Decision

Sezel was left alone, staring into an abyss, adrift in the silence of his own soul. The girl's voice lingered like a specter, her words a fading echo.

He gulped through his dry throat and left his Spirit Meridian. His eyes flew open. He was back in his room, gasping, his body drenched in a cold sweat that plastered his shirt to his skin. The solid wall in front of him did nothing to ground him.

'What was that? What was any of that?' He clutched his head, a wave of pure despair washing over him, threatening to pull him under.

He forced himself to breathe, trying to calm down. Everything that happened wasn't a dream—she was there. The girl was inside his Spirit Meridian.

The realization was a terror unlike any other. Her words rang in his ears, a clear, damning sentence: You were the one who allowed me to have half of your soul. The concept was bone-chilling.

His mind was a maelstrom of confusion. 'What do I do? What in the hell am I supposed to do now?' he screamed at himself.

The only answer was the echo of her parting words, a whisper that was now a siren's call: Go inside the Gate. Go and be eaten alive.

Sezel slid off the bed, his legs unsteady, and staggered to the window. The storm raged on, periodic flashes of lightning, like jagged blades, tore open the night sky, and at some distance, the otherworldly lights pulsed in the dark atmosphere.

He could barely perceive things from here, but the sheer malevolent intensity of the glow spoke of how dire the situation was at ground zero. There was even a chance that some beasts had already come out and turned the place into a bloodbath.

Sezel stared into the storm for a long, frozen minute, the world outside ceasing to exist. Then, with a sudden, convulsive jerk, he stepped back, snatched his assessment device from the nightstand, and took one last look at the small, sterile room that had been his sanctuary for two months, and closed the door shut.

He was not sure if he would return or not. A part of him hoped he wouldn't. He wanted to go back home, so going inside the gate was as logical as it should be or maybe not.

Sezel didn't care anymore. The gnawing questions haunted him. The thoughts of his sister sent a pain through his heart. 'I will find it all.' The thought was cold and hard. A dangerous indifference settled over him, a look that made his crimson eyes feel dangerous.

The reception was already empty. There was no one from the earlier group; everyone had already left to their fates.

Sezel walked to the machine, placed his room key on the scanner, and stood rigid as a beam of red light scanned his retina.

He slowly walked to the exit door, aware of the sensors. The gates would automatically open if someone came straight. But Sezel had to avoid precisely that, or the guards outside would become wary.

He melted into the shadows behind a large decorative plant.

The gates hissed open. A janitor shuffled in, shaking a dripping umbrella. As the man turned to place it in a rack, Sezel exploded from his hiding spot. He moved low and fast, a blur of motion that skidded through the closing gap just before the doors sealed shut. He was out.

Quickly hiding in the shadows outside, he observed the movements of the guards. They walked like stone in the scarce storm, making the rain feel like it didn't exist.

'They will be hard to invade.' Sezel gritted his teeth. Going out from the door was the last thing he would do. Why try the hardest way when there is always an easier way around?

'Well, going out there without a weapon would be stupidity, and I am not stupid enough.'

The other way was perfect. He would pass through the weapon storage building and jump out from the roof, but that too included getting up the weapon storage building without being seen and there were cameras too.

But his luck seemed to help him when he was trying to walk to his own doom. Just as he was about to move, the sky detonated. A deafening crack of thunder shook the very foundations of the facility, and the world went black. The power grid had failed. It was his chance.

Sezel ran with all he had. Through the water patches at places and the rain striking against his face, he reached the side of the weapons storage building and scaled a maintenance ladder, his movements fueled by pure, desperate instinct.

In the last two months, Sezel had seen all kinds of ways to run away from this place. He couldn't stay here forever, he just wanted to learn a few things and then leave. But fate, it seems, had other plans.

Inside, the building was stacked with all kinds of weapons—from a pin to a spear, and all kinds of guns one could find.

'Now this place is stacked.' Sezel smirked, glancing around, but he didn't have the luxury of time. He had to get out before the lights go on and the cameras come online.

'So let's see what should we take.' He ran his hands over the cold steel of the weapons, searching for something, and among them, he saw a familiar-looking sword. A katana.

He brushed his hands over the sleek saya; it was a perfect work of art, lacquered in black and white with an inlay of silver flowers.

It feels… familiar.

He didn't question it. He tied it to his waist, snatched a heavy-caliber pistol and several magazines, and climbed to the roof.

The storm outside had worsened. The rain slashed across his body like ice shards. Under the warring light of the moon and the Gate, Sezel launched himself from the roof, clearing the perimeter fence and landing hard on the empty street below.

Everything was closed. People shut inside their homes, terrified of the gate and the potential destruction it held in its wake. The cheerfulness of the city had died down, and the ominous silence had taken over.

Sezel didn't need to know the direction, even a five-year-old kid would be able to find his way to the bright purple and dark light that worked like a source of light for the entire city at this point.

Sezel soon reached the gate. Hiding behind a derelict building, he observed as the Slayers jumped inside the Gate with terrified looks on their faces. Luckily, there was no sign of any beast coming out of the gate.

As he watched, over three hundred Slayers jumped inside the gate in pairs of three, and many had gone before. As the last cohort jumped, the team on the sides announced that the whole expedition of the five hundred Slayers was in.

Sezel gulped hard. Now, only the elite remained. A wall of over a hundred high-Rank Slayers and officials stood between him and his destination and he had to go past them and jump inside the damn thing.

It was not certain where the gate would spawn you inside the confined area of the Spirit Realm, so Slayers were sent in groups together.

There was no plan. No strategy.

'Fuck it all.' The thought was a roar of pure, nihilistic defiance. He took a deep breath, the cold air burning his lungs, and burst from cover. He sprinted straight at the veterans in front.

Shouts erupted. "Halt! Identify yourself!"

Dozens of weapons were leveled at him. He didn't stop. He dropped low, sliding on the slick, rain-soaked pavement. He shot through a gap in the line, a disorienting blur of motion.

He was past them. He was on the platform.

Raelion stood right in front of him, his face a mask of pure disbelief.

Sezel didn't hesitate. He didn't look back. He launched himself forward and plunged headfirst into the shimmering, violent tear in reality. For a moment, the world dissolved into a kaleidoscope of screaming colors, and then his body was gone, swallowed whole by the Gate.

"Fucking brat!" Raelion barked. With a curse that was lost to the storm, he leaped in right behind him.