The hesitation from the fear of what would come next. Combined with the distraction of that woman using her gift at the worst possible moment, caused Aaron to be unable to react when he got punched by one of the men charging the group. He couldn’t even get up as the people behind him started to fumble around in panic, pushing him over and causing him to fall to the ground.

“What are you all doing? We need to fight!” Leon called out, as he took his place as the leader of the group by taking three of the men on at once. But Aaron knew that was a mistake. He could see the man who killed Leon in the last timeline in the trio, and Leon was falling back.

Almost stumbling as he tried to return to standing, Aaron couldn’t help but feel the adrenaline coursing through him. He did nothing in the past, but he had to salvage the situation here! Even if it was his fight or flight response finally realizing he could only fight, Aaron rushed towards Leon, only to be punched in the face again by a man he didn’t see.

This punch was hard enough that Aaron once again fell to the ground, his head slamming into the hard stone. But instead of being able to react, he found his assailant sitting on top of him. “Not so tough now!” He announced as he punched Aaron’s head to the side, to see what he had hoped he wouldn’t need to see again.

Leon was pushed to the wall, and just like last time, a glowing green fist slammed into the man’s head. A sickening crunch could be heard as Leon’s defensive boosted body popped like a grape. Spreading brain matter and blood across the wall.

Aaron couldn’t see any more about the aftermath of the man he wished to save, as he got another punch in the jaw, sending him looking in the other direction, where he could see the legs moving in the direction where his group was.

“M-mercy!” He cried out, turning back to the man who punched him a few more times before raising his fists over his head..

“Your bitch killed my brother. Now I’m going to get revenge. I’ll kill you, and rape her.” The man said, his eyes full of malice and glee… for about half a second, as what could only be described as a brown flash appeared in Aaron’s vision before the man’s head fell onto Aaron’s chest, and the blood began to spurt.

To say that Aaron was shocked was an understatement. His brain had completely stalled as the body fell lifeless onto him. and he grew progressively covered in blood.

“Get up! We’ve got others to save!” A voice that caught Aaron off guard announced, causing him to jerk up and look in her direction. An Asian woman holding a wooden sword was already advancing on the group that had scattered at the conflict. Just hearing the cries, Aaron could tell that the men were having a blast hunting down the runners.

What was Mia Akari doing here? Aaron didn’t remember Henric’s group running into the gang during the first trial. Almost absentmindedly, he forced the body off himself and tried to stumble towards Mia, only for him to be caught by a hand right before he fell over from a bout of dizziness.

Hang in there, kid. Your eyebrows are already starting to look bruised. Let us deal with these shits.” An older man said. His bald head seemed to almost shine despite the darkness as he walked forwards. This was really Henric’s team… Aaron looked around to find the young man who had helped him all that time ago.

What he found disappointed him. He was placed into a group with those who couldn’t easily defend themselves and he couldn’t find his hero anywhere. “Have any of you seen a henric? He was near me before this whole thing went down and I’m sure he would have joined the trial.” Aaron called out, trying to make up a lie to see if anyone knew whether something had happened to henric or not.

“No idea what you’re talking about. We’re here to back up the fighters.” Another man Aaron recognized appeared. Frederic. He became the cook of the resistance group Henric had set up. Making sure everyone was fed and happy when meal time came about.

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“Too bad for me. My group came up against a gang and was destroyed. I could hardly do anything before we were overrun.” Aaron stated, getting a few chuckles from everyone.

“We can see that. You look like you stuck your face in a punching bag for a few rounds.” Frederick replied. “Name’s Frederick Garson. Hopefully you can find a good support role with us. The world will probably be in deep shit when we return. So some of us are going to need to do logistics.”

Aaron only smiled and shook the man’s hand. “My name is Aaron. Nice to meet you.” Only after the greeting did the fact he gave no family name cross Aaron’s mind. But not only did the man accept it, it seemed, Frederick didn’t find it weird that Aaron had no last name.

Things settled down until the advance group returned. Everyone from Aaron’s old group was thrown into the support segment as they advanced. That was fair as all the fighters died during the brief conflict before Mia killed Aaron’s assailant.

They soon arrived at the center of the maze, where they were greeted by another group of explorers, who had their numbers cut down to 10. The fact that only half of them made it to the center made it clear that they were rushing to make it to the center.

“Back off!” the man in the lead of the other group yelled. “We’re taking control of the world core.” Seriously, did everyone just decide that being a prick was fine? How was it that the people Aaron met during the first trial were pricks other than the group Henric… should have been a part of.

What caught Aaron’s eye though, wasn’t the giant orb in the middle of the room. Nor was it the growing conflict that was likely to throw him into an unknown situation again, but a haze to the left side of the circular chamber. It’s energy seemed so familiar, it seemed to draw Aaron in as his still somewhat weak mind pushed him to touch the haze. He stumbled forward with all the ambulatory ability as before, the occasional bouts of dizziness not helping. But as he reached the haze, the thing seemed to move towards his hand.

[Shattered soul has offered you the gift of need]

[gift of need: To ask for something and give nothing is the sign of a power that hasn’t developed. Attune aspects to the gift of need in order to strengthen the soul.]

The words confused Aaron, but the soul seemed to understand slightly what his desires were because a new screen popped up.

[Soul Brand

Name: @%$%$#(*&

Status: shattered, close to fading entirely.

Soul power: corrupted

No body detected.]

Seeing this caused Aaron to think of Henric. The man had died, and not only that, forced Aaron to take the power that was the reason he had become ascended. What if Aaron’s wish tore the power from Henric and caused his soul to be in such a shattered state?

With this in mind, Aaron accepted the gift. Even if this wasn’t Henric, restoring a soul would be helpful, since it was hard to have a powerful soul in the universe. From the fact that Leon didn’t have a soul after he died, it was likely that a soul was an evolved ego, like everything else evolved in this world.

[Bonding to an ascended soul has reduced the decay of the shattered soul.]

Too bad Aaron’s next thoughts were filled with unintelligable sounds and visuals. It seemed the shattered soul’s communication was as shattered as it was, and he was having trouble dealing with it.

[A soul of Motherhood is touched by your generosity and gives you the gift of translation]

As soon as the gift was given, the emotions stopped, and a screen appeared.

[The shattered soul is excited by your acceptance of it’s gift.]

That caused Aaron to smile gently as he realised he was kneeling on the ground. This thing acted like a kid. He might as well treat it like one.

“Are you okay?” Aaron heard Mia ask form his side, keeping an eye on the group on the opposite side of them. “Yeah, sorry part of my gift.”