A rough-looking man wearing a black, metallic armor was sitting on his throne in the great hall of the Arcadia headquarters while his three shady companions were standing behind him. He was looking down upon the two girls who went to confront him. There wasn't a single smile nor anger shown in his face as he only stared at them with contempt. Those two girls were none other than Luna and Klaudia.
"I really admire the both of you for being so persistent and thick-skinned." He said with a mocking tone in his voice. Then he continued: "Too bad for you, you're just wasting your time."
"Aren't you just a bunch of cowards who had lost hope in returning to the real world? Some of you had reached rank IV but you cower when facing a mere hellspawn." Luna expressed her disgust and spat on the ground.
"I dare you say that again." The man turned murderous as he stood up from his throne. "Who do you think you are? You're just a newcomer here, while I am the king in this area. I am the law! No one is allowed to disobey me!"
He vanished from where he was standing and suddenly arrived just a meter away in front of them. He released a dominating aura full of killing intent which made Luna and Klaudia backed a few steps away.
'Strong!'
Luna cursed in her mind. The guy was way too much for her as of now. If she wanted to get out of this trial alive, she had to defeat this guy who was preventing all of them to go underground. If she couldn't even defeat this mere human, then she would have no chance of killing even one of those hybrids.
She bit her lips so hard out of frustration to the point it bled. Her palms were also turning pale after clenching it into fists for so long. She realized how powerless she was. She then turned around and walked away. Klaudia, who looked so worried and scared, followed her.
"I'll be back soon enough. The day I come back would be the day you'll fall." She left a threat paired with a fierce and murderous expression and left the headquarters.
"Hmph! You're still a thousand years early to be able to kill me."
A mocking laughter followed suit from his followers. Luna swore to herself she would definitely come back stronger. She thought of a certain person who would be able to help her. That person was currently missing right now as she didn't know where we went after they had parted ways all of a sudden.
A few days ago, he ran away from her when she asked him to join forces with her. She wondered what went wrong. Was she being annoying that's why he left? Luna couldn't possibly know what was running inside his mind.
"Where are you now?" she asked out in a soft voice without thinking, but still reached the ears of her companion.
"Who, me? I'm just right beside you, Luna." The confused Klaudia was the one who had answered instead of the person she missed.
Blushing a little, she turned away to hide her embarrassment. She couldn't believe she actually voiced out her thoughts.
"It's nothing…"
She had been thinking about Lloyd quite a lot recently. Ever since her clan had been massacred by a powerful unknown force, she had been all alone her entire life. She disregarded socializing with other people just to keep practicing her battle arts and the way of combat until she had finally partially awakened her innate ability. She had acquired a very powerful innate ability, but it also paid a great price.
The more she used it, the more she became less human. Aside from the fact that she was bad at interacting with others, the intense emotion of anger brought by her ability every time she used it was making slowly forgot how it felt to be sad, happy, or any other emotions aside from anger. She had to feel an intense amount of pain in order to not lose her sanity from the side effects of her ability.
The only person in the world she was very close to was Klaudia, whom she had known for a while back in the real world when she happened to get hospitalized after an assassin had thrust a dagger in her heart but was able to survive miraculously thanks to her passive ability.
Even though they were able to bond while she was recuperating there and they became very close as if they were real sisters, she was still the same vengeful girl who was hiding an enormous amount of hatred in her heart. The only thing that kept pushing her through was her anger and hatred. Even Klaudia couldn't heal her scars and her slowly fading emotions. She was close to being totally numb.
But ever since she had met Lloyd, who started as a very weak, skinny guy who had nothing to his name, in this trial and had small talks with him back in the crimson forest and in the Vyris Deadlands, the scars in her heart slowly healed, even if it was just a little bit.
She also had newly found emotions which she had never felt before, and that was also the first time she truly felt like she was living a life instead of just pursuing her goals to death. Her survival adventure together with Lloyd and the others made it happen.
She didn't know how, but her emotions had started to return when he made her a weapon that suited to her taste.
He gave her a sense of comfort and security which made her realized that she was longing for him and wanted to see him more. They were separated for a short while after a conflict broke out, but when she found him again, he had already surpassed her overall strength, paired with his extraordinary innate that could craft anything.
She sighed and took out her status screen to examine her stats, as well as the required kills to ascend to rank III.
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Name: Luna Reinford
Rank: II
Soul Core: Grunt
Title: Awakened Aspirant, Spawn of the God of Destruction, Berserker's Reprisal, Chaotic Soul
Innate Ability: Soul Reaver, Destructive Frenzy
Skills: Unleash Potential, Lightning Enchant
Ascension Requirement: 1974/2500 enemies killed
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Just like Lloyd, she also had something similar to his corrupted soul which was the lineage of a divine being, making her stronger than any average aspirant. The god of destruction governed lightning, so Luna acquired an element was also associated with lightning as a bonus. However, she couldn't just casually use any of her abilities.
Aside from consuming mana essence, her title called Berserker's Reprisal made her skills a double-edged sword It was related to his Destructive Frenzy innate ability where as long as she carried hatred and anger, her strength would be multiplied tenfold and gain abnormal regeneration which would make her almost unkillable. But in return, she would be consumed by an uncontrollable urge to destroy everything she saw everytime she activates any of her abilities.
She had to inflict pain on herself and try to remember who she was just to keep her sanity. She feared that one day she might lose herself if she continued using her ability.
She sighed and closed the screen. The sun was already close to disappearing and the lights of the city were now shining brightly, illuminating the lively streets of the central district of Arcadia.
She turned to face Klaudia and said something that surprised her.
"Go back to our room. I would like to go to the outer district again to kill more hellspawns."
Klaudia shook her head. She didn't want Luna to be alone. She also didn't want to lag behind the others or else she would just become a burden.
"I'm coming with you. I'll do my best to rank up too. It would be much better if we team up, right?"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. I don't care what happens to me. I have a few months left to live anyway. But I will do my best to survive, get out of the trials and become cured!"
Luna could see great determination in her eyes. She smiled and embraced her. She was tougher than what she had expected.
"Thank you, Klaudia. Please don't die on me."
Tears fell from her eyes. Luna was starting to become emotional. She blamed Lloyd for turning her into a crybaby.
"I won't." Klaudia also cried out.
After a few minutes of a tear-jerking hug, they went on their way towards the entrance of the Arcadia inner district. There were a lot of people bustling in the streets since most of them became active at night. Not wanting to get stuck in the crowd, they hurriedly exited the entrance.
Soon, they had arrived at the dilapidated houses in the outer district and encountered an elite hellspawn and a few grunt goblins encircling something in the corner of the streets. They hid behind a pillar first to investigate the situation.
Apparently, those abominations had been feasting over a dead body of a male aspirant, who was wearing a white armor that was now full of cracks and holes, as they could see the elite hellspawn which looked like a big, black bird munching a whole arm in its toothful beak while a goblin was chomping the human's head. The aspirant looked like he died miserably as his face still showed a horrified expression with his eyes and mouth widely opened after being forcefully uprooted from his spinal column.
"Poor guy. May his suffering end in the eternal life." Klaudia sadly prayed as she looked at the hellspawns eating the dismembered body parts.
However, Luna was acting differently. The moment she saw the dead body made her think of Lloyd. What if Lloyd had died? What if he was also being torn apart by abominations just like this dead person and his body parts being eaten? The more she thought about it, the more her emotions became unstable. Tears came out of her eyes as she felt so much grief and frustration.
"Luna?! Don't!" Klaudia wanted to stop her from being reckless but it was too late.
Luna had exploded from her emotions and disappeared from where she was standing.
"So fast!" Klaudia exclaimed.
Luna had blitzed through the distance between them and the monsters after she had activated her unleash potential, which removed the restraining chains that had locked out her innate ability. In a blink of an eye, she vanished into thin air and had ruthlessly cut those abominations into pieces through her Dawnbringer's Cinderblade when she passed through them. Blood splattered everywhere and the body parts of the hellspawns flew in random directions.
"Ahhhh!" She screamed and tried to control herself.
Klaudia freaked out upon seeing her going ballistic.
"What's happening?!"
With the little bit of sanity left in her, she bit her lips so hard that it started bleeding. It wasn't enough to control her immense anger so what she did next horrified Klaudia.
"No, stop!"
Klaudia ran towards her, but then again, she had already done what she had planned. She stabbed herself in the stomach with the Dawnbringer's cinderblade which made her coughed up blood.
Finally, she had a grip of herself. She panted heavily and carefully pulled out the sword. Klaudia, who looked so worried, took out some of those nasty potions that could heal but also inflict tremendous pain. When she looked at the wound caused by the sword, she was greatly surprised upon seeing that it had healed in an instant, as if it was being sewn and soldered like a metal.
"What are you doing? You're scaring me!"
"Don't… mind me. That's just my innate ability… doing the work." She had a hard time talking as the pain still felt so horrible.
She helped her up and they rest for a bit. Luna tried to check her status once again. She had killed five hellspawns, with one of them being an elite while the rest are grunts. With her soul devourer innate, she could also absorb the essence of her enemies, greatly replenishing her mana, and it could also absorb a percentage of their kill counts, adding it to her own.
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Name: Luna Reinford
Rank: II
Soul Core: Grunt
Title: Awakened Aspirant, Spawn of the God of Destruction, Berserker's Reprisal, Chaotic Soul
Innate Ability: Soul Reaver, Destructive Frenzy
Skills: Unleash Potential, Lightning Enchant
Ascension Requirement: 2127/2500 enemies killed
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A smile formed in her lips as she stared at her kill count.
"Almost there. Just a few more…"
After a short rest, they buried the remains of the dismembered body of the male aspirant whom they don't know. Regardless of who he was, he deserved a proper burial.
They then continued to hunt more hellspawns in the area for hours until Luna had reached the required amount.
"Let's hide over there for now. I need a safe place to ascend."
Luna suggested to Klaudia as she pointed towards a ruined building with pillars toppled around the entrance and its door going missing. This was the ancient cathedral where Lloyd had slaughtered the two minotaurs.
"Alright. They went inside cautiously and looked out for possible hellspawns that were lurking in the area. Upon finding out that there were no enemies within the cathedral, they headed towards the safest spot which was the priestess' room.
Luna then sat on the old but sturdy bed and began meditating to prepare for the excruciating pain she would feel during the ascension.
After choosing the 'yes' option when she read the question that asked her if she wanted to ascend or not, the pain had started to emerge. She was immediately drenched in her own sweat and her tiny muscles in her flawless body bulged while she tried to endure the pain. It was like there were a thousand ants crawling into her body while her skin felt like it was being peeled off by a sharp knife.
A few minutes later, the pain faded away and she lied down on the bed, feeling so exhausted. She finally had achieved rank III. She could feel her strength increase by large leaps.
"Are you alright?" Klaudia asked worriedly.
"Yes. I have become stronger. But this is not enough to subdue those bastards." She replied weakly.
"Let's think about it after we get back to the city. Come, I'll help you walk."
Luna wrapped her arm around Klaudia's shoulders for support and they got out of the ancient cathedral. A few more minutes of walking, they had reached the city entrance and was checked by the guards in case there was something wrong with them such as being sick or corrupted.
After passing their examination, they entered the city.
It was already past midnight and the number of people had dwindled greatly. As Klaudia looked around, she spotted a familiar figure who was short-statured, had ashen hair, a very smooth skin like it was made of porcelain which was similar to Luna's complexion, and wearing a white cloak with red fine lines in the shoulder.
"Isn't that… Lloyd?"
She pointed at the person who was just a few meters away from them, sitting on a table inside a fancy restaurant together with three other people. A beautiful girl with blond twintails was sitting closely to him and happily chatting.
"Huh?"
As soon as Luna saw where Klaudia was pointing, she felt something strange welled up within her. She couldn't understand what it was, but she knew one thing. She had to see Lloyd now.
"Luna, wait!"
Klaudia couldn't do anything as Luna had already dashed as fast as she could towards the restaurant and forcefully barged through the door which caused a great commotion. Her emotions were in great turmoil right now.
A particular person among the group of four people, who knew her, was greatly shocked to see her standing in front of them while the other three had a look of confusion. The girl beside him was eyeing her as if she was her greatest mortal enemy. He then stood up and nervously called out to her.
"Luna?! What are you doing—"
Before he could finish, he abruptly stopped upon seeing Luna's tears that had started to fall from her beautiful amber eyes. Silence reverberated to the point they could hear even a pin of needle falling until it was broken by a faint rustling sound.