[And that's about everything I've got for you all! Make sure to try your hardest every single day, otherwise, it'll be you that dies inside the Task instead of anyone else. Although I did promise to care for the families of those who die in the Tasks,] As she spoke, the friendly smile on Ellora's face cracked apart to form into a disgusted grimace, [I absolutely hate those who think their lives aren't worth fighting for. It's enough to make me sick. But the Principalities haven't disappointed me, and with their help, neither will you.]
The Executioners who were lined up on the sides of the room all started marching forward, pushing all the Opfer out the room forcibly removing any who were reluctant to leave; moving the Opfer wasn't hard because most of them were stunned into silence by the many announcements the Archon made.
Meanwhile, Fen breathed out as the tension in his body left with the exiting Opfer. Honestly, he didn't know for sure if they'd jump him to get to Amelia or not, but it seemed like his approach of stimulating their fear and self-preservation worked. After they all saw how proficient he was with drilling his Vital Spears into the candidates stupid enough to approach them, none of the others dared to even look at Amelia or Orphinia.
"Can you finally tell me what the hell is going on?" Amelia seethed, apparently not taking the announcements or his actions very well. Her usually determined green eyes were shaking like her will was on its last leg, ready to collapse at the tiniest movement.
Marcus answered for him in an uncharacteristically tired voice, "The Foundation needed people who could motivate the Opfer to get stronger now that they can't use the Tasks, and we were the unfortunate few that they selected."
The pale youth's fists tightened into fists just by thinking about her words. Her barely veiled threats of using their Squadmates as tools to manipulate them hadn't gone unnoticed, but unfortunately, they weren't in a position to resist.
"What Marcus means is that they fucked us, but there's nothing we can do about it." Fen sighed. "This is just how life is going to work for a while now; might as well get used to it."
Orphinia looked at everyone's faces opening and closing her mouth before finally choosing to look down at the floor. At first, she wanted to criticize Fen's brutal actions but... she wasn't blind. She saw the way the other Opfer looked at with greedy eyes like her death would solve all their problems. If he hadn't done what he did then they wouldn't even have a chance to go to the Healers; they'd be dead.
All of them had blood on their hands, some more than others. The very fact that you were here meant that you murdered your way through the first and second Tasks to secure your own survival. When the Opfer heard that killing a Principality's Squadmate would remove their authority, of course, most of them thought along the lines that 'killing one more shouldn't be too terrible, right? This much is forgivable.'
And they weren't necessarily wrong either. If it meant that they had a better chance of survival then what other choice did they have but to consider murdering another person; that was just the kind of environment they were in right now. What mattered was your perspective and what side you were on.
The Foundation didn't need nice people, they needed killers, and the faster that everyone else realized that, the faster they could become exactly what they wanted. If you didn't change then you'd lose your life in the next Task after everyone else already adapted.
But one of them in their Squad didn't appear to realize that yet.
Amelia stuttered, "W-well, there's got to be something you can do- we can't just let this happen! You saw the way everyone looked at us like we weren't even people anymore, all because of this stupid Program! They were going to kill us if you weren't there-"
"And how this any different from the Tasks?" Marcus cut in. "You killed too, you're no different than us. Only difference is that you haven't accepted it yet. You think that just because you're in a Task, killing a person is okay because you were 'forced'? You still had a choice to let yourself be killed instead, but we all know what choice you made."
"I'm sorry, who are you again?" Amelia turned on her foot and glared at the pale youth. "I don't remember asking for your opinion or for you to join in. This is a conversation between me and Fen, not you."
He shrugged at her words like he didn't care. "Tough shit. If you keep acting like a dumbass who won't accept reality, I'm gonna call you out. At least own your shit before dragging us all into it."
"Fen?" Amelia turned her gaze on Fen, who looked uncomfortable with the way the conversation was going.
"...I don't know what kind of answer you want me to give." Fen bitterly bit of his words. In truth, he didn't understand why she didn't see it from his point of view; she was acting like he had a choice in the matter of becoming a Principality when the exact opposite was true; if you wanted to survive to the end of the Program, then there was really only one choice.
Kill, and keep on killing until you're strong enough to go home.
He sighed, saying, "Look, Ellora gave me a choice. Either I become a Principality, or they choose someone else to do it. I chose to accept because at least this way, we'll be the ones getting the benefits rather than worrying about people getting stronger than us. No matter how twisted this Program is, the Principalities have to work together to survive because we're all in the same boat. The Opfer don't have that kind of alliance."
But Amelia still didn't give in.
She pushed back, "How are you okay with this Fen? You were just talking about coming home back to Earth, but what the hell will your family say when they find out about this? You'll have to almost kill people- hell, you almost did with that guy from earlier!"
Fen's expression twisted at her words. "Doing this just gives me an advantage over everyone else in getting to go home. We, no, you need every advantage you can get. I did this for you. You're not like me- you can't do the things I do, but with the points I can earn from being a Principality-"
"You mean, steal, those points. You'd take them from the Opfer who earned them because they weren't strong enough to protect themselves from you." Amelia said. "And you didn't answer me earlier. Why did you almost kill that guy from earlier?"
"Because I had to!" He roared, finally pushed over his breaking point. "If I didn't they would have torn you to pieces! I can't lose anybody else! Not after Gray and Qin..."
He choked on his words before he could say anything more but she still managed to catch it. Her expression darkened for a moment before she shoved past him and walked away into the hallway.
"Where are you going!" Fen called after her.
She didn't even look back and only said, "I need a walk. Alone."
"Argh... Damn it! Marcus, can you watch her for a minute? I don't think she wants to see my face right now, and she can't handle being ambushed by Opfer yet." Fen grabbed at his head in a failed attempt to stem away his brew headache, giving Marcus a look filled with resentment. His hate wasn't directed at him, but it was still enough to make him shiver.
He blinked before immediately recovering; he wiped the amused expression on his face that appeared from watching on the side and answered with a simple, "Sure."
The Mage ignited his energy and ran after her, leaving Fen alone with Orphinia. Silence pervaded the space between them while Fen paced around, grabbing at his head for a moment before muttering to himself in broken sentences.
"Why can't she just understand!" He roared into the empty amphitheater while Orphinia flinched beside him.
Boom!
Fen pulled back his bloodied remnant of a fist from the black energy-veined wall after he struck it with his bare fist. He only used his Vital energy to regenerate from the wound- right now he needed the pain to clear his mind. His headache only seemed to worsen because of his actions, however, evolving into a piercing pain digging behind his eyes.
"Argh..." he clutched at his eyes before turning around and facing Orphinia.
"Go join them, I'll catch up with you soon."
Orphinia wanted to stay with him and make sure he was alright but after seeing the look in his eyes, she realized that he wasn't asking her to leave. He was telling her.
Even if she was reluctant to leave him alone she realized that there was nothing that she could do to help him. What Fen needed wasn't her to help; he needed her to leave him alone. She nodded smally before walking out the amphitheater, the sound of her exit echoing around the now-empty room.
With empty eyes, Fen pulled out a dimly red glowing sphere from his uniform, watching the energy inside it swirl around for a while. Small tendrils of red Aura escaped the orb and twisted around his fingers like a faithful dog fawning over its master, making a faint smile spread across his face.
"Even if they don't understand, I need to keep them safe long enough for them to see things from my view." The orb vanished back into his pockets while Fen straightened out his Opfer uniform and cleaned some of the blood from it with a small burst of Vital energy. It was now that he realized how vicious he must've looked, covered in blood without even wanting to clean it off him.
He didn't even notice where the blood came from. Could it be from when he brutalized those idiot Opfer?
'Whatever. It doesn't matter anymore.'
It had been barely a day since Gray and Qin died from the Void Spawn invasion. It had been barely a day since Fen had realized how much he needed to hear their laughter, and how much they distracted him from the pressures pushing him to survive and grow stronger.
Fen wiped away the liquid coming from his eyes and muttered, "I'm sorry I couldn't be there. Haa, I wonder if such things like souls exist; maybe you're sitting with the Death Primordial right now, or floating away in the endless Void. Does something like the afterlife even exist in this terrible universe...?"
"I won't forget my promise. Gray, your family won't ever have to work again when I come home. Qin, I'll tell your family about what you did and how much of a prick you could be." Fen laughed, producing a hollow sound from his throat.
"Yeah. As soon as I get home. I just need more strength. It's all about power and strength." He pat the red orb stored near his body while his energy stirred from his will.
****
Smash!
Dey's manifestation watched as the last of the Void Spawn were killed by his men but he wasn't happy even after seeing the swarm getting destroyed. He wasn't even in the mood to join them in the extermination. After hearing about the growing swarm near the facility Fen was in, he immediately sent his energy body there along with a few of his forces to drive as many of the monsters away from the facility as possible using his produced Void energy as bait for the creatures who loved to feed on sources of high-quality energy.
The past few hours were crazy even by an insane person's standards, and might even be considered nightmarish to any normal individual but right now, Deion's mind was distracted by something else other than the growing number of black-bleeding corpses.
Gazing into the endless stars devoid of any natural life in his domain made him restless when he had nothing else to do, so events like this gave him a reprieve away from his repetitive acts to reduce his boredom.
But right now he wished he could have that boredom back. Things in the universes were about to get very chaotic and even the Void God who was isolated from the rest of the universe while inside this created dimension had to decide about his own stance before he got thrown into a blender of warring forces.
Manifesting a metallic communicator in between his hands, Deion raised it to his face and spoke a simple question into it.
[Any progress in the search for the Fragment?]
Another Godly voice came out of the other end of the communicator.
[Why the hell are you calling with a damn manifestation? I thought our relationship was better than that, Lost God.] Deion's body quivered slightly at the annoyingly playful voice.
The Void God growled, [Just answer the question you damned useless-]
[Alright, alright, just give me a second to pull up the information... Ah, got it. Ahem, we haven't found it yet, but we're getting very close to it. The Guides that we prepared are all reacting within our predictions, but because of the worries that we might not be able to control them if we approach any closer, I sent out other teams to search manually. It'll take a little more time but they'll get it done eventually.]
Deion nodded to himself. He replied, [We're running out of time; that universe's next attempt at Transitioning is bound to succeed and when that happens, you know who'll be the first to try and get their hands on Earth.]
[Fuu... Damn Angels. You'd think they'd be content with the powers of their overlord but to even be greedy enough to desire a measly Planet Grade civilization's people.]
[The Creation God doesn't want the Humans, what he wants is the information they have about the universe. Even if they haven't developed space-traveling technology yet, they managed to gather some top-notch information about their own universe. Some would even say it's better than some Stellar Systems Grade civis'.] Deion's brow tightened while thinking about the potentially catastrophic consequences that Earth would have from their own curiosity. If they were still fighting each other to unify their planet, developing weapons of war to eliminate everyone else and conquer, then they might've been left alone by the upcoming war between civilizations.
Unfortunately for them, they didn't even have the power to defend themselves from the coming invasion. Deion recalled what happened to a certain planet within a universe that had just finished its Transition a few months ago; from what he knew, only the forces of Heaven and the Heretics appeared to take control of the planet but even then the damage done to its people almost drove them to extinction.
'But what happened there won't even be comparable to the massacre that'll affect Earth. With Heaven, the United Front of Heretics, Metallica, the Quadi Federation, and... shit, all the other powerful civilizations all coming after the universe successfully Transitions, it would be a miracle if anything was left from the battle for Earth's intelligence on their universe.' Deion thought, tapping his finger on his leg.
All of a sudden an image of a happy family on Earth popped into mind. The one whose son he replaced with his own. The family that was currently the driving motivation behind Fen's explosive growth as a Knight and drove him to survive. Thinking about them made his mind turn in a dangerous direction, so he hung up the communicator and starting talking aloud.
[Should I bring them here? I can't even spare the forces for an operation like that, but don't I owe it to Fen to take care of them? Damn it, I should've taken advantage of those peaceful years to expand, but who's could've predicted the mess that the universes are in right now?] Back then, even the thought of overthrowing the Creation God was a forbidden dream. If it wasn't for some lucky encounters, then the Alliance would've never gathered the influence they had right now; actually, if the United Front of Heretics hadn't helped them then who knew for how much longer that tyrant would dominate over most of the universes?
In the end, Deion turned his head to look at Raisen, who was floating next to him in the Void. The Unique had come out here into the empty section of the Void after telling the Foundation that'd he scout for any signs of another Void Spawn invasion or another swarm, and had managed to sneak away to meet up with his Godly companion shortly after.
[Any thoughts on what I should do?]
The Knight shook their head, saying, "If you're asking me what you should do about the Fragment of the Creation then you're asking the wrong person; I stuck my head out of that mess a long time ago. But, if you're asking me about what you should do with Fen's family..."
After they 'fixed' their relationship, Deion told them all about why Fen was living with a family on Earth and why the kid was unaware of Dey's real identity and their actual relationship. At first, Raisen believed it had something to do with the upcoming chaos, but after he saw for himself what happened with Tamasa he changed his mind and supported Deion's decision.
"You should do the obvious thing and bring them here where they'll be safe. What you did to that family- even if they don't know, you killed their son. But you and I are the only people across the universes who know that, so just don't tell them when you transport them over. Might give them the wrong idea."
Dey's head hung low at Raisen's words as the memories of what he did flood his mind. [The only problem is the Foundation. There's no way they won't notice the disappearance of an entire family of a candidate of anyone, especially not the relatives of someone like Fen. Without them they can't control him.]
Raisen scoffed, "And since when were you afraid of anything? Just send some shapeshifters, I'm sure you have some lying around not doing anything. They won't even notice what happened if you plan everything correctly."
[I'll have some people work on it.] Deion sighed.