Chapter 199 - 199)You Know Don't You?

Outside in the Sacred Grounds, Sketch, Shade and a few other players eagerly waited. In their eyes, Night was perhaps the only one who could complete the trials. Even JetSky just entered the Sacred Grounds, although it scared him a little, he didn't wish Night to fail.

However, a black cloud formed outside the gate, and a warping sound broke the silence, and there he was. Night stood there, with his aura completely oozing out. Anyone could say that he wasn't in his normal state.

"Night failed? That quick? Does that mean he failed the very first trial? No way, if Night failed then should we also give up?"

"You fool, there's no certainty that he failed, besides why would we give up? We've been assassins for longer and we definitely had more attempts at this. It's literally his first attempt at this so there's no doubt that he's going to fail,"

The skilled assassins were curious as to what exactly happened. It is said that the Phantom Trials reflect upon one's inner self. Just what kind of a trial or trials did Night face to make him come out with such an expression? 

"My L-lord?...." Shade stuttered as he looked at the sudden appearance of His Lord. In his mind there was nothing Night couldn't do, but looking at him now Shade's entire thought process was struck. He wasn't disappointed or anything. It had more to do with curiosity. Just what could make someone like His Lord lose?

"Stay right here, I need to go somewhere," Night ordered. Everyone in the room could hear the agitation and the urgency in his voice. It was something that didn't seem fitting, especially looking back at how he acted all the time. Perhaps the only thing that could come even remotely close to how he felt was when Robert the NPC that Hermes pretended to be, held onto Night's collar.

Without a single explanation, Night logged out, leaving everyone there shook. Did that mean he failed the trial? Or did he simply quit it because he had something else to tend to? Just what could be so important that someone had to leave something as important as the Phantom Trials.

Once he logged off, Luke immediately took off his headset and looked around just in case Nate meant something else. Maybe the live location was an accident, and the "careful" was for the bathroom floor being slippery or the stairs being replaced with legos,

"Shit shit shit shit," Luke said as he looked everywhere in his room before running down the steps that didn't seem to be made of legos. The house wasn't particularly empty, his parents were in their room, and Lisanna, his sister was out, and Liam his younger brother was still nowhere to be seen. Although it was worrying, if his parents didn't find anything odd then it meant that it was fine.

"I'm leaving!!" he screamed as he grabbed his jacket from the hanger, he rushed out of the door and while wearing it. The streets were once again empty, which irked him. It reminded him of something that happened a few days ago, something that probably would've killed anyone but Night.

"Where could he ha- Wait! The live location! I'm such a fkn idiot!" Luke cursed himself as he removed his phone from his back pocket. He ran down the lane where the car almost crashed him recently. Even if it had nothing to do with them, there was a good chance there was some clue.

If not for the technology that allowed texts to be sent and received even in the game, Luke would've never known. He was grateful, not only for this time but even for back when Nate sent him a text regarding Noel's situation.

"..." Luke ran as he thought of what had happened to Blade. The situations had one thing in common, it was that Nate messaged him. It was a stretch but he couldn't help but overthink it. It was rare and out of character, perhaps it was only because it was Nate. "I promise you, just wait. You know I'll be there don't you?" he muttered as he continued following the emoji denoting Nate. It was obvious that he was in some kind of a vehicle, judging by the speed at which he moved there was no way it could be anything else.

Luke continued making his way until he noticed something similar, yet odd. It was a group of people, and all of them were on the floor, blood was splattered around and nobody looked to be in a good shape. However, one of them was awake, it was a man, and by the looks of it, he had barely gained consciousness.

"You," Luke said as he appeared behind the man, scaring the poor soul away. However, the man had no energy to retaliate. He simply had a horrified look on his face, blood droplets continued dripping, one of his eyes was very clearly swollen. "Did you happen to see this guy?" he asked as he showed him a picture of Nate.

Just looking at the picture sent shivers down the man's spine, but as mentioned earlier, his body couldn't react anymore. He grit his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut. "Y...yes....." it was obvious that the man recognized Luke. After he was the main goal, Nate was simply supposed to be the bait.

Recognizing this fact, Luke put down the phone and had a cold look on his face. It was scary, his dark blue hair and purple eyes were an oddity, and wearing a cold expression on them made it even worse for the receivers. "Tell me. Everything. Now"

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"Well done Basile, I had no doubt that you would succeed. It's not like he could resist you hmph," a voice echoed. It was another voice that felt familiar to Nate. He knew who it belonged to, but it wasn't pleasant to recall them. 

"Of course father," Basile said while kneeling down to the man who sat in the dark. There was only a single spotlight in the room and that directly fell upon Basile and Nate. The latter was barely conscious, voices echoed in his head, his hands and legs were tied together and his body tied to the chair. It was pointless, especially because of Basile's presence, but it was to make everything easier and smoother.

"Urgh....L....uke..." Nate groaned as his head swayed. Rays of light broke into his vision, a familiar blurry figure appeared, once again it was only his back that was visible to him. It was always the case, Basile's back was nearly always facing Nate, it's not as if he fully trusted Nate, it was simply that he knew nothing could be done. It was confidence. 

"Again with this Luke guy, what's with you? What is he, your boyfriend?" Basile scoffed as he slightly turned back and looked at his younger brother tied up in a chair. He knew of Luke's existence and acknowledged the fact that he knew how to fight, but in his mind, Luke was just one of those common martial artists.

"Nobody's coming for you," Nate's father stated. His figure remained entirely in the darkness, other than his feet, there was nothing visible. "There's a reason why we're in such a room,"

A stinging pain in his heart, just hearing the voice was enough to trigger painful memories, but after what his father had just said, Nate realized what he meant. They were in a dark room and in reality. Luke couldn't possibly waltz in, even if he could somehow beat up everyone, the issue of the darkness persisted.

"....." Nate clenched his jaw as he tried thinking of how his father knows of this information. Luke being afraid of the night or darkness, in general, was something private. Nate wasn't even sure if his parents knew of it. He trusted his friend and always knew he would come for him, but this time it was different. There was someone else like Luke, Basile. 

'...I'm sorry buddy, I think this is it for us,' Nate thought as he closed his eyes and looked up. It was sad. More than a normal friendship, they shared something important. It was this blind trust that they had each others back no matter what would happen. Unfortunately, no matter how smart Nate was, he forgot to account for the fact that Luke couldn't face his fear alone. Not yet at least.

After all, this was reality and not Genesis. In the game, Luke could see through darkness and had night vision, but in reality, it was different. He was human, at least some parts of him.. And to make things worse, Nate thought it was on him, after all, he was the one that shared the live location and he knew for a fact that Luke would chase him and show up, but it seems that Nate's father had taken this into account and planned for it.