CH 4: The Beginning of the End

[*Warning. Viewer discretion is advised. Anyone uncomfortable with forceful nonconsensual sex or gore should skip forward until it is over.*]

"She resisted for quite a while," a raspy voice said. "But man, she was great."

Another voice let out a laugh. "Haha, yeah. I haven't had a meal this good in forever. Beauties like her seem to struggle the most, that's what makes it fun."

"If you're done, then let's go," said a deep and overbearing voice. "I couldn't pick up any readings."

"Oh come on, boss. Don't act like you're a saint. You were the wildest one out of all of us. Man, the expression she had when you shoved it in was amazing. She wanted to act like she didn't like it but after thirty minutes she was moaning like a bitch in heat."

Rylen's mind was completely empty. His shock had completely frozen him at the words of the men inside his house.

'No…'

Without thinking, Rylen pushed the door open and slowly walked through the entrance to the house. The voices in the house completely disappeared when the door hinges squealed.

*Step… Step… Step*

Soft footsteps rang out on the hardwood floor as Rylen finally reached the kitchen. With an empty expression, his eyes scanned the room.

Three men stood in the living room, looking at Rylen. Two of the men were surprised to see someone arrive, while the third and biggest of the three looked at Rylen with vigilance.

But Rylen didn't bother looking at the three of them. His eyes landed on a heap of clothes on the floor.

'White t-shirt… Jeans… Why is it so familiar?' Rylen thought as he blankly looked at the clothes. 'Brown hair…'

Rylen's mind recognized the figure on the floor.

'Why is Aliyah lying on the floor?' He asked himself.

Aliyah's jeans were pulled down to her ankles and her shirt was pulled up to her neck. Her face was pale and her beautiful brown eyes were wide open, frozen in shock and terror. Aliyah lay on the carpet of the living room, completely still and unmoving.

'...Why is she sleeping in the living room? Her room isn't that far away…'

Rylen just stood there, staring at Aliyah with an empty expression.

"Probably the first time he's seen a naked woman," the scrawniest of the three men said with an evil smile. "I don't blame ya. She is quite the beauty. A good fuck too."

Rylen continued to stand there in a daze, unmoving. The man's words seemed to pass right through one ear and out the other.

"Hey, I'm talking to you, kid! Don't ignore m–"

"Floyd, use inquiry, you dumbass!" Yelled the biggest of the men as he continued to glare at Rylen with a wary expression.

Floyd quickly shut his mouth and looked closer at Rylen and soon his eyes widened in surprise. "An Awakened? What's an Awakened doing here?"

The man to the right of the apparent leader who hadn't spoken yet answered Floyd's question. "It doesn't matter. Now that he's seen us, we have to take him out. He isn't with Guidance so we don't have to worry about anything."

The big man's wary expression relaxed a little. "You're right. We've been here too long. Take care of him and we'll leave."

As the three men continued to converse about how to eliminate him, Rylen gazed with an empty look at his frozen aunt. Images of her smiling face flashed through his mind. Images of him and Aliyah walking hand in hand after his first day in kindergarten. Images of Aliyah congratulating him on graduating high school and taking a picture with him holding his diploma. Images of him and Aliyah eating together in the kitchen, talking about random events from their day.

Out of Rylen's left eye, a tear slowly fell down his cheek as he looked at his aunt's lifeless body.

"Sorry, kid. But you walked in at the wrong time." The skinny man pulled out a knife from his back pocket and approached Rylen slowly.

Floyd's body suddenly glowed with a blue hue and also covered the knife in his hand. Once the glow completely covered his body, he shot toward Rylen from the living room at an incredible speed.

As the man jumped towards him, the tear on Rylen's cheek finally reached the edge of his face and left with nowhere else to go, it fell towards the ground. Time from Rylen's perspective slowed down. The man jumping toward him with a knife extended appeared to be in slow motion. The small drop of Rylen's tear continued to travel to the ground.

As it impacted the hardwood floor, the tear dispersed into a black mist and evaporated into the air.

Rylen's vision faded away and the world around him turned dark.

…

As his vision returned to him, Rylen stood holding something very warm and wet in his palm. His mind was calm and he gazed down.

In his hand was a heart. The heart of a human.

Blood dripped from his hand and landed on the stained, white carpet. Unbothered by the organ in his hand, Rylen looked around the familiar living room.

Near the kitchen, a scrawny man lay on the hardwood floor with his hands covering his severed neck. His body was completely still and blood pooled around him.

Directly behind Rylen, a man with large muscles lay on the ground with his head a few feet away from his body. The head was turned upwards and was adorned with a frozen expression of terror.

Next to the body of the headless man lay a very large man with a hole through his chest. Blood from the two of them had completely covered half of the entire living room carpet.

Rylen then glanced back at the heart in his hands with an empty expression. But when his eyes saw the body of a familiar woman lying still before him, his expression broke and he dropped to his knees, letting go of the heart in his hands.

Endless tears fell from his eyes. Rylen's mind was filled with immense grief. He had lost the only person in his life he cared about. His sobs echoed through the house for another few hours before they finally stopped.

*Sniff… Sniff*

Rylen wiped his puffy red eyes, clearing the wetness from his face. He took a blanket from the leather couch and covered Aliyah's naked body except her face. Rylen reached out and closed her eyes, letting them shut for the last time.

"I'm sorry. This is my fault."

Rylen knew why Guidance was here. It was his awakening. The essence that he gained during it must have alerted them.

If he never awakened, then they never would have come here in the first place.

"No…"

Rylen's eyes turned back to the bodies of the three men.

"If they never existed… This wouldn't have happened…"

Rylen got up from his knees and slowly walked towards the three corpses.

"If Guidance didn't exist, this never would have happened."

Rylen's eyes began to lose the light in them. He bent down and put his hand on the leg of the leader of the group.

"Devour."

Black tendrils that swallowed light itself spread from Rylen's fingers and covered the corpse of the man.

"Harvest," Rylen said in an emotionless tone.

The pitch-black tendrils constricted and the body of the man completely disappeared. The tendrils retracted into Rylen's hand and a burst of energy flooded inside his body. Flashes of images were shown through his mind; memories from the man's life. From his birth all the way until his death, Rylen saw it all. When he got to the memories the man had from a few hours ago, Rylen analyzed it with narrowed eyes.

Three hours ago…

As Floyd rushed at the boy with violet eyes and a handsome face, Doug, the leader of the Guidance squad that was tasked with checking out an essence disturbance frowned. He observed the boy he had figured out was named Rylen Aptera through his inquiry ability.

Doug watched as Rylen's eyes changed from a bright violet to a deep black. Rylen glanced up from the corpse of the woman that Doug and his squad had recently had their fun with and met gazes with the big man standing over her body.

Goosebumps formed on Doug's skin and his hair rose on the back of his neck. As he gazed into the eyes of the boy, Doug only felt an unending and paralyzing fear. He couldn't move under the empty gaze of those endless eyes of the boy.

Before he even realized it, he felt a sudden pain in his chest and looked down.

*Drip… Drip*

Doug's eyes fell on an arm. This arm was in a peculiar position. It almost looked as if it was passing through his chest.

As Doug wondered why there was an arm in his chest, his vision faded and his body fell to the floor as the arm was suddenly pulled out from his chest with a red organ in its hand, still beating at a steady rhythm.

…

"My assumption was correct," Rylen said as he walked to the two other bodies of the Guidance squad.

He placed his hand on the shoulder of the headless man and spoke in an emotionless voice, "Devour."

Black tendrils shot out of Rylen's hands and covered the man's body as well as the head a few feet away. "Harvest."

The body completely vanished as the tendrils devoured it completely. Rylen experienced another boost of energy within his body. This time, however, the amount of energy was less than before but Rylen didn't mind it. The man's memories flashed through Rylen's mind just like the man before.

Rylen looked towards the empty wall of the house and a thought about his current stats flashed through his mind. Etchings began to appear out of nowhere and displayed a list on the blank wall.

—

Name: Rylen Aptera

Title: Heir to the Abyss, Lord of Apocalypse

{STATS}

Body: D-

Mind: C

Essence: E

Shroud: E

Power Grade: D

Potential: ???

—

Rylen looked over his new stats with an expressionless face. He thought of his skills and the carvings morphed into different words.

—

Essence Skills:

{Corrupted Enhance {Tier I} (NEW): The ability 'Harvest' has taken hold of the essence skill 'Enhance' and has corrupted it. The user's essence reacts with the abyssal shroud within the user and it multiplies the physical attributes of the user by 10 times.}

{Corrupted Inquiry {Tier I} (NEW): The ability 'Harvest' has taken hold of the essence skill 'Inquiry' and has corrupted it. The user's essence reacts with the abyssal shroud within the user and it allows the user to see information about a target. The information allowed with this skill can view a target's name, age, affiliation, and stats.}

Shroud Skills:

{Touch of the Abyss}

{Harvest}

{Abyssal Storage (NEW): The ability 'Harvest' has taken hold of the essence skill 'Store' and has corrupted it. During corruption, the shroud within the user completely assimilated with 'Store' and allowed the creation of the skill: 'Abyssal Storage'. Abyssal Storage allows the user to store anything in the abyssal shroud contained within the user. The limit of space in this storage depends on the amount of shroud capacity the user has. (Current limit: 50 square meters)}

—

Rylen took note of his new skills and the etchings on the walls slowly faded and disappeared.

Looking toward the last man on the floor, Floyd, Rylen walked to him and harvested him as well. The energy he gained was less than half of the two before him. Rylen didn't even bother with the man's memories.

Once the three men were completely gone, Rylen looked back toward the living room where Aliyah lay. His eyes turned solemn and his fist clenched. Rylen slowly walked towards the woman and placed his hand on her head.

"Devour," he said with repressed rage.

Black tendrils covered Aliyah's body completely, hiding her from view. But unlike the three men from Guidance, the tendrils shook and squirmed around the body of Rylen's aunt.

Soon, the tendrils stopped and retreated back into Rylen's hand. What was left behind was the figure of a woman, but her entire body was pitch black, not letting any light escape. The woman's eyes slowly opened, revealing two bright violet eyes without pupils.

Rylen warily looked at the woman, uncertainty laced his countenance.

"Aliyah. It's me, Rylen."

Aliyah glanced toward Rylen, her eyes focused on the man standing above her.

"Can you stand?" Rylen asked.

The pitch-black figure immediately stood up in response to Rylen. She continued to stare at him, seemingly awaiting any orders.

*Sigh*

Rylen sighed in disappointment and grief. His fists clenched, the knuckles turning white in the process due to the rage filling Rylen's mind.

He looked back up toward who used to be Aliyah and into her eyes. The figure only looked back toward Rylen with a blank look, without a shred of emotion.

Coming to terms with her lack of intelligence, Rylen waved his hand and the woman's body dropped toward the ground through a black pocket and disappeared.

As the pocket closed and Rylen was the only person left in the house, he continued to gaze at the floor from where Aliyah left. Rylen then lifted his head and peered out of the windows that led to his backyard, looking at the deep night, devoid of any light.

"Don't worry Aunt," Rylen said to the empty house. "They won't be around for much longer."