Novels2Search
Immor₮al
Chapter 2 - Overtake; pt II.

Chapter 2 - Overtake; pt II.

On that day of December, traffic ran rampant along the towering Amalgan main bridge. Its height completely mocks the dark-obscure-blue ocean below as it contains a grand total of 500 exact meters in altitude. As for its length, it holds the considerable 40 kilometers; connecting the exit of the city of Amalgan and the entrance of the subsequent town. Across the Amalgan bridge, there were four main lines.

At the very top, the line was used for a total of four different trains leading up to different localizations within Amalgan. Below it, the second line was used for magnetic buses, each containing three respective lines for each. Magnetic buses work automatically without the necessity of a manual driver as their interior holds a magnetizing line that connects with the above never-ending magnetizing line used for connecting that allows the buses to go back and forth to their destinations without needing someone to start their engines. The third line is separated into three sections: the far most to the right is used for cars who are leaving Amalgan. The central line is used for bicycles only and the far most to the left line is used for cars that are entering Amalgan from the other town. Lastly, the line all the way at the bottom is used for pedestrians who want to freely tour around the bridge; as well as use the countless attractions that are split across the way to the beginning to the end---this varies from momentum stores, candy shops, gaming centers, restaurants, bars, all the way to two police stations, a mini-hospital, several markets, a church, three hotels, and many more.

One could say that the entire bridge was an entire city of its own, but it was nothing compared to the entirety of Amalgan. Besides, this iconic bridge had a name of its own that many would address to it instead of just labelling it as the central bridge of Amalgan.

As many individuals at midnight enjoyed themselves on the dual sides of the bridge; either star-gazing or widely chatting away their time---a complete drawing center of attention was painted that night as thousands first heard the scream of someone falling from the altitude above; immediately descending down to the ocean below at an inconceivable speed due to the absolute gravity.

"Hey, is that..." A comment appeared as the figure was seen on the margin falling all the way down thanks to the bright lights all over the bridge "Dude, is that a person?!" A bewildered comment was also made but another one came along as this time the individual pointed out something else "No, wait, what the HELL is that?!" Another point of attraction was made as they started to notice that the figure falling was engolfed in some kind of throne; dragging him down at absurd speed "Holy shit, quick take a pic--" Many tried to take a simple picture but once the figure alongside the strange crytpic throne had fallen all the way below; the lights could not further illuminate anything for a discovery.

Still, many took their shots and examined what they had received. As for the figure attached to the throne, he sank all the way below until he hit rock ground zero. The area that he placed would be an area full of dangerous sea creatures such as hammerhead sharks, ten-meter octopuses, piranhas, and more than the average.

No longer conscious, he sat on that throne with his posture forward; authentically crooked. Various animals surrounded him and the throne; and as they came closer, the brain at the top of the throne began to flourish a scarlet red liquid at the top; ultimately, all of sea creatures were reduced of all of their blood resulting in the complete erasure of their body anatomies. Below the throne they lay with their skeletons to show and even moreso, the one seated on the throne began to erupt his posture back up; making his way all the way up.

Now at the top after swimming for a full minute straight, Daniel looked from right to left subsequently, going as far as doing this a fairly numerous times. Unknowingly, he kept on swimming all the way back to Amalgan and reached the first beach available to him; which took him around ten minutes to reach. Once there, Daniel began to shake as well as linking his two arms together around his chest with his jaw trembling.

"C-COLD!!" He shouted out loud, looking for someone around the beach during midnight time "Oh my fucking God, so goddamn cold!!" He further insisted as he walked to the wet sands with his track suit and shoes immensely soaked "There's... no one around..." He noticed as he saw that there was only the moonlight to serve as a guide for his way around; no such other illumination could be seen.

Daniel was so cold that he immediately thought of lighting up a fire with some woodlogs that he had found around some boats docked into the sea anchored by a multitude of logs. Therefore, he took out all of the logs with brute force; unleashing all of the boats to God knows where as they were no longer locked in due to the logs. He held a wide concentration of logs around the center of the beach where the sand was no longer wet. He also took as many papers, brackets, leafs, and even his jacket to the pile.

All that was left to do was to spark the fire and Daniel would become warm in no time. So, for that to happen, Daniel took out his lighter and with high hopes, he tried to ignite it.

"No... No, no, no!" He couldn't believe it "You can't be serious!! No goddamn way!" He threw the lightless lighter to the sand in fury and kicked the brackets; injuring his foot in the process.

He made another attempt; however from a different angle this time: Daniel grabbed rocks from the beach and tried to ignite fire as he believed he would be successful in doing so like in all the movies he had watched but the result was beyond negative. There was also the fact that he had grabbed wet rocks but then again, there were no other rocks outside of those wet ones.

Daniel sat around in the rocky stairs at the exit of the beach and pondered his options which to him were seemingly very limited. He gazed at the moon with despairing eyes as he reminisced what had happened a few hours ago. In addition to that, he placed his hands on his jacket, which he had retrieved despite throwing it to the pile, and tried to feel his previous stabbing wounds that he knew he had felt and were supposedly inflicted. He further opened the jacket in a hurry, went below his t-shirt, and felt his abdominal cavity; ultimately noticing that...

"It's all there..." He looked surprised, but he smiled in a wicked way afterward "What the fuck is happening to me? Hahaha..." He continued to laugh, holding his right hand to his jaw while still being mildly scared at what was happening to him.

He didn't waste much more time there and decided to march forward as his wet clothes were slightly less wet now, so it wasn't completely sluggish to move around in. His goal had not changed, as Daniel did not have anywhere to go, so he tried to venture around at the beginning of Amalgan where the civilization lay within.

However, Daniel's goal would require him to walk back to the place where he was in, which was the Amalgan district F's town; Narthar. And Daniel had no idea where he was, actually, despite living a fairly decent portion of his life in Amalgan. Daniel would attempt to try and talk with people, but it was 2 am; which meant that if Daniel talked to the wrong individual/s he could be in huge trouble, so he tried to look for signals spread around, so Daniel could identify which district town from Amalgan this was.

Eventually, in a park near a cathedral, Daniel found a group of girls and boys around his age smoking weed. They were at the top of the tables instead of being sat on the table's dual seats. They also additionally took notice of Daniel who was walking towards them. Daniel wanted to ask the obvious, but he lacked too much initiative which made one of the boys start the conversation towards Daniel.

"Ayo man! Wassup!" This particular individual was warry of Daniel for one particular reason that Daniel was not very much aware of "...Hey." Daniel meekly added and attempted to talk subsequently but one of the girls spoke on his turn "We should go..." She said, somewhat scared "Yeah..." Multiple girls started to agree as they began to drift away from the table and mainly Daniel "...Huh, wait, wait...!" Daniel reached out his hand but was intercepted by the same individual who spoke to Daniel's way first "The fuck do you want?!" He demanded to know, very nervous, holding Daniel's hand with a strong yet reluctant grip.

Daniel felt pain but for some reason, he also felt incredibly vitalized which didn't make a lot of sense to him.

"...Could you tell me where we are?" Daniel asked with his hand shaking as well as his legs from the fear that he was receiving "That the best you can come up with?! Fucking freak!" He pushed Daniel's chest forward and fell on the ground; beginning to receive kicks nonstop "Ah! Stop, stop! Ouch!" Daniel crawled in pain as a barrage of kicks were delivered to Daniel's stomach "Guys, give me a hand here!" He asked for help and the remaining boys came, ultimately leaving Daniel completely wasted after receiving so many kicks not only to the stomach, but face, legs, as well as the arms.

At the end of everything, Daniel was limp and without a move as he lay on the ground, with his eyes barely opening whilst covering his stomach which was in mild pain though not severe.

"Fucking freak... Just how many people did he kill?!" One of the girls pointed out, while running away from Daniel alongside the others "There's so much blood on his jacket, what the fuck!" And they ran away; boys included, albeit one of the girls stared at Daniel for an extra second longer before running away ultimately.

For the second time that day, Daniel felt unpleasant but more importantly, a bit dumb as he got up quickly and pointed something out.

"Hey! I didn't know I had blood on my jacket!" He said, but he had simply forgotten that factor and lay on the park's cold ground as the ones who were there previously continued to run with even more urgency now as Daniel had gotten up.

However, this was rather problematic for Daniel as he didn't have a clue where he was. For him, that was the quintessential piece of information, so after a while, he got up again and started to roam the unknown town.

After 3 hours of roaming, Daniel figured out where he was through a local train station. Despite the fact that Daniel had traveled a lot via train and subways, this was such a faraway line from the ones he usually travels that he came to notice that he had left the main district where his local trains and subways circulate around.

"This is Balthar! How the fuck did I end up so far away from Narthar?!" Daniel began to scratch his head furiously all alone at Balthar's train station as he realized the core distance between Nartar and Balthar "That's like 30 kilometers.....!!!" He got down on his knees and came to the conclusion that he could not walk that much; or rather, he was not in the mood to put up the effort, so he arrived at the only possible conclusion that was ideal for him "I'll just beg for money for the ticket all the way to Narthar..." He sat down literally in front of one of the ticket machines as he viewed it was the only good place to potentially get money in a few hours when people would start using the train.

Once again feeling the shuddering wind from the open entrance, Daniel hugged himself; trying to create some heat for him to feel comfortable. But, it wasn't doing anything.

Daniel then missed being able to fiddle with his phone whenever he was bored. He desperately wanted to listen to music, so he sang a few songs on his own, but cringed once he heard his terrible singing skills. In addition, he also missed watching television and playing video games. Every 5 minutes, Daniel would hallucinate various things which stemmed from his desire to feel comfort from digital conveniences such as computers, televisions, and cellphones.

He then further hallucinated one thing in specific but quickly remarked something to himself out loud.

"No, that was real, wasn't it?" He doubted himself for a bit but quickly reassured of himself as he fell his own grasp with his right hand "Yeah, no way that wasn't real... That black brain gave me a strange power..." He pointed but couldn't make further claims as he was having trouble remembering it, but after some time, he got a full rundown of what had happened.

Daniel thought and thought about this new-discovered power and arrived at a few conclusions. But he brushed it off as he wasn't completely interested in unraveling it simply by pondering it infinitely times over.

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The morning rose to full height and it was another day in the week for Ikkiri. It was 7 am for her and she woke up smoothly to her phone's alarm clock. Slowly but surely, after reaching her soft right hand to the phone's alarm button and pressing it with her tall purple nail from her index finger, her eyes began to open.

She lazily stretched and then saw the many notifications she had but opted to ignore as it was simply the usual courtesy for someone of her caliber. After flopping her bed's sheets forward, she undressed herself from her pajamas, and went to eat downstairs. She settled for a buttered bread and a black coffee. However, she loves sugar so she uses two to three spoons of it on her black coffee but never tells anyone about this.

Afterward, Ikkiri takes a shower and brushes her teeth twice, as she does love to protect her neat appearance. Furthermore, she utilizes three different skin products all over her skin before leaving her house as well as putting her make-up. If she's fast, her entire routine involving hair combing, brushing her teeth twice, applying make-up alongside the skin products and hair drying, would take 20 minutes. However, it more often takes about 30-40 minutes for her.

Ultimately, after dressing herself up, she put a radiant smile on her face, took her phone with her along with her school bag and took off to outside of her house without saying anything else. After crossing her three floor house's white gate surrounded by a beautiful garden containing flowers from all sorts of regions around the world, she walked straight into a white limousine that, like always, was waiting for her. She took the seat all the way to the back.

"Ma'am, where to?" The driver asked "School, take the back course, I hate drawing unnecessary attention with this limousine..." She said, quite anxious "Certainly." The driver took the pedal and Ikkir's trip began.

And only now, on her way to school in that old familiar limousine, did she bother to check what was happening. Amidst all of her notifications, one threw her completely off guard as she saw a certain person's number and messages from that number on multiple windows, escalating the numbers the person usually calls/texts Ikkiri.

"...What..." She began to grow skeptical and slightly nervous as she immediately guessed why that person had called her so many times "My fucking God... I swear---!!" She began to scratch her seat with her powerful purple long nails, ripping skin from the seat slowly.

She dialed a call to that person and simply said a few words before completely hanging up.

"All the way back, alone!" She slammed her phone onto the seat and supported her head onto the right side of her window.

Shortly after leaving the limousine and entering from an unknown passage that involved unlocking a door from the back of the school near the gas pumping lines with a key to that door, did Ikkiri and the person in question meet. Despite having sent numerous messages and dialed an absurd number of calls, the individual was far calmer than Ikkiri, who was praying to herself for the person in front of her, covering in a lowly illuminated shade, to not speak those words.

"It failed." Diego bluntly said, although not completely in an insensitive way, but rather in a way of expressing his failure "Are you fucking kidding me, Diego?! What the hell happened?!" She fummed and pointed a verbal lance at Diego and Diego explained the situation to Ikkiri, to her dismay.

She took not one, not two, but three steps back, as she began to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Although she didn't exactly calm down, she wasn't as paranoid, so Diego took this opportunity to light his cigarette as well as to talk to her.

"There's no doubt about it, it was compatible. Aside from the fact that he killed one of my squads, he also played a very dirty trick---" Ikkiri cutted in as she knew what to say "Without their brains, "Cartel" doesn't really function, right?" She jumped the gun and Diego almost agreed "Not so fast there... That's not how it works. It's still possible for it to work, but.... I must say..." Diego took a deep smoke before speaking once again "I have no fucking idea what the result will be." He concluded.

Ikkiri had a lot of questions but she opted to go for a more objective approach instead.

"You had him, right? And then he teleported, as you've said." She prompts Diego to go deeper into this again "Yeah. I started to get closer to him and then I felt like my blood was being drained. Y'know that feeling when you are so sick that you can't gather the will and physical force to move your body; like something is sucking the living shit out of your energy. Then, I backed off, and the throne began to eat him and he disappeared." Diego elaborated and Ikkiri thought for a bit "This is..." She seemed in too much deep thought and Diego took notice of that.

Diego took another deep smoke and completely evaporated the cigarette to the end, malging it with his bare palm.

"I'll be going now." Diego began to walk away from Ikkiri "W-Wait! Just wait! Are you not gonna do anything about this?! You've got to be kid---" This time, Diego interrupted her "Cállate." He coldly remarked to Ikkiri "I was just giving you the report; you're my superior. Do I need to mention how it would go against the protocol to not do so...?" He starred at Ikkiri fearlessly through the shadow beneath his hat "Two days; deliver the message to Sagasuga. Two days at maximum and the black brain is in our possession." He finished.

Thus, Diego exited school and made a certain call to someone while leaving Ikkiri behind.

"Alice. Get all the squads in standby."

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For the first time in a while, Daniel was travelling via subway instead of the train as the subway was slightly less expensive. Daniel had managed to obtain 2 dollars through some petty begging but it worked out in the end. Nonetheless, Daniel was attracting too much attention due to the fact that he was wearing a sleeveless black t-shirt alongside black track pants. There were no longer any blood tracks as Daniel had earlier discarded his jacket in order to not have some kind of misfortune happen again.

But the real reason why Daniel was standing out was because it was almost Winter, so, no sane person would be wearing a tank top like Daniel. And yes, he did feel cold, but he had his mind elsewhere.

At last, Daniel had reached the Narthar subway station and he left to the top; facing the bright sun with an invitational chilly weather. However, his main point of attraction would be to see just how many policemen would be on the scene or if there would be a complete restrain all over the scene. Daniel rushed and rushed, ultra passing multiple pedestrians in the stairs, who were bothered by Daniel's sudden abrupt intrusive movements.

Alas, there were multiple policemen on the scene and there were several people witnessing their work. Although Daniel wanted to get closer, he simply observed from a far and noticed that a certain policeman who he had recently became familiar with was present, so staying there would be counterproductive.

"That checks out.... Alright, now..." Daniel thought for a while, hiding behind one of the ticket machines as people bought tickets.

Daniel was pondering his options and all he could think about was to go to some place else to beg for money. However, Daniel had a spark of an idea so he decided to follow with that idea instead of begging for money traditionally. He climbed the white stairs; ascending all the way from the station to the streets and so, his destination became not clear but he had an idea in mind of where he wanted to go.

From Daniel's perspective, Narthar was a city divided into three sections: the section where the clear rich people lived in confined houses of grandiose luxuries; the section where the middle-stabelized-economical people live in their respective affordable apartments and then... Then came the part that was Daniel's entire assumption, as he had no clear way of knowing if this was true or not. The plan was nothing but a shot in the dark, but Daniel figured that it would be practically impossible for this to not be the case.

Therefore, Daniel went far away from the Narthar station, away from the lively streets, away from any place that screamed to be owned by rich people and through that isolation, Daniel managed to find himself partial to the known part of Narthar that he had known for a long time. On the far east of Narthar, rustic buildings started to lay around and the civilization began to decrease----the signal that Daniel searched for when looking for his ideal place.

There was a road with a severe lack of construction that went all below a 50-meter tall bridge that connected all the way to a green public park. Nonetheless, Daniel wasn't interested in crossing that bridge but rather, what was below that lengthy bridge. From afar, Daniel could see a dirty green expanding on the horizon below as multiple cultivation fields alongside a brutal variety of small houses with iron-clad shelters spread all over. An entire field made of houses that had no more than 5 meters of height to them---in addition to having a small river running across that valley below the bridge.

It almost looked to Daniel as if he found a third part of Narthar and this would be the third section that he was looking for. There were no constructed paths, so all paths were made out of earth naturally. The sun was also very absent in this place as the bridge above completely blocked out the sunlight.

As soon as Daniel set foot on the place, walking right into what seemed to be a maze with no clear destination, multiple eyes were on Daniel, but not visible ones. Daniel kept on walking all the way towards the river where he saw a few children playing alongside a couple of adults/elders fishing at the riverbank.

From what Daniel could observe, this place had definitely a link to his goal, but the hardest part would be to know where to start exactly.

The sun was high in the sky as it was only a bit past midday. Still, Daniel continued to feel tremendous cold and he began to sneeze; having to clean his nose's droplets with his forearm every time, which was not really solving the problem. To Daniel, the place began to feel like a labyrinth. Not only was he extremely far away from the entrance, he had no clear idea where he was at the moment, as he passed through another conjunction of small houses.

"...No, it's gotta be here..." Daniel murmored to himself as a few people on the corners of some houses were watching him, as he spent his time talking to himself.

Daniel would more often than not try to sneak a peek of what were the contents of the houses. However, Daniel would not find anything of what he was looking for and furthermore, he was attracting even more attention. Nevertheless, he continued to instigate as he tried to find something within those houses; completely oblivious to the possible consequences.

"...Oh fuck off, come on, where is it..." He persisted, this time looking for more houses, but still not opening himself up to the point of communicating with those around him.

Eventually, he started to go beyond peeking through the houses and started to open the door of a certain house. As he opened that door in specific, he began to investigate what was inside and all he saw was a broken bed with filthy clothes around, bottles of river water pilling up, as well as bowls with water. In other words, as soon as Daniel concluded that what he was looking for wasn't there, he left the house and put the cranky steel door supported by a small iron pole made out of wires all the way back to where it was.

And then he turned around.

"...What, that's..." Daniel blinked his eyes thrice and saw the river that he was beside with around twenty or so minutes ago.

He gazed at the river that was just about ten meters away from him to the south and the door that he was holding. Then, he looked straight into his surroundings to see if it matched with the scenario he had in his memory before opening the door.

"I guess I wasn't paying any attention. Whatever..." Daniel shrugged it off and moved on away from the zone and continued to go north.

It wouldn't be long before Daniel would attempt the same trickery of opening another door without the permission of a single soul and what he saw once inside immediately made him close the door instantly. He didn't talk about it, he just wanted to forget what he had seen. Furthermore, he wanted to vomit as he continued to hear the bouncing sounds from the cranky bed close to the door. After putting the door slowly and silently back to where it was, Daniel turned around again.

"No, I wasn't here, what?" Daniel pointed it out extremely confident and suspicious.

He looked around and he didn't see his previous scenario which was an "X" crosspath that led to four different paths. Daniel had came from the southwest path and opened the door from a house on the left side, therefore, there should be a visible "X" crosspath for Daniel to follow around, but there was no such thing in front of him.

Daniel was back to where he had started, a place that he actually deep down wanted to be in for a while now---the main entrance. Here, Daniel saw the dirty broken asphalt road leading up to the old rustic buildings where civilization was mildly present and not as deserted as in this current valley habituated by people amongst the miniature of houses.

The possibility of simply leaving alluded Daniel, but he decided to try something out first.

He went back to the crosspath with an "X" to it and opened the exact same door, however, this time, he was noticed.

"Ah..." Daniel let that out loud in a nervous way "Get outta here ya fuckin' brat!" Daniel received a rock to the face from an eldery person who was conducting sexual activities with a women far younger than him; cranking up the bed with brusce movements "S-Sorry...!" Daniel apologized while getting a peek of the woman that the eldery person was having sex with and only then did he leave.

Daniel thought how lucky the elder was for a while and even allowed himself to feel a bit excited over that image that he had just gazed upon. Of course, Daniel's point of attention immediately shifted once he confirmed his suspicions as he was back to where he was the last time he had opened that exact same door----all the way to the entrance of the valley with the asphalt road ahead of him.

He made his tracks back there, wasting more time on this endeavor of his. This time around, instead of going for the left side of the cross X path, Daniel opted to go to the next house on the right, just to see what would happen. He opened the door and found an eldery woman with three little kids, all on one rustic plastic table eating what seemed to be stew.

An awkward silence was posed, as Daniel looked around the small house only finding one singular bed and not even a toilet; just a butchered closet.

"I'm sorry, but I don't have any food for y--" Daniel closed the door; not letting the mother finish her sentence and Daniel instantly reflected on what he saw.

The current scenery was the exact same as before; as in, Daniel is still standing in the cross X path but now he wasn't elsewhere; the normal occurrence happened.

"That can't be, hold on." Daniel was skeptical and immediately went to the house on the left, opened the door, went in, and left, causing the old man to lash out at Daniel again, though the latter didn't care that much as he was looking forward to the result.

As he thought, Daniel was back all the way to the entrance this time.

"So some don't work? Interesting." Daniel left it at that and ran this time around to the closest house he could find, just fifteen meters away from the entrance as it was there that the chain of houses began. Without much hesitation, he took the house to the left which was slightly higher than the rest as it contained a far more stable shelter; combining three metal layers to add protection in cases of torrential rain.

However, an unpleasant surprise met with Daniel, as there was an angry old man with a shotgun pointing at Daniel's face.

"H-Hold on, I--" Daniel attempted to explain himself while putting his hands up, but the old man spared no effort and shot the terrain next to Daniel's foot as a warning shot as he coldly said "...Get outta here, this ain't your damn house, punk." He loaded the shotgun once again, but Daniel didn't hesitate to take his leave, as he was more than happy to do so.

From what Daniel could observe from the contents of the house, there were a lot of things stored there, so Daniel was actually incredibly suspicious of that house, but unfortunately for Daniel, there were no convencional means of potentially uncovering what was inside, although he really wanted to. Plus, Daniel had something else to take into account now.

Unlike two times ago, the door he had just opened was not a dud, but instead a door that allowed Daniel elsewhere once outside. Daniel used the bridge above as a way to guide himself and to figure out where he was. If Daniel just a moment ago was at the beginning of the bridge from below, then right now he was beyond the bridge a little to the right more to the center; from a guiding perspective, he was all the way to the east side, where even the bridge was visible from afar.

He wasn't teleported, it just felt the same as someone who just walks through a door, but doesn't have a door to come back from. Daniel was in the middle of the valley with the numerous miniature of houses and he found himself immediately surrounded by a group of four male individuals consuming cocaine on a stone table placed in-between some houses.

"Who's this guy?" One of them asked, this particular individual posssessing a bulkier build and like Daniel, wearing a top tank although white instead as well as a long hair with dirty dreadlocks "Hey yo! Don't run, man!" Daniel was already fast-forwarding his steps but he got quickly stopped by yet another one of them as well with dreadlocks although red and short "....Sorry, I came to the wrong neighborhood..." Daniel remarked, as he apologized "You bet your fuckin' ass you did! Money, give it!" They immediately demanded as the four of them circled Daniel.

Daniel emptied all of his pockets from his pants and even allowed them to check if he actually had money.

"Shit!" One of them snapped and slapped Daniel across the face "Agh..." Daniel tried to not let out his voice but it didn't work "Aight bitch, you can go now." They allowed Daniel to go and Daniel began to feel relieved from that, although he was both hurt physically and psychologically from the pain he was feeling from the slap.

As he walked away, one of them called Daniel back and as Daniel wanted to avoid further trouble, he did one thing in particular.

"Hey, come back here." Daniel was given a hand gesture indicating to come back like a dog but Daniel tried something else "Oi... He's going away." One of them noticed as Daniel went straight into one of the closest houses and went for the door without a second thought "That bastard..." They began to move from the stone table, leaving all the powdered cocaine there and followed Daniel as he walked through the house to the right without a second thought, closing the door.

Once inside, the four individuals looked around and found a grumpy old man reading a book on his own bed with his glasses as well as mountains of treasures, going from buckets with gold coins, multiple bookshelves, a working TV with a powerline behind it installed on the ground as well as lights above. Overall, the room looked like a room that was not like those around the slums.

"B-Boss, sorry to bother ya but have you seen a kid around here?! I think he's hiding here!" One of them claimed but the grumpy old man who they called by 'boss' gave a more simple answer while still reading the book, unlooking "He just left, are ya people blind?" His voice completely sour "Eh? But that's not possible, boss, he definitely went inside of here..." The same member insisted "And I'm telling your dumbass that he just left. Search outside and get to work!" He ordered, this time in a louder manner "...Yes!" They complied.

However, after some searching, they came back rather quick as they couldn't find Daniel.

"Boss, he's really here! I saw it with my own damn eyes, he opened the door and we were behind him, he couldn't have left! Plus, the moment we got here, no one walked out!" The same member explained and the grumpy old man didn't lash out this time and instead looked at them in the eye, pausing the book he was reading on his well-folded bed "Oh dear me and my hackin' back!" He painfully got up from his bed and supported the pain of his crooked back alongside him before speaking again "Yer serious about that?" He seriously asked while fiddling with one of his newly acquired golden rings in the shape of a skull that he had taken a liking as of lately "I mean it, boss! I saw the fucker walking into your house like it was nothing!" He said extremely anxious as he didn't want his boss to think that he was tricking him "...Well, well..." The boss changed his TV's program to a football match as he sat down on his bed again.

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He thought for a bit and only came to a singular conclusion.

"...That bastard's got it, ain't no other way around..." He concluded and then delivered the order "Search around the cathedral and find him! Bring him to me and don't kill him! Make it fast!" He swang his crane next to his bed as he gave that brash order to them, telling them to get on with it "Yes, boss Ferdinand!" They happily left as they thought of the potential reward they could get just from fulfilling an order from their boss Ferdinand.

Meanwhile. on Daniel's side, he was no longer present within the valley but instead, he was warped right into a place outside of the valley; the cathedral right next to the north's end of the bridge above the valley of the slums. Now, there were more people around and especially since it was an afternoon time, the cathedral was not only full of people, but Daniel suddenly had all eyes on him, because of what he was saying out loud for himself.

"He's the one! That's where all my stock went to, fucking damn it!" He kicked the ground and started to swear in front of a cathedral "Wait, wait..." Daniel realized something more in addition to this "He had so much more than just my stock..." Daniel allowed his ambition to turn into greed rapidly as he walked around in circles, acting like a complete lunatic to some people who were watching him from the entrance of the cathedral as well as from the bridge's right road.

Daniel's original goal was to see where his stock was and capture it back as he figured that only a true poor person would have done it; ergo---going all the way to the slums just to confirm his theory. However, now, Daniel had other sights.

He walked to the border of the bridge and was deep into thought as he looked exactly where he was just previously in the valley where the slums are. The more closely he looked, he found the house that he had just walked into a minute ago as the house was far more constructed than the other ones. In the myriad of those paths covered in dirt, he saw the four individuals who were going after him and decided to watch their tracks for a while.

"...Why are they not checking the other houses?" Daniel pointed that out while looking down below, hanging from the border of the bridge on an extreme high edge.

It was strange because Daniel figured that it would be only logical to check the houses to see whether or not Daniel would be hiding in them, but the oblivious confidence in how the group was running to a path in specific alerted Daniel and made him think that something was off.

That no matter how he putted it, it was simply too strange to overlook the idea. Daniel then proceeded to assume something as he linked the mysterious phenomenons and where he was placed every time he opened a door that was not a dud.

"If by some chance the old man I saw was the one who holds the power to shift the destination of those doors, then..." Daniel hypothesized even further and came to a concrete conclusion that lacked evidence "Alright, I'll just see what they do..." He said as he continued to watch the group of 4 make their tracks.

Daniel opted to keep track of them with his eyes as well as to see where their path could lead. He noticed that the path that he was following with his eyes lead all the way to the asphalt road, as it was another way to get to the bridge. As a matter of fact, it was parallel at a distant distance from the asphalt road that Daniel had firstly came from to get inside the valley, which meant that it was the designed exit of the valley, or simply an alternative entrance.

After a while, Daniel confirmed their tracks and there wasn't any doubt no longer. Now, it was up to Daniel to follow with his plan.

Taking the time and effort, Daniel ran across the bridge for about 4 minutes which was a lot for him as the bridge possessed roughly 750 meters in distance alone. From there, Daniel descended to the right side and ran without control down the asphalt road that he had firstly came from.

He had an idea of where his goal's location was simply by looking at the geography of the slums from the altitude that the asphalt road provided, but that wasn't necessary because Daniel had an even better idea. Daniel ventured to the left at the entrance where the chain of houses begin and then he took a deep breath to calm himself down.

"...I fucking swear if I die from this..." He started to get afraid and trembled for a bit but he quickly pulled himself together with some words "No, all I have to do is just... Yeah, let's just do that." He grabbed the doorhold, immediately went in and as the familiar face grabbed the shotgun, Daniel immediately closed the door and opened it simultaneously after hearing a gunshot from the shotgun.

Now outside, Daniel was back to the location to the west of the bridge, all the way where he was mugged by those four individuals.

All that was left to do was to go do a certain house, but Daniel first decided to sniff out all of the cocaine on the stone table without holding back.

"OH FUCK YEAH, THAT'S THE STUFF!" Daniel felt beyond thrilled as he gobbled up all of the powder to himself, even his walking began to feel supreme.

Thus, with utmost confidence, Daniel walked all the way north, turned right, grabbed the doorhold without hesitation on his mind and opened it.

"ALR--" Daniel slammed the door right open with all the force he had, wearing a bright static smile, only to meet a curtain of multiple shots to all of his body.

Not only was Daniel shot all over his stomach, legs, arms, throat, but he received at least 10 consecutive headshots from 20 present men. Aside from their 'boss', there was a grand total of 20 people present, all of them holding mini-guns on their right hands, some with both of their hands. These men weren't dressed formerly and each possessed their own set of clothes as they were on there for the job. All of them were forming a line from left to right as they all aligned in an horizontal line in front of the door.

Behind them stood the 'boss'; the grumpy old man who was carefully observing the scene but as he got up from his bed, he stretched out for his phone and started to dial a call as soon as Daniel's body hit the ground from all the bullets.

Blood started to flood the entire room, even reaching his brilliantly taken care off black shoes.

"Yes, it's been taken care off, ya brat. I don't know why that brat Diego thought this shit would work but he fell right into the trap!" He sounded extremely grumpy saying that, probably due to the fact that he had to call someone younger while on the receiving end "Cappicce, tell that brat Diego it's been taken care off!" He gets up, kicking all the blood that was coming out of Daniel's body, in a very pissed off mood "No, he didn't have anything to show, either that or the brat just didn't have the chance to use it! Yeah, yeah, shaddap and let me do my magic, alright?!" He further complained.

And then a sound caught the attention of all of them except the old man on the phone, although he noticed the noise but brushed it off as the person on the other end was talking loudly and that consumed all of his attention.

However, it became alerting to the point where all the men just had to look at the ceiling as they identified the sound from above.

"Shit, what the fuck is all this noise?!" Some of them even began pointing their mini-guns at the rooftop which called the attention of their boss "I'll call ya back in a second..." He ended the call "What the fuck! It's so loud, it's like something's approaching, but what the fuck is it?!" The complaints increased as so did the noise which was very similar to a prolonged sonic boom.

The old man Ferdinand looked at Daniel's figure one more time as he grew a suspicion and in the heat of the moment, he took two steps back, managing to escape from the horrendous impact by a hair strand.

At that moment, the shelter was bombarded by a gigantic flying object just like a missile straight sent to a bombing area. As he stood on the floor, soaked from his uniral liquid, he saw even more blood scattered around as about 7 men had been brutally squashed by what seemed to be a black throne in the form of a face containing familiar human features such as eye cavities and most noticeable an open mouth with live teeth to show in the front.

That throne stood in front of him with a striking horror running through his veins.

"A-Ah...." A very weak murmour came from Daniel who was not caught in this incident, still on the door's entrance, and so, all eyes were on him "K-Kill him! Fuckin' finish the brat off! He's the one controlling this damn thing! Do it, do it!" Numerous bullets were put on Daniel who was crawling but after those bullets sank in, Daniel stopped moving with his right hand reaching out to the throne who was in front of him, just about a meter and a half away.

A moment of silence was then made, guns were still locked in on Daniel's figure, waiting for a single movement out of him. Then, one of the still alive men, very nervous and with a ragged breath, pointed with his gun to the top of the throne, where a transparent rectangular box held a brain inside that was slowly getting filled with a sanguine liquid.

"Holy shit, what the fuck! The fuck is that?!" Once again alerted, all the men and the old man Ferdinand included looked at the brain and the mysterious liquid that was filling up the box "...Ugh..." Once more, the attention point switched to Daniel, who was crawling again, to everyone's confusion and disarray.

Orders for another shooting began but something else was currently happening that was halting further progress.

No matter how many bullets received, he was still able to crawl back a few seconds after. And...

".....Why....do I.... feel so......." One of the men holding a gun pointing at Daniel began to feel extremely limp as if his legs no longer had the strength to support them and the hand he was holding the mini-gun felt so incredibly heavy that his last words came out almost silent "...weak........." All of the men started to fall one by one as their bodies began to almost decompose but mainly, to lose all of their blood, leaving only skin to protect the organs as well as their muscles which were now as exposed as they could be.

The grumpy old man known as Ferdinand was no exception to this as he was beginning to feel authentically weak and could only crawl. Both he and Daniel crawled opposite ways---Daniel dragged his body towards the throne instinctively and the old man desperately went for the door. Meanwhile, Daniel's blood and all the blood around was being sucked in to the bottom of the throne through a mysterious force as the brain box continued to fill even more liquid to it.

"God damn it to hell, Jesus!" The old man Ferdinand escaped from his door and went to the destination that the door allowed him to be in.

Once outside and in the same place Daniel was in not too long ago, a strange coincidence happened. On the right side of the bridge, in the middle of the road, the old man could barely walk and had to support on the bridge's edge holders. A lot of people passing by began to look at him but more importantly, a group of four individuals immediately came rushing in, worried.

They immediately rushed in as they noticed how thin and skully he looked to them, furthermore, they supported Ferdinand with his shoulders.

"Boss Ferdinand, what the hell---" The main leader of the group, Andre, a boy with 20 years old and long dreadlocks tried to assert the situation but as they began to drift away from the bridge towards the north side where the civilization alongside with buildings remained, Ferdinand interrupted him "...Christ sake........" He could barely speak as he was beyond physically weak "...Call that damn bitch, will ya?! She needs to get a piece of this....!" He said, coughing nonstop and with a blurring vision.

Thus, as they kept on supporting Ferdinand by their shoulders, Andre gave her a call and once it reached its end, Andre put the phone on Ferdinand's right ear.

"Took ya long enough!" Ferdinand shouted, annoyed at the duration that it took for her to pick up "Listen, he---" However, Ferdinand was mercilessly interrupted by her "...You can't be serious! Just tell that brat Diego to get his ass over here! I'm telling you, I alone can't do it! My Mania isn't suited for combat, ya hear?!" He insisted but went ignored in this regard "Damn brat!" She hung up after giving Ferdinand the order which caused Ferdinand to throw a limp tantrum "Damn this stupid bitch! No education and no respect for her elders, kah!" He spat some saliva to the ground and halted his tracks.

Andre and the other 3 stopped as well as they awaited Ferdinand's new orders.

"Andre, Carlos, Roberto, Roberto Jr, ya brats, call all of the slum bastards..." Ferdinand, now completely serious, gave a new order "And.... Make sure that brat Jorge is on the line... No matter what, get through him! You're to do that and keep that bastard inside the slums without a way out!" The four of them stood there watching at Ferdinand as he caught up his breath "What the living fuck are ya waiting for?!" They dropped Ferdinand on the spot and descended all the way down the asphalt to the left which would go all the way to the slums.

----------------------------------------

Thirty minutes had roughly passed since then, Daniel unmoving from the throne and it would only be after the box, made out of what seemed to be a transparent glass of some sort, and only after the liquid it had now completely empty, would be the time when Daniel would wake up.

His surroundings were the dead men who were shooting him down with everything they had not too long ago. Their bodies were completely skinned out as their skeletons were practically showing through their skins.

He found himself drooling with saliva once he accidentally looked at the top of their heads, toward one particular section of their bodies on the top.

Nevertheless, since the afternoon sun was illuminating the place where Daniel is, he was able to scourge the territory and plunder what he deemed necessary. However, there was so much that Daniel couldn't make up his mind. Therefore, he took what he deemed necessary and what he could carry in his pockets.

"...." Daniel halted at the door-step as he focused his hearing to the maximum, something that he had never tried to in all of his life ".....That's..." He noticed the numerous steps outside which weren't loud by any means but enough for him to notice.

He thought about taking the door and go through with the destination that awaited Daniel if he would, but Daniel went against that idea as he believed it would be a set-up on the other side. So, he was left with only one choice. Through the open rooftop, Daniel struggled to do a single pull up to the top of the roof in order to avoid taking the route that the door would offer.

After a bit of physical struggle, Daniel caught up with his breath and stood up as he saw the other houses from the higher height that Ferdinand's house provided, and it would be at that moment that Daniel would see what was waiting for him.

"......Oh, what now..." Daniel began to feel incredibly nervous as he saw numerous thugs gazing at him with wicked smiles distributed all over the place, leaving Daniel no actual corner to escape "Yo, Andre! The princess is up!" A calling to Andre began who rapidly came from the south side all the way to where a large concentration of thugs were in just below the house.

At the moment, Daniel stands at the top of a blasted roof on the metallic south edge with an army of thugs all below waiting for him. There are about three paths available from the frontal perspective. Daniel could either go all the way to the north, take the frontal side and continue. Either that or he could walk up a bit and take the right or the left. However, all of those routes were invalid, there were simply far too much numbers to them.

So, Daniel tried something as he saw Andre coming up, a way path created for him that the thugs gladly stepped aside from.

"I-I give up...!" Daniel honestly said from the top "I really don't have any money with me, I swear!" He tried to appeal to his innocence but it went to blind ears "Ain't no fucking way you're getting out of this, you dickhead! Get down from there and give it up, that's all you gotta do!" Andre spoke those words, which surprised Daniel, because, this was not what he was expecting "Hold on, huh...." Daniel scratched his head on the back "Hold on, what?! Are you fucking retarded? Did you not hear what I just said? Get the fuck down or get gunned down!" Andre said, but Daniel, out of an unknown confidence, decided to argue against Andre's threat "...I don't think you can do that, can you...?" He meekly said, with a very low voice, but it was enough for Andre to listen.

Andre's eyes almost fell off in a feat of rage but he reminded himself of Ferdinand's order, so he held himself back a bit.

Or so he thought.

"All of you, aim at him!!" Andre gave the order and at least 100 guns were pointed at Daniel and with that, Daniel felt a whole new level of terror as those guns felt like stabbing knives pierced at him "H-H-H-Hold on! Please wait...!!" Daniel started to mildly laugh out of control "Is he fucking laughing at us?! Andre, give the damn order!" They demanded, with fury running thick and through "Fuck this shit, fi--" As Andre was about to signal the shooting, a familiar face appeared.

Coughing his way through, he made his presence be known to Daniel once again, still very skinny from all the blood loss a few hours ago. Furthermore, he was holding a cane which made a rather uncanny sound every time it hit the soil.

"Ya retards! Ya almost fell for his trap!" Ferdinand slaps his cane onto Andre's back leaving the latter in pain "Lower down the damn guns, brats..." Ferdinand ordered as he moved forward towards Daniel's position, still below him from a positional stand "Name's Ferdinand, brat... I'm gonna make this real simple for ya, come down at this moment and it's all over for ya." Ferdinand said with the utmost of clarities "And what then...?" Mildly curious, Daniel asked to which, Ferdinand laughed a bit at first but eventually replied "That's enough out ya, ya don't need to know what comes next. Shoot him on the legs, brats!!" Ferdinand ordered to open fire and shots that went beyond the average were bombarded toward Daniel's legs without mercy.

Daniel fell with his face on the ground so hard some of his frontal teeth broke. And then, with his two arms, he hugged his wounded legs which were pierced by so many bullets that Daniel unleashed the scream of his life.

"AAAARGGGGGGGGGHH!!!" Daniel cowered as he felt pain that he had never had felt before.

Although he had been in mortal danger before, to say the least, he was quickly put out of commission and never had experienced pain like this, where he would be left alive at the end of the process. Thus, Daniel began to cry with snot running through his nose down to his mouth as he opened his mouth to scream in agony.

"Ya stupid brat, ya should've just came down and they wouldn't have to shoot ya. I know yer ability triggers when you die, so now that the cat is out of the bag, your ability is damn useless!" Ferdinand boldly declared, laughing maniacally, as Daniel screamed out of his lungs, rolling on the ground "F-Fuck you, what the fuck did I do to you?!" Daniel glared at Ferdinand with hate and anger trying to understand why he was being treated this way "Hey, it's nothin' personal brat, just the boss's orders, buhahaha!" He laughed once again, as Andre and many others approached Daniel and locked both of his arms, so he wouldn't try anything funny.

They began to carry him, bagging him like a bed sheet under their arms. Their destination would be the asphalt on the left side towards the complete west side.

"Hey... Old man..." Daniel spoke to Ferdinand who was walking with the army of thugs as they ventured towards their destination "Hm? Ya got something to say, brat?" Ferdinand asked in a sarcastic manner with a laughter permanent to his lips whenever he saw Daniel's sorry crying face "...Let me go, please..." Daniel begged, crying "Don't think so, brat... I don't know what kinda shit you did, but to piss off that brat Diego to the point where he has send so many after you... Ya really got yourself done into some wild shit, boy, do I feel sorry for ya, bahahaha!!" Ferdinand released his demonic laughter to Daniel "I didn't do shit! I'm just a homeless guy! I swear, you gotta believe me!" Daniel pleaded his case to Ferdinand but this just went wrong for him as Ferdinand didn't care enough "Shaddap, ya damn brat! Or I'll put a fuckin' bullet to your tongue next! And you ain't gonna like that, believe me!" He threatened Daniel.

While Daniel was being carried by Andre's group, stuffed in like a sandwich with his arms locked and legs completely unmoving, Daniel had a spark of creativity once he heard Ferdinand's words.

He then began to manically laugh lowly at first, but it slowly descended into a higher contagious laughter.

"Hahaha... Hahahaaaaaaa-----HAHAHA!" Daniel was both crying from the immense physical pain he was feeling but also laughing because he realized something that he had not taken into account "Of course! How could I have missed it?! The answer is just that SIMPLE!" Daniel's words were gathering the attention of all of the thugs, but more importantly Ferdinand, who suddenly felt nervous just by looking at Daniel's demonic expression---a mixture of tears and a wide smile demonstrating the behavior of someone insane "Ya damn brat...! Don't you fuckin dar----" Ferdinand attempt to reach out to Daniel's mouth, but it was too late.

Without any hesitation at all, Daniel bit his tongue off with all of his strength, which caused him to lose consciousness. His head was now crooked all the way down, his eyes lifeless.

At the same given time, everyone present heard a sonic boom from above---a sound so loud it roared louder than the sky.

"Oh fuckin' hell! God damn it all, fuckin' hell!" Ferdinand repetitively cursed himself and his stupidity for allowing Daniel to kill himself as everyone else was looking above, alerted and scared beyond their wits as they witnessed a falling object from afar in the sky quickly descending at a maddening speed.

Ferdinand had witnessed this scenario before, but he didn't think that it was able to happen repetitively, so he was stuck between maintaining an eye on Daniel or just running for his life as he didn't want to end up squashed like his previous men were by that throne. In other words, Ferdinand had to make a decision.

"All of ya---GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Ferdinand shouted with all of his lungs to Andre's group and all the thugs in the vicinity "It's gonna come down, ya brats, just drop the damn brat's body if ya wanna live!" Ferdinand insisted as he saw that some of them were not understand the difficulty behind Ferdinand's words "Boss, what are y---" The throne descended from the dark clouds above smashing anything that came in front of its landing, resulting in the demolition of at least 20 men.

Blood was quickly splashed and scattered all over the muddy territory as the dark horrifying throne of death descended from above. More importantly, the number of casualties didn't limit themselves to bodies only but to 3 mini-houses built of cement and iron shelters; naturally killing any living being that would be inside.

"Holy shit!! What the fuck is that?!" Many frightened by the terrifying sight of the throne and its remarkable grostique expression began to lose their marbels at the sight of it "I told ya to run, retards!" Ferdinand on the run for the asphalt road just on the way north side lashed out at them and many began to follow his lead for the exit, mainly including Andre's group--Andre is specific, speaking to Ferdinand a specific detail subsequent as they began to climb the upward path to the bridge, exiting the slums "Boss, he's just up ahead on standby!" Andre whispered to Ferdinand's ear "That's goddamn great, now---" Ferdinand was about to speak his plan but he saw the number of thugs lagging behind him and the sight spoke horror to him "Jesus!" He couldn't believe it despite being the second time he had seen a similar phenomenon.

One by one, each and every single one of them were falling on the ground and most noticeably, a black link was being created on the mud that would form an irregular connecting line to the throne. Through each line, which were beyond the primary dozens by now, there would be a transferring liquid connected from the body that was falling apart all the way to the throne. The bodies were being evaporated from any blood they would possess and body organs such as eyes, ears, teeth, nails, and in some cases even bones began to break due to brusque movements within a moment where the blood loss was beyond that which could be accounted as "safe".

"Help me, boss..............." Lifeless voices began to become directed toward Ferdinand as he watched a large margin of his crew deplete in life "Goddamn it, get yer ass in here, Jorge!" Ferdinand shouted practically to nothing while seeing movement from Daniel who was climbing the mini-stairs of the throne, attempting to reach the core of the throne.

Amidst that disaster and chaos, a man in his near 20's walked, extremely slowly, uncaring of what was happening. This man known as Jorge hid most of his long brown hair, though the ends of it could be seen throughout his neck, with his black fedora hat. Aside from his tan skin, he possessed a wary smile uncanny enough to throw any stranger to the wrong side. His clothes consist of his essential black leather jacket covering a black neat suit undershirt, a set of slim fit whine-colored pants with a black metallic belt. Lastly, he packed a brutal pair of spiky boots to his arsenal's end yet none of those were the main features that one would notice the most out of Jorge.

Beside his spiky boots, there was an unpleasant miniature of a figure possessing an extremely low height; around 10 centimeters at maximum. This unexplainable small creature walked on its own, always faster than Jorge, but would trip every 3 seconds. With a clown ensemble, red and white as its primary colors, it would rise to full height after tripping; exhibiting voluptuous eyes that occupied more than half of its cranium alongside a permanent grandious smile.

"D-D-D-D-D-o N-N-N-N-ot W-W-W-W-orry, J-J-J-J-J-orge!" It spoke after falling from the asphalt in a robotic-like manner despite possessing humanistic features to its owner, with its small nose running a fountain of blood "I-I-I-I C-C-C-C-an G-G-G-G-et B-B-B-B-ack O-O-O-O-n M-M-M-M-y O-O-O-O-wn!" It spoke to Jorge, but didn't quite look at Jorge but someone else "That's a good boy, Pascal..." Jorge spoke with a barely audible voice, containing little to no volume in his cryptic voice as he patted the green afro hair on Pascal's head.

Ferdinand, alongside with Andre's group and a couple of thugs who managed to outrun the throne's wrath by a hair strand, joined with Jorge with nervous and full of fear type of expressions. Ferdinand didn't hesitate, on that afternoon where the cold sun would start to fall down midst fluttering winds, to explain the situation as he caught his breath with a smoke.

"Took ya long enough, ya brat! He's the one, damn it all to hell, I had no fuckin' clue we were dealing with one!" Ferdinand spoke out loud, pointing to the slow-moving Daniel, who was clinging to the core of the throne, unable to seat properly "J-J-J-J-orge." Pascal spoke instead of the silent Jorge, this time looking at him in the eyes, likewise, Jorge's orange-glowing eyes started to emit an orange aura from them "Pascal..." He spoke, expressing joy "I-I-I-I W-W-W-W-ant T-T-T-T-o P-P-P-P-lay! P-P-P-P-ascal W-W-W-W-ants T-T-T-T-o P-P-P-P-lay!!" Pascal pointed with his tiny right hand index finger towards Daniel, who had complete vision on his side now, but still recovering "Pascal..." Jorge expressed both joy and sadness as he took out a black baby-bottle, full on orange liquid, letting Pascal suck all of it dry without any stops.

Once dry and empty, Pascal extended his tiny hand with the baby-bottle to Jorge, the latter kneeling down with his right knee to grab it.

"Come back soon..." Jorge said in a monochromatic voice tone as Pascal began to run without tripping this time towards Daniel at full force.

Pascal's mouth emitted an orange liquid dripping from Pascal's lips, and as Daniel saw the horrifying sprint from Pascal, he couldn't figure out how to react to this, as he was slowly but surely gaining the blood back from the black lines that the throne was extending from the dead corpses around him.

"Something's different..." Daniel noted with his eyes half-opened and his tongue still in pain yet starting to self-heal "Hold on, what the fuck is that...?!" Daniel finally noticed Pascal running all the way from the upward asphalt road all the way to Daniel without stopping.

The throne began to emit a black line from underneath all the way to Pascal's running figure and connected with Pascal. Just like it has been, a flowing of blood would connect and would be transferred to the throne's brain box. However, as Daniel looked up from below, he noticed that the box was not filling anything up.

"Huh?! Wait, what?!" He panicked as Pascal approached, now preparing to jump despite being at least 10x times smaller than Daniel in height "G-G-G-G-otcha!" Pascal jumped half a meter and grabbed Daniel's left shoulder, terrorizing him with his gigantic orange glowing eyes "N-N-N-N-ice T-T-T-T-o M-M-M-M-eet Y-Y-Y-Y-ou, I-I-I-I- A-A----" Daniel unleashed a scream at the sight of Pascal, grabbed Pascal by the hair and threw Pascal off to the river tide on the north side "A-AAAAHHHH!" Daniel further panicked and ran away from the throne in panic, exiting from it, or so he tried, but a mysterious force put him right back into the throne, now with both of his arms extended on each side of the throne "W-What the fuck?! Hey, fucking let me go!" He spoke to the throne, turning his back and head to the open mouth and hollow black cavities where the eyes are supposed to be in but no response came forth "Oh shit..." Daniel looked at the continuing river side on the north and spotted Pascal.

Soaked and with its eyebrows twisted towards his eyes, Pascal began to cry, emitting tears with a scarletite orange to its color, as Daniel attempted to make a run for it, being put back every time in the same position; the throne unwilling to obey Daniel's will "Hey! HEY, I SAID! You gotta let me go, damn it!" Daniel howled a desperate cry along with tears but again unresponsive.

"W-W-W-W-hy?" Pascal asked, slowly walking up to Daniel's throne, mildly far away still "P-P-P-P-ascal T-T-T-T-hought T-T-T-T-hat Y-Y-Y-Y-ou W-W-W-W-anted T-T-T-T-o B-B-B-B-e F-F-F-F-riends!" Pascal cried and cried, leaving Jorge in tears too, hiding his face behind the underlayer of his fedora hat "Fuck you! Why would I be friends with a fucking freak like you?! DAMN IT, JUST LET GO OF ME!" Daniel continued to argue against the throne in vain "F-F-F-F-reak...?" Pascal, disappointed, sad, and angry stopped his tracks and looked at Daniel from afar with a silent deadly rage hiding beneath "J-J-J-J-orge! H-H-H-H-e C-C-C-C-alled M-M-M-M-e A-A-A-A-a F-F-F-F-reak...!" Pascal pointed at Daniel, causing Jorge to speak "...Don't hold back, Pascal..." Jorge said to Pascal, and at that moment, Pascal ran with an even more accelerated momentum towards Daniel, this time jumping straight to Daniel's face, Pascal's legs covering his neck and his arms both of Daniel's ears.

A single moment of silence struck before Daniel's terror began.

"Huh?" Daniel stood face to face with Pascal, who was less than 5 centimeters away from him, opening his mouth "A-ARRRRGHHHHHH!!" Pascal violently ate Daniel's right eye alongside the bone fragment of the skull containing it; gulping down all of the contents "T-T-T-T-hat's W-W-W-W-hat Y-Y-Y-Y-ou G-G-G-G-et!" Pascal relentlessly taunted Daniel, who was screaming his mind out, as he put his right hand on his right side of his face, feeling a rupture as well as failing to see from the right eye "Jajajaja!! That's nasty!" Andre alongside the other remaining laughed at Daniel's misery, going as far as pointing fingers at him "Deserved, ya brat! Have a fuckin' taste of your medicine!" Ferdinand was jumping high and low with cigar burning out on the tip of his lips.

Everyone but Daniel was in a festive mood, sharing laughs after laughs. As for Daniel, the worst had yet to come as Pascal had finished chewing Daniel's right eye and the bone fragments.

"B-B-B-B-reak I-I-I-I-s O-O-O-O-ver!" Pascal opened his mouth again winding up for the feast once again and Daniel, while still able to see from one side, decided to take action "FUCK OFF, CLOWN!" Daniel, out of his wits' desperation, attempted to grab Pascal by the hair with his right hand, but this didn't work out in his favor as Pascal unleashed a launching bite at Daniel's right shoulder instead of going for the face "AAAARRRRRRRGGGHHHHHH!!!" Daniel cried out once more, feeling another pain pressure point appearing.

Laughs roared loudly as Daniel's shoulder was ripped off to the right side of the bottom of the throne, as well as Daniel's right arm and hand along with it. Pascal jumped from Daniel to the entire arm laying on the mud.

"AARRRRGGGHHHHH!! A-AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!" Daniel's cry didn't stop and only increased "Go for the whole body, ya brat!" Ferdinand ordered Pascal "Chop off his dick next!" Andre proposed as well "The other eye, let's make the bitch blind!" Yet another comment about what part of Daniel should Pascal take next was made.

Instead of eating Daniel's part, Pascal, with the arm on his mouth---biting the wrist of the arm in order to carry it---went back to Jorge, to everyone's surprise.

"Brat's damn loyal! Returning the prize to the owner, brings a tear to my eye!" Ferdinand congratuled Pascal on his return "Now hurry up and get your ass in there! Bitch hasn't stopped fucking screaming! Hey, SHUT UP RETARD!" Andre shouted to the crying Daniel, who was not only terrified beyond his wits but trembling at an abnormal rapid pace "...Pascal...?" As Pascal paused the arm on the muddy terrain, Jorge noticed that something was off about Pascal "P-P-P-P-ascal N-N-N-N-eeds M-M-M-M-ore..." Pascal began to stop emitting an orange light from his eyes as the aura disappeared as well "...What...? Pascal, your..." Jorge's voice seemingly increased in a nervous manner as he looked towards Daniel on his throne.

Pascal then fell on his knees, unable to get up, starting to bleed out an orange liquid from his nose, gathering the attention of everyone present, except the agonizing Daniel.

"Brat! What's gotten into you?! Hurry up and finish him, damn it!" Ferdinand insisted "P-P-P-P-ascal N-N-N-N-eeds M-M-M-M-ore!" Pascal repeated himself twice "What?! Jorge, what's the damn deal?!" Ferdinand asked Jorge, who was in deep thought "...I don't think blood's the only thing it can suck..." Jorge remarked and Ferdinand got the message immediately "No goddamn fuckin' way... Ain't no damn way that's possible!" Ferdinand refused to believe as he took five steps back in panic "...Pascal never necessitated another drop of Mania substance before, there's no doubt about it!" Jorge also took a step back "Fuckin' hell, just give him another one, tell me you keep a back up one!" Ferdinand prayed that Jorge had another substance that he could give to Pascal.

With a reluctant yet ascertain movement, Jorge didn't took out the baby bottle but instead, he took out a syringe from his back pocket. Then, he kneeled down to Pascal with a painful look.

"This is going to hurt a bit..." Jorge warned Pascal "I-I-I-I-t's A-A-A-A-lright, P-P-P-P-ascal I-I-I-I-s A-A-A-A-a S-S-S-S-trong B-B-B-B-oy." Pascal said, resisting the pain from the syringe despite the fact that Jorge only injected Pascal with 20% of the substance within the syringe.

Now with his eyes glowing orange once more, Pascal was ready to go yet Jorge took a moment and turned around toward Ferdinand with the syringe on the edge of his face's left side.

"Don't tell Diego about this..." Jorge looked ready to kill Ferdinand were he to go against his request to which Ferdinand happily abliged to after swallowing all of his saliva "I get it, damn brat... Not a word from me..." Ferdinand closed his eyes "Many thanks...!" With his two hands united, Jorge stabbed the central part of his brain, piercing it with all of his force until he couldn't anymore, causing a sanguine eruption and lastly, Jorge injected all of the remaining orange liquid substance into his brain "AARRRGGGHHH!!!" Jorge screamed his lungs out, losing all sort of strength for a second as well as falling on his knees.

Subsequently, Ferdinand, Andre, and the remaining ones started to back off as Ferdinand told them to stay away and get away from the vicinity as far as they could. A dark orange began to emit from Jorge's pierced point of his head as he took off the syringe; throwing it on the ground full force. Soon after, the liquid of his head which was previously blood gained the color of orange and spread throughout his body, illuminating it all around.

Daniel watched them as they approached rather slowly as they didn't need to walk.

".....Damn it...." Daniel cried out "Damn it, damn it, damn it." This time, Daniel wasn't as desperate but instead more angry "It's fucking useless if the blood isn't sucked out... What a useless power..." Daniel continued to talk to himself, having given up; accepting the result.

Midst this, a line was created once again towards Jorge and Pascal, which just contributed more to Daniel's hopelessness as he watched the brain box not being filled with any blood; thus he could not recover like he had previously. Not only that, but Daniel was blind from one-eye, had his skull partially ripped off, and didn't have his right arm.

Ultimately, Jorge and Pascal began to come into contact with Daniel as they were closer to him now.

"Pascal, now---!" Jorge ordered as he prepared to unleash the finisher on Daniel---who wasn't even looking---only with his head down; having lost all hope "N-N-N-N-eed M-M-M-M-ore!" Pascal demanded as he fell on the ground; the line from the throne no longer being attached to Pascal from the underground "PASCAL!" Jorge screamed in despair "K-K-K-K-ill H-H-H-H-im!" Pascal pointed his finger at Daniel, saying that the problem lies ahead.

Daniel thought about how he could fight back in this situation, despite the odds, but in the end he gave up, again, cursing the power from being useless. Having lost so much blood and without any blood to recover from the brain box, Daniel started to close his eyes; accepting his defeat.

Suddenly, Daniel began to feel an increasingly warm sensation on his back and while still able to see from one eye, he noticed that the throne's connecting veins started to emerge from the angles of the eye cavities; spreading all over the throne with the color of orange---flowing just like volcanic lava. Daniel started to feel even warmer to the point of escalating to burning temperatures and Jorge and Pascal couldn't help but back off from their position with a high jump at least 5-10 meters back.

"A-AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Daniel screamed as he felt like he was being burned down by the volcanic throne's veins; his body started to melt as well "Holy smokes, what the fuck?! Dude's burning himself up!" Andre laughed but no one else did after what they saw next.

Daniel's frontal hair gained three spikes, one pointing towards the left side, one to the right, and ultimately a central one. Furthermore, his eyes turned completely pitch black as the throne stopped burning at those temperatures and instead projected the accumulated substance it had been absorbing from Jorge and Pascal to both sides of the throne where Daniel's arms are constantly being supported. On the zone where the hands are supposed to be placed, Daniel's left hand---the only one remaining was captured by a living hand with a strong grip.

"HUH?!" Daniel couldn't hide his terror at the sight of that uncanny skinny cryptic black hand with a conjunction of orange veins all over its anatomy.

His hand began to immediately melt from an absurdly hot liquid substance within the left wing of the throne, causing Daniel to scream out of his lungs again. All the others, confused by what was happening didn't know what to do. For one, Jorge and Pascal didn't want to approach Daniel due to what was previously seen for them. Ferdinand and the rest are completely useless as they also can't get close. But, seeing the opportunity, Jorge decided that it was time, while Daniel was being put through a trial of suffering from his unknown power.

"Time to finish this..." Jorge kneeled down and in sequence placed his palm on the muddy floor, making a sound on the ground appear "Goddamn it, let's move it, that shit always manages to hit home, ya brats!" Ferdinand backed off even further alongside the rest to a safer area in the slums while still being able to watch the action from afar "...Pascal..." Jorge spoke to Pascal, low on Mania without any motivation to act on his right side "G-G-G-G-ot I-I-I-I-t!" Pascal went for his two eyes and grabbed them like softballs, handing them to Jorge after piercing them with full force.

Jorge took both of the slimy eyes and ate them without a slight of hesitation. Then as that happened, the roar on the ground emerged, causing a rupture within. A creature began to crawl out of the depth of the earth all the way towards Jorge and Pascal. This creature containing four gigantic legs---four meters each---alongside its battle carpace amounted to a 10 meter tall cockroach, that attempted to devour Pascal on the first try, but Pascal's stomach began to open up, much to everyone's confusion.

"P-Pascal?! W-----" The monstrous cockroach that had been summoned from the underground by Jorge swallowed him as Pascal's body was being magnetized towards Daniel's throne "Hey, hey, hey!! The damn arm is moving boss!!" Andre called out to Ferdinand as he saw that Daniel's arm was being retracted towards the throne where Daniel was now holding onto a new object "Pascal's bursting up, fuckin' hell! Oh hell no, I ain't sticking around to find this shit out! Damn cockroach's making me throw up, gah!" Ferdinand started to retreat "W-Wait!" Andre and the other didn't hesitate to follow along.

With screams of agony, the little Pascal's stomach was not only being pulled all the way to Daniel's throne, but a forceful sentry was being forced as the stomach began to open up; ultimately returning the contents in it to its rightful owner as the intestines spread all over. Only after that was done, would the cockroach eat Pascal as an offering. Now fully operational, the cockroach would be assumed control by Jorge, as the body, despite being inside the cockroach, was the ultimate conductor.

Therefore, with rapid precision, Jorge's cockroach went full on commando with the capture of Daniel.

"?!" Jorge noticed something through the cockroach's vision---two semi-large orange-glowing dices were laid out on the ground, close to Daniel's throne, reflecting the result of 8, one dice containing the number 5 while the other the number of 3.

Eight swords of different colors emerged from the sky at full speed and began to circle around Daniel's throne, but Jorge thought nothing of this and simply started to eat Daniel's throne. Once done, Daniel was now visible to Jorge, who was piloting the cockroach from the top of its brain. He descended and went down to the part of the stomach through a mental teleport as it came alongside with his power. Now on the stomach where an acid pool enough to devour anyone except its user was constantly swirling around, did Jorge come face to face with Daniel, who had regained his previously lost right arm alongside with his right side of the upper face, although still regenerating through the orange liquid that was now fueling from the inner throne.

However, Daniel alongside the throne, quickly warped elsewhere, completely exiting the inner of the cockroach's body; also---Daniel did flash a silent smile to Jorge, sparking not only a taunt but mild confusion.

"What?! He can do that?!" Jorge mentally teleported to the top of the cockroach's brain assuming full cargo again, and saw Daniel on the same exact spot, this time getting up from the throne; no longer bound to it, with eight swords warping around his figure.

Furthermore, Daniel invited Jorge out to play with a singular hand-movement telling him "Come on out" without saying it. But, despite feeling irritated and taunted by this, Jorge wanted to finish this quickly, so he charged straight to Daniel's throne, raised the right claw; with the intention of getting rid of the throne instead of going straight towards Daniel. To this, Daniel looked exactly where the cockroach's obscure eyes were; snapped his right fingers and was instantly teleported as soon as the snap ended; rapidly slashing the cockroach's two eyes with utmost precision------choosing a purple-haze sword midst the rotation around him to do the job.

"AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" Jorge screamed in agony as he couldn't see; his eyes now completely tarnished and blind as the damage dealt to the creature summoned is immediately transferred to its user.

Nevertheless, Daniel's onslaught didn't stop, as he snapped his fingers mid-air while falling down to the ground below---looking in the direction of cockroach's legs below, despite the vision of such being blocked by the head of the cockroach itself; however, Daniel was able to teleport to the location where the cockroach's upper frontal legs were visible to him and delivered a slash, this time using a different sword as with the previous slash, the sword used for that attack turned to ashes. The sword this time was still on the same size as the others; possessing roughly 60 centimeters, and was branded in pure sanguine red which was ultimately the finishing point of the cockroach's right leg.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!" Jorge received yet another injury, this time his right leg was cut off, leaving only the small top of it "I-I gotta get out of here...!!" He said, while on the top of the brain, tumbling all over "Pascal, reverse!" He ordered out loud and the cockroach began to lose form, leaving Jorge to fall on the ground from a 10 meter fall "A-AHH!" The fall caused him damage and Pascal, despite having his stomach open; carrying his intestines around his belly, hanging.

However, Pascal's head was ripped off by the neck by a flying white sword---resembling the white of a stark solar star. As he saw Pascal's tiny head falling down to the ground, its eyes looking at Jorge with no life in it, Jorge was lost at words as he started to hear subsequent steps from Daniel. He could've said something toward Daniel, but Jorge understood at that moment that the person he was dealing with and the person, the entity before him now, with still five swords rotating around him---are not the same.

"⋔⟒⎅⟟⍜☊⍀⟒." Daniel conjured the remaining five swords all toward Jorge, piercing him from all sides; leaving the brain area untouched and completely clean above else.

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Not wanting to stick around to find out more, Ferdinand, Andre alongside with the rest and a couple more, ran for their lives as they didn't want to find out what had happened. Thus, with the afternoon sun on their vision mirror, they climbed the asphalt road, hoping to get away. They started to feel like the path would never end as it was one of the ways out of slums yet for some reason, they couldn't seem to grasp the top, no matter how much they walked.

"B-Boss? Is it just me or?!" Andre spoke out midst that heat of the moment "What now, brat?! Just keep walking!" Ferdinand ignored what was happening "No, but we have been walking! As a matter of damn fact, running!" Robert spoke in a rushed manner as they all kept on running up but unable to reach the top despite clearly seeing it just ahead.

On the top of the road, right at the bridge's right entrance, at the beginning of the asphalt, a person came out of a white limousine. He took a few steps forward and Ferdinand, alongside the others, halted their tracks to pay respects; however this person refused to enter the same vicinity as them.

"S-Sir! We've been waiting for you!" They all unanimously said "Why though? As far as I can tell, you're not doing your job, so what exactly are you waiting for? Some kind of reward?" Diego spoke in a cold told, as Alice came out from the left wing of the limousine, joining him at his side "S-Sir..." Ferdinand stepped forward "Jorge hasn't sent any confirmation about his victory and..." Ferdinand was trying to imply something "And?" Diego, uncaring, didn't show mercy "H-He's too strong, we can't even approach him! His damn throne sucks the blood of anyone near it! No way that brat Jorge actually pulled it off! What the living heck are we dealing with here?!" Ferdinand explained the hopelessness of the situation "Can I?" Alice asked Diego while lighting up his cigarette "No." He denies her, taking hold of the cigarette, to her displease "Tch." She clicked her tongue.

Diego took a look to where Daniel currently is and noticed that there were lines tracing all the way back to Ferdinand and the rest. Furthermore, he noticed that Daniel had regained his previous lost body parts; as well as the throne that began to eat Daniel, just like before. In addition, Diego from afar also saw Pascal and Jorge's head open as well as the top of their heads, namely the brains completely taken away.

"Interesting power he has..." Alice noted, as she saw Daniel being warped somewhere else "I agree. A shame, because the order was to get the brain back, but at this rate..." Diego this time allowed Alice to light up his cigarette "You guys." Diego looked towards Ferdinand and the rest "Oh Christ, not this shit again..." Ferdinand exhibited an exasperated expression as he took out a mini-gun and pointed at his head "Always a pleasure..." Andre declared with a smile, doing the same alongside with the remaining ones; all guns now being pointed at their brains from the lateral side.

Multiple gunshots were heard that afternoon which alerted people from afar yet no one dared to check out of fear.

"You really didn't want them to leave, huh..." Diego took a deep smoke as he watched Ferdinand and the others gunning themselves down "They are not loyal to you as much as I would like to, so it's necessary... But still..." Diego lit up her cigarette respectively and allowed her to continue "What's the idea here?" She asked, now going to the edge of the bridge gazing at the battlefield of corpses "What do you mean?" Diego didn't understand completely what Alice meant, plus, he started to walk alongside her "His ability practically makes him immortal, doesn't it? How are you supposed to beat that?" Alice didn't shy away from the obvious "Immortal doesn't mean invincible." Diego simply said.

Alice looked at Diego in doubt, but smiled after a single second, having realized something. She took one last smoke before completely throwing the cigarette away down the bridge.

"Well, if you're going with what I think you're going for, then... I still don't see how it works, but you surprise me every time, so..." She shrugged, facing Diego, ultimately giving him a deep kiss on the lips "Shiuld be a singed, con certeza." Diego takes out a mini-gun from the backside of his pants' belt "Date prisa." Diego shoots her on the head without hesitation, letting her body fall over.

Afterward, fifteen limousines started to pile up on the road of the bridge, gathering the attention of everyone present that was walking in the bridge; not a single person decided to walk any further as the event itself was something that they had never witnessed. From each white limousine, 20 members would exit from each one, massing 300 present members. Furthermore, 5 helicopters came raining down from above, each containing 10 members, thus making 350 in total. In addition to this, two buses additionally arrived at the same time, each containing 50 members, therefore more 100. Lastly, from the asphalt road below, a horde of 50 members arrived; being successful in their climb this time around. Ultimately, all 500 members, all wearing a white suit with a red tie, lined up at the frontal side of the bridge; occupying both sides of the road.

"Mommy, what's happening?" A curious child, alongside a horde of members asked his mother "There must be a festival happening, maybe a march?" She suggested with a smile on her face.

Multiple assumptions were made but the members present didn't flich their eyes from the central figure. Men and women both present, paid respects to their leader once all were aligned with a synchronized bow, impressing the masses in the side lines of the bridge where pedestrians can walk.

"Sir!" They saluted, creating a symphonic vibration within the air "I'll keep it simple." Diego said, looking mainly at the first row of members, where the squad leaders are all centered yet spoke to all present, despite the distance "A thief is hiding in the midst as he has stolen something of utmost importance to the main goal. One of the brains is in his possession. I don't know how he did it or how it got delivered to him, but he's an obvious threat and a hindrance to the cause as he is NOT one of us. He is to be put down at all costs. I don't need to say who he is, once he passes you, you will know. However, don't expect to win. He's just like me in that sense, but that's nothing for you, so, let's go." Diego finished, and while doing so, all of the present members took out their mini-guns and pointed at their heads.

Unwavering, after saying collectively "For Apex!" they all shot themselves in the head; thus making 500 dead bodies in a single instant as they all crumbled.

The side screams played a part as every single pedestrian began to run for their lives after the consecutive gunshots.

Lastly, Diego sighed, took out his mini-gun; pointing it towards his head while saying, "For Apex" ultimately shooting himself.