Riley blinked a couple of times, trying to shake off the disorienting feeling. He couldn't be hallucinating—no, not now. He was sure of it: the angel had moved. Somehow, they were now trapped, yet none of the soldiers seemed to notice this.
Suddenly, a strange curiosity welled up inside him, he had an almost overwhelming urge to discover what would happen if the angel touched him—or if he touched it. Luckily, Riley didn't have to test that curiosity on himself.
The perfect test subject was willingly making his way towards him — the fat-ass soldier he met earlier was heading in his direction, with a sneer on his face— looking at him, there's only one thing on Riley's mind:
"The bloated one" from an old game tank gang— he had once played in the clans underground game house.
The fat soldier arrived in front of him. Riley glanced to the right, he discovered that the fat soldier is very close to touching the angel with his elbow— dangerously close— just a little force would be needed to make him touch the angel.
However Riley would not act rashly, instead he smiled brightly. "Long time no see"
"Indeed, I couldn't help but agree with those old geezers, it seems the death of your friends has gotten to you" The fat soldier replied.
"Friends? Did I have something like that?" Riley blinked a couple of times, trying hard to remember if he had any friends "I don't remember having any friend— they all betrayed me"
He reminiscence about the incident that lead to him being thrown out of the clan, he had considered them friends, he had been stupid, he was supposed to be promoted to be a legacy disciple, however his friends got jealous, and they'd set him up with Sarah— who claimed Riley had tried to rape her.
It was a common knowledge that rape was clearly frowned upon in the broken swords clan, it's an offence punishable by death, he'd be arrested and investigated, and they'd also give him a death sentence.
The clan investigator would have investigated the issue, however when he found out that he was an unawakened soldier, he didn't make a move. They'd always get an unawakened soldier from the dregs; it's the awakened ones that are rare to find.
Sarah turned out to be a drifter— she had conquered her first Nexus Trial. She'd challenge her second Nexus Trial in few days' time and become a real Nexus Ascender and her Nexus soul would be Awakened , accompanied with her genius brain, the clan valued her as a soldier fit to be in their heir's army in the future.
She's important compared to an unawakened soldier.
He had taken an appeal and was rejected. They'd check his file and saw he was a good boy, loyal to the clan, training night and day to become the best.
So they banish him from the clan instead of killing him themselves, no matter how proficient he'd be in martial arts. He'd die in the dregs.
"I'm talking to you moron" The fat soldier yelled.
Riley snapped back to reality.
"Ignoring me? Did you know who I am?" The fat soldier asked.
"If you aren't Jon Brower Minnoch, who else would you be?" Riley asked.
The fat-soldier was red, the more he tried to speak and could not find the right words, the more shade of red adds to his face.
"My friend, why don't you take a breather before playing with me?" Riley asked, looking at the angel beside him, "I don't like it when my friend is tired."
"It's a long way to hell. Don't you think?"
The fat soldier seems pissed off, his breathing became rapid. He decided to follow Riley's advice, he smiled wistfully. "Bro, you are a man of culture" The fat-soldier said. He leaned sideways, and then he made contact with the Angel's statue.
"Poof"
Suddenly, he vanished from his position as if he never existed.
"Oh, that's surprising!" Riley blurted out, his eyes wide in surprise.
Other soldiers who had been behind him rushed away from the statue; they saw that the fat soldier leaned in the statue and disappeared— he didn't even make a sound— he wasn't even alerted.
The sudden backing away of the soldiers in Riley's side, caused the formation to scatter and then the soldiers pushed themselves— trying to get as far away from the angels— ends up pushing other soldiers— who knew nothing about the statue— to the angel statue.
And then hell broke loose.
As the soldiers touched the angel's statues, they varnished instantly, the panicked soldiers could not think of a way out, and very quickly the numbers of soldiers present began to reduce drastically, no one knew where they were taken to, if they are alive or dead…
No one knows.
Riley was also pushed around, however he managed to avoid coming in contact with the angel statues. The commander quickly grasped the situation, and as quickly as it started, it ended, everyone became calm; there was no pushing or screaming— at least for now.
"Single file! " The commander screamed.
Immediately, the soldiers moved and formed a single file, and continued matching, other soldiers joined at the end of the line, forming a long chain of marching soldiers. Naturally Riley was at the back of the line, he needed to carry out more experiment.
He took off his belt, then toss it at the angels.
It landed with a subtle clank sound, however it did not disappear, as it turned out only living being varnish without a trace when they come in contact with the angel's statues. Still not satisfied…
"Come on, you guys cannot be like this" he groaned.
He turned away from the angel's statue to take out his sword scabbard to continue the experiment, and then he could feel it, the change in the atmosphere.
They could all feel the ominous energy spreading in the air. Every bones in Riley's body screamed for him to look back up. At first, he wanted to ignore the feeling, but he decided to trust his instincts, he glanced at the angel statue again, and this time…
The angels were no longer covering their faces instead they were all looking at him. And they were smiling. The sight sent chills down his spine.
"What's up you grey statues, I know I'm pretty famous, but no! — no autographs!." As he finished speaking, he blinked and then he was surrounded by the angels statues. And their facial expression were anything but friendly, and they were baring their canine fang on him.
And soon a gust of cold wind slapped them in the face, the wind filled the whole desert creating a sand storm, and darkness descended on the world, so that the soldiers could not see their own hands.
Some of the soldiers tried to scream, but their voices were drowned by the howling of the wind—which was starting to become fierce.
Some soldiers choked on sand as they tried to scream, their lungs were filled with sand, and some tiny particles made its way to their brain.
"Help!. help!!" A soldier screamed running frantically around, but unfortunately, he ended up in the arms of an angel. The angel snapped his neck and ate the soldier in the blink of an eye.
Several figures flashed in the sand mist, moving at unimaginable speed, and in less than a second, the soldiers were dead—the commander and lieutenants included, no one was able to put up a resistance against the angels— they were all eaten alive.
"Oh, I thought you guys only perform disappearing magic, I didn't expect you to eat humans alive", suddenly Riley shivered. He tried to escape his entrapment, he was the only one left alive and he was pretty sure he would be eaten— they'd save him for last.
"Sorry but I'm not tasty" Riley managed to say before he tripped on his own feet while trying to escape and mistakenly touched an angel outstretched finger.
"Oh." Those were the last words he uttered before disappearing with a puff sound. Leaving a trail of grey dust in his wake.
--
It was white, all he could see was a white void and then there was wind, his hairs fluttered in the wind and his clothes— he's not wearing any.
The snow falling from the sky were frozen in place.
"Has time stopped again?" Riley asked no one in particular. If time stopped, then why was his hairs fluttering? Where does the fierce wind come from, and why was the snowflakes stagnant in the air?
Why there is nothing but clouds as far as his eyes could see? And why is the world white.
Suddenly his eyes widened in horror, there's only one explanation for the snowflakes to freeze in the sky, time didn't freeze…
He was free falling and he was pretty sure he'd be falling at a speed of roughly 1.5 mph— it's not fast— but with the help of gravity it will become faster and faster. And when he touches the ground —well whatever is left of him lands— he would turn into a complete paste.
Well Riley would not let that happen, he knew there's only one thing to blame, it's the attribute [Doom], and he could guess that the attribute will always try to kill him no matter what.
Anything that can go wrong in the world will always go wrong when he's involved.
"Damnation"
Quickly, he adjusted his pose in the air, spreading his arms and legs, making himself as large as possible to create more air resistance, he'd try to reduce his descend speed no matter what. It's very dangerous for him to land at his current speed. It's be like a train ramming into an egg.
Thankfully, his speed seems to slow down.
"This... This is awesome" he admitted.
"I have always wanted to sky dive, one of my goal has been accomplished, well if I survive this" He mumbled. "it should have at least sent me with a parachute". Still the fierce wind took his breath away.
And then he broke out of the fog blocking his view, and all he could see was a blue ocean, the water was so clear that he could see the bottom of the sea.
The purple corals rested at the bottom of the sea, and several small fishes swam around, however Riley quickly notice something was off about the ocean…
Reality seems to split apart and then a black fissure opened up in the middle of the ocean, a point where he's destined to land.
He'd been too close to the rift to change his direction,
If anything could go wrong in this world, it'd always go wrong if he's involve.
He crashed into the newly formed Rift. There's was only thing on his mind. And he couldn't help but agree.
"Curiosity kills the cat".