The night before the incident, while Quinn was sound asleep waiting for the other two to return, Peter had been called out by the group of first years. They had added him as a friend on his communicator watch and was able to send a message whenever they wanted to call him. 𝙗𝒆𝙙𝙣𝒐𝙫𝙚𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝒎

That night, they had asked to meet outside of the dorm room building, five of the first years were standing outside including Earl.

"So I see it looks like your friends seem to still trust you and you managed to get on their team then?" Earl said as he lifted his hand to look at his watch. "Oh, I didn’t I say to meet here at eight-thirty? it looks like you’re a couple of minutes late."

Two of the first year’s student then rushed over and grabbed Peter. One of them held his hand behind his back while the other held out his right hand.

"Two minutes late means two fingers I’m afraid." Earl then held one of Peter’s fingers.

"Wait I’m sorry, I needed to be careful, I had to make sure Vorden wasn’t following me as you asked." Peter cried.

"Fine, fine I’ll be generous," Earl said as he pushed down and snapped Peter’s finger. Before Peter could even cry out in anger, he bit his tongue for fear that they might do something much worse if someone had heard him.

The others watching flinched at the sight. Although they were helping Earl, even they feared him a little. It wasn’t normal for someone to be able to hurt or break someone’s bones so easily like that but Earl was able to repeatedly do it easily as if it was nothing.

"We will only do one finger then, but you know what will happen if you’re late again," Earl said as one of the first years came over and started to heal Peter’s finger.

As the student healed Peter’s finger, he could feel Peter’s body shaking. His eyes half-dead, the boy wanted to say he was sorry but knew that was how the world currently was.

All he had was a healing ability, he had no combat powers and had no choice but to follow those stronger than him, otherwise, it would be him instead of Peter in this situation.

"I called you out here because the General wants to have a meeting with you," Earl explained.

The group of first-year students including Peter then started to escort him around the school. That’s when Peter noticed that they had left the first-year campus building and had gone into the second-year buildings.

Instead of going through the front entrance though, they entered through the back and took the emergency exit stairs. The walk was long but they had finally reached one of the private integration rooms for second-year students.

Earl knocked on the door before entering and only entered once he heard a voice.

"Come in." The man said.

As they entered the room there was a table and two chairs opposite each other. Sitting in one of the seats was the General Duke who was in charge of the second years.

"You guy’s wait outside. I would like to talk with Peter on his own," Duke said.

The first years left the room and waited patiently just outside the door.

"Relax take a seat, no need to be afraid," Peter did as Duke asked and sat in the seat, but couldn’t help but wonder why the General had asked to meet him. The general was one of the highest-ranking members in the whole city, there was only one person higher than him and that was the Head general.

"It seems those people have gone too far with you." Duke then placed his large hands on the table and looked Peter dead in the eye. "Peter, would you like to have the power to fight back?"

Suddenly Peters dead eyes went slightly into life again as he heard those words.

"I looked at your file, you had no ability before coming here and when you entered school we gave you the earth ability. Right now, you’re only a level one but I can change that for you." Duke then pulled out several earth skill books and threw them out on the table.

"I know you’ve been saving up trying to get your hands on these. With this, you can finally get out of the Level 1 power range and with that, your troubles would go away. You would be able to graduate the school with a good grade, join a company to go hunting and earn a good wage for the rest of your life. Sounds nice doesn’t it?" Duke said with a huge smile on his face.

Peter couldn’t keep his eyes off the skill books in front of him. These skill books were ones that only the military had a hold of. Now that Peter had the earth ability, the only way he could improve his power was through these skill books. Then finally, he would no longer have to live his life in fear.

"Of course these things don’t come for free, the world doesn’t work like that. Those men out there work for me, they do what I say and in return, I offer them protection within the school and outside of the school. Not only that but they get rewarded for doing well." He said as he held up one of the skill books.

"You’re going on your first portal outing sometime soon aren’t you? let me tell you accidents happen all the time and every year a student dies on another planet. Now information has it that maybe this year someone from that team of yours will go missing, you’re a smart boy so I think you can understand what I’m saying. Now maybe that person will be you, maybe not. So, what’s your answer going to be?"

*****

Last night it was clear to Peter what Duke was saying, either he did what the Duke said, or he was the one who would go missing, but the target was never meant to be Quinn. The target was always Vorden.

When Quinn shouted and had somehow found out Peter was in on the plan, he panicked, he didn’t know what to do and had pushed Quinn into the portal.

His hands were now shaking as the realisation had hit him.

"What the hell have you done!" Vorden shouted.

"I’m sorry." Peter said, "You don’t understand I had to do it!"

"What let me guess, because you were being bullied? Because you were being threatened?!" Vorden shouted as he continued to walk towards Peter and at the same time Peter would walk back.

"Do you not think Quinn has been going through the same thing as you! He’s a level one just like you. And do you think they didn’t try threatening me? When I was tied up and placed on that thing. So what if they hit you, they punch you and make you bleed, you can fight back, as long as you are alive you can always fight back!

Vorden then pointed towards the red portal.

"But what you have done, you have basically sent Quinn to death. No matter what there is no coming back from death. He can’t fight back now. Did you even try to fight back?"

Peter then fell to his knees as his mind was in a mess. Did Vorden and Quinn truly know what it was like to live his life? All peter wanted was a normal school life, to go through it without any troubles.

And someone was offering that to him, maybe he took the easy way out but he didn’t feel that way. He had already gone through his own suffering, before entering the academy and even worse now that he was in the academy. Why did he have to be the one targeted by Earl and the others?

But there was one thing that Vorden said that did strike a chord with Peter. Did he ever try fighting back? He always thought it was useless, the outcome had already been decided so why get hurt even more.

Perhaps that’s what made Duke and the others think he was an easy target in the first place.

Then suddenly, Vorden started grabbing his head. He started moving all over the place swinging his head like crazy.

"I can’t hold him back any more Vorden!"

"You have to try, if he takes over who knows when I’ll get control again."

"The shock is too much for him, looking at Peter is only making his emotions stronger."

As Vorden looked up, Peter could see his eyes filled with tears, sadness.

Then Vorden looked towards the portal.

"No what are you thinking!" Peter shouted

Vorden then turned around and looked at Peter.

"Peter this is for your own sake, but you better hope I don’t come back out here alive!"

Vorden then ran straight into the Red portal, his body vanishing from the room.

*****

4900 Stones last week all goals hit! 6 Chapters mass release next Saturday. New goal, new week.

4600 Stones = 2 extra Chapters

4800 Stones = 4 extra Chapters

We get around 500 new readers every week, so we should be able to hit this goal easily, let’s rise to the top 10 in ranking. Thank you, everyone, for the support.