Chapter 275: The Fifteenth Day
The Great Maker... she!
Who is she, and did she really create the system?... I’d thought about this before and read a lot of old books, but I didn’t find any thread.
And the other thing, protected by her remains... so there’s something protecting us from the outside.
I always knew there were other creatures in the universe, as it was mentioned that Elliot is blessed by one of them, which is why he’s a cheater like he is now... at least that’s what I remember before I died.
And at some point, the thought came to me that maybe it’s one of the First Ones... and maybe not, who knows.
"Huh... what a mystery."
...
[Auerlion] [Points: 460 — Islands: 9]
[Erebus] [Points: 340 — Islands: 5]
[Luminar] [Points: 420 — Islands: 7]
[Solaria] [Points: 700 — Islands: 7]
By the fifteenth day the paths of the four groups had started narrowing, ready to cross at some point... not that they hadn’t crossed already.
With every delegation losing a part of itself, whether at the hands of the monsters or the earlier clashes, the struggle over the lower islands had ended.
Nobody wanted to exhaust themselves anymore for a few small points, especially Erebus who’d taken a slap in the face.
During this time, they gathered on one of the fourth level islands with Theo who’d come back broken, and who’d been gripping his platinum hair and crumpling it the day he heard about what Silas did to them.
Theo Arlin, the boastful and eccentric content creator, wasn’t a fan of teamwork... but even so he still feels incredibly stupid.
It’s not like not telling the others about his goal through the messages was just a childish move full of arrogance, no... of course not.
He just didn’t want the other delegations to see his precise movements by taking over someone’s bracelet, like he did with Auerlion... and like Silas did.
Of course, this move wasn’t absolute, because after the bracelet’s owner gets eliminated or moves too far from it it’ll stop working, so they had to keep their enemies close by to use this as a way to get information.
Unfortunately, Theo’s plan didn’t work, and he almost turned into pieces in the meat grinder that gray-haired girl made.
He was a hair away from winning... with Caius Astroweild kneeling in front of him, all he needed was to stab him and he’d eliminate one of Solaria’s most important pillars, and after that dealing with his team would be easy.
"Unfortunately, life doesn’t give you what you want, sir... she’s not one of your followers, and she obviously doesn’t like your content." Rita carried a plate of grilled meat and put it on the makeshift table in front of Theo, just a cut tree trunk with something like two chairs at its ends.
Theo sat on one of the chairs, his elbows on the table putting his head between his hands like someone mourning his debt-drowned life. "That’s not funny, Rita, you’re not helping, aren’t you supposed to be my assistant... why do I pay you then?"
The short girl rolled her eyes, and when she opened her mouth, it was obvious her tone was out of patience. "Please, oh great Theo! I’m not a therapist for you to dump all your great problems on, the ones even the ancient heroes wouldn’t be able to carry, so please spare me the stories about how you got beaten up over there and sent crying the whole way!"
Holding his head between his hands, Theo opened his mouth in disbelief at his companion’s unexpected outburst... she’d always been a neutral, calm person. "I... oh Rita, what’s wrong with you... are you sick, may—"
"Sick?... of course I’ll get sick!" Theo closed his mouth under Rita’s raised voice, pulling deeper into his chair like he was trying to disappear from here... as they say.
"You’ve been here for three days complaining over and over! The lack of cameras isn’t an excuse to record your misery using my head... damn it! Do you know how much I suffered while you were carrying out your great plan, only for your ass to get slapped and you sent the whole way down, oh and this is even after you used your trump card and made me carry you on my back... are you a maiden! Do you have any dignity?" Rita’s voice rose with every word until her cheeks turned red with anger.
Theo opened his mouth and closed it, then raised his finger and opened it again. "C... please, can I—"
"No!" The answer came cutting and beyond argument.
That’s when Theo lowered his hand, trying to hold back the imaginary tears in his eyes and grabbed the plate in front of him, taking a bite of the grilled meat and chewing it like it would bring his dignity back.
That’s when Rita sat across from him. "Hmph!"
....
Meanwhile the twin siblings were uniting their ranks somewhere else, an island of dark swamps... among the gray plants spread everywhere, the bubbles formed on the wet surface, and burst releasing the gases into the air... gases produced by every corpse this living swamp had devoured, breaking it down to become a part of it.
Far enough away near the edge, a big camp rose that housed dozens of people, most of them resting from the constant battles, while the conversations echoed with the clinking of cups and spoons.
"Wait, you didn’t see how he tried to escape... he jumped into the sky."
"No... it doesn’t matter, what I liked best was the look on those bastards’ faces."
"What matters is that we got back what we lost, guys."
Half of them were celebrating the destruction of a whole part of Erebus, happy with this achievement... but in one of the tents the mood wasn’t cheerful.
"Tsk... hmph..." Sounds full of annoyance echoed, someone clicking her tongue and letting out angry sighs every few seconds, unaware of her unconscious actions.
Silas raised his head from the big sheet on the table, looking at his sister on the other side, with her arms folded under her chest, she sat with one leg over the other, staring at the table like she was imagining it as another person, about to jump over it and smash it.
Silas shook his head with a neutral expression, before he put his focus back on the rough map of the Hanging Islands. "Five days... it’s over, you’d better stop this childish behavior."
Riven raised her sharp eyebrow. "Huh?... what’s wrong with you now? I’m not doing anything."
Silas didn’t answer, he had no desire to repeat this... on the first day his sister had been complaining and complaining without stopping about what happened to her, loaded with promises of revenge, then that turned into just resentful words, and now she’d started sitting like this, clicking her tongue like she’s answering someone inside her head in a scenario only she can see.
After a few moments of silence Riven uncrossed her legs, leaning on the table to stare at the map her brother had drawn. "So... what’s the plan?" Her voice was quiet, hesitant and shy, like this simple question counts as an insult to her dignity.
Silas leaned back in his chair without letting it slide. "Wow, my great sister... finally giving up her arrogance and deciding to take my opinion."
Riven rolled her eyes mockingly. "Come on, stop it... it’s not like I never listen to you; I listen to half the things you say."
It was Silas’s turn to raise his eyebrow. "Half?"
"Maybe less." Feeling her twin’s sharp looks, she couldn’t do anything but give a vague confession.
After a few moments of silence Silas sighed in surrender, staring at the map showing their positions, plus the position of every other group, estimating the size of the force on each island using the points, the bigger they were the stronger it was.
"Hmm... there’s no plan."
...
Meanwhile not everyone was busy planning, or treating their emotional and physical fractures, or even their spiritual ones... because they weren’t participants.
In a luxurious room the heavy, sweet smell of old wine rose, glimmering under the chandelier’s light inside a crystal glass placed on a mahogany desk... behind it sat a man with black hair and red eyes closer to the color of the wine in the glass.
With a sip of the beautiful liquid, Zen sank into his padded chair, his eyes scanning the projections being displayed in front of him right now, a live feed of what’s happening on some of the islands... not all of them of course.
Because he didn’t need to look at all of them... one was enough, exciting enough to make him not want to sleep tonight.