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The Path of Nothingness

The higher world has its denizens comprised of the four elements: Life, Death, Space, and Time. The Four Nations who exemplified these Elements lived opposite one another, all dedicated to their particular element. War-torn for years, an outside threat, the Beasts, caused them to come together, but it was too late. Internal strife and differences caused too many differences and they couldn't mount a proper defense. The nonsensical monstrosities overran several of the settlements of those living in the higher world, leaving nothing but death and destruction in their wake, forcing those remaining to dig into the last remaining city and defend it as best they can. Years later, a new group of young soldiers seeks to defend their home, and one of them, a young man named Wesley, carries a power never before seen. The Soldiers don't know what to make of him, but his unique abilities give him an edge over the Beasts in a way that they've not seen before. With his and his allies' power growing from the unnatural effects his unique gifts carry, can he be the one to pave the way for humanity to return?

BrainFrog · Fantasía
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63 Chs

A Quiet Resolution

None of them had expected Sasha to simply take matters into her own hands like that, but at the same time, Wesley and Jay realized that perhaps they should have. With as high of a Space and Death Framework as she had, doing things impulsively without really taking time to consider what others might think about it was her bread and butter, and that made perfect sense as far as why she'd gone and done such a thing without any backup from any of them. Of course, it was a bit more aggressive than they'd expected from her, but all the same, it was hard to say just what she was and wasn't capable of.

"I..." John spoke, glancing at the others for a moment. It wasn't clear if he was actually caught off guard by what she'd done or out of fear that something might end up happening to Andrew.

"You're gonna back off, dude," Jay cut in. It was easier to simply back up what Sasha had already done, rather than try to explain something else altogether. It at least made it seem like that was their plan all along, which made them at least seem more dangerous as a group. "That's what you're going to do."

Up top, Andrew gave a small scoffing sound as he looked to the woman who held her hand at his throat. "You wouldn't dare. Don't you know who I am?"

Sasha's eyes narrowed. "Some rich shit that lives too far away from the Wall to know just how dangerous things are. Y'know what my dad always taught me, growing up before he got himself killed by one of the Beasts?" she spoke, her hand tightening around Andrew's throat as the other reached up to grasp at her wrist. "Eat the rich."

Andrew grunted, his hands on her wrist starting to smoke for a moment as he began to activate his own Skill. Sasha didn't back down, but that purplish, disgusting-looking flesh of her hands shifted and flooded toward his neck just as his hands lit on fire, causing the woman to call out in pain, the whole exchange taking long enough for Evie to send Mr. Woodhead up to help her.

However, before they could get too much further in their combat, they were interrupted by a long, sinuous snake-like creature that used its lower half to wrap itself around Sasha and pull her back, while its upper half glared at Andrew. "That's enough, you two," a voice called out, and numerous heads turned to see Gustave approaching, the kind smile still present on the older fellow's face. "Andrew, go and see Ethan to get that poison out of your system. Sasha, see to Theodore for those burns."

The fellow's smile never left his features as he looked down at the group down below in the slight pit. "Ah, that's right. Theodore, you had Earthshaping. How convenient for you," he spoke simply, not seeming to at all be bothered by the fact that two of the teams had very nearly tried to kill each other just now. "It seems though that you've got some... practice to do in that regard," the man mused softly, giving a light smile at him before he glanced down to the rest of the group, with John's wolf Summon with the tents from their group in its maw. "Wes, did you make some sort of arrangement to let the others have your tent?" he asked simply, a twinkle of amusement in his eye.

Wesley frowned, shaking his head. "No. Andrew up there had wanted to take the tents given that Ted was able to use his Earthshaping to build... huts," he spoke, not entirely sure what word he would give to the makeshift, ramshackle buildings. "We weren't willing to give them up, when he had John come down to try and take them."

"I see, I see," Gustave spoke, looking between the various people that were here. "If it hadn't resolved in some sort of violence, we don't particularly mind you all trading with one another, be it in talents or in inventory, but with it ending up in combat between two teams, there will almost certainly need to be some sort of punishment enacted. We'll have to come back and determine what the most appropriate form would be for both teams."

"Both teams?" Evie asked, frowning, before pointing her finger accusingly at John. "But we were just defending ourselves! That's not fair," the girl spoke, throwing her hands up in the air, causing Mr. Woodhead to mimic the gesture just a few feet away from the fellow. "Why are we getting punished too?" the girl demanded, stamping her foot.

At the sudden rise in discontent from her, Theodore took a step forward, setting his hand on her shoulder. "Calm down... as you said... we did nothing wrong. I am sure... they will see that," he commented, mostly just wanting to calm the girl down, although his words rang true.

John exhaled slowly at the sudden explosion of activity and the fact that it seemed like thing were now put into a position where he and Andrew were decidedly in the wrong. "Forgive me. I was only acting upon the young master's orders," he spoke, the copper-skinned young man letting his gaze drift over them all, resting on Jay for another moment before he looked to Gustave. "We are in the wrong," he said simply.

Gustave couldn't help but to smirk slightly at that, before gesturing to John to come back up the hill and to head back to his own camp. "Well then, if that's been resolved then I suppose I'll go and be on my way. Just remember that there is a much larger and more dangerous for that lingers just outside the Wall that is far worse than any level of disrespect or annoyance that you have with your fellow Soldiers. Once you are forced out there to see them, you'll understand."

Of course, Wes could feel the anger burning at the back of his mind. He already understood. Hell, Sasha understood that same pain as well. But he had to guess that with John referring to Andrew as 'the young master' that the place they called home was far from the Wall. That was where the richer people lived- the ones that had the money to simply wait it out and allow all the 'commoners' to die out without needing to lift a finger.

Thankfully, the government that was in place made no exception based on your spending ability. There was no way to bribe or to buy out to get away from being a Soldier. He imagined that John was either from a strong family that Andrew's had employed or perhaps even bought given the fact that John was a Tier Two. That or it was entirely possible that John was just a lucky anomaly as such things happened as well. All the same, there was no reason for them to have been attacked as they had been.

The real enemy lay, as Gustave said, outside the walls. And the fact that Andrew was too much of a self-centered jerk to see that and was much more willing just to take it out on the rest of them... that was saying something. "Whatever. If he wants to try and deal with us later on then we'll just knock him down a few pegs," he spoke, mostly to himself.

His gaze flickered up to where Mr. Woodhead was helping Sasha down the gentle incline toward Theodore, the man beginning to treat her burns through use of his Restoration Skill. Supposedly the other group had someone named Ethan that was also in possession of the Restoration Skills, which was unfortunate. He'd kind of wanted Andrew to suffer for longer before getting treated. Asshole.

"Well now that the excitement is over now, dudes, can we talk about what we're gonna do with the tent fabric? Not that Sasha can't have some of it, but I think we should try to split it evenly. Not like the rest of us get blankets either, y'know," he spoke, looking to the girl who wore a dark expression, her wrists in Theodore's hands.

"Whatever. Do what you want," the girl muttered, much of the fire seeming to have been removed from her due to the fight itself. Perhaps being directly attacked like she had been had caused some revelation in her mind. Or perhaps it was something else entirely that was eating at her. It was hard to say.

But after the excitement died down, the group managed to determine the best way to split the fabric, cutting it into five parts, one for each of them to use as either a pillow or a blanket to their choice, and while the day wasn't yet really over, they didn't bother trying to leave their little area, wanting to keep it safe. Wes also noted that a lot of others were staying in one spot too- not wanting to go anywhere that could allow someone to swoop in and take their things.

Nightfall would be soon, but he wasn't exactly tired- in fact he wanted nothing more than to try to train using the Skills he knew his allies had... and some that he had seen from both Andrew and John. However, as he was considering it, a shadow suddenly fell over him and he glanced up to see Sasha standing over him. "Can we talk?"