Chapter Twenty Four

Walking down the stairs slowly, Alem felt his breathing speed up. 'What's down there? Why do I feel panicked? I've never felt this way before.' The frown on his face deepened. "Linsal." Alem didn't scream this time, he only called out slowly.

[Private Notice!]

[Do you wish to transfer faction rights to different member?]

"What is this?" Alem saw the message and suddenly felt that things were getting even worse. This was a private message, not a system message. 'Likely, it's something that I need to discover. Shameless wouldn't set up something impossible for me.'

[Private Notice!]

['Beacon of Light' and faction has been transferred to Candidate 'Nor'!]

Nor stood outside of the hut when a new message appeared.

[Private Notice!]

[Focus 'Alem' has transferred faction rights and 'Beacon of Light' to you!]

'What?' Nor felt her heart suddenly drop. She walked rushed towards the hut door. 'Open!' She pulled as hard as she could, yet it wouldn't budge. She even tried to push, smash, really anything, yet nothing worked. 'Something is wrong. Alem gave me the faction leader rights and even the beacon. Is he trapped? What's going on?'

"Look, she's alone!" Suddenly, she heard a noise. Turning her head, she saw three people glaring at her. "Get her!"

"I have to escape first." Her frown turned into worry and panic. Sure, her strength improved a lot under Alem's guidance, but she wasn't Alem. Fighting multiple targets without her cultivation was extremely difficult for her.

She quickly threw one of the bottles towards the three.

"ITS POISON!" The bottle exploded with a purple gas.

With the three distracted, Nor quickly rushed towards her goat which was just standing on the side. Jumping on top, she kicked its side. "Go!"

With dust collecting behind her, Nor quickly made her escape.

"What's happening?!" The many powerhouses watched the scene playing around Nor and Alem carefully. Yet, the screen around Alem suddenly blurred.

"We can't see a thing! What the hell is going on?!" Everyone began to slightly panic. Despite living for eons, they couldn't calm down with Alem's life being unknown.

The Gilly Queen carried a frown as she watched the screens. Getting up, she walked towards Alem's screen and placed her hand on it. Closing her eyes, the room became quiet. "It's him." Her voice suddenly became shaky. Taking her hand away, she ignored the burn marks that covered her hands. "He's controlling the world right now. I don't know what's going on."

"Why?! Why is he controlling the world!" A man suddenly paled as he focused on the only blurry scene.

"I don't know. But for now, just wait." The Gilly Queen sighed and sat back down. 'Shameless, what's going on?'

"Even the beacon is gone." Alem couldn't feel it anymore. "Something is about to go down." Without having anymore thoughts, Alem decided to be even more vigilant. His mind was buzzing, telling him to run. Yet, he couldn't.

Finally, he made it to the last step. "A-Alem…" As he looked around the darkness, he heard a noise.

He couldn't see a thing. Even his feet were invisible to him. "Where are the stairs?" He turned his head and found that even the stairs were missing. "Who is it?!" He called out.

"Alem, r-run!" The noise came again.

"Linsal? Where are you?" Alem recognized then voice. Taking a step forward, he felt as if he was walking into water. His breathing was chaotic, his body felt stiff. 'What's going on?!'

So, you are the seeded?

Hearing the deep voice, Alem knew that Linsal was not alone.

The seeded is quite strong, but you're still weak. Nothing compared to Vir and that ancestor of yours.

"Who is it?" He was barely able to get these words out.

Me? Take a guess.

Alem calmed his mind. Everything happening to him was not real. He knew that. Staying still and closing his eyes. He began to fix his breathing. "Are you him?"

Correct.

With the voice confirming it, Alem felt his back become slightly cold. 'So this is the big shot who is threatening the multitude of universes?'

Yes, I am the one threatening the many universes.

"Oh, I'm dumb. You can of course read my thoughts." After calming down, Alem felt his fear disappear. The feeling of danger was still there, but what could he do about it? "Since you're him, can I know your name? Honestly, it's so hard to just refer to you as him or he and so on."

You are very much like the Vir.

"I'll take that as a compliment." A smile formed on Alem's face. "Anyways, your name?"

Arnin.

"Arnin? So you don't have a title like Shameless? I thought everyone would have a weird name. Like the Sinel Lord. Gilly Queen. Only you and Celius seem to have normal names." It was a bit unexpected to hear such a regular name from him. Arnin.

To think your fear for me is non-existent.

"Well, why would I fear you? It's not like I fear death, so why would I fear you?" Alem asked with a raised eyebrow.

I can kill not only you, but even your family. I can torture them in front of you. Does that not scare you?

"That would be a dick move. Torturing my family? First of all, you would gain nothing, and what could I even do? Torture them, go ahead. We are all bound to die, so a bit of pain before death is whatever. Once their gone, they won't remember a thing. Neither will I." Though he wouldn't want his family being tortured, if it did happen, what could he even do? It's not like he could stop it.

The Vir would have been proud to meet a child like you.

Nodding his head, Alem smiled. "You keep bringing up the Vir. Not only that, but you don't seem as mean as others say."

I am much worse than others think. You're just a little special. As for the Vir? He is the only man in this world I respect.

Alem heard something that he didn't expect. "You just spoke in present tense. The Vir is alive?"

Smart kid.

"What the fuck." Alem was truly shocked by this news. "Then why the hell does everyone think he is dead? Didn't you kill him?"

I did kill him. But I reached a realm where the dead can be brought back.

"I see. Well, Shameless would be quite happy to hear such news. Why don't you bring back the Sinel Lord as well? Do me that favour." Alem joked.

Like student, like teacher. Both shameless.

Hearing his words, Alem couldn't help by cough dryly.

Now, since our meeting is done, let me change some rules of this survival world for you.

"For me?" Alem became confused.

Other than the Vir, no one in the multitude of worlds understand my goal. And you Alem, are very important in achieving this goal.

"How so? Why not remove the whole killing Celius? I can just help achieve your goals that way." Alem suggested.

The task will remain. If you don't accomplish it, that would mean you are weaker than I anticipated. You would not work in achieving my goals. Listen carefully. All candidates of this world will awaken half of their cultivation. As for you? You will not gain a single benefit. Instead, you will lose sight in one of your eyes.

"Ayo, what the fuck!" The new set up was extremely unfair. "Why the hell am I getting such a shitty set up? I even started naked in this shitty world!"

Samir, come here.

"What?!" Alem suddenly saw Samir appear in the darkness.

"A-Alem? Where am I? What's going on?!" Appearing so suddenly, Samir was frightened. "Alem! Save me! What's going on!"

"Arnin, what the fuck are you doing?" Anger built up in Alem's heart.

Oh? I thought that your family were bound to die, so why are you getting so worked up?

"Doesn't matter what I say? What the hell are you trying to do!" Fuming, Alem tried to move forward, but his body was still. It wouldn't follow his commands.

From now on, you will be restricted from participating in the 'Year of Blackness'. For the next two years, until the end of the 'Year of Blackness' you will watch as Samir is tortured to death! Once the 'Year of Blackness' is over, you will be released with your new conditions.

"That is fucked up! I thought you might have been cool, but you're just a psycho!" As Alem shouted, Samir's expression suddenly changed.

"ARG!!!" An eye popped from his face, making him howl in agony. "ALEM! SAVE ME!!"

"Fuck!" With his face turning red, Alem began to breath heavily. "Arnin! Fuck you! Let me out and I will fuck you over! ARNIN!"

"What's going on? Why is my cultivation realm here? Wait, no. Only half?" Kir stood far from the camp. He looked at his palms, feeling extremely confused.

"Guys, look at the leaderboard!" Renis suddenly spoke in fright. "Alem's name is gone!"

"What?!" Eli suddenly felt her heart drop. "No way. Nor is the faction leader now? What's going on?"

"Hey, where's Samir?" Krck also spoke up.

"Samir?" Kir looked around as well. "What the hell is going on?"

"Look, Nor is here!" Eli and Renis rushed towards her. Their speed was much higher than before. After all, half of their cultivation just recovered.

"Nor, what's going on? Where is Alem?" Eli asked in confusion. "Also, our cultivation."

"Something is wrong. We need to get away from here." Nor said with a pale face.

SCREEWWWWW

"Look at the camp! Something is coming out!" Krck yelled.

Nor turned her head her frown deepened. With half of her cultivation now recovered, her eyes could perceive more. The blackness coming out from the camp was swallowing the unconscious people. "We need to run! Get away from this place! Go go go!"

"Where is Alem! What happened to Samir?!" Kir asked while rushing on his goat.

"He got trapped inside the camp. I couldn't help him." Nor shook her head. Her face slightly pale. "He somehow transferred the rights of the faction to me, including the beacon. I tried to get him out, but something was blocking the door."

"You should have broken the door down!" Eli said with red eyes.

"I tried! Nothing worked!" Nor said with a frown. "Even Alem felt something was off, which is why he sent me away. We couldn't even find Linsal." She looked back again and found that the blackness wasn't spreading any further. It just stayed around the walls. "I don't know what's going on. Our cultivation has half recovered, Samir is missing, Alem felt danger, something is definitely changing."

"We should go back!" Eli said.

"Are you dumb?" Nor frowned. "Alem told me to leave, and now you want to go back? We don't even know what that black fog is. Let's just head back to the base. Right now, we need to make sure no one else gets harmed." Nor calmed her mind and began to make plans. "Alem is likely dead. I don't know how, but we can't help him anymore. We need to make sure we survive. The 'Year of Blackness' will begin in a year. We don't even know what that is."

"How could you say that." With tears in her eyes, Eli looked back at the fog. "He helped us so much."

"At this point of time, it doesn't matter. We helped him, he helped us." Nor kept her gaze forward. "Now, we can only depend on ourselves. With our cultivations half back, Kir and I are strong enough to protect the group better than any of you. Even better than Alem now."

Suddenly, one of the goats turned around, storming back to the fog.

"Salea, where are you going?!" Nor shouted.

"Boss is there. In the end I accepted him as my master. If he is dead, then I will leave once the survival round is over. However, if he is alive, I'll wait for him." She spoke resolutely.

"Why are you being so dumb? Even if he is alive, what can we do?" Nor became angry at Salea. "Come with us."

"No thanks. I only followed you guys because of boss. Aside from him, I don't care for any of you guys." With these last words, she left.

"I also agree." Renis suddenly spoke up. "I only joined because of Alem's protection. If he's gone and my cultivation is half restored, then I don't need any of your help. I can fend for myself."

"What are you saying? The 'Year of Blackness' will begin in a year. How will you obtain a 'Beacon of Light'?" Nor had a bigger headache because of this.

"I'm sure that I can find a small faction and just steal their beacon. After all, I'm stronger than most because of Alem's training. Even if there is someone with a higher realm than me, I'm confident I can kill them after being around Alem these past two years." Saying her piece, Renis also turned her goat around, rushing towards the caves direction.

"What the hell is wrong with these two." Nor said with a glare. She then looked at Krck and Flor. "What about you guys?"

"I'll stay." Flor said with a bitter smile.

"Me too." Krck didn't run away. "I still need your protection. I alone am not strong enough."

"Good. We have a small base past the desert. We should be able to survive there. As for stealing a 'Beacon of Light'." She then looked at Kir. "With half of your cultivation back, you should be able to handle a few people int he same cultivation realm alone, right?"

The young man nodded his head. "As long as it isn't Tirax I'm facing, I can handle even a hundred." Kir suddenly gained a boost of confidence. He was really powerful with his cultivation.

"Go, find a beacon and bring it back to us." When she said this, Kir turned his goat around and rushed towards a new direction. Soon enough, the only sound left was the stomping of the goats and the sniffles of Eli. Turning her head, Nor looked at the black fog. 'I don't know what's happening, but thanks for all the help.'