I stare at the darkness beyond with the passivity with which I had come to view it.
I don’t even remember what sunlight feels like anymore.
I keep wondering what it would feel like to see the sun rise over the horizon of this dark and dreary place.
Fargo had brushed off my enquiry about the poison removal, like it was something he did everyday - which is suspicious.
I had felt myself dying. Even in the brief moment I had been sixteen again, there had been a certain feeling of finality.
But then, I heard her voice, reaching out to me like claws, pulling me into the light until I opened my eyes.
Something just doesn’t add up with what I’m being told.
She had frozen when I had asked her about it - also suspicious.
After a brief debate in my head, I decide to confront her.
I leave my room in quick strides and dash along the hall absently, oblivious to the rich furniture that I usually admire on good days.
I enter the empty lounge. No one meets here anymore. They always prefer to meet at the common room or dining.
I walk through the wall and emerge at the other side - the cafeteria.
Only Diamond rank members know about this secret passage - it is forbidden to ’commoners’.
The sight before my eyes steals my breath away from me.
Arya is slumped against the wall, blood surrounding her like spilled ink.
There’s a woman standing beside her crumpled frame, holding a sword.
In front of them is... an Annihilator.
Annihilators are only supposed to show up in Nightmares, not here - in the Blink.
My feet refuse to move. They remain rooted at the spot stubbornly.
Why isn’t Arya helping herself? Why isn’t she snapping her bones back and healing immediately like she had done back at the cave.
I go closer, treading carefully to avoid gaining the attention of the lethal beast.
I notice it doesn’t attack her immediately. It just observes her quietly.
I draw my sword. The scraping sound betrays me as the monster snaps around.
All six of its eyes rest on me as it slowly pivots its body.
Am I the target now? My heart begins to thump so hard that I fear it might pop out of my chest.
It lets out a low growl, but the growl does not intimidate me as much as the scraping sound its nails make as it pivots.
The strange woman beside Ayra draws her own sword, narrowing her eyes at me.
Would I be able to dash over there, grab Arya, and sprint back?
The probability is very low, even to a daring guy like me.
I widen my stance, bracing for battle.
I ignore the part of me that wants to run back through the wall and pretend that I haven’t seen any of this. My hands are trembling visibly.
From a closer view, Arya looks ghastly and pale.
One of her arms is tucked behind her back. Her shoulder looks badly dislocated, hanging limply by her side.
The woman beside her smiles at me unnervingly.
The single gesture sends chills down my spine.
I look around the room for loopholes. The head of a man lies near the feet of the monster, but there is no trace of the body.
I shiver at the sight, wondering if the monster had eaten the body.
I return my unwavering attention to the monster, watching the stranger’s movement from the side of my eye.
For a second, nothing moves, then, the attack begins.
The Annihilator vanishes while the she-devil rushes at me, sword drawn at a lethal angle I recognise too well.
Even with that, she is the least of my concerns - she is just a distraction. The main enemy is the Annihilator.
My powers would be useless against it - it absorbs power attacks and grows bigger.
A bead of perspiration trickles down my forehead.
I glance over my shoulder - nothing.
The woman’s sword clashes against mine - I manage to block at the last minute.
My arm rattles from the impact of the clash.
Our eyes meet briefly, fierce and unrelenting.
She withdraws, perching herself at the edge of a table.
I look behind me again - still nothing.
Arya’s wriggling catches my attention. She is trying to tell me something.
She keeps pointing upward.
I don’t get her message until a glob of slime drips down on my head.
I freeze for a second before looking up.
It jumps down immediately, mouth wide in readiness to chop my head off my body.
Adrenaline shoots through me and I move away swiftly, narrowly missing the fatal swipe of its claws.
Yet somehow, it had managed to graze its nails through my arm.
My robe quickly soaks up the blood spilling from the gash, turning from pure white to dull red.
I dart my eyes from foe to foe.
Both seem hungry for my blood. Now that I have been hurt, my pace would slow down - and my speed is the only thing keeping me alive right now.
A grunt comes from Arya’s direction. I and the she-devil turn to look at her sharply.
She has cut herself and is holding her bleeding arm over her blood-sword.
Then, she starts morphing into a beast of her own, not like anything I’ve seen.
It has a human look to it, with a pair of huge, purely purple eyes, and black hair.
She towers over the annihilator, standing a good ten feet above the ground.
She has four arms - two on each side, each with deadly spikes in the place of fingers.
She is slender, not bulky like the annihilator.
There is no femininity in her features, just muscle heaving with each breath. Follow current novels on n͟o͟v͟e͟l͟f͟i͟r͟e͟.net
She lets out a monstrous growl, which rattles through the entire hall.
I blink, both awe and fear coursing through me.
When she had told me she was a demon, this hadn’t been what I imagined. I had imagined her as... smaller, pretty yet lethal.
She bares spiky teeth in the faintest attempt at a smile.
She looks...dangerous, in a very unpredictable way - the kind I like to avoid.
The Annihilator growls in response.
Arya is still weak, how does she intend to fight the Annihilator?
The she-devil’s eyes glistens with amusement as she settles down on one of the seats to watch.
What am I supposed to do in this situation?
Everything vibrates as they move and then... clash!
The impact sends a wave of wind through the room, nearly pulling me off my feet.
I brace myself against a table for support.
The Annihilator grabs Arya by the arm and slams her into the wall.
The wall cracks on impact.
How long is this going to go on?
Then I realize with sick clarity that only one of them is walking out of here alive.