Chương 110: Converging survivors

A hollow-eyed woman with vampirically pale skin and dark circles under her copper eyes sat limply, like a porcelain doll, on the back of a tall, silver-haired man. Her lips were cracked as blood tepidly drooled down; her arms idly hung and dangled without resistance in response to each of the tall man's steps. The casual clothing she wore during the festivities was a pair of dark burgundy pants that hugged her legs loosely and a well-made, light beige hemp T-shirt.

Both were drenched to the bone now; her clothes were cut, torn, and frayed, and blotches of blood caked her once lovely shirt to her flesh, melding them together. Ann wasn't catatonic despite her unmoving, unreacting state; her body was worn down to its bones from fighting against the flow of the rapids. Soft tears flowed down her stone face, mixing with rain and becoming indistinguishable. Light trembling overtook her body as she recounted the past events, succinctly and repeatedly.

'The Wendigo took Eren; it bit me, tossed me into the water, and I drained down into the dorms.' Blood seeped from a shirt haphazardly secured to her bite wound; the thick globs failed to mix with the outer rain and dissipate as it ran down her sides, leaving a lingering warm trail of itchy residue as it settled into a small pool of rain forming between her waistband and hip. The Triton accompanying them was also in a dishevelled state.

A faint buzzing sensation could spell instant death as lightning would plummet shortly. The ground was obscured by blackened waist-height water, making the next steps a constant gamble, meaning that the second the elf man and his injured companion fell into unforeseen deep waters or if a static sensation caressed their skins, the task fell into River's hands to bail the two out of danger due to his amphibious nature.

When things suddenly took a turn, the supernatural storm made these capable individuals helplessly struggle against the burdening flow of fate and the impending approach of death. There was no Lord of Light to pull them out of danger or shoulder the impossible burden in his group's stead. The elven man's silver hair was no longer tied up; it intrusively stuck to his face, being weighed down by the constant buckets of rain.

His every step was laboured, his eyes were steely-blue eyes that had lost their shine, and his face drooped down, but in spite of everything against him, he maintained his steady pace through muck and slick rock regardless. They headed for the mountains, the place where the pursuit group hid out. Upwards was the only place left in the realm; everything lower was drowned and assimilated into an unforgiving black ocean that violently struck out.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. A perfect location for a newer Brighthaven…. Silvester bit his lip, and with a quiet crunch, blood dripped forth. No matter how much he wanted to believe that Brighthaven would return, it wouldn't.

"It's not coming back…. It's gone…. for the last time…."

June sat in a cave with hollow eyes. They went back to resembling worn gold, with shadows resting within the creases like unburdened hammocks. His handmade hemp shirt was drenched; parts of its back were cut to ribbons and frayed, and a single hole was in its sternum; his pants were muddied and weighed down by absorbed rainwater. He had overlooked Yanping Seidel's Dreamer status; the man did his best to keep it hidden, but it wasn't too difficult to uncover.

Of the several people in his group who had betrayed him, only the three Aspirants chose not to. Oddly enough, Martin was the first to act in June's defence. It was a lot to unpack, so June simply left it at that. False hope and ignoring the inevitable had led him to his current scenario. Betrayal was inevitable, especially with the boon the announcer offered to anyone who could kill him. June just never expected people to act on it so quickly.

Not an hour after the announcement, a few hidden Dreamers in the surviving group banded together with Yanping Seidel as their ringleader. He felt stupid for not realizing that the only people who survived were mainly Dreamers; his mind, in its tired state, simply defaulted to the few as helpless, lucky people whom he needed to protect, and he felt a little violated for going through all the pain on his journey while they idly sat and waited for him to die, clearing a path for them.

June felt the cuts on the back of his shirt, slowly crawling past smaller cuts to a large one near the centre of his back. He looked down at his stomach and saw the exit cut through his shirt.

'I really like this shirt…. It was a gift, too. Despite having a sword run through him and being shanked several times in the back, the battle against the revolting Dreamers was not a troublesome ordeal. He received some abysmal, but still a little moving, help from the weaker Aspirants in his group, but regardless of their help, Yanping Seidel died violently, and the rest of the Dreamers failed to stand their ground as he dispatched them all with simple motions.

'I don't get Dreamers, I thought they were all blatantly noticeable… Voice?'

'….' The Voice hadn't replied since waking him up after being pinned in the underwater dorms. A headache was coming; his mind swirled, and his pain came in waves. Betrayal felt worse than he anticipated. Losing thousands was horrible; it felt like every moment of his year within the nightrealm was met with spiteful counterplay for his abysmal actions. He bit the side of his cheek and let blood pour from his mouth.

He steeled himself, calmed his breathing, and forcefully slowed his racing heartbeat with flesh-shaping. A common reality in the virtual realm, the mundane realm, and the Nightrealm was that there were no times and places for breakdowns.

'It's manageable…' June stood up and tensed his body, looking at his limbs flex and move to his will. He looked towards his destination in the distance, the mountain range where the pursuit camp was. The place where June haphazardly eliminated thousands and the place that helped him realize his weakness.