Gangs of Emberlyn Chapter 23 - A Reaplum
"William!" Jack had been yelling for the past minute, but again there was no response. "I can't believe you're so close only to get knocked out now."
"Three minutes remaining until quest failure," the system's robotic voice said in William's head, but there was no response.
"Will!" Jack shouted again and this time there was a response.
William groaned as he moved slightly on the ground.
Is he waking up? Jack questioned as hope started to fill him.
"Will!" Jack shouted. "Get up!"
"Is that Jack?" William groaned as he could feel pain in his head. "Where am I?"
"Wake the f*ck up!" Jack yelled. "Unless you want your best friend to die?"
William's senses awakened as he turned his head to see his friend suspended midair.
"Jack," William croaked as his body was aching all over. "I'm hungry."
The system decided to chime in, "One minute and thirty seconds until mission fail. HP: 4 of 50. Energy 13 of 180."
"Mother f*cker," William cursed as he looked at Brian.
"He's the only source of food around here, the Felkin thought as he started to move toward him. He could feel that every ounce of his body was screaming at him to eat Brian.
I must, William thought. It's for Jack.
His eyes glowed orange and his teeth elongated as he started to eat Brian. Jack's eyes widened seeing what William was doing. He lightly shook his head due to the pain of his injuries.
He's not eating him, Jack thought. Yeah, I'm hallucinating. All this pain is starting to get to me more.
William started to eat Brian faster since his health and energy was starting to return to him. He started to tear into his body more and more.
"Your health and energy have been fully restored," the system notified William. "You have killed a temporary superhuman. Plus 500 experience points. Exp: 500 of 500. Experience points will be transferred over. Exp: 415 of 750. Congratulations, you have reached level 5. New skill unlocked: Nail Flick. The cat flicks its hand, shooting out a nail at its opponents, tripling in size once the nail leaves the finger. This skill costs 2 energy per nail flick. Once the nail heals fully on that finger, the attack on that finger may be used again. This skill is evolvable. Evolution: Unknown. Two stat points have been granted, one for each level up. 5 stat points have been granted for consuming the temporary super human."
Aggghhhh," William sighed as he stood up from feeling all better. "Don't worry Jack, I got you."
William rushed toward the machine to stop the timer. Both of them were smiling. Unfortunately, not everything was good.
"Agh!" William yelled in pain as he fell to the ground.
"You have reached your limit in this form," the system announced. "Evolving."
"No," William said in a panic as his body began to twitch uncontrollably du to the pain. "I am so close. I must fight."
He tried his best to fight through the pain, but it was hopeless. His body wasn't listening to him. He could see the timer. Thirty seconds on the clock.
"Will," Jack said now in a panic as well. "William! What's going on?"
The Evolving Felkin didn't speak. He kept on thrashing on the ground.
The system decided to tell William what was happening. "Your body is getting stronger. You are now strong enough to become part of a kingdom. The Create your Kingdom quest: Start your own Feline Society has officially begun. You were once a stray and now you are a peasant of a kingdom. Rank: Peasantry. Make a citizen to take control of this kingdom and bestow a name."
"I don't care!" William was able to sputter out. "Let me save my friend!"
Like the system was granting his request the pain stopped.
"You have now evolved into a Peasantry of an unnamed kingdom. Quest failure in five, four."
William rushed to his feet as fast as he could and bolted towards Jack.
"Three, two."
William lunged toward the window, aiming to grab the ropes or Jack in the hopes of stopping his fall.
"One,"
William was one foot away from Jack when his body started to fall. He reached out towards Jack. His fingers started to wrap around his arm, but when he started to grip, Jack wasn't in his grasp. He was falling, farther than Willaim could reach him.
"No, William sputtered as he watched his best friend fall.
Jack's hair and clothes were waving at William, like they were waving good bye.
"Jack!" William screamed as tears filled his eyes. "Jack!"
His best friend continued to fall through the air, but to William, it was agonizingly slow. Then something appeared on Jack's face that William hadn't expected: a smile. Then he heard a thud as Jack hit the ground. The air fell silent as William stared at Jack's body, his eyes lifeless. Jack was dead.
William's head went black. His eyes went hollow as he continued to stare at Jack's dead body. He began to doubt what he just saw. This couldn't have happened. This was never supposed to happen.
William ran back into the room and started to run down the stairs. He ran as fast as he could as he slammed into the wall of each corner of the building.
"This isn't real," William cried as he kept slamming into the walls of each corner. "This isn't real. This isn't real!"
On the fourth floor Willaim leapt in the middle of the stairwell and fell down the middle of it hitting the ground. He pulled himself on his feet as he ran through the front entrance out toward Jack. He fell to his knees beside Jack as he held his friend within his grasp.
"I'm sorry, Jack!" William cried as he continued to hold onto his dead friend.
William continued to cry, and the night air felt colder. The world felt dark and empty, as if all happiness had gone from it. He continued to hold onto Jack as he contemplated the situation. His breathing became more erratic. His sadness began to fade as a new emotion took hold of his mind: anger. The Shadowfire Gang had done this to Jack, and he wanted vengeance for his friend. There was only one person on his mind who could grant that: Felix.
William lifted his head from Jack's body. His tears had stained both his face and Jack's bloody shirt. Now, his face was filled with anger. He pulled out his phone, copied the address from Amos, and sent it to Felix. He then pressed the call button and brought the phone to his ear. The phone rang twice before a voice came through on the other end.
"What is it, William?" The voice of Felix asked.
"I want them dead," William said coldly. "All of them."
From the other side of the phone, Felix sat up in his chair. He was in some sort of office at a desk. His face became serious as he could feel the anger radiating from a member of his gang.
"What happened?" Felix asked, making sure to listen to everything William had to say.
"My best friend is dead," the chilling voice of William said through the other end. "I agree to become the face of your little gang."
Felix's eyes widened as he couldn't believe what he was hearing from William. He was about to jump in when the cold voice of William's words rang in his ears: "I want them dead. All of them."
"What happened?" Felix tried asking again but William didn't acknowledge what he said.
"If you can grant me revenge against the Shadowfire gang," William's voice said through the phone. "I'm at your service."
Felix paused, as his next words could mean everything. "That's what I want to do, William. I want to create a gang to destroy the rest of them. A gang for the people, so no one has to go through what your friend went through."
There was silence on the other end of the phone. Felix was just starting to think that he said something wrong when William's voice could be heard once more.
"Good. I sent you the address of where I'm at. I hope you are able to dispose of some bodies. There are a lot of them."
There was a click sound as William had hung up the phone.
"Bodies," Felix said in confusion as he looked at the address. He wrote it down as he made a call.
Back at the location tears began to flow from William's eyes again as he leaned into him once more.
"I'm avenge you," the sobs of William could be heard. "I'll build something better for you. I will build you something great to remember you."
William's tears died down as he lay there, holding on to Jack, when he heard a pair of footsteps.
"A lot of souls to be collected in this area," a voice was heard from behind William.
His tears stopped as he heard the strange words from the person.
"This kid here is a fine killer," the voice said again. "I kind of wish he had died. He could've done very well in the afterlife with his unique trait."
"He may not have died," another voice said that came from the entrance of the building. "He killed a temporary super human. Well, since he died with that new drug this world has in his system it may stick with him when he goes to the afterlife. I just collected his soul. The only one we didn't collect is this one that this killer was trying to save. Even the gang members who he injured had died minutes later. Though I think their deaths wasn't this kid's fault."
"Do you want to do the honors Tim?" the voice behind William asked.
"Yeah, I think I will, James," Tim answered. "Let's collect his soul before one of the real reapers shows up."
William slowly stood up, turning to face the both of them.
"Well, he got over his death fast," Tim said as he started to walk towards Jack's body.
Even though Tim was still far away, William decided to move his body in front of Tim's path. Tim stopped, and a confused expression appeared on his face.
"Who are you?" William asked.
Now Tim's expression shifted from confusion to shock.
"Does he see us?" Tim asked as he turned to look behind him, but there was nobody there. He turned back around to face William.
"I can see you," William snarled as his eyes glowed orange and his facial featured changed to his cat form.
"What's the protocol on this James?" Tim asked. "This hasn't happened to me before."
James took one step forward when William's head snapped toward James.
"Alright," James said. "It's been a while since someone can see us. Your friend is dead and I am here to take him to the afterlife, Easlum. I am what is known as a…Reaplum. I'm like a Reaper except I'm here to take your friend to someplace better."
William's eyes narrowed as James continued.
"A place called…Easlum."
*****
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