Chương 78: The Pure Line: Acelin

Acelin Tinker looked down upon the body of the churchwoman. At first, he was confused when she suddenly stopped attacking him. There was a look on her face filled with some strange guilt. But he didn't know the woman. Or at least didn't remember her. But he couldn't stop thinking about that look on her face. A look he hadn't felt in weeks, that annoying pity. He almost regretted killing her, if only to spare a moment to ask, "Were you a friend of my father's?"

More likely, she was just another adult looking down on him. He grimaced.

"Whatever." It had started raining, and the sparks in his hands were starting to disobey him. One of his servants came gasping out of the crumbling church behind him.

"Goddamnit," he yelled, holding his chest.

"Where is that damn woman? I'll make her pay for shooting me like that." His voice was muffled under the bear mask and the rain. Acelin stepped aside so the bear could see the corpse. The man paused for a moment and then walked over to the body to kick it, as if she'd still feel it.

"You don't get any points for beating up a corpse," Acelin said.

"It isn't about the damn points. That arrow felt like it burned up all my insides."

"Well, next time don't get shot."

"Easy for you to say when you can run faster than a fly flaps its wings." A few others came through the church's doors. They had an older man by the neck, but as soon as the rain touched his face, he fought free, only to kneel over the woman's body.

"Ellie! Ellie! Please, Ellie, what have they done to you!?" That was when the bear kicked him over to his back, toying with him, knowing the man was lootless.

"You must be the girl's father or something? I've got some bad news for you… she royally pissed me off, and I gotta make her pay somehow."

"You people… May God have mercy on your souls." The old man was seething at the mouth, but there wasn't any will in him to fight.

"I'm going back." Acelin turned, suddenly bored and annoyed at the rain.

"I'm getting some ideas about how to get even." The bear couldn't hide his grin, even beneath the mask. He was staring up at a cross pinned to the wall of the church.

"I'm going to stick around for a while. With your permission, of course." He remembered to ask.

"Do whatever you want." Before Acelin, he remembered to claim his prize. The loot from the woman's neck. He didn't know if he wanted to use them himself, but they were his prize. He wouldn't let anyone else claim it. A bow and arrow upon a sun. It didn't look too different from the one he claimed on the first day. The lightning bolt fell off the beast his father had shot to death. Acelin remembered how powerful he felt, and he remembered how it changed his life.

Once his father was dead, he went into the nearby houses, scouring for food. I didn't care if there were people in it or not. The sparks coming from his hands meant no one could stop him. The whole street stank of burning death. While everyone else was panicking, he was snacking on a bag of sweet and salty kettle corn. The lightning was easy to use. Point it at something and shock it to oblivion. He didn't have to think about it. As he walked down the street; One. Two. Three demons dead, and he just kept walking.

He remembered how small the world suddenly felt when he didn't have to be afraid of it anymore. He could go anywhere he wanted, but he couldn't think of anywhere to go, so he roamed aimlessly. There was a bridge nearby his house, leading out of the main part of the city. Hundreds of cars were trapped on the road as a flurry of turtle-like beasts made meals out of anyone they could find. Which were a lot of people.

"They're killing all the NPCs," he thought. That was when a few of the beasts started charging him, and on instinct, he blasted them, the lightning heating up their body so much that they practically exploded.

"10 points… or maybe more for making it blow up." He wondered how he was going to make the rules to this game, and at what point he would dictate that he was going to level up. The thought was staunched when he noticed the beasts were dropping coins just like the one at his dad's house.

"I guess they all drop loot once you kill them." This one had the sign of an exploding hand on it. He wondered what that meant since he didn't see the beast use its power before he killed it.

"You have to tell me. How are you able to fight these things?" The voice almost scared the loot out of his hand. It was a man, beaten and battered, looking directly at him.

"What are you talking about? Leave me alone."

"That power, show me how to do it. Please. I have a family. If I could use that to find them and protect them, I'd do anything." The man got down on his knees, begging.

"Please, show me."

"Protect your family, huh?" That was when another man came, begging for the same thing.

"Me too. Give me the power too. I'll do whatever you want."

"You'll do whatever I say?"

"Within reason, of course," said one of them. Acelin frowned.

"Well, I've only got the one piece of loot. And I can't give its power to both of you."

"Loot, what are you talking about—" Before the man finished his sentence, the other had smashed him on the back of the head with a broken car mirror. The man's body twitched on the ground, while the other looked at Acelin with his hand extended, staring at the loot. Acelin was surprised at first, and then he remembered that it wasn't different from what he did to his father. Hurting someone before they ultimately hurt you. Then he realized he liked the man and flicked him the loot.

He told the man what to do with it, and in no time, he was shooting explosions like a god of destruction. Before the man could get drunk with power, Acelin shot lightning at his feet, reminding him of his promise.

"Don't forget. You have to do what I say."

"Right, boss." The man said, shaking the fire out of his.

"So what do you want me to do?" AT the time, he didn't have anything particular in mind. He just wanted to roam around and do things he wanted to do. When they saw a candy shop, he'd eat as much as he wanted. When they came by a video game store, he'd play the newest games until the power cut out. The man just ended up serving as his navigator since he didn't know how to get to different places within the city. Especially when it was as congested as it was. Adults were useful for some things.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Eventually, they came across a Halloween shop. Acelin had never celebrated Halloween before. He always watched kids outside dress up in cool costumes with buckets full of candy. His dad didn't believe in that sort of thing, said it was just another thing to spoil kids that didn't deserve it. Acelin thought he deserved it now. But there was a pack of wild dogs guarding it.

When Acelin told his new henchmen to deal with them, the man ran back with his tail between his legs.

"I tried, but the alpha is too damn fast. I can't catch him." It was fast, but it couldn't outrun a well-placed lightning bolt. Acelin gave himself 50 points for that one, and it came with a brand new speed powerup. This game of killing things was fun. After that, he picked out his costume. A robotic-looking tiki mask. He recognized it from a late-night cartoon. He could hardly remember the character but liked the aesthetic, so it was his.

"You pick out one, too," Acelin commanded the henchman. The man argued, saying the masks looked stupid…

"or I could kill you." From then on, the henchman was known as the bear. When the moon had come up, the bear had suggested that it would be time to bunker down soon. Somewhere, they'd be safe from the creatures in the night, ideally, somewhere with a bed. That's when he'd gotten this idea to check out a hotel he'd seen in a magazine. It had an arcade, a pool, and luxury suites that he was sure would be free for the taking. It wasn't. The hotel was claimed already.

The front door was barricaded, and most windows on the bottom floor were boarded up.

"I guess we're out of luck then. Let's find somewhere else," the bear said.

"No. I want to stay here."

"Come on. Now's not the time to be acting like a kid. It's already dark."

"What'd you say?"

"My bad. But you told me you didn't want a place full of people, and it's like we can just barge in there and tell them to get out."

"Why not?" The bear paused, scratching the bald part of his scalp.

"I guess you can—""Then open the door." The bear shrugged and moments later, blew the hotel's front door to hell and back. Inside looked to be a bunch of thugs with spiked hair, face tattoos, and piercings. Most of them were young too, like a gathering of delinquents. They all panicked before realizing they weren't being attacked by demons but two weirdos in masks.

"Who the hell are you guys?" One of them called.

"Alright, everybody, listen up." The bear started shouting.

"This place belongs to nerve now. The whole building, some pack up whatever you got and get out!" A bunch of them started laughing.

"You think you can just tell us what to do?"

"As a matter of fact, we do. If you don't, we can just blow this whole place up right now."

"You got some magic, do you. You think you're the only one? Rock, teach these chumps a lesson." A huge shirtless mut strolled up to them. His skin looked hard as steel, but before he could move, his neck sharply bent downwards. Acelin's foot was on top of it, static bouncing off the man's skin.

"Leave or else," Acelin said. There was a pause in the room, but when the thugs saw that Acelin's whole body was surging with violent light, they came to their senses. At first, they begged, and then pleaded.

"We don't have anywhere else to go. Are you really gonna send us out with those things? We won't survive." They looked so pathetic to him, asking him for pity.

"I don't care."

"Please." One of them grabbed his arm, suddenly. He didn't know what possessed him. The same thing that made me instinctively kill the demons outside. These people must've been no different. Because the moment the boy touched was the same moment he was sparking dead. The others cowered in perfect stillness. Until one spoke up, "Okay, we're leaving. Just don't kill anyone else." Again, the people around him submitted to him when they saw what he was capable of doing. It was power.

It was what it was like to be on the other end of true strength. And it was a feeling he could get used to.

"Wait. I'll let you stay. But you have to do exactly as I say." A week had passed, and Acelin was sitting at the top of the loot killer pit, watching his people kill each other for points. Points they could exchange for loot. Loot they could exchange for power. It wasn't long before the hotel became a haven for survivors. There weren't many places protected from the demons outside. People were constantly asking for a room in the hotel, but Acelin wouldn't allow just anyone refuge.

"I'm not dealing with anyone who can't pull their weight." He was familiar with the concept of resource management and the mouths he had to feed, the less food he had for himself. So if one was going to join, they had to prove they were strong enough to loot. The easiest way for someone to prove themselves was in a fight. The losers usually died, and the winners became indoctrinated into the culture of the strong.

"Nrv." Someone called him. He was led to a room full of big, burly meatheads. One of them had tanned skin and dyed blonde hair. Acelin walked in on the bear questioning the man. He kept going on and on about some church about an hour north. According to the man, they looked like they were stacked with enough supplies to last a lifetime. But when they tried to seek refuge there, they were turned away. It was because they were weak and couldn't stand the people who had become strong in the new world.

"Sounds like supplies that we could use," said the bear.

"We're starting to get a lot of people here."

"I told you, they don't deal with anyone with powers. I doubt if you ask for help, they'll give it to you," pleaded the meathead.

"I never said anything about asking."

"You plan on taking from them by force?"

"What do you think, Nrv?" Acelin crossed his arms.

"A raid sounds like it could be fun."

"Hold on a second," the meat held his hands up.

"I'm sure they're just trying to protect themselves. There's a bunch of innocent folks. I mean, it's a church. There's gotta be like old ladies and children in there too, and you wanna attack them?" The bear scoffed. So did Acelin.

"You shouldn't care about them. They ignored you when you needed help."

"That doesn't mean they deserve to die."

"The world doesn't care who deserves it. It didn't before, and it doesn't now." Acelin stared up at the coin with the sun and the bow and arrow. The rain pelted against the window at the top of the hotel, and he couldn't stop thinking about that woman. And her pitying eyes.

"She lost the game. That's all there is to it." He put the loot in his drawer to add it to his collection. Then he attempted to sleep. His dreams were angry at him, filling him with nightmares of a face he'd thought he'd forgotten. It was his mother's. She told him that everything was going to be okay and that he had grown to be a strong boy. So strong. She said that she was proud of him and couldn't wait to see him again. His eyes shot open. A shadow was enclosing on his face, and he reacted.

The light around his hand sharpened, and he attacked the shadow. It screamed, and he ran for the light switch. The meathead was clutching his severed arm, trying to stop the blood from pouring out of him. At the man's scream, a bunch of other meatheads came flooding into his room. Acelin knew exactly what it was. An assassination. Well, he was done letting people hurt him. He wasn't going to let anyone take anything from him again.

"Wait," the man halted the reinforcements with his one remaining hand.

"I didn't come here to fight."

"Like I'd believe that." He dashed forward, taking out the men one by one until he was sure that they were dead. They couldn't catch him. They couldn't stop him. No one could. When finally he was down to one, the main one, he launched himself right at him, ready to drive a hole through his heart. But another man had snuck into the room and jumped in the way. Acelin was going so fast that his arm went fully through the man's chest.

He couldn't get it out, and the man slumped over on him, putting all his bodyweight on the young boy. The one-armed man suddenly let out a strange noise then. He charged at Acelin, who was still struggling to free his arm from the corpse. The man then hit him with a forearm so hard that Acelin felt nothing afterward. Yet his body was still moving. Within a crumbling of debris, in a building that wasn't the same as the one he had just been in. His legs moved, and yet he could feel nothing.

And suddenly light surrounded him. He saw the face of his mother. She was calling to him.

"I don't wanna go. Momma, please. I don't wanna go yet. I'll be good, I promise. Just give me another chance. Momma. Are you there……………….." There was no answer.