Einder Bloodline

Chapter 34: One Hundred Percent

Amid the fighting, Cray who was able to experience the same things as Nick began to truly immerse himself as he too had seen the sudden flash of memory. He gazed into the eyes of the bedridden woman who quite frankly, resembled Nick a lot. At that point, he began to recognize his grandmother who was now long gone. Looking at her state filled him with emotions and noticed that somehow seeing her in this state made his heartache.

However, it was not Cray who felt this. All along, it was Nick who was giving him this emotional baggage yet he could do little to nothing to alleviate the ache that he was feeling. In the end, he had to confront the same feelings that were murky and stinging Nick's heart.

After seeing this scene, Nick once again regained control over his rampaging powers. He then pointed his arm towards the demon in attempts to redirect the flow of power towards it instead by harnessing it through attacking the demon.

At the moment that he was about to shoot out his power, the demon had used Gilbert's body to shield himself.

"AHAHAHAHA You're too naive! Go ahead and do it if you can!" The demon coldly shouted as he took Gilbert as his hostage.

Seeing the sudden move by the demon, Nick was inwardly surprised but he could no longer stop directing the flow of his power. The bad thing about it was that the demon had no intention of even dodging the attack that was aimed towards it.

Nick, instead of panicking immediately thought of what he could do. In a split second, he thought of many possible outcomes but none of them could help the current situation.

Wait. What if I'm thinking about this all wrong? What if-

That's it! All I have to do is protect Gilbert!

After reaching that conclusion, the power that he had condensed and emitted from his arm began to expand like a balloon.

The sphere began to reach out to Gilbert who was being used as a shield of the demon.

"UWOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH"

A beast-like scream was made by Gilbert as he was engulfed by the sphere. While he was screaming, the black patch that covered his whole body visibly started to disappear.

Soon after, the demon who had been hit by Nick's attack felt the connection between him and Gilbert disappear.

It was astonishing. Within this time frame, Nick had been able to manage to wield his power precisely targeting the demon alone leaving Gilbert harmless.

Eventually, the sphere enveloped the demon. The demon's skin began to disintegrate and turn into dust.

The female assailant which saw what happened to the higher rank demon turned ash faced. She then started to get away from the place but she was instead blocked by a sword that threatened her life.

Without a choice, all she could do was fight her way out but the sphere that Nick had made didn't stop expanding as it eventually reached her.

The moment her skin touched the sphere she instantly withered and had similarly turned into nothing but ash.

At this moment Nick who was proudly standing tall began to close his eyes as he fell. He had collapsed from seeing everything return to normal, the adrenaline which spiked had now significantly dropped and was at an all-time low leaving him weak in the knees, bearly being able to breathe as he lost the control over his body relaxing and once again entering a peaceful slumber.

Cray who was still inside Nick's body heard something that he didn't understand at first.

"Trial of Fire, one percent complete. Restarting the simulation."

Cray immediately thought of all the pain and suffering that he had felt just a moment ago.

To think that all of those were just one percent, wouldn't that mean he would undergo the same kind of suffering about a hundred more times to fully complete this simulation?

"Oh, no....."

Cray softly whispered under his breath as he once again saw the familiar forest. This time he didn't see it from an outsider's point of view. Instead, he saw if from Nick's perspective.

'Don't tell me I'm going to repeat this a hundred times to get out of here?'

Unfortunately, Cray had no say in the matter as it was already decided that he would finish it no matter what.

Time slowly passed as Cray began his second experience as Nick. Eventually, he had finished it and after the third one, he began to think that he would probably be numbed by the time he reached the fourth one.

As soon as the fourth began he swallowed his words because the pain seemed to increase the more iterations of Nick's memory fragment repeats. 

After he reached his tenth, he no longer had the will to carry on but he would only be disappointed as he knew that this would probably not end there. He once again heard the voice saying, "Trial of Fire, ten percent complete. Restarting the simulation."

He felt like losing his mind.

What am I doing here?

Why am I even here?

Am I born just to suffer?

He began to think of various other things as he underwent the fifteenth repetition.

On his thirty-fourth, he no longer had these unnecessary thoughts. He could no longer think properly anymore. All he wanted to do was to quickly get this over with.

Over time though, he was slowly accumulating experience. He still didn't know how useful it would be once he gets out of the loop but he would see how he could perform a whole lot better using the power of his father.

The fifty-sixth time that he had heard the voice he no longer feared the demon. He also noticed that he could now interfere with Nick's actions when he was using the power.

On his seventy-third, he could now fight the demon after having the contract with it.

He then reached the ninety-ninth simulation. By this time, he could now fully control the power that Nick had obtained from the demon.

Finally, on his one hundredth he was stunned to find out that this time, he could no longer hear Nick's voice. Nor could he know what Nick was thinking.

It was all him this time, he was in full control over Nick's body.

"No way-"

He then quickly did all the things that the young Nick was supposed to do but this time he was prepared to fight against the demon. Without any suspense, he won over the demon on his own without any help or guidance from the original owner of the body. He didn't even pass out after he defeated the demon.

The moment that he realized that he had finished off the demon he once again heard the voice saying, "Trial of Fire one hundred percent complete! Completion rank B!"

After that Cray was once again dragged to the place where he previously saw the three men.