Adrian’s mind buzzes, his steps falter. His mind instantly sobers up a little, but the buzz is still there. Heating him from the inside and making thoughts harder and harder to form.

  Chaos seems to erupt around him. Panicking people, glowing lights; the settlement seems to come alive. A feeling of being drawn somewhere takes over him. It’s like a lullaby, dragging his body, and his half drunken mind into it.

  The stars are gone, and the lullaby remains. Adrian realises that it’s not a lullaby. It’s a sob song, crying for the dead stars.

  A force suddenly yanks him awake, throwing him to a slide across the branch. Ji-a walks by him, pulling him up, whispering in his ears. “Do you have any free points?”

  “Ye-yes, do you want some?” Adrian says drunkenly.

  “No idiot! Put them in Resistance. Sober up instantly!” Her voice is kinda funny, and Adrian thinks that perhaps it's not him, but she who’s drunk. The more rational part of his mind kicks in at that instant, and invests 5 points into Resistance.

  Resistance: 6

  Instantly a coolness flows through his body, fighting against the influence of the alcohol, and although he isn’t completely sober yet, he can think and he can understand.

  And his eyes suddenly pass at the spot where he had been standing just a while ago. Even in this darkness, Adrian’s Mind stat is enough to pierce through a lot of darkness and with more and more torches being lit, the darkness is slowly fading away.

  But there is a spot in the world where light seems to be afraid to enter. It’s darker than anything he has ever seen, scarier than any night, and it seems to be crying a sad song.

  There is a hole in the world, and it is singing.

  Am I still drunk?

  He looks at Ji-a, and now that he’s a bit more sober, he can tell that she is still definitely drunk.

  “Hey, you should sober up too! It is not safe like this,” Adrian says, his avatars falling beside him in a protective cover. He creates a few more just to be sure, but his reserves are running low from the day’s work. He barely has 60-70 points left.

  “I-I can’t. I need to stay like this,” Ji-a mutters, and he can’t understand why, but he doesn’t question her decisions, only nods and orders a few avatars to surround her in protection too.

  That is when he hears it. A blade tearing through flesh, a distant cry, and then a dull thud. Adrian looks to his left, and finds the woman in the other branch suddenly not there.

  He brings out his blade, the Mind Crasher already handed to one of the avatars for safekeep. Ji-a also stirs around him, but he can’t count on her for any combat oriented help in this situation.

  He keeps his avatars alert and ready for any intrusion to their space, while he tries to help Ji-a descend from the branch they are standing on. The branch is thick, but it is not thick enough for a proper fight. And with that hole around him, he does not wish to take any more unwanted risk.

  Adrian adds 11 points into Mind just for some extra perception and clarity to his mind. His Mind has already been at 39 due to his two level ups from today, pushing him to lvl 13. With the extra 11 points, his Mind finally crosses into the 50s, and a new sensation blossoms in his mind.

  Suddenly it seems like the darkness is less dark, and more of a black and white picture, but the black is faded, almost grey now. The world seems so clear, and in that clarity he sees a shadow moving towards him.

  Before the shadow can slip past his avatars, he turns and slashes at it, only missing by an inch as the shadow darts away.

  “There is someone here. Just stay here, don’t get involved. I’ll take care of it,” Adrian says to Ji-a, who still finds the act of standing straight hard. He himself is starting to feel the alcohol less and less with time.

  The shadow tries the sneak attack a few more times, and realising that it is easily seen through, finally drops the act. A small and slender man appears in his place. A battle robe covering him, he has pale skin and delicate features.

  “So your Mind is already over 50. This is going to be a little difficult,” He says, not stopping for even an instant, as he blitzes forward, his speed catching Adrian off-guard.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Under the pale man’s blade, one of his avatars falls, but the others quickly surround him. Adrian dives deeper and deeper into his focus, as the world grows more and more faded in front of him. Only the fight matters in that instant.

  The man slashes through his avatars like they are butter, moving like a flowing river of shadows. One of the avatars tries to catch his arms, and the other kicks him in the head, but the man suddenly diffuses into a puff of shadows, appearing a little further away.

  He pushes the avatars off the branch, cuts them, and moves through them like water. Adrian adds his remaining point into Mystic gaining 90 more mana points, and creates 5 more avatars, then pushes one of them to defend Ji-a, while he himself joins the fight.

  Looking at him come, the man bee-lines towards him, his sword raised high and ready to cut through his neck. As the sword comes towards his neck and Adrian does nothing, he can see a small triumphant smile bloom on his face, which suddenly changes into one of shock.

  An arm emerges out of Adrian’s neck, and grips the sword before it can gather enough momentum; even then it cuts deeper into it, almost bisecting it. Using the moment of surprise, one of his avatars swiftly puts the Mind Crasher on his head, the eight legs of the artifact quietly digs into his head, but they are not deep enough to penetrate the skull.

  The man is about to move away, but then a force locks him in place, keeping him still.

  In any other case, he would’ve been able to get rid of it and get away to safety. But currently he’s still, and in direct line of sight with Adrian.

  Prison.

  A snap follows a yellow lantern covering his opponent, the mind battle easily won by Adrian.

  His assassin hovers inside, dumbfounded and trying to break through. He screams and tries to move his body, to get rid of the Mind Crasher, but all of his efforts prove fruitless.

  Adrian breaks out of the focus, the world becoming a bit richer, as he comes back to reality. As time flows normally inside the prison, the 5 minute requirement will be easy to complete now that he has him captured.

  Adrian looks at Jia whose hands are still up in his direction.

  “Thank you for the save there. He might’ve gotten away otherwise,” Adrian says.

  “I had to do it,” She says, and plops down on the branch.

  Adrian orders one of the avatars to check if she’s hurt, while he too sits on the branch for the lookout of any danger, or any more assassins.

  Timer is a skill of his that hasn’t seen much use in the past week or two since he has gained it. Its use is quite obsolete for what he has been doing these days, but today he uses it to count how long his prisoner has been inside.

  The accuracy of the skill has increased a lot compared to the first day, as he is now able to get a good estimate down to the seconds. Perhaps if the prisoner was older, the accuracy might decrease, but right now Adrian enjoys himself as the timer slowly ticks to 5 minutes.

  Inside the prison, the man’s resistance too increases with time. As if he too understands that something very bad is about to happen to him, he tries to remove the Mind Crasher, but the stats which he has relied on until now seem to be working against him.

  And as the Timer reaches 5 minutes, Adrian dispels the Prison, and watches as the Mind Crasher’s legs dig all the way inside the man with a final strike. The man falls on the ground after a brief yelp, his body convulsing as if receiving a shock.

  Unfortunately for him, he is by all means already dead, and yet alive for just a few more minutes.

  Adrian walks closer to the convulsing man, Ji-a too stumbles towards him. Adrian watches her sit there, poking at his almost dead body.

  “So, how do you wanna kill him?” Ji-a asks as she walks toward him.

  “What do you think would be the most painless one? The poor body has already suffered much, I’d rather the last moments be a painless one,” Adrian shrugs. His shoulders feel a little sore.

  “I could’ve de-cap-i-ta-ted it in one go if I was sober, but now it’ll just be messy. Really, anything will be messy the way I am. Also it cannot feel anything dummy,” Ji-s says, very carefully pronouncing the word ‘decapitated’.

  “It’s okay, I can ask one of the avatars to kill him. You can just sit here and enjoy the view,” Adrian says.

  “Noooo I need to kill him. At least the last shot!” Ji-a pleads.

  “Okay okay! Do what you want, I’m just gonna sit here and rest for a while, if you don’t mind,” Adrian leaves her with the body, watching her drunk mind come up with ways to kill the guy. Adrian finds that she’s a lot more expressive when drunk.

  The music of the hole behind him fills the mood. Beneath them surely many people are dying, places being lit on fire, and here he sits with a drunk, a dead body to be killed even more, and crying black hole.

  Would he die if pushed into the hole?

  He shares the plan with Ji-a, and she looks at him with a brightened expression. “Ah yes! That would be perfect!”

  “Let’s do it then!” Adrian’s avatars pull the still convulsing body near the black hole. He can feel a small amount of attraction force pulling his real body into the black hole through the avatars. He closes his eyes and experiences the strange feeling for a while.

  Then a strong hand pushes the body into the black hole, and pulls the avatars away.

  Adrian snaps his eyes open, gasping. For a moment, he takes in the world around him, still coming in terms with what he just witnessed.

  Truly magical. Truly dangerous.

  “Hey!” A voice cuts through his consciousness, and he looks at Ji-a, who appears much less drunk now. “Did that complete your stupid ritual?

  Only then does he come back to what they had been doing here. A tiny dot pings him at the edges of his screen, so he brings it forward, and reads the messages.

  You have killed Human Derby (lvl 18)

  You are the highest contributor in the fight.

  You have levelled up! Manifold Warden lvl 14

  Ritual completed! Sacrifice the cores to begin the Upgrade of Avatar.

  #