Ti ticked as the drops of blood fell to the ground.
Mack, with complete dark clothes and two dark red swords by his belt, was chained in the middle of a dark chamber.
His foots didn't touched the ground, and the contrast between the chains and the dark room made the silhouette of Mack appear as enigmatic as the moon in the sky, one side full of darkness and the other bright as the day.
His head was down as if tired or unconscious, and sweat rolled down from his neck to his hair mocking the owner about his own fate, as if to anounce that a head should roll today.
Drops of blood mixed with sweat on the floor forming a pool below Mack feet, while the pungent sll seed to perate every corner of the small chamber.
But Mack was healing.
Healing too fast.
Normally soone would be happy about healing, but not Mack.. Because by the end of this what awaited for him was his death.
His doom.
There was nothing that could change this invariable end.
"Is that so?"
Asked him back to the voice in his head.
[What could you possibly do it?]
"HaHaHaHaHaHa"
[Kid, don't even think you are smart now just because you have grown a few muscles in the tower. The brain has no muscles]
"You watched all those years, but seem to not know ."
[...]
Mack, still with his head down, stood silent as if reflecting upon the choice of every single word he would say.
"Within the chaos of life I find myself, with nothing, thus nothing to abide."
"Life and death, thus, I cast aside."
"I may not be the master of my life but my death is mine to decide."
[hm.... nice poem.... So you plan to kill yourself?]
"You know , maybe better than I know myself. Tell . Give one reason that holds here."
[...]
Without an answer from his ancestor, the creeping silence in his mind and the thoughts about his unfortunate and bleak life until now made Mack ponder if soday things would change, or if he would always feel as if it was all in vain as always.
A bleak life.
Why he felt like that?
[You desperately wishing to die and desperately craving to live. Yet, you would kill yourself before letting win]
"HaHaHaHa"
"Indeed. What a dead lock"
[You and your dad jokes as always]
"I had the best teacher. My father."
Thinking about his father again, and how that old man loved to tell bad jokes, made him nostalgic.
His father was the only thing that kept Mack living a sane life.
But now.
~sigh~
"Just end already"
Said Mack in a saded voice.
The hair covered his eyes so no one ever saw that drop of tear that rolled from his eyes.
"I'm tired."
Said Mack again to reaffirm his will.
"I will not kill myself. You can go ahead, maybe it's all fate for us to et here. Because I have nothing that matter anymore. A perfect vessel for you, ha."
[...]
"I just can't anymore. I'm tired! And sick of being tired."
Said Mack, amidst tears that ca from his solitude and the longing he felt for his father.
His rage was gone.
Only sadness remained.
He could never see that man again.
His father.
The only person who Mack loved in his entire life.
He was gone.
And today, Mack only wished for the pain to stop.
He didn't care anymore.
He stopped pretending that he was fine or strong.
"Just do it already!"
Scread Mack with a trembling voice while the tears rolled over his mouth.
"Kill !"
[Kid, You do change of opinion rather quickly, don't you?]
But the true was, Mack was consud by all the straining years on the tower.
The more he pushed, the more he felt ntally exhausted, and nothing seed to improve.
"Just do it. I don't care anymore. I'm fucking tired of this life, and no matter how many days pass, things will not be different."
[Why do you think so?]
"The mories will never fade"
[If you really think like that, why are you still breathing?]
"I... I .... promised him"
[What? you promised to breathe? That's kind of la. Be specific kid. What did you promise to your father?]
"Shut up, old man! Why do you care? You want my body. Take it!"
[I shall do it as you wish]
As the voice of the old man faded, Mack heard an acute sound and his vision blurred.
Not a second later, darkness ca to embrace Mack.
In front of Mack, the image of his ancestor appeared again, as if he was always there.
The old man looked at Mack's body, and seed to ponder, while his right hand stroked his own beard.
"At least the rage is gone. Now only the sadness remains. Tirgur, contact with the central"
As the old man finished speaking, a translucent image of a man appeared in front of him, but with a blurred face.
"How has been your stay at your old turf, Harlack?"
Asked the blurred image.
"Not good, not good. This behind you is my last descendent and the last candidate from this tower too."
Said the old man in a preoccupied tone.
"Why? I rember that planet KX3 had at least billions of humans on the last report."
"Indeed, the problem is the Essence levels, is too weak to produce a decent candidate, and all my descendants seem to be pursued by the mage alliance. They should had been the rulers of the planet, yet, they have been hunted down" said the old man.
"I see. Send the full report. We still can use artificial insemination in mass. That way, you will have enough candidates to justify the tower. The Essence level is another issue..... Let check if any star close to you will die..." said the blurred image.
"I already checked and there is none. It will take a few Aeons for the next. And also.... this one kid here.... we have a problem with the emotional levels...." said the old man, pondering over the next words.
"What kind of problem? Didn't he reach the end of the first level?" asked the blurred image.
"He did.... But the protocol about a few emotions was a failure. I could not remove the purple spectrum" said the old man.
"Sadness?"
"Correct, but I may have a solution for that. I found the root case, and it seems to be his deceased father."
"Was not the 5th trial supposed to fix that?" asked the man with a blurry face.
"He went rampage and destroyed the scenario and even the blue bird itself" said the old man, a bit embarrassed, not sure why.
"What a pain in the ass must have been this guy. And how do you plan to fix it?"
"I will erase his mory about this day and send him to his ho planet. I will make it seem as if the mont he left the 8th trial he was sent back."
"You know the rules. They can't reenter the tower..... oh no... don't tell ..."
"Yes. I plan to guide him to another tower." said the old man.
"Harlack! For god's sake my friend, you already dedicated too much. Is it worth it? There are thousands of other candidates in other towers. Is it because he is the last of your lineage?"
"Not that. You know, I don't really care for it anymore. It's because of the 8th gate."
"How many of him?"
"Twelve with him."
"Holy fucking mother lord! Twelve? Why I did not receive a report about this? Twelve.... If he had Twelve and killed them all... "
"He didn't. He killed only five, only the strongest of them. But you know what that ans...."
"Another monster!!!" said the man with a blurry face.
"Also, he reached level five in the 8th trial. I didn't send the report because he barely took a few hours in there." said the old man.
"So promising..... Are you sure you will be able to get rid of the purple spectrum? And also.... reach another tower? Which one do you plan on sending him?" asked the blurred man, almost wanting to go himself there to make sure everything worked as he expected.
"What? You think I am not up to the task? Old friend, this is just a kid. If a say the right words, he would jump on fire.... to tell the true... when he reached the 9th gate, he was consud by rage, I had to play a piece on him to get rid of the red spectrum...."
"It's not that, Harlack, I just got a little excited about his prospects.... let's see... I will authorize the extraction and the lockdown of the Tower for 4 Aeons. Thats when Essence would return to your ho planet. You can go, I will take care of the paperwork for you." said the man with blurry face.
"Thank you, my friend."
By the ti the old man said his thanks, the translucent image vanished.
"Now, to the fun part" said the old man, rembering how fun it was to pretend to be 'An Arcane'.
"Whats even an arcane?.... geez where did I take that na from? I must have read too much light novels from Earth."
And with that, he vanished again, but this ti, Mack vanished with him.
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