The Glassed Isle

-Now On The Scorched Isle-

As soon as I entered the Isle, I was surprised to see the room in such a clean condition. I nodded out of amazement and took a step outside, but the sound my footsteps made on the surface wasn't reminiscent of sand at all…

I peered down to what used to be sand, and stared at the glass, layering the Isle above the sand itself.

"What the hell… did this desert turn to glass?!" I said aloud. I heard footsteps come up from behind me and I quickly readied my gauntlets, crossing them while staring at the person.

"Oh, you made it here. Good thing you weren't mixed in with the blast." Zeal told me. With various tendrils on his back, flowing around rapidly, his drastically changed appearance startled me and froze me in place from shock.

"What the hell are you…? What are those things?" I yelled out to him. Zeal smirked and held out his hand, to which the tendril on his back responded by slowly laying itself down on his palm.

"This is the next step… Xian. These tendrils, given to me by the next step in our evolution, will help me solidify my place as the Top-Ranking White Stone. I'm glad you can be here to see what it has done for me, so far." He explained. I looked around the glass isle, searching for his accomplishment…

"Wait! Did you turn this entire Isle to glass?!" I asked him, but I got my answer as soon as Zeal smiled.

"Why would you do that?! There were people here! Lives you ruined! Is everybody dead?!" I shouted out. I looked around, past the collapsed buildings on top of the broken glass they ruined, but I couldn't see anything.

"Of course not, most were evacuated, but I didn't directly kill anybody else, so any glass statues were from those who didn't believe me." He told me.

I was conflicted with what Zeal was doing right now. This was just like Orion, except it wasn't exclusive to one Isle… now Scorched had been ruined, just like the Isle will have followed in three weeks.

"The Dump, Scorched, and The Isle are all ruined now! Unsuitable for living, so how the hell do you plan to let humanity continue to live?!" I yelled out to Zeal. He shook his head.

"It's simply not my problem. All evacuated citizens have been sent to Earth." He told me. I turned to the transporter.

"And how did you do that? Don't you need to be a White Stone to travel?" I asked him. Umbra told me that only those who had a high concentration of strands, like White Stones, could travel through the Transporter... I couldn't let Zeal know that.

"No. I sent them to Earth with no complications. I just put my hands on their backs, and they were sent very easily." He explained.

It's not possible that Zeal just gave them all a high concentration of strands… did he? No… that was impossible. If he hasn't already figured that out, then it must not be true. There must've been a lapse in the logic that the transporter holds.

"So, you're going to follow me to go kill that Corrupt Stone, right?" Zeal walked past me, sliding his hand against the transporter. I didn't answer, I kept looking at the ground, thinking about the future. What did I want? If we killed the Corrupt Stone, this trouble wouldn't even end. At this point, would it even matter if he died?

I wasn't content with letting that kid just die by Zeal's hand. I can't interfere with Talion's will when it comes to ending his life, but at the same time, I almost want to side with him to see where he brings this legion of white stones. As I watched Zeal sit with his arms crossed on the opposite side of the transporter, he looked back toward me.

"Don't be stupid. Let's just go to the Isle and stop this damn heresy." He told me.

This is wrong... I can't stand by and let this happen...

I walked over to the button and just as I was about to push it, I finally realized the caliber of the things that Zeal had done... to this Isle and every other one. And in retaliation:

I shattered the transporter into thousands of pieces. It scattered on the floor and even the stone stored inside had split into three separate pieces. Zeal's eyes were stuck open in surprise, and I was frozen out of shock that I actually just did that.

"You damn idiot… YOU DAMN IDIOT!" He yelled out.

Zeal shot one of his tendrils into my right arm, but before it could pierce my skin, I absorbed the kinetic energy and blasted it through my right foot, collapsing the room the transporter used to be located in.

With little to no cover on the Isle turned to glass, Zeal and I stood in the open, staring at each other from a distance.

"I knew you were too stupid to understand which side was the right one to be on. Don't worry, Xian, I won't make your death painful." Zeal told me.

I rose my gauntlets and smiled. "I think it'll be pretty hard to indirectly kill me here, don't ya think?" I commented.

"What makes you think I haven't gained the ability to kill?" He playfully suggested. My heart dropped into my stomach.

"Y-You said you didn't directly kill anybody on this Isle… because you can't do that." I carefully said. Zeal shook his head with a smile.

"No, it's because I don't see the need to ruin their lives like that. I gave them a better home on Earth… but you won't ever leave this Isle, Xian." Zeal threatened me.

[System Alert! Corruption at 56%]

Shit.