The Eighth Sin - 68 Control

Hawk had no words for Skeith, and Riyku did not seem to care about the weapons. He pushed through with force alone and brought another swing around, then another and another and another.

Swing. Swing. Swing. Swing.

Block. Block. Block. Block.

Each swing was blocked, but it wasn’t in vain. Hawk was being pushed back. While he may not have shown it or even expressed it, the fight revealed it. Hawk was on the losing end. Riyku would continue endlessly with his swings. Until he found a moment to use what else he had. When Hawk’s guard had opened just enough to fit a fist, Riyku would take this moment to wide it just a bit more by offsetting Hawk with a feint. He brought The Sword of Annihilation overhead but dropped it when Hawk had set both of his arms above his head to block the blade. Riyku would bring his right arm upward as if coming for an upper-cut, but his attempt was to claw at Hawk. Hawk would pivot backward to avoid the attack as best as possible. His clothing getting torn and scraped from a few of Riyku’s claws that cut through the flesh. It was nothing too terrible; however, this wasn’t all. “Rupture!” Riyku shouted as the shadows shot outward at Hawk like a vicious set of spikes. It was the same move he used against the Dire Wolf during his hunting mission. Only the scale of power had increased, the thorns were more extensive, and there were several sets. They came at Hawk in waves. Hawk had managed to evade the first three but found his back against the wall. Hawk would leap into the air to avoid the final wave which crashed into the wall; however, he was shot down by a large blast of Pure Diabolical Energy, which sent him into the wall behind him.

“Prepare to die!” Riyku exclaimed as he swung the blade for Hawk while dashing in his direction; however, his body froze completely. Up next came a pair of black and white chains from behind which latched upon Riyku. “Wow… you sure got beat up, Hawk.”A cute innocent, and somewhat playful voice echoed throughout the still air. The person who spoke those words seemed to come forth. It was the same small stature girl from earlier who stopped Hawk. “Indeed, and you have yet to even leave a scratch on your opponent.” An annoyed youthful male voice came next. Following alongside the shorter youth, who giggled lightly. A pair of black and white chains were coming from the cuff of the youthful male’s sleeve. Both of them were still wearing black robes. “Anyways… who is this guy?”

The cheery girl had inquired while circling around the frozen Riyku. “Riyku DarkFang. An occupant of Oblivion. Age: 18. Male, and holder of a Contracted Entity.” The annoyed youthful male spoke up, his eyes looking at the other three cowering in their thrones… actually, they were all passed out. Even the Elder, he took a glance at, had fainted. The youth narrowed his eyes on Riyku. “Even if he has a Contracted Entity…. five Overlords should not have a problem with one person. In fact… Hawk should have been able to burn his lungs the moment he tried to attack… Something is not right…” The youth was going into deep thought. Neither he nor the girl knew that there were two entities within him. One which was Skeith, and the other which was supposed; The Shadow King. When he felt the chains rattle ever so slightly, his eyes widened. “Nina, getaway, now!” The youthful male called out, which drew in the attention of the young girl. Nina tilted her head to the side before her eyes widened. She noticed cracks starting to form in the atmosphere around Riyku.

The sound of glass shattering came, and Riyku moved forward even with Nina in his way. He did not care. He would cut them both down if need be, and just as he finished the swing, a pillar rose around Riyku and trapped him inside. The blade bounced off the pillar, and Riyku’s hands flew into the air.

“Overlord Skill: Time Lock!”

“Overlord Skill: Restraint!”

“Overlord Skill: Power Siphon…”

Three voices echoed, but only two were in sync. Nina had shouted ‘Time Lock’ while aiming her small hands at Riyku, which froze him again. Meanwhile, the youthful male had called ‘Restraint’ while reapplying the chains thrice over. The final voice came from a monotone female who had her hood up. Her hand lowered after she muttered ‘Power Siphon,’ and the pillar-like barrier that trapped Riyku inside had come through.

“Racheal!” Nina shouted happily.

“Racheal…” The youthful male muttered with annoyance.

The woman with her hood up, Racheal, had looked around the room from the shadow of her hood. “I was wondering why the other eight candidates were stuck outside the room, and no one was allowed to enter. I suppose this makes sense. That is one of the candidates, yes?” Racheal inquired. Nina would skip towards the much taller woman and hug her around her waist since she only came up that high. “Racheal!” Nina would nuzzle her face into Racheal’s stomach happily. The youthful male would sigh with evident annoyance. “Obviously. Thanks for your assistance, but I had it.” The young male clearly had some kind of beef with Racheal with the way he looked at her and spoke towards her. It was quite condescending.

“Sure you did, Enny.” Nina would tease the youthful male known as ‘Enny,’ which caused the youth to correct her. “Again… my name is Enrique. Not Enny. Get it right, Nina!” Enny or Enrique had exclaimed with annoyance, followed by a giggle from Nina and a heavy sigh from Enrique. Racheal would finish patting Nina’s head and point at Hawk, who seemed to finally remove himself from the wall. “Hawk is injured.” Racheal would remark, which caused Nina to chuckle lightly. “True, but the battle is over. As long as we continue to restrain Riyku, Hawk can deal with him. After all… Anyone who tries to harm Hawk will be killed.” Nina’s cherry demeanor shifted to something grime as she eyed Hawk, building up Diabolical Energy into the gauntlets.

“Is this it…?” Riyku would question in thought-form since he could not move. He was unable to do anything.

“I could not avenge them. I could not save them. I am such a failure… again, I will lose everything…” Riyku continued after a brief moment of internal thought.

“Do you hate it?” A vivid masculine voice called out, much like Riyku’s own voice, although a bit disorientated.

“I do.” Riyku would respond.

“Do you hate it so much that you want to fight back?” The voice inquired again. It wasn’t like Skeith’s or the feminine voice. This one was different.

“I do.” Riyku would respond again. There was no delay in his reply.

“Then why are you giving up?” The voice inquired, confused by Riyku’s actions.

“I am too weak to do anything. I was too weak to save my tribe… too weak to save my family… too weak to protect my friends… and I even let my Instructor and my lover get hurt. I am too weak to protect anything. There is no point in fighting if I can do nothing…” Riyku would respond as if accepting his fate.

There was a long pause as if the voice was processing what it was told before it finally spoke up. “Then bring everything under your [control]. Force everything to [obey] your will. When you do that, you will never lose anything again.”

“But how? How can I bring everything under my [control] and force everything to [obey] my will!? I do not have the power to do it!” Riyku exclaimed in frustration.

“You do.” The voice replied without delay, which came with a shocking vocal expression from Riyku. What did the vote mean he had the power to do all of that? Who was this ‘voice’ anyway? It sounded like him, but was it? It wasn’t Skeith or the other entity. He knew their voices quite well. Skeith’s voice was filled with sinister vile, and the other entity’s agent was usually filled with a darker nature. This one was different… it seemed to hold desire in it.

“All you need to do is unleash it. Your Overlord Skill… Total… ” The voice started to fade out, and Riyku seemed to struggle further. A low growl grew louder as cracks started to form around Riyku. The barrier seemed to shiver as well and the chains rattling viciously unlike before where it was just a quake. Everyone took notice of this and started to reapply their Overlord Skills, but they didn’t seem to have an effect. They only seemed to become ‘weaker’ as if Riyku was starting to become ‘resistant’ to them. Hawk had finished building up energy and took a step towards Riyku throwing a fist the moment Riyku’s voice came out in the form of a battle roar alongside the sound of glass shattering from both the ‘Time Lock’ and ‘Barrier’. The chains snapped and diminished and Riyku would swing his blade to clash with Hawk’s fist. The other fist came forth which Riyku grasped with his right hand. Explosive Diabolical Energy flared out wildly from the clash and both of them would grind their teeth with growls even if one could not see Hawk’s facial expression.

“Overlord Skill…” Riyku would speak through his teeth. Those two words along caused Hawk’s eyes to widen, along with the others since they heard it. “Wha-!?” Nina exclaimed just as Riyku shouted. “Total Control!” Riyku’s aura flared outward in a non-harmful manner which filled the room. At the same time, he forced Hawk back by pushing through the extremely powerful attack and followed up with a foot to the gut which sent him back against the wall. Riyku was now unsteady, wobbling tiresomely. He dropped the blade while stumbling around. Everyone was confused, they did not know what to expect so no one made a move.

“Kneel…” Riyku would speak in a commanding tone. Nina, Enrique, and Racheal were forced to kneel down as if bowing to a King, even Hawk. Heavy breaths came from Riyku who was clearly quite tired. It made sense. He had expended so much power without much rest. He took two powerful blows head-on and had to break through restraints and now he used an Overlord Skill. Everyone was surprised. “What the hell!?” Enrique would remark. “Silence.” Riyku would command again which forced them all to shut their lips so no one could speak. Riyku would unsteadily make his way over towards Astraia who was still in the shadow barrier. He would remove the barrier and scoop her up into his arms before looking at the other shadow barrier. He would unsteadily make his way over to the other one before removing the shadow barrier and setting Astraia next to Instructor Rina before moving to sit beside Astraia. His back sliding down the wall. His eyes had shown this short and feint amethyst glow when he called his Overlord Skill but now were a flaring glow of amethyst.

“Sleep.” Riyku would command and everyone seemed to become drowsy before falling asleep. Riyku would place his right hand on Astraia while reaching over to place his left hand on Instructor Rina before muttered, “Teleport… Safe Haven.” With those words, they seemed to port out of this hall filled with so much Diabolical Energy and into the master bedroom of Safe Haven. Unlike before when Skeith teleported them into the dining hall of Safe Haven, Riyku made sure to teleport them somewhere they would not cause a commotion. They were sitting against the bedside of the master bedroom. No one was upstairs since it was still in the middle of the day. Riyku pushed himself off the ground with a struggle; so he could lift Astraia and place it upon the bed, then Instructor Rina. He was about to turn on his heel to leave the room, but the fatigue had finally caught up with him and he ended up falling back upon the bed. His vision started to blur and his eyes started to become heavy. It was not long before those eyelids of his shut and black encompassed his vision. He passed out, right in between Instructor Rina and Astraia. He had gotten onto the bed to made sure both of them were comfortable enough and when he was about to leave he ended up falling onto his back, fitting right in between them.

The Sword of Annihilation had disappeared shortly after he dropped it, perhaps it had ‘put itself away’ or maybe something had ‘forced it away’. Nevertheless, it had returned to Riyku. The aura Riyku had around him had diminished the moment he teleported to the Safe Haven. Therefore, he had reverted back to his normal state. As for those back at the hall; people had eventually entered since it seemed to have gone dark. When they did, they were shocked by the sight. All the Overlords were out cold, and there was destruction littered around the hall. The event for the Top Ten Legends had been put on hold and everyone was sent to rest. Meanwhile, those at the scene were questioned about the events by the organizers and the Current Overseer of the Underworld.

As for Safe Haven. Astrid had heard a loud thud from the floor above them and instantly knew that something happened. After all, not just anyone could port into the master bedroom of Safe Haven. So, she dismissed herself for the moment, telling everyone she needed to check something before heading up the stairs. When she opened the door, there was concern on her face. She hastily investigated Astraia and Riyku, even Instructor Rina even though she was confused about who this person was or why they were brought here. That was because she figured this person was a friend from either Riyku and Astraia or both. When she finished up, a wave of relief washed over her. There was no harm done to Astraia or Instructor Rina, although it seemed Riyku had bruises here and there. However, that was it. There was no serious or life-threatening damage. Astrid would take a moment to compose herself before heading back down the stairs and behind the bar.

“Everything all good, Astrid?”

“Nothing bad happened, right?”

“Need us to leave again?”

The voices of concerns started coming in which caused Astrid to smile. She was quite happy to know that her patrons truly cared about her well-being as well as those who lived here even if they may have or may have not been expressing it for their own selfish reasons. “No, no. Everything is fine. Please, feel free to eat up and drink to your heart’s content.” With those words of reassurance, they returned to their meals and drinks.

Sometime in the middle of the night, in the darkest of alleys, there were two individuals; one was dressed like a thief and the other a mercenary. Both having a conversation amongst themselves and away from prying eyes and ears.

“So, the target was able to take on eight of the ten most powerful Overlords…” A rough voice would remark. The voice coming from the one dressed like a thief.

“Where did you get that information?” A deep gruff voice came forth, the person behind this voice was dressed like a mercenary.

“Does it matter?” The thief would retort with his question. “You asked for the information, and I delivered. The thief would add.

“It does. How do I know your information is valid. You are saying, one person. One boy took on eight adult Overlords all by himself? Sounds ludicrous to me.” The Merc would remark with a dismissing wave of his hand.

“Take it or leave it. I am not obliged to disclose my informants. However, I will tell you that they are from the royal family. So they know first hand. Regardless, what do you plan on doing with this information?” The thief inquired.

The Merc’s brow rose with surprise when the thief spoke of his informant being from the royal family; however, his expression shifted when the thief asked his question. A hefty sigh escaped his lips, “A mark has been put on him. If he is as strong as you just claim, then we need to retrain ourselves.” Without a further word, the Merc seemed to turn on his heel and leave the alley. “Well, I got my payment, and I know better to ask further questions. However, if you need more information you know how to find me.” The thief would reply which warranted a nonchalant backward wave from the Merc. The Merc disappeared into the darkness and shortly after so did the thief.