Purple’s Tower

Gabriella Silva, otherwise known as the Purple Knight of Humanity, opens her eyes for the first time in days before slowly raising a hand to brush some of her purple hair over her shoulder. Then she blinks once. Twice. Three times.

Something big is happening.

After a couple seconds, the forty-something year old looking woman once more blinks her pupilless and scyleraless purple eyes before finally raising her hand and making a pool of purple liquid appear in front of her. The liquid then takes the form of a viewing screen, showing the side of a snow-covered mountain as the Blood of Ruin skill activates with a badly injured Scarlet Asger only barely standing, her eyes glowing with a red light brighter than they should be. Meanwhile the Red Knight watches from the side while the Blood of Ruin skill forms, deciding to apparently continue blocking the attacks of the red death demon that has also lost control.

Something very big.

Gabriella’s eyes suddenly begin glowing with an even brighter purple light right when the Blood of Ruin finally runs through, dealing real damage to the red death even if it doesn’t amount to much more than flesh wounds. Then the girl collapses to the ground, somehow still conscious.

Without waiting for the prophecy to begin, Gabriella presses buttons on her terminal, making it start livestreaming herself without showing the screen she has in front of her of the battle the moment she begins speaking the prophecy.

“The birth of the savior is here. Welcome The Apex Predator and rejoice, for she shall lead the two worlds to peace. To unity. And to their next war against the threat to all, both in this universe and beyond. Rejoice, because she is the only hope. The Princess of night and day. Of blood and null.”

Gabriella’s eyes return to their usual brightness in the purple glow they give off before she glances at her terminal, finding millions of people already watching the livestream. Then she faces the screen again while ending the livestream despite hundreds of thousands of people joining every second with tens of thousands of comments appearing in the chat debating on the prophecy that was just foretold.

The woman puts her terminal back in sleep mode again as the blood of ruin left behind by the skill sweeps through the forest. But the Red Knight of Humanity simply ignores it as he grins at the red death and raises his hand.

White is going to attack him soon.

Gabriella watches for several seconds while the Red Knight burns the red death alive without risking the Demon Princess any longer, following which the Demon Princess’s eyes start dulling in their radiance, her curse calming down.

“No longer can you hide, child,” Gabriella whispers without taking her eyes off of the hybrid girl. “Not anymore. Apex Predator.”

Then she closes the screen, and her eyes along with them.

Returning once more to her meditative state.

Scarlet

I blink in confusion after the fog lifts from my head, only to feel extreme pain all over that has me letting out a scream. But even that pain doesn’t last long before I feel a warmth flooding my body, letting me open my eyes to find Red having apparently shoved a potion down my throat.

“Wouldn’t want you keeling over on me,” he says with a nod. “I still want to fight you in the future. And White would kill me.”

That just leaves me even more confused.

I stare at him for several long seconds, not really sure what exactly is happening. Then I blink again and turn to look at our surroundings, finding everything to either be burnt and still burning with a black flame, or covered in red ash signifying blood of ruin.

But… when did I use that skill?

“You don’t remember?” Tar asks, sounding slightly surprised. “You lost yourself to your Curse of Pride and began attacking the Noble without any care for your own wellbeing.”

Oh.

And I’m guessing Red stepped in and killed it before it could kill me?

“He did,” Tar says, sounding more than a little pissed off. “After taunting it and making it lose itself to its own Curse of Envy so that it would truly try to kill you.”

Wait, he did what?!

“Exactly what I said,” Tar grumbles. “Out of his desire to see you grow stronger, he wanted to help you get some experience for this fight and maybe an achievement. And he probably succeeded because he truly had no desire to save you beyond a passing whim. That and you had no idea what was going on.”

This guy is insane.

“Yes, that he is,” Tar says, appearing in the air and glaring at the man who is merely admiring the carnage around us.

I knew Red had no desire to help others, but for him to actually just toy with us like we’re… well… toys…

That’s just sick.

“He seemed perfectly willing to let you die until his game finished, and that is something I will be telling Amelia about,” Tar practically growls in anger.

At least I should’ve gotten something from this.

Tar freezes for a moment at my words before I notice his eyes widening in shock. Then he slowly turns his head to meet my eyes directly and mutters, “Something might be… a bit of an understatement. Try… I would recommend you check your System Messages where no one else can see you. Because this… is different.”

Another Universal Notification?

“Yeah…” Tar says. “And this one won’t be held back for long. You have no choice. The messages will play out on their own within the next ten minutes even if you don’t check them.”

Oh.

Wait… the redaction on my name…

“Won’t hold up,” Tar says rather grimly.

“You might as well check your System Messages now, little fiend,” Red says, bringing my attention to him. “There’s no escaping it now. White won’t be able to block your name this time.”

The smugness in his voice makes me want to punch him. Not to mention that little pet name he just gave me which isn’t exactly complimenting, and the excitement I can see clearly in his eyes.

I turn my glare away from him, simply because he is a Knight.

“Amelia?” I ask with some trepidation in my voice, but to my surprise, she doesn’t answer. Although now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure she said she was going to the Arctic to back up Black. Which explains why she didn’t help me out in this battle.

So I take a deep breath… and let my System Messages flow.