Unranked ascension a lit.., p.31
Unranked Ascension: A LitRPG Adventure, page 31
“Uh, boss. You cut off Ashtray’s hand, so tying his wrists together don’t really work, yuh know?
“Ashtray? What kind of name is that?” Lucius raised an eyebrow as he looked down at the man with the terrible scars. It seemed like he was going into shock—his skin was turning pale, and he was curled up on the ground in the fetal position, cradling his arm.
“Oh... that’s what the leader calls him. Says it looks like someone used him to put out a giant cigar.”
Lucius chuckled as he reached out his hand and took the package of zip ties back, motioning for the man to turn around before tying him up and shoving him toward the rest of the captives. Then, he retrieved the leash and collar and walked back to Ashtray with a grin on his face. The wounded man remained motionless as Lucius wrapped the collar around his neck, only responding when he felt a sharp pain around his throat that left him gasping for air.
“Get up!”
A sound like a strangled dog echoed through the clearing as Lucius yanked hard on the leash, forcing the man to scramble to his feet—just as he had made Sarah do before. Without a word, Lucius dragged him across the road and tied the leash to one of the other prisoners, then turned and walked back to Sarah.
By now, she seemed to have processed the sudden, massive shift in her circumstances. When Lucius reached her side, she was already ready to talk, speaking rapidly before he could even ask his first question.
“You said you have friends, right? If you want to save David, you’ll need their help. The leader is too strong. He beat David, and David is the strongest man I know. Most of these people obey him out of fear. Only a few, like Ashtray, are truly despicable.”
Lucius raised a hand, motioning for her to slow down.
“Hold on. One thing at a time. Where is David now?”
“I... I’m not sure. They keep us separated and they used me as a hostage to make David obey them. Otherwise, he could overpower his guards and escape. If I escape, they’ll kill him. If he escapes, they’ll kill me.”
“I see... Tell me about this leader. What are his abilities?”
Sarah nodded her head firmly as she explained.
“I don’t know his name. He just tells everyone to call him leader. He’s tall, pale-skinned, and speaks with an Eastern European accent. The terrifying thing about him is that he can transform his body into this ghostly blue figure. When he does, nothing can touch him—weapons just pass right through. That’s how he captured David in the first place.” She hesitated, her voice cracking slightly. “If… if I had just stayed home and waited, David might’ve found a way to escape. But once they captured me too… we were truly trapped.”
Lucius rubbed his chin, considering the situation. From the sound of it, the leader’s ability made him immune to physical damage—but that wasn’t a problem for him. Matriarch’s Fury dealt additional magic damage, which should bypass the man’s defenses. And even if it didn’t, Lucius could wait him out. An ability like that had to be draining; the man would run out of magic power eventually.
“I understand. I’ll handle the leader. Right now, I need you to show me which of these men were being forced to obey and which were following the leader willingly.”
Sarah nodded as Lucius led her to the group of captives. The men had overheard the conversation, and most of them looked relieved, casting eager glances at Sarah. A few, however, turned pale, realizing they might be singled out.
Sarah went through the group one by one. In the end, she identified two additional men, alongside Ashtray, as guilty parties. Lucius waved his hand, and the zip ties disappeared from the remaining eight men. While they smiled and rubbed their freshly freed wrists, Lucius adopted a grim expression as he rained on their parade.
“Don’t get too excited just yet... I consider you all useless cowards. Luckily for you, I don’t consider being a coward a crime worthy of the death sentence. You will do hard labor for a year back on my farm to pay for your crimes and earn your freedom. If anyone disagrees with that, you can join these three in hell.”
Everyone remained silent, most of them glancing down at the ground to avoid Lucius’ intimidating gaze as he stared each of them down in turn.
“A-Are you going to kill us?”
One of the men still tied up to Ashtray mustered the courage to ask the question. Lucius looked down at him with an expressionless face, holding the man’s gaze for what felt like an eternity. Finally, a grin spread across Lucius’ face as an idea took root in his mind.
“I was considering it, yes. But I just came up with a better idea—one that lets me keep my hands clean.”
Lucius’ face seemed to take on a demonic quality to the three terrified men as they stared up at him, and he grinned even wider, feeling a great sense of schadenfreude.
“Who knows where the closest anomaly is located?”
Chapter 68
Banishment
Congratulations! You have successfully defeated a Rift Summoner and closed an F-Class anomaly!
You have been awarded one [Enhanced] grade item upgrade token and a Ring of Holding!
As Lucius escaped the Abyss realm, stepping through the portal back toward earth, he saw that the sun had already set over the forest. The only light he could see was coming from the campfire Sarah and the others had lit to stay warm while they waited. The three prisoners stood in front of the watery veil, waiting anxiously for their sentence to be carried out. When they saw Lucius returning unharmed from the other side, they knew that they were doomed. If he had been slain by the summoner, they might have had a chance to escape.
Ashtray was the only one who seemed to have accepted his fate, although it might have been a consequence of the traumatic injury affecting the man’s ability to think straight. One of the prisoners, the one with the stab wound in his leg, suddenly attempted to run away for the second time that day when he saw Lucius returning. He limped away awkwardly, trying to put some distance between himself and Lucius. Unfortunately for him, a rope of shadows swiftly rose up from the ground, wrapping around his body and shoving him forward, holding him in place as he struggled violently to escape.
“Let me go! I’ll do whatever you want! Please! It’s not my fault, she’s a liar!”
Lucius ignored the man’s desperate begging. Waving his arm, he removed the zipties around their hands as well as the leash from Ashtray’s neck. At the same time, he tossed three machetes through the anomaly, speaking swiftly to ensure the portal did not close before they were finished.
“You three acted like monsters, so it is fitting that you should be banished from this world and forced to spend the short time you have left struggling to survive against the vicious creatures of the Abyss. You are more like them than you are like us.”
The event horizon of the anomaly flickered, so Lucius didn’t hesitate in giving Whisper the signal. Three thick tentacles rose from the ground, dragging the men into the portal. The sound of screaming and begging came from the two underlings, but Ashtray just stared at Lucius with a snarl stretched across his ruined face. He had been silent since his had men turned on him earlier in the day, but now as he inched closer to his fate, he screamed.
“The leader is gonna make you beg for death, you fucking wannabe hero!”
Ashtray hurled his last words at Lucius with the viciousness of a rabid dog, his scarred face turning beet red as spit flew from his mouth. He struggled against the shadows in a final burst of defiance before he was swallowed up by the anomaly. Whisper responded by wrapping a second shadow around his neck, turning his screams into a gurgle as he was forced through the portal.
Only seconds after the three men disappeared, the watery veil collapsed, rapidly shrinking down on itself until it formed the shape of a ring, just as it had the first time Lucius closed an anomaly. He caught the falling ring in mid-air with his telekinesis, but when he attempted to pull it into his storage ring, it felt like he was tugging on an immovable object. No amount of strength could push the item into his storage dimension.
Lucius relented when he discovered what he already suspected, that storage rings could not be stored inside one another, and slid the second ring on his right index finger. It was only a regular [Magical] grade Ring of Holding, so he intended to hand it over to Jack the next time he returned to the farm. When Lucius turned back toward the remaining group, the atmosphere was clearly solemn. None of the men would meet Lucius’ eyes, and only Sarah was brave enough to speak to him.
She walked up to where the anomaly had once stood, voicing her support for his actions.
“It’s rare for someone so young to be capable of making decisions like the one you just made.” Sarah’s expression hardened as she glanced over at the other men in the group, who refused to look at Lucius. They had been cowards and had not stood up for David or her, after all, and had just witnessed him send three of their comrades to their deaths.
“I hope you won’t begin to doubt yourself because of the way people react when they witness hard things. You made the right choice. Those men were demons. People who are too scared to do the right thing will often pretend they are against it morally, when really, they’re just cowards.”
Lucius raised an eyebrow as he listened to Sarah’s bold remarks. The petite woman was loudly and fearlessly berating the group of men before her as cowards. As if to confirm her words, the men around the fire lowered their heads. Not a single one spoke up to say it wasn’t true.
“Uh, thank you for your support?” he muttered.
Lucius rubbed the back of his head as he responded to Sarah’s blunt statements. He wasn’t used to being the center of attention and felt awkward after hearing her praise. Clearing his throat, he changed the subject to hide his embarrassment.
“Let’s get moving. I want to find the leader and finish this before daybreak.”
Lucius glanced over at the group around the fire. He didn’t like the idea of heading into battle with people he couldn’t trust, but he needed someone to show him the way to the leader’s camp. He also didn’t think it was wise to leave Sarah behind with them.
“Here’s your chance to redeem yourselves. Who knows how to get to the leader’s campsite from here?”
The men exchanged anxious glances, but none of them spoke up right away. Only after a few long moments of silence did the youngest man in the group finally stand up. He appeared to be around the same age as Jack, maybe a few years older. He was short, only an inch taller than Sarah, and noticeably overweight, with a shaved head and uneven patches of facial hair growing on his face.
“I can s-show you,” he stuttered.
Lucius nodded approvingly when he saw the young man step forward, taking note of the heavy Eastern European accent in his voice.
“Good.”
He sized the young man up, chuckling to himself before continuing.
“I forgot to mention that whoever volunteers to help me will get their sentence cut in half. Looks like that’ll be you. What’s your name?”
The new revelation sparked a swift reaction from the group, who shot looks of envy and disgust at the young man.
“My name is N-Nikolai.”
“Okay, Nikolai. Mind if I call you Nick?”
“That... is not a problem.”
Lucius motioned for Nick to join him and Sarah.
“I’m taking Nick and Sarah with me. The rest of you will wait here for our return. You can try to run away if you want, but I’ll track you down. Anyone who tries to escape will earn an extra year of hard labor.”
The men seemed to get the message, and none of them voiced any objections. Only one of the group spoke up to ask a question.
“What if we get attacked while you aren’t here? Ashtray was the strongest member of the group, and the other two you banished were the second- and third-best fighters. Without them, we can’t protect ourselves.”
Lucius and his two companions had already begun walking away when they heard the man’s complaint. Lucius didn’t bother to slow down or turn around as he responded.
“Well... I guess you’d better stay very quiet while I’m gone then,” he tossed out insouciantly. What did he care if these men were killed? The group exchanged anxious glances, visibly disturbed by Lucius’ parting words, but they had no choice but to stay put.
When they reached the main road and the light of the campfire was barely visible, Nick kept glancing back at Lucius as if he had something to say but couldn’t find the courage to do so. When Lucius grew bored of waiting for him to spit it out, he spoke up.
“Just say whatever you want to say already,” he prompted.
Nick jerked his head back toward the road in surprise, stumbling over his own feet and almost falling. Lucius stopped walking, waiting for Nick to steady himself and share whatever was on his mind. Nick looked up at Lucius with a nervous expression, wiping his forehead with the back of his sleeve before finally opening his mouth.
“Before I show you the way to the leader’s camp, there’s something you should know.”
“Oh yeah? What’s that?”
Nick struggled to get the words out, his eyes squeezing shut as he twisted his sausage-like fingers in his chubby hands. His fearful shivering made his puffy cheeks jiggle as he forced himself to speak.
“T-The leader... is my uncle.”
Chapter 69
The Leader II
Lucius looked over at Sarah after hearing Nikolai’s words, noticing that she showed no reaction to the rotund young man’s revelation.
“You knew about this?”
Sarah nodded, glancing toward Nikolai indifferently.
“Nikolai could have used his familial connection with the leader to assert himself and take advantage of others, but he didn’t. I have never seen him treat another human being poorly. However, he didn’t use his position to try to help anyone either. He focused on his own survival, standing by as the others tortured me.”
Nikolai’s round cheeks sank deeper and deeper into a frown as Sarah spoke. The young man didn’t reject her claims, but it was obvious from his clenched fists that hearing someone bluntly speak about his failings evoked a strong emotion within him.
“You don’t understand. My uncle... was not always this way. He is the only family I have left, everyone else is lost…”
Nikolai turned his gaze toward the ground as he continued.
“Before the Abyss descended, Uncle was a kind and generous man. He loved God and volunteered at our church every weekend. Something…” something happened to him when the Abyss creatures invaded our world.”
Lucius’ eyes narrowed he listened intently to Nikolai. Any information he could glean about his foe might mean the difference between victory and defeat.
“Explain. There’s a big difference between a well-loved community member and the leader of a gang that enslaves and tortures others. What happened to turn your uncle into a sadistic criminal?”
Nikolai took a couple of deep breaths, unclenching his fists as he did his best to explain.
“It was…” soon after the Abyss attacked. Uncle and I were the only ones at home when the anomalies began opening, sending our world sinking into the pits of hell. In those early days, he selflessly protected me from the terrible monsters of this new reality one after another. His rapidly growing abilities gave us hope for the future, and he promised to help rebuild a society where people could feel safe again. One day, Uncle left to search for food, as he had many times before. When he returned, I could hear the strange laughter of an old woman in my mind when I walked near him. It frightened me so badly I couldn’t move. I asked Uncle what was happening, but he simply told me that he had made a new friend, refusing to say anything whenever I brought it up.”
Nikolai’s hands trembled as his story reached this point, he clenched them together in an attempt to hold them still as he continued.
“After that, his eyes carried a strange and dangerous feeling that was never there before, and he began acting cruelly for reasons I couldn’t understand. From that day onward, Uncle would often invoke strange powers that I had never seen before. Eerie black magic that Uncle would have once considered the work of evil spirits. I would wake in the night and hear him carrying on a conversation, but he was all alone. For hours and hours he would sit and speak to no one.”
Lucius rubbed his chin as he considered the story he had just been told. It seemed as though the leader had come into contact with some form of powerful mythical creature. For some reason, however, instead of him controlling the myth, it was controlling him. Looking back up at the unsettled Nikolai, Lucius continued his questions.
“What kind of spells has your uncle become capable of?”
“I’m sure he has abilities that I don’t know about, but I can tell you for certain that he is capable of creating vivid illusions, casting curses that cause his enemies great pain or bad luck, and knowing things that should be impossible for a man to know. Those are the powers he gained after the change. Before that, he already possessed an aspect that allowed him to take on a ghostly form to avoid damage.”
“I see. That’s valuable information. Can I ask why you’re telling me all this? I will almost certainly kill your uncle. You know that... right?”
Nikolai’s eyes became moist as he rubbed his sleeve across his face, sniffing hard a few times, trying to prevent the snot from spilling out of his nose.
“I know that! Until now, I always hoped that uncle would come back to his senses! He was always so strong, he was my hero, especially after the Abyss descended. He could do anything. I fooled myself into believing that he would find a way to overcome the evil spirit that has possessed him. But all I’ve done is allow a monster to use my uncle for evil. If my real uncle could be here now, I know he’d be ashamed that his body was being used this way. He would want me to help you put an end to it.”
Lucius was surprised by the young man’s determination, realizing in that moment that he had underestimated Nikolai. With a firm nod he reached out to grab Nikolai’s shoulder, looking him in the eye as he spoke.
