Drowning (1)

Kai's shout jolted him awake. It was like an incessant alarm that refused to stop ringing.

Why couldn't he just leave him alone, huh? He felt like he had gone through enough lately. He had died, miraculously came back to life, almost died from multiple explosions, was kidnapped, put through literal torture, and now this?

It was as if fate was playing with him.

Groaning, he peeked through his heavy eyelids. He saw the blurry figure of the annoying woman walking further and further away, holding the weird card.

Even from this distance, he could feel the uncomfortable energy it radiated.

He wanted to close his eyes again.

The pounding in his ear did not get any better and he felt like vomiting. The heaviness in his head urged him to get up and maybe throw up on Mr. Davian

He felt as if his head was under dark murky waters. Was this what drowning felt like? As if he couldn't resurface, struggling to keep himself conscious, wanting to succumb to sleep. The pressure in the room felt suffocating, it seems to scratch at his throat, sending chills up his back.

Although instead of drowning in deep waters he was drowning in a weird dark substance that reminded him too much like demon blood.

Ah.

Demon blood?

Running his fingers through the fluid, Atlas examined it more closely. The scent of rotten eggs filled his nostrils as the substance dripped through his fingers.

Demon blood shared several traits with human blood: both smelled terrible and were awful for his hair.

The only difference was that Demon blood had a thicker texture than blood, it was also of a darker shade.

As the substance seeped back towards the floor, slipping between his fingers, some of it clung to his hand and dripped down his arm.

Why was demonic blood doing here?

Perhaps he was back on the battlefield? He was often drowned in demon blood, it had always clung to his uniform, too stubborn to disappear no matter what he did. Eventually, it stained his hair.

That couldn't be right. Kai was right there- right! Kai.

He turned his head to look at Kai who gave him a strange expression.

Confused by Kai's odd stare, Atlas lowered his blood-covered hands. After a moment of silent struggle with his expression, he started, "Atlas. Remember what we decided on."

Ah-?

Atlas scrunched up his face.

It wasn't because he didn't remember, no- in fact, he remembers precisely what they had discussed. It was because he couldn't fathom what the hell Kai was trying to do.

He couldn't possibly-?

Atlas' eyes darted back towards the women, who had finally approached the stained altar.

Mr. Davian adjusted his glasses with an unsettling grin on his face

The dark-haired woman picked up something from the altar. She lifted it up, inspecting it.

From what Atlas could make out It seemed to resemble an ornate knife.

A very fancy one at that.

It had many decorations trailing up its handle while the blade itself seemed to be made of some crystal-like material.

The small blade seemed to radiate a very bright and refreshing feeling.

Just as Atlas was wondering what she was planning on doing with the knife was when she made a sudden slashing movement across her wrist.

Drip.

Drip.

The blood from her shallow cut slowly dripped on the altar. A harsh wind seems to blow into the room as a dark light seems to consume the altar.

The action caused Atlas' pupil's to tremble.

The very room felt cold, so cold. He looked down at his arm to see it trembling.

Rather, it was the blood oozing from her wound - demonic blood. As it pooled on the altar, the blood began to glow and the mysterious card in her hand vibrated feverishly.

An evil aura flooded his surroundings, a crazed feeling. His mind seems to become chaotic as if he was pushed further and further from the surface he was slowly crawling up to. He wanted to run away, far away from it.

The whispers above him became silent, everyone seemed to be captivated in a dream-like trance.

With its chains rattling uncontrollably now, the black card pulled itself away from the women's grip, seemly wanting to get nearer to the blood.

No.

That card must not come into contact with that blood. Atlas didn't know why but he had a feeling, a very bad feeling, that something horrible was bound to happen.

"Kai-" Atlas called out once he realized that what they were doing was something unorthodox, something that was deemed crazy- insane. "That card- it can't come into contact with-"

Yet before Atlas could finish his sentence Kai had already moved, leaving behind a disappearing image of a card.

Kai's figure rushed quickly, like an arrow aimed at its target; flying in a blurry outline as he sped toward the hovering card.

Every second that Kai got closer the darker the energy felt, the more it consumed his mind.

His eyes were fixated on the card, allowing everything else to blur into the background.

He had reached out his hand, attempting to reach it.

What he didn't see while he rushed forwards was the speeding spear that came towards him from a clothed guard.

"Kai-"

Kane's shout went unheard as Kai instinctively redirected his outstretched hand to seize the spear, using it to deflect an incoming blade.

Clang!

The sound reverberated throughout the room.

"C'mon now, don't you think this attempt is worthless?" sighed the woman holding the knife as Kai stumbled backward.

"No. I don't think so." Kai replied.

Despite everything, Kai's intervention had interrupted the card's progress towards the blood, sending it flying onto the floor where it lay inert like an ordinary playing card.

Before Kai's feet could touch the floor, however, he began charging towards Mr. Davian.

"You-!" The anger in Mr. Davian's voice cracked like a whip, snapping through the air.

At that moment Mr. Davian moved, his silhouette a blur of motion. As if conjured from thin air, a set of gleaming knives materialized in his hands, each blade a glinting crescent of danger.

The blades clashed. Sparks erupted from the collision, each flicker illuminating the tension in the air.

Kai backed off, blood dripping from the cut on his arm.

"Guards - move!" commanded Mr. Davian as he gave Kai a bloodshot stare.

"You- You will suffer for ruining our god's plan."

Kai seemed to ignore him, charging again after performing a strange movement with his arms.

It was then that Atlas spotted something that was suddenly tossed into the air, the object reflecting off the red light.

A key.

It flew towards him from Kai's hands. Instead of charging again at the women he had aimed for Mr. Davian. Not to attack but to grab something from him.

The keys to the restraints!

Atlas groaned as he slowly lifted himself up, high enough to catch the keys in his hands.

Unlike Kai, Atlas and the others couldn't use their abilities due to their restraints. Kai was a special case. His signature card allowed him to bypass this.

Atlas knew this long ago.

Kai's signature card, [God's Blessing] allowed Kai to temporarily become a god. Literally.

Every ability or debuff that came at him he was immune to for a certain amount of time. The many times Atlas had seen this happen with his own eyes was engraved into his memories.

This is why Kai was known as humanity's savior. He was immune to almost everything and could therefore combat the demonic beings easily.

However, it didn't mean that Kai was invincible.

Once the skill deactivates half the damage taken at that time will be inflicted on his body.

If he over-uses it-

Shaking his head towards the side, he fumbled with the key in his hand, trying to unlock his restraints while everyone was distracted with Kai.

Unfortunately, his actions did not go unnoticed.

As Atlas fiddled with the key to unlock his chains, he garnered unwanted attention. "Over there – that kid's trying to escape!" a guard shouted before charging towards him.

'God damn!'

Frantically unlocking his left arm restraint just in time, Atlas dodged a sword aimed at his throat and crashed into one of the pillars.

Crash!

The pillar crumbled apart, and it was then Atlas realized the seemingly strange pillars weren't made of quartz or polymer.

Bones, flesh, blood, and skulls of various sizes rained down on him and the guards

Struggling amidst the carnage, Atlas used this opportunity to unlock more restraints while hiding amongst the bones.

A skull landed in front of him, leaking demonic blood as it stared at Atlas struggling.

If Atlas wasn't so busy with saving his own life, he would have thought the human skull was crying.

Click.

The restraints on his right arm were finally unlocked.

Before he could celebrate his small victory, however, an axe came smashing down, breaking the skull before Atlas into pieces, nearly missing his.

Suppressing a gulp, he cursed under his breath: "Damn you, Kai."