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Volume 5

Chapter 223: Discovered

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Siva wasn’t stupid.

Now that he knew and accepted his own weaknesses and that those weaknesses, which also served as his strong points, has been stolen and was used against him, he had no other choice but to endure and think of ways on how to turn the tables around.

He had to admit that of all the Users he’d fought so far, Hagrid and Kladis, and perhaps all members of the Blue Card Legion, including the “Little Witch” Coralline, Archmage Heller, and then The Predator from Dragona who gave him a frightening feeling close to that of a real-life murderer —all these people are ways and levels and seas and skies better in fighting inside Terroa than the current him.

They have tricks and tactics, and their own personal strengths that he has yet to know or see, against him that could immediately turn his advantage into a disadvantage.

For the umpteenth time ever, Siva once again felt weak and helpless.

It was infuriating.

This feeling of being pathetic and powerless to resist and turn things around to his favor whenever he needed it, was like a hammer with sticking nails hitting his chest and making him bleed from within.

What if he falls here?

What if they hurt Baron?

What if they broke Amanda?

What if everything he’s endured and worked for all this time, on the spur of a critical moment, turns to cinders and burn to the ground?

What if… Baron dies in Terroa?

He felt his body shiver to the tooth. It was too painful of an idea.

As infuriating as it may seem, no matter how much he screamed and roar and cry out of anger, nothing will ever turn to his favor if he wasn’t strong enough.

“I… have to get stronger…” Siva cursed to himself.

Looking at Kladis right now, as they were tangled at each other’s throats, just moments after he saw with his own eyes how his proud [Death Scythe] disintegrated into countless black motes, he couldn’t help but to get a little panic rise up in his chest.

His cover had been blown and he lay there wide-eyed, prone and bare, mind reeling, thinking of ways on how to turn this situation around.

“What should I do?” he thought bitterly. “Should I go all-out right now and try to kill him or still wait a bit more?”

*****

“So that’s why you’re weak! You’re really not an Immortal! I knew it. I knew it! I KNEW IT!!! You’re not Donar. You’re Dilim from The Company!”

Kladis kicked Siva in the chest and they parted, the latter gritting his teeth in pain.

Siva wanted to say something but he stopped himself.

Did he really not doubt Donar in the slightest?

He swayed his left arm as he staggered to gain balance as soon as their deadlock collapsed.

“Haah… Haah… Gugh!!” Siva was trying to conceal his short breaths as he panted from the throbbing agony.

This pain was too real.

Unlike other players of Terroa, even including Amanda, all Users of the NLD… have their security protocols active while his and Baron’s were removed.

It was the difference between him and them.

Kladis was no exception.

Removing these limiters to the function of the NLD puts so much stress and [sense of reality] to the User.

Such NLD, to these Users, makes the Virtual World a complete alternate reality to them. Every sensation is real and is directly transmitted to the brain —that’s why this was a procedure only used either for controlled experimental situations, or the use of the DNI Therapy.

“Grgh!”

Although Siva has already had a lot of similar painful fights in the past, he had never been stabbed by a Legendary Weapon before.

He could feel his blood dripping on his sleeve but instead of it pouring down like mad, it was seeping out from the wound by drips and drizzles… with the pain being so much that his vision was slipping from blurry to blackened oblivion.

Beyond that pain was a more agonizing feeling coming from the wound on his shoulder.

A cold, permeating feeling!

It was a cold penetrating sensation that makes his entire shoulder down to his arm immobilized and rendered like a wood with nerves!

This pain… is making him more and more angry.

He gritted his teeth and quickly drank two red and blue potions then summoned the Godhammer on his left hand as he waited for the freezing effects on his wound to heal and lose its bitter effects.

He had no cure to this magical effect but he wasn’t a complete newbie when it comes to Terroa. He at least knew that it wasn’t a forever-thing.

But it was a fatal wound, and yet, Kladis did not follow up an attack nor even fired his gun at him.

He only stood there, wearing his armor with a falcon’s face on his right shoulder, and began cursing.

Kladis… was really looking down at him.

This is an absolute unbridled arrogance!

Right now, electricity was grounding his mind.

“This guy…”

All of the mental processors in the deepest parts of his faculties were all heating up, telling him that one simple and single important fact: Kladis wasn’t joking.

He was dead… serious!

Siva’s mind spun. It’s like seeing your peanut butter sandwich suddenly gain sentience and recite the law of quantum physics phrase by phrase!

Siva thought for possible ways, consequences, clues, and even signs from Kladis. The seconds felt so fast and his mind was working hard to think. He could even feel himself sweating.

And then, he thought to himself… He thinks I am Dilim from the illusionary “The Company”…!!

I created Dilim.

I created Donar.

Everything Kladis spoke about… is created by me.

I’d assume that he’d already realized this by now, that Dilim is Donar and the real person behind Donar is the character that enslaved those guilds named Dilim.

His ideas about Dilim are under my control…!

A trepid smile beamed on his lips under that cloak.

“You really are simple minded, are you?”

The remark ticked Kladis’ patience and it added to the layers of irritation on his chest.

Kladis was used to flattery and reverence so when he was called ‘simple minded’ it really ticked him off. But more than that, he reflected to the word and thought why Dilim called him that.

After a while, he laughed a loud. “Ahaha… that’s right, I was blind.” After that, a scowl of anger was worn on his face. “How could I have not noticed it sooner? You are Dilim and you’re using his weapon… meaning, you and Donar are the same guy.”

“Bingo.”

Although Siva sounded confident and sarcastic, deep inside, he knew he was going to be discovered. Why? Because in Terroa, there was only one person who happens to have an item with the name Mjolnir!

As much as possible, he had to lead Kladis away from having that thought.

“So what if you are?”

Siva was purposely buying time to heal and so even if he doesn’t want to, he launched an idle chatter.

Kladis’s reply meant that Kladis will begin the initiative for the next round.

“So what… if you are Dilim? Now that I know your weakness, everything we have agreed upon are now void. I can still kill you and everything you have will be mine!”

Kladis was about to take a step but before he could complete the thought that would enable his flight gear to boom out and propel him forward, Siva’s laughter rung… so loud, uninhibited, unrestrained that it almost bordered to being delirious, and so unbridledly and luridly vulgar that not only Kladis, but everyone else who were watching from below and on their screens felt that some sort of change was happening.

“Fool.” A cold declaration stopped Kladis on his action.

“I’m a fool, you say?”

“That’s right. You’re a fool.” Siva chuckled, “Just because you know my secret doesn’t mean that you can win against me. More so it means that you can use it against me!”

After speaking, Siva raised the Godhammer and as soon as he did, Akhenaton roared, raised a left hand towards the castle base and, to Kladis’ surprise, two islands… one of them the burning first meteor, moved as if it was a hovering cannon ball about to be launched in front of Akhenaton.

Kladis felt his scalp tingling.

“Y-You can control it without being there?”

“What do you think Akhenaton is? It’s an ancient ship that is bound to and can only be controlled by a single person. It doesn’t need to be manually controlled by me all the time. I can just send a thought to it and it will follow my command to every word without a miss.”

Kladis glanced incredulously at him and then to the hand that he was raising.

Seeing his eyes, Siva laughed, “This wasn’t meant for Akhenaton.”

After he spoke, Siva’s head looked up and so did Kladis.

SHING!

Kladis felt his heart stopped beating and he subconsciously jumped back, flipping to a summersault, and dodged a carefully placed scythe that slashed directly towards his face.

“Fuck you!” Kladis roared, feeling insulted.

Of course he would be. He fell from that simple act of misdirection.

“Ahahaha!” Siva, out of ideas, could only do simple tricks as this but he didn’t expect that it would work.

He threw the Godhammer and shifted his arsenal with Steve, the white gun, firing off volleys of bullets, not giving Kladis the chance to find a better footing.

Kladis had just flipped over when he saw the hammer crashing over his face.

“God damn you!” he cursed angrily. He swung his sword but because he wasn’t in a good position and even adding on his ridiculous strength despite his slim physique, he was still slightly pushed back and unable to parry the hammer easily.

He pushed with his right hand that still held his gun and only now realized that the weight of the Godhammer wasn’t something that he can smile about and dismiss easily.

It was at this moment that a thought entered his mind.

“Wait…! If you’re a player and this is the Mjolnir, then that means…”

His eyes widened with that shocking realization.

Siva was already closing in as he fired the bullets. One hit Kladis in the head gear, jutting his head upwards to force himself to look at the eyes of the approaching Dilim.

His mind spun as he thought of a name and spoke:

“You’re not Dilim!”

There was shock and a little bit of astonishment in the man’s voice but Siva didn’t stop and his heart skipped a beat.

He… had been discovered!

“I have no other choice. It’s still too early but I have to shut his mouth permanently.”

Right now, Siva has no other choice but to go all out.

“Yes.” his cold, sinister voice replied. “I am Siva.”

Kladis gasped.

[You are inside the Killing Zone. Your defenses are down by 70%]

Siva’s mind was somewhat happy and a smile beamed on his lips… a smile of release.

He even breathed out a sigh of relief.

It was as if… he had been freed after so many years of imprisonment.

It’s time…

Unleash your hate.

A cool soothing voice spoke in his mind and it was a placating tone, soft like a whispering wind of a cool morning, gentle like the touch of a feather to the skin.

It’s like a whisper of a lover.

Time seems to go slow for everyone and feeling this familiar yet also unfamiliar sensation, Siva… started to laugh heartily.

Free yourself…

Release all your animosity to these people…

Unleash the fury to the world that imprisons you…

Kill the people that condemn you………

…………destroy everything that stands in your way.

Gradually, Siva could hear the words as if it was the real sound of someone whispering next to his ear.

It was a nagging whisper, familiar yet foreign.

It was affecting his heart, affecting his mind, affecting his bearing, and affecting his choices.

Siva knew the sound was threatening and destructive to the barriers of morality that he knew, yet as scary as it was of an idea, the very feeling the voice gave was exactly the things that he wanted to do.

That’s right. Burn…

Incinerate…

Torch them…

Crush them…

Destroy…

Kill…

…… yes…

………………….kill them all.

BA-BAMP!

The sound of heart beat echoed in his mind and for some weird reason or another, Siva felt…

…that he was aware of everything.

“What is this? Why am I seeing this? What is this weird feeling of… knowing everything around me?”

Sivas mind seemed to experience something akin to a wide-scale scan where everything around him broke down into their very minute of details where information flooded like the sea, overwhelming his sense of comprehension and yet wasn’t destructive to his mind as he feared.

“The dust particle in the air looked like that? Ah! That sword on Kladis’ hand… it’s made up of nanomachines but it wasn’t something human-made. And my Mjolnir too… and my cloak… my Black Tech… it’s also made up of nanomachines but has a unique energy signature that was different from the human technology or the ones that made up my Legendary Weapon…”

“Wait… how am I even aware of what is an energy signature?”

“Ah… this after taste of the Blue Potion… it’s this… the energy signature! I see now… so this Mana! Everything is made up of Mana! That unique energy in the middle of every particle… that unique energy that exists on every person of this world…”

At that moment, Siva looked at Kladis a bit different.

“I see now…”

Siva laughed inwardly.

.

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.

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“So that’s how it is.”

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“So that’s… how you destroy… EVERYTHING!!!”

All of this might have happened for a very long time but in fact all went through in a span of a moment.

That ripple that spread from Siva haven’t even left 9m away from him when all these thoughts had been registered into his mind.

Seeming ordinary, hiding in that ripple, was in fact, a will that carried all the possible malignant thoughts towards the world.

BA-DUMP!

It was just one heartbeat but…

*****

In a world of darkness, in a place that seemed to be a prison is a bed. On the right side of the bed was a table and beside that table was a chair. The bed was on the corner and a window was at the left side of the bed.

Outside the window, it was a sea.

It was night…

An eternal night.

A person surrounded by a dark veil of shadows sat on that very chair… holding a notebook, seeming to read its contents.

From left to right, the image of a person, a table, and a bed could be seen.

There was no light in this room.

As soon as that heartbeat rung somewhere in this dark world, the person in the chair closed the notebook and then looked up.

The white of his eyes was the only thing that could be seen under that veil of darkness and in the middle of that white was his dark black pupils… like a bottomless abyss that could suck in any soul if they dare to look at those two black eyes.

A voice could be heard coming from him, “Mother have failed so I… have to go and do my job…….

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……my…………………. only job.”