Just as he was about to throw the rope to hook it up to the window. A voice came from behind the crates. “I would suggest you not to try that.”

  He instantly panicked and pointed the blade towards the mysterious voice.

  There stood the leader who listed him off. Looking at him in disappointment.

  The man blamed him “This is all because of you. You… YOU RUINED EVERYTHING I HAD. IF IT WASN'T FOR THAT KID! I WOULD HAVE BEEN THE LEADER OF GROUP.”

  “So what? Are you going to kill him?”

  “SHUT UP! YOU THINK I CAN TURN BACK NOW?”

  “People are sleeping, quiet down. You can still walk free after disciplinary actions and charges and live your life. Think about it before your next actions.”

  …

  “I guess you are right,” he sighed as he dropped the rope.

  “Now If you are using your brain, let's go back—”

  A sudden attack came towards him aimed at his eyes trying to slash them as he barely dodged the blade. The leader's eyes widened for a moment as he looked towards the window in fear.

  “All I need is no witness to my crimes, hahah. Sorry but blame it on the kid. He is going to join you soon.” said the man with an odd expression of someone who was going insane.

  “You reek of alcohol" said the leader as the man was trying to attack him.

  He kept on trying to stab him with his dagger relentlessly.

  For the leader who had no armor on him, a small mistake could be enough to cause him his life.

  “Wasn’t it you who told us to be equipped at all times? You kept on talking big and training us. Look at you now. Ha. you came out here with nothing.”

  The leader remembered him drilling the soldiers to always be fully equipped and ready for battle at any time.

  The man mocked “I guess your own rules do not apply on you. This is why you will die now.”

  “Yea you are right… How silly of me.” said the leader

  “It's too late now for regrets.”

  “Do you remember what I taught you afterwards?” as he smirked, and continued “That you do not need fancy weapons or armor to defeat someone who is far weaker than you.”

  He grabs his hand which was thrusting the dagger towards him and pulls it towards him as he slides to his side and uses his leg to swipe him off his legs causing him to land face first to the ground in a single swift motion.

  “I will give you the last three lessons” said the leader as he lifted three fingers.

  “One is to stop running your mouth when you were not able to land a single hit on your opponent after multiple attempts.” as he closes one finger.

  “Second, Stop blaming other people for your own misery when you don’t know who you should be blaming in the first place.” he closes another finger as he charges his legs for a kick.

  “And lastly, it's your leader, you donkey.” as he hits him on head, knocking him out for good.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  He sat down collecting the rope and dagger and then turned his face towards the window where the kid was staying.

  “I guess I didn’t needed to wait out here all night in the cold.” said the leader.

  … No response came.

  “Hey, how long are you planning to hide? I was able to feel your blood lust for a second back there.”

  A figure with red eyes appears walking towards the window.

  It was Ananke standing there looking down from the window at them.

  Ananke said smilingly ‘I was just looking but I guess I can trust you to take care of matters till the end.’ to the leader.

  “Haha… Of course I would, ”

  ‘Did you know he would come?’

  “Just for reassurance… or else the kids will have to suffer for the laziness and irresponsibility of adults. I mean which kind of adult would I be if I let the kid who my unit wronged die by my own hands. I guess the slap and void incident was also my fault.”

  ‘You are being too harsh on yourself. But that is also why I can trust you.’

  “While we are at it. Did you know he would come? I mean what kind of adult would you be if you just went on sneaking into the kids room.” as he teased him.

  ‘Spear me. She would kill me for that. I was here just by chance.’

  “Just by chance huh… whatever you say”. He smiled and looked at the next window as he thought “I guess I was late” but he looked at him with a serious tone as he said “So how is he?”

  ‘He is having an unusually high fever. I am cooling him down. I guess he is going through the 2nd stage already.’

  The leader questioned with confusion “what is 2nd stage?”

  ‘Oh yea i forgot people don’t know that. It’s like a stage you go through when you reject the hero's awakening.’ As he looked at the kid inside the room, the tavern owner, Rhina was sitting on the floor sleeping while she rested her head on the bed and had a blanket positioned like someone placed it over her.

  “Oh I see… wait, He rejected what again?”

  The kids eyes were shut tightly as he was still inside the endless suffocating in water and was in agony. His body felt some warmth from the hand and another hand kept on appearing and disappearing as it was being eaten by darkness. It provided some warmth, almost like a rhythm and signal. The girl's voice kept on echoing. No matter how soothing or calming the voice was, no one wanted to keep on hearing the same sound over and over repeating the same word every few moments… well it was still better than those who were insulting him.

  ‘I guess this might be hell for sure this time.’ The kid thought as the cold water cleaned the inside of his lungs.

  A voice that was distinct and clear from others ‘Give Up and end your suffering. I will take care of you’ in an odd noise, almost wanting to be posed as gentle and calming but was distorted for some reason, hurtful, like trying to sound good and went away after each echo for some time and repeating the same thing.

  A sound of something dropping into the water appeared. He opened his eyes as he saw an odd looking pure black orb that was inside the ice chunk now heading towards him as it slowly sank. After a long time, the orb looked like hope to him.

  It felt as if his own body was not in his control as he fought for control over it and with the arms, he would not be able to move even if he tried.

  A few of the shadow-like arms start to extend towards the black orb trying to grab it but they bounce right off and start getting absorbed into it. The small voices that echoed stopped and screamed as they were eaten by the Orb.

  The orb slowly descended towards him, it looked like it was sinking and absorbing the water around into it endlessly.

  The kid thought to himself ‘Is it… eating away the water?’ as he felt happy.

  But he realized it would eat everything in its way… even him. He tried to move away from it as he struggled but being wrapped and restrained, he was not able to move.

  Even his muscles were not listening to him and felt trapped like a bird in a cage having wings to roam the sky but no freedom to do so.

  The orb slowly descended and soon reached just above his chest, almost eating him whole… or it should had.

  The dark orb had a faint white liquid-like mist around it and soon reached just above his chest and started to enter his body. It was painful. As if his inside and outsides were being torn apart.

  The both female and girl voices echoed again but into ‘endure it’ and repeated.

  The kid screamed in agonizing pain as he tried to free himself but no matter what he tried, it was useless.

  But neither the voice or the pain stopped. It went on for a long time as he soon started losing his mind. The darkness slowly engulfed the kid's eyes making him blind. As the voice echoed ‘Join me to ease your suffering’ and it kept on repeating it like a broken record