The next morning Komodo woke up alone. This event shook him. Komodo started to walk around the city.
It was a gloomy day the sun wasn't out and the clouds covered the sky for miles.
Komodo went to all the spots Ganzhi would be at.
First, he went to the restaurant Ganzhi always eats at. Once he got there he asked the worker, "Have you seen Ganzhi today?"
"No, not at all." the worker replied.
Komodo then went to the dojo to check if she was there. But she was no where in sight.
Then he went to the storage room. Once he was down there he didn't see anybody.
Finally, he went to her room. He didn't expect her to be there due to how she was acting yesterday.
Once he got there he knocked on her door. But no one answered.
"Ganzhi, it's me Komodo." Komodo said. But there was still no answer.
A door to his left opened up. It was Ganzhi's neighbor. He was lean, had short hair, and was shorter than Ganzhi (Ganzhi's a head shorter than Komodo). Also, he wore a white linen shirt and grey pants.
"You're looking for Ganzhi right?" The man asked.
"Yeah, I am. Do you know where she's at?" Komodo asked with a serious expression.
"I saw her. There was a man dragging her on the street." the man replied.
Komodo's eyes widened as a killing intent rose. Veins started to show on his face at the same time.
"They said she was going against the rules of the empire and that they were going to execute her. They also showed her as an example of when you go against the empire." The man finished.
"WHAT?!" Komodo was shocked.
"Execution! Why would they go to such extreme measures?" Komodo thought to himself.
"Where are they executing her?" Komodo asked while breathing heavily.
"Well... Since she is a general rank I think they might be sending her to the pit?" the man answered.
"The pit? Where is that?" Komodo asked with a gaze that could kill people just by looking at it.
"Well you know. Under the storage room and said to have over a thousand monsters." the man replied.
"Thank you." Komodo said before disappearing.
A burst of wind blew on the man's face. He said, "I've never seen someone so angry. If I were to fight him like that I would die instantly. He's also general rank while I'm high soldier."
...
Once Komodo got to the entrance of the pit he saw five men in front of him.
"Where's Ganzhi?" Komodo asked with an angry voice.
Four of the people looked at Komodo with emotionless gaze. Komodo knew now. Ganzhi was throne down into the pit but Ganzhi was still alive. After all Komodo shared power with her to make them stronger.
The man in the back had a rice hat and demonic mask and wasn't staring at Komodo. Komodo saw this and his whole body was filled with rage and anger.
"You- so that wasn't you yesterday. It was a clone." Komodo gritted his teeth as he began getting even angrier.
WHOOSH!
In an instant the man with the rice hat's head was pierced with a tentacle. Komodo took out his halberd and took a step forward.
"You three handle it I don't have time for this." one of the men said as he began walking out.
Another tentacle went straight at him as the battle begun.
...
At the bottom of the pit Ganzhi stood up. No monster had attacked her yet. But there were many eyes watching her. These eyes ranged in many sizes and were obviously from monsters.
Ganzhi breathed hard as she looked up. The way the pit was made was that you'd have to jump a mountain length to reach the part to get back to the clan. And at the foot of the mountain or even lower the monsters lived.
The air had a thick aroma and anyone who was down here had to breath with all their might to breath normally.
Ganzhi heard footsteps and turned to here right. Sensing from her surroundings she could tell that most of the monsters down here were around high soldier level. And there were a few hidden low general rank monsters behind them. Further back from the general rank monsters there could possibly be high general rank monsters.
The monster that was running finally appeared in Ganzhi's vision. This monster looked like a dog. It had two devilish horns and black fur.
Ganzhi lifted up her pants and what was shown was her legs that had two daggers the length of a lower leg. She pulled both of them out and prepared for battle.
This dog from what Ganzhi could tell is a middle soldier rank and the other monsters sent it to fight here to test her strength.
Ganzhi took a deep sigh as she held her daggers tighter. They began to glow a green-blue jade color and illuminated the pit.
The dog leaped at her, Ganzhi was prepared by holding her daggers outward. She sidestepped then dashed forward cutting the dog in two.
She put the dagger on her right hand into her mouth and reached into her pocket. She pulled out a pin with a ball at the end of it. She took out the dagger out of her mouth and stabbed the pin into her tongue. She tapped her right ear and felt a ball rolling.
"Good." She said as she put the dagger back on her hand.
"Komodo can you hear me?"
Komodo's eyes widened as he swatted one of the guys in the face.
"How am I able to talk to you." Komodo asked.
"I implanted something in you while you were asleep." Ganzhi replied. "Look I don't have much time left. What I want you to do is leave and go somewhere where they can't reach you."
"What?" Komodo said as multiple energy balls were sent flying at him.
"Komodo, I just want you to live and be happy" Ganzhi said with a solemn tone.
"I can't ju-"
Tears began to flow from Ganzhi as she said, "Komodo, please leave and go somewhere far. You'll loose your strength when I die. Please, live for me!"
"I'm sorry Ganzhi. You were my reason for living on, and you made me happy!" Komodo yelled out.
All four men looked at Komodo confused.
"What? He could talked to Ganzhi?!" One of them said.
"Quick subdue him, don't give him time to rest!" Another shouted.
Six tentacles wrapped around Komodo's right arm.
"I'm sorry, but each one of you is going to die today." Komodo said menacingly.
Three more tentacles grew out from Komodo's left side.
The buffest one of them led the charge at Komodo.
BANG!
Komodo and the buff guy clashed sending them both flying back.
...
"Dammit Komodo. Why don't you listen to me!" Ganzhi said with anger and sadness.
Another monster appeared before Ganzhi's eyes. This one was high soldier level. It gave a loud roar blowing Ganzhi's white hair.
This monster began crawling on all six legs and rushed at Ganzhi. Ganzhi retaliated by jumping into the air stabbing the monster straight in the head.
Large amounts of blood started spilling out. She pulled out the daggers and looked around. There were more monsters circling in.
"I'm not sure if these jade daggers will let me survive." Ganzhi said to herself. "They're only notable ability is that they cause a fiery sensation when cut."
More high soldier rank monsters began rushing at Ganzhi. Their looks ranged from normal looking animals to genuine demonic monsters.
Ganzhi was unfazed, after all these were only soldier rank and she could one shot most of them.
She started to rush at them too.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH
She delivered many cuts to many of them. The odor of blood began to stink up the pit as blood came gushing out of the monsters.
Ganzhi reached into her breast pocket and pulled out a toy dragon. She let out a bit of the life force and the dragon began to grow. The dragon was now the length a room. The dragon had four legs and no wings. It had golden brown scales and could breath fire.
"This should help, it's low general rank thanks to my life energy." Ganzhi said.
The two rushed at more monsters with the dragon incinerating many of them. While Ganzhi fought up close with her daggers cleaving into the monsters.
...
Back above the pit.
Komodo seems to be slowing down due to him having to fight a four versus one.
Both parties were alive but surprisingly the opposing side had more injuries.
"This guy is middle general rank but is fighting like a high general." One of them said.
Komodo rushed at them again swinging his halberd. Multiple energy balls were shot at him but he used his tentacles to block it. Komodo got the close to the guy shooting them and slashed his head off.
The other awakeners were shocked. They didn't anticipate Komodo would attack the weakest one.
"DAMN YOU KOMODO!" the buff guy said running at him.
One of the men turned a dark purple color before running at Komodo.
The last man ran at him with a katana in his hand.
Komodo was dodging all of the blows. Then he land a powerful upward kick the the katana guy getting him stuck in the ceiling.
Whoosh!
Komodo swiftly cut the buff guy's left arm off.
Ding!
Komodo tried stabbing his tentacle into the purple guy but his skin was tuff and chipped Komodo's spine like tentacle.
...
Back at the pit.
The dragon was clashing with a general level monster. The monster moved like a gorilla. Swinging its arms but also having to put them down to balence.
At the same time Ganzhi was injured and was fighting multiple general ranked monsters.
The monsters ran towards Ganzhi. Ganzhi prepared and rushed at them too.
Ganzhi dodged four attacks before getting slashed on the back. But that same monster got a huge slash on its face right after.
Ganzhi quickly jumped into the air. The dragon turned its head and let out a massive amount of fire that scorched the ground Ganzhi was just underneath.
The dragon was swatted down by the monster it was fighting against. The monster began continuously smashing at the dragons neck.
Boom!
The dragon was now in two pieces. But Ganzhi slashed up the monsters back making blood spill everywhere. The monster roared out in pain.
Many more soldier ranked monsters started to go after Ganzhi now that the dragon was dead.
With the strong prey, the monsters began hunting down Ganzhi going as fast and has hard as possible trying to kill her.
Ganzhi began to run but it was to no avail. A snake like monster bit down on Ganzhi's leg with it's six fangs not letting go.
Ganzhi began to slow down. She turned around and decided to fight again. She started by cutting the snake's head off.
...
Back above the pit.
Komodo had suffered more and more blows as the battle went on. He no time to heal himself.
The people he was fighting against had great coordination always going two on one while letting one of them rest.
Bam!
Komodo was hit in the back by the buff guy and fell forward. This lucky hit was practicly the end of the battle.
The purple guy stood on top of Komodo holding him down.
"So what are we going to do with him." The guy with the katana said.
...
Back in the pit Ganzhi was on top of many dead corpses. But there were even more monsters coming at her. It seemed to be endless.
Ganzhi rush forward but then her legs snapped. It couldn't bare moving forward and gave up.
"No!" Ganzhi let out fearful scream as tears started to show again.
"Not yet! Not yet when I'm about to kill all of them!" More tears started to form
"KOMODO-"
A monster bit into her right shoulder.
"Komodo, listen to me."
More monsters began to show and started coming at her.
"Komodo, live on, be happy, fall in love with another woman. Please!"
Blood started pouring from her mouth as she fell on all fours.
"Forget about me Komodo and live a better life. Live as a non-awakener and be happy."
"GANZHI!" Komodo yelled out while on the floor, "Ganzhi, you don't understand. You were the only thing in my life that I kept living for!"
Even with her body being eaten up she lifted her upper body up, and smiled. Although her face was ugly due to the blood and parts of it being eaten, it was still a beautiful smile. A smile full of love and affection.
"Ganzhi," Komodo said.
Komodo's heart sank. He could feel the amount of life energy he had slowly get smaller.
"GANZHI ARE STILL THERE!" Komodo shouted, "GANZHI! GANZHI!"
"Huh," the katana guy said, "It seems like Ganzhi Tiankong is dead."
Komodo gritted his teeth harder as he tried to break free.
The buff guy spoke, "If I'm right he should be middle soldier rank now. He won't be a problem in the future. Maybe we could just let him suffer."
"Or you know, we could show him as an example to new awakeners and tarnish his name." The purple guy said.
Komodo was filled with anger, sadness, and powerlessness. He wanted to kill the men in front of him but he was too weak to do so.
The purple and buff guy got off of him and all three men walked away.
"It's your choice if you want to throw yourself into the pit." One of them said.
The other two laughed.
More emotions hit Komodo. He was humiliated and filled with regret.
Komodo stayed there on all fours crying. He began to hit the floor more and more until his bones were showing.
That night, there was no moon. And the next few day, the sky was covered in clouds and it rained non-stop.
Komodo was watching the outside on top of the hills. He stayed there looking into the distance. And every few moments he would utter the words, "Ganzhi."
The whole clan started to know his name and his relation to Ganzhi. They gave him ugly looks and looked at him like criminal.
Some places wouldn't even let him eat or get stuff.
They only place he was safe at was the restaurant Ganzhi ate at. This was because the owner felt bad for him.
Then, one day, alone on the hills, a spirit visited him. She touched his back with cold hands.
"Ganzhi, it's no use. I can't get stronger so there's no goal to strive towards. And you're dead." Komodo said emotionlessly.
"I know that, but I still want to be with you." Ganzhi said in a loving voice. "Don't you remember the ring. I'll aways be with you forever."
"And, I hope one day. You'll find something else that gives you joy."
Komodo broke down into tears.
"And when you find that joy. Go to the sapatura secreta."