Level-Up Apocalypse: Surviving With The Assimilation System

Chapter 32: The Embers In A Lightless World

'Why am I remembering that right now?' Finn thought, shaking his head as he came to.

The tragic sight of his bloodied friend approached slowly, carrying that slickened axe with lethal intentions. When Finn looked at him, and that distant, yet harrowing look embedded into those glossened eyes, the moment he reminisced chimed through his head.

["I could never live with myself if I became that kind of guy."]

Recalling the words said by his one and only friend in the fallen world, he moved just as the figure arrived and so did the axe.

He ducked down as the blade passed just over his head before sliding back, "---Hff! Come on, Damian! Just snap out of it already!" The pleads became more desperate.

There was no mercy behind the axe swung as the warrior believed himself to be fighting a cruel fiend, chopping it towards the young man's midsection, "--Get back!"

"Shit!--" Finn pushed the word out through his teeth as he stumbled back to avoid the edge.

It was becoming difficult to avoid the relentless assault by the deceived warrior; the enclosed area left little room to move around in and the wear on his body led him to be sluggish.

Finn called out again even if it was fruitless, "You don't want to be the kind of guy that kills, right? I don't want to be the kind of person that has to kill his own friend, either...Don't make me do this. Please."

The pointlessness of his own words was known to him even as they left his lips. He knew that the situation was only able to be resolved one way, bringing his eyes to well with tears and his lip to tremble.

It was that sinking, swirling feeling in his gut; the feeling that led to loss.

"Why did you tell me that?" Finn asked while shaking his head, pressing his face into the palms of his hands. "And why the hell did I promise you that?"

As the axe-bearing figure stumbled to him once again, this time, the young man did not back away nor simply allow himself to be attacked. Into his hand, he called upon his dagger, meeting eye-to-eye with the one who didn't even perceive his presence.

["It's not about wanting to live, or being scared of dying. All it came down to was, which of us would regret living the most? I had to answer that for both of us. In the end, I knew I could bottle it up, I could take the burden, but I knew that if it meant killing, he wouldn't want to live."]

As a heavy swing of the axe befell the assassin, Finn spun around, evading its visceral edge as he responded with his own. Through the stale, dark air, his dagger pierced before sinking dead center into the chest of his friend.

"Guh–" Damian stopped, spitting out both air and blood.

As he stood there with his nose just about pressing up to the steel-plated torso, his eyes glistened with tears as he felt the blade deep within the man's sternum. Hearing the gargles and desperate breaths from the one person he had in the apocalypse, he found his heart shattering.

"Finn...?" Damian spoke out as he dropped his axe.

As he heard his name called with a confused tone, finding his friend once again of sound mind, Finn let go of his blade, catching the warrior before he could fall back.

"Shit...So, that's what was going on...The monster I was fighting..." Damian strung together his words as blood seeped from his mouth, lightly clutching his chest. "You had to do it, then."

Finn scrambled as he knelt by the warrior's side, patting himself as he looked desperately for something, "The ambrosia...! If we can just find it, then–!"

"It's gone," Damian said.

"What? How?!" Finn exclaimed as his hope evaporated.

The lethally wounded man weakly pointed to the bodies, "I...I tried saving them. I thought they could still be saved. It was just...a lie."

"--" Finn could feel the guilt of the man, even in his moments of finality.

"Sorry, man," Damian said with a heartfelt sincerity.

"Why are you apologizing? I'm the one that–" Finn began to say as his expression scrunched with sorrow.

The wounded man had a peaceful look that seemed to accept his fate, shaking his head lightly, "You promised me you wouldn't let me take a life. You kept true to that...I made you do something awful, something nobody should have to do. Still, you're better suited for this world than me."

"You're wrong. It's because the world has gone to shit that it needs people like you to bring good to it," Finn responded.

That brought a small laugh from Damian, which resulted in hacking up more blood as he struggled to even breathe properly, "--Shit...It's getting real cold, man. Are you there?"

Even though he was still right beside the bleeding man, leaning right over him, Finn saw that his friend stared right past him, "I'm right here."

"Okay...good. It's so damn dark..." Damian said, clutching onto Finn's sleeve for stability.

Seeing the life fade from his friend left Finn unable to speak as his bottom lip quivered, feeling a tightness in his chest that he did not want to feel again. He clutched his friend's hand, feeling the grip returned from the larger hand of Damian growing weaker by the moment.

"You there, Finn?" Damian's voice came almost as a breath-filled whisper now.

Even though he clutched his hand, Finn witnessed the senses of his friend wither away almost completely now, "Yeah."

"You there? I can't see you. Where are you?" Damian asked, looking towards an unseen distance as he laid there in his own blood.

"I–" Finn began to say, though realized his voice would go unheard now.

Before he could try to speak again, he watched the quivering of the reliable friend of his end as did the grip on his hand completely loosen.

"Damian?" Finn softly called out with a tremble to his voice.

There was no response; no movement in those eyes that simply stared up. Realizing what this meant, the young man quietly wept, lowering his head as he sat there alone in the unforgiving darkness.

'Why did I have to choose? Why did I get to? I'm tired of this,' the thoughts filled his mind as sorrow engulfed him.

["Damian Hawkwell defeated."] ["Anarch Token x1000 obtained."]

[Experience Points: +50,000]

[Level twenty-one reached!] [800/18550]

[Assimilated ability from [Damian Hawkwell]: "Impervious"]

[Assimilated weapon from [Damian Hawkwell]: "Giant-Slayer Greataxe"]

[New Skill(s) Obtained: "Turn Shadow" | "Rune Trap" | "Dark Threads" | "Throwing Knife"]