Ravyn shot upright, blinking the exhaustion from his eyes. He looked around the small and empty safe house.
"Luna?" he called out, his voice hoarse.
No answer.
He threw himself off the makeshift bed and burst out of the room, checking the silent main area. "Luna!" he yelled louder.
He ran to the street, spun searching for any sign of her. And his frantic search stopped instantly as an utterly overwhelming mana washed over him. It was quite familiar.
Ravyn turned violently toward the source of the pressure.
And standing several paces away, bathed in the sickly yellow glow of a broken streetlamp was Kenneth.
Kenneth slowly raised both hands in a gesture of peace, though his eyes held pure challenge. "Easy, kid. I'm not the one who took your Luna." he said.
"I'm just here to settle our score. I don't know if you remember but you blasted me into a filthy warehouse when we first met. And our second meeting, you were pretty roughed up but now you seem to be in perfect shape." Kenneth paused, his body shifting into a relaxed but devastatingly focused fighting stance.
"It's about time we settled this." He smiled, a genuine promise of pain. "And make sure you give it your all."
Ravyn's whole body instinctively flared with the deep red aura. Without wasting any time, he shot forward closing the distance between them in a single blur. Ravyn threw a fierce fist aimed at Kenneth's jaw.
Kenneth's speed matched his. And he ducked low, aiming a devastating counter-punch at Ravyn's gut, designed to end the fight quickly.
But an inch before the punch could land, Ravyn's body violently pulled backward and upward. He evaded the blow by momentarily manipulating gravity on his body.
Kenneth didn't pause. He lunged forward again and shot another punch while Ravyn was still mid-air. Ravyn's body twisted and leaped again before he even touched down. Furious flurry of strikes followed and Ravyn avoided every single one with the same impossible, gravity-manipulated jump-backs. He was turning Kenneth's speed against him.
Kenneth threw a sloppy, frustrated fist out wide. Ravyn, seeing the opening, he kicked the extended arm. The blow wasn't meant to injure but to disrupt Kenneth's balance, making him turn slightly.
Ravyn instantly spun, aiming to land a crushing pressure strike on the back of his neck. But Kenneth was waiting. He caught Ravyn's ankle mid-spin.
"Gotcha." Kenneth said. And he smiled, as the trap sprung shut. "You fell for it."
Kenneth hauled Ravyn down and unleashed a ferocious punch aimed at the gut. Ravyn crossed the both palms over his abdomen, channeling the red aura to reinforce his defense.
The impact was still devastating, sending Ravyn flying backward like a projectile. He skidded violently for twenty feet before managing to wrench his feet under him to stop.
Ravyn spat a gout of blood onto the pavement. He glared at Kenneth and swung his hand down, applying crushing gravity on Kenneth.
Kenneth was slammed. And he didn't fall but he was instantly plunged deeply into the ground. His posture was no longer straight, he was braced and his feet sinking into the cracked earth. Craters formed around his feet as he resisted the immense downward pull.
Ravyn's eyes widened as he forced his hand to crush Kenneth with maximum intensity. He pushed his mana reserves to the breaking point, trying to flatten his opponent.
But Kenneth refused to break. He started walking slowly, every step he took was sinking deeper into the ground, yet he kept walking.
Ravyn lost a fraction of a second of focus and Kenneth seized it. He lunged forward, bursting free of the gravity well and caught Ravyn with a brutal uppercut. Ravyn puked blood instantly and he was sent flying high into the night air.
Before Ravyn could descend, Kenneth tracked him. He performed a subtle gesture with his own hand, the exact mirror image of Ravyn's.
Ravyn was slammed against the ground by an invisible force, hitting the pavement like a meteorite.
Kenneth stood over the wreckage, perfectly composed. He rotated his neck, producing a sharp crack as he stared at Ravyn, who lay sprawled in the crater and struggling violently to push himself upright.
"You know." Kenneth began. "If you used that ability on someone else, they would've been crushed into gore instantly."
Ravyn managed to push himself onto his hands and knees, spitting blood and grit.
"It's a quite overwhelming and annoyingly strong ability." Kenneth continued, taking a slow step forward.
Ravyn finally stood, wobbling slightly and his red aura sputtering. He looked at Kenneth. "You're an Executioner, aren't you?"
Kenneth threw his head back and laughed. "I'm most definitely not, kid." He walked slowly toward Ravyn. "I'm simply just as human." He held out his left hand, showing his Arc Seal. "Same as you. The only difference is our level of power and morals, maybe."
He stopped, standing mere feet from Ravyn. "Though, you and I are really not that different." Kenneth murmured. "And you wonder why I know that? It's because of your ability."
Kenneth gestured to the surrounding destruction, the deep craters and impossible contortions in the pavement. "It defies the laws of nature because it's simply gravity manipulation. The Game gave you that ability because of how your life feels... heavy like a crushing pressure."
Ravyn looked down at his own trembling hands.
"It makes you feel like the whole gravity of this world is up against you." Kenneth added, his voice barely a whisper. "And you hold deeply a belief of defying it one day. And that's what birthed your ability."
Ravyn looked up slowly, his eyes wide with shocked recognition.
"I'm right, aren't I?" Kenneth pressed, taking a final step until he was super close to Ravyn. He tilted his head, his smile predatory. "Wanna know what my ability is? No one has ever forced me to use it but I'll be happy to give you a brief demonstration."
Despite his injuries and exhaustion, Ravyn lashed out, throwing a wild punch at Kenneth's face.
Kenneth caught the fist effortlessly in his open palm. He didn't move an inch but his eyes glowed with an internal, crimson light.
"Firstly." Kenneth stated. "What I touch... I can rewrite."
An invisible force ripped through Ravyn's body violently. He was sent flying backward, in a rapid zig-zagging trajectory. He slammed into the left building, rebounded off the right, then careened back and forth, crashing through walls and structural supports with impossible speed. Then was short vertically into the night sky, hundreds of feet up.
Kenneth simply watched him ascend.
"Secondly." he continued, as he took a single step and in a blur of motion, he was above Ravyn, who was still spiraling upward. "Any distance I can see is the same distance as my next step."
Kenneth slammed a crushing kick down onto Ravyn's chest. Ravyn plummeted, crashing through every single floor of the building nearby, leaving a trail of shattered concrete and twisted rebar. He hit the ground floor, sending a tremor through the street and lay unmoving in the rubble.
His eep red aura protected him from outright disintegration but he was severely hurt and unable to move or stand properly.
Kenneth descended slowly, a faint sigh escaping his lips. "Good thing your ability was on or you'd be dead by now. And it would've been a shame for you to die before I'd even finished explaining my ability."
He walked into the gaping hole Ravyn had made. He picked Ravyn up by his collar, dragging him from the debris. Ravyn was a bloody and broken mess.
Kenneth walked him toward the wall. And with a brutal smash, he drove Ravyn's body through the brick, creating a massive hole.
Then, the shattered wall instantly reversed. Reconstructing effectively and cementing Ravyn's body into the wall, trapping him like an entombed statue.
Kenneth pulled his hand free. Ravyn's head lolled to the side, his eyes barely open.
"Thirdly." Kenneth said. "I can rewrite motion." And he struck the section of the wall where Ravyn's chest was sealed, launching Ravyn's body outward and back into the street.
Kenneth walked out of the building and stood over the immobilized Ravyn.
"Do you get it now?" Kenneth asked. "I really meant it when I said we are the same. We hold the same deep belief to defy everything around us."
He looked down at Ravyn, his eyes gleaming with understanding. "But yours has its limits. Because you hated gravity, thinking it's the one thing holding you back. And you were wrong."
Kenneth knelt beside Ravyn. "The only thing holding every one of us back is rules."
"And I hate rules." Kenneth added, his eyes burning with genuine disdain. "We are born into a world where rules are set by one man but when another acts on them, they are seen and treated differently. What made that one man who created the rules so special that we have to live through his thoughts? We should be equal, every human living by their own principle. At least, that's my thought."
Ravyn, slowly began to push himself up, wobbling dangerously, his body screaming in pain.
"A world without rules will plunge into nothingness." Ravyn gasped, clinging to the only stability he had ever known.
Kenneth laughed, a short humorless sound. "The world is already being plunged into nothingness with all those rules around. And in some cases, the ones who swore to punish those who break the rules are the ones breaking them in the shadows. It's a revolting world we live in, kid."
He looked around at the destroyed street, a look of profound satisfaction on his face. "And at some point, I'm glad I was able to join this Game to experience a short time without rules. And out of it, I was given an ability similar to my belief, Overrule. It was fun while it lasted."
DING!
Just as the last word left Kenneth's mouth, a blinding light erupted around Ravyn.
[ARCANE GAME INITIATION PROTOCOL]
[CANDIDATE: RAVYN GRANTHAM]
[THE ARCANE GAME HEREBY INVITES YOU TO BECOME (3/3) PARTICIPANTS IN THE CITY OF BRENFORD.]
[CONFIRM PARTICIPATION]
[ACCEPT] [DECLINE]
Kenneth rubbed his the back of his neck, when a dark cracking light came from his chest. His body began to crackle, the dark light tearing at his body.
"So." Kenneth whispered, looking down at his chest. "This is what happens when the Game doesn't choose you." He chuckled. "Well, it's just another rule."
One sigil from his Arc Seal broke. And the dark light from his body snapped violently. The ground beneath his feet cratered as the massive mana was forcefully expelled.
He stood up slowly and turned to leave. "Good luck with the Game, kid."