“This is not the right way, lad.”

Instead of training with Julia, Zeke used another route while avoiding the patrols. It wasn’t that difficult, at least not until the Dean appeared nowhere.

“Erys has been closed off and, barring a few exceptions, new students are allowed to leave the premises. I thought the notice made it crystal clear.”

“I have to leave.” Resolutely said back the youth, his eyes defiant and fists clenched.

He had to retrieve the Crown no matter the cost, because, at this rate, his condition would get worse, and, excluding the attention it might attract, he might not even be able to walk properly, much less train or attend class.

“Have to? That’s the excuse everyone says in this situation. Don’t make things hard for yourself and ruin your perfect records by getting Black Stars.”

“...”

Seeing Zeke’s adamance, the old man stopped tapping his stick on the ground, he raised it ever-so-slightly as if about to attack. However, at the last second, he furrowed his brows, his seemingly sleepy eyes focusing on the student.

A sigh of exasperation escaped his lips as he put down the stick and said,

“Today is Sunday, so I’ll let you off. You have until dawn to return.”

Zeke solemnly nodded and dashed away, easily jumping over the small fence and disappearing into the darkness.

The Dean remained at the same spot, this time facing another student.

“Since you were already following him, don’t stop at my account. Go ahead… but know that, outside of Erys, he is your responsibility.”

Celestia Black exchanged glances with him then vanished into thin air, her speed multiple times faster than Zeke’s.

…

It was Sunday, yet Kethra’s Arms was almost desolate; all the residents were nestled in their homes, ever afraid that the serial killer might strike again. Zeke noticed a couple of drunkards and some officers, but avoiding them was an easy task.

He relied on the System to guide him where the Crown was, and after half an hour of sprinting and zigzagging between back alleys and empty streets, he finally reached his destination.

Zeke squeezed himself into a cramped alley between two large buildings, hopping over the trash on the way. Midway through, however, his body grew stiff and he spat blood.

His heart started racing faster, but it wasn’t the usual occurrence, it was different as a thin translucent crimson line burst from his chest.

‘Is it like a connection? It’s showing me a path…’

Apprehensive, he followed the line and stopped in front of an inconspicuous metal door that had old posters all over it.

After taking a deep breath, he pushed it open and saw a staircase that led underground. He heard nothing but deafening silence as he slowly descended, fully expecting something to happen.

Surprisingly, he wasn’t attacked even after he reached the bottom; There was a barely-lit corridor and another door.

With one hand raised and lightning crackling around it, Zeke approached the door and paused for a couple of breaths, trying to hear something. When there was no reaction, he opened the door and was welcomed by a foul and unpleasant smell.

The line linking him to the so-called Crown was brighter and when he followed it with his eyes, he was gobs-smacked to see a sleeping Amelia at the corner of the room.

She was lying on a couch and covering herself with a thin blanket. The line connected both of them, or to be precise, it was coming off the black crystal hidden under her clothes.

‘The Crown is that thing? B-but how…’

The youth stood there, absolutely stupefied, as his turbulent mind was trying to process everything.

[Special Mission ‘Retrieval of the Crown’: The Crown has been located!]

[Eliminate subject ‘Amelia’ and absorb the Crown.]

“Eliminate?”

Zeke felt blood rush and his heartbeat accelerate, seemingly a signal from the System, urging him to complete the Special Mission. However, when he braced himself and left Erys in search of the Crown, he had never expected it to be inside Amelia’s body.

Yes, his life was endangered, but he couldn't think straight in such a situation, neither could he obey the System and attack Amelia.

When he tried getting closer to Amelia, the line became brighter and started emitting a ringing sound that startled the girl awake.

“A-ah!”

Seeing Zeke stand near the entrance of the room, Amelia let out a soft gasp and quickly covered her mouth. Panicking, she looked around but didn’t see Jonathan

“What are you doing here?”

She controlled her voice and made it as quiet as possible, but the young man didn’t respond. He was in a state of shock, and when she stood up and tried to approach him, he raised his hand.

“Don’t get closer.”

It took Amelia a couple of seconds to notice the line, then she was assaulted by an agony that made her fall to the ground and writhe while clawing her chest.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

As much as Zeke wanted to help her, he was quick to notice that the closer he was, the more pain she was experiencing, so he backed away. He tried to run back upstairs but, out of the blue, his body was sent flying to the back until it crashed on the wall.

The pain notwithstanding, he groaned and jumped to his feet, shooting one ‘Voltage Zap’ after the other at the spreading black mist.

At first, he was successful in stopping Jonathan from getting closer or attacking him again. Alas, this resistance was short-lived as Zeke’s body stopped functioning, rendering him momentarily immobile.

Defenseless, Jonathan appeared before him like a ghost, grabbed his neck, and slammed his body against the wall.

“The Crown is acting up! It’s acting up! It’s here! HERE!”

He was shouting like a mad man as his soulless eyes were fixated on Zeke. Suddenly, the man’s demeanor dramatically changed and his rapidly moving lips closed shut.

He gave Zeke a chilling stare as he glanced at Amelia and saw the shining crimson line.

“You are the Holder. You are the one who stole it from me.”

Jonathan lowered Zeke’s body and used his other hand to clutch his head and press his thumb on his, trying to pluck them out. It was then that Zeke regained control, so, while yelling, he used ‘Spark’.

The lightning orb materialized in front of him, immediately going crazy the moment it came into contact with Jonathan.

Strangely enough, the effect of ‘Spark’ was abnormally stronger than usual. The azure lightning crackled deafeningly and struck every part of the room, illuminating it like a blinding sun.

Jonathan’s body was struck and blown to the back, allowing Zeke to land on the ground and hold his reddened neck while coughing and gasping for air.

The half-opened door of the room was blasted apart and Celestia charged inside. The girl didn’t pause for even a split as she slashed with what could only be described as an illusory milky-white reverse blade.

The result was an explosive attack concentrated on Jonathan, who had yet to recover after being hit by ‘Spark’.

The wall shattered and the roof was collapsing, but Celestia intervened, her weapon vanishing and, instead, her body let out a burst of a mist strikingly similar to Jonathan’s.

While holding the debris, she looked at Zeke and shouted,

“Go! Now!”

Even with an injured body and time against him, Zeke didn’t listen to her. He ran to the convulsing Amelia and picked her body. She had already fallen unconscious yet the Crown was still acting up, electrocuting its vessel and trying to break free.

As he ran up the stairs, Zeke could feel a disembodied and distant echoing voice telling him to rip the Crown off her body and claim it as his own. Nevertheless, he didn’t obey it and, within seconds, he was back on the narrow path from earlier.

Alas, he wasn’t afforded a brief respite a deep tremor assaulted the area, shaking the whole building and making it collapse, which, in turn, gave rise to widespread panic.

Zeke kept carrying Amelia as he ran to the main street, barely avoiding the building which had leaned to the side, but as he looked behind, he saw a swirling black mist and a white one clash together in the air.

Eventually, Jonathan’s returned to his human form and Celestial’s mist head-on. He literally swiped with his hand, touching the supposedly intangible mist and forcing the girl out of her obfuscation.

“A poor imitation.” He calmly said as he used a completely new power.

A ghastly-like entity emerged from his back, wielding a long scythe that pierced Celestial.

“Ugh… we’ll see about that!”

With blood gushing out of her abdomen, she grinned and opened her right hand. White chains sprung from the ground, hitting Jonathan and the ghastly entity, the latter was extinguished and the former was hammered on the ground, his spines shattered into dust.

Celestia already heard about the man’s insane regenerative abilities, so she manipulated the chains and tried to restrain him. Sadly, she was a tad too late as he used his black mist to fly to the back and shoot straight at the unsuspecting Zeke.

‘It’s now or never.’ He thought to himself, raising his left hand and impatiently waiting for the dormant Rune of Death to react. When Jonathan was upon him, there was a vacuum-like effect originating from Zeke’s hand, sucking all the mist and rendering the enemy momentarily confused and startled.

The influx of negative energy instantly traveled across Zeke’s body, was converted into usable Aether, then stored in the Rune of Life.

Drawing from the new reserves, Zeke focused and lifted his arm, his hand clutching an arrow of lightning that was becoming bigger and bigger.

In a couple of breaths, it became a massive spear, buzzing loudly and trembling uncontrollably.

“Voltage… voltage!”

When he saw the lightning, something occurred to Jonathan, switching him back to his maniacal personality. He shouted atop phis lungs, his skin turning black as he recklessly charged ahead only for Zeke to throw the spear, which impaled him before he could do anything.

The voltage electrocuted his body and slowed down his regeneration, but it didn’t limit his movements. He was like an immortal, standing up even after sustaining successive fatal injuries.

With blood leaking out of his nose, eyes, ears, and lips, Jonathan actually smiled.

The bit of black mist around him was gone, revealing Amelia’s body. Zeke was shielding her a moment ago, and as he attacked Jonathan, he had failed to notice that the black mist snuck around him and retrieved her.

‘He knows I need the Crown.’

“I know your face now. I’ll come for you.”

Jonathan glanced at Celestia then retreated. His body was riddled with injuries, but he acted as if he was totally unscathed, and that couldn’t be attributed just to his strange ability.

Celestia Black was pressing her hand on her bleeding abdomen, her eyes lingering on the direction the killer had run off towards.

“Escaped… again.”

She snapped out of her daze when Zeke took her arm and wrapped it around the back of his head to support her.

“You good?”

“Do I look ‘good’ to you? If I knew you’d be going to the damn man’s nest, I wouldn’t have tailed you alone… hmpf!”

Zeke looked at her in silence, not feeling guilty. Admittedly, if it weren’t for her timely intervention, he wouldn’t have escaped, but it wasn’t like he forced her to do anything.

“I didn’t know he’d be there either.”

“To me, you knew exactly where you were going. It’s too late to deny it.”

“I am not.” He retorted while helping her walk but purposely shaking his body, thus making her groan in pain and glare at him.

“I was looking for something.”

“Which is?”

“...”

As he kept his counsel, Celestia moved her arm and leaned on the wall. Her injury was severe but not fatal, and with how much ruckus they caused, it won’t be long before Maxine and the rest arrive.

“Unless you want to be expelled, you’ll have to explain everything to us.”

Zeke looked left and right then shrugged his shoulders,

“For me, this has developed beyond caring about ‘Black Stars’ or ‘getting expelled’.”

He turned around, seemingly about to leave, but Celestia called out to him.

“Wait! Where are you going?”

“I have my own problem to deal with. You look fine, so just wait for help to come.”

Milky-white energy glowed in her hand as she tried to stop him, but, much to her surprise, her ability didn’t work on him, thus leaving her speechless.

In the end, she could only watch him walk away and disappear into the small gathering crowd.

…

Actually, it wasn’t that Zeke didn’t care about Erys, but he couldn’t return now, not after what he had discovered. They would try to keep him safe and holed up there, which would be akin to a death sentence, especially with his degrading physical faculties.

The periods between each ‘physical dysfunctionality’ were getting dangerously shorter, which made Zeke alert and desperate.

Trying to seek help from Maxine or other students was a possibility, but he had to divulge the truth about the System or else they wouldn’t believe him. Therefore, the only option was to seek outside help, preferably from people he could trust to a degree.