The Nova Ranker - The Sword Almighty

Chapter 29. Not-So-Secret Test of Character

By the time midnight rolled around, we were all on a plane, headed back to Chicago. After fighting for my life and nearly dying, it felt very surreal to do something so normal as getting on a plane. Weirder still was that nothing happened. No delays, no sky sharks attacking our plane, no turbulence, not even any disturbances. Even checking my phone for Emails before the plane took off just felt... normal. Uncomfortably normal.

Two of Israel's guilds had fallen. Hundreds had lost their family and friends. A little girl had died. I didn't even know her name. I didn't know if she would've been friend or foe. But she fell because I was too busy to kill her captor.

And yet, the world kept moving around us like nothing had happened. Was that really what it was like? To risk your life for a bunch of people and at the end of the day nobody would care about it?

I spent the entire plane ride absolutely unconscious, though I did have dreams of kids dying and their parents blaming it on me. Absolutely normal things to be dreaming about. Totally. Ugh.

When I woke up, I was in a car. It was all very dark outside. I looked around me. Franziska slept soundly on the seat beside mine, snoring. My brother was sitting at the front also deeply asleep. I tried to look behind me, to see where Avi and Joey were, but twisting too far made me want to cry from the pain. It was too dark outside for me to tell, but I could see buildings of the Chicago skyline.

Seeing the buildings pass by gave me an odd feeling. I could almost swear there were two people running along the rooftops. Two figures, holding swords, dueling intensely, spewing flames and spraying cold air all over the place. I couldn't see their faces, but I could tell one of them, clad in frigid blue clothes, was ecstatic, gleefully swinging his sword while screaming manically, while the other, dressed in fervent red, was deeply miserable, basically fighting for his life as he got backed towards the edge.

And then, once I blinked, I couldn't see them anymore. Maybe they had jumped down into the streets, maybe they had taken their fight elsewhere. Maybe they had never been there.

Eventually, the car came to a stop. And soon we had reached... home. Quinta Roca Manor. Looking big, and warm. All the windows were dark. Everyone was asleep. The whole place felt at peace. It felt so distant from that warehouse in Israel. So far away from Devil's Domain. So separate from all the people that had died.

The front gate opened, and our car drove inside. I looked out the window and saw the first few lights of the morning. Mentors and rookies would be out training. I imagined the more experienced members of the guild would be getting ready to go out on patrol like nothing had happened.

The driver stopped the car in front of the manor and woke up Franziska and my brother, so they could help me out of the car. Once out of the car, I looked behind me and saw Avi and Joey stepping out of their own car, which had been driving behind us. I was quite surprised to hear that we should go directly to the dining hall, and that our luggage would be taken to our rooms. On the one hand, I had hoped to go to my room, so I could collapse into bed for a few hours. On the other hand, walking too fast would cause me quite a bit of pain, so I wasn't sure I was ready to climb stairs.

The Dining hall was lonely and empty, aside from a single figure sitting at the head table. I didn't need to read his mind to know who this was. The pink hoodie was enough for me to guess Mr. Rose was here to reprimand us about our failed mission.

We were about to get there when a wave of deep misery rolled all over me. Mr. Rose was making no attempt to look confident or suave. I had never seen him look like this. "Team Melon Bread." he said softly, motioning for us to take a seat. "I know you must be tired but... I was hoping to have a word with you before you head to bed."