The underground auction house burned.
Slowly, evenly and in silence.
Mobious stood where he was, motionless at the center of the Hall.
He stared at the exit that vash used for a good few seconds before lowering his gaze.
He looks at his chest, placing a hand on the place where vash's hand tore out of.
Only to get a stingy feeling from the memory of that attack. The most brutal one he's felt in his 60 years of living this repeated 5 years of life.
His hand falls back to his side, silently clenched into a weak fist.
The heart.
The same heart he thought was the source of his slavery... wasn't the real chain at all.
And the game?
Vash said the game is still ongoing.
That's not possible, the game always ended. There was always a winner.
Always a new host, always a new vessel to be the reward.
But, the kid.
Vash.
He changed it all.
He changed the whole course of life that mobious thought was never possible.
His gaze turned towards the unconscious and half-burning form of hyun-sa.
His shoulders stopped bleeding from the intense heat in the Hall.
Hyun-sa slowly opened his eyes.
Weakly, but enough to let him see.
His eyes fall on mobious, the flames on his body blazing red and orange.
His expression quickly turns horrified.. Not from the destruction.
But, by the memories of vash.
He weakly trembled and uses all his strength to crawl away from mobious and looks everywhere.
He didn't say anything and just keeps on looking around frantically.
But, slowly his gaze falls back on mobious.
Mobious looked at him like something unworthy of being called a human.
He slowly walked towards him.
His footsteps echoed through the burning unground hall.
Hyun-sa's breathing hitched as he saw mobious getting closer.
Hyun-sa: "Wai– Wait...."
"Wh– where is zy– zyric-ssi?... N.. No, not zyric.. Th–... That was.. N– not a human.. He.. He knows everything,.. H– He will kill me!"
Hyun-sa held his head with both hands Protectively, like expecting a attack from anywhere suddenly.
He kept looking around, still trembling in his terror.
But, mobious didn't even bother to feel pity.
He crouched besides him and looks right into his eyes.
Unblinking, cold and filled with hate.
He didn't say anything like "i hate you, or why did you do this to me?"
Instead, he says—
Mobious: "How many winners have you used... Before me?"
It is a simple question.
But, it carries all his emotions, his repeated 5 years of life for 60 years.
The life he repeated.
The same life of 5 years, that continued for 60 years.
Every time died, just so no one else had to suffer in his place.
The weight of everything was on this one question.
Hyun-sa didn't talk.
Or say, he isn't able to talk.
He tries to say something, but all that comes out are either terrified gasps or incoherent words that mobious couldn't understand.
Mobious let's out a soft, frustrated breath.
He grabbbed hyun-sa by the hair and slammed his face into the concrete floor.
Still hot because of the heat from the flames.
Mobious: "I don't remember telling you to stay silent."
Hyun-sa groans out in pain and even more fear from before, not just for vash but also for mobious now.
He spits out a mouthful of blood and coughs.
His breathing heavy and trembling from weakness and pain.
Hyun-sa: "Pl– please... L.. Let me..... Go."
"I... I will,.. Give you... Anything... Cough cough! Please.... I beg you."
Mobious stayed silent, not because the offer was good.
But, it was the most absurd thing to say to a person that he never acknowledged as human.
Mobious continued to stare into his trembling eyes and says—
Mobious: "you're a bit late to ask me that."
Hyun-sa froze.
His shaking stopped completely.
Not from fear this time.
But because his body wouldn't move—like his brain just shut down the second Mobious looked at him.
He stared at mobious, not able to look away, not even able to blink. He thought that mobious will let him go, because he was a slave.. Only thought, but he was met with the reality that mobious was no longer a slave.
He's free, back to what he was. Maybe not as human being, but as the same person he was– the same person who killed the previous winners and himself to keep them alive, the same person who developed hatred towards the game that doesn't let anyone win. The same person who always wanted to erase this place.
He didn't talk about, not a single word or phrase.
He just gets up again and raised his hand towards hyun-sa. Not to grab this time, the air around his palm glowed brighter and brighter as the heat also increased in the hall.
A big, orange-red flaming fire concentrated in front of his palm, this wasn't fire, this was a energy of 7 suns together as one, ready to toast anything in front of it.
And in just a matter of few seconds, the energy releases, going through hyun-sa's head.
As the energy calmed down, what remained was just a body without head, sitting lifeless, not even bleeding because it was burned away.
Mobious stayed as he was, with his hand raised forward and eyes looking at the headless body, before slowly dropping his gaze.
He started to shiver as he chuckles softly, not from cold, not from fear, not even because of happiness.
It was bitter and sweet.
It was a type of laugh that a person gets after completing what they wanted, but not knowing what to do after that.
Slowly and evenly his laugh grew louder and shakier. He covered his eyes with his one hand as the other kept a grip on his waist as if reminding him that he had completed his work.
But, suddenly he stops laughing and talks to himself—
Mobious: "What am i even supposed to do?.... I have killed... So many people.... and i can't reverse the time anymore."
He let's out a shaky breath, close to a short cry.
"I guess they weren't wrong.... I am a animal."
"I will only cause chaos by staying here... What do i even have to live for anyway?.... Right, i don't have anything... I have always been alone... I don't have anything to live for."
As he kept telling himself that he doesn't have anything to live for. He raised his hand from his eyes and bought it besides his head.
In a flash of moment, a explosion erupts from his palm... Burning his head into nothing, just like hyun-sa.
He could not die, because his body have regenerative cells, but they didn't grow back this time.
Because he burned the cells and the blood vessels with the heat of 7 suns.
Far away from the massive burning area, stood vash on top of a building, watching the flames illuminating in the darkness of night.
His eyes calmly staring at scene before dropping on the system inventory window.
The wishing heart resting harmlessly inside the inventory. He puts his hand inside the screen and pulls it out. The system pops out another screen with the details about the heart.
[Phoenix wishing heart: "can provide the user with a inbuilt restart skill."
Advance skill: "restart"
Flaws: "the users life span only stays 5 years."]
[Skill guide: "The life span will be deleted from the skill set when the player reaches level 230]
Vash turned his gaze towards the status window and sees—
[Level: 264
Strength: 820
Stamina: 840
Agility: 845
Intelligence: 690
Precision: 872
+Luck: 30]
He looked back at the skill set window of the heart and reads the description.
[How to use: "concentrate the mana into the heart, until it changes its form and becomes a golden sphere ball."
"After it becomes a sphere ball, the player need to put it in the armoury skill box."]
He stared down at the system and says—
Vash: "That's... The most child like explanation this have given me so far.... Sigh.."
Vash ignores the system language and pours his mana into the heart until it turns into a shining golden sphere, fitting into his grip.
"Armoury."
The player armoury window pops up, showing the blocks filled with armour pieces from head to toe. And empty block on the right with a "+" Icon as—
[ |+| advance skills: requires a skill orb]
Besides that block were several more blocks going to hundreds of thousands of counts as he swiped to left.
He lets out another soft breath and raises the golden orb to the screen.
"Use skill orb."
As he said that, the orb started to glow and slowly float up in the air before it broke into fragments and got absorbed into the system's empty skill slot.
The system hums for a few seconds and then pops out a message.
["Advance skill unlocked"
Skill grade: "Rare"
Skill type: "checkpoint tracer"]
[Restart: "the player can go back to an certain point of time."
Flaw: "skill activates only when the physical body of the player becomes lifeless."]
[Exclusive skill: "regeneration affinity: Increases players healing effect by 70%"
Exclusive skill: "Navigation."]
[Stats raise: +40 each]
[Level: 264
Strength: 860
Stamina: 880
Agility: 885
Intelligence: 730
Precision: 912
Luck: 30 (+10)]
Vash reads the description of the skill with the same calm expression and thinks—
"That isn't very different than the respawn thing when I am doing the system quest... Well, this might work in the real world now that it's also an skill."
"Though I doubt that an normal human can deal damage to me anymore."
Vash glanced back at the illuminating flames of the ruined house and turned back again.
"Navigate waystone."
The system crackles and a map window pops up, an road line connected the waystone and his current location.
A arrow glows out on the land beneath him, pointing the direction that the map showed.
He takes a step back and lunges to the given direction with a blur of speed.
[Dash has been used.
Cool down in 2 seconds]
The building beneath him broke down into a pile of rubbles and scrap. The force of his speed leaving the ground with broken crust under his steps.
Yet, it wasn't fast, for him or maybe even someone else. This speed has a flaw, which is the force it leaves.. He's fast, but the ground and air is still able to touch him.
"I still need to increase my speed more, or... Maybe not,... What if i unlocked a class similar to assassin?... Wouldn't that automatically give me shadow step?"
"Let's look for a way to get that class after i am done with this quest."
Within a few hours of running and stopping to rest, as the dash takes alot of his MP. Which exhausts his stamina in return.
He reached the location of the way stone, gaurded by three rhino type monsters.
[Gaurds of the waystone: yunoasauras]
He stops in front of them as they got into alert position, ready to attack.
Vash lets a deep breath, calming down his exhausted body before materializing the short swords in both of his hands and locking in on the three monsters between the waystone on him.