• Chapter #37: [BETRAYAL]

….

A solemn but melodic hymn echoed throughout a grand cathedral. It was the Church of Worship, at the World of Light.

For the people who live in this world, founded by the Saint of Raging Light, the most respected are the Lightseekers. As it implies, they chase after the true light, the light of the end, so they may become closer to their Goddess. They are true to their goals and had never been led astray from their goals before.

Yet today, they find it hard to not get enraged.

“I can see our Highest Lady interacting with this ‘Enigma’…”, A woman said in vicious contempt and disgust, as she stared at the [Divine Mirror]. One of the High Priests, she represents one of the aspects of light, ‘Brilliance’.

“Why must she give her utmost attention to this mortal…”, Another woman said, biting her lips in sadness and frustration.

….

*Sigh*

Closing my phone, I couldn’t help but feel a bit annoyed. So the Shido guy is a Heroic Candidate? I may have underestimated him a bit too much.

*tutturuu~!*Vibrate…*

The sudden ring of a notification and the vibration of my phone had caught my attention. There’s already another notification?

My eyes sparked interest as I opened the Tasks app and read the notification.

[Quest: The 1st Clue (Requested: CulturedOjiisan)]

[Information: Use the [World Hop] ability and familiarize yourself. After entering CulturedOjiisan’s world, locate ‘Yustas Academy’ and help the students to solve this mystery.]

I looked on the information blandly as I digested everything.

*Sigh*

This ‘help the students’ sounds suspicious, and instead just appealed to me as a reworded ‘help the protagonist of the other world’. Still, the investigation part as well as the reward sounds interesting enough.

[Reward: Phantasmagoria]

The ability sounded quite mysterious but powerful in a way, so I immediately clicked accept.

[Task (Accepted): You have 7 Days and 7 Nights to solve this Quest. Review the usage of [World Hop]. Coordinates: X – 118.9° W | Y – 86.8°N]

Well, that’s been settled with. Though it seems that I’ll be using my puppet once more. Whatever, I’ll just prepare it later on. I’m not planning to leave till Sunday anyways. I still plan to enjoy this school trip for now.

It isn’t that troubling to not go to school for a week. Both of my parent’s at America, and I live at the apartment. Plus, there’s no events of importance as Hiro’s and his group will head to Korea while the Union meeting will be in China.

….

During noon, Hiro and his group managed to attract more eyes, while I had been lazing inside my dorm all day, getting some rest. Though I said that I planned to enjoy the festival more, I also need rest to prepare myself for this otherworldly shit.

Still, after sometime, I went out and did some idle walks. It seems that I find myself always bumping into Yumie Lisa. It was a good thing though, as she’s at least more cordial than Hiro, who seems to really like telling their personal tales and all the things they’ve done.

Night hit, another round of the boy’s idiocracy, which of course ended in a hard fail. I also noticed that the Extraordinaries were gone this night. Who knows where? I don’t.

C’mon, I don’t stalk all the time you know. Gotta respect some of their privacy.

…

Inside the Lightways Global Meeting Office, multiple hologram projections made by magic stood and lit the room. Each one were representatives of a country’s main Union HQ branch.

“They have joined ranks.”, Emilia said, her piercing crimson eyes scanned the rest of the Leaders.

“The Black Zodiac, Malefactor, Genos Obstreperous… It seems like the one leading them is quite powerful…”, She grimly concluded.

“They are becoming bolder.”, Makabe growled out.

“The impact on the Japanese HQ’s been greatly lessened by the appearance of a supposed Lightseeker. Most of our witnesses, including the Supreme Rank Yumie Lisa, stated that he was the one who repelled all enemy Supreme Ranks and opened the gates back to our world.”, Makabe added, before he scowled. “We had captured one of the enemy executives, the ‘Bound Serpent’.”

“He is currently being detained, which was made possible due again to this mysterious Lightseeker. When we asked him why he wasn’t killed, he just said that ‘I amused him enough and that he’s got what he needed.’”, Makabe finished, before he gestured to Emilia, who nodded.

“Right. After the ‘Bound Serpent’ was detained, we had tried to get out some more details, including on how powerful the man truly is and what is his true goal. The only things he said are ‘Strong enough that even if our current forces at that time combined, we’ll still all die.’ & ‘Everything that he did was just for his own gain and convenience.’ After that, we tried to get some more but he wouldn’t utter any more words.”, Emilia finished up.

“This is quite troubling…”

“But if he didn’t stop them, then we’d have more losses.”

“I agree, but this man is still unknown and cannot be trusted, especially since he thinks that this is amusing and this event had been convenient for him…”

“I too, agree with the both of you.”

"It is also a probability of someone higher than supreme."

"That was given."

“Then, we need to launch an all out investigation to find traces on that place.”

“We can’t.”, Emilia began. “The Death Planes had been closed sometime after we had exited. It looks like someone took control of it...”

“Is it a new divinity?”

“No. The signature isn’t foreign to the area. It appears that it’s creator had been revived.”, Emilia said.

“Could it be… Soul Exchange…?”

Emilia sighed in tiredness and frustration.

“That, we still don’t know. We suspect that it’s the Lightseeker who did it again since Yumie Lisa had stated that he was the one inside the Monument while our members fought against the Black Zodiac.”, She finished up.

“Just who is this guy?”

“We don’t know either and he’s extremely hard to track. But let us discuss this another time, we still need to retrieve one of our Hero Candidates, the wielder of the ‘Morning Star’, as well as find the second person who bears the emblem.”, Emilia said, before looking at Makabe.

“Makabe, I’ll let you handle the monitoring of Hiro and his group. We cannot afford to lose another Heroic Candidate or keep them far away from us.”, She sternly ordered to the Lightways Manager.

“Of course Lady Emilia.”, The manager bowed, before his hologram vanished slowly.

“Now onto other matters…”

….

“W-Why…?”, Tatsumi growled out, his green eyes glaring at the others with anger and confusion. He lay on the ground of the Death Planes, shivering as he tried to support himself up with his hand, with his blood pouring from his wounded stomach.

“T-Traitors…”, He coughed out, clenching his eyes as he shuddered in pain once more.

*Cough!*Cough!*

He had trusted them, never been any suspicious. But in the end, he was still betrayed by the others.

*Thud*

His arms finally gave up and he completely dropped, his blood continuing to pool beneath him. His ears gave a constant, loud ring, as his vision silently blurs into darkness.

Still, he couldn’t help but think of what had happened just several minutes before.

….

“We need to report this to Zen, the man is at least as strong as him.”, Tatsumi again reminded them. He had been breathing much easily due to being able to get away from their opponent, with the old man using [Final Salvation].

“And why is that?”, AstroSuit asked him in confusion and a hint of amusement, making Tatsumi look at the man incredulously.

“W-What…? What are you saying?! Didn’t we just came there?! The man is extremely powerful! Plus, he has made a pact with the Deity of this place! We’ll be in huge trouble if we cross blades again unprepared!”, Tatsumi yelled at AstroSuits face, who remained unreactive.

“Goodness, you really should just stay being a chunni.”, Ace simply stated, before he pointed his larger gun at Tatsumi’s face. The blonde haired and green eyed teen widened his eyes at Ace’s actions, before it burned with anger.

“What do you think you’re doing…?”, Tatsumi growled out, his face set into an ugly scowl. His anger even manifested more as a flame-like, golden aura now flowed around his body.

“Damn you!”, Tatsumi charged at Ace.

“Kaboom.”, Ace said, before he fired his gun.

*BOOM!*

“KUHA…!”, Tatsumi was stopped from his charge, as several bullets of lightning penetrated his body and limbs. His eyes were wide in disbelief of what was happening.

*Thud!*

He dropped from the ground, shuddering in pain. Still, he shakily stood up.

“Dammit…! Why do you…? Karisa, run!”, Tatsumi cried out, placing himself in front of the two men. However, if he just looked at Karisa, he would see her looking at him coldly.

Ace smirked at him, before lowering his gun. Tatsumi narrowed his eyes at Ace’s actions, before he realized something.

Ace wasn’t looking at him.

Tatsumi turned around.

*Stab!*

Only to be met by a dagger to the stomach from Karisa. His eyes widened, before he coughed blood and held onto her.

*Twist*

“Arrghhh!”, He couldn’t help but yell out in pain, as Karisa twisted the dagger buried in his abdomen. His body was now failing and he was about to drop towards Karisa. However, she pulled the dagger and kicked him in his stomach, right over his wound, knocking him back.

“Urk…!”

*Thud!*

His gaze blurred and ears rang from the pain. Still, he glared at the others with contempt and rage.

“Dammit…! Now I see… You were the suspected traitors within the organization…!”, Tatsumi growled to them.

“Even you… Karisa…?!”, He couldn’t help but look at his partner with sadness, who he thought of as a strict elder sister. However, Karisa continued to look at him with a neutral expression.

“You’re a fool, just like Zen. If we could make those monsters face against each other, then we’d have the chance to strike at Zen, or even possible, he’ll eliminate Zen for us.”, AstroSuit explained to Tatsumi, who now set his burning gaze to him. However, he just chuckled in amusement.

“If the Lightseeker would be capable of eliminating Zen, then he’d be weakened enough for all of us to kill and we’d also gain the Deity.”, Ace added.

Tatsumi widened his eyes at Ace’s words.

“So you plan on killing him too? He’s not even in this!”, Tatsumi yelled out at Ace, who just looked at him coldly.

“There’s no need for beings such as them to exist, and he’s in this the moment that we crossed paths. The Deity is also crucial for our goal.”

“But— Kuha!”

“Enough of this chatter.”, Sun made himself known, stepping on Tatsumi’s throat to stop him from continuing his prattle.

“Apologies Tatsumi, but we have been irritated by Zen’s ruling.”, Karisa said, before Sun removed his boot on Tatsumi’s throat.

*Cough!*

“Even though the old man sacrificed himself…!”, Tatsumi gritted his teeth in anger and the feeling of being too weak.

“Let us finish this…”, Ace said, before he raised his pistol and aimed at Tatsumi’s chest.

*Bang!*

The crimson bullet hit, the shockwave of the attack made Tatsumi’s body jump for a bit. Tatsumi suddenly blacked out, before he was again back to consciousness. He didn’t speak this time.

‘Damn… I didn’t expect to be betrayed in the end…', Tatsumi thought, giving an unnoticeable grin.

‘Haha… But… I guess it’s to be expected from this job…', He thought, closing his eyes.

“You and the old man was the only one supporting Zen on this mission. However, we couldn’t find a way to kill you. But then, this chance came. We could finally move our plans.”, Sun said, before he and the others turned around and walked away.

“Goodbye Tatsumi…”, Were the final words that he heard from them…

[•END•]

Revised by BaNaeNae.