Chapter Twenty Eight

Silvari freezes in fear as blood drips down her face slowly, pieces of white matter in the mix. A black blur flashes past her as Mai lunges at the Sin of Pride, holding one of her black Annihilammer in both hands.

Garuth faces the little girl with a bored expression on his face. He lazily raises his right arm to grab the hammer. 'Not a hint of fear. She shows promise, or is she blinded by rage. The shield bearer as well, he stood against me. Maybe I shouldn't have killed him, strength like his-'

The Sin of Pride is brought out of his musings as his hand makes contact with the hammer. 'EHH?'

The first thing he notices is the weight behind the hammer. Garuth had to check to be sure just who held the hammer.

The hammer clashes against his hand in a show of strength that completely shocks the Sin of Pride. His hand strains to hold back the hammer as his muscles begin screaming. 'what... is this?'

His hand is immediately covered in an ember hue as he coats it in mana. The strain lessens to a degree and Garuth stands his ground with a breath of relief.

|| Double Impact ||

Garuth's eyes open in shock as his fingers cracks, then breaks, his hand following suit, after which his entire arm practically implodes on itself as the Sin of Pride is sent flying through the air, crashing into the far wall with a thunderous impact. Dust and debris fill the courtyard, the sheer force of Mai's attack leaving a deep crater in the wall.

The rest of the Sins stand rooted to the spot, each of their minds struggling to process the rapid turn of events. The Sin of Pride, one of the most powerful beings they've ever known, and the strongest of them had been overpowered by a child. Their eyes dart to Mai, who lands gracefully on the ground, tears streaming down her eyes as they blaze with fury.

Then an impossible voice cuts into the air that sends chills down the spines of anyone who was not a member of Maple Tree. "That was... something. Good to know that Dead or Alive works, hmmm... so that leaves two huh, I think I get it... huh, why're you staring so much?" Yui scrambles to her feet, her fear instantly forgotten as she rushes to to a whole Chrome's side. "Chrome!!" she yells, her voice trembling.

Silvari gasps numbly, her eyes fixed on the spot where Chrome sat, consoling a crying Yui. "I... I don't... wha." she whispers, her voice barely audible.

Mai stands her ground, her hammer still poised for another strike. Her gaze never leaves the rubble where Garuth had landed, her body was tense but a smile manages to make it's way to her face, one she quickly discards. "Don't come any closer," she warns, her voice low and dangerous.

The knights, who had been mere spectators to the battle, now step back in fear and awe. Vale, still recovering from his own injuries, can only watch in stunned silence. The other representatives, including the Sins, look on with varying expressions of shock and curiosity.

The Sin of Lust finds herself in a daze as she begins to comprehend what had happened. She turns to a trembling Rory who speaks her thoughts out loud. "Am I the only who saw that?"

Facing the Sin of Wrath, Thalion wipes off the sweat from his neck as he replies. "If you mean the giant skeleton that looks scarier than the actual king of bones, then yes I think we all saw."

Kaelith narrows her eyes. "That little girl... she overpowered Garuth."

The Sin of Envy turns to Namarie with a questioning gaze. "One of yours?" Namarie chuckles with a teasing smile. "Not entirely... They're adventurers I hired for this meeting." Varkos raises an eyebrow to this. "So... no ones then."

Hamarie turns to her sister's amused figure. "I have to say, they're... rather intriguing. Although, Varkos, it's a little early to-" she trail off as she notices her breath leaving her mouth as a cold fog with every word, her body finally registering the growing chill.

Hamarie slowly moves her gaze to the source of the chill, and her heart stops, then begins racing. Every instinct in her body screaming at her to run away and never look back, yet at the same time, those same instinct brought with it an intense wave of pleasure as she stared at the darkening entity in the form of a little girl.

That's right, the rest of the Sins finally notice the dropping temperature as they watch Maple lose all colors, literally, her body began absorbing light around her leaving a small shade of black and white around her.

Hamarie manages a thought. 'What have you done sister?' her mind scrambled from the clashing instincts.

Monarcha tilts his helmeted head upwards, gazing at the darkening sky. If he was still human, the others would have noticed his shocked face, after all, there were suddenly two Suns. Right next to the usual bright golden Sun, there was a pale blue Sun shining just as brightly. 'No.' he thought, 'It's just one.'

Garuth emerges from the rubble, his body radiating a fierce aura. His right arm hangs limply at his side, a testament to the force of Mai's attack. His eyes, however, burn with an curiosity that sends shivers down Silvari's spine. "Reset," he growls, his arm slowly hisses, then it seems to glitch out of reality, instantly whole again.

Mai raises her hammer, ready for the next assault, but before she can react, a figure steps between her and the Sin of Pride, Chrome raises his shield as he directs a glare at Garuth.

Garuth's eyes betray his surprise as he stares at the great shielder before him. 'That one lives?' A small gleam appears in his eyes as he charges Chrome, his entire body now ablaze.

Then the world froze over.

////

'Wha... What just happened?' those were Maple's thoughts as she watched one her closest friend drop to the ground, DEAD.

'He was just... everything was... why?' Maple knew they were in another world, where they could die just as easily as it's occupants. And yet.

|| Alert ||

|| %N Divinity Increasing ||

|| %N Divinity Unstable ||

|| Creating forced Connection ||

|| Expending Energy ||

|| MAPLE TREE GUILD || Lv 1

Members

Maple - Guildmaster✓

Chrome✓

Yui✓

Mai✓

•Sally•×

•Kasumi•×

•Iz•×

•Kanade•× ||

|| MAPLE TREE GUILD || Lv 1

Members

Maple - Guildmaster✓

Chrome✓

Yui✓

Mai✓

Sally✓

•Kasumi•×

•Iz•×

•Kanade•× ||

Maple ignored the notifications as they appeared. Her head spun as she felt a heat in her chest. Whispers clouded her thoughts< why... why... why... Chrome... he's... gone... gone... gone... dead... dead... dead... dead... dead... killed... killed... killed... He killed him.>

The heat grew into a blistering pain as she saw Mai smash the killer into a wall.

Then she heard his voice, Chrome was alive, his skill had saved him. The pain instantly vanished as she saw he was alright.

Then the killer stood up. Maple watched as reality seemed to rewrite itself and he immediately looked untouched even after taking a hit from Mai. Maple's heart immediately raced, her thoughts in a frenzy, the whispers returned< he'll kill them... again... again... again... stop... stop... stop... stop... stay away... stooooop...>

She ran her mind through her skills, trying to remember any skill to protect them.

If Maple was in her right mind, she would have noticed the plethora of skills she had that would have resolved the problem, however, after seeing reality bend to the Sin of Pride's will, she poured all of her power into stopping him.

And thus.

|| Zone Freeze ||

////

Risa crossed the street as the light turned green. The crossing guard waved at her, as he had been doing the past. Risa gave a slight smile and continued on her way just as she been doing the past few months.

When Risa heard the news, she was scared, then worried and finally heart broken. Three months ago her best friend went missing, her last known location was in the game, new world online, right before their monthly update. Kaede had just finished her Western Union Examination Terminal. W.U.E.T

She had made such a big fuss about it, Since she was taking it a year early alongside their upperclassmen. Risa was surprised Kaede would graduate before her, although she believed Kaede's parents had a hand in that.

Kaede had devoted her time to study, completely different than before when she didn't have to study that much as she was incredibly brilliant.

The two months without Maple doing something crazy in the game was boring to say the least, they'd had two events and Maple Tree didn't participate in any of them without their leader.

When Kaede finished her exams, Risa was so excited to play in new world online with her best friend again, they called each other that afternoon to meet up in the game but when she logged in, Maple never appeared.

The next day she found out her friend was missing, along with three of her friends, Kuromu, a civil servant, and Mai and Yui, home schooled twins with a poor constitution. There were other people missing as well but Risa didn't care.

The next few months were spent searching, lots of investigations were made on the missing people, but none of them yielded fruit, with three months of searching and no leads, the investigation slowly died down.

Risa turned into her block, her house in the distance. A small ray of light flashed past her eyes, so she blocked the sun with her hand. "Huh?... there's two Suns?" From the gaps in her fingers Risa could see a pale blue Sun shining right next to the usual golden one. "No... it's one again?" She blinked, and the sky returned back to normal.

Looking around, she noticed that no one else seemed to have seen the same thing she did. "I must be more tired than I thought." She turned back to her house and she froze at the figure in front of it.

"Kaede?"

Right in front of her house, Risa saw Kaede... no she saw Kaede's character, Maple walking past her house.

Risa rubbed her eyes and stared again, but the figure kept walking. Without hesitation Risa ran after the figure. 'Wait.'

Risa ran past her house chasing after her best friend. 'Please, Kaede.'

The figure walked into an intersection and Risa followed, she could hear the screams but she didn't care.

*Hooooonk*

The truck slammed into the store beside the intersection, the driver staggering out. People rushed to the scene, hoping to get the girl out.

When the truck was pulled out, there was no Body alive or dead.

On that day, Risa Shiromine went missing.