I am the Only Son of Nyx

Ixos was soothing. Nature was maintained in here, and it grew splendidly.

Only when the Blood Rite happened did its silent embrace shift. Trees, boulders, and the river—the hands of superhuman fighting for survival stained all. Blood for the duration of the rite became the soil’s fertilizer.

But the loud noise of battle only prevailed in the early and middle part of the rite.

Now, the rite is close to its inevitable ending.

And Ixos had forgotten to sleep. Before the night descended and the unseeable phantoms that lived on the periphery came, Ixos had been a chorus of insects, growling animals, and the light rustle of wind through old pines.

None of that was present now.

It was eerily quiet tonight, like the calm before the storm.

All survivors of Team Coeus huddled in the dark like sheep sensing the shadow of a wolf.

Even though there was no trail of a wolf nearby, their guts told them otherwise. Their fearful eyes kept wandering through the spaces between the trees and bushes where the darkness was a bit too thick.

Bob pressed his back against the rough bark, counting his heartbeats to distract his mind.

Beside him, Sera’s eyes were fixed on the hole they had dug fifteen minutes ago, where Moren, the student tasked to keep the area safe, should be. He was nowhere to be found. Even when she walked around to find him, there was no sign of him.

He simply... disappeared.

"He was here..." Sera whispered. Her voice hadn’t risen above a murmur for hours. "We were only gone for fifteen minutes. We had only gone to find the others—and rally them. We came back and—"

"We’re... We’re going to die..." Renn staggered backward and fell to his knees.

A dry laugh escaped his lips as he stared at the hole.

Bob was angry at what Renn was saying, but he couldn’t argue. Just over a week ago, Kai had been a Lesser Angel. Under everyone’s radar. He cried like a baby when his sister sacrificed herself so that he could survive.

Everyone saw it with their own two eyes.

Up until recently, none of them even realized the Lesser Angel was in this rite with them.

And then he came and took over the entire battlefield.

"He’s hunting us down," Renn cried profusely, hitting the ground with his hand weakly. Like it was even a waste to regret it now. "I should have stuck with Layra. I shouldn’t have agreed to betray her. I should’ve believed in her..."

"It doesn’t make any sense," Sera shook her head. She grabbed her dark hair with both hands and pulled. Even when her hair fell out, she didn’t care. "How did he find us? It doesn’t make any sense. Unless..."

Sera turned to Renn.

Her glassy eyes now bulged with anger and accusation.

Like a hound, she screamed and tackled Renn to the ground, grabbing him by the collar.

"You... You must’ve told him where we are!" She roared at him. Her hands wrapped around his neck and squeezed hard, deciding to kill him on the spot. "Keep your guilt to yourself! If you want to die, then die. Don’t bring me into this!"

Instead of backing down, Renn fought back.

He reached for her face and pressed his thumb into her eye, trying to carve her eyeball out.

Both of them wrestled on the ground like two feral animals.

"Fuck them," Bob looked at the two and decided to leave. They were making too much noise, and it wouldn’t take long before they would be caught and killed. "Better to find a way out of this damn forest."

Cutting through the bushes with his machete, Bob made steady progress forward.

His eyes were open for any exit.

But ten minutes in, when he was far away from the others already, he stopped.

"An exit...?" he muttered. Then a sound escaped him—something that began as a chuckle but quickly swelled into full, unhinged laughter. He pressed a hand to his face, his fingers digging into his skin as the sound poured out of him. "An exit? I must be a moron. This is the Blood Rite. There is no exit. It’s either win or die."

He laughed louder.

Even though he had been trying to keep his mind in check, the fear got to him.

In the face of death, a man could fall into the depths of madness.

And it seemed he had one foot into that depth.

However, a man could also claw out of that depth with the bravery of the heart. Bob blinked and shook his head, "I am not dead." His eyes narrowed into focus. "My heart is still beating. As long as I still draw breath, I can still try to survive."

Bob looked around at the trees. Bushes. Shadows.

His instinct to survive produced more adrenaline in his veins, amplifying his senses.

Every inch of his body was burning. It made him feel more alive than ever.

This could work. This could help him survive.

Even though being in this forest surrounded by nothing but trees made him feel exposed, he could still find shelter. Somewhere in Ixos, there should be a place that even the Phantom will not find.

"I can still beg Layra," He nodded firmly. "I can still get her pity as long as I can reach her."

Now, with a purpose in mind, Bob made his way back.

Sera and Renn are still his classmates, and he wanted to help them.

Mindset and intent changed everything. The dark forest doesn’t seem as scary as it was a few minutes ago. And with bravery in his heart, Bob felt like he could take down anything as long as he put his mind into it.

He arrived back at the hiding place, pushing over bushes, and then stopped.

It is exactly as he left it earlier.

A small clearing. At its far edge, a hole had been dug into the earth. Scuffle marks scarred the soil, and faint stains of blood lingered where Sera and Renn had wrestled. Everything else was exactly as it had been. Exactly the same.

Just that, Sera and Renn are gone.

Nowhere to be found. Gone exactly like Moren did.

Like ice melting under the harsh sun, Bob’s bravery melted from his heart.

His body became cold again as the chill of death persisted. And though he had been keeping his heart and mind in check, tears drizzled down his cheek—as the machete slipped from his fingers, as if it had suddenly become too heavy to wield.

"Kai..." he called out a name as more tears dropped to his cheeks.

"How is your walk? Is it good?" A voice seeped into Bob’s ears, and it came directly from his right. From his periphery, he could see a phantom rising up from the ground. It had always been there, but he didn’t see it. "Your friends are loud, but they died silently. I appreciate that about them. You’re silent. I wonder whether you’d be their opposite."

Bob saw the phantom approach slowly.

Even as it walked, there was no sound coming from its footsteps.

Instinctively, Bob wanted to turn, but a cold hand stopped his head from turning.

"Ssh..." the Phantom stood directly behind him. "Keep looking ahead."

"P-Please..." Bob began to sob. His shoulders were shaking from the fear that had gripped him like an iron hand. "I still want to live..."

"Don’t say that, Bob. You’re the one who tortured the captured students from Team Hyperion. Own it. Accept your death like they did when they died by your hands."

"I-I had no other choice. I had no other choice, really."

At this point, Bob had already thrown away all his pride. He was crying hideously. Tears mixed with snot as he tried to beg for his life. To be given a chance to make right of his wrongs. But that chance was already out of his hands.

"Stop crying," the Phantom whispered. "Look ahead. Can you see the Oxspire near that tree?"

Even through the blur from his tears, Bob could see it.

A single Oxspire. Its leaves were glowing green beautifully against the darkness of the night.

He never realized how beautiful an Oxspire really was until this point.

Until he knew that this Oxspire is the last thing he’s going to see before his life ended.

"I see it..." He said through sobs.

"I want you to describe it to me, Bob," the Phantom whispered and moved back. "Describe it in detail."

"I don’t want to die..."

"Just look at the Oxspire. Look at it and describe it to me."

More tears poured out, but eventually, Bob forced out the words as he stared at the Oxspire.

"It’s... It’s like a green needle pushed into the dirt. I-I can see through the stem a little because of the glowing leaves. Like it’s made of colored glass, or ice, or something that shouldn’t be alive."

"Good. Keep going."

Slowly, the Phantom took one step backward and grabbed Ian by his nape.

Its touch was gentle.

But even when darkness began to climb onto his legs, Bob didn’t realize it. His attention was completely fixated on the Oxspire. He was enthralled in the moment because of its lustrously beautiful glow.

"It’s beautiful. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and I hate it. It doesn’t care that I’m crying. It doesn’t care about anything. It’s just glowing. Just glowing like it always has. Like it always will. After everything. After me."

Acceptance settled in.

Bob wiped the tears from his face, though more replaced the ones he wiped.

He could feel the coldness of death already reach his waist, but that didn’t bother him.

"It’s just a plant. It’s just a stupid, glowing plant, and I can’t stop looking a—"

Out of nowhere, his sentence was cut short. He tried to finish his sentence, but he couldn’t. It seemed the coldness had already reached his neck, and the time for him to scream, to curse, to cry was already past.

And as he was devoured. Life didn’t flash before his eyes.

He remembered that during the orientation, he had mocked the Lesser Angel for crying.

For weeping from the death of a family that he couldn’t stop.

And then Ian remembered the students, his own classmates, whom he had tortured in order to appease Team Coeus. Like him now, all of them had begged to stop. Begged for another chance. Begged to spare them from this barbarity. Begged to spare their lives.

But he continued.

No matter what they said, he continued ruthlessly.

Now, he knew exactly how it felt.

Like him, the Phantom didn’t show him any mercy even when he begged or cried.

But unlike him, who inflicted as much pain as possible on his own classmates to survive, the Phantom didn’t. His death wasn’t painful. It felt like going to sleep after a tiring day. The only difference is that he knew he wouldn’t wake up ever again.