Death Leveling Chapter 38
Mental clarity[ … words ]
[ … words ]
The perspective of Deat’s Assist Squad:
“We need to get there quickly—no time to play around,” I aired as we glid across the sky—it was pouring buckets in melancholy, cloudy as if the heavens were mourning.
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
[SHADOW LEAP ACTIVATED]
[SYSTEM OVERLOAD .. OUTPUT 130%]
With each jump, the atmosphere—or you could say, air—would get polluted by shadows and loud bursts of noise akin to glass getting shattered.
The speed wasn’t normal—droplets of water felt like shards, hitting my skin at immense pressure.
Yohan, Gin, and Artc seemed to keep up—Yohan in particular had no issue with it whatsoever; I periodically glanced at all of them, and he seemed unbothered and arguably, contrarily, simply bored—would he be able to keep up if I increased my speed even more?
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION .. ]
[SYSTEM 27565 IS WITHIN YOUR MANA RANGE .. ]
[DANTE W. REAPER, SYSTEM TYPE: INCOMPLETE]
“Slow down, everyone—one of them is here.”
To preserve the team’s MANA totality, I was the only one emitting my aura while running.
Though, incomplete?—is that why Ariel was responsible for him?
I get that the government wants to keep tabs on everyone, but I will never understand their obsession even over minor outliers—a waste of resources in my eyes.
Instantly, we surrounded him.
“Dante W. Reaper, correct?” “Correct—and you would be?”
He seems oddly arrogant for someone rejected by the System.
He seems alone as well—presumably they perished on the mission, I take.
Dante explained the situation—it was certainly an abnormal description, and Ariel having trouble honestly seems ridiculous and unbelievable.
That guy is a showoff, though—did he mirror their strength to give his students some sort of illusion?—no, that can’t be it—there are victims, and Ariel wouldn’t request backup were it not genuinely serious.
“Everyone lost their limbs…”
This is a good cue to hurry— wait, let me do this real quick…
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
Yes—paused—I should shovel once more.
“Oh, and by the way…”
“…you said everyone lost limbs, right? So, how come you have all your limbs, Dante W. Reaper?” as I pronounced his name, my voice was faintly cold.
He immediately peeped at his right hand—did it actually re-grow then?—how can that be?
My suspicion rose—quite exponentially.
“Oh, this? Ariel gave me some piece of paper and then my lost arm got attached again.”
Piece of paper?—Ariel can do that?
Went deep into the architecture of my mind for a moment—a puzzle to solve within the next few seconds.
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
I’m aware that Ariel’s prowess extends beyond the System, but MANA workings are complex and intellectual—you need immense MANA control for them and frameworks that aren’t readily available for personal use.
Even if he could use them, they echo your MANA output—no human being in Im City can use healing magic that complex and powerful.
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
Does Ariel know about the Soul then?—no, that’s impossible—there’s no way he would be told about the inner workings of Im, that’s restricted even to him.
In that case, did someone with knowledge about the Soul conjure them for him?
I will need to discuss this with Angelo later on—can’t do anything about it right now.
“I see, very well then.”
[SHADOW LEAP ACTIVATED]
Suddenly, a passing, intuitive thought went through my mind: maybe, I should’ve used Analysis on him?—truly, a passing thought that got buried before even materializing into anything conscious.
[HEAL ACTIVATED]
Peeped at my leg—cramping to fucking hell, hate this shit so much.
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
Finally, we got to the town—we arrived there at unseen speeds, but even so it seemed desolate and empty.
With Gin, Artc and Yohan behind me, we glared at the town painted in red.
No corpses in sight—just pools of blood everywhere.
“Give me a second, y’all.”
I closed my eyes and began focusing…
[MANA AURA ACTIVATED]
The range of my aura was roughly 1.25 miles (2.01168 kilometres)—was that enough?—no, I wasn’t sensing any lifeforms yet.
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
[SYSTEM OVERLOAD .. OUTPUT 150%]
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
[SYSTEM OVERLOAD .. OUTPUT 250%]
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
[SYSTEM OVERLOAD .. OUTPUT 400%]
[SYSTEM WARNING .. OVERDRIVE .. ]
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
[SYSTEM WARNING .. SEROTONIN RECEPTORS ARE UNDERGOING SEVERE DEGRADATION .. ]
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
[SYSTEM OVERLOAD .. OUTPUT 700%]
[ANALYSIS ACTIVATED]
[ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS ACTIVATED]
“Hah… I don’t sense a single human being in nearly a 9-mile radius,” I said with defeat burdening my vocal cords.
“What do we do then, Deat?” inquired Yohan.
“I did find something—let’s go,” upon saying that and lifting my eyelids, I began stumbling and feeling lightheaded… “oh…sh…”
Artc immediately seized my arm, keeping me upright as I stumbled, then in firmness—zero affection, stated, “don’t push yourself too far, you druggie.”
I glanced at him.
“Please, don’t mention that in front of strangers— but thank you, I know.”
“Follow my lead, everyone.”
[MENTAL CLARITY ACTIVATED]
[SHADOW LEAP ACTIVATED]
[HEAL ACTIVATED]
We burst through the town, building to building—lots of them were already destroyed, clearly signaling that this was a war-zone of unprecedented magnitude.
And then we ran into it…
“God, fuck…” let out Gin, in utter disbelief…
A massive crater with MANA still scintillating at the scene—quick and rapid bursts of black lightning kept appearing and disappearing, with MANA pressure that caused skin tingling and immediate nausea.
“Did Ariel do this?” asked Artc, perplexed by the scenery.
Yohan proceeded to steal my words and answer for me.
“Yeah, that’s his Blackhole ability—the output goes over ten times past what any Shadow System can do without abuse.”
“Hear that, Deat?—System abuse!” Artc instantly said, while peering his eyes at me as a friendly jab—or was it friendly?
“Hey, at least I’m not some alcoholic—you know?”
“No, but you’d probably be a crackhead if substances aside weed weren’t impossible to get around here,” he replied without any delay.
Promptly, Yohan interjected, “can we stay on topic, please?—what’s our roadmap here?”
Turned back towards the crater.
“His System collapsed here—there’s nothing to do, we can’t retrieve any data nor are there any lifeforms we can investigate.”
“That’s it then?—we just return empty-handed?”
Sigh—what a waste of time and MANA.
“I suppose so, unless you have any other ideas.”
