25 Chapter 24

Cassie's little breakdown did make us wonder about the future. As after we were done with dinner, Sunny and Nephis plopped down onto the rough ground before sleeping a second later like logs.

I in particular had a bundle of flesh wrapping itself around me in the form of Cassie. She tried falling asleep but it was to no avail.

In the end she gave up, looking up at my face with stressed eyes, as she wondered in a quiet voice "Ariel. Do you think that we can make it out of here? Now that we're all together in a group?"

I gazed down at her with a confident smile, making sure my confidence reached her in the process "Of course we can, though it will be a little difficult. I will do my best to return you and everyone else to their families or their homes."

However my mind was on something else…..

'How will everything change with me being here, will people die more because of me or will I be the one left behind just like what happened to Nephis.'

'I'm a bit worried, but that's it. Even if some shit that's out of my level happens, there's nothing I can do but to acknowledge it and do my best to keep the ones close to me safe.'

'But at the price of what? More death or something much more severe?'

I glanced down at Cassie who was now sleeping peacefully due to my hand ruffling her hair gently. Her face had an expression of relief, happiness. And most importantly, hope.

'What if she was the price?'

'What if she had to die?'

'Okay now I'm overthinking and overwhelming myself, there's no need to be so fixed on how the future will go. I just need to go with the flow even if something horrible happens.'

I sighed at all this complicated bullshit. Deciding to once and all hit the sheets, and I did just that. I slept with my arms hugging Cassie tightly and gently. Unwilling to let her go no matter what situation I will be in.

...….

The next morning. I opened my eyes to the sight of both Nephis and Sunny talking at the ledge of the statue, looking down at a particular, crowded spot in the labyrinth.

I untangled myself from Cassie who, after a bit of resistance finally loosened her grip on me.

Christ! How the hell is she so strong! What made her so strong?

I shook my disbelief out of my head before walking to the duo chatting about sternly, and seriously.

"Good morning, did you guys have a good sleep?"

Both of them nodded before gesturing for me to come closer...

When I came closer to look down, Nephis pointed at a gigantic body of a nightmare creature. It was in the form of a shark but that wasn't what caught my attention.

What made me interested was the state it was in…..

It was dead.

With a whole lot of awakened scavengers surrounding it, tearing its flesh apart to bits and pieces. Slowly devouring its entire gigantic body.

It was like a bunch of ants found prey of multiple times their size, releasing their hunger and starvation on it in tandem.

However there was one more thing that got my full attention.

It was two pure, refined glowing soul shards that were burning with such a radiance. I had to close my eyes to not get blinded by them.

As my adaptation kicked in. Allowing me to see clearly just a second later, I turned my head to Nephis and Sunny with a greedy look in my eyes. Seeming like a snake that was just about to pounce on its target.

I held in my excited breath, pointing down at the corpse of the terrifying abomination with a shaking finger....

"Don't tell me those are transcendent soul shards?"

Nephis and Sunny looked at each other with a subtle glow in their eyes as they nodded in sync, further upping my excitement.

Which meant that the bastard down there was a Corrupted nightmare creature. That creature alone can annihilate an entire city if there isn't any saints that can be deployed to take care of it.

Corrupted nightmare creatures can only be beaten by at least a Saint or someone of a higher rank. That is without taking into account their class which could be a Beast. The lowest rank, or a Titan. The highest rank.

If it's a Titan, then we can only say bye-bye to that said city. They need a good amount of Saints just to hold something like a Corrupted Titan back. And there's not a lot of saints that can be just thrown into battle. Hell, I think there's only a few dozen of them in the world currently. So losing one would be a big deterrent and loss of an infinite amount of resources.

This one seems to be a Corrupted Devil. More horrifyingly it was killed.

By what?

I have a good guess that it was the tentacle pervert, cause he's the only one around here who has the capability to easily rid of a Corrupted Devil.

While I was lost in my thoughts. Nephis tapped me on the shoulder to get me out of my head as she said in a clear tone "What should we do?"

This question was asked by Sunny as well, considering the light shining in his eyes was an expectant one.

I waited for a few seconds of silence, calmly looking back and forth between the corpse and the awaiting, expectant duo. Weighing the possibilities or the potential fuck up if I make a choice hastily.

Ah fuck it.

When have I been one for thinking so much?

In my first nightmare the only worry I had was to survive and make it out no matter what it took.

Although I guess that has changed, in accordance to me meeting Cassie. It made me a bit more concerned about the future, and that happens to everyone. So I'm not the only exception to that kind of rule.

It happened again.

I'm overthinking things again damn it!

Fuck it, I'm going in.

I need to let out some steam. And what's better than a horde of nightmare creatures.

Nothing.

So with that thought cementing itself onto my mind, I summoned my sword before precisely cutting of one finger. Surprising the already shocked duo when I threw the finger to Nephis who, out of instinct caugh it out of the air. Prompting sunny to incredulously ask out.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"I need to let off some frustration, and in case anything goes bad. Make sure to have my finger with you, don't lose it I'm serious."

I then turned around before shocking the two for the upteenth time by jumping of the ledge of the statue while shouting in the process.

"Take care of Cassie you two!"

And with that I drowned myself in deadly silence, letting my mind drift into my Absolute Domain along with positioning my body into a prone…..

Before just letting myself be carried by the wind.

*Boom!*

The air wrapped sound me like a cone, wanting to stop me but to no avail as I easily tore through the sound barrier, in return a Piercing shockwave spread out. Bursting my ear drums, a testament to the blood dripping down the side of my face.

But a second later my hearing came back perfectly, thanks to my attribute as I continued flying down through the air like a meteor in my prone position.

After exactly thirty seconds, my body came down onto the group of oblivious creatures like a rocket. Crashing down on the ground and immediately sending a force so strong that it tore apart a few of the closer scavengers like paper. While injuring some of them terribly.

My body was going through its own rough phase too. Because falling from such a high altitude would definitely injure me. it made my organs tumble around in my body, My arms and legs became limp a second later as the price of my action began affecting me.

I didn't utter a single sound as a second later I got up from my position, completely healed and energetic. I then summoned my sword before instantly flashing from my place, forming in front of a scavenger in a burst of wind that turned slightly bloody from the now sliced of head of the fucker.

The scavengers quickly surrounded me with a ferocious hunger lighting up in their eyes, which made me let out my own battle hungry grin when I saw a bunch of them running towards me in a hurried sprint.

The first scavenger that came upon me tried to pinch my body by using its pincers. However its pincers only found air in my place as I ducked down low, bringing my sword with me into a precise, upwards strike that sliced through its crotch up to the middle of its stomach. Prompting it to shriek in pain before tilting over onto the ground into a shower of blood. Clearly dead and unmoving.

I didn't let such a sight distract me as I blurred through the group of awakened creatures, slicing them apart into pieces and doing my best to finish of the still alive ones.

However they kept coming and coming, their numbers endless as I continued to slash down all of them by damaging their weak points. Which was thanks to Nephis who told me about them.

After a bit of time went by, there was bodies littered around me for a good distance, some of them were still twitching and spasming in place while I continued killing off the last batch of them tirelessly. A focused and unshakable fire in my eyes even when I was submerged in monster blood from head to toe.

Severing the head off the last scavenger who, tried to weakly grab me with its pincers only to be met with the flash of a white, spotless sword that immediately drowned its vision into darkness.

I looked around at the graveyard with a satisfied smile on my face before walking towards the body of the abomination and quickly grabbing the two transcendent soul shards with an excited glimmer in my eyes. Further turning into slight madness when I felt the power it was radiating out.

"That was easy."

But as a lapse in my judgment, I raised a very cliche flag. And a second later I sensed two powerful presences approaching me. They seemed a bit more powerful than the scavengers.

"I just raised a flag didn't I?"

A/N: we reached one million views!!! Thank you so much. And pls GIVE. ME. MORE. POWER. I hope you like it.