The moon bled ...it's ghostly light leaving the snow in a silver glimmer....and the silence stretched across the entire mountain like sheet over a cup...
The bone chilling cold hang in every corner like a predator ready to devour its prey on site...
It's trees...girthy and high as though daring to touch the heavens....
The leaves rustled...their sound like a whisper of the once living...
Somewhere in the forest blood painted the snow in crimson and pieces of human flesh littered the snow like fallen leaves...and screams resounded the air like a dinner bell...something was awfuly wrong...
A massive truck laid sideways like a dead beast awaiting the vultures..its armored body ripped and deformed with multiple holes and spikes sticking out from all sides.
Around the truck were a few youths...out of the ahundred only sixty four were still breathing...
Whatever had attacked them was gone...but the damage was done....a few had lost limbs...some unconscious and most dead..
But the remaining survivers were still away from death's door..
For now....
Those who possed healing attributes were trying their best to help their injured frie__whatever they called each other...they may have not been close but that wasn't gonna stop them from helping one another..
But not all of them...
Not to faraway from the truck...
Another person cried out for help...her soft voice barely noticeable amidst the caos.
It's was Evae...her ashen face a sign that things weren't good and her clothes had some blood all over them ...she kneeling in the cold snow as tears fell down her face like broken dam...
She was holding onto Karze asthough the world was trying to take him away....she turned and looked at him...the terrible wound in his chest...seeing this her hearts turned cold like metal deeped in icey water.
His face was turning pale from blood loss...if nothing changed soon...He woul___
Not wishing to listen to these thoughts she gently placed him aside...but just as she turned to leave....someone weakly held her hand...
She turned to see who it was....her eyes widened and her heart raced...
"K__Karze...you're
She tried but couldnt get the words right...
But it felt like an invisible weight had been lifted off her shoulders....she was relieved....she'd thought was going to lose him.
He held her hand...it was soft...like it held only the most delicate of things....
But something was wrong with them...they weren't warm...it's like blood nolomger run through them....not any more.
Overwhelmed by joy,she pulled him in for a hug him as the dam of tears broke....she was happy.
But his body wasn't sharing the energy...
"Ouch !...take it easy there..."
He groaned ..causing her to pull back...
She looked stared at him with a weak smile..."so sorry..."
"Nah it's nothing reall___
He broke off
Something was wrong...He smelled blood...
Her blood.
He looked at her clothes...them her clothes...they were damaged with holes...each one covered in blood...fresh blood.
His eyes widened...one beat missed and a thunderous followed.
This whole time...she'd ignored her own wounds and focused only on him....and now...she was paying the price for it...
Completely ignoring his wound...He jolted off the snow and grabbed her before she collapsed to the snow....she lost alot of blood....
He took of her hoody....and what he saw made his blood turn cold and shivers flood his spine...she had multiple wounds in multiple places....her chest...the shoulder...her stomach and her.
Her breathing was faster....asthough her lungs were barely catching the air..
Her face was turning pale and her body turning colder with each second.
******
FLASHBACK....
"EVERYONE GRAB ONTO SOMETHING..HURRY..!!!"
Right after the warning..everyone rushed and held on to the truck for dear life..
Then came the impact...the truck's side caved in..lights died and the world felt like it'd had been sent toppling over a mountain.
Those that failed to hold on amidst all the caos were thrown all over the place like rag dolls...and with each twist and turn...was followed by the sickening sound of bones breaking and tearing through flesh...
Screams filled the truck like a forgotten alarm.
Karze was holding Evae close to him...she had almost fallen off after collision but he grabbed her just afyer she'd lost her grip.
After a few more seconds the truck stopped its' vigorous death twist and lay side ways.
Not wasting a second...Karze jumped down to the side of the truck which was now the base...
He helped Evae to her feet...but she she strugghled to stay up...after all the twists and turns she couldn't keep her head straight...
"You should sit if standing is a problem"
He suggested.
She did just that...
Karze offered her a smile then walked towards the others...
"How did he know....?"
He thought as he got closer to the others.
Almost everyone had an injury and they were all trying to attend to them...many hand died and their corpses littered the floor like leaves...
The sight of it was sickening to the bone but he felt completely nothing...neither gear nor disgust...it was all just....dead people.
White light illuminated the darkness....
Someone had activated their attribute,A few others were could still move and they trying their hardest to help the rest...he couldn't help but feel uneasy....because for some one be able to stand after that..they must be built different.
He stopped and looked around...at everything.
"Is this what the Government wants...to eviscerate the weak in such a cruel manner...to be honest it was a win win...because the chosen that failed their challenges turned to cursed abominations that sought destruction to everything around...but those that succeeded grew stronger...but by gathering them all together and putting them at deaths' door...the weak died and the strong lived...and it's the strong that the Government wanted."
All these thoughts really got him thinking...why did the young die saving the old...they didn t have to so why were they...
He sighed
He wanted to move forward but something caught his eye...right next to him..a corpse__that's what he'd thought the first time but no...they were still alive but not for long....
It was a girl...her limbs broken with her ribs sticking out her chest...her silver hair had been turned crimson with blood...and her frosty blue eyes were losing the little life they had left....
She was dressed in a school uniform....a white shirt...with a green red syripped tie that matched her skirt...He shifted his gaze to the school badge...and right above it was her name...
"Sophia "
She stared into his dark eyes...wishing to say something but the blood drowned her throat....but she didn't have to...Karze had killed so many...He knew how to read their eyes...
So he clearly knew what she wanted...death...she wanted him to end her suffering...
He took a glance at the rest. Not wishing for anyone to witness what he was about to do.
After confirming...
He slowly got on one knee...his eyes now a glassy silver and their gaze piecing through her like a sword through flesh and bone.
She stared into his eyes...her reflection embedded inside them....a reflection of another her...a part she'd hidden away from everyone....He could see her...the real her.
And when he spoke..his voice cold and hollow like a whisper from DEATH...
"Am not saving you...am only keeping you alive to face the pain that's to come."
Her eyes slightly widened and shivers went down her broken spine.
He moved his hand and placed sth in her mouth...she swallowed it and the after math was agonising...if felt like her heart burst and was remade anew...
she opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out...
then her bones shattered and were also remade anew..but everytime...she wished to die...the spine was Mind shattering...she was losing consciousness....and her eyes slowly shut...she watched him walkway....his figure. Slowly varnish from her site.
******
BACK TO THE PRESENT.
Karze held her Evae....his mind fluctuating with rage...He quickly opened his hand and almost instantly....a white pill appeared...the same one he'd given to Sophia awhile back....
He placed it in her her mouth...but nothing changed...instead...a holographic screen hovered before him...its edges designed with ancient runes and its surface translucent yet vividly alive....
It flickered,between ethereal,silver and a ghostly violet...each switch responding to his heartbeat....
Right at the centre...a few more runes simmered with a ghostly blue...they were a message....
Karze stared as their reflection danced in his eyes...as the systems voice rung to every corners of his mind...it was NEXAR,her voice soft and intoxicating....soothing but deadly like poisoned wine in a glass.
! DANGER !
The chosen target is unknown !
Her blood's contaminated with. Necrothorns' poison...
Moonlights' Blood may be ineffective ! Further attempts may result in death.
Do you wish to proceed ?
YES. NO.
After reading the runes...he shut his eyes and clenched his jaws.was he going to risk it all in a gamble of luck....
Karze knew that there's nothing anyone here could do and save Evae that's why he didn t bother to ask for that help....
"I won't yo____
He was cut off by the sudden sound of NEXARs' voice....
YOU HAVE A NEW CHALLENGE.
He focussed on the runes and read the description to the challenge.
Description :
Defeat the Necrothorn.
Reward : Necrothorns' pure blood.
:Poison King.
Description 1:
Once impure as the night,now. pure as day...drink this blood and you'll escape an assured death.
Description 2:
No kind or amount of poison will bring harm to you...for you are its King.
Karze stared the rune for awhile longer...He didn t know if the system was just messing with him...but he didn t care....the reward was one he had to reap monster what.
When the abomination attacked he'd passed out...but before that he'd placed a tier four barrier around Evae but it got through and managed to severely injure her.
He may have not seen it but there no doubt about it...it was strong....very strong.
Before...it's attacks caught him offguard....it used an attribute which was very rare among Monsters...
His head still hurt from the crack on his skull...if not for his quick reaction...the spike might have dome more than a simple crack.
He sighed...clearing his mind of thought.
He then took off his hoody dressed Evae in it...then he got to his feet, Evae resting in his arms...
His expression was cold and devoid of emotion and his eyes weren't their usual lively black....they were now a shimmering glassy silver....their gaze as sharp a razor... looking over his shoulder ...he spoke...his voice like a whisper of death.
"Come out "
And almost instantly...someone appeared from behind the tree....their figure stood right behind him.
It was a girl...clad in a bloodied school uniform...her silver hair and face now red with blood...her eyes,a frosty blue and lively
..but dangerous like a viper ready to strike.
It was Sophia...the girl he'd saved before the second attack....
"You survived..."
Confused by his response...
She spoke..her voice carefree of any worry.
"Huh....what do you mean "you survived "....did I look like a goner to you...
She paused....reconsindering her statement
Then she continued...
"Ok maybe I did but atleast sound relieved that am her___
Once he fully turned and showed his eyes...she took an involuntary step back....it's like her body was telling her to run....
If she could....
He didn't say another word...He just walked up to her and placed Evae into her arms....she didn t protest....he'd saved her life...so holding someone for him was not even close to repaying that deed.
He looked at Evae one last time....and started walking into the forest.
Seeing this...she couldn't help but ask...her voice calm but hiding the fear she felt.
"So how do you plan to find that creature ?...."
He stopped and stared at her with the corner of his eye...one question hurried in it.
"And how do you know ?....."
Not taking a second longer....she answer.
"Oh !...well...I can kinda see people's challenges...only the ones they're doing though..."
She laughed nervously.
"Um...sorry"
He took a few seconds to look at the moon....it's image painted on his corneas by an invisible brush....
Then he looked back into the forest asthough piercing through the veil of darkness.
Then he answered...his voice deep and cold..
She couldn't help but fill shivers flood her spine.
"As long as it lives .....my blade will smell its blood and hear its' every breath...till its claimed it's last one."
He didn't add anything and she didn't ask...
She just watched him walk away...his statement still ringing in her ears like a sonar wave....
But one question clang to her mind like a tick on flesh....burning her for an answer.
"Who is this guy?....."