Chapter 23: Bringer of darkness part 1

(comment on bad gramma if you see any, help me improve, everyone benefits. you can comment on a specific section when reading)

after the mist dispersed and the shadows escaped max brought sophie down from the top of the tent,

" count the dead, clean up, heal the injured and ellen set up defenses around the camp" max heard Sir james speak commandingly.

everyone quickly got to work, max just strolled around pretending to look busy.

he was too lazy to clean up and could not waste his Phanes energy by using his ability to clear away the mess.

a youth with wind energy did most of the sweeping, the man with the fire ability burned the dead bodies around the camp and they were blown away by the wind.

no one could afford to take the bodies with them and leaving them here with out knowing what creatures are in this dimension was unsafe as there could be something that could turn them into undead.

after a while everything was done and the camp was cleaned up.

the group was now seated around the fire once again,

" how many of us are left ?'"Sir james asked.

" there are 150 of us remaining"

" how long have we been here ? " he asked again, this question sank into everyones heart.

" we been here for 9 hours sir ", hearing this Sir james frowned.

max could see the deep frustration hidden in his eyes , everyone else was clearly affected by this.

" listen" Sir james raised his voice and everyone looked at him, max also paired attention wondering what he was going to say.

" we came here all 300 of us through that door as a group, we did not come here for death, we came here for glory, for wealth, for power.

it deeply sadness me that in the space of 9 hours we have lost 150 of us, we can no longer carry on wondering aimlessly, we need to come together and find a way out of deaths cold grip or all we will all die".

" we are so fucked " max heard the youth called zack whispering to himself, max was very surprised he was still alive.

he looked around for a moment before continuing,

" you might not want to show your hidden cards but right now there is no longer the choice to hide, there is no longer the option to hold back for later for you might die in the next,

with that being said does anyone have anything that might help us" finishing his speech he pulled out a neckless from his armor and the neckless shone.

after shining for a moment a green leaf floated out, max felt the surroundings dim, all the splendor over taken by this leaf.

he felt the urge to get it for himself.

" this is the leaf of eden, a leaf from a tree in the garden of eden, a rank 4 biblical treasure " everyone´s eyes changed, no one could have thought that he bring out a rank 4 treasure.

treasures were split into different grades and ranks.

there were human grade which were all the treasure from rank 1 to 4, then there were holy grade treasures which were rank 5 to 8.

after holy grade treasure there were god grade treasures which were rank 9 to 12.

after this there were destruction grade treasures and then at the very top creation grade treasures.

it was not easy to find a treasure above rank 3, that's why everyone was surprised because if someone had a treasure above rank one then it would be kept as a hidden card, a trump card for critical times.

" as the group leader i will lead by example, for the sake of survival we can not afford to kept cards hidden", max agreed.

of course he wouldn't fully trust this and reveal all his cards, he could be sure as righteous as sir james looked he still had hidden cards on him otherwise he would not reveal this treasure.

no one would be willing to reveal all their cards not before they arrived at deaths door, not till the very last minute, because revealing all your cards meant that you were a sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

the reason why people of slightly higher ranks would not just target slightly weaker opponents, is because no one knows what hidden cards anyone has and so if you revealed all your cards.

it meant that stronger opponents will be able to judge if they can kill you for sure, even weaker opponents will see if they can spike and kill you with their hidden cards if they judge that their cards are better than yours.

this was what max learned from ai sayama before he left, to always keep your cards close to your chest and if you don't have any, never let anyone guess that you don't otherwise you are as good as dead.

Sir james continued " i know some abilities have limiters on them so can only be used once all not to a stronger degree before a certain rank,

this leaf possess a bit of the liberating concept of the garden of eden,

just like the fruit that adam and eve ate which liberated them and made them break free to knowing that they were actually naked the entire time.

this leaf can liberate and break the limiters that limits abilities, but of course it is a rank 4 treasure so it can only has enough energy to break a few limiters on a ability and the effect is not permanent"

all abilities require Phanes energy to use and the more Phanes energy and the higher quality of energy one had the better they could use their ability, meaning the amount of energy and quality limited how powerful abilities could be,

for example wayne, his ability gamble on luck, if he had infinite amount of energy he could calculate the whole world and use it a unlimited number of times but because he only has the energy of a recruit class he could only calculate one person and use his ability twice a day.

so treasures with the ability to break the limiters on abilities all they did was give higher quality energy and more energy to a person allowing them to have more energy thus breaking their limits,

of course you couldn't just pump someone full of energy and expect them to break their limits.

every energy had it's use, just like every key had it's lock. just because keys unlock locks doesn't mean you can just walk around expecting one key to open all locks.

the same with energy, the energy that broke limits had to have a concept that allowed for seal or limits to be broken in it.

pumping someone with energy that had the concept to burn, no matter how high quality it is or how much it is, it would not break limiters it would probably just burn them or get too much for them and they would die.

this leaf had high quality energy and the concept of liberation so max was shocked, he can think of what would happen if lily or wayne got the leaf right now, he did not know if lily could break her rank limit and form enough drops to resurrect the dead, or if wayne can use his gamble on luck ability more than once.

" so who has an ability that can use this treasure to get us out of this situation, speak up"

max really wanted to speak up and get the treasure but too bad his ability could not help them right now.

so he looked at wayne.

sophie, lily and henry all turned their heads and looked at wayne, sir james noticed this

" wayne ?" he asked, and everyone looked at wayne.

wayne flicked his fingers and a coin appeared halfway flipping upwards before landing back into his hands.

" gamble on luck, that's my ability i can flip my coin and it will land on bad luck or good luck before making a decision which will tell me if that decision will have a good outcome for me or not" he spoke,

not mentioning his limited number he can use it, now that max thinks about it his not sure if he can only use it 2 times a day, he might be able to use it more but just said 2 times to keep a card hidden.

" of course the number i can do this is limited so it is not very useful right now as i can only use it once,

if i use it to find out which direction is safe for us to go and get bad luck that won't help much as there will be 3 more uncertain paths to choose from" everyone nodded when they heard this, the was really no point in using it right now if it can only be used once.

however max noticed that he said he could only use it once and not twice, max looked at lili, sophie and henry and they all looked expressionless not surprised by it.

max did not bother looking at grey and white as they were always expressionless. he could be sure now that wayne held back when telling him about his ability, max could not fault him as he held back when he showed them his void ability.

max always held back, ever since he broke out of the void when ever someone said his ability was space he agreed on the surface but his guts told him it was void and not space,

there was a big difference between the two just like there is a big difference between space walking and void walking. space walking was weak compared to void walking.

the void is a higher concept of space.

" however if you let me use the leaf of eden then i can use it to break this limit allowing me to use it more than once " wayne continued then looked at everyone.

seeing no one had an objection Sir james agreed and gave the leaf to wayne

wayne took the leaf and then his Phanes energy rushed at into the leaf, the leaf shone a bright green, then rushed into Wayne's chest, into his heart.

thump, thump*

his heart started to beat after and stronger because of the sudden increase in energy.

soon his heart started releasing green colored energy all over his body before his body shook slightly.

wayne opened his closed eyes, they flickered with a green light for a moment that returned to normal.

" i am ready " wayne said.

everyone just watched in silence.

he closed his eyes again and flicked his coin into the air, it span with golden brilliance as if weaving a web with golden threads when it got to the top it started spinning backwards as if unweaving the web of mysteries, falling backdown whilst unweaving the golden threads before landing in his hands, the golden threads disappeared halfway down.

max looked at it with everyone else.

" bad luck " he muttered,

" whats bad luck" someone asked impatiently

" going the way we are heading is bad luck " wayne replied.

max glanced at Sir james, what a unlucky guy max thought as sir james picked the direction to go and explore from the door.

i wonder if he blamed himself now for all the deaths.

wayne flipped the coin again then it landed on bad luck again. " going north is bad luck" he spoke, explaining which way he had chosen before flipping the coin to everyone.

" i can only flip it one more time today before it resets " he said before taking a deep breath and flipping the coin again.

max just looked at him amazed, how can he say bullshit with a straight face like that, he only flipped it twice which was what he could do before using the leaf of eden anyway.

there is no way a rank 4 treasure only had enough energy to allow him to use it only one more time.

max looked at henry, and henry looked anxious and nervous like the rest of the people that were hoping for the coin to land on luck.

max was dumbfound like who are you pretending for.

as he was about to look away he noticed that even grey had a nervous expression.

his jaw dropped, like no, they got grey too?

the always expressionless grey ??

now his pretending to be nervous

max was shocked, even grey was pretending, what on earth.

the coin landed on Wayne's palm and then everyone´s nervous expression were relieved.

" which direction is that ? "

max looked at the coin and it said luck at the top.

"south, we can head south" wayne spoke with a relieved expression.

" good, good " Sir james said happily

" take turns to watch the camp, we need to be careful, the rest of us lets go and rest, tomorrow we head south" Sir james said with vigor.

after everyone stood up to go and rest, max followed his group to their tents, as their were walking wayne turned around and made a hush gesture at him.

max knew what he meant, he did not want him to speak about the true number of times he could use his ability so that the others in the group wouldn't know they had been cheated.

max just nodded his head and went into his tent.

the next morning the group headed south, which was the way they came from so after walking for a few hours they went past the door they came in through.

the rest of the way south was relatively safe, nothing happened and no one died.

max felt strange going a few hours without any attacks and without anyone dying, he was kind of used to it now.

after a few hours of walking it got dark and they set up camp once again.

everyone was glad that no one died today and felt that it was worth it to use a rank 4 treasure for this, at least they were safe for now.

/// just a few hours from where max camped ///

a group were camping around a fire

" anything ?

use your radar to check" a youth asked he had a majestic sword next to him and just like last time a girl was seating next to him but there was a bit of a distance between them.

" yes i will check right now"

and after a moment the same voice spoke again it was the same girl who had spoke just now,

and like last night when the youth asked her she still looked pleased to be able to do something for the youth.

" there are 150 people stationed west-south from our location" the girl spoke.

" 150 " the youth questioned,

" yes 150 " the girl replied quickly as if not to make him wait.

the youth shook his head disappointed

" how did they even get to 150 people, how weak" he said dejected. .

" we can still use them young master, it doesn't matter if they all die, their blood will be useful later on too " a slimy looking man said

" thats true, even the weak have their uses i guess, i am going to rest, tomorrow we will go find them , i am sure they need my protection,

well.... till them dying is more useful than them being alive that is,

see,

people like me is why i would hate being weak " the youth said then picked up his sword and walked away.

" you should be glad that i am not like you otherwise when your no longer useful or fun i would devour you " the girl seating next to the youth said.

the youth turned around and glanced at the girl looking annoyed at her comment.

his sword started swallowing the surrounding light.

everything got darker, his aura unleashed making the air tremble

the girl just sat gracefully, but behind her a towering giant appeared, flickering as if an image from a tv with a bad signal.

the saint looked imposing and overwhelmed the youth,

" be a good little boy and put your toy away before star devourer opens it's mouth " the girl said casually

the sword swallowed all the surrounding light as the boy clenched the sword as if ready to attack.

suddenly all the light disappeared and no one accept the youth could see,

the surrounding people panicked, a few of them used their abilities to make flames or any forms of light but this proved useless as it was still pitch black.

the youth wanted to teach the girl a lesson,

the giant behind the girl be came corporeal manifesting into reality, the image clear.

it's mouth slowly opened,

as soon as it opened the surrounding trees, people, tents started to be devoured towards it.

it's mouth like a black hole.

everyone panicked, it was pitch black and they were being pulled towards something.

the youth stabbed his sword into the ground to gain balance then quickly stopped his sword from swallowing the light.

as soon as he stopped the giant closed his mouth and everything returned to normal.

a man who was about to be swelled into it´s mouth flew towards it and luckily crashed on the giants closed mouth before falling to the ground.

if it had closed it's mouth any slower the man would have been devoured,

the man who just survived upon realizing what just happened suddenly had a thought, god must be real, he saved me he thought and suddenly gained faith in god and prayed in thanks.

his mother believed in god and always preached to him but he had never listened always believing god was just a stronger human.

but now it all suddenly made sense to him, maybe she was right.

" god adam thanks you for i am still alive " he started praying with great devotion.

he did not know why.

he just felt it was as it should be.

the youth and the girl paid him no mind.

the youth looked at the girl with hate before grabbing his sword and walking away.

" that´s a good boy " the girl smiled happily.

sigh*

" it's funny when the weak call others weak, believing they are strong, in this world there is no one who's truly strong, everyone is weak and others are just less weak, isn't that right star ? "

the giant didn't answer,

" how boring, hopefully who ever we meet tomorrow brings me some fun" she said to herself before getting up and returning to her tent, her ass swaying with every step.