Arena Fifty-Five: The Gods Of Death V

I rode through the almost empty city on my bike, carefully avoiding the stragglers on the road.

Just like the guns and other equipment in Stigma, touching the bike alone gave me enough information to ride it perfectly.

No wonder young kids like me could become veterans in this world so easily.

"Even so... It's absurd that there aren't any more enemies."

I muttered as I turned my bike and entered an alleyway to escape a horde on the road.

Usually, this place would be crawling with hundreds of thousands of phantoms, and yet that was the first horde I saw.

I traversed through the alleys until I came out on the main road again. After that, it was a straight way to the skyscraper.

There were almost no enemies around the high-rise building. I stopped before the building and waited for Jeffery to contact me. And sure enough, I got another message from him.

How did he even get my gear info? I thought those were confidential. Deciding to think about that later, I gazed over the message.

"Don't enter via the main entrance. Go to the back, you should see a fire exit. Climb that to the twelfth floor."

I frowned as I read through the message. He wanted me to climb 12 floors just to reach him? As I thought, he was just enjoying tormenting me.

"Fine, I'll play along, bastard."

I gritted my teeth and started my bike once again. I circled the building until I found the fire exit Jeffery had mentioned.

The so-called fire exit was a rusty bunch of ladders that led up to the top floor.

I begrudgingly grabbed the ladder to the first floor. It creaked under my weight as rust fell from it.

"Tsk... Will it even hold?"

I slowly climbed up, careful not to fall. Soon, I was standing on a platform connected to the first floor. Sighing, I looked up. It was going to be a long climb.

...

I finally stepped on the twelfth-floor platform, panting hard. But due to the time acceleration in Stigma, as well as my mental fortitude, my body went back to normal soon.

Taking a deep breath, I pulled out my rifle and slowly opened the fire exit door in front of me.

The moment I entered, I was dumbfounded.

The entire floor was gouged out in the middle, with the sides barely holding on.

And on that floor, near the edge of the hole, was Roxy. Her usual graceful demeanour wasn't anywhere to be seen. She was beaten up, her dress in tatters. She was bound tightly with a chair.

The wounds didn't show any signs of healing... And I could guess why.

She was forcefully logged in here.

Hearing the door open, Roxy looked up. Her eyes widened in both fear and relief as she realized I had come to save her. She tried to speak, but couldn't due the gag in her mouth.

But before I could approach her...

"You're here, finally."

I heard a well-familiar voice coming from my right. Turning around, I saw Jeffery pointing a gun at me... Wait... Wasn't that a copy of my gun?

How did he get that gun... As far as I knew, he had never seen the gun. And according to Grey, it was a custom made gun for me... Then how? But that was the least of my issues right now.

"You bastard... What the hell did you do to Roxy?!"

I growled as I pointed my rifle at him. Seeing that, he chuckled maniacally. He seemed sickly and weak, but his eyes were glowing with hatred and rage. His charm had gone down quite a bit from the last time I had seen him, so I didn't feel anything in particular as I observed him.

"You sure you want to point that at me?"

He brought out a controller from his pocket and gestured towards the floor. Then I noticed the glowing red light among the debris on the ground.

"Is that a bomb?"

I hissed at him as I tightened my grip on my rifle.

"Guessed right. Yeah, that's a bomb. And this is the detonator."

He wiggled the controller he held in his hand with a grin.

"What's stopping me from blowing your brains out here and now?"

"Woah, stop there. If this falls down, the bomb will explode. You don't want that now, do you?"

"... Tsk."

Jeffery laughed seeing my powerlessness, before gesturing at my gun.

"Put that down on the ground and kick it towards me. Put your bag down too."

Silently, I complied. I pulled off my bag and my gun and threw it towards him. As soon as the rifle reached his feet, he pulled the trigger.

Intense pain shot out through my body as the bullet pierce through my leg. I kneeled down while gritting my teeth.

I heart Roxy struggling in her binds, trying to do something. I held up a hand towards her as the pain subsided.

The [Blessing Of The Berserker] as well as [Eternal Bliss] was working at full power.

"Oh, you didn't cry out... You're surprisingly tough, aren't you, bastard?"

He mumbled as he pulled the trigger twice more. I felt the pain of my muscles tearing through my nerves as the bullets pierced my right shoulder and right upper arm.

"... I'll kill you, Jeffery. I swear I'll kill you."

I yelled as I waited for the pain to disappear.

"You can try, but first, you'll have to get out of here alive."

He gestured towards Roxy and told me to move there. I crawled on the ground, not letting him know that I didn't feel pain anymore. Jeffery followed from behind, keeping his gun on me.

Once we were near her, he pointed at the edge and told me to look down.

Hesitating, I did... And felt like my heart would stop.

All the floors including the ground floor had been hollowed out in the middle. A fall from here would take me directly into the darkness below the ground floor... But it wasn't even the horrifying part.

The thing inside that crater was the horrifying part. I couldn't see anything but its massive, fleshy mouth, crawling with countless teeth. A strong and disgusting odour hit me as I tried to guess what it was.

Its mouth was large enough to swallow three of the S-rank phantom I had fought after coming to Stigma whole... And judging from the spikes around its mouth, it had a strong exoskeleton covering it.

"W-what is that?"

I asked, terrified of it. It made me more scared than Raymond, and that guy was the Incarnation of death itself.

"I named it the Leviathan."

"L-leviathan?"

"Yeah... According to a book I read in the past, it's a beast that was sealed by god. A fitting name, right?"

The bastard grinned proudly.

"B-but how..."

"How did I find it? That's a secret! Besides, you two will be dying anyway, so you don't need to know!"

He laughed as he gestured me to come back from near the edge. Then he looked at Roxy and mumbled.

"Untie her."

Following his instructions, I slowly untied the ropes around Roxy, trying not to hurt her.

Soon, she was free from the bindings. She stood up with shaking legs, and hugged me.

"A-Arnold! You shouldn't have come!"

Instead of gratitude, she berated me for stepping into the trap... Well, I just laughed it off.

Jeffery, who seemed annoyed by our reunion, barked.

"You think this is some kind of soap opera? Get away from each other!"

Hearing his yell and looking at the gun, I stepped back from Roxy. Seeing that, he calmed down a bit before smirking.

"Well, now then... I guess everything is in place?"

He chuckled as he threw the gun away before pulling out a small hand grenade from his pocket.

"... In place?"

I knew what he was about to do, yet I hoped that he wouldn't.

But... He did.

He suddenly pulled the pin and threw the grenade in the air, just above our head.

"Get down!"

I hurriedly covered Roxy to protect her from the shrapnels. The next moment, it exploded.

I felt something pierce through my back as I held her tightly.

"Tsk! He'll bring down the whole city on us!"

And that was what he had planned to do.

I looked at where he was as soon as the smoke cleared, but he was nowhere to be seen. That damn bastard had escaped.

Then... The whole tower trembled as an ear-deafening shriek echoed through the city.

I trembled as I stood up and turned around.

The Leviathan had awakened.

...

Grey, who was walking... No, almost running through the A.R.M.A. facility, suddenly got a notification.

"What... The gun tracker is active now?"

He was surprised... Arnold's gun, which had been lost, had suddenly reappeared. Or more specifically, its tracker had activated.

He hadn't been able to find the gun as the tracker was somehow turned off, but now that it had activated, he could follow it... He didn't know to who, but it was one of the few leads available to him.

"Send a squad to this location! Hurry!"

He yelled at the nearby agent, who immediately contacted an idle squad. Grey watched the agent walk away as he looked at the current situation.

Arnold's mother, Dina had disappeared from their facility, and Alfred, along with Arnold, was nowhere to be seen. The tracker inside Arnold's gear had been turned off by the Imperial Family, so he had no way of knowing where he was.

He just hoped that the boy was safe... Even if he had no right to hope anything in the first place.