"Three. Are you enjoying yourself?"
The King spoke aloud.
The woman sat looking at a blue screen that projected from a black ball. On it were different angles and fights that were taking place at the selection. "You can call me Isis when it's just us residents alone together." The King did not respond but continued to look at the screen himself.
"To an extent. This new generation isn't good at putting on a show, I'll say." She added.
"I agree. Even some of the prospects this year aren't much better than the coal out there."
"Honestly. To wager our own spirit essence on a few so untalented is beginning to feel like a waste, especially considering our stages. Even one rank lost could disrupt the entire hierarchy between houses at the citadel."
"That's what I wanted to speak with you about. Join the winning team."
"Huh?"
"It's time you chose your prospect…"
"King, you know it's against the rules to choose a prospect after the selection has started."
"We are ranked one in the citadel. Who can stop us? Do this, and maybe you can break through and evolve into your next rank."
Isis stared at the participants trying their best to fight off the beast but were unable. She was a stern woman who always played by the book even when she had the power to not have to do so, though even she knew The King was right.
At their stages it would take years to gain a single rank. Placing a bet like this could shave some of those years off if her chosen prospect did well enough, but in the outcome the chosen prospect loses, the setback would be highly undesirable.
The King leaned forward in his throne resting his arms on the long table that centered between the rest of the nine thrones. "I won't force you to wager away your own essence but think it over Isis, I will have the same talk with number four."
He then faded and was returned to a darkened figure that sat amongst the thrones with the other residents from the House of Eden.
Isis was left watching the screen. She saw the princess, who she just witnessed become a prospect no more than two days ago, and a boy who seemed as if he did not know how to fight at all defeat two of the corrupted while being a full rank under said creatures.
Her eyes widened just a little, her lips curled upwards, unexpected even to herself. "Something must be in the air… that was brilliant!"
****
Kei's eyes appeared as if they'd lost their light. He looked at Simon but it also seemed as if he were looking beyond him.
"I'm a resident of The House of Destiny's Palm which consists of four people. With a promised fifth that will appear here during the selection." Kei muttered.
'What am I saying? It feels like I'm floating or… wading, in an endless abyss. Why am I telling him this? I can't see him anymore but he looked familiar… I shouldn't have told him anything, right? He said I should, so shouldn't I?'
Kei's body slouched lazily. Lila's eyes slowly began to open. She felt her hands chained and her mouth gagged by ripped cloth. She began to tug at the chains and tried to yell but nothing could free her.
"Don't mind her. Go on." Simon smiled.
"We don't know the fifth. Her name is Lila, then there's me Kei, Lok, and Kori."
Simon's eye twitched and was about to speak but was interrupted. The person next to Simon panicked. "Kori? As in Kori Hageshi?!".
"Calm down! Don't you know? That clown is nothing worth fearing aside from status and that doesn't matter in the selection." Simon ordered.
"But the Hageshi family is strong. She has to have a strong design or battle state. What if she's really good at manipulating spirit essence?! We should let them go before we make an unwanted enemy!" The boy went on in a panic.
Simon looked over his shoulder at the boy with his eyes widened in annoyance, "Max. Didn't I say calm down…"
Instantly his fellow resident's eyes dulled.
"Yes. Sorry Simon."
He turned back to Kei. Who's eyes had been returned with light. Kei began to thrash around intent on breaking the chains holding him. "You?! What the hell was that?! You brainwashed me?! Dirty fucking snake!" He shouted.
Simon inspected the mask on Kei's face with a smile as he screamed and struggled. It looked to be a raven's skull that held purple and black iridescent feathers. The long straight beak of the mask made it irritating for them to put the gag on Kei back when he was unconscious. This led Simon to try removing the mask but found that he couldn't.
No matter how hard he pulled it, it wouldn't come off, so he had determined that the mask on Kei's face was some sort of spell mechanism.
Simon stopped smiling. "I say you should shut your mouth." Kei's mouth closed instantly and his resistance began to fade.
"Now, you said your name was Kei. I used to know someone with the same name. He was someone who needed to die, who had to. I don't know if you two are the same person but I can't shake the feeling, so I say, tell me your last name?"
Even though he had just regained control of himself Kei once again had been pulled back into the abyss. It felt like the wind stood still and the trees stared at him awaiting his answer.
"My name is… Kei Ju—"
"Stop it! Please just let us go." Lila shouted after she had finally managed to get the gag out of her mouth.
Simon sighed, "You idiots… how loose did you have the cloth? I couldn't hear this brat because of her yelling."
"Max tied it dude." The stocky fellow next to the fire informed him.
"Are you lying now? I left her to you man." Max replied.
Simon scratched his head in annoyance and put the gag back in Kei's mouth. He then walked over to Lila before kneeling in front of her.
"Please just let us go! Keeping us will not help towards the trial's objective." Lila begged as tears flowed down her face.
"Pft…" Simon put his hand over his mouth barely hiding his laughter. "Are you really that dense?".
"Huh? The objective of the corruption cleansing trial is to place the three settlements and cleanse 100% of the map. You don't need us to accomplish that goal!" She bargained.
"Girl's got no brains." A woman bit into an apple near the fire.
Simon's laughter soon quieted. "At the selection's heart it's just a tool to weed out the weak from the strong. Here the strong don't give up their lives to protect someone weaker. The weak simply perish and wither into nothing, but surviving, surviving proves you're strong in one way or another."
Simon simply stared at her in silence making her uneasy but that silence was broken by Kei's persistent struggling.
"Do you know? In this new world things don't just die. They push forward the things that live, corrupted or not. Spirit essence. No matter what dies, it gives whoever survives the power to push forward." He added.
Though Lila was timid she was not an idiot and now understood exactly why this house had taken them.
Clink! Wham!
In a moment's notice Kei had broken the chain and head butted Simon with his arms still behind his back, taking the enemy house by surprise.
Both Simon and Kei fell to the ground. The others in Simon's house rushed to stop Kei from even trying to go further.
"Max, Charlotte, Dan. Keep holding him… he's going first." Simon said seriously as he stood up and unsheathed his sword while walking towards Kei.
"Wait!" Lila shouted.
"Eric shut her up." Simon stood above Kei, raising his sword.
Eric tried to fix the girl's gag but could not due to her squirming, "No! You don't have to kill us for it, we can help you instead!" Lila bargained with a desperate smile.
"How?" Simon asked, his sword lowered while Kei still struggled under the weight of those three people.
Lila's heart was beating so fast it hurt. She couldn't hide her fear and her body shuddered as if she were under the weight of a mountain. "We can hunt for you! We can give you all the spirit essence we gather from killing creatures. Humans shouldn't kill each other! Please don't kill my friend!" She cried as she found her answer.
For the first time in a long time Kei felt the need to watch over another, like he did with Lok.
"This bitch! He didn't move for a bit but now he's fighting it even more than before. You dumbass! Can't you see there's no way out of this!" Charlotte yelled.
Simon was still. He was thinking. Fear was taking Lila over every second he didn't come to a conclusion.
He looked over his shoulder. "What would Kori think, if she knew I captured you two and were about to kill you?"
Lila was stumped by his question and unable to put together an answer, because in truth even she didn't know.
"No further talk is needed. Let your deaths push us forward." Simon raised his sword once more.
"NO!"
Bits of stone began to emerge from the ground to form a stone tablet above Lila's head. Words were written but unseen by the enemy house. The words written were implanted in Lila's head and she instantly understood what it was.
She struggled with intent to reach out to Kei, the chains confining her unraveled with golden light flowing elegantly around them.
"What the hell!" Eric shouted.
The chains stretched hitting away those near to her and Kei.
In the next moment Lila touched the chains that held Kei hostage. A light began to surround his chains and they began to unravel as well.
Kei was also taken aback by Lila's power. But that did not calm his anger. He tried to run at Simon who, like the others, was trying to get his bearings after being hit.
Lila wrapped her chains around Kei, effectively stopping him.
As his feet ascended from the ground he began to shout at Lila. "What're you doing, let me go! We have to kill him; he deserves it! He has to die!".
Lila flinched a little when she felt his anger, but she would not allow him to rush at an enemy house so recklessly.
She took Kei and ran deeper into the forest while the words written in stone replayed in her head.
{You have realized your design, my child. Go forward, and support those dear to you.}
{Design}
{LINK: You can now create and manipulate chains that can link anything.}
{Defect}
{Both the act of linking and the creation of each link of the chain require spirit essence.}
"We have to catch them!" Charlotte yelled as she began to chase after Kei and Lila.
"Stop!" Simon ordered.
Charlotte clenched her fist in anger. "If they go back and tell Kori she'll hunt us and you know it!"
"Then she'll die like they will… Now we have to move. We don't know how many creatures we alerted." Simon responded unphased by Kori's status or power.
[Are you ok master.]
The robotic voice of the S.E.G sounded off in his head showing heightened levels of compatibility.
'I'm fine. The girl realized her design right in the middle of it, shit. Hey, is it still the same?'
[Yes, your stage and rank are still the same. This encounter did not help towards evolution.]
[Spirit Stage: Standard Purified.]
[Design]
[I SAY: No matter what they are, anyone that hears this command phrase will be forced to obey.]
Simon's teeth clenched as his house began to become stiff, realizing his rage. "How dare they defy my rule and live. No matter what. I'll definitely kill those bastards."