SYSTEM ASCENSION

At midnight, a student had woken up to choking sounds and found his roommate being strangled to death. Instead of raising an alarm, he calmly activated his stealth ability and got out of bed. Luckily, the door was opened.

He crept towards it, but as soon as he got to it to escape, he saw the shadow of the person above him.

The shadow stopped him cold, and before he could turn a knife slit his pocket.

”Gggr...ha...” He tried to cover it, but his blood continued to flow. He collapsed.

The attacker dropped the knife beside him, and quietly stepped over him to escape.

However, he barely moved, when the door beside him opened. A student stepped out, and shut his own door behind him. He slowly looked sideways and they locked eyes. For a moment, neither of them moved.

Then the attacker’s expression changed.

He immediately activated his ability, and he raised his hand.

A dark blue light gathered around his palm before forming several sharp waves of energy.

”Echo Burst!”

The waves shot toward the figure.

He had expected resistance, but the person didn’t dodge.

The attack struck the boy directly, but instead of being pushed back, the energy disappeared into his body.

The attacker froze.

”What...?”

Quil yawned slowly and raised one hand.

The same blue energy began gathering around his palm, fifty times the actual one.

”You’re a disposal right? Hunting us.”

The attacker tried to escape, but Quil released it.

The attack came back at him with fifty times the force. Quil didn’t aim the attack directly at him, because doing that will erase him off the face of the world. Instead he blasted it in the wall’s direction. Just the pressure alone affected the attacker. He was thrown backward and crashed into the wall before dropping unconscious onto the floor.

”Problems right after I returned...”

The corridor became silent again.

Quil stood over him for a few seconds, then turned and walked back to his room, grabbed a communication orb and called an urgent notice.

A minute later, Owen arrived with a few securities and professors. The attacker, a student identified as Dusn, was transferred to a special containment room beneath the academy.

The student council were contacted and soon, they gathered in the room.

The room looked more like a laboratory than a jail. Thick glass surrounded the walls, several machines hummed quietly in the background, and a faint blue light pulsed from the restraints around Dusn’s wrists.

He sat in the center of the room with his head lowered.

Standing outside the glass were the members of the student council and Owen, the headmaster. None of them spoke at first.

Owen stepped closer to the glass.

”Why are you killing your fellow students?”

The student slowly lifted his head and smiled.

”I’m simply getting rid of pests.”

A grim look appeared on their faces.

”Who sent you?” Owen asked.

No answer.

”Why did you attack them?!”

The student’s smile widened.

Claude stepped forward. ”You understand that you’re inside a sealed containment room. Your ability has already been neutralized. Whatever protection you think you have—”

Dusn suddenly laughed. He tilted his head.

”You’re number five right?”

All eyes naturally turned. This wasn’t because they recognised the number five Dusn meant, but because the number is on Elias’s wrist.

The boy continued to laugh.

”The formal league master, number twenty was the reason why no one pushed to retrieve you. He was a walking maniac right?” He reached forward to where the chain allowed him. ”Now that he’s dead, and I have sent your location to headquarters, start saying your goodbyes. You’re going back to your cage— Aark!”

Elias didn’t move from where he was standing, but a hand was logged inside Dusn’s chest. For a moment, they all stood frozen.

This person was new. Naked, paled skin and scaly. He had three horns in his head. At first, they all thought another disposal came here to take Dusn out, but Tiana quickly recognised the child that is no longer in her arms, and is somehow 6’10” tall.

”Mona?!”

Mona’s hand dug deeper into Dusn’s chest, and he could only struggle in terror.

Everyone moved back, even if the glass was separating them. No one knew how fast Mona moved without damaging the glass.

Dusn continued to gag. He felt the life draining from him. His mouth opened.

”Every...thing for...Clave...”

He went silent.

”...”

No one reacted for a while. Tiana had given an announcement about Mona being a physical manifestation of Elias’s ability, so no one had expected him to act out.

”What did he say?” Elias asked.

”For Clave.” Mona pulled out his bloody hand and turned around. ”Who the hell is Clave?”

”Who are you asking?” Elias replied.

”You... killed him.” Owen finally recovered enough to speak. ”We could have gotten information from him.”

”You can’t,” Elias answered. ”his head would have exploded, just like what happened in Torzi empire.”

Owen recalled the moment and nodded.

”But now we’re back to square one.” Claude muttered.

”Not quite.” He yawned.

Before they could ask any further, Mona dug the five fingers of his left hand into the corpse’s head, his claws craving in.

”Humans’ consciousness stays alive a little bit more after death.” Elias muttered. ”We can simply read that consciousness.”

”He can do that?” Tiana pointed.

”Real name: Madrid Cain, Rumis empire,” Mona said. ”Grew up in an orphanage where the teaching of a belief was the only thing they built their lives on. Clave.”

”So Clave is a god.” Anya raised a brow. ”We have never heard of it?”

”I have heard something like that before,” Lane said. ”Back, during my trip to Nazarland. God of the dark...I think?”

”Are you saying this god is ordering people to kill other people? It makes no sense.”

’Not people, but upholder that were chosen by Omeo’ is what Kael wanted to say, but a glare from Claude shut him up.

”Either way, he’s an idiot that died believing in trash,” Mona pulled out his hand and licked it. ”Disgusting...”

”Believe is a poison,” Claude yawned. ”Defending ridiculous theories.”

”What if those theories are right?” Anya asked.

”Then why should I care? My life is mine. If I can’t leave it for myself, death is a safe spot.” He began to pace. ”It seems this particular belief does not exist in Salvador, so we should do a file check on the foreigners attending Ringoff.”

”I’ll need to contact master Rowen.” Owen walked out.

”Get to work.” Claude clapped.

Everyone walked out, murmuring inaudible words to themselves. Soon, it was just Elias and Mona in the room.

”Do you...” Mona walked and stopped beside him. ”...not find that name familiar?”

”...”

Elias glanced at him. ”Like a second skin.”