One Apart

"What… happened here…?"

The four Sins came to the indicated location of the previous Specialized Phase D. Deep into the North City, a parking lot building was surrounded by mounds of corpses with disturbingly twisted limbs.

Gian-Luca felt himself gag at the sight. "Who did all of this…?"

"I think I know…" Ian led them up the parking lot ramps to the rooftop, where the Specialized Phase D was indicated to have occurred. Atop the building, havoc had clearly ensued. Even more of the same-looking corpses littered the grounds, with some falling in and out of craters formed by destruction. Blood was spilled across the parking lot's entirety, with most of it nearly dried out by the scorching heat of the orange sun up above.

"I knew it," Ian could make out a distinguishable figure among the corpses. Though he hoped he wasn't a corpse himself either.

The rest of the Sins caught glimpse of the individual too. "Venus!" They all rushed over.

On a scattered mess of rubble, Venus lay still. He'd clearly been in battle, as his always neatly-tucked white dress shirt was stained with gravel and blood.

"Is he dead?!" Veronica asked. Ian checked for a pulse along the neck; he felt one. "Alive."

They all sighed in relief. Gian-Luca gripped his shoulders. "Venus, wake up!" He shook him. There was no response in the Sin. He continued to shake him, calling for him to come to consciousness, but the Pride was deeply knocked-out.

"He must've been injured pretty badly…"

"Doesn't seem like it." Ian checked his body. "He doesn't appear to have any major injuries at all."

"Then why won't he get up? We've been trying to get him to wake up for the past hour now."

"I'm not sure, even my ability won't work…" Earlier, Ian tried to break the Pact once more in desperation of awakening Venus. He commanded the Sin to "Wake up," but there was no result. Venus was deep in his state of unconsciousness.

Only knowing their original objective with Reed, but now with the absence of Reed, the Sins felt lost. They'd all joined the tournament for the sole purpose of inducting Reed into the Sins, but with him gone, and Midas lacking, they were clueless as to what to do.

"We need to find Midas," Veronica suggested.

"I know, but where?" Ian looked around. "Gian-Luca and Vidia have just come back from scouting the North City and there's zero sign of contenders here. We'd already explored most of the northern region on the way up here from the southern region and still no sign of Midas."

"Let's just keep looking—"

"It's already nighttime, Veronica." The other Sins looked up. The sun was nearing a deep crimson red. Soon, midnight had officially struck. The low-toned noise blurred into the ground.

"Let's just set up camp here for now. We can make our next move at daybreak, maybe once another Phase or Specialized Phase is announced." Everyone agreed with Ian's idea. They all stared up at the bloody sun left above in the void night sky. Venus laid motionless, still drowned deep into his own consciousness of delusion. By now, everyone had given up for the day, and they all sat with unsettlement, still compiling possibilities and ideas in their head.

In a matter of time, night had passed. The first tone of day had played.

"Ow…" Vidia rubbed her ears. "I always hate the 6:00 am one… It's so high-pitched…"

"That's the white sun," Ian looked up. Now that day had arrived, Ian thought his mind would have refreshed. But that still wasn't the case. "Damn… Seriously, if only Midas were here…"

The group still found themselves lost. Some of them realized they'd been relying too heavily on Midas all this time, because now that he was absent, they couldn't even come up with their own advances. The Sin of Greed was just a vault full of knowledge, and Ian noticed that he envied this. He wished he had a brain like Midas'—one that could calculate the answer and solution to any problem or question ever presented. Midas always seemed like that, because no matter the scenarios presented, whether good or bad, he was always able to find ways to move forward. The rest of the Sins couldn't find themselves to do that in the current moment. Everyone's thoughts were paralyzed for another hour.

"Tsk…" Ian felt his neck itch. "Not doing anything around here is making me irritated… Anyone got any ideas?"

Gian-Luca finally spoke up. Throughout all this time, he'd been trying to think from Midas' point of view. "What would Midas do?" He constantly asked himself that. Now, he'd finally come up with something.

"Let's head to the South City. Have any of you guys explored that area yet?"

They all shook their heads. "But why the South City though?"

"Because it's Jenzaya District. If it were Midas, he might've went that way in search of Reed knowing that Reed was responsible for its destruction. Since Reed has already made trash of the place, maybe he'll have headed there knowing he'd have the advantage. It's a place he's already familiar with, so maybe he'd have a homecourt feeling, you know?"

The other Sins looked at him, slightly confused.

"You're trying too hard," Veronica told him.

Ian laughed. "He's trying, but it's better than nothing. We haven't been doing anything so we might as well go."

The Sins had finally come to an agreement on making movement along the map. Since Gian-Luca was the biggest build, he was assigned to carry Venus on their journey there.

"I hope this guy wakes up soon… He's a bit heavy…"

"You've got it, Gula!" Vidia cheered him on. "If you ever get too tired, we can always just leave him behind!"

"No," he told Vidia. "Venus is a crucial piece to the Sins. Without him, our combat power would lack immensely. I'm just hoping he'll reawaken before we come into contact with any other contenders."

The Sins travelled the plains, each one with weapons holstered and ready to use. As they were out in the open green, the repetitive noise played aloud.

Beep!

"Current contender count: 21 remaining. Incoming Specialized Phase E: A powerful bomb has been planted in the South City, waiting to be defused. The bomb is being defended by non-contender individuals that are with the Metatron Tournament. The contender that defuses the bomb within the time limit will be rewarded with a powerful protective charm."

All the Sins looked at one another. "Perfect!" Veronica yelled.

"Yeah! We're already headed there!" Gian-Luca felt his strength rejuvenate. He straightened Venus onto his back.

Ian sighed of relief. "Ah, thank god… Let's get there soon then, and execute this Specialized Phase. A 'powerful protective charm' sounds nice, doesn't it?"

They all nodded. "Let's go!"

The group finally escaped into the shade of a forest, which eventually led to the near entrance of the South City.

"Jenzaya District…" Vidia muttered. "This place looked a whole lot different before it got destroyed by Reed…"

"I know," Ian looked at the vines scattering the heights of each building. The same old debris still scattered the premise, but the ruins had clearly aged with nature. Before delving deeper into the city, Ian made a call. "Let's leave Venus somewhere here, at the edge of the city."

"Why?"

"Because carrying him along would be dead-weight. He'd be in danger, and so would we if we brought him along and came across other contenders. We can't risk having him in any line-of-fire or striking-zone. We should just keep him safe in a discreet place for now."

"Okay," Gian-Luca stepped over some debris. "How about over there?" The Sin pointed to a short building. Through its cracked windows, the interior was drowned with shade. Anyone from outside wouldn't be able to tell what was inside due to its complete darkness. It was a perfect hiding spot.

"Good idea."

After the Sins hid Venus' body in the darkness of the building, they memorized its location from its sign that read: { Kassel's Printing Shop! }. Now they were ready to proceed with the Specialized Phase.

Slowly moving deeper towards the city's core, they searched any possible spots that a time bomb may be hidden. What struck them odd was that they hadn't run into any of the 'defenders' just yet. Turning around one street into another, it was here that all the Sins had their focus completely thrown off. Just down the road across from where they stood, a large group of white-suited individuals surrounding a larger one could be seen.

"Angels!?!"

A familiar foe had reappeared.