First Person POV:
The instant my eyes had landed on the two girls, I could feel their malice—so obvious I almost pitied them for it.
Although I didn't know who they were, the malice wasn't something I could just run away from, especially when it's coming from someone seemingly undercover.
I decided I'd pretend to leave.
As soon as I left, I hid behind a building ahead. Focusing mana in my eyes, I was able to see absolutely clearly from far away.
Unlike the memories of myself from before magic was a thing—people had glasses in that world.
But with mana, we can just have it flow through them to see clearly forever.
I saw them move their lips—although unable to hear them—then they turned around, and I saw them pull a key.
"A key?" I murmured.
And then they twisted the key in midair.
Soon enough, the gate had formed.
"Who the heck are these two?" I wondered.
The moment they entered the gate, I dashed toward it—urgently.
At that moment, I didn't realize how stupid it was to do that.
What did they mean by "prior to True Awakening"?
I already had so many questions from the Crimson Order, but now these two were here to increase the number.
When the two changed, their mana suddenly stabilized and now felt like it was on a completely different level.
Before, they seemed beatable. But now, I didn't seem to have a chance at all.
I was aware of my limits, and I knew I hadn't gone through something that people with such stable mana had gone through.
They called it True Awakening. Although I didn't know at all what it meant—not in the least.
I couldn't say for sure, but these two had no spark of life in their eyes.
Their presence wasn't overwhelming at all, but when I looked deep inside them, I saw hollowness.
Deep inside, these two wanted help. They seemed to be victims.
VoidMind: "You might be experiencing this because Fear makes you sensitive to sensing others' feelings and their needs. It's not considered an ability since it isn't intentional, but it's something that comes with Fear—and the malice is also a part of it."
Was it true?
So Fear lets me sense emotions and feelings?
VoidMind: "Most certainly. Fear detects any type of emotion. Mainly, it checks for malice, but considering the person it's inside of, it may or may not detect other emotions. In your case, it does."
It wasn't wrong indeed.
But I didn't have the time to think about that.
Running was something I must do. I decided I'd snatch the kids and then run away. If they're fast enough to catch me, they'd do it anyway—but if they aren't, I might as well save them as well.
I prepared myself, and then launched at full speed.
This was the fastest speed I had ever traveled at—so fast ordinary people wouldn't see it.
The two guys were in front, and behind them were the kids. I ran around them.
My hands were inches away from the kids, crossing past those two by turning around them.
"I got them," I murmured.
As soon as my hands landed on the kid's arm, I felt a hand roughly snatch my neck.
My speed died. The hand smashed my head to the ground, right beside where the kids were laid down.
"What the hell just happened?" I said to myself as my head was smashed into the ground.
The guy's hand pulled me up to see my face.
"He's going to beat us? You, a mere prior True Awakened?" he said as he chuckled.
Even in this state, something was different to me.
I didn't hear what they said to me—I heard something else.
"Kill us… save us from this miserable fate… take our revenge… I beg you," the voice cried.
I heard both words at the same time. I didn't know what was the truth and what was the lie.
I didn't know who they were.
Were they our enemies… or were they victims themselves?
My head was bleeding as he smashed me once again.
And then again.
And once more.
He shouted in anger—laughing or crying, I didn't understand.
It was hatred.
Hatred so deep it seemed endless.
Was this hatred directed at me?
No. This was the hatred of being weak… but at the same time, strong.
I could read their emotions like a book—but couldn't read why.
Until he smashed me several more times my entire face was messed up, and the dizziness turned into passing out.
Third Person POV:
Kuroto passed out.
"It looks like we are going with this gem after all. We are sure to get praise from boss," the one grabbing Kuroto said.
"Let's get out of here already. Otherwise, if someone else comes, it'll be a problem," the other one said.
The one not grabbing Kuroto snapped his fingers.
From the ground, something started to emerge.
On his right, an Earth-style, all-brown rocky gorilla slowly emerged.
The gorilla was enormous—three times their own size.
It stepped forward to carry the kids, and then Kuroto.
"Let's go," the guy said.
They started to move.
They walked like dictators for a minute on the sidewalk.
Just as a right turn on the sidewalk came, someone rushed at them.
The two couldn't react. The person sliced through the gorilla's arms like fabric and caught Kuroto.
And the gorilla crumbled down.
It was Riko.
As soon as she caught him, she teleported far away from them. Although she couldn't catch the kids, she was able to catch and teleport Kuroto alongside her.
The two realized what had happened, and they clicked their tongues.
"Tch."
Far away she was, barely in their sight. She put Kuroto down on the faraway sidewalk.
Riko turned toward them.
The distance was about 300 meters between them.
"Looks like we're walking with two great gems. Although she's nowhere near him, she's still far above average," the guy said.
"You're right, but it's still such a drag. I just wanna go back already," the other one said.
Riko was on guard. She knew not to attack first.
She didn't run away because she had to save the kids, and it wasn't like she could anyway, since she had seen their speed already.
Teleporting wasn't an option for her either, because teleporting a distance far enough for them to not catch you would be impossible if she wanted to take Kuroto as well.
She teleported to the opposite far side, exactly opposite to Kuroto's side—about 600 meters away in total.
When she did, the next instant both of them rushed straight at Riko.
Riko, still in her numbness state, thought she'd survive.
They were fast. Too fast.
Just when their hand was an inch away, her numbness was gone, and she was able to teleport a few meters to the left of the sidewalk behind them, essentially getting her out of their vision.
"This damn teleportation," the guy said.
They sensed her after a second or two.
They instantly went in again for her. When they turned, Riko was holding a silver pistol.
Boom!
She fired the not-so-loud gun with the amethyst bullet.
As she was slightly pushed back from the gunshot, one of the guys deflected it when a rocky wall suddenly popped out from thin air.
The wall stopped the force of the bullet, but it was pushed toward them, and the crumbling wall was thrown at them.
The other one, who didn't make the wall, smashed his hand on the ground whilst the crumbling wall was coming at them.
Instantly, a giant pure earth golem emerged—fast enough it deflected the rocky wall.
The golem was fast. Too fast.
It instantly went for Riko.
It was faster than even the two guys—so fast Riko didn't have enough time to teleport away.
Snatched!
She was snatched by the giant golem.
If it was a normal golem, she would easily teleport.
But this golem had the only counter to teleportation, which was absorbing mana from anyone with physical contact.
She tried to free herself, but she couldn't—neither could she teleport.
Even if the mana it was taking from her wasn't immense, it was still just enough disruption to prevent teleportation.
First Person POV:
I was floating in a water lake with the sun flashing in my eyes.
"What happened? Where am I? What am I doing here?" I questioned myself.
As I went deeper and deeper, my thoughts did so too.
Yeah, I was fighting the two guys... Did I die?
No, I didn't die. But I sure lost.
What'll happen to me?
They had a reason not to kill me.
What I felt was nothing but a feeling of heaven.
It wasn't like anything I ever felt before.
I wasn't drowning. The place I was in was peaceful.
Not violent like anything outside of it.
I wanted to live here... forever.
Time here moved far slower than in the real world.
As time passed, I slowly remembered everything that happened.
I was basically half-dead on the outside.
If I willed it, I'd die right here, right now.
This place almost made me wanna do it.
Just when I was going to, a voice spoke in my head.
"Follow the path of righteousness, Death. Win against the abyss, devour the abyss, and become the abyss.
Only then you'd have won and achieved everything.
Wake up, Death. Wake up and fight.
Fight to live.
Fight to not be devoured by the abyss.
If you die here, the abyss wins and you lose, so don't let it win.
Fight to save others and yourself.
Defeat the pawns of the abyss.
Wake up."
I remembered why I lived.
The voice reminded me why I always wanted to live.
To fight for righteousness.
To win against the abyss.
To devour the abyss is what I live for.
And I will do so forever.
And then... I finally opened my eyes.
I suddenly woke up on the sidewalk. I saw Riko snatched by an Earth Golem, being squeezed.
I remembered the Instinct Takeover and tried feeling it.
"Close eyes..." I moved my hands forward. "Feel it. Feel the Fear that crawls and is manifested physically." I felt it.
The Fear crawled from my arms to my hands.
Slowly, the Fear started manifesting something.
It slowly started piecing together.
Slowly but surely, the particles started to crawl up.
And then... the Fear manifested itself into a dagger.
When it did, the two guys finally noticed me.
"What?" they murmured.
I smiled. It was too late for them.
VoidMind: "New ability: Fear Manifestation."
The next thing they knew, I was in front of them.
I didn't go for them.
I went behind the golem.
Sliced it from left and right until the other two just stood in fear.
The golem was sliced in X style.
When I was slicing through the golem, I murmured.
"Abyss, it seems the war between you and I has started.
I didn't start it, but I'll be the one to end it.
Let's see who is a greater monster—you or me.
This is a declaration of war, Abyss. And I am going to win it.
Good luck, because you'll need it, not me."
As I sliced the golem, I instantly turned around its crumbling rocks and caught the not-unconscious Riko.
"Teleport us a little farther away," I said.
She didn't say anything—she was just shocked—but she did teleport.
As soon as we teleported to the far-right sidewalk, I put her down.
"We don't have any time at all. I want you to create a flare gun with green smoke," I said hurriedly, and then my Fear Manifestation faded away.
As soon as she heard me, she realized what I meant.
She was able to create a flare gun the second after and tossed it to me.
I shot the flare gun up with the green smoke.
By logic, a flare gun's smoke can't make words. That's naturally not possible.
VoidMind: "But Fear's particles are extremely dense."
As I shot up the flare gun, I made the smoke alongside it carry my Fear particles.
When the smoke was carried, I controlled my Fear particles the best to influence the smoke's shape.
Since the Fear particles are dense, they'd influence the direction and the form of the smoke itself.
I did my best to make the smoke say 'help'.
And as soon as I shot it, it kind of worked—although not the best-looking one—but it did.
I was completely tired out and exhausted because of what I did.
The reason I was able to use all this power was I was able to manipulate my Regulator subconsciously into not working properly.
It wasn't Instinct Takeover, it was me just weakening my Regulator the best I could to have the least amount of after effects.
VoidMind: "You did good, because if I had to have used Instinct Takeover you'd have most certainly died since it hasn't been long the last time you used it."
I was most certainly aware of that.
But hey, looks like it's not just that kid who can influence his Regulator.
VoidMind: "There's a difference between you and him, you were able to subconsciously manipulate your Regulator, which is most certainly impossible for ordinary humans, I do not know how you're capable of doing such things, but you did what should be impossible for the others of your kind."
What do you know, looks like I hate the abyss so much it makes me able to do the impossible.
My Regulator was almost back to normal, even if the after effects weren't as bad as Instinct Takeover, I'd still most likely pass out.
As the flare gun shot the 'help' smoke, I immediately fell down on the ground, passing out.
All the Crimson Order members that were in present Tokyo, including the full members, saw the help smoke.
They all looked at it and started to hurry.
Everyone was far away from us.
Everyone—including Hayato.
But he isn't called the Blue Flash of the Crimson Order for nothing.
Before I passed out, I said "I leave the rest to you, Blue Flash of the Crimson Order."
The moment I passed out, Hayato instantly got behind me and gently put me down.
"You did well, Kuroto. Now leave the rest to me," he said boldly as he moved forward afterwards.