Chapter 3 - Hope and Fear

Hito started to look around and then quickly turned to his sister.

The first thing he saw was his sister looking at him with tears in her eyes. At that moment, the angel caught his attention with a few words, "Earlier I said I would protect her, concentrate on the fight." 

As Hito turned to search for the assassin with his eyes, a brutal blow caught him from behind, knocking him down mercilessly.

While Hito was on the ground, the assassin approached him and grabbed him by the neck to lift him up.

Hito's feet could not reach the ground because of the height. Then, the killer said in a sadistic tone of voice, "You scum, you hit me with those little hands. I won't let you die quickly." 

Then, he threw him to the ground and kicked him in the stomach.

Hito stood up weakly and watched as the assassin became invisible again. After a few seconds, blows began to hit him from all directions, Hito struggled to remain standing while his body absorbed all the impacts. 

In the end, he fell to the ground again and drops of blood started coming out of his nose. 

Hito crawled towards a tree and began to tear off each of its branches. The branches were too fragile because it was autumn season. 

The assassin watched him with disdain from afar.

After Hito plucked several branches, he began to approach the assassin slowly. 

Once he reached him, he started attacking him with the branches. The assassin dodged them too easily, all the leaves on the branches began to fall to the ground.

When the leaves on the branches had run out of leaves, the assassin grabbed Hito by the neck again, pulled him close to him and said, "You are so pathetic that you make me feel ashamed of myself." 

Hito looked him in the eyes and said, "Do you think I'm afraid of you? Then, he tried to quickly punch him in the face.

This time, the assassin easily managed to dodge the attack, moving a few meters away from Hito.

"Don't run away, coward." Hito said while looking at him with a smile on his face. 

The assassin looked at him seriously and said with contempt, "I have no interest in you anymore, I'll kill you right now." Next, he pulled out one of his daggers and turned invisible.

Hito, breathing heavily and tired, closed his eyes, concentrating on sharpening his senses.

At the precise instant that the assassin was about to stab him, Hito nimbly dodged him, grabbed his arm and pulled out a dagger that he had previously taken from him to finally stab him hard in the side of his neck.

"Damn, how did you-?" asked the assassin as he fell to the ground. 

"First time the autumn leaves are in my favor." Hito replied, furthermore some letters reappeared in his sight.

«Welcome Quest Completed»

«Open»

Ignoring the mysterious letters, Hito faintly turned to look at his sister and saw that roots covered her view. Exhausted from the fight, he began to approach her. 

As Hito was about to embrace his sister, many roots enveloped Aris, wrapping her in a hollow sphere. 

Hito's eyes widened slightly as he looked at the angel with intrigue and asked, "What are you doing?"

The angel brought the sphere closer to his side and replied, "I must admit, you have impressed me. For a moment, I was about to intervene in the combat. However, the assassin was overconfident. Even so, I can't take credit away from you for being able to defeat him. Using the sound of leaves to combat something invisible was a smart choice." 

Hito quickly interrupted the angel, "Damn, that's not what I asked, what are you doing with my sister?"

"I'm taking your sister, as we agreed earlier." Calmly replied the angel.

At that moment, Hito did not understand those words and upset, he asked, "What the hell are you talking about?" 

"Considering that you accepted the conditions without first listening to them, I will take the time to explain it to you, my conditions were, that I would take and protect your sister, in exchange for you becoming stronger." Replied the angel. 

"Make me stronger..." replied hito sadly, and then asked angrily, "Why would a damn God want that!"

The angel was silent for a few seconds and then replied, " Because, so far, the beings you call gods are the only ones who decide whether all of you live or not." After a pause, he continued, "Therefore, if I do not hear from you, I will take it for granted that you did not complete the conditions and I will get rid of your sister."

Hito tried to run towards the angel to attack him. Unfortunately, before he took the first step, roots began to grab his foot. With strength, he took the next step, bursting the roots that held him, but suddenly thousands more roots began to wrap around his body and then pin him to the ground.

At that moment, Hito's eyes began to tear up as he saw another mysterious being pulling his beloved sister away from him. 

When Hito was completely motionless, some words from the angel could be heard: "I hope to see you soon, Hito." 

 

-

-

 

After a few hours motionless, the roots began to wither rapidly.

Hito's eyes closed slightly when he saw the light again. 

Slowly, he sat down on the ground and as he looked at all the fallen trees around him, he began to remember everything that had happened. 

'It wasn't a nightmare...' he thought sadly.

His gaze was directed towards the ground, while he remembered his little sister. His eyes closed and a gesture of regret came over him again.

'It is illogical to trust in gods when millions of people have died due to them.'

'However, this one was different...' At that instant, Hito remembered the words previously spoken by the angel: "the beings you call gods are the only ones who decide whether all of you live or not."

At that point, the only option left for Hito was to trust the words of the mysterious angel-shaped God.

He began to walk in circles while thinking what he should do, the ground and the shelter were completely destroyed. Suddenly, letters began to appear again in his sight.

 

«Reminder Of Reward»

«Open»

 

'What is this, a reward?" wondered Hito. Then, he started to analyze the mysterious letters and realized that some letters were dimmed after reading them. This reminded him of when computers still existed, it was almost the same, the options were shaded when you dragged the mouse over them. Hito selected the «Open» option and then other messages came into view. 

 

«Welcome Quest Complete»

«Defeat a divine minion»

«Accept»

 

'Defeat a minion?' wondered Hito, curiously. At that moment he remembered that he was referring to the assassin and continued by selecting «accept».

 

«Skill Reward: Stealth»

«The stealth skill allows you to become invisible to any enemy for two seconds. After the first attack, you will become visible again. Requires 5 mana.»

«Accept»

 

At that moment Hito remembered that this was the same skill that the previous subject had. However, this one has a shorter duration. Finally, he selected «accept».

What Hito possessed was more than just an ability and he knew it, with that power he was able to fight the mythological creatures he had previously encountered. 

Thanks to this, Hito decided to return to the village from which they had fled five years ago. 

As he walked, he continued to analyze the mysterious interface that he could see.

Just by thinking about it, Hito could open and close the options.

 

«Statistics»

«Skills»

«Missions»

 

'will I be able to get my sister back with this?' he wondered with hope and fear.