Steady breaths left as the beeping of machinery kept resounding sharply.
My eyes flutter, the ceiling lights were too harsh on them.
I thought back to my gamble, retelling a story of my thoughts to drift away in my dreams.
Skullface, ultimately he was the one I knew most about.
Yet even then, there was nothing crazy on him.
'Well, the information proved to be helpful.'
That was enough.
But it was a one time thing. Surviving again like that was impossible.
Why you may ask? Because next time I'll simply die, crushed before I could do the same trick again.
Skullface was an awakener born with the blessing of Absolute Adaptation.
It was the only blessing capable of bursting through the known limit of two holy blessings and was the only blessing that gets inherited through bloodline.
In the past, any warrior with this blessing was always the strongest. Capable of bringing peace to this world for decades of their lives.
Nobody could one up that. Not even close.
Then...Why was someone like that rotting in a mere troupe?
Why couldn't he become the strongest again like his ancestors always did?
It's simple, he couldn't.
He didn't have the will to do so.
No freedom given to his wings that spanned across the world.
But how did that gruesome fate came to pass?
Skullface wasn't part of the bloodline to even acquire the blessing in the first place.
So it wouldn't have made sense right? Well obviously it wouldn't if you didn't know what exactly the Thieves Troupe were about.
The Thieves Troupe, or popularly known for their infamy as the 'Blessing Thieves' stole the blessings of awakeners, rare ones that either benefited them or gave them a chunk of good money.
How they extract it you may ask? Not a clue. Even in all of my regressions, no information could be found. It's so tightly concealed that to the world outside, the extraction is hailed as a myth, something impossible.
But truly, it is possible.
Nobody knows how they do it, but when they kidnap someone for their blessing, they are sure to succeed.
Which is why the underground fears crossing blades with them. No one would wish getting their overpowered rare blessings stolen after all now would they?
And so they had become the silent kings of the underground.
Sometimes though, even the silent crowns stir the lake with a steel ladle.
And that ladle was Skullface.
Kidnapped by the troupe, he was experimented on, brainwashed to do their bidding regardless of his own, once free will.
And the troupe had implanted a blessing inside him, the blessing of Absolute Adaptation.
It was their greatest extraction yet, no other topped it.
They gained an incredible asset, a force to be reckoned with and defiled its powerful lineage.
The troupe were cowards, and so, at the least bit of damage they receive...They back off. Hence why my plan worked.
'Clair didn't sense me and got too scared, if she had sensed Aegis instead of me, she would've likely pursued me further.'
I probably wouldn't have even made it on the street had it not been for Clair.
"'Pitiful no tooth'"
A mutter escaped my mouth.
"...."
By now, my mana was halfway full, it didn't take as long as I had first guessed when waking up.
'I'll probably be discharged soon, maybe in a few hours?'
From what I had heard from the nurse. I had been in a small coma for a few days.
Within that time, Aegis came to be wide awake, apparently, she was discharged way earlier than me, following her were guards from the association tasked with protecting a potential target. Or so the nurse said.
'The troupe won't move then.'
There was not a single instance of the troupe directly in conflict with the association, they wouldn't take the chance.
Aegis was more than safe enough.
"I'm the one in the most danger in that case..."
I had to worry about myself. My blessing could've been seen as a great, rare and still unripe fruit to them.
'Intimidation, while not great itself, is still rightfully a blessing.'
The chances of a fight over my blessing were low, since if the troupe failed once, they wouldn't try their charm again.
Normally that'd be the case, but the numbers weren't zero.
'There's still a chance.'
I couldn't carelessly walk in the streets knowing the troupe might set their greedy eyes over my blessing.
Slumped, I fall back, my hair a nice veil from the bright lights.
A hand ruffled through the surroundings, trying to search for something.
It touched something solid, a glossy surface, blank and turned off.
'Should I play something?'
I didn't know if a patient was allowed to play on their phone in a hospital, but if it was there from the beginning...It's probably permitted no?
'I'm getting discharged in a few hours, it can't hurt can it?'
Smirk marking me, I push on the power button, contemplating what game to play.
"...?"
The phone didn't turn on.
What?
Why?
"Is it broken then? No, but how is that possible?"
I didn't have it on me when fighting Skullface! It doesn't even have any cracks!
Clenching the edges of my phone. A thought crossed me.
A thought simple, but important to confirm.
'Maybe it's just turned off?'
I pressed the power button, this time longer than last time.
The phone, flared open.
"Ah, so it was just turned—"
Before the sentence could finish, a rude party pooper came in a form of an empty battery image.
I stared blankly at my phone
[ 0% ]
The battery was at zero.
Low, crippling zero that could never be climb back up to its valor glory of 100%
Tok~
I carefully set my phone down next to me. Lips twitching at the edges.
'They did this on purpose, didn't they?!'
In protest did my hands valiantly fly in the air, attempting to grab the pointy ears laughing maniacally above.
"Screw you! Spawn of hades!"
*
*
*
'Screw you! Spawn of hades!'
Eliot's voice could be heard from outside the door, its smooth carved surface a testament of wealth, a card that told everyone that you're different.
On the tiles glossier than lipstick tapped a foot.
A cigarette in his hand, and a lighter in the other.
Terry took a long puff out of his lit cigarette. His eyes golden through his brown curly strands.
"Hooo."
A poisonous sigh bellowed out, exiting after a tender night with the lungs.
Terry, with an expression unreadable placed his lighter inside his leather pocket. His freed fingers drummed on the wall.
Steady breaths, steady moves, he was not in haste. Nor was he in complete tranquil form.
He stood upright in the middle ground. Feeding himself to his own locked thoughts.
'I guess he's fine.'
Terry simply wanted to make a check up on his eldest brother. He didn't really care what he did with his life.
If he wanted to pursue teaching because it was his dream, he wouldn't get in the way.
That kind of dream wouldn't even get in the way of Terry's goals. So all was fine.
Eliot was always capable after all, if he wanted to be a teacher, he'd be the greatest one. Terry seriously believed it.
The rest of Eliot's family saw him as a useless garbage bag eating up space and money, but Terry never saw their view. There was always another story being told somewhere, and Eliot's case was one such story that never got to be read.
Terry kicked off, puffing harder on his cigarette, shimmering citrine eyes glowed softly in perfect contrast to the sun.