Cyrus Solaris
Five minutes were left in this game, and now I was faced with my final task. Looking down from the tree, there was only one person standing after I used gravity well.
He paid me no mind, sitting on his cloud. He laid down, his tired eyes looking up at me.
"Neat trick," he said, sliding both his hands behind his head. Furious, I dived down from the tree top, poised to crush him with my fist.
He didn't bother to move, and my fist phased through him, creating a small crater in the earth. His body took the form of mist and appeared a few feet away from me.
With Gravisense active, I realized that Jace's body didn't create a distortion.
It was odd because everything I had come across did. But then I remembered when my father used his Solar Step technique, and I couldn't feel a distortion from him.
Jace's body was massless.
But his mass only disappeared as my strike neared contact.
He was rested and brimming with cosmic energy, something I wished for myself.
Strengthening my resolve, I dashed forward with my eyes locked on him.
I wanted to catch the exact time his body shifted states.
Jace held a confident gaze as he watched me approach; there wasn't the slightest of movements.
Annoyed that he didn't take me seriously, I charged my fist with cosmic energy, with the sole purpose of sending him deep into the forest.
With my fist nearing contact, his body started to evaporate. Leaving my fist to connect with nothing but mist and the subtle touch of moisture.
His evasion would feel like an automatic reaction to most people. But it wasn't.
His reaction time and activation speed were just faster than my current speed. He was on a different level of skill.
Skill that allowed him to be free.
I hated it.
My camera floated near my face, as if trying to gain insight into my mind.
Even after passing my second node, I felt powerless. Going up against someone whose abilities directly oppose mine.
With numerous constellations in our world, it was bound to happen, but here and in this moment was horrible timing. It felt like my uncle was laughing at me through his screen.
Checking my watch, I see another minute has passed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sora and another girl waking up beside her near the river.
I dash toward Sora. Funneling cosmic energy into my second node, forcing Sora and her comrade into the air.
Sora had the look of disappointment as she watched me snatch the dimensional storage away from her comrade. I buried the feeling. It didn't matter what she thought.
I needed to win.
I began imbuing cosmic energy into the dimensional storage, then a searing pain erupted on my back. My vision darkened, and my focus slipped for a split second, but I held on to my vision of victory and maintained Gravity Well Minor.
An overwhelming surge of cosmic energy enveloped the campsite.
My body turned on its own, and Jace's clouds quickly started to close the distance between us.
Another head-on bout was something I didn't want. So I dropped their comrade with the sea green hair, while I put more distance between Jace and I. From his earlier actions, I could tell he only cared about one thing—his sister.
With three minutes left, I knew that there was only one way for me to win.
I unsheathed the blade made from the stag horn.
Before Jace got to me, I increased the gravity so that Sora would fall toward my blade.
But right as she was nearing the point, I stopped her descent.
"So what will it be, Jace?" I asked, shaking the dimensional storage in one hand and waving my blade in the other.
"The game or your sister's life."
The look on his face froze in time.
"Jace, he's bluffing. He knows the rules. He knows killing isn't allowed." Sora said, dangling above me.
I tilted my head upwards, causing her to ascend further in the sky.
"You really think I care about rules?"
A magenta light illuminated my chest, and I used the remaining cosmic energy on my final gamble.
"Gravity Well."
As my node activated, I threw my blade up towards Sora as she hurtled towards the earth.
With haste, I dashed away with their comrades' dimensional storage.
Jace made a beeline straight for his sister. He barely made it in time, as the blade scraped her side, leaving a long gash.
I didn't waste a single moment, using my watch to transfer all their Totems into my possession. I watched my count rise to the very top of the leader board as time ran out.
A giant horn boomed throughout the forest.
Time has expired. The Totem game has finished. The Winner is Cyrus Bennu. Fighting is prohibited. Teleportation back to the auditorium will commence shortly.
Staring at my position on the leaderboard, I was finally able to relax. Everything I put myself through to win on my own proved worth it. I didn't win in the way I would have liked, but it doesn't matter.
I prevailed in the end.
As heavy breaths left my body, my camera floated down beside me, reminding me why I had come to this school in the first place.
Every muscle in my body ached, and the mental backlash of using Gravisense caught up to me, making it hard to walk and think. But I still forced myself to go pick up the stag horn I threw at Sora earlier.
I received several nasty looks from Jace and their comrade with the sea green hair.
"Are you insane? You could have killed her."
Picking up my blade from the ground, I turned and looked at Jace.
"That's your responsibility, not mine," Sora said nothing as I started to walk away from them.
Then a familiar voice caught my ear.
"Yo Cyrus, that wasn't necessary." I took a glance behind me, and I saw Voen hobbling up to Jace and Sora.
My gaze snapped back to what was in front of me.
"Everything was Necessary."
Then, for the first time in one week since the camera started following me, it spoke.
"Is there anything that you would like to say to guild representatives?"
I took a moment to ponder, and then the perfect thought came to mind, something only one person would understand.
"The sun does not fear the shadows it casts in its wake," I say, spitting out a stream of blood.
"So why would I care about the thoughts of those who are beneath me?" I continued, sheathing my blade the same way that traitor taught me.