Who Is The System?

My strength was completely overwhelming Elo, even as fast as he was. Whenever he tried to attack, my sword clashed with his, sending him far back into the metal gate. I only walked at a steady pace, wiping drool from my mouth with a large smile on my face. All I wanted to do was watch him plead for help, but he started to limp, meaning he couldn't use his speed to run anymore.

"Put the weak down, right?" I asked him, repeating his words on the bay.

I threw my sword at him, just as I did to kill his friend, piercing his back and sending him into the glacier below us. It cracked the ice all around him, but it also kept him stuck, allowing me to beat him to a bloody pulp now.

I set my knee against his chest and punched him in the face, over, and over again. Allowing me to exert my old anger upon Ullr as I beat his nose into the back of his head. I punched, and punched, and punched until my knuckles felt numb and shattered, he was slowly becoming unconscious.

To my surprise, Elo used his ability and shot out of the glacier, spitting my sword up in the air and off to someplace unknown, over the coliseum. I wasn't too worried about it and continued my stride.

"Please! I just want to keep living! Is it allegiance you want? Information?! I can tell you about your System! Zeal shared that information with me!" He pleaded.

For a slight moment, that rage subsided. My curiosity was beyond uncontrollable, and the Red color on my stone vanished. Elo took advantage of that and used his ability:

[SYSTEM ALERT! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!]

I caught his hand mid-slash and broke it in front of him. He plummeted to the ground wailing out in pain as I knelt to speak to him.

"You tell me about this damn system, or I'll break your other one," I warned him.

Elo paused his crying and looked up at me. "My other wha- AHHHH!" He screamed as I snapped his arm at his elbow and threw him into the ground again, pushing my foot into his chest.

"It's not just a system! It's a person! Somebody is behind it! Something is behind it!" He finally revealed. I lifted the sword and stared at the Stone with the intent of solving the mystery.

[So, I've been found out, haven't I?]

In a flash of bright light, a dagger of some sort launched into the ice beside me, kicking up shards of ice and splatters of blood in a hole big enough to be considered a grave. With the amount of power from the throw, I turned to look at the top of the Coliseum, when my left eye regenerated without any delay.

[SYSTEM EMERGENCY! A WHITE STONE HAS BEEN KILLED IN ACTION!]

I turned to look at Elo's eviscerated body and the stone's light shut out completely.

Damn... that was way too fast and powerful...

I lost myself for a moment there... but out of respect for his brutal death, I leaned at his side. I would've closed his eyes, had there been anything left of the goopy mess of brains where his skull used to be. I felt some sort of shock as soon as I touched his arm to analyze the damage, which was similar to the one at the bay.

It paralyzed me, causing me to jump back in retreat. I looked up to Zeal on top of the coliseum's bleachers… when it hit me. Zeal was the one to throw the weapon with such force that cut Elo into pieces. He killed another White Stone.

I climbed up to his level, pushing up against bleachers and climbing purposefully constructed ladders against the pillars to get to the top. Once I made it, I could see a ton of blood, and Talion's body bleeding out.

"What the hell are you doing?!" I yelled out to Talion. I ran to him without a thought in my mind, when the System went off again:

[SYSTEM ALERT! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!]

I dodged backward and the whip missed me, cutting into Talion's body some more.

"You're starting to piss me off, you know that?" Zeal told me. My stone instantly shifted into its red color, but this time, I held onto my common sense. Tavian was still waiting for the signal, and I had to remember that.

"It's such a shame you fought for so long. Look at your friends now. All dead, as they should be." Zeal told me.

Stay calm... Sky...

"And look who killed three White Stones. Isn't that something? For somebody so righteously motivated by not corrupting your system, you sure are keen on killing your kind." I told him. Zeal laughed.

"I don't need to hear that from you! My System isn't exactly corrupt as yours is, White Stone Demon. I've achieved the purest form of being you can get! The system doesn't punish me anymore because of my obedience and now I can do as I please." Zeal told me.

I put my hand against Talion's arm, pushing my weakened body further.

"So can I," I said.

With one last charge toward Zeal, he threw the weird tendrils on his back directly at my face in a concentrated cluster. I rose my stone just as the countdown hit zero, letting the tendrils slam into it with such a high velocity that I was pushed back.

[Current Heart Rate: 215]

[DEFLECTION ENGAGED…]

The tendrils shot from their sprouts on his back, ripping them out and leaving six scars along his body and face. Blood spurted everywhere on top of this ceiling and to my surprise, the whip-like sword ran straight through my right arm and sent me off the top of it while my left eye simultaneously blew out of my head once more.

I landed flat on my back at the bottom of the coliseum and groaned out in pain, coughing up blood and rolling over to move ice shards out of my back. The impact I took stunned me and made me blackout, but when I came to my consciousness again, I realized the damage I took.

With a dagger of some kind lodged in my chest, right at my windpipe's location, Zeal smiled.

"A fitting end for somebody so ignorant. I'll take that radio you have." Zeal told me. He spoke into it and while my eyes started to fall into a closed position, some sort of fiery ambition struck deep in my heart...

My right arm regenerated and the left eye spoke to me once more:

[Take This Opportunity, Master.]

I jumped off of the ground and tackled Zeal to the floor, putting my fists together and slamming into his face as if I was holding a rock. He slashed at my chest over and over again after taking my hit, but I was able to quickly grab the radio, sliding against the floor towards a hole in the ground with wood surrounding it. My finger hit the button:

"TAVIAN! BLOW IT!"

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