Endless Evolution: Last Star

Nirosh narrowed his eyes, staring intently at Fromund.

"Come on, tell me, we don't have much time left. We have to announce our fighter within the next twenty minutes."

Fromund smiled bitterly.

"Well, that will be enough since there's not much left."

He squared his shoulders, settled into his armchair, and looked up at the ceiling, at the lone lamp.

"Year after year went by, our mother still worked as a whore and was a drug addict, our father didn't seem to mind because from what I understand he'd been dealing with women like that for a long time. But, when I turned 15, our mother's drug addiction had reached its limit." Find more to read on My Virtual Library Empire

Fromund continued in a monotone voice as if he were reading from a page of a book telling a tragic story.

"She was short of money, her earnings weren't enough to buy the new, more powerful drug she recently became addicted to. Sure, she got our father to help her with money, but it wasn't sufficient."

After a brief pause, Fromund waved his hand.

"Our father, mother's last lover, and Tilda's blood father worked as a warehouse guard for the very people I now owe money to and who you can't help me deal with even if you're a great family."

Fromund glanced at Zarot. In response, Zarot only clenched his fists tighter.

"I understand the risks and we've already discussed it, no one would start a war for the sake of it, that's not the point." Fromund shrugged nonchalantly. His harsh life taught him to be a realist, assessing all the risks and possibilities of his friends or enemies.

"In that warehouse, there were hundreds of monster parts, energy crystals, and other valuable resources that can be found in the far reaches of the Dead Lands and underground..."

Fromund's voice grew darker as he spoke his last words.

"Unfortunately, the parts in that warehouse were not parts of White Threat or Green Threat level monsters, but of much more powerful creatures, and thus their parts were worth much more. The same was true for other types of resources."

Zarot and Mariel looked at each other. They already knew roughly where this was going, but they didn't know how it could happen.

"Of course, our father wasn't a complete idiot and there's no way he would try to steal something from this warehouse, he wasn't suicidal. Moreover, he was the guard of that warehouse, not a manager or director who had higher-level access. He only had the ability to open the main gate like any guard..."

After a brief pause, Fromund looked down and continued:

"I remember this, how our mother begged him to steal something and sell it so she could buy herself a new dose, but he wouldn't agree as it was tantamount to death. However..."

"Hmm?" Zarot raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"In the Lower Ring as in the Upper Ring, there are many competing forces, and other equally dangerous and powerful people decided to rob this warehouse. I won't hold back the intrigue - our father agreed to help them, only to open the gate, for which he would receive a huge sum of money."

Fromund clenched his fists tightly, his veins on the wrists swelling and his face filled with anger. Taking a deep breath, Fromund slowly came to his senses.

"The plan was simple - he pretends he got stunned by a sharp blow and couldn't do anything, though he actually opens the gate with his guard pass to keep the alarm system off. Well, that might work if he was the only guard."

"Things didn't go according to plan, did they?" Mariel asked a sense of worry and even concern in her voice.

Fromund nodded deeply.

"According to the plan, the other guard was supposed to be killed but he fought back and managed to activate the alarm at the last moment. The stakes were too high, the invaders tried to carry off at least some of the resources and monster parts, but they didn't have time since the powerful guards came."

He cast a quick glance at Nirosh, Zarot, and Mariel.

"I think it's clear that it wasn't ordinary people who went there, it was Phantoms. During the battle most of the warehouse was destroyed and our father was able to miraculously escape because he was the first to know what happened, he was responsible for it. Most of the other guards and warehouse workers died because they were too close to the battle between the many strong Phantoms."

Fromund sighed heavily, shaking his head as he approached the climax of his story.

"He tried to escape, but he was easily found. He was set up with a simple choice - either he would work the rest of his life as a slave to pay back at least some of the resources destroyed in the warehouse due to his fault, or he would be killed after long torture. He agreed to work."

Then, Fromund stopped abruptly and his heart began to beat slower.

"But... that same night, he hanged himself. He decided he'd rather take his own life than let it happen after the torture. However, no one was going to forgive his debt even if he was already dead..."

"They... they came to you?" Mariel asked in a trembling voice.

Fromund nodded.

"Initially, they thought to shift the debt to our mother, but... when they saw that she was a drug addict whore, they realized she was useless and just killed her, right in front of us. Me, Elva, Liv, and Tilda, we saw all of it..."

Fromund's gaze grew darker.

"We saw how the man ripped out her heart, then blew her head off with a simple wave of his hand. And, though I was very scared, I didn't feel sorry for her. Perhaps, if someone did it earlier, if someone killed her years ago, we wouldn't have suffered so much."

Mariel shuddered, a chill running down her spine. She didn't know how anyone could be such a horrible mother that her child wouldn't feel bad if someone killed her.

"Then, they headed towards us, but what good could one teenage boy and three girls who weren't even ten years old do?"

Fromund asked rhetorically.

"I remember that day. One of them suggested just to sell us off for organs or give us away for experiments. The other nodded approvingly, he thought it was a good and profitable idea, in his opinion it was the best way we could be used to pay off the debt."

His gaze traveled to the side, away from the light.

"They said that this way they could repay at least some of it, at least a few percent of what they lost in the warehouse due to our father's betrayal. And, it gave me hope, the last one..."

Fromund bit his lip, his eyes deepened and his aura grew.

"I begged them to let me work. I was willing to do anything for them to keep us alive, at least my sisters. But, they said it was unprofitable. That we were young and would be well paid for as organs or as lab guinea pigs."

Fromund clenched his fist tightly, gritting his teeth.

"I kept begging, yet I got nothing but rejection and sneers in my direction. But... when they were ready to take us away, the third one, their commander, stepped forward..."

Zarot, Mariel, and Nirosh were silent, waiting to find out what happened next.

"He said that I had a chance to be the one to keep myself and my sisters alive. He took me to one man who seemed to have special status in the Lower Ring... I remember his emerald eyes, but it doesn't matter now..."

Fromund let out a heavy sigh.

"He put me in front of a simple choice - either everything would happen as those people said, or I would try to become a Natural Phantom and thus have a chance to pay off the entire debt someday... So... you understand what happened next..."

Fromund's aura returned to normal, and a bitter, pain-filled smile appeared on his face.

"It was a choice without a choice."