No More

Chapter 70: Damnation Part 5

Jesse woke up to the sounds of screaming, awakening from his blissful memory of a forgotten childhood. "Uh... how long was I out?" Groggily he stood up, eye's adjusting to the dark sky... and immediately sat down when he realized he's on top of a flat roof on a high building.

"I can't believe this building is intact." Said a surprised Jesse as he's on one of the buildings that frame the center of the destroyed town. The iron floor covered in dried blood.

In the distance, he saw his friends and Bailey standing there in the center surrounding the potion making, yet injured, girl.

Ten blocks away the cloaked man is standing, or hovering, away from the group as black dust pours out of every opening on his grey cloak.

But then Jesse remembered what the cloaked man is wearing on his head as a helmet: an alluring skull, an item that attracts undead monsters within 200 blocks.

"So where are the monsters...?" Jesse looked around in panic and saw a thick ring of fire that surrounded the town center. Easily burning any undead monsters that come near.

Not too far away from his friends, he saw that the golem, Scorpion, had a thin black blade going through it. Disabling its function.

Jesse carefully climbed down the building. Realizing that all of the frozen-in-black corpses are now gone as he walked towards the group. Keeping his right eye closed to hide the runes to his friends, and so he wouldn't read their personal and private info when he did. "What happened here...?"

The group looked at him as felt relief. "Jesse, you're alive!" Petra shouted above the monsters burning beyond the ring of fire..

"I told you I wasn't lying." Stated the scythe-wielding dead man, ruining the moment. "Your friends seem to have trust issues, Jesse."

"Just shut up and stay away from us, you creep!" Shouted Axel as Jesse ran towards them.

"What's going on?" asked Jesse as he stood with the group. "Wait, where's Lisa?"

"She stayed behind and helped us escape," Revealed Olivia, much to Jesse's shock. "She said she would meet us at the fortress north from this place."

"Then, why haven't you guys leaved this place?" asked a worried Jesse. "Why are you still here?"

"It's because that guy broke my golem," Explained Olivia as she pointed at the deadly, three-block-tall figure that is ten blocks away from them. "He created this ring of fire to prevent us from leaving. At least it's keeping the undead out."

"So we're trapped." Stated Jesse as a fact, not as a question.

"Plus, he's preventing us even attempting to leave," Continued Petra, her face took on a dark expression. "Not unless we take his deal."

"Well, what's the deal?" Jesse asked.

"He said that he'll let us go," Started Olivia. "If we leave Bailey behind for him to kill."

Jesse was about to ask the cloaked man why, but Axel put his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Don't even bother asking, we already asked all the possible questions." Axel sighed. "That guy just says stuff about 'how Baily did this to me', and other junk about revenge. Not any solid info either."

"And he will just let us pass if we give her up?" Asked a skeptical Jesse. "There has to be a catch."

"There is," Said Olivia. "Jesse, he says that he won't hurt us, but he knows your sister! And yet he keeps screaming about Bailey ruined his life. It doesn't add up."

"No, it doesn't." Agreed Jesse. "There's more going on here, but I just... I just don't how we're getting out of this. Other than giving Bailey up."