Chapter 2: A mere second
1660 Words
The orb plunged toward me, heavy. The very air seemed to choke, trembling under its immense pull.
I remained unaffected. My gaze stayed flat, almost bored.
“This is the gift,” I muttered. “He said it was supposed to kill me, What a joke.”
A faint smile touched my lips as I raised my hand. My voice was quiet but absolute.
“Seal.”
An invisible red line flickered. The instant the orb brushed it, it froze mid-air.
From across the space, Mei Li’s eyes widened in disbelief. His heart stuttered as he watched the orb struggle against an unseen boundary, half of his own life force already devoured in its summoning.
“Why, Why isn’t it moving?” His voice cracked as rage boiled through his veins. He clawed at the air, teeth bared. “No, it can’t end here, Not after all I’ve prepared!”
The seal held firm.
Mei Li’s trembling hands steadied. Then, as if remembering something dreadful yet precious, his lips curled into a wild smile.
“Yes, I still have it. The formation!”
He thrust his palm outward, fingers slicing through the air as if tearing open a hidden veil.
“Formation, activate!”
It answered his call.
From beneath my feet, countless runes blazed to life, weaving a vast lattice of crimson light. The cries of those who stood inside that formation echoed as the formation ignited. More than a billion lives were drawn into a single, merciless breath.
Their screams rose once, then fell silent. In that silence, their bodies crumpled into nothing, their life force funneled into Mei Li’s ritual like rivers into the sea.
And yet, I remained unharmed. After all, the formation lacked the power to even scratch me.
My chin lifted, my gaze locked on Mei Li as the c*****e unfolded.
“What a mass sacrifice,” I said coldly, my voice carrying through the blood-soaked air. “All this death, for what, To leave a mark on me?”
Mei Li laughed, a jagged, broken sound. “And so what if they died, If that’s what it takes to bring you down, Ngwan Le, then I’ll do it again. And again!”
His eyes shone with madness, but I only shook my head, the faintest trace of pity crossing my expression.
“You twisted coward, unable to act like a man even once in your life. You’re pathetic.”
“Pathetic, Rather, you are. But if you’re not, then accept my gift wholeheartedly.”
After sacrificing billions, the life-expectancy orb shattered my invisible seal and lunged at me, its psychic field swirling around it. I raised my right hand.
“Hand-grip,” I said, contempt curling my lip. “Hope you’re watching, Mei Li. Witness the power of my grip.”
A shockwave erupted on contact. The force of my grip began to fracture the orb, causing it to evaporate.
Mei Li’s face tightened. “What, Even with all that sacrifice and half my life force gone, this—”
“No, this cannot be,” he gritted out, and then, as if trying to force his fate, “Will of the End, induce!”
For a single second, the orb’s source, the Will of the End, flared to life.
“…So he dared to awaken it.”
But as quickly as it appeared, the force winked out, retreating back into silence. Yet that single instant was enough.
The shattered fragments of the Life Expectancy Orb quivered, reformed, and blazed once more with renewed hunger. With a scream, it ripped through my Hand Grip’s wall and swallowed me whole.
For the first time, my vision went black.
When awareness returned, I found myself adrift in a hollow void. My form translucent, as if spirit alone had survived.
“…So this is the inside of the Life Expectancy Orb,” I murmured, eyes narrowing as realization struck. “Oblivion, its effect is to strip me down to nothing.”
Yet even here, in this hollow realm, my right hand remained raised, palm steady, as if mocking the orb’s attempt to erase me.
I closed my eyes, exhaled once, and whispered into the silence:
“Hand Grip, Realm of Nothingness. Separation.”
The void trembled. Cracks split the darkness. The orb itself screamed as it split apart from within.
Outside, Mei Li staggered, face frozen in disbelief as he watched the impossible unfold, the Life Expectancy Orb tearing in two before dissolving into nothingness.
The life-expectancy orb evaporated entirely.
Mei Li watched, dumbfounded. He had seen the orb split in two and then dissolve. He laughed crookedly, lips trembling. “Great. First, half my life force is gone, my potential sacrificed to the Will, and for what, Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
He staggered, eyes locked on me with a mixture of hatred and awe.
“You are indeed Ngwan Le Tou, undefeatable, always victorious.”
But then his expression hardened, and his voice rose, sharp as broken glass.
“Don’t think it ends here. I came prepared. A friend gifted me something, and though I had other plans for it, I’ll gladly sacrifice it for you.”
I tilted my head, a faint grin curving my mouth. “So there is yet another ‘gift’, I thought that faint breeze from the orb’s death was your last card.”
I raised my left hand slowly. My fist remained tightly clenched, knuckles white.
“Did you notice, Mei Li, My left hand, its fist is still clenched.”
His brows knit together, confusion flashing in his eyes. He glanced at me, puzzled. “Now that you mention it, your fist is still clenched. What of it?”
“My grip,” I said softly, “holds nothing. You’ve seen fragments of its power already. You’ll need more than fresh air and broken toys. Something capable of withstanding my grip.” Mei Li’s jaw tightened. He thrust his arm into the void, pulling from his bracelet a shard of light, a divine treasure. It pulsed with a resonance that bent the air, a relic older than nations.
“This treasure,” he hissed, “can summon a power even the senior who gave it to me could not withstand. Once used, it vanishes forever. But to kill you, Ngwan Le, I will spend it gladly, even though I had other uses for it.”
I watched him, eyes narrowing. “Twisted. You would turn it against a senior whose shadow you could never even reach, the same senior who gave it to you so freely?”
“Silence!” Mei Li bared his teeth. “I no longer have the luxury to hesitate!”
He lifted the treasure high, chanting in a forgotten tongue. Sigils of fortune spilled across the sky, spiraling into a vast contract.
My eyes narrowed. “Fortune power, Impossible. To seize fate itself, is this the scheme you’ve been hiding?”
“Yes! A fortune contract! Everyone’s fate will be held captive, except yours! And once you die, their fortunes will return. Only yours will remain plundered forever!”
Mei Li laughed again, delighted. “Your end is near. If I kill you, my name will now echo across the world. Even if I die, I’ll be the one who killed the undefeatable Ngwan Le Tou.”
A terrible realization settled over me. They had all come for my life. It was a plot. Betrayal clicked into place like a trap.
He eyed the treasure. “This new gift might withstand my grab. But what about my secret weapon,”
*A secret weapon, Is this where his confidence comes from,* Mei Li thought.
One of his accomplices approached, sweating. “Mei Li,” the man stammered.
“Yes?”
“If this plan fails, we’re finished. If it doesn’t finish him, we won’t leave here alive.”
Mei Li’s face hardened. “I know. I lose more than you. In your world, you might lose part of your life. If I lose, my world will be seized by Tou and become its resource planet.” He turned, voice low and urgent. “I am not here to fool around.”
His accomplice bowed and went to mobilize the others. Mei Li shouted to the assembled masses, “When the contract is established, the divine treasure will activate. The power will kill him. Hear me, Ngwan Le will die today.”
A brawny man in the eastern sky roared, his muscles trembling with rage.
“Mei Li! You swore the Life Expectancy Orb was enough to kill him. We lost millions to fuel that cursed thing, and still it failed!”
From the west, a robed figure shouted, voice sharp with accusation.
“Yes! You lied to us. Ngwan Le still stands untouched!”
Another voice thundered from the north, heavy with contempt.
“Mei Li, you claimed Ngwan Le never dared step into your territory because he feared you. Look now, he doesn’t even flinch before your greatest weapons! Was it all deceit?”
The air thickened with discord. Seven groups, once united under desperation, now splintered. One had already been sacrificed in the formation’s blood-soaked ritual. The rest hovered, their eyes filled with doubt and fear.
Among them, a familiar voice cut through the storm, it was one of my own comrades, hidden until now. His words burned like a blade.
“Can you even protect yourself?”
Mei Li’s face twisted. His lips trembled, his forehead creased deep with strain. For a heartbeat, even he seemed uncertain.
But then his teeth clenched, and a shadow of ruthless resolve crossed his features.
“Tsk, so it comes to this. No more half-measures. If I fail here, I lose everything, my life, my world, my people. Better to burn it all than submit.”
His eyes sharpened, his voice falling to a cold whisper before rising into a command.
“Roderick, now.”
- Writer
