Chapter 178: I want SSS-rank

With that, Garrick pointed his hands at Leon, and huge chunks from the floor and the walls rapidly broke apart.

They blasted towards Leon, amplified by the force of gravity.

Leon simply stared at it from behind Aegis, shaking his head in pity.

"You never learn, do you?" he muttered, scoffing.

The attack landed on the shield, and immediately, it blasted back towards Garrick like a tornado.

The chunks of rock tore through different parts of his body, leaving him riddled with holes.

Garrick coughed, blood spraying from his lips like water.

His body shivered, and he looked down at himself, seeing the numerous holes around him.

There was one particularly large one at the side of his chest, where a huge rock had blasted through.

He opened his mouth to say something, but couldn’t find the words before falling to the ground, dead.

Leon looked at him, shaking his head in pity.

"Now," Leon said. "Let us talk about my rank." he said, a wide smirk appearing on his lips.

For a long time, nobody in the room made a sound.

Dust sifted down from the ruined dome and settled on ten motionless figures.

The seal that Sorin had cast over the room had faded when he fell, and the pale light poured through the gaps in the glass onto what had once been a floor of white stone. It was a bowl of cracked glass and rubble now, with craters in it.

Along the far wall, the withered vines slid off the cradle of silver drones, and Batnac let out a long, unsteady breath.

"Well," he said weakly. "That was... a great deal."

Leon looked around. Then he crossed the room, stepped over a fallen pillar, and sat down on the half of the broken table that was still standing at an angle. He rested his elbows on his knees and waited.

Garrick Dole was now dead, lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood.

However, Leon didn’t care much, after all, he had already warned the old man. He just decided to be too stubborn.

Apart from Garrick, the others in the room were still alive, though not without injuries.

Seraphine was lying against a pillar with her scorched coat still smoking.

Ilsa Hartfrost was slumped against the table, and the ice that had sealed her was running in thin streams across the floor.

Maelis lay on his back in a patch of blackened marble with his arms flung out.

Vesper lay curled on her side. Lysandra Thorne lay by the wall with her veil beside her, and Sorin Kade lay on his face.

Bram sat against a root with his chin on his chest, and Haldor sat against a pillar with his eyes closed, looking for all the world like a man who had fallen asleep in a garden.

They had all seen what happened to Garrick, and were boiling with anger, but couldn’t exactly do anything about it.

"Haldoe..." Seraphina said hoarsely.

"I am awake."

The swordsman did not open his eyes. His voice was calm and clear.

"He killed him... that bastard..." he muttered.

"I know," said a small and unsteady voice. "Garrick was the strongest among us, and he killed him... just like that."

A weak laugh went around the chamber. It was a ragged and shaky sound, and it died quickly, but it was real.

One by one, the S-ranks came back to themselves.

Sorin Kade was the last to fully regain consciousness. He opened his eyes, and his breath froze when he sat the body of Garrick riddled with holes in the ground.

"Ah. I do not like this at all." he muttered.

Leon could easily read their expressions, and could feel the burning hatred oozing out of them.

"I told you that I did not come here to kill anyone." he said, sighing. "But he should have listened, it’s his fault, not mine.

"You fucker... you killed him... how could you?," Bram admitted.

He nodded ruefully, and then he sat down again, because his legs would not carry him. Orrin Stoneback still lay in the hole he had made in the side wall, snoring like a landslide.

By the time all who were alive had gathered into a rough circle, none of them could stand up straight, and every one of them was looking at Leon.

"I told you," Leon said. "I want to join."

"As what?"

"As whatever rank I like."

Seraphine gave a short, disbelieving laugh. "Listen to him."

"I am listening," Bram said. "Go on, boy. Let us hear it. What really do you want?"

Leon looked at them. He did not rush. A thin beam of light had found its way through the gap in the dome, and it fell across his shoulders and lit the dust around him in gold.

"Let me be plain," he said. "I am not going to ask for your permission again, and I am not going to wait for your vote. I will be a member of the Player Guild Association, and I will do it whether you like it or not."

"We have heard that part."

"Then hear the rest." He lifted his chin. "The rank I want is SSS."

Nobody breathed.

It was as if the whole room had been dropped into a deep well. The dust hung in the air. Sorin Kade’s mouth opened a little. Vesper Nox’s hand froze halfway to her face.

Bram Oakhart said, "What?" in a very small voice, and Seraphine, who had been about to laugh again, did not.

"SSS," Ilsa repeated, in a voice like cracking ice.

"Yes."

"There is no SSS-rank."

"There was one," said Haldor Wynn quietly. "White. The first SSS-rank in the history of the world, and the last man to hold a legendary weapon. There has been nobody since."

"The title has been empty ever since," Vesper whispered. "It is not a rank that a man asks for."

"It is the highest rank that exists," said Haldor. "The council has never voted on it, because no one has ever come close." He studied Leon with his clear gray eyes. "And you are asking for it, in this room, do you think we players are a joke?!"