Only ten days remained. If all team members could survive until the last two days, they would be able to escape from here.
Yuel also knew that with each passing day, the chances of encountering his friends in the arena grew. And if that happened, someone would die.
Who would it be? That was entirely uncertain. Most likely, the one with the soundest mind—the one who refused to fight their friend—would be the one to die.
At least, that was Yuel's belief...
His days were endlessly dull. On one such boring day, locked inside his wooden cell, Null finally spoke after a long silence. Null usually stayed quiet unless it was during the arena battles or when Yuel started to spiral into dark thoughts and lose hope. Whenever that happened, Null would speak—helping him recover his motivation.
Was that what this was again?
"Yuel, don't you think this is your chance to create a trump card? If you continue like this, you're going to die. You need to decide now how you'll survive a battle between life and death. Think about it, and find your own path."
'Dealing with white flames isn't all that difficult. Luo might be a phase 1, but his potential was immense. Sure, the flames may not harm phase 5 titans, and yes, that would make fighting a phase 5 titan really hard—but even then, if I draw out the fight using mental attacks, I could win somehow. I don't think it'll ever come to that anyway.'
"Yuel, you're still so inexperienced. You always think about the best-case scenario. That's fine to an extent, but sometimes things don't go as planned. For those times, you need a trump card. Here's my suggestion: decide now what part of your body you're willing to sacrifice for a future contract."
'I definitely disagree with you, but... I have plenty of free time, and it's true that you're older and more knowledgeable than me. So going against your advice might not be the smartest move. Alright... I can at least do that much, probably.'
From now on, during his idle hours, Yuel wouldn't just think about cult management—he would also consider how to act in these kinds of critical situations.
As the Bloody Night Cult grew, village chiefs began to notice and tried to intervene. If Wendigo society hadn't been so rotten, perhaps they could have worked together to find the trail and unravel the cult's mysteries. But in Wendigo society, no one helped the fallen—they were kicked even further down. That's why every village chief who tried to investigate the cult was killed by its members.
In the following days, no trace of Shiro was ever found. No one knew where he had gone or why.
Toward the final days, arena battles began to grow more intense. With five days left until the final day, the cult's numbers had reached 84. Depending on how things went, they could gather enough money in just two more days.
For the first time, Yuel felt hope stir inside him, and he was content with it. He sat in his cell with a foolish grin on his face.
He had no idea that his hope was about to be shattered.
Later that day, Yuel headed to the arena.
After a brief wait, all four gates opened, and the Wendigos shouted from above:
"Come out and fight!""Kill each other!""Kill!""Kill!"
Hearing them infuriated him. In this world, being weak was a crime, and he was paying the price. He wanted to change this world where weakness was a sin—but a weak person couldn't change anything.
That's why he would grow stronger. He would escape the Arena and kill Infection. He would take his revenge.
As the four gates of the Arena opened, Yuel, like always, chose to stick to his corner. But unlike usual, someone came toward him—even though he hadn't stepped into the center.
A massive white praying mantis.
Its bloodscript was Glass, and in line with that, parts of its body were made of glass—especially the limbs it used in battle, which looked incredibly sharp.
As the mantis made the first move, Yuel tried to melt it with his flames. But as he expected, it didn't work. This mantis was a phase 4 titan. Flames from a dhune like Luo, who was only phase 1, couldn't do much to it.
But Yuel's spear, made from the tailbone of another phase 4 titan named Bone, could deal damage.
He dodged the mantis's attacks and struck a powerful blow to its neck with his spear, killing it. In recent days, he had become more proficient with the spear. But to kill a phase 4 titan with just a spear... that was truly impressive.
He'd fought phase 4 titans before, but usually used indirect methods—like getting them to fight each other and then killing the survivor.
That was practical because the last one standing was often weakened. But this time... it looked like they were all coming for him. Two more enemies were approaching—and both were phase 4 titans. Things were getting out of hand.
What had Honor and Aria done, he wondered?
But he had no time to think about it.
The first titan to approach was a white crow with dozens of blue eyes. Its bloodscript was Blindness.
That meant... it would blind Yuel. And if that happened, his chances of dying would skyrocket. So he had to attack the crow before it could make a move.
Yuel activated Whisper, summoning maddening whispering voices from right behind the crow.
As the crow twitched and turned around, trying to find the source of the whispers, Yuel grabbed his spear, enveloped it in white flames, and delivered a heavy blow to its head.
Then suddenly, Yuel lost his vision. He had gone blind. And the third opponent hadn't even appeared yet. If this continued, he might lose.
He had no choice but to use a percentage. Otherwise, he would die here. The blindness ability really was overpowered.
Yuel used 1% of Fracture's percentages to make the two phase 4 titans turn on each other.
They became so obsessed with killing each other that they ignored everything else.
Since Blindness was already seriously injured, it would likely lose. If it died and Yuel regained his sight, he could then face the final challenger.
It was a gamble—but the best option he had. He could've used all his percentages to kill them directly, but that would've been wasteful. He would need them later, too.
He used 1% of his percentages.
Immediately, an excruciating pain filled his head, and he began to scream. The pain was so overwhelming he couldn't even think. But over time, the pain faded, and he began to hear again—a groan, but not one that sounded like a crow.
To see what was happening, he used a bit of his remaining mana to view the stadium through the eyes of a spectator Wendigo.
Blindness had won the 1v1 fight against the other titan. One wing was torn off, and its head was gashed—but it was still alive and slowly approaching Yuel to kill him.
Yuel hadn't moved at all, making the crow think he had caught him off guard.
Once Blindness got close enough, Yuel used his last 80 mana to trigger a massive burst of white flames.
The blast reduced the crow to a crawling mess. But Yuel was still blind and completely out of mana, while the crow could still see—giving it the upper hand.
Yuel's only option to survive was to trust that he could still wield a spear while blind. He had no other choice...
While viewing himself from the Wendigo's perspective, he focused and tried to strike accurately.
It was unbelievably hard, but he succeeded.
He landed another spear blow to the crow's head, rendering it motionless. All its eyes shut.
He had finally reached the level where he could fight phase 4 titans.
Still, learning a proper fighting style would be nice. He hadn't even had the chance to properly talk or meet with his team yet.
Once they escaped this arena, they had to talk.
While lost in thought, Yuel returned to the entrance from which he had entered. The guards were waiting for him.
When he killed Blindness, his sight had returned. If he didn't go to the guards voluntarily, they would've forced him—so there was no need to resist.
They took him back to the same old wooden cell. Since the food there was terrible, he had torn off pieces of the crow's body he had killed. He wasn't sure how it would taste... but probably better than dry bread or those suspicious raw meatballs they gave once a day to all arena prisoners.
Yuel usually gave his share to others and ate the higher-quality food from his inventory. When that ran out, he started using what he killed in the arena.
He burned and cooked Blindness's severed wing with white flames. He didn't want to pluck it—so he roasted it until the feathers were completely charred.
Once it was pitch black, he pierced it with his spear and ate the cooked meat inside.
His eating style was rough—but there were no cultured people here anyway.
After feeding himself, he stored the leftovers in his inventory. He might need them later.
He hadn't eaten anything sweet in days, which was unfortunate. At least some fruit... even that wasn't available.
Once he escaped this arena, he would definitely find himself a sweet, juicy fruit.
As Yuel was thinking, he heard the sound of loud crying—someone was being dragged by the guards.
It was Honor's voice.
"Please! He can still be saved! Please, save him!"
No one intervened. They threw him into a cell and whipped him.
After those harsh moments, Honor fell asleep, sobbing softly.
What could have happened...? Actually, Yuel could guess—but he hoped he was wrong.
While Honor was sleeping, Yuel decided to visit his dream. After all, with the Fracture bloodscript, he had done that before.
Yuel found himself in a pitch-black space filled with Honor's sobs. He rushed toward him and asked:
"What happened?"
Honor shouted through his tears, making it hard to understand him.
Yuel sat down and tried to calm him. Using Whisper, he played some soothing, pleasant-sounding melodies. They would probably calm him eventually.
...
Yuel waited for minutes until Honor regained composure.
"O-okay... I'll tell you. Honestly, even remembering it hurts..."
Yuel grew impatient with Honor's hesitation.
"Just tell me already! You're killing me with suspense. What happened?"
"Aria died. We faced each other in the arena."
As he said it, tears filled his eyes again, and he sat on the ground. But Yuel pressed for more.
"What exactly happened? Are you upset because you killed her? What happened?"
"No. After defeating the other two opponents together, the Wendigos demanded we fight each other—or they'd kill us both. Then... Aria stabbed herself in the heart and died."
"...So it's just the two of us now?"
Honor didn't answer—he just nodded, his voice trembling. He felt it wasn't princely to show weakness.
"If you ask me, Aria has a plan. I don't believe a regressor would die for nothing. But right now, we can't focus on that. We're not even sure we'll survive. Just wait—a few more days, and we'll escape."
Honor didn't reply. He just sat there, trying not to cry.
Then Yuel left the mental realm and woke up.
Aria was dead. Shiro was missing.
Only two days remained until they had to escape.
Yuel had endured all this pain for so long... but how much longer could he bear it?
He fell asleep again and returned to the mental realm. This time, he was alone.
He had come here because in that damned prison, he wasn't even allowed to cry.
But here... here, he could cry as much as he wanted.