Bait

The citizens are happy, after all just a few days ago they were suffering at the hands of a group of slayers.

But amidst that happiness Safwane was pensive.

'Those people were hiding something...' thought the emperor. 'What did they tell you, Arthur?' he asked curiously.

'They only explained the process and that if there was any problem we should go to the capital.' answered Arthur.

Safwane remained silent.

'I'm going for a walk, you organize the citizens.' he ordered.

'Really...' thought Arthur annoyed.

And before he could protest, Safwane had already left.

'Why me!?'

The emperor walked calmly through the streets that became more desolate as they moved away from the center.

'Something is wrong... Why do I feel like they were hiding something?' thought Safwane uneasily.

The emperor began to look at a small, collapsed house.

'...The most worrying thing is the beast, if the nightmares really will be present all day...'

It was impossible for them to create a fortress, they had neither the materials nor the sufficient workers. This city is practically lost.

'It would be foolish to try to protect this city... Having to go to the capital is the only solution?'

Safwane sighed.

'If we were to go to the capital, no one guarantees that they will accept us and the nightmares could attack before we get there.'

'Besides the fact that the only one who could defend would be me, it would be impossible to protect everyone.'

Due to the situation they were in now, the death of people was something that was going to happen no matter what.

Suddenly, among all the silence that surrounded Safwane, a strange and loud sound began to be heard.

The young man began to look around, trying to find a reason, but he couldn't find one.

But even so, Safwane began to walk back, something worried him.

As the seconds passed, the young man began to speed up his pace, but even though he was getting closer to the center, he still couldn't hear any noise other than the unpleasant and long beep.

And Safwane was finally able to see something.

From the center of the city, a whitish energy seemed to be coming out, which rose towards the sky.

But that wasn't the most shocking thing, when he saw the sky, that crack was shining brightly.

'What's going on?' he thought confused.

After a few minutes, he finally arrived at the center. All the citizens were lying on the ground, unconscious.

That sound stopped being heard and silence slowly began to flood all the places. Fortunately, it still didn't seem like the nightmares were going to attack.

A few seconds passed and the citizens slowly began to wake up.

"What..." Safwane stopped and frowned, he knew that no one could understand him.

He could only wait for Arthur to get up.

"What happened?" a man wondered in confusion as he held his head.

"I don't remember anything..." said a young woman.

The minutes passed and the citizens talked to each other, confused by that situation.

But there was something strange, all the citizens had woken up except those who had singularities.

'Why have only those who don't have abilities woken up?' Safwane asked himself as he watched the unconscious Arthur.

The young man began to dig into his memories, trying to find an answer.

Arthur began to sweat, swallowing saliva.

"What's going on?" asked Safwane, confused.

"What it says in the runes... I've never seen it before..." Arthur answered with a broken voice.

"What does it say?" Safwane asked again.

"...Beings who do not live on their own breath, but depend on foreign energy, will fall under the oppression of the primordial beast, whose yoke is eternal and its fury without measure."

After Safwane remembered that phrase, he remembered that whitish energy that flowed towards the sky.

'Don't tell me that that energy was the abilities of people...' he thought as his face began to show clear concern.

The emperor lifted Arthur off the ground and placed him on his shoulder.

'If that's really what I'm thinking, my plan is already useless...'

Singularities are the abilities that had kept people alive and able to face the invasion of nightmares. But if they really have stopped being able to be used, how would they be able to defend themselves?

And the biggest question, how would they be able to defend themselves from a primordial beast?

Safwane had no knowledge of what a primordial beast looked like or how strong it was, but if one thing was certain, it was that in order to inflict such a large crisis, it must be strong enough to barely be able to defeat it with singularities.

The emperor entered the small house from before.

After leaving Arthur on a sofa, Safwane sat down on a chair thoughtfully.

'Right now the chances of these citizens surviving is almost non-existent...' he thought exhaustedly.

'Really... How many people in the world could survive?' he wondered.

Hours passed and apart from that strange sound nothing else happened.

'Surely nightmares will start appearing when no one has a singularity anymore...'

Some sounds began to be heard.

Safwane stood up after watching Arthur squirm out of the corner of his eye.

"Hey, wake up..." said Safwane as he moved forcefully.

"Mom... Just five more minutes..."

Safwane gritted his teeth.

He began to move him harder than the last time.

"Let me sleep..." he said while drooling.

This time he had no choice but to pinch him with all his strength.

"Are you crazy!?" Arthur screamed in pain. "Oh... My dear friend, what's wrong?" he said nervously after seeing Safwane clean the edge of his katana.

Safwane sighed.

"You all fainted when the beeping sound started, but the ones with abilities were the ones who took the longest to wake up... I assumed you weren't able to use them anymore." Safwane explained.

"Did that really happen? Then that means the primordial beast is about to arrive." Arthur muttered.

"That's what I thought but... How can you still talk to me if you don't have your singularity?" asked Safwane.

"Now that I think about it, it's true... I guess I've gotten used to the language."

Safwane didn't say anything.

"...But now that this means the nightmares are about to attack." said Arthur worried.

"I've already thought about that... You and I are leaving the city tonight." said Safwane.

"What...? And the other citizens, are you going to let them die!?" asked Arthur excitedly.

"Right now we can't worry about the others, there aren't even any ability users now and we can't make a fortress either." Safwane replied.

"Safwane, to me you are the strongest person I've ever met and that's why I admire you... But to think that you would let the people who call you a hero die!" Arthur said through tears.

"...I'm not a hero." the emperor replied coldly.

Arthur clicked his tongue in anger.

"I don't have the power to defend everyone either, right now we're in a situation where we either save ourselves or we all die." Safwane said.

"Excuses... Soon the support will arrive and we'll be able to protect everyone, you just want to run away." Arthur said angrily.

Safwane lowered his head.

"...Maybe, but I assure you that the help you expect won't come." Safwane replied.

"What do you mean?"

"I've been thinking about it before, do you think we two are the only ones who know about the primordial beast?" Safwane asked.

Arthur didn't answer.

"The collectors only came today to give the citizens a joy and make them want to stay so they can be used as bait." said the emperor.

"A group called Abyss? Don't make me laugh, being so weak they couldn't even fight normal people, and the collectors just arrived after their defeat?" Safwane began to throw questions into the air.

"...Arthur, prepare to leave at dawn, I want to save you at least." Safwane finished saying before closing the door.