(2 hours after the duel)
"sigh" a sigh escape Alex lips as he thought about what he has done. He could still feel the movement of the fights, when he was torturing her alive or when he was beating her like a dog.
'Why did i lose control.' he couldn't help but think, he know that he wasn't the type to lose control just because he was angry or annoyed. If it was the case then he would have already kill a few of the sleepers.
'Is it because of that skill.' he narrow his eyes at the possibility, after all he remember that sensation. It was a feeling as if he is the most powerful fighter in the world, he could still remember the feeling of when he first swing the sword.
'It felt as if i can cut anyone.' he couldn't help but shiver at the thought of it.
He know that the skill has something to do with how he reacted, and he couldn't help but remember something:
'A power that is borrowed will always come's with a heavy price.'
'So the price was to lose my sanity ?' he thought with a dark look on his face.
'V didn't said anything about this.' Alex has asked V about everything related to the system, and she has answers everything she knows or is supposed to know, and some of the questions whose answers she don't know, her response will always be "Well i don't know"
But Alex wasn't the type to trust anyone, he didn't know why but his guts feeling always told him that V was hiding something, something really really important and she was also not telling the whole truth.
'I don't even know if what she has said all this time is even true or not.' he let out a sigh as he looked at the white wall. Alex knows that if he truly wants the answers he will never get them, he could only ask V, but after thinking for a while he shook his head.
'No, Can't trust her anymore.' he thought because she was hiding something, so the best course of action for him is to wait and watch for now.
'But for how long.' he though with uncertainty, he didn't know how much time it will take. He just hope that it will not be too late.
Then he leaned back at the stone cold wall, his eyes closing as if to take some rest.
The room he is in, is fully white, walls, floor, bed, the sheets and even the chair. It was all completely white, and the whole room was closed off, with no window.
Alex sat in the corner with chains, iron links wrapping around his wrists and ankles. The bite of cold steel digging into skin.
He remember the guards calling this place "Solitary confinement". They called it a place for people like him, a place for reflection but to him, it was nothing but just a normal room.
'It is 100 times better then my last life "Room" ' he thought with a smile, as he thought about his previous life, the way he was treated like a sextoy and was thrown in the hallway like a broken doll, when they were done with him.
Alex remember how the guards dragged him here after the duel. He didn't even got the time to take a breath when all the instructors suddendly come with security, holding weapons like he is some sort of nightmare creature that needs to be put down.
He remember how the sleepers were screaming at him for what he has done, they were saying things like.
"Monster"
"Basted what have you done."
"Kill that basted"
"That's not human but a nightmare creature."
But when he slowly looked at them, his crimson eyes were fully red, they all become dead silent.
The guards who were dragging him, were also glancing at each other nervously, after all they accepted some resistance, some rage, some shouting, some fight. But what they got was just silence. No rage, no shouting, just a cold dead silence.
And this is what scares them the most.
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CREAK!!
The door open with a creaking sound. A handsome man stepped inside the room, their were no one around the men for his protection.
Alex open his eyes, he was a bit surprised to see the same men standing their. The one who has taken his interview when he first got into the academy. The same blond haired man who has tried to make Alex revel about his aspect with his sweet talk and emotional support.
But Alex saw right thought him,
'What is he doing here?'
Alex saw the men polished shoes echoed against the stone floor as he came closer and closer stopping just 5 meter away. He has a clipboard in his hand, and he spoke with a voice still charming as ever but with a slight tension.
"Alex! Long time no see kid" he spoke with a smile, but Alex was able to see the slightly trembling hands of his, and his eye twitching a bit.
'It seems like this psychologist is not good at controlling his emotions.' thought Alex with a cold look on his face.
He was also confused, weren't the psychologist the people who has read about the human emotions, they were the one who weren't supposed to trembled even if their patient is a psychopath or a serial killer.
Yet here is this man, trembling like Alex is just about to kill him.
'It doesn't make sense.' Alex knows that this guy was working for the government, but why was he so scared of a teenager.
'Is it because of that fight.' Alex thought after all the way he beated Nephis, it would be a miracle that she is even alive.
"I need to ask you a few questions, about your state of mind… about what you did before." the man said with a grim tone.
Alex didn't move from his spot, his crimson eyes lifted slowly, locking on the man with a chilling stillness.
They were cold, empty and demonic.
Slowly seconds stretched, turning into minutes.
The man was clearly uncomfortable, he then cleared his throat, shifting uneasily under that gaze.
"Alex-"
Before he could spoke, Alex spoke, his voice low, and heavy.
"Is she alive?"
The question made the man body trembled a bit, before he compose himself, as he replied calmly "Y-yes… yes, she's alive. The healers are working on her."
'Alive but not awake.' thought Alex's as his gaze lingered on the man, unblinking, as if weighing the truth in those words.
'She is still alive even after going thought all that.' he thought impressive about the undying will of Nephis still trying to clench to what little her life is left.
'Her Divine Aspect should be healing her.' Alex knows that her aspect is the most broken aspect in the Shadow slave world.
Imagine flames that heal any type of injuries, whether it's a broken bone or a tone flesh, or making an entire arm grow back. But that's not all it can also burn her enemies.
'An Op Aspect.'
But their is a saying, every power has it own weakness.
'Her flaw is that she her soul must burn, if she uses her aspect.'
Alex looked at the men, and thought. 'He says that the healers are healing her, then it means that she is not using her aspect to heal on herself.'
'Maybe she is afarid of the pain.' he thought as he come to conclusion, after all it was also mention in the beginning chapters that she was always hesitate of using her aspect, knowing the pain that would soon follow.
Then he lowered his head, as all of his thoughts were now calm.
RATTLEING!!
With his body moving the chains made a rattling sound, that echo thought-out the room.
The man tried again, asking something about remorse, about mental stability, about whether Alex understood the consequences of what he'd done. But no matter what he asked, Alex remained silent thought-out the whole questioning.
Frustrated the man asked again.
"Alex are you even listing ?"
His eyes drifted back up, crimson shadows burning faintly in the dim light, but no words followed.
Only the heavy weight of his silence pressing down on the room.
The man finally looked away, unsettled, the scrape of his pen against the clipboard sounding louder than it should have.
Alex didn't care anymore.
And the man had his answer.
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TUD!
The hallway was silent except for Alex's footsteps. His presence alone was enough to scatter the others Sleepers who, the moment they caught sight of him, turned pale and ran like frightened rats.
Words has already spread of what he has done, some were scared while other the brave one held their ground.
To them, Alex wasn't just another Sleeper anymore. He was a nightmare creature in human skin.
Alex didn't care about their reactions towards him, to him these people don't even matter, after all they were nothing more then extra's, whose sole purpose was nothing more then be just numbers in armies.
So he 'let them run' and 'let them whisper.'
He walked straight, his crimson eyes fixed ahead, the guards saw him but didn't said anything
As they tap something on their communicator, and then suddendly the heavy doors of the Academy opened and the cold air rushed in.
Snow stretched as far as his eyes could see. The park outside the Academy was blanketed in white, it was quite no sound and nothing.
Alex ignored everything. He trudged through the snow without hesitation, his breath fogging in the cold air, he walked and walked until he saw the sign of the hospital wing which was before him.
Inside, he asked around, his tone flat, a bit nervous, but after a while he learned the room Nephis was in.
'106.' thought Alex with a smirked on his face, as he looked at the room with the number 106 written on it.
When he stepped inside, the smell of antiseptic hit him first. A nurse was by her bedside, adjusting wires and tubes that connected Nephis to humming machines.
Alex gaze landed at Nephis, Her fragile and broken form looked nothing like the girl who had once stood in front of him with fire in her grey eyes.
The nurse as if sensing someone behind her, she turned and froze. Panic immediately flared across her face.
"Y-you can't be in here!" she stammered, as she fumbling for her communicator.
"I'm not here to hurt her," Alex said coldly, but the nurse didn't listen, she bolted for the door.
'This bitch.'
Annoyance flashed in Alex's eyes, as she rushed past, but then his leg snapped out, sweeping her off balance.
THUD!
She fell face-first onto the tiles, a groan escaping before her body went still.
Unconscious.
'Is she dead ?' Alex tilted his head, crouched down, and gave her a light kick.
"…Still breathing. Good enough." His voice dripped with mock pity before he turned away, dismissing her existence completely.
He walked toward the bed.
Nephis lay there like a broken doll. Both arms encased in plaster. One leg suspended, the weight of healing dragging on her. Most of her face hidden under bandages, only her grey eye visible and even that eye was… empty. Hollow.
Her clothes were removed, as her body now wrapped into white bandages.
'She looks like a mummy.' thought Alex as he let out a smile.
She tried to move her lips, to speak, but the faint twitch of pain in her jaw told Alex everything he needed to know.
If she forced a word out loud, her stitches would tear themselves apart.
Alex stared down at her. For a moment, silence weighed heavy between them.
'Yeah. I went too far.'
He sat down on the stool beside her, leaning forward towards her.
"Well, are you satisfied?" His laugh that followed was sharp, shameless. "Funny, isn't it? Everyone calls you the strongest… yet here you are, broken and barely clinging to life. Tell me, Nephis.....how does it feel?"
She just started at Alex with her one eye, she couldn't respond, and Alex knew it.
Standing again, he reached out his arm towards her face with gentle care, unwrapping the bandages around her face. The sight beneath made his stomach lurch, he wanted to puke but he forced himself to hold steady.
Her face was a ruin. Stitches carved across her skin, three thick sword scars running jagged from brow to chin. Where her right eye should have been, blood seeped slowly, endlessly. The beauty she once carried had been shattered, twisted into something grotesque.
Alex exhaled through his nose, as he shifted his eyes away from her, then a cruel smile tugging at his lips "Ugly now, aren't you? Scars that'll never fade. Tell me… why aren't you using your Aspect?"
Hearing this, for the first time, Nephis shows and expression as her eye widened.
'H-how did he!!...'
"Don't look so surprised, girl" he smirked, trailing his hand down her body, from her legs, to her stomach, to her chest, until it rested lightly against her throat.
His voice dropped to a silent whisper "I know everything about you, so tell me are you afraid of the pain? Afraid it'll break you even more?"
Nephis blinked at the question, her silence answering for her.
"You must hate me," Alex continued, voice soft but sharp as a knife. "And I don't blame you. I would too, if I were you. But let's be honest, you're in this state because of you own arrogance. That's the truth. Still…" He paused, eyes narrowing. "I'm not heartless."
He opened his system shop. Only he could see it. His gaze flicked across endless lines of text until he found it.
{Phoenix Tears.}
(Heals all injuries, even the life threating one)
Price: 250,000 FP
The price burned into his vision. '250,000 FP'.
'Now that a lot.' Alex narrow his eyes, his balance after his fight with Nephis was 270,000 FP.
It would almost clean him out and leaving him with only 20,000 FP.
'Do i really need it ?' He hesitated, for a long moment, his finger hovered over the purchase. Then, with a grimace, he pressed it.
A small vial shimmered into existence in his palm, glowing red like liquid fire.
Holding the vial, Alex tipped it toward her lips, Nephis's one good eye was bloodshot, furious.
"Relax, silver bitch," Alex muttered. "This will heal you."
'How dare he-' She swallowed it unwillingly, the taste of liquids was hot, as it enter her throat, then her stomach.
The change was immediate. Flesh knit together, scars melted away, her ruined eye reformed, whole and shining once more. The plaster on her arms cracked as bones realigned and healed, skin restoring its flawless smoothness.
'W-what!?' Nephis eyes were widden as she looked at her hands, which were just seconds ago broken to the point of no repair.
Alex seeing that she was healing, he turned away, already walking towards the door.
After all his job here was done here.
"W-wait."
Her voice was quiet but not strong as it was before. Alex stopped walking, as he turned around to see her sitting upright in the bed, staring at him with both grey eyes intact, her beauty was restored as if the scars that one's ruined her were not their anymore.
"Why… why did you-?"
"Because." Alex's didn't let her finish, as his eyes flared crimson, glowing in the dim light as his lips curled into a sharp smile.
"Winter is coming."
He left. The door shut behind him.