt’s throat.
But the younger Kurt’s afterimage lowly vanished from sight, as his real body suddenly reappeared a few steps from the enemy.
"You know..." The younger Kurt sighed. "It’s hard, moving around with your influence all over the place. But... You’re nothing like your old self. I don’t know what the difference between us is..." ’[GHOST STEPS OF A THOUSAND FEET]’
Countless of the young Kurt’s afterimages appeared out of nowhere, all around the blankness of the white space around them.
"... But I’m not willing to give up my life for you to live yours just because you couldn’t fulfill whatever purpose the system had given you."
But not only the younger version of Kurt activated the skill, the older, stranger Kurt did the same, following the young Kurt’s movements to the t, even though the younger version was able to evade the [MIDNIGHT SISTERS] strikes by a hairsbreadth.
"You... How?!"
"I don’t know either." Kurt’s lips were but a straight, thin line. "But in my point of view, whatever happened for me to break whatever spell you had cast on me, just proves that it doesn’t matter what you did. You’re wrong."
The older Kurt frowned for a second, but right at the next moment, his expression turned into a murderous glare, as the [MIDNIGHT SISTERS] glowed in red.
The blades looking as if screaming.
Thirsty for blood.
"It didn’t have to turn out like this, Kurt..." The corrupted, cracked lips of the older Kurt moved, saying. "You could’ve just accepted your fate." He slashed again.
This time, opening a deep gash on his younger version’s chest.
The younger Kurt gritted his teeth.
"YOU COULD’VE JUST LET YOURSELF DIE AND GIVE INTO ME!"
The older Kurt was a split-second faster.
He dug his hand into the gash, and holding the younger Kurt close, he reached out to his younger self’s heart.
The younger Kurt gasped, feeling the tight grip around his heart, but suddenly, as soon as the other Kurt mustered the strength to crush the organ inside his younger version, the two of them came to a standstill.
The two Kurts froze in time, but in the younger Kurt’s mind, through his eyes, countless images and scenes flashed.
He felt a migraine as cruel as nothing he’d ever felt in his life, it was as if his head was going to explode, and he wasn’t able to fully comprehend what those flashing images and scenes meant.
However, a loud beep echoed around them, and an invisible force pushed the two Kurts apart.
Both fell a reasonable distance from each other, on their knees, and little by little, with time flowing normally again, the gash on the younger Kurt’s chest closed, healing.
His nose, though, started bleeding, and his head still hurt.
[I CANNOT ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN!]
The deformed Kurt had his eyes wide, his lips bobbing up and down, looking all around.
"Y-you... YOU CHOSE ME! WHY DENY ME NOW? WHAT OF OUR BARGAIN? DID I FAIL YOU SOMEHOW?"
He looked so desperate that the younger Kurt wouldn’t be surprised if his older version started crying all of a sudden.
But the system’s voice spoke again, and the younger Kurt’s lips curled upwards ever so slightly.
[I WASN’T THE ONE WHO CHOSE YOU] The system echoed, to the deformed version of Kurt’s utter disbelief.
The younger Kurt, however, was already getting up.
He cleaned his nose with the back of his hand, touching his chest and feeling the fully healed skin.
He knew it.
The images didn’t make much sense in his head when they flashed by, all at once like a disconnected film.
But as the seconds passed and the system spoke, he understood what they meant.
He still didn’t know what the system was, but he had some slightly higher knowledge about what was happening in that place.
And he understood what happened to his older version, for him to become that wretched thing.
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" He started scoffing, kinda laughing, with a manic smile spreading through his lips. "Ah, right! It’s because I threatened to destroy you that time, right? I-I take it back! I TAKE IT BACK, NOW LET ME HAVE MY END OF THE BARGAIN, please..."
His lips trembled, and soon after that he started to cry.
The younger Kurt looked at him, pity filling up his heart, knowing that if he was just slightly as unlucky, he’d be the one in his place, feeling that despair.
His skin crawled as the thought crossed his mind.
Kurt shook his head as he observed his older self.
And a few seconds after that, he decided to step forward, approaching his older self.
"I’m sorry, Kurt. But the system can’t help you with that..." He looked down at his older version, who looked up to him, gritting his teeth.
The blades of the [MIDNIGHT SISTERS] began glowing murderously as he got up in one swift movement and screamed.
