A thick blizzard dominated the entirety of the Whitefrost planes, whether it was night or day. The blistering cold and the insurmountable mass of snow made it almost impossible to travel on foot. However, against all odds, Jonathan Stellar Link dragged his tired body across the snow and ice with Amelia on his back.
He would take brief rests then continue this journey, after all, he had dangerous pursuers, ones which had a much better means of transport.
One week after he fled The Sunken Metropolis, deep into the unforgiving Whitefrost Lands, the pursuers from the Department of Defense finally caught up.
Actually, there were only two of them; They wore standard black military uniforms as if the bone-chilling cold didn’t affect them.
“It’s about you gave up on this cat and mouse pursuit, Jonathan.”
One of the two, the taller one, grinned and spoke with a nonchalant tone.
“...”
Jonathan didn’t respond, he immediately sprung into action; The black mist burst from his body, pushing the snow and enveloping Amelia in something akin to a whirlpool.
The tall man, who had his lengthy brown hair tied into a ponytail, frowned and shot toward Amelia like a bullet, “The girl is our priority.” He yelled to his companion.
However, when he looked back, he saw his friend’s heading rolling on the ground and a ghastly dark silhouette looming over the headless body.
Astonished, the man leaped back just in time for the strange entity.
‘The intelligence we got from Principal Solas was wrong! T-this was a trap?’
Without any sliver of hesitation, the man took out a seemingly normal vial and gulped down. Barely moments later, a violent aura was unleashed, melting the snow and blowing back the incoming entity.
“Y-You’re working with Erys?!”
Hearing this, Jonathan scoffed as his body was carried by the black mist. “Wrong.” He calmly responded, a cold smile surfacing on his pale face, “It’s just that the stupid superiors of yours do not know the dangers involved… unlike Solas.”
Once he finished speaking, Jonathan spat some blood, his body and Amelia’s rising into the air and slowly distancing themselves from the empowered agent.
The agent tried to inflict a mortal blow but the entity intercepted at the last second and took the hit head-on, which made it vanish amidst the flick blizzard.
As for Jonathan, he used his ability to flee as far away as possible, eventually succumbing to exhaustion and crashing in mid-air. He tried his best to protect Amelia, but, in the end, they both fell into the thick snow and rolled for a whole minute on a steep cliff.
…
“Unn…ugh..”
Amelia felt dizzy and freezing from head to toe as her eyes fluttered then opened. The first thing she saw was the frozen ceiling and innumerable small golden characters engraved on the walls.
“How are you feeling?”
Jonathan’s voice, influenced by the cold, echoed throughout the frozen room. The girl was no longer afraid of him, she sat up and met his gaze.
She instinctively touched her chest but could no longer feel the Crown. After a momentary silence, Amelia asked,
“Why did you save me?”
“...”
He didn’t answer, his eyes moving from her face to the inscriptions and ‘runes’ on the walls.
“You needed me to hold the Crown, but… I don’t have it anymore.”
“I lost the System to Zeke Orland, but that doesn’t mean I won’t need your body again.”
“You’re lying.”
She gritted her teeth, her eyes a bit teary, “Why are you always like this? Painting yourself as the bad person? I know it’s that evil force inside of you that had done the killing.”
Jonathan let out a self-depracating laugh in response, “I didn’t stop it, so what does that make me? I know what I am, Amelia. It’s about time you do as well.”
“Huh, what?”
Jonathan struggled to stand up, his body trembling from the fatigue and agony. He approached her and crouched down, extending his hand and fixing her messy hair while cleaning her face.
“Not just anyone can hold the Crown. Generally, direct contact would lead to immediate death, which is why I didn’t use it. You… on the other hand, merged with it and even used it.”
“...”
He hesitated for a couple of seconds, contemplating whether to ask or not, but in the end he did.
“You were not adopted, right?”
“No!” She was surprised and slightly angry by his actions. “I am my parents’ daughter. And don’t try to say I’m special or I’m from a special family or all that crap!”
“I’m not. All I wanted is a confirmation.”
He sighed and stood up, his back facing her.
“After we get out of here, I’ll take you to the Witch Association. I’ll only be able to escort you to the border or else they’ll attack me. However, don’t be afraid… t-they’ll take care of you.”
“What? I don’t want to go there!”
“You don’t have a choice, Amelia. Your revenge isn’t over yet, remember? There’s only so much I or your ‘friend’ can do.”
“...”
The familiar black mist appeared, spinning around the confused Amelia. Soon, she started feeling sleepy and realized that he was going to keep her unconscious for the remainder of the trip.
“N-no… s…stop…”
Jonathan lifted her body and looked at her slowly closing her eyes.
“I see much of my daughter in you, Amelia. The Crown has altered your body and I’m not knowledgeable enough to make a difference. I am truly sorry. May we never meet again.”
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******
“Out of the question.” Responded Xavier as he passed by his distressed brother and sat behind his crude desk.
James pinched his aching temples and tried to convince Xavier.
“I’m not telling you to do something dangerous, Xavier. I just need the past records of Zeke Orland. I need to know what happened!”
Having had enough, Xavier kicked his desk in anger and glared at his younger sibling.
“Enough, James! Principal Solas has ordered that all investigation related to that boy is to be stopped. He also guaranteed me that Zeke isn’t dangerous.”
“This isn’t about him. I want to help Max.”
“Help? What kind of help? Digging into her family’s past, which-by the way- has been sealed off by the Department of Defense itself? Be a good student and focus on yourself, James.”
“You…”
The furious James stormed out of the infirmary only to find his closest friend, V, standing right outside.
“It’s so unlike you to stay silent, V. Why are you all trying to hide the truth?”
With an unusually serious expression, V’s solemn eyes focused on his friend as he calmly answered, “That’s your problem, James. I admire your constant rationality, but I know for a fact that it could be detrimental. For the sake of our friendship, I will act as if nothing happened… but if this happens again, neither I nor Max will be able to forgive you.”
…
Monday Morning, 8AM
The exams have officially started and the first one was Mathematics. Zeke and all of his classmates were energetic as they fidgeted in their seats, apprehensive and nervous.
Zeke too, wasn’t as composed as he wanted to be, and that’s because he had very little time to revise and study. He had confidence in getting a good grade, but not the top one.
“H-hey… is this one I need to remember? Or this one? O-or this one?”
Julia slammed her notebook in front of him and stutteringly asked. For the first time ever, she had studied and prepared for the exams but her mind was completely blank and she couldn’t focus.
“There’s no use worrying about it now. Good luck.”
“Y-you’re right…” She forced a laugh and went back to her seat.
Zeke felt a chill run down his spines and when he turned his head, he saw the curly-haired Rebecca, Julia’s friend, give him a disturbingly intense stare.
Recently, Julia spent most of her time either training or studying, so the two friends have little to no time to hang out and have fun.
It started right after Zeke awakened and defeated Rodrick, so the coincidental timing made Zeke take the blame, at least from Rebecca’s point of view.
Very soon, Christopher Balrant arrived and after warning the students not to cheat, he handed out the exam papers.
During the mathematics exam, Zeke encountered no trouble. However, mid-way through the History Exam, his body shook ever-so-slightly and he started hearing a clarion voice in his head.
‘Save him. Save him. Save him.’
He thought it was the System, but the floating boxes didn’t appear. Instead, the disembodied voice, which was harmless at first, started getting louder and clearer. Eventually, it became impossible for Zeke to ignore it or focus on the exam.
Nevertheless, he tightly closed his eyes, calmed his breathing, and returned to answering the questions. The voice, fortunately, vanished for a minute or two only to return with more intensity than ever before;
In the blink of an eye, Zeke saw his surroundings change into what could only be described as the underground sewer lines of the Sunken Metropolis.
There, he saw an incredibly thin and short man curled on the ground, grabbing his head and muttering inaudibly.
‘Save him.’
This short phenomenon was short-lasting as Zeke felt something pull him out of this vivid reverie, but at the last second, he was sticky black tentacles rise from the ground and envelop the man.
When it was all over, Zeke drew a long cold breath and looked around, relieved that no one noticed any peculiarity.
‘What did I just experience? Those were definitely the sewers, but I don’t recognize the man. If it wasn’t the System’s doing, then what was it?’
Perplexed and lost, Zeke did his best to purge away all the unnecessary thoughts and focus on the History Exam.
Besides that inexplicable occurrence, the rest of the day was uneventful. Zeke didn’t stress or worry about the exams, his turbulent mind urging him to learn more about the incident.
When the sun started to set, Zeke was in the small forest adjacent to the campus, completing the Daily Tasks. Julia opted to revise more for the upcoming exams instead of physical training with him.
Azmer too, seemed to abstain from the Dean’s teaching, clearly determined to get top grades in the non-practical exams.
[User: Zeke Orland]
[Race: Human]
[Level 6 (12/85 EXP)]
[Strength: 73]
[Agility: 70]
[Aether: 73]
[Fortitude: 9]
[Paths: Martial Arts (1/12) inactive | Aether Voltage (22/22) active | Groundbreaker (1/32) inactive- Sreyzhan Rune (1/9) | Inexhaustible (10/10)]
[Skills: Fists of Fury(Proficiency 100%) - Aether Control(Proficiency 89%) - Voltage Zap(Proficiency 100%) - Spark (Proficiency 51%) - One-star Side-kick(Proficiency 100%) - Life Motus(Proficiency 100%) - Rune of Life (Proficiency 67%) - Voltage Arrow (Proficiency 100%)- Rune of Death(29%) - Sreyzhanian Arts(10%) - Drain Aether(0%)]
[Survival Skills: ‘Rune of Life: Voltage Manipulation(Proficiency 82%) - Fatigue Abstence (23%)]
[Available PE: 16]
[Available Skill Points: 1]
‘Recently, the only thing I did worthy of mention was unlocking and mastering the Inexhaustible Path. Logically thinking, it should have nothing to do with that strange vision. Then again, what the hell do I know about the System’s Paths?’
Zeke had spent the available Stat Point to raise his three main stats, but the most important thing was the new path ‘Inexhasubitle’. Although it provided him with only two skills: Drain Aether and Fatigue Abstinence.
Sadly, Drain Aether was highly-circumstantial as he had to be physically touching a target to use it. It allowed him to, quite literally, drain Life Aether from someone and inject it into his body. It would work quite well with Rune of Life, which was akin to a Life Aether Reservoir, but it wasn’t easy to get close to an opponent, much less touch them for enough time to drain their Life Aether.
As for Fatigue Abstinence, it was his second Survival Skill, one that had a ‘passive’ effect, so to speak.
[Fatigue Abstinence (SS): Once a day, when the user’s body has reached its limit, the consumed ‘energy’ would be fully restored.]
Basically, it allowed him to train or fight for a longer period of time. As he had previously suspected, the Inexhaustible path’s purpose was indeed to make the user reject the feeling of exhaustion and fatigue for longer than normal people. Admittedly, while it wasn’t an outrageously powerful skill, Zeke was still satisfied even though he spent a total of 20PE to unlock and master the aforementioned path. His Agility, Strength, and Aether were subsequently increased by a considerable amount, which was unexpected but always welcome.
…
‘Save him… save him! SAVE HIM!’
“Zeke? You good, buddy”?
In the dormitory, Zeke, who was in the middle of explaining Theoretical Aether Manipulation to Samuel, suddenly dazed off for a couple of breaths.
He didn’t experience another ‘vision’, but the voice returned and, this time, he recognized it. It was, surprisingly, his own voice, repeatedly and incessantly telling him to save someone.
“I’m fine. Let’s continue…”
Samuel scrutinized his friend for a bit then closed his notebook. “I got the gist of it, don’t worry about it. Anyroad, did you hear what happened?”
It wasn’t a secret that Samuel was attracted to gossip and secrets, and whenever there was something, he would always repeat it to Zeke.
“Let me guess…” Zeke rolled his eyes and sarcastically said, “A girl from class D broke up with a guy from class A?”
“Hah! Very funny!” Samuel snorted and rubbed his knuckles, “It’s not romance this time. It’s actually about old Rodrick.”
“Oh? Color me impressed. I’m listening…”
It wasn’t only Zeke whose attention was grabbed, the studious Azmer stopped scribbling on his notebook and perked his ears. Only Alan was disinterested, laying on his bed and playing a game on his phone with a huge triumphant smile on his baby face.
“Apparently, Rodrick challenged someone and won… again! Witnesses say his ability has gotten a lot stronger.”
“Why is that surprising though?”
“First, it’s unnatural for an ability to get a huge power-up in a short period of time. I get that training will strengthen us, but not to such a degree. I think it’s got to do with Fylard, after all, the challengee was part of Francesca’s group.”
“What’s Rodrick’s rank now?”
“25th. Quick a feat considering he was viewed as part of the ‘weak’ ones. But wait! There’s more; The girl he fought was grievously injured and Rodrick was given a Black Star on the spot. Professor Nayro was really angry, or so the witnesses claim.”
Zeke sighed and shook his head, not particularly surprised by Rodrick’s violent behavior.
“Now that he got a taste of power from gods-know-where, there’s nothing to stop him.”
“A-Ahem…” Samuel whistled while looking away, seemingly trying to convey something to his friend.
“Spit it out, Sam.”
The moment he heard that, the son of the detective leaned closer while grinning, “I was thinking you could challenge him. Beat him up again.”
“Not happening.” Immediately responded Zeke, his face expressionless.
“Tch! But if I challenge him and get injured, it’s on you…” Samuel acted hurt and dejected as he returned to his bed, but before he sat down, he heard Zeke beckon him again.
“You really are my best friend!”