Chapter 5: The Sacrifice
< Only fear reveals who deserves to survive >>
The wood spirit, with his terrifying smile, advanced towards them repeating his fatal mantra: "Sacrifice... sacrifice... Sans Nom, driven by a survival instinct, began to retreat.
Râhenhotep, seeing his fear, felt the shame rising in him. "A king can never be afraid," he says to himself inwardly. He pushed his wife, Nefirâ, behind him and told her in a firm voice: "Don't worry. "
Then, he began to move towards the wood spirit. Behind him, Nefirâ begged him: "No, don't leave! "But Râhenhotep continued to move forward without looking back. Nefirâ sighed, telling herself that she didn't need to give him advice for her safety, considering him as a simple pawn. The reason for her cries was not the worry for her husband, but the fear of losing a useful pawn, nothing more. Râhenhotep stopped a few steps from the mind and activated the power of his Class: Former King.
> The class effect: Even without a title, some individuals or groups can instinctively follow their orders thanks to their old charisma.
>
Sans Nom and Nefirâ felt immense pressure from Râhenhotep.
Sans Nom, a spark of understanding in the eyes, says to himself: "I was not wrong about my intuition. It looks like he has a power similar to mine. "Nefirâ, worried, asked in a barely audible voice: "Is that enough? "
The wooden spirit stopped moving and talking. Râhenhotep, filled with a feeling of victory, said to himself: "Of course he is afraid. After all, I am a king. He was about to tell him to kneel, but was interrupted.
The wooden spirit looked at him with his amber eyes, luminescent in the twilight, and said: "It's really interesting, the capacity of your class. Don't think you're the only one capable of this. The wood spirit used its class: Old Entity.
> The effect of the class: Increased resistance to magical or spiritual manipulations thanks to their ancient essence.
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After using his class, the effect of Râhenhotep's class no longer affected him, then he projected himself with inhuman speed, giving a punch so powerful and so fast that Râhenhotep flew for several meters, hitting several dead trees in the process.
Sans Nom and Nefirâ did not even have time to understand what had just happened. After coming to her senses, Nefirâ ran to her husband screaming: "Without Name, come and help Râhenhotep! What are you waiting for? "After seeing the power of the wood spirit, Nameless says to himself inwardly: "With our three strengths, we do not make the weight. But if I help Râhenhotep, it won't change anything about our situation..." Then, he made his decision. But all this only took a second in real time. Sans Nom looked with his black eyes that looked like an endless abyss, devoid of any emotion, and mercilessly abandoned Râhenhotep and Nefirâ so that they could be sacrificed and that he could gain time to escape. He started running in another direction, moving away from the confrontation.
Nefirâ, seeing the escape of Nameless, shouted: "This dog does not understand what is good for him! Râhenhotep, for his part, began to cough up blood. The wood spirit slowly approached them using its unique ability: More Sacrifices. His eyes lit up with an amber light and he said:
"Human, you are so fragile and so weak! And do you think you can stop me? Even with powers, you are nothing but cattle to sacrifice for me, Ahlmaris," he says. "After using my unique ability: More Sacrifices, I saw that none of you three is a good offering for sacrifice. You are not innocent, full of vitality, you are corrupt. It's not enough. So, you don't even deserve to be sacrificed. And I don't have time to sacrifice you. But what if you are not enough? In another situation, I would sacrifice you. You must thank this monster that will appear tonight. "
Then, he walked away quietly, sinking into another part of the dead forest.
Sans Nom ran with all his strength, sinking deeper and deeper into the forest. As for Râhenhotep and Nefirâ, he felt no guilt or shame for having abandoned them. He already knew he was using them, but he too was used by them, nothing more. Running for life is a shame for others; for him, honor is only an option that he can choose or abandon without regret. For now, he decides that no matter what it costs, he must survive. If being a coward allows him to survive, then he will be cowardly. If being brave allows him to survive, then he will become brave. For him, what others think has no power. If one day, being a tyrant becomes the best decision for him, then no matter what the world says, he would choose this path. Nothing can stop him, neither logic, nor feelings, nor anything else. Except himself. Sans Nom already knows it, but his way of thinking is only one option among others, nothing more.
For the moment, he chooses to think pragmatically, unlike other pragmatic people like Nefirâ. Sans Nom knows that being pragmatic is only an option, unlike Nefirâ. If one day he decides to think in another way, he will probably do it for himself, because everything is just an option, just a possibility, nothing more. But this way of thinking that any option is only one possibility among other possibles, or not. But in the end, I'm the only one left, or not... Hhhhhhhhh. For others, it is very difficult to think that his own thought is only one possibility among others, but not for him, or not. For others, this way of thinking is nihilism or absurdity, or sees everything as relative, but for Nameless, all this is just a way of thinking, nothing more, and that's what he just said. He has no freedom, he is not a slave, he is everything and nothing according to his decision. He is Nameless, or not. No matter what he chooses, in the end, it's just me, or not. Hhhhhhhhhhh
Everything possible is in his hands. He has the possibility that nothing is in his hands. For him, the survival and pragmatism he uses at the moment are only possibilities. If he decides to give up his survival and pragmatism right away, he can do it, without any reason or with a reason, it doesn't matter, because possibility or option or not, in the end, only me remains, or not. Hhhhhhhhh.
No Nameless did not know that every night, the Spirits of the Blade of Nothingness went out into this forest to compete. A battle to the death and eternal that had made the zone dead. The nature of this place had been corrupted to become a place of permanent combat, a cycle of destruction that never stopped.
The night of the spirits
Night fell. A thick fog enveloped the area. It was not a natural fog, but a phenomenon created by bruised nature, imprisoned in a sword. The Spirits of the Blade of Nothing had been created to destroy this corruption, but the only way to make it disappear permanently was to erase all deadly tension from this world. It was an impossible task, but the world, just and impartial, made sure that every dawn, they disappeared until sunset.
Meanwhile, Sans Nom lives Spirits of the Blade of Nothing everywhere, by tens, by hundreds, by thousands. In the silent night of the Dead Forest, silhouettes move like animated shadows. The Spirits of the Blade of the Nothing appear at first as indistinct, fluid and changing forms, oscillating between reality and dream. Their body seems to be made up of palpable darkness, a moving veil of shadow that steals all certainty from the eye.
Only their blue glows pierce the darkness: two cold and piercing eyes, staring at their prey with an almost material intensity, the only trace of tangible life on these ethereal entities. The rest of their body is a constant stream of veiled shapes, sometimes suggesting weapons, blades or fragments of armor, but never definitively.
Everything seems to be in motion, as if their figure was breathing with the night itself. Their skin is pale, almost translucent, but droped in the darkness that envelops them. No clothing dresses them: they are themselves dressed in shadows, black veils and fragments of night, blending completely into the surrounding darkness. Even their hair is an extension of this shadow, merging with their body and disappearing into the infinity of darkness.
The beauty of their form is strange and terrifying at the same time: a mixture of spectral grace and latent threat, attractive like a wildfire and icy as death. They are the physical embodiment of murderous desire and the ephemeral, a fascinating spectacle that no one could observe without shivering.
Seeing them, Sans Nom's heart accelerated. "I try to run away, but it seems that the effect of my Homeless class follows me," he says to himself inwardly. The effect of his class is that his life is twice as hard as that of ordinary people. Then, he began to smile and said: "But if heaven wants me dead, what then? But if I die like a dog, what then? In the end, I'm the only one left, or not. Hhhhhhhhhhh "
At the same time, Râhenhotep and Nefirâ were also surrounded by the Spirits of the Blade of Nothingness. Nefirâ trembled.
"Am I going to die? She asked herself. "No, I can't die," she says to herself internally. "No matter how, I have to survive. Because in this world, the power of an individual can surpass that of a different group of people so that I realize my dream, that the woman is not inferior to the man, but on the contrary, that she totally surpasses the man. "
Râhenhotep, getting up, declared: "I, Râhenhotep, I'm not afraid of anyone! I am a king, who can stop me? Yes, I fell, but which king did not encounter any difficulties in his life? " he says. "I make a promise to heaven: this humiliation today, I will make it pay for with your life, spirit of wood, Ahlmaris. He triggered his unique ability of Domination.
A little further, the wood spirit named Ahlmaris also found himself surrounded by creatures.
"You again! He said in a tired voice.
This night, who will survive? Who is going to die? And who will survive until dawn in this cursed forest?