Rip U Town

"You guys really are testing my patience," stated Arial angrily.

Then, as if teleporting, Arial was behind them with their heads flying off—neither could I see him get behind them nor did I notice him cutting their heads off.

Afterwards, he leaped back towards me without turning around—this time I could see him clearly take a big step, which launched him straight at me at ridiculous speed.

"Listen, Dantes, I have an important mission for you—in terms of difficulty, it's the hardest one you'll take in a long time, but in terms of importance, it's even higher up... it's all the way into the S tier."

Upon saying that, Arial disappeared, then from above I heard consecutive gushing explosions—seconds later, blood began raining from the sky.

I started looking up, but then from below he was talking yet again, "I induced coma on Xter and Ella—she's in a horrendous state and might even die, so you need to bring her, along with Xter, to the Im City as fast as possible."

This time, my eyes loathed the sight I witnessed upon glancing at Arial—Ella's limbless body was placed down, she was unconscious yet each of her breath screamed intense agony and difficulty. "E— Ella…" I voiced with a trembling voice, "how could this happen…"

Arial proceeded to cut me off, "there's no time to mourn or worry—these creatures are targeting us directly, seeking us out in an attempt to take our lives—some of them even make me struggle, so I can't have you remain here or you'll drag me down."

"I… see," I looked down and then walked up next to Ella's body.

Arial proceeded to strongly inhale and then raise his hand in front—a small cart abruptly appeared out of thin air; before I could even make any comment, I felt a gush of wind and somehow both Xter and Ella were already on the cart.

"Dantes, you're the only one with legs—there's no one else that can bring them to safety—I'm pretty sure I took out one of their leaders, so I'm being tracked down and thus can't go with you," Arial then glimpsed at me, "do you understand the responsibility? I need you to take them all the way back to the Im City—I'll obviously provide everything you'll need to survive until then."

I nodded my head—a sting of pain then breezed through my neck; I proceeded to lightly touch it using my only palm—it was messy and the way my imagination envisioned the injury made me really uncomfortable.

Arial's eyes were wide—his apprehension pierced straight through me—I wasn't in a good physical condition as well, but he had no choice but to rely on me in this unsightly predicament.

Subsequently, he materialized multiple pieces of paper; took out an ink quill which gleamed in shadows; began drawing something on them while they were flying mid-air; tilted his head back-and-forth multiple times in the process—he was deep in thought, from the look of it. 

Finally, he began holding his palm and then each of the paper pieces flew up on it, "I just made some spells for you—use the red ones on yourself once per day, meanwhile the green and orange ones on Xter & Ella once per day without missing even once under any circumstances."

"Umm…" uncertain about the process, Arial picked up on my confusion and added, "these note spells don't have any embedded MANA in them—they're sort of like framework for casting magic, which might seem impressive, but they're really frail and break after just one or two uses."

For some reason, I just wasn't processing what Arial was saying—my mind was blanked out and I perceived my surroundings fuzzily. I ended up nodding my head without understanding a thing.

"It's not like you don't have any MANA, Dantes—quite the opposite, actually, you're just not compatible with our Systems; around one per fifty people aren't and thus their notes end up burning up—next comes the process of high-level Players such as I to figure out their MANA types," upon going on a rampage of words that I couldn't understand, I managed to read the expression that Arial's bloodied up face had—he was confused as well and therefore realized the futility of his explanation.

He consequently started looking straight ahead instead of at me, "anyhow, it's time you go—take this compass, it'll point you straight in the direction of Im City; we're luckily just by the area that exits the Town—once you reach the walls, just lightly touch them and the rest will be history." 

With my mind being empty, I walked up to the cart and started pulling it using one hand.

"Oh, and you might run into some Players from Im City on the way—I sent out an assistance request, so if you do, tell them all the details you know about the situation."

After a moment of silence, Arial made an exhausted sigh which resulted in his aura rapidly changing, "I can't keep my composure any longer," he softly muttered. 

Then…

…he said just one thing that instantly sank deep into my brain…

…in a tone completely bereft of any life or sympathy…

"It's time to commit mass genocide and slaughter every single living being in this Town."

I stared at him for another few seconds before looking away and proceeding to walk—I was strangely compelled to act in a way that was unfamiliar to myself.

Quietly, I ended up whispering as I walked, "kill those piece of shits without mercy"; I was probably too far away for him to hear anything.

After a few minutes of dragging the cart, I stopped and checked the compass—that blasted me with the realization that I was genuinely out of it: I was going the wrong direction. The moment of clarity also made me tangibly feel Arial's aura—it was overwhelming and radiating nothing but malice.

I turned to the side and started dragging the cart yet again. Just ten minutes in, I was already out of stamina and consequently dropped down face-first to the ground.

While resting on the ground, my skin began crawling from the aura coming out from the Town—it wasn't just Arial, it was also the aura of many other unspeakable creatures.

I kept lying down for five minutes in that kind of uncomfortable position, then stood up and started dragging the thing again. Breathing heavily, this time I didn't stop even upon my stamina running completely out—I wanted to get as far away from the Town as possible; that was undeniably the only thing on my mind, at that particular time.