The System

CH- 47: Solem vow(I).

    The light at the end of a tunnel claimed Tetsu, or so he believed. Fireflies turning into said bright light are the last memories he could recall. The rest was just pitch blackness.

To enter a tunnel with light and then face darkness, yeah... he still roamed the accursed lands of the system. If Tetsu did cross a save point, he would still consider this Eternal Slumber 2.0, and Tetsu assumed he would get to sleep for once.

"What kind of eternal slumber doesn't let you sleep? Kinda defeat the point of slumber, right?"

A bolt of electricity zaps Tetsu back to life if the tunnel is considered a place for the dead. He regained the sense of awareness, as in he was aware of being trapped in a box of some sort. Yet the mortar function of his mortal shell still had to awaken.

To be honest, Tetsu did not know if he really wanted to be alive. His last movements might be a dream or an altered memory, but the guilt still clung tight to his chest. Every single memory floated on the surface, fresh and oh-so painful.

His trusted eyes break into tears, a sharp pain accompanying it, wrenching his heart in two.

Memories of his guilt also carried the image of his punishment. Images of his mangled hands and severed legs flashed ever so dimly, while it shared a space with a larger, brighter image of RJ and his incompetence.

When it mattered most, four steps seemed like a mile. Four steps showed his weakness. He lost his friend by sheer stupidity and he had the audacity to call himself the intellectual one.

How fucking stupid of him!

"Why am I Not dead yet? Why is she dead instead?" Tetsu questioned fate and begged it to change the outcome.

Even Kile met with an accident because he wanted to go out and do something stupid. He didn't even remember what he wanted to do and yet... He lost his friend.

"The damn fool smiling to make sure I wouldn't curse myself."

Tetsu felt a light tingling prick crawling down his cheek. He was steadily regaining his senses.

Backlash and fatigue were Tetsu's biggest fear if he won, and now, as he slowly regained each sense after a crushing defeat, fatigue still couldn't claim him.

His mind had already claimed its superiority during the fight and even then Tetsu doubted himself as he pulled out a miracle at the last moment.

A subconscious idea acted on its own, using 'Pave Paths' over a mana-bubble on the other side of the veil.

He tugged and manipulated the mana with such force that even the flames got caught within the cyclone, circling and creating a small dome of fire.

The dome kept Tetsu hidden and safe before he fainted because of mana exhaustion.

The latter explosion did a number on him, but he overcame the first barrage with expert mana manipulation, and that too by controlling mana beyond his range of touch.

During the cyclone, Tetsu was rewarded with the fire and wind affinity which he gladly accepted and used to control the cyclone. His mind, one of the three basic powers, shone brighter and thought ahead of time during a crisis. Yet even at the most demanded moment, it had no way out.

"If you are so good, make me forget this pain... this..."

Tetsu wanted to ball up, but the confined space forced him to remain still and a gaping hole remained in place of his heart.

Tetsu somehow shrunk within himself and stood straight, facing a massive crater that had consumed his world whole. A pitch-black hole with no visible end and no visible hope.