We went to the meeting place where Sir had his conjurer friend build a building a long time ago. It was where we were supposed to lure everyone to after getting stranded at the beach. However, with how things turned out, we didn't manage to do it as exactly as it was, but somehow still got a few people to go inland.
I was surprised when I found out everything in ruins. It somehow got me mad.
"Hey, what happened here?" the weak-ass slasher asked with both of his hands resting at the back of his head, still as carefree as ever.
"Well, a lot of things might have happened. Am I right, Momo and Mimi?" Our controller turned around and gave the twins a menacing look masked as a smile.
They looked at each other with indifference. They surely looked alike: same squinting eyes, small noses, and pale, thin lips. Even their height and built. They were as small as elementary students but ferocious in some ways. You wouldn't find them dangerous if you didn't know what they could do.
I hea—my ears caught weak-ass slasher's words that they were the ones who pulverized the building into dust and rubble.
"We're sorry, we don't know that it would come out like this and—" Mimi started.
"—we're also sorry for letting them get out of our hands," Momo continued.
I was starting to get itchy. I hoped Sir had left some people for me to burst. I got this itchiness from my father a long time ago when I was still a kid. It was not a real itch, just more of a habit. He was one of the thinkers who got assigned to kill the first subjects on this island together with Sir and their other friend who built the building that was just dust and rubble as of now. I remembered when he had told me how he had done the killings with each of his victims and the joy and satisfaction he felt every time he would see to it they would scream in agony and fear.
However, the bastard died and I was orphaned. I was then adopted by a family who didn't love me.
"Welcome, Young Bloods," said the man who just popped out of nowhere—literally. Well, we were enveloped in a thought, so he basically just warped. I just didn't know from where.
We all kneeled and bowed our heads. He was our mentor and one of the seven hands of Master. Even with his being a warper, an orange margin thought, he was still dangerous. And could kill.
I mean, he just basically slaughtered everyone who escaped from the beach. That was why I didn't see him much there because he might have followed them. With his thought, it was convenient to move around the island and it wouldn't take that much time to find each of them, especially when he knew the way here already because, as I had said, he was one of the thinkers who first massacred the first subjects. He was part of the first generation of Young Bloods and he had our respects because of that.
And also because he was my real father's best friend.
The building that was in ruins now once served as our training ground and every detail was as accurate and meticulous; making sure not a thing would be missed out for us to master the spatial dimensions of the school we were going to enroll to that time, and now we successfully did. The main reason why they built the building was to observe teacher Mary's actions. However, the conjurer who built it died shortly after we officially became Young Bloods, and the building started crumbling as time passed by. If anything, it shocked me that it still stayed even after his death. Orange margin thoughts were really a mystery.
"What took you so long?" he asked. The mere fact that he was calm and well-poised got me much more creeped out than how teacher Mary would have done it.
"Sir, sorry for the delay. Nevertheless, we managed to complete our task," the weak-ass slasher casually reported. He surely got some guts to speak normally to him.
"Is that so? Because if you failed and let someone escape, Master wouldn't be happy, and I know all of you know it."
We gulped, but mine was harder because I had particularly witnessed Master got dissatisfied.
He led us inside the ruins, and there in the middle were two persons—man and woman—roped around a decrepit column. Their mouths were taped, and their eyes widened the moment they had seen us. Especially the woman. It was normal for her to be surprised because she knew us all.
The man kept on mumbling against his tape and casually threw piercing stares. How I wished I could burst him.
"Hi, there, cher. How was the betrayal set-up I've done? Wasn't it perfect?" our controller said to the bound woman after crouching in front of her with her thighs wide open. She might have been trying to mock the woman. "You sure got out of my thought, huh. But now you're here, so there's really no need to worry that much. Sir, can we get this woman talk? She might know where the rest are."
"No need for that. Sir already knows where they are, am I right?" The weak-ass slasher gave Sir an arrogant smile. The nerve of this shit. Swear, if I was only authorized, I'd take my time in bursting this weak ass.
Sir sighed and sat on a big slab of stone. With his crewcut hair and dark complexion, it would surely give someone who might want to fight him some intimidation. He undid his foggy glasses and placed them on his lap while pulling out a pack of cigarettes from his breast pocket. He lighted a stick and blew a cloud of smoke. "Would you like to go there and do it?"
The weak-ass slasher just smiled at him and shrugged, "Dunno. Maybe if he'll accompany me."
He pointed my way.
I scowled and gave him a menacing look. "Don't you talk to Sir like that. Sir, please let me kill this weak ass."
"Ooops. Didn't mean to mess with you." The weak-ass slasher raised his arms in mocking surrender.
"Enough, the two of you. How 'bout the rest of the blue team? Were you able to wipe them all out?" Sir asked our controller, who trembled in the corner.
"Not all. Teacher Jelly managed to escape with the help of a crew member from the barge," she said. Her cheeks were turning red.
I steeled myself as he faced my way, definitely going to ask me next. I highly respected Sir, and he was the second person that I'd sacrifice my life for, just next to Master.
He sighed in front of me. "Okay, everyone. Huddle over here."
That was it? He was not even going to ask if I was okay or not?
My itch had intensified. The sooner I'd burst someone, the better I'd feel. I couldn't even move comfortably with my sticky pants: it needed to be wet again.
"So, here's the thing. It's simple and, yeah, just simple. So, I'm expecting each one of you to complete the task. I'll just be warping here and there to help you if you need some," Sir said.
"No need for that. We'll make sure to finish everything before they can even blink. Why not just send me alone? They'll just be extra baggage for me," I suggested. The itch started to grow to something that resembled pain already.
"Oh, is that so? Oh, my, my, don't be that arrogant now," the weak-ass slasher answered, then he leaned closer, "don't you think I can slash you right here, right now, if I want to? The next time you act like that, better run. Consider yourself warned."
I shot myself and pinned him on the ground. He winced and initiated a thought, then threw a slash straight up my head that I barely evaded. It only grazed my left cheek.
The moment I dodged his attack, he pushed me and rolled back a meter away. He touched his neck and glared at me. "Damn your reflexes."
He was not smiling now, and I liked it. I wiped the blood that was flowing from my cheek where he got me and licked it, and then I shot out a thought. I lurched forward, surprising him with how fast I closed the distance between us. As soon as I jumped and stretched my arm to touch his skin, I halted and all my muscles became rigid.
No. I was stopped.
Our controller, who was now hot and angry, looked at us with killing intent. I noticed the edge of her thought at my right side, barely touching my elbow. Shit, she got me.
"Why are you always so hot-headed? Can't you calm down a little?" She tried her best to sound calm. I knew that she wouldn't like Sir getting disappointed.
We felt another thought that had been shot out that was stronger than us, and then—BANG! Sir warped in between the small gap that was keeping me from bursting weak-ass slasher and grabbed our hair. He yanked us closer to his face and whispered, "Are you listening?"
It was a threat.
Weak-ass slasher gave me a condescending look, and I returned a deadly one. We went back to the slab of stone and sat on the ground. With just a poof, Sir warped back on the stone.
"Now, now. As I was saying earlier, all of you will go there and quickly kill them, except that person. Since we've already thinned out the population, I'm certain about the next creator already." He picked his glasses, which he might have dropped when he warped between us, and wore it back. "That's it. And—uh, by the way, where's that auditor?"
Weak-slasher raised his hand, "I, uh, killed him. Aren't we supposed to silence him since he was not part of us?"
"Well, yeah. I just thought you might still have him since we can have Master test and use him as a Young Blood as well. Anyway, I'll go back to Master and gift her those two where Marcus can erase them and rewrite their memories. I tested them and knew that they're pothinks."
It must have been that cursed item. Master gave Sir two cursed items for him to use with our mission. One was like a glove that could identify a pothink just by touching someone with it.
The other item had a power similar to a linker. A warper could only warp himself/herself alone, and beginner warpers usually couldn't bring their clothes with them once they warped, but Sir had already mastered carrying his with him. However, he could only do so much as to that, and bringing something other than his clothes or someone would not be possible for him as of now. But with that item, he could surely do. And I knew that he'd use it in transporting those two to Master. I was envious that he'd be able to see Master as often as he wanted to. How convenient.
"Mimi, if you would, please," Sir instructed.
Mimi stood and approached our prisoners. She initiated a thought and touched them. The area of her thought was huge; it engulfed us all and reached some meters high above. It only took a moment for her to shrink them down to a palm-size.
She was a sizer, and she could resize someone or something within her thought. Despite being twins, Mimi and Momo got separate thoughts when they were classified. However, they both got a humongous thought size. They were dangerous when they were to utilize their thoughts together to their advantage.
Sir picked and put the prisoners inside a cigarette case, which must have been the cursed item, and put it in his right pocket like it was just some coins or bills.
"Alright, I'll leave the rest to all of you." Sir turned around and shot out a thought, and then said something that came out docile but sounded like a warning: "And, please, no children's quarrel."
Then he vanished.
I wondered if the prisoners would revert to their original sizes since they were already outside Mimi's thought. Orange margin thoughts were really a mystery.
"So?" weak-ass slasher started. I didn't like how stupid he sounded. If only he could stop breathing.
"Of course, we'll go right away. The sooner, the better," I groaned.
"Nah, you're just after Master's appreciation, aren't you?" he mocked.
Our controller went in between us as soon as we started another staring contest.
"I'm not even gonna try to tell you anymore on what you should do." Our controller sighed and looked at the twins. "Now, before we go, I packed something for you, Mimi and Momo. I didn't tell you about this at the beach because I wanted to show Sir how mindful I am when I give it to the two of you in front of him. But he already went, so I'll just hand it out now."
I forgot that she had a huge crush on Sir. She always got in trouble with her adviser about how she always went around the school to get his attention. Well, it wouldn't be much of a problem now since her adviser was being transported to Master.
The twins rushed to the backpack our controller placed at the foot of a coconut-looking tree and joyfully unzipped it. They turned it upside down and shook the contents out of the bag. They fell on the ground with a silent thump.
"Boring," weak-ass slasher commented.
Different limbs of the passengers and crew members we had massacred lay on the grassy soil. The twins were overjoyed by this: they hopped around the bloody limbs like they were offering a dance rite.
I approached our controller cautiously and asked, "Hey, it's unnecessary to let them create an army to kill the remaining subjects. I can just solely ki—"
"Enough with that. You always do things on your own. Why don't you rely more on us? It's not like you're the only member of the Young Bloods."
"Let him be, Priscilla. It's not like he would actually do it after Sir had warned us. Or would you?" weak-ass slasher asked.
"I know, Joseph. He just needs to be told again and again for him to understand it," our controller replied.
I grimaced and tried my best to be calm. "Let's go. We can't afford to waste more time here."
"Wait, we're going to—"
"—try out one first."
Before we could turn and look at what they were going to do, Momo had already initiated a thought, and then she grabbed one bloody limb from the ground. It was a thin arm with a golden wristwatch. I knew for certain it was teacher Blanch.
She held the arm for a moment and uttered some gibberish words. One of the things I hated about summoners was the way they used their thoughts: they always uttered words like how wizards and witches would do when casting a spell. I found it cringe-worthy, to be honest.
She opened her eyelids wide and threw the limb into the air, then—WHOOZ! It was devoured by a magical circle up in the air, and another one appeared on the ground where teacher Blanch popped out whole and new. One thing she had now that she didn't have before was an eye mark—like that of an Illuminati, just a tad different—on her left arm, indicating that it was her true flesh that Momo used to summon her. Summoners could only summon living creatures using a part of their bodies as long as it was not hair, bodily liquid, nor wastes like blood, sweat, saliva, etc. The larger the part, the sooner the summoner could summon.
Here was the crazy part: summoning was already a scary thing, but what if you could make it a giant? Mimi then came in and initiated her thought. With just one hand, she lightly touched teacher Blanch, who gradually grew bigger up until the roof of her thought.
And that was how you would create a freaking giant. I could only imagine how it would look like if they would be able to summon the rest of the limbs and create an army of giants. That was what made them terrifyingly strong.
However, it was hard for the two of them since they needed to maintain their thought for teacher Blanch to keep on existing. As long as she was inside their thoughts, she would not go back to her original size nor vanish. It went without saying that they could summon and resize every limb inside the bag; however, it would be taxing for them—it would tire them for about the next five days.
"Woah, that's amazing. Would you be able to maintain your thoughts if you'd do the rest of the limbs there?" weak-ass slasher breathed.
"Not without Marjorie, but—"
"—we will manage somehow."
And then another thing happened. Momo and Mimi's thoughts were still active, but teacher Blanch turned to mist in an instant. It only meant one thing. The unsatisfied and annoyed look that the twins gave the stranger, who was now walking toward us after hiding from a bush, was something that gave me an idea as to who it was. Damn him, I wasn't even paying attention in perceiving his thought that overlapped the twins'.
"Look who we got here," weak-ass slasher breathed again.
"Oh, finally, you came back! Did you kill them?" our controller asked. She glared at him.
"No, he didn't—"
"—in fact, he helped them."
Our controller kept her glare and said, "I could have killed them at that time. I thought you were still keeping your guise because you silenced me. I won't forget it, remember that."
Finlay averted his gaze and threw a grimace. "I'm linked."
There was a momentary pause before Joseph guffawed. Priscilla stifled a laugh from the corner, and the twins rolled on the ground, holding their stomachs. I didn't react. Finlay blushed and just sat on the grass, and then he told us that he had escaped from the north hillside of the silent falls.
Now, that confirmed where they were. They must have reached the hotel already.
They continued blabbering things I didn't give a damn. I walked to the slab of stone Sir had sat on earlier and found out a stick of cigarette. I picked it up and pulled my lighter in my pocket. Marlboro was something that I didn't like, but since it was from Sir, I could surely take it. I puffed some smoke and thought of my uncle.
He was the only relative I knew that still reached out to me even after I got orphaned and adopted. He was a loving and sincere person even with how lazy he was whenever he was around, and I didn't find it a bother, to be honest.
However, for Master, he needed to die. That was the humblest thing that I could do for him in return.