Bab 47: The Culling
Around the world, Awakened and unawakened alike gawked at their Status screens. Most had sweaty palms, felt a tightening in their chest, and dealt with sporadic bouts of queasiness.
Why?
The timer displayed on their Status screen was coming to an end.
In fact, only four minutes remained.
As a result, many of the returnees decided to get together. If the Land of Trees taught them anything, it was the importance of preparation.
They already knew that the Status contained the power to forcibly teleport them to wherever and that's precisely what most of the Awakened believed would happen. What else could the timer mean if not another challenge?
With this thought in mind, the various clicks and groups formed during their stay in the jungle reunited — which included our cohort, of course.
Apart from Lily. You know, sixteen years old — not exactly 'let's fight a war' material.
That and her parents said no.
'Which is fair.' Cain thought to himself while zoning out of the mundane conversation Olive and the rest were having.
Cain also didn't possess a timer in his Status — obviously due to his special System — but that made this situation far more interesting to him. Why was he excluded? If the rest were teleported away, would he be stuck here alone?
He was curious to find out.
Thus far, Cain has taken an observatory approach throughout this reincarnation debacle.
'Go with the flow.' As they say.
It was odd to say the least, how dull Cain reacted to his reincarnation, to his System, to Olive.
In fact, the situation alone that he was in a parallel and yet not so parallel reality was mind boggling enough, but Cain accepted it rather readily.
'Why wouldn't there be multiple realities?' Cain asked himself.
He had seen his world perish; lived through armageddon. As far as he was concerned, this was basically armageddon 2.0 with a new and improved Status to help along the way. Not only that, but this world's apocalypse didn't even affect their world itself?
Could you believe that? What a cheap roll!
Sure, magic was a little scary — Cain still gets a runner's high everytime he releases a |Corrupt Slash| and feels the warm current of energy burst from his fingertips. It's an addicting power, yet also one of the most dangerous.
And thanks to his new identity as a demon, his lax demeanor complimented his situation quite well. Of course, he still had his to-do list, especially after the bust in Egypt.
Meeting Anubis was cool and all, but Cain didn't actually get anything. Anubis himself told Cain to come back when the time was right, how Cain was supposed to know when that was? He hadn't a clue.
Luckily, he had devised a master plan to earn money!
"Ten!"
"Nine!"
Sudden shouting brought Cain's attention back.
Olive, Isaac, and Church counted down together while sat around Isaac's dining room table. Before them, a countryside feast prepared by Isaac's wife littered their pristine white plates.
In the center of the white-clothed table, candles burned subtly and enhanced the depths of color found in their glasses of red wine.
"Two!"
"One!"
Alongside the cohort, Cain tensed in anticipation. Gritting his teeth, he stared at his surroundings and awaited a miraculous change.
Cain waited and waited, but nothing of the extraordinary elapsed. He cast his gaze towards his friends?
'Friends might be pushing it.' Cain thought to himself.
Mouth agape, the rest of the cohort had their eyes glued to their Status screen.
"So?" Cain interrupted. Yes, they knew his Status didn't show the timer, but that was easily explained through the fact that he was summoned by Olive.
"The Gate has been opened." Isaac read off the Status screen.
"That's it?" Cain asked, "Why do you guys look so shocked then?"
"It's giving us the option to teleport to the next World." Church butt in.
"Oh… Yeah that seems important." Cain said.
"I'm going." Olive made up her mind.
"Wait a second —" Church said, "Olive!"
Before he could finish, however, Olive vanished from her Victorian chair around Isaac's dining table.
"God damn it!" Church yelled.
"I'm telling you, Isaac! I'm sick of her!"
"Oh quit your whining." Isaac sighed, "Let her be determined. It's good for her."
"Good for her?!" Church thrashed his arms in protest.
"She could be in God knows where! Fighting God knows what!"
"Then why don't we go watch over her?" Isaac smiled.
"HONEY?!!" Isaac roared at a volume that somehow shook the dining table.
"WHAT?!!" A faint lioness screamed in response, clearly somewhere off in the distance.
Church looked at Isaac incredulously.
"You're going back?" He mumbled to himself.
"We're going back." Isaac jabbed Church in the shoulder.
Then, Mrs. Carlin stepped into the dining room.
Isaac kissed her goodbye and promised his return. Before teleporting away, however, Isaac looked at Cain.
"Why are you still here?" He asked.
"I require a ritual to be summoned." Cain shrugged. "I tweaked it a little for Olive so it shouldn't be too difficult anymore, but I'm staying to extort the government."
*DING*
A notification lit their smartphones.
Pulling his phone from his light washed jeans, Cain read the message.
"It's from Sutty —" Cain said, "the Gate you mentioned, it opened in Greenland. Where we were brought back actually."
Cain clicked on the image sent after the text.
It depicted an arch made of gold — pure and glossy. Underneath the sun, the gold pillars glowed within the frost-plagued land of Greenland. Between the archway, however, there weren't any gates at all.
In fact, the Gate was already opened and beyond its pillars laid a familiar carnage. The bottom floor of the black pyramid where human and Goblin corpses alike rotted and decayed, many of which were cut up and churned into various different pieces.
Suddenly, three text bubbles appeared beneath the image.
Director Adams blessed the returnee group chat with another message.
"To those who remain — I call a Council meeting." The text read, "Meet me in Greenland."
Isaac and Church held a blank stare for far too long. Re-reading the messages and studying the picture once more, Isaac and Church simultaneously thought 'well this changes things.'
Isaac shook his head.
'It changes nothing.' He scoffed to himself.
"Church. You go to Greenland. I know we don't have as much authority as we once did, but try to keep Sutton in check, will you? Meanwhile, I'll accompany Olive." Isaac decided in an instant.
Before Church could respond yet again, Isaac too vanished from the dining room.
Now, only Cain and Church remained and as he had front-row seats to the cohort's spectacle, Cain unknowingly smirked watching the vein in Church's forehead grow.
Noticing the disrespect, Church glared at the demon.
"Don't look at me like that." Cain shook his head, "That was funny."
"Now come on, let's head to Greenland." Cain said, "I just thought of an even better idea to make money!"
***
Olive opened her eyes within a forest. Mundane oak tree's littered the landscape atop uncut vibrant stocks of green grass. Wind blew through the forest, rustling both the trees and the grass. As a result, leaves and acorns could be seen shedding off the trees and plummeting to the ground.
Olive pushed her arms against the breeze. The wind fluttered her hair and caused her clothes to dance. Meanwhile, fields of dandelions grew beneath her feet — poking through the thick stocks of grass and enchanting her environment.
Due to the wind, the pappus of the dandelion (the parachute like seeds) danced wildly in the wind and spread throughout the sky. Around her, Olive watched in awe as hundreds of little white balls caressed the forest and soared high above the bushy leaves of the oak trees.
Thus far, everything appeared normal.
Her landscape appeared to be some sort of valley as, off in the distance, open hills of grass hung underneath this world's horizon. In addition to the Window's-esque scenery, the sky similarly remained light blue and puffy white clouds slowly made their way across the world.
Before Olive could decide on a direction to travel in, Isaac instantaneously appeared next to her.
Soaking in a deep breath, Isaac admired their surroundings.
"The air is magnificent here." Isaac commented.
"It does seem nice —" Olive replied, "but I'm sure there's something dangerous lingering in these woods."
"Oh absolutely," Isaac agreed, "but that's why we're here is it not?" Isaac flashed a cheeky smile.
"Also, a little more happened before you left. The Gate that opened, it's the Gate leading back to the Land of Trees and it opened in Greenland."
Olive nodded her head.
"Does that mean the Goblins can now escape to Earth?" Olive asked.
"Presumably —" Isaac agreed, "but I'm sure Sutton will deal with it. It is his job now, after all."
Olive nodded along, her black eyes still inspecting the forest around.
"By the way, how exactly do you summon Cain?" Isaac asked.
"At first I had to sacrifice a loved one…" Olive responded candidly, "but Cain changed it so I can use my own blood, although it sure as hell is a lot of it."
"So Summer?" Isaac stumbled.
"Yeah." Olive looked down.
"I'm sorry." Isaac pressed his palm against Olive's shoulder.
"People die," Olive shrugged his hand off, "it happens to everyone."
"Olive —"
"She was gonna die anyway!" Olive cut him off. "I'm over it."
Isaac sighed.
"We should wait." He changed topics. "It's odd we're the only two who accepted teleportation."
"You think?" Olive disagreed.
"You don't?"
"The rest never accepted it like us. You know that." Olive argued.
"Yes but superpowers are a hard thing to pass up." Isaac believed.
*DING*
A notification resounded within our two protagonist's heads.
Simultaneously opening their Status, the two Awakened read intensely.
[Tutorial Complete]
[Congratulations]
[Welcome To The Culling]
[Searching For Opponent. . .]
[Searching For Opponent. . .]
[Opponent Found]
[Commencing Summoning]
Through the transparent Status screen that hovered in front of Olive's eyes, Olive witnessed a slew of bodies spring to life!
Seemingly from the breeze itself, countless people appeared in the fields of dandelions that encompassed most of the wide-open valley. As they arrived, various facial expressions could be seen strewn across their visages.
Most however, were contaminated with disbelief.
At this time, a similar thought ran through the minds of the new arrivals.
'The United Nations was telling the truth!'
///LostNoteFound///
Happy Friday!!!! Thanks to WalkingBush, Hooverfh, and DevilGod_of_Chaos for the stones!!
Have a great weekend!
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