Back in the stadium, safe from all the monsters that lurked through the seemingly deserted hallways; Zatch had been watching his idiotic best friend endure the horrors of the game with the girl who accompanied him. For now, the girl remained a mystery for she was no ordinary player, Phantom Dancer or not. There was something about her that stood out, something that’s not defined by strength or wisdom, something that’s not clear to even Zatch yet. It was concealed, just like her emotions, away from prying eyes such as himself.

She was, as he expected, not an extraordinary player in comparison with the rising star prodigy. In fact, her technique of diverting the monster’s attention and using it along with her lack of presence to her advantage was, almost to close at nothing. In actuality, anyone who has a keen mind such as Titania, could even do something like that, maybe... The technique she uses was something short of self defence.

Although when she used it with Arma, it did seem impressive. Though, it was clearly not enough to create massive destruction and great counterattacks. It was merely luck and several circus tricks that helped them on the way. On the contrary, she had made Arma look far better than he actually is. Even Arma, his best friend had some hidden talent inside of him. Zatch had known this ever since they were engulfed in the world of combat. However, with his reluctance to accept his powers and him being neglected by almost everyone, he hasn’t been able to nurture it within.  

Nonetheless, Zatch still had an unsettling feeling on his chest that wore him down. Though he had yet to know what it is and decipher it. All he knew was that the girl, Zessica wasn’t in the question alone, Arma was too. What more can Arma do with those powers in his hands when it reaches to full throttle? What was it that always made him stand out more than he is pleased with? Was it the talent that was concealed inside of him? How did he become like that in the first place and why?

Who...exactly is Armageddon now?

Back at the present, for both of Arma and Zessica to be trapped at that point with the dead lady underground, it was as if Arma’s well known misfortune had been rubbed off on the girl. Or was it the other way around considering that she is, a Child of Misfortune?

“....... Zatch? Earth to Zatch? Hello? Anybody in there?” Zatch blinked against the source that interrupted his chain of thoughts, Stabs. The teenage guy was by then waving his hand over Zatch’s face, trying to get his attention back to whatever he was thinking. When Zatch finally came to, he gave Stabs his signature sinister smile with a light sneer.

“Hmm? Yes?” Zatch immediately asked.

“Do you think Arma can handle this? I mean... he won’t stop coming to the games after this will he?” Stabs asked back, his face full of worry. There were concern in his navy blue eyes and lines were drawn along his forehead from uneasiness. Zatch could only stare at him with a rather amused and puzzled face.

“Now what made you say that?”

“Umm...Zatch...he might be right about that...” Phoenix added, nodding her head towards one part of the force field to which revealed the struggles of Arma and Zessica together. Zatch reeled his attention from his two comrades towards the force field as well. At first he didn’t know what the big deal was till he caught on something that made the hair at the back of his neck to rise.

“Oh... shoot...”

***

Back in the game, some moment earlier, Arma was paralysed to the core once more. His body felt groggy and the left side of his head throbbed strongly in pain. He sat there with his elbows propped, staring back at the empty eye sockets of the dead skeleton lady in front of him. It stared back, cocking its head in curiosity.

Arma had long since held his breathe, waiting for the blunt of the force to come and claim the lives of him and the girl who stood by his side till now. Be that as it may, all it left was Arma being breathless and perplexed when the blow didn’t come. It continued to gape at him, as if it’s taking too much time to think of how to proceed from there.

The tall lad then took a glimpse of the tiny girl, her eyes transfixed on the monster before her. She didn’t move or even twitched a muscle during the whole silent phase of time. Had she turned into stone or something along that line?

Daring to be bold, he placed a gentle grip on the girl’s shoulder which surprised him when she didn’t even flinch. All the same he still had his eyes spellbound by the monster as he shook the girl’s shoulder gently, hoping that would shake her off whatever hypnosis she was undergoing.

“Zessi-

He was cut short when the girl fixed her focus to him, one finger placed on her lips while hushing him quietly. Arma instantaneously shut his mouth; biting his tongue in the process though didn’t let out a squeak of pain as he did so. He stared back at her with bewildered eyes that demanded an explanation.

“Don’t speak louder than a whisper or it will break” Zessica requested softly, her voice hushed. In return, Arma frown in confusion.

“What will break?” Arma asked quietly to which the girl pointed towards the monster.

At first, he didn’t know what she meant by how the monster will break. Wouldn’t that make it easy if it break if they use voices louder than a whisper? As he changed his angle of vision to get a better look at the monster, he registered a brief flash of white light before it disappeared again.

“Wha... What did you do Zessica?” Arma asked, his eyes straining to get a closer look at whatever the cause of the flash of light was.

“It’s a simple illusion plane. See?” She pointed up to wards the ceiling, slowly drawing a rectangle shape with her finger in the air. Arma tilted his head again, once more registering a brief flash of white light. By then, he could make out the thin transparent plane that was placed in between the monster and them.

“Right now this... lady here is seeing the wall and debris but not us while we can see her from behind this plane. Though for some reason she had been standing there and staring at it. I fear that she might be getting on to us and this illusion plane can’t hold off for a long time.” Zessica explained gently while Arma stared at the gawking corpse.

“How long can it hold for now?” Arma asked, remembering to lower his voice while turning his attention to the girl. Zessica, once again took some time pondering on how to answer. It took her at least a good minute for her to reply which was an excruciating minute Arma had to endure from anxiety.

“About five minutes in the least.” Arma nodded absentmindedly. That meant they had only five minutes to plan and commence forth from there. Once the illusionary plane disappears, they would be exposed to the corpse right in front of them and he wasn’t sure that the skeleton lady would let them off without a fight. Their main objective was to avoid that so that it wouldn’t drain most of their energy and finish the wretched game.

“Got any ideas?” Arma whispered, his mind coming up blank.

“Sadly no... It is not within my ability to strike down this monster. The only think we can do is to get that door open but how to accomplish that when the door is locked? Those boulders doesn’t help when they are blocking our only means of escape as well...I am afraid we will have to fight our way out on this one...” Zessica answered back, her last sentence out of reluctance. Arma could only growl lowly in frustration when an idea struck him.

“How much longer?” Arma asked, inclining the plane she was holding up for them.

“Around two minutes now...”

“Okay, once this plane of yours disappears, I’ll go haul myself at it and you... do whatever you do with your telekinesis. Use the lighter boulders and try to knock it out to the point that it’ll need its bones rearranged.” Zessica nodded thoughtfully before fixing her attention back towards the monster again.

“Understood. One minute now...”

Arma sat still, taking deep breathes as the time ticked by. He was feeling nervous and excited at the same time. Most of it nervous though. If he failed, he would bring both Zessica and him to the disqualified group. If it hadn’t been for the girl he wouldn’t had minded going there. However, since she was here, he didn’t want to ruin her fun so of course he will have to stay if it means they both have to survive through the game together.

However, fate seemed to be against him when he once again registered a brief white light flashing across the screen. It lasted barely for a second but it was enough for Arma to spot his reflection against the flat plane. He hadn’t meant to look at his reflection but then it was too late.

The tall lad felt something pulse inside of him, and he knew too well it wasn’t his heart. He felt his eyes lose focus and his body stiffen against the wave of strong pulses that washed over him. His own heart started pulsing furiously at the rate of a humming bird’s wing at flight.

“Arma?” He heard the girl speak as he lost track of sight. She had noticed the slight shift in the atmosphere and gently shook Arma. It was the tall lad’s turn to fall under the spell of heavy hypnosis for no amount of force Zessica use to shake him was enough to return him back to reality. It was right at that moment, when Zatch saw what was going on in the force field and felt uneasy. By the time Zessica had estimated that ten seconds remaining for the plane to disappear, Arma reacted.

The tall lad stood up abruptly, poising himself to attack with one hand retracted back to a clenched fist.  Zessica watched imperturbably as he launched himself forward, shattering the plane to a million of pieces before punching the corpse at the navel with all the force he could muster.

If this was any regular punch, the corpse might have been thrown back only to get up to fight again. However at that time, Arma had charged his fist with electrical energy which the voltage increased significantly with momentum. The jab had landed and the electric energy went through the corpse, right to the back, leaving the corpse helpless but to stand and endure. A huge light blue beam of energy thrust out of the corpse’s back and struck the boulders behind it, leaving a mini explosion with bits of stones flying about everywhere.

The corpse lady had her jaw hung ajar against the brute of the force. With smoke puffing out of its empty sockets, nose and jaw and its whole body crackling with light blue electricity, it almost looked funny. The back of its exquisite dress was completely ruined with burns and tears of fabric. All of the ribs were annihilated along with the shoulders that made both arms to fall off of its hinges. Almost completely decapitated, what the corpse did next was completely comprehendible and logical. It let its knees buckle away from her and fall limp on the floor and become immobilised.

Arma stood alone in the area, staring at the corpse with lifeless grey eyes. Most of his body was covered with desperate blurs of smoke due to the intensive high voltage electricity and the energy beam.  He continued to stare impassively on the corpse, raising his foot to crush its skull and thoroughly destroy it to the core.

“Armageddon?” Zessica called out curiously. Her voice made him snap out of his trance and come back to reality. The life in his eyes returned and all that was left was his mind being disoriented at the moment. He scanned the room gradually, as if trying to recall where he was. When he settled his eyes on the corpse under his feet, then to Zessica who was still seated in their hiding space, the memory of what he did just then came rushing back.

Arma’s eyes widened in horror as he fell back and backpedalled away from both the girl and the corpse. He had done it once again! And even worse, he had made it so that the girl personally witnessed it with her own two eyes. He saw her boring her wide emerald eyes at him, both full of questions. He quickly averted his gaze away, staring at the ground instead while clutching his head tightly, almost yanking his brunette hair out. More than anything, as ironic as it sounds, he wanted to badly disappear.

He didn’t notice when the girl stood up groggily and made her way towards him. He didn’t notice when she squatted down and resumed gazing at him as well. He was too preoccupied with the desire of vanishing to thin air that he couldn’t hear the girl calling out at him several times before something snapped. As he continued to sulk and mope in the battle that was going inside of him, he didn’t take consideration when the girl gently lifted his chin, forcing him to look at her. Her eyes as usual bore no single emotion but what she did next, was one of the few last things he certainly did not expect her to do.

She took a deep breath before tilting her head back.

“Get a...” With that muttered under her breathe, with all the strength she could accumulate, she swiftly slammed her forehead on to Arma’s, head-butting him while almost bellowing out,

“Hold of yourself!!!”

 It was so sudden and came out completely unexpected, Arma cried out with a mixture of disbelief and pain. He let go of his hands from his head and leaned backwards from the force. He watched in aghast as she leaned back from the blunt hit too, roughly bouncing back and clutching her forehead which was now smeared red. He could hear her whining softly in pain in a polite manner while he sat there, trying to process what had happened a while ago. Zessica looked at him with one eye closed and took notice of his bewildered expression.

“Ah, I finally got your attention. For a while I thought your mind travel to Mars or something.” Zessica spoke, rubbing her sore forehead lightly while Arma continued to stare at her with a mystified expression. Zessica blinked back, her bottom lip partially puckered out in innocence.

“What? Is a bruise already forming on my forehead as we speak?”

“...E-eh? Ah! No no no no! Well maybe it’s a bit red but hopefully there won’t be bruises...I hope...hehehe...” Arma trailed off awkwardly while laughing a bit nervously. His eyes were still wide from shock. He rubbed his own forehead, wincing only slightly at the pain that was throbbing there.

“Well that proves it...She really head-butted me...” Arma thought quietly.

“Ah... good to know” Zessica simply stated. Arma could only shrug awkwardly. The shock still hasn’t worn off him yet. The surprise attack had left him blank and nothing came to mind when he thought of anyway to start a light conversation and get going with the game. However, Zessica, may God Bless her soul spoke first. Although, once again it was something that Arma did not see it coming.

“If you don’t mind me asking, could it be that...you...can’t control your Major?” For the second time that day, Arma would have sworn he heard cricket noises somewhere in the distance again. The tall lad was at loss for words. How was she able to deduce all that accurately when she only saw it personally once?! Why was she that good with reading him like as if he was an open book? Seeing that he couldn’t reply, the short girl simply nodded to herself.

“So that’s how it is isn’t it? I have been meaning to ask... What exactly is your Major?” Arma took some time to process what she said, repeating her question in his mind till it seemed like he was chanting it mentally. Before replying back, he sighed. It’s not like he can escape from this situation, especially with this girl.

“Mirror Clairvoyance...” Zessica sat crossed legged again, inching herself closer to Arma with her head leaning towards, eager to listen. This action mildly surprised Arma, for he never had someone other than the other three idiots to listen to him. It still felt peculiar but that didn’t matter anymore. All he knew was he was grateful that there was still someone out there who saw the true person he was within.

“Basically, when I see a mirror- no actually, my reflection... I sort of predict the future...” Arma trailed off. Zessica simply nodded, proving she was listening to every single word that had to be said. She inclined him to continue. Arma took a deep breath to calm down his nerves and resumed talking.

“Though it’s not like those pleasant types, like you’ll win a lottery ticket or you will have a free coupon for something...What I see is...calamities. Chaos. Death that are soon to occur in the most grotesque fashion...” By then Arma was shaking. Memories of his days where he was still learning to control his ability haunting in his mind. It had caused him so much fear; Arma had eliminated all the mirrors and any object that showed his reflection from his house. Closing his eyes tightly he briskly swished them away from his mind as he continued.

“When I see those futures, I get these random powers. Be it Electric or Fire. Once I had bird’s eye view as well. It different every single time I see a chaotic future and I can’t stop reacting to it. It’s like my body moves on its own, as if I am being possessed. It simply beyond my control” Arma finished gently, staring down on his huge hands. These hands had destroyed so many things in the past. Objects, people, hopes and dreams. It didn’t take him long to find out he was a monster.

“Arma... look at me...” Zessica gently spoke to which Arma slowly glanced up. He stopped to find her emerald eyes having a tiny hint of what could only be care.

“It’s okay... It’s not your fault. No one can blame you for not being able to control your powers. I think if they had a power like that... they would be just as much scared of it as you are right now...” Arma stared briefly at Zessica before smiling amusedly at her. He did feel a bit pathetic though. For a big guy like him comforted by a small girl like her, now that was indeed embarrassing for any guy’s ego.

“Thanks... That means a lot to me...” Arma watched as she glanced at him, her impassive face breaking into several emotions at once. It was as if she was deciding whether or not to smile back at him and whether she should add something. However, as time stretched on, she was back to her old stern look again. Her emotions were once more, locked deep within her heart.

“Anyway,” Zessica stood up swiftly to which Arma tilted his head back to keep his gaze even with her.

“Let’s get going. I lost the track of time so I can estimate that we got only one more hour left.” She offered her hand as she said this. Arma took it after smiling in amusement as she pulled him up. He stood up awkwardly beside the tall girl, almost looming over her. Zessica had to even step back a few feet from him to even look at his face for her neck was getting sore from always craning it up at him.

“What about the door? It’s locked isn’t it?” Arma asked, suddenly panicking inside. Their access to the stairs was blocked by the boulders meaning they were stuck there. Were they going to stay there for one hour till the time buzzer sounds?

“I thought about that when you were... well...taking a nap.”

“Oh haha very funny Zessica.” Arma added sarcastically, rolling his eyes at her sense of humour. The short girl merely shrugged as if to imply that she had no other ways of describing the moment he blacked out. He watched as she walked towards the dungeon area and almost gaped when she squatted down and reached her hand out through the bars.

“What are you doing?” Arma hissed, not liking the idea of touching those very skeletons in the least.

“Don’t you remember? The key to escape is in the hands of an innocent?” Zessica simply stated. It took Arma several moments of silence to catch on and he felt more of an idiot for wasting so much time to even process that simple statement. He quickly came to her side, squatting down beside her as she tried to reach the youngest dead slave. Unfortunately, with her short stature, that was deemed impossible for her.

“Let me do that for you... just tell me where it is” Arma spoke confidently with a matter of fact voice. Zessica nodded in agreement and pointed to the wrist of the child. Arma extend his right arm through the bars, lifting the corpse’s wrist gently while suppressing disgust and a pang of guilt that soon followed after. Underneath the child’s hand was an object that was too dark for him to catch on what it was. It was when he took it out and retracted his hand; he felt the rough surface of the key that was held in his hand.

That’s when Zessica stood up suddenly and made her way towards something. He watched her suddenly crouch down, her back against him. Curious to what she was doing, Arma stood up from where he was and slowly inched his way closer to the short girl. Tilting his head to a side to get a better view of what she was doing, Arma saw the girl swipe her index finger to nothing but thin air. A small window popped out with the words ‘inventory’ flashing green. He noticed that she had several things in her inventory and she selected one that seemed like a small statue.

The short girl then raised her hands lightly, as if she was receiving something. Soon, her bare hands were showered with a bright glowing white light which soon dimmed. In its place, a statue of a small angel was sitting steadily on her small hands. Arma watched in an astonished expression as Zessica placed the angel statue on the ground, in the center of a small source of light that was flooding through the ceiling that was now full of holes.

“So, let’s go” Zessica spoke suddenly, standing up and looking up at him. Arma simply blinked and stared at the small statue. As if reading his mind, Zessica fished out the damp paper again and handed it over to him. Still confused, he took the paper and unfolded it gently. The last time he checked her task list they had cut one of the sentences.

Now, there were two.

Arma swiftly read the second one that was cut. The part where ‘angels will bask in God’s warmth’ was neatly split into two with a line drawn in the middle. The tall lad could only snicker with a hint of hysteria at the irony of it all.

Wasting no time at all, they made their way past the boulders; often causing Arma to lift the girl from several large boulders she couldn’t climb over much to Zessica’s liking. As they stood before the black door, Arma noticed the knocker for the first time. It was a gold panther with a golden ring hung around its wide jaw. Shrugging the peculiar knocker off his mind, he lightly fitted the key into the keyhole and gave a small sigh of relief when it fitted. Taking one deep breath and praying for success, he turned the key to the right and heard a soft click. On cue, the door pulled open slightly and another window popped out. This time, it was for Arma.

Congratulations! You finished your tasks! Now onward and escape!

“Well jee... that’s motivating...” Arma remarked sarcastically, rubbing his knuckles to prevent himself from punching through the screen to satisfy all the stress he had went through. Fortunately, Zessica swiped the screen away impressively, both elegant eyebrows rose towards him. She must have been wondering why Arma became sarcastic but didn’t press on that issue.

As they went forward up the flight of stairs, Arma tried to have some small conversation with the girl again, trying to lighten the mood. There were echoes of random monsters growl that drifted towards where they were, making it impossible to pinpoint the exact location of where the corpses were lurking about.

Even though the chat was brief when they set foot to one room, Arma learned something new. The headphones she was wearing till now, she did went back home to fetch those. When the tall lad asked why, she simply answered back that she had a hunch that she would need it and thought it wouldn’t hurt to bring it. She even had music blasting through the ears but not loud enough where she couldn’t hear him talking. She had also taken part in several games but to no one’s surprise, she didn’t quite stand out much and ended up barely passing in each game. However most of the time she simply lost due to her disabilities.

The first thing they saw was a huge book shelf that was stationed right before them. What struck both of them odd was a few feet in front of the book shelf was a tiny gargoyle, its small grey stone body hunched over that it was on all fours. It had the most grotesque face Arma ever seen. On the side walls were another bookshelves.

Beside the right bookshelf had what seemed like a small tea-party. There was a small pink table with four chairs. These chairs were occupied with rag dolls that had creepy smiles woven on their faces. They almost looked real kids.  On the table, where they should have been a teapot and several tea cups, was none other than empty and vacant. 

“Well what did you know? This was like hitting two birds with one tin can” Zessica mused. Arma stiffen, knowing all too well she had said it wrong but what had she meant by that?

As if to prove her point, she strolled towards the gargoyle, opening her inventory in the process. There was a small ball of white light and Arma observed her placing a small daisy on top of the gargoyle’s head. Then she walked towards the table, having another wave of light in her hands as she placed what looked like a huge dictionary.

After making sure they were in place correctly, she took the piece of paper from her pocket again and peeked into it. She then showed it up to the tall lad as he caught two other lines being cut magically out of thin air. The one that was ‘assist the ugly to achieve beauty’ and ‘children will obtain wisdom’ was fulfilled, leaving only one more task left for her to accomplish.

‘zealous ruler to guide it from his throne’

Noting that there was a door at the top left corner of the room, both players started walking again. As they passed from one room to another Arma couldn’t help but ask something that had been nagging him for a while. It had started out as a small itch back in the dungeon area but after they left the room that had a gargoyle and rag dolls; that single itch became a pest. It clawed through his brain and was persist to annoy him.

“Don’t you find this strange? Like with both of our tasks. It’s almost like its put together to create one whole task. Know what I mean?” Arma asked awkwardly, realising halfway he couldn’t explain the feeling that was haunting him for a while. Much to his relief, Zessica nodded.

“Yea it does seem like that. It is as if the AI had want two players to meet and work together... If only Titania had found my task then it would have made things much easier to you wouldn’t it?”

Arma stiffened immediately when he heard the idol’s name spoken through Zessica’s lips. It took him a moment to catch the hidden meaning behind ‘much easier’. Once he did, he wished he hadn’t for as soon as he did, his face turned beetroot red and butterflies were fluttering in his chest.

“W-What d-did you my- mean by that?!” Arma reacted loudly, catching himself from finding his fist full of Zessica’s shirt, something he often did with Phoenix. Zessica simply raised both eyebrows nonchalantly with faked innocence.

“You know what exactly I meant. Don’t tell me you forgot what we shook on?” Arma opened his mouth to counter her words when all it came was a blank screech. It occurred to him he didn’t know what to back him up from the tiny girl who was going to confess his deal with her in public. Speaking of public, he looked around to find the floating orb that had them on their tracks. Arma wanted to give him some credit for it still stuck with them till now. Though he wished that it was anywhere but the place they were in right now, catching on the words that were passed between them.

Zessica seemed to get the message from his nervous and panicky expression and didn’t pursue the subject later on. The next room they stepped in was a magnificent one. It was a huge bedroom that could only fit a king. There was a huge crystal chandelier that was hung from above that sparked around the room and the floor was carpeted with red. There were two bedside tables with one lamp standing on each. A large bookshelf filled with histories of the former owner’s ancestors was sealed at the bottom left corner of the room and there was a desk that was placed in front of the two players, just beside the bed.

And the chair! It was a work of art. It was one of those huge chairs that were fit into those Arma could recall as thrones. It had a passionate red leather seats and golden arms and legs. White and black spotted furs were on the edges of the seat where the person could rest their back at.

At the corner of his eyes, he saw Zessica’s hands glowing white again and dimming with a chess piece that represented the king. Leisurely, she walked up towards the chair, turning it around in a way that faced her and placed the chess piece on it. No sooner as she did that, a small window screen popped out of the blue, spelling her victory of accomplishing all of her tasks.

“Well, I guess its escape time huh?” Arma spoke as Zessica swiped the screen to thin air. She merely nodded at his statement but when she turned around, Arma saw her stiffen. Her emerald eyes were somewhat wide, not enough to be surprised but it was still wider than usual. They were not resting on him; they were settled on what laid behind the tall lad. Arma then felt the cold needles pricking down at the back of his neck and the stench of stink as he laughed nervously.

“There’s...There’s a dead person behind me right?” Arma spoke, his voice surprisingly not shaking from the intensive nerves. As a reply, Zessica raised both eyebrows that almost disappeared at her ivory fringe of hair, as if she had nothing else to say. There was a loud gruff and Arma was soon overwhelmed with nausea at the foul smell that drifted to him from behind.

“Does anyone in this mansion have ever brushed their teeth?” Arma wondered wildly. As the next growl occurred, as if it was trying to get his attention, the tall lad dashed forward. He grabbed the short girl by her waist to her surprise and fled towards the next room.

“Heads up, dead butler hot on your heels at six o’clock” Zessica calmly pointed out as he burst through another door with a loud grunt. It amazed him that the tiny girl was comfortable with her being carried under his arm. The least he expected was a small whine from her or the girl politely asking him to let her down. As he made a sharp turn to the right, he saw the structure of the room suddenly go wireframe and back to three dimension again. The sudden change in surrounding surprised him so much, he halted to a stop.

“Arma? Is this a good time to point out we have two other dead maids that joined our little race?” Zessica’s question sent him setting off again to the point that even Sonic the hedgehog would have been jealous. Part of his incredible speed was his Major, which he hadn’t completely activated it due to him not being able to think rationally.

Arma must have run for hours for he can slowly feel his speed dropping. It was when he charged through a door that was nothing against his speed and when he sprinted up a flight of stairs which wasn’t in an open area, he heard Zessica calling out his name.

“H-huh? What?” Arma spoke out dazedly, stopping his running spree for a moment.

“I said please put me down... They are very far behind” Zessica spoke, her voice almost melancholic that Arma immediately knew something was up. He gently placed the girl down, a few steps above him so that her gaze was level with his. He knew he was right when he saw her face that had concealed her emotions. However, this time, there was a cold pressure spreading around her, unlike the warm and pleasant one that had been there earlier.

“What’s wrong?” Arma asked instantly. Zessica merely stared at her shoes, suddenly interested in them. Though, she did reply but it was not what Arma wanted to hear, especially from her.

“...Leave me behind and go... There isn’t much time left and the game is slowly disintegrating due to the time limit... Go win this game along with the others.”

“What? Why? Why should I leave you here alone with those creeps?!” Arma immediately cried out in exclamation. What he heard just then was beyond ridiculous. What had encouraged her to say something like that? Why would she want to stay back?

“Because I slow you down... Just hurry up and go... we don’t have much time left” After she mentioned this, the whole structure became wire framed once more, shrieking lightly before going back to three dimension again. Several stones started raining down on them.

“That’s not an answer Zessica” Arma said sternly, rooting his feet on the ground like a stubborn child. He was not going to let her stay there alone with the monsters till he gets a better answer than what she had claimed.

“Fine, I guess it’s not. Then would this be sufficient? I am not an amazing player as you are. Radiating in the center of the light is not where players like me belong. I am simply a player that helps and guides them to victory and the part where I slow you down is true. You could have already sped off and pop out of this game already by then if you hadn’t been carrying a freeloader like me”

Arma stood still with silence, absorbing her answer slowly. It was difficult to tell what he was feeling for his eyes were shadowed with his messy brunette hair. Zessica could have figured it out if she wasn’t too busy preoccupied with the about to collapse staircase she was on. Something inside of the tall lad snapped as he forced the girl by her chin to stare at him.

It was evident that this had caught her off guard as her eyes were widened in shock and her emotions were completely bare. Tilting his head back, he roughly brought his forehead against hers; head-butting her like how she did it with him earlier as if in revenge. Zessica could only yelp in surprise and fall back to roughly. She instantly rubbed her sore forehead and stared at the towering giant before her with bewilderment.

“I can’t believe you actually said that! When did I ever say that you are a freeloader?! So you can’t be in the light, big deal! It’s not like you and I even want to in the start right?! And who told you that you are slowing me down?! If it weren’t for you I still would have been stuck down there entertaining those creeps like the fool I am!!”

Arma could tell he was completely riled up and his face was purple from rage. He had just uttered all out this out without taking another breathe and soon he was rasping for air. Coughing lightly, he took note of the girl’s expression, which was still wide eyed with surprise and gawking at him. It was when he noticed the slight blue bump in the middle of her forehead that all the ferocity he had held within deflated like a punctured balloon.

“A-ah! Sorry! I didn’t mean to hit you that hard! Ooooh... That must have hurt. Oh God, Zessica I am very sorry!” By then she was still ogling him with an astonished expression. After a brief moment of silence with imaginary cricket noises in the distance, she finally snapped out of her daydream, rubbing her throbbing forehead thoughtfully.

“It’s okay. I deserved that. Sometimes I can be hard-headed and need a hard bump to get it through me” After she said this, Arma could have sworn she gave him what seemed like a faint trace of an amused smile. It was the first time he had ever seen her smile and he could feel his stomach doing some odd flips. It was like the excitement of seeing the fireworks for the first time, that kind of flips.

However, their moment was soon short-lived when the structure became wireframe again, shrieking longer than usual and several growls drifting from behind. Arma instinctively looked back and mentally groaned at the army of zombies below them. The prophecy of the Zombie Apocalypse had become true. Who would have thought it would occur in the form of a virtual game?

Know then would be a good time to fly, Arma tried to activate his Minor. To his dismay, he found his Minor fluctuating along with the shrieking surroundings. It didn’t co operate with him and the blade like holographic wings that was supposed to appear didn’t materialise.

“Why? Why now?” Arma grunted loudly, gradually stepping up the stairs as the creeps slowly inched up.

“Could it be because you are nervous and panicking like a clucking hen?” Zessica asked, not in the least bit frightened by the sudden grave situation they were in. Arma swore silently she was tons of times braver than any other players he had witnessed in Hallway of Horrors. Just how did she manage to keep a straight face to every monster they bumped into? And how dare she call him a clucking hen!

“Hey Arma? I got an idea...but you got to trust me on this.” Arma instantly turned around, gesturing her to continue since he was all ears for any bizarre plan she had. It couldn’t be any worse than being charged of the final wave of zombies now could it?

“Well, it doesn’t mean anything so don’t get your hopes up. Looks like I’ll be stealing your first...” Zessica continued, half of her attention on the wave behind them. Arma stared at her with a puzzled expression, trying to decipher what she was saying. It was like she was speaking some sort of secret code.

“If it makes you feel any better this is going to be my first too” Zessica added swiftly right after they took another step upwards. Arma opened his mouth to ask what the meaning of her words was when; Zessica surprised him by placing her hands on his broad shoulders firmly and locking her lips against his.

It happened so fast, everything became a blur. Instantly Arma’s mind became blank and a heat of innocence radiated from his cheeks. His eyes narrowed in shock and something inside of him pulsed loudly. It wasn’t his heart for it was beating against his ribcage furiously as if determined to break them. The pulsing sensation, it was something else. It was his Minor activating at its own free will.

Arma felt his back tingling lightly and something huge enveloped him in the shadows. His holographic wings took shape of what seemed like a huge flat jet with its grey-blue colour twinkling around the surroundings and flapping hurriedly like a humming bird. Soon, Arma could feel his feet rising from the crumbling staircase to the point he was hovering over it.

At that point, Zessica broke free from her sudden ambush and wrapped her arms around the tall lad, stunning him more in the process. Arma felt his mouth open and shut like a goldfish, still trying his best to process what had happened a while ago while unconsciously placing his arms around the girl’s waist as if in embrace. What the girl did next, was commanding politely one single word to which Arma understood perfectly then.

“...Fly”

***

Zatch and the other guys were struggling to find both the tall lad and the short girl. Ever since Arma grabbed the girl from the waist and sped off, the surveillance camera that tracked them had a difficult time catching up. For once, it lost track of sight of those two, only catching a brief blur of them at every corner.

However, above the stadium now had a flickering digital number counting down to announce the time that was left. What once was twenty minutes now became two. Everyone in the audience and the players could see that within the game, already the structure of it was collapsing down and hope for those who still hadn’t passed through the game were shaking violently.

“Grrr...What is that idiot doing?!” Phoenix yells, engulfing her surrounding with a ring of blazing red flames as she did so, surprising the ones who were a few feet away from her. Even though she would not admit it in public, she was more or less worried about Arma’s status.

“Calm down Phoenix” Stabs tried reassuring her while being a few feet away from the ring of fire himself.

“What can you expect him to do? Burst through the escape door like a bullet being fired?” As soon as Stabs mentioned this and right after Phoenix opened her mouth to argue, a small explosion occurred behind them. Everyone immediately reeled their attention to the escape door purely by reflex, wondering what could possibly make such a loud noise.

Several irregular objects spurted out of the unfortunate door and was sort of floating and falling in midair, several hundred feet from the stadium platform. It was hard to tell what those were since it was in the format of codes, bits and bytes, pulsing and crackling with neon blue lightning. Each individual had their eyes widened, straining their vision for what could possibly be those objects made out of codes.

After what seemed like five seconds later, these codes started growing in size and pulsing with lightning more rapidly. Two of the sizes grew more than the rest and it was forming to what seemed like an all too familiar shapes. Once these objects stopped sprouting as if it reached to its peak, the codes than slowly transformed into human skin and clothes, diffusing from the center of the objects to throughout their bodies, to which everyone gasped in surprise.

A startled Arma appeared once the code reached its final stage. There were several small boulders to accompany him along with the short limp body of an unconscious Zessica was falling with great speed towards her doom. Panicking once more, Arma instantly reached out his hand, grabbing her wrist and pulled her towards him. He wrapped his hand around the girl into a bear-hug before facing his back to the platform.

If anyone had strained their eyes hard enough, they could have made out the tall lad shutting his eyelids tightly, preparing for the pain that was soon to follow as he landed roughly on the floor.

Author's note: Check out 'The Test' by syrabite. Its amazing. Oh and don't forget to vote!