Unlucky?Player

"Mana is a bridge"

"Mana is a bridge"

"Mana is a bridge"

"...." Luke felt warmth. Golden droplets of comfort gently caressed his body. The feeling of fear slowly left his body as he quietly opened his eyes to witness something celestial. "Nate….."

His best friend. The only one who didn't curse him for luck. And quite literally his light in the darkest of moments. Nate's body was enveloped in a golden bright light, but the source of it all seemed to be his hand.

Basile who previously was dead set on crushing Luke in his weakest moment, was now shivering as he looked at his younger brother. Even if Luke's ability could be passed off as the effects of some modern medicine that was hidden away from the world, there was nothing that explained Nate's body glowing. To top it off, Nate wasn't even fully conscious, it seemed as if he was in some kind of a trance.

It was instinct, Basile couldn't help but move towards his sibling, mainly with the innate intention of snuffing the light out. However, as he prepared to take the second step forward, he could feel some kind of a burden on his body, and this burden slowly turned into a feeling of being chained. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't move forward. It was as if the world had descended upon his shoulders. He could feel the grip of someone's hand increase, to the point where it nearly broke his uninjured arm.

"Should not have wasted that chance," Luke whispered in his ear. It was a scary sight. Luke's anomaly-like purple eyes stood out even in the current situation, however, what made it frightening was the blood that continued to flow from his eyes. Luke tightened his grip on Basile's shoulder. The energy inside the confident blond was disappearing at a rate Luke had never seen before. What made it even more mysterious was the fact that he strike Basile a second time. It was simply his grip that dispersed the energy in his opponent's body.

"Ke..uk!" Basile was brought to his knees, his body was under so much pressure that he couldn't even turn around fully. His mind ran rampant. Just where did Luke suddenly get all this strength from? It didn't make sense, especially considering the fact that he was nearly dead.

*Krunnnnnnnzchch*

The bone-crunching sound of Basile's other arm breaking echoed the golden room. It was over. There was absolutely nothing Basile could do now, one of his arms was heavily injured while the other was broken. Even if he wanted to do anything, he had no way of releasing this pressure he felt. Before he could scream out in pain, Luke showed him mercy by knocking him out.

They were now, in a way, back to square one. He was now left with Elena, and Nate was still tied up. Elena had a broken expression on her face. Her eyes were wide open, and her lips parted as she looked at the sorry state of one of the strongest warriors she faced.

She looked at Luke with the same expression and noticed that there was something different about him. It was weird. It had been barely a few minutes since she last faced him and yet, she felt something different about him.

"!!!!!" Her eyes grew wider as she now wore a defeated expression. It was his growth. Even though they were in the middle of dueling, Luke had grown tremendously. Not only in terms of strength, but his demeanor was scarier. It was absurd to think someone could randomly grow so much, but at the same time, before this day, Elena had never seen someone that could see through the dark or someone whose hand was a flashlight.

"No….way….just what are…you both?" Elena blurted out as she fell to her knees. There was absolutely no point in continuing the match. It completely went against her personality to simply give up, but compared to how Luke previously was, the current prince of darkness was on another level. "H-how….can you..both do…t-t-these thing..s..?" she stuttered.

As Luke continued walking forward, he realized that she said "both" and not only Nate. It was only obvious he was curious. After all, he had no memory or even idea of the fact that he could see through the darkness. "What do you mean "both"….?" he asked as he stood in front of her, looking down into her eyes.

The sight was definitely not a pleasant one. To be looking at such a ghastly appearance would strike fear into anyone. Especially with all the events leading up to it. "...You…and you a-a-bbbility to se..e through th-e daa..rk.." She said while shivering, "a-and him, with….w-well…thatt.."

"...." Luke's blood-stained eyes widen slightly as he began to process what she meant. If what she said was true, then perhaps that was the reason for his eyes burning out. Although the majority of it still remained unexplained, for some reason, he didn't find it all that hard to believe. Although, that might have had a lot to do with the adrenaline and power rush he felt at that moment.

*PPPPPHHAAAAAT*

Luke wasted no time and struck her near his neck region, instantly knocking her out. Before he went to his friend, Luke looked around the room. There was the door he entered through, Arthur's body against the wall, and a little away from him, was his sister, Elena. On the other side was Basile and all around him were bloodstains, from both of them. However, there was one thing he hadn't noticed all this time. There was another door-like object behind Nate.

"I see….." Luke recalled the other man he noticed in the dark, he theorized that the man must've used that exit to escape. However, before he could think into it too much, Luke decided to help his friend out, especially because he felt guilty he used him as a human glow stick.

"Let's get you home bud," Luke took out his phone and dialed someone he could trust. He untied Nate and noticed that the light emitting from his hand wasn't as bright. It was the perfect timing, almost as if it had served its purpose.

'I needed a bridge…..and you helped me out,' he smiled and walked out of the room as he carried Nate on his back. 'You were literally the light in the darkest of moments.....haaah.... just what is going on?'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Sir…..so you're proposing we let the players choose their rewards? But what if they were to ask something that they can't have yet? Not to mention, it was Night and NotYourTypicalMage who won most of the competitions…no matter how you see it, giving them the liberty to choose their own rewards makes it…..dangerous?"

"Hmmmmm…..I see what you're getting at Reed, but what do you suggest then? To be honest I only suggested that to see how you would react…but now that I know, it leaves us with what we need to reward them with…." Kenny replied as he massaged his chin. He kept a close watch on Night, and the others, watching him leave the Phantom Trials so suddenly reminded him of the rewards.

"Skill books are useless, I can say this with certainty after witnessing Nate's performance in the raid. Both of them are monstrous players…..what Nate achieved there was something that most people can't comprehend. Mana manipulation to create a huge weapon? Not to mention the dance….." Reed recalled the events that had happened up to the point, it was hard to give the best players a reward. Especially if they're capable of creating a path on their own.

"That's it!" Reed exclaimed as he realized what the perfect reward would be. Both Luke and Nate were players that could utilize their own skills and the environment to conquer the unknown, but the one thing they can't do anything about is the fact that what they had to go against, was the unknown.

Knowledge. It was key, no matter which reality, or which world. Be it a fantasy world with a sorcerer supreme that had a perfect memory, or a virtual reality game that had celestial beings in it. No matter the land, knowledge was always important. The one thing that Nate and Luke could've used, that would've given them a huge advantage, was knowledge. 

"I see…..but just what kind of information do you wish to give them? They won quite a lot….so the information should be equally worthy…." Kenny replied as he listened to Reed's idea.

"I was thinking…. How does information regarding the magic towers seem? It won't be specifically only about Damianos, but instead, it would be regarding all the four towers? It's information only a few including Neo Thallius are in possession of…."

It was something that Luke and Nate couldn't reject, it was a step towards Damianos, especially since so far they had no real leads, this would be the perfect reward for them. Although, the information given shouldn't reveal everything.