Chapter 102: The Judge

"Fight now. Prepare to die in my arms later."

Kael gulped.

Then Elias stretched his hand. "Screen. Armory."

A new window blinked open in front of him.

[Select Primary Manifestation]

The air next to him tore, and from the rip, a weapon fell into his hand.

Seven feet long. Curved blade, black as the space. The shaft looked like a petrified spine. It didn’t reflect light.

Kael stared. "Is that a scythe?"

"Maybe?"

Kael’s head snapped to him. "Maybe?! Elias, why are you just bringing it out now?!"

Elias tested the weight. Spun it once and nodded to himself.

"Were you testing other skills?"

No reply.

"How many skills do you have?"

"It comes with the void."

A Null howled and the rest answered. More creatures began to crawl out of the forest. Familiar and unknown ones.

Kael pulled out another dagger. "So your plan was to get us almost killed so you could pull a farm tool from your inventory?"

"It’s not a farm tool."

"It’s a scythe, Elias!"

"It’s called Void Reaper." Elias stepped forward, and swung it as its nearest creatures.

One frame the Neus was mid-air, mouth open. Next frame, it was in two pieces, and the pieces were already dissolving into black dust.

"That’s clean. You’re probably the only Upholder who can slaughter a herd without seeing blood."

Elias flinched. He vividly remembered triggering a bounty quest on the same ground and killing like a mad man back in the days.

"That doesn’t happen."

"But your skill erases everything."

Elias sighed. He flipped the scythe and dashed ahead.

"Damn it!" Kael followed afterward.

The next was a battle of survival. One wrong move could end their lives.

Elias mainly attacked, while Kael tackle the ones that managed to slip past him.

Elias noted during this moment that Kael wasn’t using any ability. He just swung his dagger and cursed at the sky all day.

For hours, they fought wave after wave with barely five minutes rest at intervals.

Kael’s leg shook in exhaustion, clearly not used to the harsh condition of sector seven. However, Elias kept up fine.

A day and twenty three hours in, Kael completely lost it.

"Aaarrrggghhh! I want to die! Kill me now! This is worse than death! I’m hungggggggggggry!"

Elias’ weapon sliced a null into equal halves. Then he turned, only to see Kael sprawled on the hot ground.

"Get up. An hour remaining."

"Leave me alone," Kael turned aside. "Let me die."

Elias didn’t bother to convince him. He just turned away and continued to defend himself.

A second.

Two seconds.

Kael turned back, face pulled into a full pout.

"You could at least convince me a little bit more."

Elias almost snorted.

"Then I’d be lying."

A sudden sound cut through the air. It wasn’t like any other sound, but one they were familiar with.

Kael tilted his head.

"Is that a..."

"Human." Elias completed.

They both turned.

Fifty meters out, near the forest side, a cluster of crawlers had cornered someone. Someone that was fighting back with a broken piece of rebar and a lot of swearing.

The swarm was too thick for them to see through.

Elias didn’t waste words. He threw the scythe.

Void Reaper spun once, end over end, and erased a straight line through the horde. Nulls and crawlers turned to dust mid-lunge. The path stayed empty for three seconds before the edges started to collapse.

"Go," Elias said.

They ran. Kael first, Elias behind, scythe reappearing in his hand with a flicker of dark mist.

They hit the pocket Elias made. The last two nulls were on top of their target, claws raised.

Kael jumped, dagger first, and drove it into one’s eye. The other one turned, and Elias’s hand came down on its skull. No scythe. Just his palm.

"Void erase."

The Neus’s head ceased. The body stood for a second, then dropped.

[Xp: 10/200]

Silence.

Their target rolled over, coughing, rebar still clutched. Dust and ash coated a pristine Ringoff Academy uniform. Gold trim. Council badge.

The person looked up, blinked ash out of sharp green eyes. Took in Elias’s absurdly tall figure, covered in dark blood, holding a scythe.

Took in Kael, grinning like a maniac, holding a dagger.

Then pushed to his feet, brushed off their sleeve like he’d just tripped on the quad, and raised a brow.

"Well." Claude’s voice was dry as the Scorched dirt. "This is a picture."

Kael’s jaw dropped. "President?!"

Claude flicked a piece of crawler limb off his shoulder. His uniform was torn, his left arm was bleeding, but his posture was still council president.

"You two," he said, looking between them, "are Upholders?!" He laughed. "Elias..." His eyes slid to the scythe. "Not surprised."

Then his gaze snapped to Kael.

"But you too?!"

Kael puffed up instantly. "What’s that supposed to mean?!"

"It means," Claude said, stepping over a dissolving corpse without looking down, "that your last combat evaluation involved you setting the training gym on fire. With a Bunsen burner."

"That was ONE time!"

"It was last week."

Elias glanced at Kael.

"You set a gym on fire?"

"Why are you suddenly interested?!"

"Why is there a bunsen burner in the gym?"

"Not your business!"

Elias glanced back at Claude.

"How did you get here?"

"Long story," Claude dramatically huffed. He pointed the rebar at Elias. "You. Explain why the system gave you a farm tool."

"See?" Kael raised his head to give Elias that satisfying look.

Claude looked at Kael. "You. Explain why you’re alive. I’m sure you stuck to being a burden."

"No!"

Lastly, he pointed at the incoming horde. "And both of you. Explain how I can survive my next hour in this place."

"We’d probably carry you on our head, your highness." Kael sarcastically replied.

"You’ve got one hour in here?" Elias asked.

Claude nodded.

"I only made a small mistake, and got two hours. How long have you both been in here, cause the school has been searching for two days."

"Two days." Elias flatly replied.

A new roar echoed from the crater rim, bigger than the Warden.

Kael went pale. "Oh good. Phase two. Just what I need."

Elias just hefted Void Reaper. The blade was hungry again.

"Keep up."

Claude sighed. He brushed his hair back with his fingers.

"Kael. Cover me."

"What?!"

"I’m not a close range fighter."

His eyes suddenly flashed bright light. His left eye suddenly shone the Gavel, and his right eye shone the scale.

[Ability: The judge: active]