The Villain Of Arise

xxxviii: it ends now

lol did I mention tomorrow? how about today 👀

"What?" Mari looked absolutely furious, her face unable to hide her fury.

Melinda bit her lip, gazing around nervously, "Surely this mustn't be real, right?" she asked cautiously. Another chill swept through the air. The woman wrapped her arms around herself.

"He went-"

"The flag has not been moved," Jaehyung said coolly. "If I remember correctly, Professor Razor mentioned rules where if the flag has been moved then the watches would have alerted us. There has been no further alerts."

Adalyn raised up his hands, "My apologies," she said, chuckling. "I thought it'd be a good time to joke around."

"Oh my god," Melinda cried out, clearly distressed. "That was a horrible, horrible joke."

"Truthfully I technically wasn't lying," Adalyn said, smiling despite himself. "When Damon escaped from jail, he did go past here and tried to capture the flag. He ended up retreating after sending a message to his team though."

"That means the location of our flag has been found out once more," Mari groaned. "Let me send a message through."

Jaehyung checked through his contacts. He could see Mari's message pop up as he looked through the board. "Strange," he murmured as his eyes caught on to something. "It seems Evangeline lost her signal."

"Oh no! Then that means her Metallix watch is broken," Toshiro said, worried. He began to tap his foot on the ground, clearly restless. It must've been about Evangeline.

"We can't do anything about it now," Mari sighed, defeated. "Now Adalyn, tell me exactly where Damon headed off again or else."

Adalyn smirked, "Or else, what?" she challenged. "I'm technically still your enemy."

Fire began to surround Mari, making everyone near her proximity, save for Melinda, to wince in the process.

"I'll leave that to your imagination."

"The left side of the territory," Adalyn sighed, although she seemed to be bluffing, "I suggest you hurry up as well or he'd be long gone."

However there wasn't any time to be standing still so they were left with no choice. Ready to leave, they began to head off and as Jaehyung was about to follow them, Toshiro grabbed his wrist. Jaehyung stilled and Toshiro immediately withdrew his hand. Jaehyung watched as Mari and Melinda disappeared in the greenery, them having not noticed where he was.

"My apologies," the man said, smiling sincerely. "I wanted to talk to you about some pressing matters. Do you mind following me?"

"You-" Jaehyung sighed, shaking his head. "Nevermind. I'll go."

They walked through in silence, Toshiro leading the way. It wasn't long before the man in front of him began to speak. "I have a hidden role in the game," he said, looking nervous. "I'm not just any medic."

"Oh?" Jaehyung asked, showing absolutely nothing in his expressing and looking completely disinterested. Inside, however, he was deeply unsettled. "And what role might that be?"

"I'm a detective," Toshiro said. He stared at the ground, fiddling with his hands. "Turns out there's a mole in our team who is trying to sabotage us. It doesn't specifically say who it is but I figured I'd tell you as you are my team's strategist."

Jaehyung sighed, "And who do you think it might be-"

He suddenly tripped over something on the ground. His eyes widened as he realized that there was nothing on the ground to trip in the first place except for leaves and grass. The edges of his vision clouded and a stark realization began to enter his mind.

"Did you just-"

The landscape around him disappeared slowly, into a smoke of shadow. What lied right in front of him was a huge drop of a cliff down below and the rock he tripped on fell off the cliffs' edge. Jaehyung watched in horror as it fell down. For the first time, he noticed that they were far past the territory assigned.

"So close," Toshiro muttered. Then he began to laugh. "You really are hard to control, Kim Jaehyung."

Jaehyung began to encase himself in shadow but Toshiro held up a hand. "Cancel," he demanded. The shadow immediately began to disapitate. Jaehyung's blood ran cold and shivers began to overtake his body as the rain continued to fall down.

"You aren't the only one to have the power of hallucination," Toshiro said, smiling. There was something in his eyes sparkling with hatred - an expression Jaehyung had never seen the soft-spoken student have before. "If it wasn't for Her Excellency I would have killed you a long time ago, Kim Jaehyung."

"How dare you-" but Jaehyung suddenly fell to the ground and his vision darkened. His mind began to ache, an intense pain erupting in his head. He tried hard not to scream as that stinging pain began to explode deep in the depths of his mind. His hands clung onto the rough ground, but he was still shaking, still trembling as the fear of death overtook him.

"Oh how you've fallen," he could hear Toshiro laugh manically. There was joy in his voice. "The almighty Kim Jaehyung."

Footsteps neared him and he winced in pain as Toshiro kicked him. Before Jaehyung blacked out, the last thing he felt was the rushes of the winds tearing desperately at his lungs as he fell down, down and down to his death.

Is this how it ends? Was his very last thought before darkness became the only thing he saw and felt.