Chapter 1285: The Heaven Monolith Challenge

Author's Note: Unedited Chapter

However, the sharp outburst of intense dark energy only lasted a moment. It vanished as quickly as it appeared.

Gustav met Falco laying on ths bed peacefully with nearly nothing out of place within the room. The loud crash from the door getting kicked down had alerted the others who were now making their way towards Falco room ad well.

Gustav stepped forward and looked around but really couldn't find anything. Falco who was laying on the bed sleeping on the other hand had ropes of dark mist floating out of his mouth which was a bit ajar.

"What is this?" Gustav could barely sense Falco's presence despite standing before him.

It was almost like his existence was fickle. Gustav wondered if this would be the same for the others.

"Falco..." Gustav reached out to touch him.

"Wake u..." The moment his hand made contact with Falco's body he quickly retracted it.

"What the...." He stared at his hand after the retraction. A couple of fingers had webs of darkness climbing up like they were alive.

Cold... Deep and icy coldness...

This was what Gustav felt when he made contact with Falco's body. Falco's body looked absolutely normal except for the rope of darkness his slightly ajar mouth emitted, yet his body was extremely cold to touch and corrosive.

[Regeneration Has Been Activated]

Even with regeneration, it took more than a few seconds for the corrosive darkness to vanish from Gustav's fingertips.

"What is it!?"

"I heard the noise what happened?"

"Is Falco alright?"

Everyone was arriving together and could see Guatav standing before Falco's bed with a concerning look.

"Is he...?" Angy reached out to touch Falco.

Pah!

Gustav grabbed her hand before she could make contact with his skin.

"What is it?" She questioned.

"Don't touch him... his body is corrosive," Gustav answered.

Angy slowly retracted with a bothered look as well.

"Something is wrong with Falco... I don't know what it is but... I can tell it is serious," Gustav stated with a serious tone.

"Is his body only corrosive to the touch of living beings? His bed seems to still be okay," Aildris asked while farrowing his eyebrows despite his eyes still being closed.

"No... that is because..." Gustav slightly crouched as he reached out to touch the bed.

Fwwhwiii~

He pulled the bed from underneath Falco's body, sweeping it to the other side of the room.

"Woooaa..." E.E exclaimed as everyone stared at Falco's body levitating in place.

It turned out that Falco's body was floating less than an inch above the bed all this time so it was easy to think he was laying on it.

"What do we do now?"

"How do we figure out exactly what is wrong with him?"

E.E and Angy questioned in successions.

"Maybe we should try to wake him up," Teemee suggested.

"Falco!" Almost everyone began to yell his name at this point.

Some of them threw things at his levitating body while some conjured non lethal abilities to use on him.

No matter how much they tried, they were unable to wake Falco. Everything that came into contact with him corroded before their very eyes.

Gustav wasn't the only one that had issues sensing Falco's presence. For the others it was like Falco wasn't here at all. They could only confirm Falco's presence with their eyes but not their senses.

"This is serious... I think we should inform Grand Commander Shion," Aildris suggested.

There wasn't much they could do anyways since this predicament seemed to be too much for them right now. If things were normal Falco would have awoken since but this was obviously not in anyway normal.

While all of this was causing a ruckus, Gustav was unaware that Falco was currently in the process of accepting the crown because of him.

The voice had mimicked Gustav's appearance and showed up to Falco in a realistic dream earlier, advising him to accept the power of the crown. Everything had been extremely realistic as the voice had mirrored Gustav's character almost perfectly from Falco's memories.

Grand Commander Shion, Miss Aimee and the other MBO officers on Planet Ozious soon arrived at the accomodation area.

They had been briefed about the situation through communication channels but when they arrived, they realised that things were worse than they had expected. Not even Grand Commander Shion could touch Falco without suffering the corrosive effect.

Miss Aimee had to create something to move Falco in so he could be studied better in a place with proper equipments. At the moment, they had no idea what was wrong with him but Gustav already had his suspicions.

Time went by in a flash and the night before the next challenge arrived.

During the last two days, Gustav had spent his time trying to figure out what happened with Falco and what Endric was hiding from him.

Both endeavours ended up not being fruitful.

Falco had been in the same state for the last two days with everyone unable to figure out exactly what was wrong with him while Endric repeated the same thing about being unable to decipher if what he saw was for Gustav.

For Falco's situation, Gustav's major suspicion was linked to the crown he was supposed to accept. Still, despite the fact that he had this suspicion he really couldn't do anything.

Gustav felt extremely powerless at the moment and finally decided to tell Miss Aimee about what happened in Aribia city and how he felt it was linked to this.

"Are you saying that kid might not be a mixedblood?" Miss Aimee questioned after hearing Gustav narrate the occurences so far.

"I don't know but I feel he has a different identity like how the system and that other being Husarius says I'm the outworldly... whatever that means," Gustav responded while holding his chin.

"Hmm this is more complex than I expected... That crown, you said the kid would change if he accepted it, right?" Miss Aimee inquired.

"That is what his alter ego mentioned... although I don't think that was his alter ego now. I think he was there to protect him," Gustav replied.

"If the kid is truly in the process of accepting the crown like you think, there are only two options left," Miss Aimee voiced.

"Which are?" Gustav's eyes shone with curiosity.

"We either stop the process or we kill him," Miss Aimee stated with an undisturbed tone.

"I prefer the former to the latter," Gustav immediately pointed out.

"And what if the former doesn't work?" Miss Aimee asked.

"We'll keep trying I guess," Gustav voiced.

"No... If the former doesn't work we move yo the latter," Miss Aimee stated.

"Now now Miss Aimee, don't be like that. Let's just try to stop the process if it is ongoing," Gustav voiced with a pleading tone.

"Hmm... I'll reach out to an old friend with power mental abilities. They should be able to reach into the subconscious of the kid and find a way to help him," Miss Aimee came to a decision.

"Really? Phew~ That would be great," Gustav let out a breath of relief upon hearing that.

"I don't know how fast they can arrive on the planet so let's hope your friend doesn't become something else before that time. The moment he becomes a threat especially to you, I'll end him myself," Miss Aimee pointed out before turning around to leave.

"Miss Aimee... Thank you," Gustav voiced from behind.

She paused and slowly turned around with a beautiful smile on her face, "Anything for you,"

Thwwiwihhh~

Her figure blurred in the next instant and she vanished.

Gustav looked a little relieved after this conversation but he recalled something.

"Two days left on the timer... It's time I found out if these guys are linked to it," Gustav tapped on his left wrist in the next instant.

The dimensional bracelet beamed up and in the next few moments it emitted a flash of blue light and Gustav vanished.

#######

The next morning everyone was gathered in the arena once more.

Cheers~ Chatter! Cheers~

The entire place was noisy as usual with the millions of spectators gathered around this magnificent structured location.

The number of IYSOP participants had reduced to five thousand but the spectators were still as many as ever.

Handler One's podium rose once more as he prepared to address the entire arena. The place slowly quietened the moment he began speaking.

"The next major challenge will begin soon..." Handler One pointed at the screens which went on to display the wheel.

The wheel had only a few parts that were marked undone at this point so the spectators as well as participants could count with one hand the options left.

Zhrrriihhh~

The wheel began spinning and after a couple of moments, the arrow was positioned on the image of a tower of sorts.

"The Heaven Monolith Challenge," Handler One's voice reverberated across the arena.

"The heaven what now?" E.E eyebrows twitched as he voiced out.