Normally, whenever Mika was forcibly transported sowhere by the Will of the World, his mood soured instantly.
He hated the feeling of being led around like so headless horse, never knowing where he was being dragged or why. It made him restless, irritated, and, most of all, annoyed. Especially right now, since he was supposed to be asleep.
Yet surprisingly, after stepping out of the portal this ti, his mood was...good.
The mories of what had just happened still lingered, the short but warm monts in the village, Nina’s determination, the smiles he had seen. It had been a wholeso, almost comfy detour, and for a mont he had felt lighter.
Even though he had suffered quite a bit inside, in the end he’d still managed to do so good. The thought of Nina growing up, leading her village, and building sothing greater in the future...it made him feel strangely proud.
But that didn’t last long.
The mont he erged from the portal, the warmth inside him froze over, replaced by a deep frown and a shadow in his eyes.
Because the very first thing he heard was them.
Four figures stood atop a floating tal platform a short distance away, suspended in the dim night sky. All of them bore the unmistakable aura of A-class Blessed from the Federation, here to subjugate and explore the portal he had just exited.
They couldn’t see him, whatever effect shielded him was still in place, but he could see and hear them clearly.
And what he heard...It made him feel sick.
One man, burly and thick-ard, with the kind of face that always looked vaguely annoyed, leaned forward on the platform’s railing. His voice was a gruff growl.
"Just how much longer is this gonna take? We’ve been sitting here for hours and I’m tired of waiting. We got called out here in the middle of the night, for crying out loud!"
Another man, seated cross-legged in the center of the platform, barely looked up from his laptop, which was wired into a bulky, humming machine.
"Just wait." He said. "My read is still unstable. We’ve gotta calculate the perfect mont to enter...otherwise your legs might end up in one layer of reality while your head’s in another."
"...You want that? No? Then shut up and give a few more minutes."
The burly man groaned, rubbing his forehead. "Tch. Fine. But hurry it up."
A third voice, casual, amused, spoke up from the side. The youngest-looking of the four leaned back with an easy grin.
"Why so impatient? This isn’t the first ti a Rift’s taken a while to open. You should be used to it by now. Even I’m being patient, so what’s so wrong with you?"
The burly man turned toward him with a leer, his tone shifting into sothing lecherous.
"It’s because I had a couple of fine bitches waiting for back ho. t them at a club, they couldn’t keep their hands off once they found out I was an A-class Blessed."
"I’d already brought ’em back to my place, and they were drunk out of their minds. I was about to ask one of the boys to co join in...but then I get this call. Now everything’s ruined. They probably already left, while I’m completely pent up."
The younger man chuckled knowingly.
"I get it, I totally get it. I was about to have so fun myself with this woman I’ve been seeing recently. But then her husband walked in out of nowhere, completely ruined the mood."
That made the burly man grin. "Oh? You seduced another man’s wife? You sly bastard."
The younger man just shrugged lazily. "Nothing like that. I actually didn’t put any effort into it. Just told her if she didn’t co with , I’d burn her husband alive."
He raised one hand, letting bright flas dance across his fingers.
"And she complied imdiately...Really had no choice, did she?"
The burly man barked out a laugh, striding over to clap him on the shoulder. "Good man, good man! That’s how you take a woman."
As bizzare as this conversation was, it was only natural that they spoke of such vulgarity in such a carefree manner.
In a world where the Blessed held supernatural powers while ordinary humans remained painfully mortal, power imbalances were inevitable.
Laws, regulations, and strict protocols existed, prohibiting the use of blessings to harm, manipulate, or coerce others.
But laws were one thing...Reality was another.
Just like in a purely human society where the rich trampled the poor and the powerful bullied the powerless, this world was no different. Those without morality, and with the strength to ignore consequences, still abused their gifts.
And here they were, standing right in front of Mika.
His face stayed calm, unreadable. But inside, a slow irritation was rising.
The fourth person, who had been silent until now, finally spoke up. She was a woman with sharp, strict features, her tone was short and cold.
"Enough. Both of you, shut up. Stop talking about that filth in front of ...I don’t want to hear your disgusting little stories."
Her voice cracked like a whip through the air, cutting off their laughter. For a mont, silence hung heavy over the floating platform. Then, the gruff man broke it with a deep, dismissive laugh.
"Co on now, there’s no need to talk like that." He said, voice thick with false charm. "We’re just joking around. Talking about the kind of things n usually talk about."
He took a step closer to her, grinning wide enough to show his teeth.
"Just because you’re the only woman here doesn’t an you need to get all pesky about it. Loosen up a bit."
He reached out a broad, calloused hand toward her shoulder—
And froze, as her right arm had shifted in an instant turning into a large blade, tal gleaming where flesh had been. It wasn’t a full-length blade, just a short, sharp weapon jutting from her forearm, but the man knew just how dangerous it actually was.
She then half-turned, her face icy and unblinking as she leveled the blade toward him.
"If you so much as graze ." She said, voice low but cutting. "I’ll take every single finger you have, slice them off one by one, and drop them over the side."
Her head tilted toward the endless darkness below the platform.
"You’ll have to go down and fetch them yourself, assuming you can even grab them with what’s left of your hands."
The man’s grin faltered, a nervous chuckle breaking out of his throat. He stepped back, raising both palms in surrender.
"Alright, alright, damn. You could’ve just told to back off. No need to threaten like that."
She gave a short, sharp scoff and turned away, but not before flicking her eyes over both n again, assessing, calculating.
"And if you want won so badly..." She said coldly. "...then shut your mouths now. You can take care of your urges when we get inside the portal."
That got the younger man’s attention.
"Oh? And what exactly do you an by that?" He leaned forward, interest sparking in his eyes.
She didn’t smile. She didn’t blink. She just told them, "The portal engineer who ca here earlier, he took a reading. He said he couldn’t get a perfect read on the Rift’s danger level, but...he did pick up sothing else."
She let the silence draw out for a mont, then continued.
"He saw signs of a settlent. A village, close to the portal entrance. Populated. And the people there? Completely harmless. No weapons, no fighting strength worth ntioning."
The gruff man’s brows shot up. "You’re telling ...?"
She looked back at them with the sa flat, unfeeling expression.
"If you really want to ’vent’ sowhere..." She said. "You can vent it on them. It’s a free-for-all. Do whatever you want."
The "portal engineer" she spoke of was one of those rare blessed, people who could sense or partially glimpse the environnt inside a rift without setting foot in it.
Their work was invaluable in preventing massacres of unprepared teams, predicting anomalies, and generally ensuring fewer people ca back in pieces.
But here...his assessnt wasn’t being used to prevent harm.
It was being used to invite it.
And the woman, despite being one herself, had relayed that information without the slightest hesitation, openly offering up the won and children inside to these n like they were spoils of war.
The gruff man let out a bark of laughter, slapping his thigh.
"What the hell?! Why didn’t anyone tell this before? This is huge! You should’ve opened with that!"
The young man grinned, teeth flashing. "Seriously. That’s...very important news."
She gave them a flat look. "If we’d told you earlier, both of you would’ve tried to jump in imdiately and take all the won for yourself, without thinking about the mission itself. That’s exactly why we didn’t tell you."
The gruff man laughed, shaless. "Fair enough. But still..." He leaned back, stretching like a cat. "...I thought this was going to be a boring, tireso night. Turns out, it’s looking better by the second."
Hearing this, a lecherous gleam lit up the young man’s face, and he turned toward the man hunched over the laptop.
"Hey, techie. This night’s really turned around, hasn’t it? How many won are you planning to take tonight? I’m going for the older ones. That’s my preference."
The typing paused. Slowly, the operator turned in his chair. His face was pale and when he spoke, his tone made the air feel greasy.
"Older won?...Hah. No. I like them young. Fresh."
His eyes glistened unnaturally as he added,
"Young enough that they’ve still got that...untouched fear in their eyes."
That made the younger man’s smile twitch, falter for a second, while the woman’s lips curled ever so slightly in disgust.
The gruff man, on the other hand, roared with laughter.
"Nice! That’s one way to go. Everyone’s got their tastes, eh? Hell, maybe I’ll try it your way for once. I’ll go in after you finish."
"I personally like it when they look all souless and empty they are when you start having fun."
"...Just thinking about how their bodies just shut down when you thrust it inside and how their heartbeat go so silent that it feels like they aren’t even living anymore, turns on so much!"
He said with a hideous smile on his face as he thought of his last victims.
He then swung his gaze back to the woman, a leer spreading across his face again.
"What about you? Gonna have so fun too? Order the n around, take them all in, show ’em who’s boss?"
She scoffed, as if the thought bored her.
"I don’t care about so barbaric n. I’m here for sothing else."
"The engineer said there’s sothing valuable inside, archaic, powerful. I want that...The rest of it? The won, the children, they can rot or burn for all I care. Do whatever you want to them."
It was clear then. Every single one of them had their own reasons for going in, and not one of those reasons was good...
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