The Gameverse

LEVEL TWENTY

Cole and Andrew were dead. The entire team from Forsythe wiped out. Luca staggered to his feet, muttering all the obscenities that came to mind.

Stumbling around the cavern searching for any signs of life that may have still existed within. Grasping a jagged rock to stabilize, he saw an all too familiar limb lying a few meters away from him.

Dashing forward, he picked up the dismembered limb and raised his eyes to see the one thing he had prayed with all his life and soul would never happen.

Liz's corpse lay in the dirt amongst the shattered rocks and other dead bodies. Her head was twisted all the way round so her face was the wrong way.her left arm wrapped off and plunged deep into her chest, a short distance away from where her heart was.

Luca fell to his knees, tears struggling to free themselves from his eyes. He wanted to hold her, but he just couldn't. His hands shook with despair, an elder brother who had failed to keep his sister safe.

His father's face appeared in his memory.

"Remember what I taught you, Luca. A warrior does not let his enemies mock him."

The voice got louder, clearer. Luca straightened and pulled a katana out of his inventory. Glaring at the long curved blade in his hand, he focused all his anger into the sword, causing it to  glow red.

The voices of Ronin who had lived before shrieked and yelled, ghosts of the past haunted by the act they committed to avoid capture. Luca shivered, then closed his eyes. Slowly flipping the blade around, he blocked out all the voices of the dead, ignored his sister's corpse, and plunged the blade deep into his stomach. Twisting his grip, he sliced his gut open in a perfect line, the blood spurting all over his hands and his sister's mangled body. He had completed Seppuku, and was worthy to join his ancestors.

Looking at the bodies of his friends and  sister one last time, Luca allowed his boy to fall to the ground, his work finished.

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Andrew hovered above the gruesome scene. Anybody that hadn't died before while fighting the giant had died in the explosion that killed the thing possessing his body and Cole.

And then Luca committed the warriors suicide. That left...

"Bethany!!!" He yelled.

She wasn't among any of the bodies inside. Maybe she had been flung outside by the blast or crushed under some rocks. Andrew searched for Bethany all over the place without any luck and floated outside to sit and mope.

"Lord knows what I'm gonna do when I catch Enki. He probably set this all up just to free that demon chick. I oughta give him a piece of my-"

A drop of blood landed on the concrete step beside him. Looking up slowly, he saw Bethany hanging from a steel rod that was pierced through her throat.

And for the first time he realized, nobody was pixelating.

Except him.