Chapter 9: Revelations
I just killed a powerful rival.
A territorial battle. Not just that, a battle that took a part of me with it; a battle against a powerful rival that pushed me to the edge of life and death than I've ever been before.
A battle that pushed me to my very limits, testing my endurance, sanity, and everything in between.
And yet, something had crossed into my domain, again.
So fast. Ruthless, without mercy.
'Survival of the fittest'. I thought darkly. 'It's not fair. It's just a fierce crucible that pounds you again and again, till you either die or... evolve'.
By now, I was more or less sure that it was the system that constantly push these new threats my way, a fierce and brutal crucible to make me stronger, to force me to evolve. The wild is wild, but not this wild.
The wild is dangerous, but not this dangerous.
This is something else.
This is the system.
The new invader? I didn't see it. Not exactly. But I felt it, like a ripple in the soil, a subtle shift in the breath of Echoterra itself.