Chapter 11: The Gatekeeper.
Mykel sighed as he removed his suit and unbuttoned his shirt because he was covered in sweat. He used the bathroom inside the abandoned apartment to take a bath while the others were resting in a different room.
He dipped himself in the bathtub and looked at his status screen.
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Name: Mykel Alester
Level: 51
Condition: Healthy (Exhausted)
Blood Type: O
Age: 28
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Status:
Strength: 66
Agility: 49
Stamina: 57
Dexterity: 51
Vitality: 47
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Skill: [Adept (Lv.7)], [Dagger Mastery (Lv.10)], [Recovery (Lv.6)], [Pain Resistance (Lv.5)], [Bone Strengthen (Lv.8)], [Mind Stability (Lv.3)], [Steel Fist (Lv.2)]
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Mykel fell asleep in the bathtub, and he immediately felt like being dragged into the deep sea where he couldn't breathe. He tried to swim to the surface, but pale hands started to drag him further down into the darkness. He could hear giggles and frantic laughter from the darkness. When he looked down, he saw a pair of glowing yellow eyes. Those eyes were big enough that Mykel looked like an ant in between the eyes.
Mykel was petrified by it, and the eyes slowly grew larger and larger until he saw a dark red light below the eyes. It looked like a giant mouth, and screams could be heard from inside it. He couldn't resist and kept staring at it until suddenly a hand grabbed his left shoulder from behind.
"Father!" Elena shouted as she pulled Mykel up.
Mykel gasped for air and realized he was drowning in the bathtub which almost killed him. He was so sure that he was leaning on the bath, but someone or something was pushing him down into the water.
"Father, are you okay?" Elena helped Mykel get out of the bathtub. "Please don't do that again..." Elena said with a panicked expression.
Elena explained what had happened, and Mykel understood why she was so worried. He drowned himself for an hour and thankfully Elena noticed something was wrong on why he bathed for more than an hour. She gave Mykel CPR, but his bone was too strong and solid that it was hard to pump his heart. In the end, she managed to bring Mykel back.
Mykel still could see the tears under Elena's eyes and how red her eye sockets were. He then put on his trouser while Elena was trying to calm herself down.
"I wasn't trying to end my life there. Sorry to make you worried like that," Mykel gently patted Elena's head. "I was having nightmares for the past week, and it's getting worse every day," Mykel said as he sat down next to Elena and dried his hair and body.
Elena only hummed and still remembered Mykel's lifeless body in the bathtub. She never thought she would see something like that, and it scared her.
"What kind of nightmare?" Elena asked as she leaned her head over Mykel's shoulder.
"It's like someone is wanting me dead," Mykel answered and threw the towel away.
Mykel explained to Elena what had been happening to him and the threat by Mara and the Gods that shared the same name as her. Elena was surprised and never thought that Mykel was terrorized by them, but listening to his words, he wasn't really bothered by it, at least at that moment.
They both went silent after Mykel told Elena what he had been through, and it was just silence. Elena then glanced at Mykel's naked torso and the tattoos on his arms, back, and back. She stared at it for quite a while and got interested by them.
"Father, these tattoos, do they have any meaning to you? I haven't asked you this question before," Elena asked.
"They're mostly my unreachable desires and unforgettable regrets. They're not a reminder, but something that I want to put on my body rather than in my thoughts so I can focus on living my life," Mykel answered as he looked at the tattoos on his arms and hands.
"Did it work?" Elena asked.
"Not really," Mykel answered.
They both chuckled and laughed, but then Elena cleared her throat and looked at Mykel's body again. "Can I do it too?" Elena asked.
"Of course. You can do whatever you want to your body as long as you're not regretting it. Where do you want to ink your body?" Mykel asked.
"Here, and here," Elena answered as she pointed at her neck and her chest.
"Then I suggest you find a woman tattoo artist..." Mykel said since Elena was pointing at her cleavage and chest. "Anyway, everyone should have rested enough. We should go," Mykel continued as he put his shirt and suit on.
Mykel and the others left the apartment and went straight to a field that used to be a baseball field. The pilots and the chopper were there, but the pilots looked nervous because their next destination was Montana where the Minotaurus was.
"Mister Mykel, there's something that we would like to discuss," one of the pilots said.
"Don't worry. You don't have to land the chopper this time. Just make it low enough so we all can jump down safely," Mykel said before the pilot could utter their minds.
"But, we still need to stay to pick you all up if something bad happens," The other pilot said.
"You don't have to. You can leave us there and you can go back here. I'll contact you once we are done," Mykel answered.
Without further questions, the pilots started the engine, and they all flew to Montana. Mykel asked the coordinate with Richard during the flight of the Minotaurus, and the satellite captured where it was located. They knew where it was, but they didn't want to get too close to it for the pilots' safety.
The trip was a bit rough because the gargoyles were attracted by the sound of the engine and propellers. Gerrard alone was enough to stop the gargoyles from approaching by using the heavy machine gun and breaking their wings. He had similar skills from the novel that helped him aim and concentrate which was called [Improve Concentration].
"This is good enough, make it steady," Mykel said as he looked down. The ground was thirty meters from them, but he jumped down without hesitation and was followed by the others.
"I wish I'm awakened," The pilot said as he looked down and was amazed that Mykel and the others were fine even though they jumped from that height. "Let's leave. I don't like this place at all," he continued and turned the chopper around then left.
Gerrard looked around the hills and the river around him as he tried to concentrate so he could see and hear things that the others couldn't.
"I hear noises from over there," Gerrard said as he pointed to the south. "I'm not sure if it's the Gatekeeper or not though," Gerrard continued.
"There's no harm to check, let's go," Aurea said.
They went south, and the atmosphere changed drastically because they could feel the presence of the Gatekeeper. Since the Gatekeeper was like a Demon Lord in the novel, it was feared by other demons so there were no demons in the city. Gerrard suddenly raised his hand and everyone stopped moving and breathing.
"It's over there," Gerrard said quietly as he pointed at the forest on the hill.
"Well, try to call it," Rozan said.
Gerrard put his fingers in his mouth and started whistling so loudly that it rang in everyone's ears. They were covering their ears, and not long after that, they could feel the ground tremble.
"Here comes the big boy," Gunnar said as he tightened his grip on his shield and axe.
A giant demon that was as big as the hill slowly raised and showed its head with giant horns like a bull. It had four muscular human arms and two legs like a cow with its skin red as blood. It roared and toppled the trees and sent the birds flying in fear.
The Minotaurus' real name was the Gatekeeper, and there was a reason why they called it that. In the game that Mykel created, on each continent that existed in each world, he sent one Gatekeeper. The purpose of the Gatekeeper was to test the capability of the humans that existed there. If they could kill the Gatekeeper in a year, they passed the test and the real game would start soon after. If they couldn't kill it within two years, the Gatekeepers would open a gate that led into the Tower of Gehenna.
"Are you planning this from the beginning? To prematurely start the game even though those people are not prepared for this?" Aurea asked.
"That's right. We are going to open the gate in North America, and soon the other Gatekeepers on each continent will follow," Mykel answered.