And now we turn back time a little bit earlier, in the Kingdom of the Dead Souls, inside the vast desert…
A blurry black shadow and a red figure were moving at extremely high speed. The battle between them was fast, energetic and dangerous. It could be described like murderous aura permeated everywhere and each step they took was frightening.
BOOM… Powers collided.
K3's body was sluggish, taking several steps back in just a blink. This was the first time he wore the somber expression on his face. Scarlet light flashed on his right arm, and all of a sudden, a dragon's roar echoed in the air when a red dragon-shaped energy burst out.
Vahiru, which scattered in the air just now, gathered again to form his humanoid body. His purple face was filled with fear. He then crossed his arms, using a violet spiritual energy to shield his body, waiting for this tremendous attack.
The two of them had been fighting for long, but their strength and speed were constantly increasing. With better skills, K3 apparently gained the upper hand, and gradually, Vahiru couldn't hold it for more. This strike was the attack K3 thought he could use to determine the result.
The red dragon flaming fist was dashing forward with the aura that seemed to want to destroy both earth and firmament. Vahiru's defense was like a dead trunk that could be uprooted at any moment in the strong gust.
"You're worth praising for your endurance up to now." Although his strike wasn't finished, K3 had retrieved his murderous intention. In his eyes, this battle now ended. "Anyway, that's all you have."
Vahiru didn't leave any last words, and he also couldn't make K3 feel any surprise. In the end, he couldn't bear this formidable attack as his whole body was struck by the scarlet power, turning into a scattering black smoke, which then immediately transformed into dust, fell and became a part of the desert.
K3 brushed his hands indifferently. All of a sudden, he looked at the vast area in front of him and said, "You're hiding there long enough. Even if it's due to your courtesy, you should come out and greet me."
A dark area in the sky suddenly distorted and slowly moved just like someone pulled down a giant veil. A giant skull appeared at that spot and opened its mouth to let out a dry voice. "If you think it's necessary…" he answered K3.
When K3 saw his face, he confirmed the other's identity. "Turns out it's the leader. No wonder why you got here that quick."
Under the Dark Abyss Benighted King were the nine henchmen whose levels were lower than the Four Divine Pillars. They were called 'The Dead Souls Nine Chiefs'. The massive skull in front of K3 was the leader of the Dead Souls Nine Chiefs - Soul Seizer.
"Harrumph… Seeing one of your kind got killed, but you didn't even bat an eye?" K3 smiled.
"He's not my kind. You know this," answered Soul Seizer. "You and I are more like one kind."
"Oh right, after all, we are the data with uniqueness." He snorted coldly then pointed at the black dust Vahiru had left behind. "That idiot didn't understand the rules and righteously killed one of my Level 4 brothers," said K3.
"I'm so sorry," said Soul Seizer, "but Vahiru wasn't wrong. In his point of view, that's what he should do…" Soul Seizer sighed. "Each of us has our own age and missions, and Vahiru was just like a fleeting flame. Me myself and my master are the candles which will soon burn down. And you…" he paused for a moment, "you are a very great existence, far greater than us. If you have the capacity, you will have a chance to enter the 'Other World'. The data that can reach there can make its cycle of life unknown."
"The Other World isn't an eternal peaceful place," said K3.
"Compared to the group of data, which can see the end of their life at every second, it's not bad at all," said Soul Seizer. "To us, 'Unknown' is the most precious. What's called 'Life' is something uncertain. And, the 'answer' set up beforehand from the essence of mathematics is the sadness we will never get rid of. And the most tragic thing is… we are not even programmed to have the emotion called 'sad'."
"I think it's good, too," said K3. "That's why you can be calm to face what just happened. That's how you can perceive the past and the future, things that happened and what will come at the end."
"Well, perhaps…" Soul Seizer didn't continue this topic. "Now you need to return to another place… Let me open the space channel and send you away."
"Then… thanks for your trouble," answered K3.
From the other side, Feng Bujue's team took not more than ten minutes to get to the shrine in the mountain. Under the state in which they weren't affected by the illusion, they just mounted normally, and their speed was quite fast. With their capacity, it shouldn't be a problem for this group of six to be able to chase after the bus for three hundred miles. Thus, ten minutes was enough to climb the mountain, which didn't have a steep slope.
There was no story without coincidences. Right after they had just passed through the torii [1], a red light soared up from the Aggrieved Well. A dark, incomparable oppression that they found it hard to describe with language rippled from the well.
Everybody, including the GMs, was like they were rooted on the ground, unable to inch forward. This wasn't an effect of any skill or something that could be explained by physics.
Such experience that went beyond their five senses could have never been seen in any game before. The six people here, as human beings, now felt the 'murderous aura' in a virtual world connected to them by nervous system connection.
K3 - Hematite jumped up, standing on the well, looking at the different expressions from people standing down there. The right arm under his sleeve had been completed. A tattoo of a giant red dragon around his arm from the shoulder to the wrist was shimmering. The invisible aura surrounding him also had a faint ruby hue.
"Oh?" K3 counted the number of his opponents and suspiciously muttered, "The players didn't teleport…"
"You should have waited until we've updated the next step of the Main Quest to take action." Feng Bujue was the calmest among the six of them. He answered the other with a completely cool tone.
"It's so," said K3, "anyway… as things have come to this, it's okay though." He gently descended. "Ah, although I have to bear some particular restraints here, you are so… pathetically weak." He eyed his right arm. "Moreover, thanks to Vahiru, I've warmed up."
Galileo's face suddenly tensed up. "You guys…The situation's changed. Please give us a hand…" Apparently, he recognized that this was a Level 3 Derivative.
"If you say so, I have a perfect plan," answered Feng Bujue as if he had foreseen the case. While the others hadn't had time to react, he had stepped forward, threw his fists into the air, spread his legs and shouted, "The Pirate King! I'm on the top!"[The Protagonist's Halo has been transferred.]
[Player Feng Bujue - is the current holder of the Protagonist's Halo.]
Right after the notification arose, Feng Bujue said, "You guys can go now. I want to play one on one with him."
[1] A gateway of a shinto shrine
[2] (Luffy's line from One Piece - TL)