Darkness Syndrome

Blake had no choice but to stand up for a senseless fight that might cost his life. 

Scarlett squeezed her fist, which had become red due to nervousness.

Lucian walked to an open space beside the round table. Blake knew he had only one thing to do during these four seconds–dodge!

"Begin!" The man in yellow yelled.

Lucian rushed at Blake at an unimaginable speed. Blake felt Lucian disappear for a mini-second. He moved to the side without thinking much and placed a palm on his chest and the other on his head. Just as he predicted, his speed was incapable of escaping Luciann, and Lucian was aiming at his heart.

Blake suddenly felt like a bull smashed into his chest. He flew back like a loose kite and smashed the wall behind him while coughing out blood. He looked at his dislocated wrist, which was bent at a weird angle. A spark of hatred started burning in his heart. Formally, he planned to live until Hecate took over his body. After all, everything he cared about is now ashes. But now, he wants the power to kill some people.

Lucian stopped for a moment with shock written all over his face. They couldn't tell if it was because Blake predicted the track of his attack, or because he survived his attack as an awaken. When he woke up from his daze and was about to follow up his prior attack with more punches, the voice of the man with yellow clothes stopped.

"Four seconds is over!" 

When Lucian sat down, Jasper hissed silently, "You couldn't even kill a mere weak awaken."

Blake staggered to his seat with a pale complexion.

When he sat down, Scarlett checked his hand before ignoring him when the man in yellow cloth spoke.

"Now, tell us what you discovered."

"There is a cave close to the glacier sea. It is his base. The security will be lax in seven days," Jasper grumbled because of his failed plan.

"Location," Brad spat coldly.

"I'm not telling you today. One of you idiots might do something stupid by attacking solo, throwing our effort into the mud," Jasper berated without diluting the content.

"In seven days, we will convene and catch them unprepared," The man in yellow cloth said.

"Fill him with the information because he's coming along," Jasper said to Scarlett with a smile before walking away. It was like the advice of an elder.

The smile made Blake feel uncomfortable. It was like Jasper had something in mind. 

'Maybe it's just to scare me away. If he thinks he could verbally frighten me from going, he must be a fool,' Blake thought as he followed Scarlett out of the room. The three older men followed Jasper out.

When Blake and Scarlett got outside, he exhaled in relief. It felt like his life was out of his control in the house. 

"What is the information you need to fill me with?" Blake asked as he forcefully twisted his hand, restoring it to its original position. All this while, his teeth were clenched, enduring the pain without screaming. 

Scarlett was surprised by his endurance level. She would have helped him fix his hand that way but felt it was too painful for him.

"When we get to my house, I will tell you," Scarlett said before entering an alley.

"So you wore armor in case those mobs started rioting?" Blake asked while he followed closely behind her.

Scarlett burst into a peal of sweet laughter.

"You are the only person that can call an astral transcendent a mob," Scarlett said.

"What is an astral transcendent?" Blake asked.

"There are four major levels: The awaken, the elemental transcendent, the astral transcendent, and the cosmic transcendent. We are here," Scarlett said, using her ID to open the door to her house.

Blake followed her inside. What shocked me was that the house that looked like a five-bedroom flat from outside, was just a two-bedroom flat. The rooms were just extremely wide.

Scarlett poured two cups of wine and handed a cup to Blake. Blake just gulped it in one go.

"That's not how to drink wine." Scarlett admonished his drinking method.

"There's a quote that states that, 'you can take the man out of the street, but you can't take the street out of the man'," Blake said with a deep, solemn voice, making Scarlett giggle.

"The bottle is over there." Scarlett pointed at a shelf filled with wine, and Blake walked towards it instantly. His instant reaction indicated that he was simply waiting for an invitation not to look rude.

"Back to serious business. The mission we are undertaking is called 'the dark syndrome'. You must have heard about elements, but you haven't heard that the darkness element is forbidden," Scarlett said solemnly.

"Why? Don't tell me it's a religion that made that rule," Blake asked with a contorted expression that displayed apparent disgust.

He was disgusted because a fake shaman scammed his mother of almost all their life savings, making him not attend college.

"Nope. The Darkness element was present in the cosmic energy on Earth before. Awakening the darkness element and its branches was no issue. However, after the Azura race suddenly arrived on Earth, caused a war, and left Earth, the darkness component of the cosmic energy vanished. The Azura race could use only the darkness element, so there were speculations that they absorbed all," Scarlett said before taking a sip of her wine. 

At this time, Blake has finished three cups of wine.

Blake already read about the Azura race. They were a bunch of psychotic, bloodthirsty race, who wreaked havoc on earth. However, after conquering some parts of the earth, they left the planet in an intergalactic ship. 

"How does that make the darkness element forbidden?" Blake asked, gulping another cup of wine.

"When someone awakens the darkness element in this age, the person mutates into a monster we called the dark demon. However, the monster could swallow up cosmic energy and other elemental energy, and convert it to darkness elemental energy. The issue is that they lose their sense of reasoning. They become bloodthirsty fiends. Furthermore, the weakest of the dark demons has the strength of an elemental transcendent," Scarlett said as she loosens the band of her hair, allowing her hair to cascade on her back freely. 

"So, what is the mission? I don't have the strength to kill those demonic kinds of stuff," Blake asked vigilantly.

"There is a person who is experimenting on the darkness element. He kills innocent people. We were ordered to stop the person," Scarlett said while she drank the remaining wine from her glass.

"Who ordered you?" Blake asked.

"I apologize, but I can't tell you," Scarlett said.

"Fine. I will need payment. I can't risk my life for nothing," Blake said with a straight face.

"How many cores do you want?" Scarlett asked, shocking Blake. He only demanded payment to test her.

"Ninety-nine crystal cores of awaken beast," Blake just gave her the number of his remaining core by the system.

"Insane!" Scarlett exclaimed, which made Blake feel weird.

"I can only give you eight viscid cores at most," Scarlett said while peering into Blake's eyes.

"Why being stingy? I'm even thinking of selling my viscid awaken core," Blake said nonchalantly. 

She looked at Blake like he had grown horns on his head.

"You're the first to sell a viscid awaken core. As for being stingy, I'm not being stingy. Do you think it's easy to get crystal cores? Let me tell you, only the awaken can enter the awaken hunting ground." Scarlett poured the wine into her cup and explained patiently, "Even an awaken who has maxed out his or her level using crystal cores will need to organize a hunting party of about fifty people, to kill a crystal core awaken beast. Moreover, the hunting party will need to be of peak awaken strength."

"Fine, four crystal cores." Blake finally compromised.

"My limit is two crystal cores," Scarlett said weakly.

"Fine. But why don't people absorb the crystal core?" Blake asked because the students only talked about viscid awaken cores.

"It takes one hour to absorb a misty core, two days for a liquid core, five days for a viscid core, and fifteen days for a crystal core. Now you understand? The time to obtain and absorb crystal cores for a normal civilian might be 8 years if the person is extremely lucky, making the person miss the time to enter college," Scarlett said with a sneer.

Blake was shocked by this revelation. It took about an hour, if not minutes, to finish that big crystal core.

"I want to bathe, so it's time for you to leave," Scarlett said to Blake.

"You haven't explained the identity of those people," Blake said while looking around for what to steal. He spotted the necklace on the wine shelf.

"They are members of the four families that control the Sky Dominion. You will find out in the future if you travel out. But if you don't, it wouldn't concern you. Okay, time to leave before a scandal starts spreading," Scarlett said as she stood up.

"I don't care about any scandal," Blake said. 

"I care," Scarlett hissed.

"Take this viscid awaken core and send me the money for it," Blake said, fishing out the viscid awaken core he got from winning the race.

"Let me get my device," Scarlett said and walked into the room.

Immediately Scarlett left, he walked quickly to the wine shelf. Just as he grabbed the necklace, he heard Scarlett's voice.

"What are you doing there?"

Blake's hand froze. Although Scarlett was friendly with him, he didn't know her real attitude. Moreover, stealing from her is a red flag to their friendship.