Chapter 707: Kill or Spare
The first thought Sylas had was...
Is the system serious?
He just went through all of this, put his life on the line, was still in the middle of suffering what was probably some warped form of PTSD, all to get this sort of ridiculous choice?
It was clear that the system was obsessed with sparing Professor Fembroise, and it found her to be extremely important, but Sylas simply didn't know whether the system was even trustworthy in this situation.
Even if it rewarded him for sparing her, would it be worth it?
But what almost made him lose control of his temper again was that this very same Quicktime Event could have been given to him the first time. But instead, he had become public enemy number one and was labeled as a traitor by the system.
Even if by some miracle he managed to survive all of this and carve a path out of here, that label wouldn't just vanish. What happened here would be spread to the rest of Earth, and those that wanted to take advantage of it would do so to suppress him, while there would surely be a large number of individuals targeting him because they blindly believed the system.
Sylas usually thought himself to be a cool and level-headed person, but this matter was well and truly testing his patience.
The system had long proven itself to be fallible. Sylas had benefited from its protection greatly before, but he had also suffered at its hands several times.
It was exactly what one might expect a robot or an AI to be like. It was very good at very specific tasks, but it could easily find itself tricked and muddied by things that humans or other intelligent species with more mental plasticity could easily see through.
Now, it had screwed him over and it had come back with hat in hand to try and make him reconsider his decision.
The worst part of all of this was that even if he decided to spare Professor Fembroise, there wasn't likely to be any reprieve. The system wouldn't just cancel the other Quicktime Event, at least Sylas didn't think so...
That meant that saving Professor Fembroise now meant that he might actually have to go as far as to protect her and ensure that nothing went wrong.
That was the worst-case scenario, anyway. Considering the choice was to "spare" her and not "save" her, it was much more acute in function.
But that would still mean that for the next 11 hours or so, he would have to protect himself while trapped in this cage while there were surely more experts on the way.
And then there was the last matter to consider...
What if he ignored the system again and chose to kill? Would it really end just like that? Or would he gain another, heavier demerit?
Would he be punished not just once, but twice over?
If it wasn't for the fact he was frozen in time, Sylas might feel as though his entire body was overheating. The mixture of rage, frustration, and indecision was truly irritating him.
It was that feeling of lack of control again.
The system was having the wool pulled over its eyes by an outside party, and between that and his Silver Demerit, Sylas was just running into brick wall after brick wall.
'I really... really want to kill him.'
The stray thought, in another occurrence of this odd feeling, cleared Sylas' mind once again. It was as though every time he accepted the truest feelings he had buried deep within him, the cognitive dissonance clashing in his mind would vanish.
Anger that he had suppressed toward Lucius bubbled up and the flashes of the man's face in his mind filled him with thoughts of violence and destruction.
He had never wanted someone to suffer more in his life than at this moment. And yet, instead of clouding his thoughts, those emotions made him sharper.
He could think more clearly, even see more clearly, and somehow he felt that even his control over his body was rapidly increasing.
Sylas tried to suppress it. 'I can't, not yet. The Grimblades-."
The moment Sylas tried to temper his own emotion, the dissonance in his mind clashed again, bringing that feeling of discomfort back.
His expression would have changed had he not been frozen in place. Vaguely, he seemed to understand something about Demonic Will, and it made him apprehensive.
But sometimes... always doing the smart thing just felt...
Heavy.
Sylas turned his attention back to Professor Fembroise. This time, was killing her the smart choice? Or was sparing her the smart choice?
Sylas couldn't tell. But what he did know was that he didn't have the same fiendish desire to kill Vesta as he did Lucius. However, by the same token, he was already painted into a corner here. How was he supposed to hold on for 11 hours in a situation like this one if he couldn't run away?
If he did spare her, there was no way he would allow her to go for free. He would definitely have to take her with him, and that would only complicate things further.
But no matter how many times Sylas' mind flipped, turned, and rotated this problem, he found himself hesitating, something that he never did once he had already made a decision.
Before, he had already resolved himself to kill Professor Fembroise. So... why was he hesitating now?
Part of it was that his mind was experiencing such a constant rollercoaster of emotions, but
that wasn't all.
Something else was tugging at him.
His Luck.
It was usually amorphous and hard to pinpoint where its nudges were coming from. But when placed with a right or wrong decision like this one, it was as clear as day.
Spare.
Sylas made the decision and his grip slightly loosened around the Professor's neck. But that was when something unexpected happened.
[Quicktime Event Cleared]
[Enemy of Earth - Completed]