Last Ruler Of The Empty Throne

If anyone had been watching, they would've known one thing, Laura was now dangerous.

The air and energy around her was changing. And as if to confirm it, a string of messages flickered in her vision.

[YOUR LEVEL HAS INCREASED]

[YOUR LEVEL…]

But she didn't see it. Her eyes were closed, basking in a feeling she might not get to experience again. The instant the notifications stopped, and the energy around her settled, she opened her eyes and raised her hand.

With a subtle downward motion of her finger, the lightning that had been gathering around the cloud fell.

BOOM... BOOM

It struck the grasshopper Jon had frozen in place, instantly turning it to charred remains and with the second it tuned to ashes.

Jon stood frozen, his mouth hanging open in shock. He had anticipated Laura's use of lightning after suggesting it to her, so he had expected that.

No, the shock came from something else entirely, her rapidly increasing level.

When she had closed her eyes, he activated his Moon Gaze and witnessed the unbelievable transformation taking place. The grasshopper, which had been a challenging opponent moments ago, became nothing more than a practice target for her newfound power.

'It seems one can gain levels not just by killing' he realized.

He had once had a thought of what would happen when there was no one to kill to get stronger, what will they do or a world that killed all the hostile monsters, how would the new generation get stronger. They couldn't just kill themselves to get stronger, so this was probably the method.

Looking at Laura again, she didn't stop releasing the lightning until after a full two minutes when she seemed to have exhausted her mana, but the smile on her face completely betrayed herself, she was smiling.

After taking a deep breath again, she turned to Jon and said, "Thank you." 

"I will certainly return this favor." She straightened, glancing at Jon again, but to her disappointment, he still wasn't paying attention to her again. 'At least look at the person thanking you,' she thought bitterly, before walking away in Cynthia's direction.

Cynthia, still standing where Jon had left her, was equally stunned. She had just asked was there a correct way to use a skill. And then after a few words, she saw Lightning falling from the sky, something she hadn't expected to see today.

She had seen people use lightening attacks, but not directly from the sky. Her shock remained, even as Laura approached.

"Umm... Cynthia." Laura waved her hand in front of Cynthia hoping not to be ignored be her too.

"Oh, Laura, congratulations," Cynthia said after snapping out her stupor and then a grin creeping onto her face. "You're officially on the list of natural disasters."

"Baa, look who's talking," Laura retorted, rolling her eyes. Then, she turned looking in Jon's direction and asked, "Is he always like that?"

"Like what?" Cynthia asked.

"Talking to someone without looking at them," Laura replied while frowning.

"What? He does that?" Cynthia chuckled and continued, "Honestly, I don't know much about him either...after the betrayal, he became a bit distant." Her voice trailed off, leaving the two women in silence as they scanned their surroundings.

Mere looking at the darkened faces of the fighters and even volunteers, they wouldn't likely volunteer for another scouting missions.

Many of them would be reluctant to face another horror, like they had just witnessed.

Maybe except the people who had first come for scouting missions, they were the second strongest group currently in the school.

But even after all that has happened, they still needed to assess the state of the buses quickly before any other unexpected thing happens.

However, there was an unspoken question in their minds, Should they continue? They had just lost people, so was it right to continue. Still with the solemn air and question still lingering, they went on to inspect the remains of the grasshoppers, for the cores and orbs.

The battle had lasted barely thirty minutes, but the aftermath was grim, monsters and people alike lay dead. This went to show how dangerous people and the world was getting.

So, after about ten minutes of scavenging, the survivors regrouped.

As Jon also finished searching for his rewards, he was also scanning the area. He had almost forgotten. They were someone he wanted to check on.

He was looking for someone, no two people, in fact.

Immediately, he saw the first person he was looking for, he sprinted towards them, his heart pounding with worry.

"Are you okay?" he asked, reaching Alexa, who, though wounded, was still alive.

"I-I'm fine," she said, her arm bound tightly with makeshift bandages. She was still trying to stay strong in this situation.

Jon nodding in relief but barely took a moment to catch his breath before frantically searching again.

He had scanned the first time but didn't put much effort to the second person but now,

"Where's Tunde?" He asked.

"Tunde!" He called out again, panic began to display on his face. Without waiting, he activated Moon Gaze at full capacity, pushing his abilities to the limit.

The gasps of the other survivors echoed as they turned around as if they realized who he was searching for.

Jon then spread his aura to sense the surrounding, an overwhelming surge of energy radiating from him making the very air to harden. Half the group collapsed and fainted under the pressure, while those who remained upright coughed blood.

Even Jenny and Cynthia's eyes widened as they struggled, their mana barely enough to shield them from the immense force.

'What happened?' Jenny wondered. Even Cynthia was thinking of what must have happened, expect, but she shook her head. She didn't want to accept that possibility. The world wasn't that ruthless and cruel to anyone, right? Was what she thought.

And there, in the farthest reach of his perception, 800 meters away, just at the edge of the end of his reach.

Jon found who he was looking for and immediately sprinted to the spot, trying to confirm whether what he saw from his senses was a lie.

There laid Tunde's cold, broken form on the bloody ground. His body had been split horizontally and lying in different locations. And it would have been difficult to identify him with the blood pooling everywhere.

"No...." With a trembling voice he knelt and stretched his hand to the body on the ground.

"W-Why?" He asked no one in particular.

And as expected, no one replied to him. Then as if he was being reminded of his friend, everything he was supposed to feel then came bursting forth and he couldn't hold himself any longer and screamed to the sky,

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

His voice was a mixture of agony and rage, filled with so much power that it sent shockwaves through the area. The sheer force was so much, his throat began to rip apart, until he couldn't hear himself.

His scream was so loud and dangerous that the remaining people had to pick up the ones that fainted and had to retreat towards the cafeteria.

"Run..."

"Carry them..."

Jenny and Cynthia coordinating the fighters to pick up the fainted students and ran away from Jon's area.

Jon's veins bulged, his muscles tensed to the point of snapping.

'IF ONLY I HAD WATCHED HIM!'

Since his voice no longer worked, he screamed inside him. Tunde's sudden death reminded him so much of Alex, who he didn't even get to see till now. All his pent up emotions he hadn't been able to feel all came crashing down, and this time in double fold.

The intense rage, regret, sadness he felt made something inside him snap as a result. It was a shift, almost imperceptible at first, but undeniable there. He didn't even know what was going on, but the system confirmed that something definitely happened,

[******]

That single notification was enough to tell him that something had happened. Yet, his heart was consumed with grief and rage to even notice.

He had lost a friend days ago, and now another.

'I CAN'T… I-!' he screamed. But nothing changed. Even screaming inside him stopped due to the continuous screaming.

Though, he was still raging, something else was occurring alongside.

The monsters began converging to his position. They were drawn in by the pure force of his earlier screams, it was definitely something that would push them straight to the next realm, so they started gathering around him.

And as for Jon, now he had screamed, it was time to release all the anger.

And the perfect people just appeared.

After placing Tunde's body down with gentle care his face didn't show, he stood up. At this point, his brown eyes had turned bloodshot, filled with sorrow and rage. Then he gripped the leg of the grasshopper, his makeshift weapon and faced the approaching monsters.

Without any care of thoughts of their general strength or their numbers, he charged into the mass of creatures with a fury unlike anything he had ever unleashed before.

His usual precise and accurate movements was now brutal and random, fueled by grief. His usual calculating and calm mind was now clouded with rage.

SHNG..SLASH

BOOOOM 

With each wild swing, he severed the heads, legs, waists and legs of the monsters, and unknowingly a certain red flickers began to appear around him. The red flickers fed on his pain, his agony, his grief, his rage amplifying his strength, and slowly overriding the calming effect of 'Composure'.

The red flickers was born from the seed planted during his massacre of the Krad group.

And now, it was growing, increasing in size with each life he took. It was a power built on pure raw negative emotions.

With Jon now on a path to unlocking something far darker within himself, something that was evolving with every step and life he took, whether it was a good thing or not was still unknown.

TITLE: DEATH OF ANOTHER FRIEND