Soulless Players

As Philip's eyes met the man's gaze under his hood, Philip's whole being shook uncontrollably, clearly afraid of the man. The thing that he was trying to flee from had finally arrived before him.

When the strong winds brushed through the man's robe, Philip managed to catch a glimpse of his face.

His eyes were brown as if self-confidence and determination were reflected onto them. It was the opposite of his stature, weak and lazy.

His black brows were slightly more bent than usual, looking annoyed. It was like Philip's swift escape had irritated him.

Seeing the man walking towards him, his instinct once again urged him to escape. His head was filled with the noise of bells, continuously ringing and persistently pushing him to move forward to the cliff.

However, while Philip was willing to follow his instinct, his body couldn't. He took another glance at his severed left leg a distance away.

The cut was clean like it was made by an experienced butcher. He felt that if his blood had consciousness, they would surely be feeling confused as the cut was too quick for them to react. They halted along the stream, not knowing whether to continue their way or not.

However, the law of human biology and anatomy still prevailed. The blood, which halted a second ago, once again flowed, spilling and overflowing to the wet rocky ground below. And with every second it rushed out, an electrifying pain passed through every circuit of his body.

"Argh!"

Philip gritted his teeth and hissed, trying to ease his agony.

His mind was like a lamp, switching on and off. While his heart was telling him to just shut off, his brain was continuously feeding him with the will to fight.

It was like urging him to keep his consciousness awake. His destination is only an arm's length away. If he surrendered now, all the suffering, especially his parent's death, would be wasted.

Philip tried his best to forget the pain and used his fingers to crawl and his other leg to help him push forward.

Every time Philip moved, blood followed him like countless small snakes, strangling his left leg and leaving red traces behind.

The rain tried to extricate the snakes away, but instead of helping, it made it bigger and horrifyingly disturbing.

Although Philip was doing everything to move and break free, the situation was not in his favor. It won't let him do anything he pleases.

The man who had been watching Philip's struggle arrived near him, picking up the bloody ax on the ground. Under the heavy rain, his boots were covered with mud and blood. Nevertheless, the man remained laid-back, unbothered by his dirty footwear.

The man bent his head and skimmed at the child's last effort. His forehead twitched, annoyed by the child's attempt.

He knew that the crawling child would never escape as long as he was nearby. His strength made it impossible for the child, thus, it would have been better if he just quit it.

Philip sensed the man was at his back, but he remained unconcerned and continued crawling.

Only when Philip's fingers finally felt the edge of the cliff, did the man make his move.

Raising the ax, he threw it over at Philip's hands gripping the ground. The ax swished as it rolled over midair. And when it docked at its destination, Philip cried miserably,

"AHHHHH!"

Along with the sounds of the sky dropping buckets of water and the forest fire crackling while being extinguished, Philip's scream echoed around.

His right hand fell over the cliff, making a long swish sound as it went down to the bottom of the mountain.

Philip squirmed and could no longer tolerate the pain anymore. He quickly took out the bottle of medicine. However, when he was about to drink, the man kicked it. It flew and slipped down the mountain.

The man watched idly at the stunned child whose unblinking eyes followed the medicine falling.

The man was, in truth, surprised by the child's attitude and dedication to escape from his grasp. Seeing the child's suffering, slightly piqued his sympathy towards him.

Although he pitied the child, it was only for a short while. He would not let his emotions be a hindrance to his mission.

He flipped the child with his foot so that he could see the child's face more clearly.

After this series of actions, he finally voiced his purpose, "You must be the child from four years ago right?"

The man paused and continued, "Why are you being hunted down by another eight-year-old child?"

In fact, he was not truly a subordinate of Steve, but an investigator of the incident in the capital four years ago. And all this time, their organization knew about Philip's location, but they couldn't pursue him due to some limitations.

The organization, to which he belonged, is only limited on taking action for people who have supernatural powers.

However, Philip never used any peculiar ability aside from his excellent maneuver and execution of his escape plan.

Although it was strange for a child to do it, Philip's action was still in the realm of the ordinary. So, in the end, they could only leave him alone.

Years passed, and when they had forgotten about him, the name 'Philip' appeared again. This time, it came from another child which they have also been investigating. A child similar to Philip's age.

At a young age, Steve's business proposals slowly changed the current time period. His crafty and innovative ideas were starting to affect the people in doing their barters and trades.

At first, their organization assumed Steve had been using a unique supernatural power. But when they explored his case, they found out that there were no powers involved, only his way of thinking was more advanced than the current era.

Like in Philip's case, the organization deemed Steve to belong in the genius spectrum and was about to bring his files back to the drawers.

However, when Philip's name was included in the list of people Steve was looking for, their organization began to get suspicious.

It was okay for a single child to be a prodigy, but when an unrelated genius child was actively looking for another, their case started to become shadier.

In addition, in Steve's list of people to find, most of them were eight-year-old children who were showing wit uncommon to the current era.

The organization was curious but they could not confront them directly as per the organization's rule: Let normal people solve normal problems.

So they could only do this in a roundabout way. They informed Steve about Philip's whereabouts. Additionally, the organization placed an undercover to foresee their meeting.

The undercover, which was him, projected himself as an ambitionless and lazy person who only does intelligence gathering for a living.

But what they didn't expect was for Steve to involve their undercover with the mission. It was supposed to be perfect, but Steve, for unknown reasons, managed to see through his true power and employed him.

He was helpless and could only obey Steve to avoid more problems. Besides, he thought it was better. This would give him more freedom to move and prove that these children have hidden powers.

This was also the reason why he was tormenting Philip. It was to force him to use his powers, because only when Philip used his powers could he do anything above normal to him.

However, aside from the miraculous medicine, which he already knew where it came from, Philip never did anything otherworldly.

The man could not finally control himself from asking, "What is your real identity?"

Philip could not actually hear anything from the man as his ears were ringing and making high-pitched sounds.

Furthermore, Philip's full attention was on the pain coursing his entire being. He had no more attention left to give to the man.

Seeing his last resort - the bottle of medicine - falling off the cliff, his mental state instantly cracked. The willpower, which was helping him move all this time, finally disappeared and perished.

Philip was helpless about his situation. This fight was destined to be at his loss. His enemy's preparation had shaken him, leaving him powerless in the end.

'Sorry Mom, sorry Dad. I think this is the end of me.' Philip mourned. He was remorseful as he could no longer exact revenge for his parents.

Philip sighed and whispered, "Sorry."