Genesis looked around searching for the people closest to him. He found Jae who seemed to look the exact same. Almost as if the aging process had completely forgot about him. His hair however was still amazing.
He found Noel who seemed to look the same age but there was some unknown beauty to her. More than she had radiated before. She seemed to had only aged a few months. Her hair was longer now reaching the middle section of her back. It only lasted a few seconds as Genesis saw her hold it up and cut it.
Hana however was different. Her perfect turquoise hair was now pale. The hair dye could not last forever. She looked matured. Less like a new adult and more like one who had seen the world.
If Genesis and Hana were relative in age before they were now years apart as Hana looked as if she was in her early 20's. If anything the aging process only made her older.
Lautaro however had remained the same age. As he and Genesis were now the same age. However, he still had that technical flair to him. He had the look of a magician, one who could defy the odds and do the impossible all with a smile on his face.
The rest of the cohort was not doing to well compared to them. Some were decades older other looked like they had aged a century. Genesis saw one man who was already withering away.
As his hair was a plain ivory and his face consisting of rotten teeth and countless holes. His flesh was turning an amalgamation of green and yellow rot. He held his sword up until the moment he died.
It was a valiant display of willpower. Even when he knew he could offer little to nothing he kept fighting until his body could not go on any longer. He would be remembered by Genesis.
The rest were ages older than their prime. Some looking 50 others as old as 80 years old. Yet one thing they all had in common was the will to survive.
They had the look in their eyes. The look saying that they were eternal. A look boasting about how glorious they were. A loom preaching about their relentless willpower. A willpower that never faded. Even when creatures from a grand unknown attacked they survived. Even when monsters from the depths of an even larger monster ate their comrades they kept pushing onwards.
No matter what they pressed forward for the sake of themselves and all those before them. They had evolved, no doubt about it. They had became better throughout the infinitely expanding trials and tribulations. Yet the challenges only strengthened their resolves.
Every warrior, soldier, comrade and friend here had all went through similar challenges. Mental, physical or psychological. Yet them standing here and challenging the most vile beast of them all was living proof that they had prevailed. And they had prevailed with utmost certainty that they were meant to be here. No fluke of luck or last second save had led them to where they stood. The only thing that led them here was themselves.
If they managed to live past this terrible room. Their names would be echoed throughout the ACTS, they would be legends. Not metaphorically or in a hyperbolic manner they would be legends straight up.
They stood at the start of the race. Their swords ready to slice whatever oncoming danger was ahead. Their bows in hand and arrows in quiver ready to shoot at whatever hazard that threatened them. Their spears and shields at their waist prepared for hell. Their axes sharpened for fatal, lethal and pure combat.
They looked onwards and they saw it. The Heart of the White Room. In all it's atrocious beauty it was in a hibernating state as it was fast asleep. They were skeptical at first but their king said, with a large booming voice.
"Charge!"
So they charged.
They were running forward at the Heart of the White Room until most of the front line's legs were held and they looked below and saw Agents in swarms, hiding from their view.
The interior of the room was filled with stalagmites and it had a high point where one could stand above the room. The archers immediately rushed over to there. However, in a flash of pale sky blue Sephina was there first. She shot her arrows at the beast in a quick manner.
All her arrows hit their targets, with all attempts of the Agents trying to protect their Heart being futile. Debmaw was a plague in battle, literally he spread the most he could across all the entire battlefield yet it seemed while they slept the Agents had gained a resistance to Debmaw's burden. As they survived longer than they used to.
Debmaw was losing stamina from constantly holding back his regenerative abilities. So he resorted to use his skills that he had learned. He effectively fought off multiple Agents at once.
No matter how hard they fought their numbers were bound to be reduced. They went from hundreds of thousands at the beginning of this grueling journey now there were a mere thousand people left. The number dwindling and fast.
All of them had faced Agents before some had not seen the wrath of the advanced ones but they were still able to hold their ground against the overwhelming number and power of the Agents. A few hundred soldiers had surrounded a group of Agents and they closed in. It looked like a sure victory until Genesis heard the faint sound of rumbling. Then it came.
In all it's terrifying presence the sole and Grey Soul of the White Room was now here. He swallowed hundred of soldiers and some Agents aswell, but remorse was a foreign concept to the beast.
The beast went from the ground up swallowing everything in it's path. The ground and stalagmites looking like meals for him to devour and savor.
Genesis's legs buckled at the sight of the beast after all it almost shredded him whole. But instead of cowering in fear he stood up in hate. Hate of the White Room. Hate of the Grey Soul. He promised it's death now he had to make sure it was fulfilled.
Genesis stood up. His sword sharp and ready to kill. His eyes locked on a mission. He sliced and stabbed through the enemy ranks of the Agents with his sword and will. Genesis thought back as he killed the advanced Agents.
He thought back to his not so humble beginnings. He thought about he was a boy who had nothing but himself. The world had shunned him and left him with nothing.
He had to struggle and push through to get to where he was now. He was now powerful, now stronger, better than the rest. He had to survive now. If not all of this grandiose adventure would be for nothing.
The friends he made, the comrades he knew were all fighting for something too. Yet Genesis still managed to rise to the top. Just because of the sheer fact that the man was nonstop.
Genesis was undoubtedly now the greatest in the room. He was the strongest he was the fastest. He had the most tenacity. He was the smartest in the room and that was not just an assumption.
He slaughtered the Agents taking down more than others combined. His sword glowed faintly, his emotions moved calmly like waves before a storm.
He killed and killed until he was at the heart and he suddenly dashed backwards away from the creature and then Hallowion came crashing from the ceiling.
'Too slow, too predictable.'
Genesis thought boldy.
Genesis looked at the huge worm and he saw something he hadn't seen before. Sand. There an ever so thin layers of sand where Hallowion dived through. That was how the beast managed to stay away from his domain. Genesis knew that it had a time limit because if it hadn't the beast would have no reason to stay in his domain forever.
Genesis let his rage out. Slicing at the beast leaving few cuts and bruises. The damage was almost pathetic but Genesis kept going. He stuck his sword into beast and as the beast ate through the ground. His sword left a long scar across the surface of the Grey Soul.
Genesis then created a plan in his head as he then went up to the legde, but instead of acting out the plan he waited and he ordered that Debmaw should come up there.
He formulated a plan, smart but dangerous. He asked that Debmaw imbue himself onto the arrow of the outstanding archer and he should fire at the Heart of the White Room. They both did as followed but their amazing plan was intercepted by the Grey Soul of the White Room. It swallowed the arrow whole. It seemed as if the disease was too weak to take it down.
Debmaw spoke out.
"If we your plan to succeed then we must get rid or distract Hallowion."
"I know that but I just wanted to test the water, I have a plan. Tell everyoneto cover me. It's time to fulfill a promise."
Genesis spoke with a sort of grace as he stood at the ledge and calculated. Based on what he knew Hallowion would be around the size of this room and at the speed it was going at Genesis would mere seconds to act out his plan. Accounting for gravity it would almost be impossible for a normal human to pull it off, yet Genesis had broken and beaten up the concept of normal long ago.
He stood above all. His glare was the look of a fighter. He had fire in his eyes as Genesis channeled all his emotions and his sword hummed with golden grace. He ordered that Debmaw give it his all this time. The bird was reluctant at first but his dream was close now. Debmaw could get his revenge on the White Room so he etched himself onto Sephina's 19th arrow.
There was no part of Debmaw left. He had not died he could not die now he had to see his dream through.
Genesis took steps back, he stretched put his legs and knew that this would have to be the end. The end of his days of reminiscing about his past. This would be the day that Genesis would be carved in the books of history. Not the genius. Not the knight. He would be Genesis.
Who was Genesis? Well they were about to find out.
He asked Sephina to prepare and listen to his command no matter what. He then entered a sprinting position and he ran. He ordered Sephina to shoot a few seconds before he ran of the edge.
She did as followed and Genesis's sword screamed. Not metaphorically or in a hyperbolic way but the emotion from his blade made a devastating screech.
He soared through the air as Hallowion came flying out. Almost as if it could see Genesis the beast's teeth started to spin. The sawblades spun as the calculations were in order the predictions were perfect. Even if the world was against him even if Fate had other plans. Sometimes Fate just had to shut up and admit defeat because this was his perfect victory.
When they clashed the first thing Genesis heard was the metal against gold. Then he tore through. His sword glowed in the belly of the beast. As he tore through the monster using it's own momentum.
Genesis let out a monstrous roar. A roar of proclamation. A roar of victory. And ever so powerful howl of enlightenment.
The exit was quick and smooth. Genesis had left a gaping slash through Hallowion. His comrades had protected him from the onslaught of Agent tentacles. He had completed his promise. He had killed the Grey Soul of the White Room. He turned back and looked at it's body he only had one thought in mind.
'Pathetic.'
As Genesis shook the blood off his sword, showers of blood rained across the battlefield as he looked behind. Sephina and Debmaw had done it. They had defeated the White Room.