"Matt? Matt, wake up...."

Pain and warmth were the only two things that the vice general could sense. Slowly he opened his eyes; two worried faces were looking at him, blocking the sunlight from reaching him.

"Wha..." A surge of pain stopped him from talking.

"Easy there, it’s ok. Most of your bones were broken due to the shockwave; fixing them all takes a few more minutes." A woman with golden eyes said with a shaky voice, drops of sweat were falling from her face.

Another man chimed in, "You might want to check your system meanwhile."

Matt the healer did her job as he read the message in his system; with each word, his stress increased.

Planet Earth and planet Pohn have entered the festival.

Soon the rules of the festivals will be announced.

Number of participants from Earth: 12459

Number of participants from Earth: 875793

Rules: The planet that extremists defeat their opponents wins.

Rewards: 100000 magical crystals decided between the winners.

First round: 11:00

"When was the last time a festival happened?" Matt asked with a weak voice.

"Six centuries ago, but this one is different. Whatever is inside of that boy caused it to start." The healer sat next to him. "It’s ok, you are good now."

"It’s not fucking ok, Shiva; there are seven of us and a million enemies and an entity behind our comprehension." The other man yelled, "Oh, we’re all so dead."

The vice general stood up; the pain was still there, but there was no place for him to show weakness. "Calm down. Tell others to gather everyone in the center of the town. Can I contact the headquarters?"

"Yeah, only living things can’t get in or out." Shiva said while he dragged the other man with him as he continued to curse. "Here, take my device."

Matt catches the small device midair, and finally he has the time to check his surroundings; there simply is nothing left. His clothes are torn apart too. Without his armor, he doubts that even he could survive that.

"This is Vice General Sun the stealer."

"This is Marshal." The words of the unknown person were enough for him to freeze in his place; Marshal’s existence was a mystery in itself, he asked himself before talking: "Just how bad is the situation?"

"At your service, sir."

"I will get to the point: we can’t attack from the outside, but we can send out artillery. We will send out our strongest nuke and gamma bombs. Soldier, I want you to kill everyone in that area."

"Sir, there are currently twelve thousand people in my hands."

After a few seconds of silence, the voice talked once more: "Twelve thousand or billions—that’s your choice."

With that, Matt’s lost all connection to the headquarters or outside world. The answer stood clear as day in front of him: "They want to kill that boy no matter what, and we are just sacrificial lambs."

"Father, what should I do?" Among the many screams around him, his own whisper crushed him to the ground. He didn’t know what to do. He just stood there, staring at the sky, watching the sun.

"I don’t even know a single person in this city ... Why should I care?" Yet sometimes deep within him, it went against his decision.

With a sigh, questions continued to spiral through his mind: "But these people were just unlucky; do they really deserve to die? They are all going to die. Twelve thousand people..."

At that moment, his own death didn’t matter much to him. In his eyes, all humans were born equal; money and fame didn’t change what a human was at its core.

"Commander, what are your orders?"

Matt turned around to face the source of the voice, the healer of their squad, Shiva the Green Tide, who stood there alone.

"Tell others that they can leave the protection of citizens and try to make defense for themselves; from now on we are no longer part of the military."

Shiva’s expression didn’t change; the outcome was expected by all of them. It was not the first time that the military had left its soldiers to rot.

"I ... I will stand by people."

"Me either. How much time do we have left?"

"Barely an hour."

His eyes were fixed on the shaking hands of his companion. "Everything is going to be ok, but I need you to tell me everything that happened with our target."

"I don’t know either. I was outside of the shockwave, but I could sense it, and ..." Her breaths became heavier. "When I looked at it, it looked back..."

Matt stepped closer, putting his hands on her shoulder. He asked with a firm voice, "Colonel Shiva, what did you see?"

"Death. Death itself is rooted inside of that boy’s body..."

Frustration grew more and more on the vice general’s face. Shiva didn’t seem to lie, but it didn’t make any sense either.

"Vice General, I didn’t tell this to anyone else, but I saw its aura of murder." Shiva took another deep breath; her magic let her see the number of murders that one had made by a weak aura around them. "The blood angel has killed millions; I could see it like a tree above his head..."

Tears started to drop from her eyes; her arms hugged her senior for some comfort. "That parasite’s aura could devour the whole earth..."

No words came after that; only the sound of Shiva’s sobbing in his arms reminded him that this was reality.

"I will protect you no matter what." The vice general kissed the back of her head. "We will talk about how to deal with the blood angel later; first we have to face the round one, and I need your full power for that."

"Yea ... yes, Vice General, I will do my best."

"Good, now let’s go and see what the other side is."

Both started to walk in the ruined area; their shoes made some sound from time to time, yet their minds were too full to care about their environment.

"What is that thing even?" Matt’s curiosity got the best of him; however, he knew the questions had no lead on them for now, and it was not their target to escape the festival too.

"It’s just a big cage for all of us."