[The host should bring him with you]
Surprisingly the system asked Michael to bring Wilaks to the tree. Deep down, Michael too had a feeling that he might need Wilkas. Trusting the system and his instincts never went wrong. Hence, Michael chose to bring Wilkas with him to the tree.
”Follow me”
Considering Michael planned to make Wilkas his subordinate, he did not have to worry about the half-elf betraying him. Plus, Michael didn’t think Wilkas would double-cross him as he stood to gain nothing by betraying him,
”What about him?” asked Wilkas pointing at Decker,
”Leave him”
Wilkas didn’t feel bad for leaving Decker alone. He barely knew the guy yet he tried to kill him. If it was up to Wilkas, he would expel him before beating the crap out of him. Wilkas had no idea that Decker had been already expelled and he was there to kill the ones responsible for his expulsion.
When Wilkas and Michael reached the oak tree, Wilkas’s eyes went wide. They looked as though they were about to pop out of their sockets.
”What the heck? Is that Gilrine? What happened to him?” he frantically asked. As he was about to run towards Gilrine, he saw Professor Steinmeye stepping out of the shadows,
”Professor Steinmeyer” Wilkas’s body went rigid in shock,
”What the fuck is he doing here?” asked Gaya staring at Wilkas with murderous intent in her eyes,
”I’ll tell you later. You said we have a problem”
Rather than explaining what was the problem, Gaya walked to the tree, grabbed a handful of powder from the leather pouch, and drew the symbol ‘W’ on the tree.
Wilkas looked at the tree moving with his mouth wide open. He couldn’t believe a giant tree such as this was moving like a puppet. It was too magical. Soon, dark lines appeared on his forehead because he was able to read the glowing runes unlike Michael or Gaya,
”That’s it, nothing happens. It will stay like this and after two minutes, the tree will move back to normal” Gaya punched the tree in frustration,
”System”
[The system requires 500,000 badass points to disarm the runes]
[Since the host has only 160,000 badass points, the system could loan you the remaining amount for just a 40% interest rate]
Frowned Michael. But when he turned to look at Wilkas, he saw Wilkas staring at the runes as though he recognized them. Because Wilkas was a runemaster, Michael realized he might have some ideas and he might not need the help of the system.
”Can you read them?”
”I already did”
Gaya finally stopped punching the tree and turned her gaze towards Wilkas,
”What does it say?! Tell us” Gaya dashed at Wilkas. She grabbed him by his collar and lifted him off the ground,
”Professor”
”Say it!”
Wilkas swallowed a mouth full of saliva. He had no idea why the professor was behaving like this. He even began to doubt if she was a professor at all.
”Put him down” Michael placed his hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down. For him, it was just finding a solution for his third persona problem. But for her, it was about finding her mother. He knew how much her mother meant to her.
”AAH” Wilkas breathed heavily when his feet touched the ground.
”What does it mean?” asked Michael,
Wilkas took a deep breath,
”They are ancient runes. They roughly translate into, the blood of evil shed by innocent opens the gate of darkness”
”What the fuck is that?” Gaya threw her arms in the air. It seemed like a riddle and Gaya hated the riddles so much, especially when her mother’s life might depend on this riddle.
”The blood of evil shed by innocent opens the gate of darkness, hmm”
”Does it mean something to you?’ asked Gaya after hearing Michael mumbling what Wilkas said under his breath,
”Stay here”
In a blink of an eye, Michael disappeared, turning himself into a bolt of lightning. He came back dragging Decker with him. Gaya was confused,
”Shit who is this?”
”Wilkas” Michael looked at Wilkas. Maintaining the eye contact, he bent down to pick up the crimson red daggers in Decker’s sheathes,
”Kill him”
Wilkas was startled by Michael’s words.
”What do you mean kill him?”
”You have been bullied your whole life. This world will never stop treating trash until you choose to change the world. Your whole life, you’ve been hiding and fearing for others. Even coming to Mazeorth didn’t change your life like wanted”
”But” Wilkas clenched his fist. Although his words made sense, Wilkas could not get himself to take a life.
”You can be a maggot as they’ve been calling you or choose to man up and change your life around”
”If killing him would open whatever it is, let me kill him” Gaya tried to snatch the daggers but she couldn’t,
”Yes, let her do it. Why do you want me to kill him? I am not a killer”
Michael was losing his patience. He was not in the mood to deal with Wilkas’s naiveness.
”In this world, you can only be either a prey or a predator. Man up, kill him, and let me change how this world works” Michael said gritting his teeth,
Still, Wilkas shook his head. Michael lost his cool as he grabbed Wilkas by his neck. His eyes flickered din red as the dark armor slowly started to appear on his body replacing the green robes,
”Let me make this simple for you. Kill him or I will kill you and everyone you know in the slums you grow up”
Wilkas’s heart skipped a beat seeing his transformation. His voice sounded creepy and demonic and his eyes were burning as though someone set them on fire,
”You don’t understand what’s at stake here Wilkas” Gaya tried to knock some sense into Wilkas,
”If he doesn’t do this, the whole world will suffer. Let him see his people suffer first. Give Azazel the order” Michael turned his fiery gaze towards Gaya,
”STOP!” finally Wilkas shouted,
He was an orphan but he could not let the innocent people in the slums suffer. His hands shivered as he grabbed the daggers in Michael’s hands,
”Don’t hurt them” Wilkas stuttered. He was too afraid to curse at sixty-six. The fear had clutched his heart thanks to the fear toxin Wilkas inhaled.
”Kill him”
Gaya saw the runes losing their glow. She quickly moved towards the tree and drew the symbol once again. On the other hand, Wilkas clutched the dagger tightly. His body was shivering uncontrollably.
Wilkas breathed heavily. He wanted to shout for help but no words came out of his mouth. He saw no way to escape from this situation. His mind could not think of a plan.
”DO IT!” Michael growled in his demonic voice. Slowly Wilkas raised the dagger above his head. He clenched the dagger with his two hands,
”KILL HIM!”
This time when he heard the shout, Wilkas brought down the dagger, penetrating Decker’s chest. The blood sprayed out of the wound. The beating heart of Decker pumped out the blood forcefully. In a couple of seconds, Wilkas’s pale face was painted red with Decker’s blood and the ground beneath them was completely soaked in thick blood.
Michael turned his head and saw the blue runes slowly turning red. The blood on the ground began to gather into a puddle. From the blood puddle appeared several extensions made of blood. Soon these extensions moved towards the tree like snakes.
The ground beneath them trembled as they started to hear something heavy crack open. The center point of the oak tree slowly split open, revealing a spinning vortex.
Whoosh!
The vortex sucked in Decker’s body. After his body disappeared into the vortex, Wilkas felt the pull. Gaya did not wait for the vortex to pull her in but dashed into it. Michael grabbed Wilkas by his collar and threw him into the vortex before he himself dashed into the portal.
Michael had no time to wonder what was on the other side of the portal. The third persona had already taken control of half of his body and it took everything in him to keep it from completely manifesting.
After the trio entered the portal, the tree returned to its normal state. And just before the last rune faded away, the humanoid shape made of leaves appeared in front of the tree. A split second after, the blood on the ground completely vanished along with the humanoid figure.
Somewhere else in the Akilan realm, Michael, Gaya, and Wilkas were free falling.
”AHHHHHH!” Wilkas screamed out loud when he opened his eyes and realized that he was falling from the sky.
Suddenly he felt a hand grab his shoulder and the next thing he knew, he landed on the ground safely. He let out a heavy breath. His vision slowly cleared as he didn’t feel as terrified as before.
He closed his eyes tight and opened them again, hoping everything that happened was just a nightmare. When he opened his eyes, he saw sixty-six and professor Steinmeyer walking in front of him towards a lone tree.
He was not in his scary black armor as just a few moments ago. Wilkas looked around to see where he was. As far as he could see, there was nothing but floating mountains. The place he was standing on was paved and the only thing in the vicinity was the lone tree on the edge.
While walking towards the lone oak tree, Gaya’s body was shivering. The closer they got to the tree, the more they could make out a face in the tree.
”The God of Darkness” suddenly a calm voice reverberated in the area.
”I’ve been waiting for you for three thousand years” Gaya looked closer at the tree to see the face talking.
Finally, she had found the dark elf in the tree her mother asked her to find. She felt like she got a step closer to finding what really happened to her mother.