CHAPTER 25: PREDATOR AND PREYS (2)

The man in the sky looked at the ensuing chaos a couple hundred feet under him with a cold glare, his ocean blue eyes contrasted nicely with the figmentation of the sky. He had both his hands crossed behind his back, he slowly paced through the sky like it was a world of his own.

"It’s easy to miss it when it’s right before your eyes. The distance between the ground and those at the top." He spoke to himself. His voice low and fluid like water, "Everyone who comes to the tower has a desire they want to attain, and a hunger within them. Very few will actually use their hunger, turn it to strength and become predators. The weaker ones actually succumbed to their hunger and cower, to be a worthy contender for the tower we need the best predators. Instead of four thousand livestock we need only 400 predators and from then an apex predator will rise. But which will it be?"

"Do you always talk to yourself like this?" Said a female voice from behind him. "Varrick was it?"

He turned around sharply and went on one knee, bowing down to the female figure before him. It almost seemed like he was kneeling on a very flat surface, but he was instead floating in thin air. "Your highness, I did not expect to be graced with your presence."

The figure was that of a tall elegant woman hidden behind a cloak and hood, on her hand was a small golden ring with a beautiful gem on it. It glowed faulty, the colour of the northern lights.

Her cherry red lips in a slight smile. "Indeed, why don’t you get up already. I’m actually here to see something for myself."

Varrick the Testmaster slowly rose to his feet and stared at her without any emotion in his face, "It’s not everyday a princess of the tower comes by and without a notice or an escort."

Unlike he who simply stood on the sky without swaying she was actually hovering around, on her legs were shoes with tiny wings connected to each side of them. They beat at a moderate speed, keeping her floating in the air for as long as she desired.

She clicked her tongue before replying to the Testmaster. "Cut the princess crap you, you are allowed to call me by my name." She turned her gaze towards the chaos beneath and simply absorbed the sight with a certain boredom in them. "Remember when we were down there? It wasn’t until the later trails that we met and you killed my sister."

Varrick looked back at the chaos beneath him, the words of the princess of the tower seemingly leaving him unfazed. He opened his mouth to speak but shut after a moment. A while passed before he opened it once more, "That was a long time ago, what does that have to do with you being here?"

She hovered a bit closer to him, by a few inches and said. "It doesn’t." She said nothing for a few more minutes and neither did he, the silence between them grew longer than it pushed the chaos beneath to the background.

The princess’s gaze drifted downward— to the chaos below where the true test unfolded.

Meanwhile deep down in the chaos was a white haired boy thrusting his rapier into the heart of a pale dark haired boy that lay on the ground. As entrancing as the scene was it did not matter much, it was merely a puddle in the ocean of madness growing in the endless forest of Calquin.

The floating panel currently reading:

[3209 CROSSERS REMAINING]

Hizan stood there for a few more seconds, his face distant and cold. Even after the sound of flesh being pierced he chose not to move, instead he let out a heavy sigh.

Beneath him Aerith screamed, "No, damn you!" Right on top of him was Nasha who had climbed up on top of him to take the brunt of the blade. Instead of going through his heart, it had gone into her left shoulder blade and got redirected into the ground barely grazing him on the arm.

"Why did you do that?" Aerith went feral, he sounded and looked the part of a wood animal. As helpless as he was, as mad as he had become one could easily say he already looked the part of a predator. "Nasha, don’t die on me."

The white prince showed no form of remorse as he attempted to pull out his rapier only to have it be stopped by Aerith’s iron clad grip. Not knowing what to do anymore, Aerith succumbed to his instinct and took hold of the blade, his arms clutch so tight to the blade that he could feel it cutting his skin like butter. He could tell that his fingers would be sliced off if just the right force was applied to it, but he didn’t care. Both his companions had put their lives on the line time and time again for him so what more did he have to lose.

His intentions were purely to not let his comrades suffer anymore. "Don’t you dare hurt them anymore, your fight is with me!" He barked at the white prince who had only being a saint until now.

The funny thing was the fact that he looked even more like one at the moment, he looked like an angel if vengeance shining beautifully in the world.

"You still don’t get it, it won’t matter if you’re weak." Hizan spoke after a very long session of silence but he wasn’t done just yet. "You don’t seem like you’re ready to die, prove me wrong."

Aerith did not want to admit it but he was very afraid of what would happen to him and his three companions. To make matters worse the white prince’s words confused Aerith till he saw a screen pop up before his face, it was the same panel that had appeared to him right after the tower granted him his abilities. This time the words read:

[The white prince wishes to transfer an artifact to you.]

Do you accept?

Aerith was left even more dumbfounded by the appearance of the screen panel, he looked up from it to the white prince who simply stared at him as if daring him to answer.

Whether it was on purpose or not, he answered the question without knowing.

The first screen panel dissolved into nothiness and there was silence, till he heard a loud chime of bells coming from somewhere in his head. Then another screen fizzled into thin air right before him.

[You have received an artifact "White plague"]

"What’s this?" As if to answer his question he watched the blade he was holding on to dissolve into white sparkles of light, each extinguishing till there was nothing left.

Hizan sighed once more and gave him one last look before walking away. "I hate it when I do stupid things."

"What did you do?" Aerith was still confused on whether he was being killed or not.

The white prince kept silence for a while that he feared he would never get an answer back, but fortunately for him he spoke. "Something stupid." He watched the white Prince’s fist ball into fists, "A gamble, that blade is my birthright. I’ll be taken it after you pass the first trail, so don’t die."

He started to walk away after that.

Aerith could not understand why he had done this, only a few seconds he wanted to know kill him but now he was entrsting him with his weapon. Who was the white prince and why did he act the way he did?

"Wait!" Aerith screamed as he climbed up to his feet and turned to face the white prince. "Why?" He said between deep breaths.

The white prince continued to walk as he spoke. "Just a hunch. Besides I have to find two strong contenders to be my teammates. And if I were you, I’d get out of there as soon as possible."

Then he disappeared into the blades of grass like he was never there. For a few more seconds, Aerith stayed there wondering if he was really an angel or not. Remembering Nasha’s condition he turned around to see Emilia already healing her.

"Will she be, fine?" He kicked himself in the gut for asking such a ludicrous question, she was in no way fine.

Emilia looked up at him, her huge beady eyes losing some there glow. "She will."

Aerith was now left to wonder why the white prince asked them to move as soon as possible. He wondered what he meant by that, if they dared move away from the safety of the boulder they would be walking into a fight they were ill prepared for.

Almost as he was about to make a rational decision the ground trembled violently, "what the hell!" He grunted as he tried to stabilise himself.

But what happened a few seconds after filled him with even more dread than he had eve expected. The boulder started to grow out of the ground in an odd manner that should have not been possible, then a voice came from within the rock.

"He’s finally gone, that demon of a boy using me like a seat." The voice was deep and throaty.

Aerith’s face widened in shock. "The rock really is alive."

He could see an hand growing out of the rock and another, they were huge and a like that of a sculpture, and soon a small round head protruded from the massive boulder with a strange sculpted face of a disfigured human being.

Aerith’s hands trembled by his sides. "This is what he meant, that bastard could have at least been a bit more specific. Am I going to have to fight a rock?" He was sure that somewhere in the sky someone was laughing at the irony of his situation.