Sunny hang on a wall, a long spike tethered through him, anchoring him in place.
Each breath burnt, as though a cruel fire flowed through him each moment.
He hadn't seen what hit him, but it was clearly a runner. The spike looked similar to one of the limbs of the Runner he had just slayed.
It really was easier to die and at the same time harder than he thought. Just a moment prior the Runners couldn't deal any damage whatsoever. He could jump off a five storey building unharmed.
Now he was hanging on a wall, held in place by a spike that got lodged in him faster than he could see.
Two percent. What a joke.
Sunny's mouth was filled with the sour taste of iron. His hands shook as they took hold of the spike, shakily trying to pull it out, though knowing well it wouldn't be possible.
A growl drew his attention. Sunny slowly raised his gaze. Before him stood a five legged runner, its legs stretched spider like. One of its limbs was missing.
No, it wasn't missing, it was in his stomach– through to be more precise.
Sunny's mouth opened, as if about to speak, but he said nothing. He couldn't say anything. Breathing alone was troublesome.
An electric pole bent, an invisible force pulling at it. Barely missing Sunny, the pole flew right at the Runner, connecting with the part the sixth limb should have been. Scales grew on the pole and before Sunny knew it, the Runner had six limbs.
The Runner's mouth opened, a stretch of rows of teeth down a mouth that opened all the way down its throat.
The Runner never reached Sunny.
Something did meet it, however. A blast that made it burst to black smoke, making way for Moonlight to run to Sunny's aid.
She was scared, confused, lost. There was only one they were to deal with. One that wasn't meant to be able to strategise a plan of separation and attack.
After a moment of frantic searching, she drew out the crystal.
"There's no untouched wall," she said, a heavy sorrow accompanying her tone.
She couldn't open a portal, Sunny figured as his vision blurred.
Why not just use one of the windowed walls? Sunny thought, with his mind fogging. He couldn't speak, so only resorted to looking up at her from the ground she lay him.
Screams filled the air–Moonlight's screams.
Sunny's brain fog faded, vision clearing again as he regained consciousness.
Moonlight was in one of windowed walls, dust rising in the air.
Another runner stood over the one Sunny had slain.It had only four limbs on it.
Sunny looked over to where Moonlight had burst into, hoping he was wrong.
The Runner dug its face into the dead Runner and rose. In its mouth was a crystal with darkness swirling within and around it.
The dead Runner decayed to a black smoke just as the new one swallowed the black crystal.
A volley of blasts from Moonlight hit the Runner, causing dust and smoke to fill the air.
Within the dust and smoke a deep growl sounded, the silhouette of the Runner growing.
**Anomaly Upgrade**
Merged Runner
**Ungradable Portal detected**
Danger:Null
Destination: Systems Alliance of Global Security headquarters.
Portal creator:****
A beam of light hit the silhouette, instantly clearing the dust and smoke. The Merged Runner was torn in half and rapidly regenerating.
Someone descended from the sky, their attire a flowing shadow.
Luna, Sunny thought as he faded to unconsciousness.
The world shifted, and Sunny was again in the abyss. Floating in a vast expanse of absolute nothingness.
"Death denied, order by System Zero, execution, absolute."
A deep silence ensued after the words echoed the abyss.
"What?" Sunny's voice broke the newly born silence.
"Son of the sun, I decline your death," the voice echoed again, as if clarifying what it had just said.
A moment of silence followed, which was broken by the abyss shifting to the battle scene Sunny was in but a moment prior.
He saw himself lying on the ground, in a pool of his own blood and Moonlight lying amongst the rubble, two spikes going through her.
"She'll survive too, right? Her system will deny her death too, right?" Sunny asked.
The silence was an answer. An answer all too clear.
One step after the next, Sunny found himself moving towards Moonlight.
**S.A.G.S Lower Rank Agent**
Name:Moonlight Nightreign.
Sunny snorted. She had the nerve to laugh at his name yet she was called Moonlight Nightreign.
Something moved at the corner of Sunny's eye before he could assess anything.
"What was that?"
Sunny was immediately granted an aerial true view of the area, revealing an entire colony of Runners, their numbers in the higher hundreds or lower thousands.
They were all charging at something that could only be described as a mass of sentient darkness.
"What the fuck?"
His sight restored to normal view. The darkness was replaced by a figure of a person claded in a shadow like armour, their face obscured by a mask of free flowing tentacles of darkness.
"Is that–"
**S.A.G.S Catastrophe**
Name:****
Title: Heir of The Midnight.
Threat level: Undeniable.
Sunny returned back from aerial view, back where he Moonlight once was, but she was no longer there. Neither was he.
"Where'd she go?"
The scene distorted, moving back to accommodate his will, reversing to the point where he had last seen her then it stopped and proceeded normally.
"What the–" Sunny's thought was interrupted by a group of people claded in black, with masks that stretched out like beaks of crows.
One went down at Moonlight, placing a finger at her neck then looked up at the others, as though relaying a message of sorts mentally. They took out the Runner spikes and vanished in a blast of light, leaving on the ground the patterns of a S.A.G.S portal, which immediately faded.
Sunny's body too, was gone.
The scene shifted again, returning him to the abyss, before a screen that stretched out further than he could see, and further.
"Is she going to survive?" Sunny asked again. There were at least a hundred questions in his head at the moment, but his brain immediately chose which is considered the most crucial and relayed it before his consent was part of the consideration.
"I don't know," the voice echoed.
Sunny's jaw tightened. What did it mean it didn't know?
"Who were those? The people in black?"
"Spectators...Or they pose to be, to maintain an order that is broken."
"What do you mean?"
"Spectators, they are meant to deal with any casualties in dealing with anomalies and ensure the non-system user public is wiped of the memory of any system activity."
That explained why Sunny had no knowledge of any such things before he got the system.
He clenched his fist.
He wanted to ask something else, he had the questions, they bubbled within him, yet none came out.
"What is this place?" He finally managed.
"A spectator room."
A spectator room. It would explain how he could view the scene while he was unconscious, with every one of his wounds gone.
"So my system type is spectator then," He concluded.
"You wouldn't want to reveal that, a moderator would have need for someone like you, and they would do big things to have you, Son of the Sun."
"Don't call me that," Sunny growled through gritted teeth.
"You are what you are. What, will you hit me? Will you hit a lady?" The voice changed slightly, mimicking that of a distressed lady.
"Where did they take us?"
"The headquarters," the voice went quiet for a moment then spoke again, "if you can get killed by a Runner, not even an awakened one, you will die soon, Son of the Sun."