The final selection for the tournant didn't surprise Alice at all. Everyone whom she thought would pass thanks to the records, passed, including herself.
Jin also did pretty well for the spar as he was actually put with a normal instructor.
Turns out, after Alyss's stunt in the first chamber, no one wanted to spar with her out of fear.
Despite being in a position where she couldn't use her Sigils or enhancents, she still found a way to break the door!
They didn't want to imagine what kind of damage she could do if they were to accidentally annoy her during the spar.
"The main tournant will be starting in about two days, are you excited?" Alice asked Jin as the two of them were walking through the streets of Baichuan.
The festival was still going strong with more people crowding the streets. Read chapters at My Virtual Library Empire
"Not really?" Jin shrugged.
The calibre of contestants was a little disappointing for him. Except for maybe a handful of people, none of them caught his attention.
Perhaps it's because he's slowly unlocking the offensive Zone but their movents seed sluggish and lacklustre.
"Oh hou~ Confident now are we?" Alice hid her smile with her fan as Jin felt a chill and quickly shook his head.
"N-no! It's simply that no one can compare to you master." Jin coughed, sneaking a glance at Alice who nodded her head in satisfaction.
"Well no matter how much you praise , Alyss will still give you that training session you owe her." Alice chuckled.
Hearing this, Jin's shoulders drooped down with a deep sigh.
Just as Alice was about to sll sothing else, she noticed a fragrant scent in the air.
'Alcohol!'
Swallowing her saliva, Alice had Jin go off on his own for now, they'll gather back at the Inn later.
Seeing Alice run off so quickly, Jin couldn't help but chuckle knowing that she was probably going to go drinking.
But his smile soon faded after noticing sothing in his periphery.
A figure he was familiar with. That hairstyle, those eyes and that smile on his face. . .
Quickly turning his head over, he frowned as there was nothing there.
'Am I being paranoid?' Jin frowned.
There was no trace of the cult's energy there so it couldn't have been who he thought it was.
Shaking his head, he sighed and glanced up at the sky only to see the Eclipse hanging above him.
"!!!"
Rubbing his eyes, he noticed that it was gone once more.
'What the hell is going on.'
Was it the lingering effects of the Eclipse Ritual? Was the Eclipse planning sothing else? What was going on?
Jin had countless questions flying through his head yet had no answers.
###
Following behind Luke, Ria watched as he cleaned up all of the victims that lashed out at them.
The more she watched, the more confused she beca.
Was she like that too? Did she try to lash out at Gin?
Why did he spare her? Why can't she help them?
'Are they not lesser beings to you? Hm?' Her voice asked as Ria blocked it out.
It was trying to sow doubts into her heart, and as much as Ria is loathed to admit it, it was working.
She was beginning to doubt what she was doing, why she was doing this.
But every ti she asked herself this question, only one answer appeared in her mind.
She wanted revenge.
Revenge for what they made her beco, for the actions she did during the ritual.
'Oh no no no. They didn't make you do it. YOU did it. You ate, you killed, you laughed, you danced. You could've just folded over and died, clinging onto your morality till the bitter end but YOU, tossed it away for survival. You survived upon the sacrifices of the others that were in that pit with you.'
Gritting her teeth, Ria punched the wall beside her as Luke glanced back in surprise.
Shaking her head, Ria gestured for them to push forward.
'You don't want revenge, you want justification. Justification for everything you did in the past so that you won't be blad for it. Are you afraid? Afraid of their hands gripping around your neck in your sleep?'
*CLANG!!!
Glancing up in shock, Ria was surprised to see a fanatic with a blade in hand inches away from hitting her. However, Luke managed to intervene and parry it off to the side before casting his Bishop piece.
Manifesting a spectre of Alice, he controlled her to fire a Void Flux point blank, erasing the upper half of the fanatic.
"Maybe we should sit down for a bit." Luke suggested.
The closer they got to the heart, the more severe Ria's reactions were becoming.
It even got to the point where a normal human was about to harm her.
"Right… We should." Ria sighed, clutching her head.
'Does it feel good? To get his pity? Oh~ Poor you, having to go through what you went through~ Shall we conveniently forget the fact that you even went out of your way to kill so of them?
'Oh who was it again? What was his na? Poor lad tried to defend you before Luke appeared. But then you chased him down through the lake of blood, gutted him like a pig and watched as the light disappeared.
'Can you still rember his last words?'
"Why…" Ria muttered, glancing down at the floor.
Her vision turned a little hazy as drum beats pounded in her ears.
She could hear the rhythmic chanting of the fanatics while they killed each other in the pit of blood.
Their harmonic choir and the clashing of weapons against the ground.
She wasn't just any victim of the Ritual.
She was their best executioner.
The one who lasted the longest.
'How could you ever forget how you lured them in? Acted all weak and innocent. Oh poor , look at how ek and cute I am. I need your protection otherwise I'll die~ Every new batch they brought didn't know any better and bought into your bullsh*t kekeke.
'Then when they turned their backs… You struck.'
Closing her eyes, Ria tried to take a deep breath to try and calm down but it felt as though she just drank a mouthful of blood.
Her eyes snapped open only to see that nothing changed.
There was no blood in her mouth, it was simply her own hallucinations.
'Miss the taste? Delicious isn't it. Go on, look to your right. He's just like the others back then right? Wasn't he your next victim before Gin appeared?'
'You're wrong!' Ria denied, looking away from Luke.
'Am I? We both know the answer to that.'
'Go on, listen to the call. Be like the good girl you were in the past. You wanted their approval didn't you? Because if you did, you'll survive. Do you truly believe you can kill a God? Our God?
'You saw what the Apostles can do with a wave of their hand. Abyss Lords are re children to them. Even if you reach the fabled nine Sigils, what makes you think the Apostle of Famine wouldn't just swat you like a fly?'
Ria didn't know how to reply.
Shaking her head, she forced herself to stand up.
"Maybe you should rest a little longer." Luke frowned, concerned about Ria's current state.
"It's fine. The faster we get this over the sooner I can stop hearing this voice." Ria smiled bitterly before summoning her weapon.
She could sense that the heart of the ritual was not far from them now.
In another few floors, they'll reach the bottom.
To their right, she could see the waterfall of black ooze that dripped from the sun flowing deeper towards the heart of the ritual.
Taking her eyes off the ooze, Ria crouched down slightly as lightning coursed through her body.
*BANG!!!
Rushing down without waiting for Luke, Ria could see the fanatics trying to scramble against her.
All she needed to do was disarm them. Disarm their weapons and they can't fight back.
*KRK!!!!
Appearing before a fanatic, she twisted her body and cleaved them in half.
"!!!"
Adjusting her grip, she stabbed her sword into the ground, sending out blades of lightning that fried the others within the proximity.
Watching the blood evaporating, Ria glanced down at her hands.
There was no tremble, no guilt.
She could see her reflection in the mirror, the 'shock' in her eyes.
She was smiling a twisted smile. Her eyes were calm and she saw a shadow of her forr self in her reflection.
###
Kneeling in a pool of blood crafted by the corpses of countless fanatics gutting themselves, a robed figure raised their hands into the air.
"Sons and daughters of Eclipse, harken to my words. Can you feel it? Our lost sibling has returned. With her hands, she has delivered our family to the Lord's embrace. Welco it! Embrace it!
"Through the spilling of our blood and flesh, we will be reunited with the Lord! The Eclipse loves all! Only through war can peace be appreciated. Only through famine will the clouded eyes be opened. Beneath the banner of the Eclipse, all is equal!" They proclaid as another wave of fanatics walked towards the pool.
Raising their ritualistic daggers, there was a fervent light in their eyes as they smiled.
"All is equal!"
Plunging the dagger into their stomachs, they twisted the dagger and threw themselves in as their blood revitalised the pool.
"Lord of the darkened Sun, give onto us your blessings as we carry out your holy word. We will welco back our lost sibling with open arms. We will accept her, forgive her and bring her to the light." The figure prayed towards the statue of the God of the Eclipse.
Reviews
All reviews (0)