Grey shook his head as he unlocked the last Loot Box. And as expected... well, he didn’t really know exactly what to expect, but when a crown appeared and he read the description, at least the latter was pretty much what he thought it would be.
’Annoying.’
—
Name: Kin of the Cult Crown
Rarity: Legendary (CURSED) (LIMITED)
Accepted Type: Recursive
Rejected Type: Resonant
Description: The Dark Kin were never ostracized from society, they never had a part in it. Moving in the shadows and through the lair of beasts, they have long been a people neglected, ignored, and often forgotten. But The Cult never forgets, and one day, it will rise up from the shadows to lay waste to the Land of Gods, the Land of Genesis. The Fog of Chaos shall rule all.
Abilities: Obscure Cult affiliation. Kin of the Cult Frame Lineage. +50 to ALL stats.
—
The description was almost identical to the cloak that Amunet had. The only difference was that it took the shape of a crown instead of a cloak.
Grey could feel Amunet behind him, he knew that despite the distance, even if she couldn’t use the Genesis System to read the description, she could certainly feel the pull of the crown.
She knew what it was without anyone having to tell her in the first place. There was no chance she didn’t know what she was looking at.
Not a single chance.
And the situation right now was quite interesting, indeed.
Grey was smart enough to understand it, and Amunet was smart enough to get it too.
Right about now, the only thing that could threaten Grey were the arms, arms that were currently under Amunet’s control. What made it even more amusing was that moments ago, Amunet was on her last legs, but Grey had given her a huge boost of stamina and support.
He could take that support away whenever he so chose, but Amunet wouldn’t need much time at all. Half a minute would be enough, maybe less than that.
All she needed to do was distract Grey for long enough to get her hands on the crown, and the moment she fused the last of the Lineage together, she would be able to control the arms with even more efficiency.
Once that happened, she would likely go from struggling on her last breath, to what would certainly still be a struggle, but would at least come with some added assurance and control.
There was definitely a path here for Amunet to betray him again and get what she wanted. But unlike last time, the path wasn’t as clear as before.
Grey was too strong, and he had already displayed his ability to both sever and eat the arms around them. All things considered, the odds that Amunet could actually pull this off was maybe 20%.
But that 20% chance was still far more than the less than 1% chance she had had before the crown appeared.
It was the sort of chance that people in this world, a world where they faced life and death every day, all the time, would certainly take.
If she risked her life for a one in five chance right this moment, she could set herself up for forever.
Or... she could forever be under Grey’s thumb, forever at the whims of whether he would decide to forgive her or not, forever tasked with being a background character whose life would always be in the hands of someone else.
Was that fair?
Amunet didn’t think it was fair at all.
She could have killed Grey back then, she could have slipped a knife between his ribs, or she could have not saved him at all after he was bitten basically clean in half by Valdris.
She hadn’t done that, though. She had saved him, and then she only knocked him out before taking what she had to. Wasn’t that kind enough?
She had seen people in this world kill for a lot less, she had watched people collapse, their brains broken, their tears practically gouging out their eyes over far, far less.
All those people lacked was hope. They knew they were too weak, they knew the world they had been ripped into was far too much for them to handle.
Maintaining your morality, your sense of kindness, your heart to do the right thing...
That was a privilege only the strong and lucky like Grey could have.
And this was only the second week. In the future, those that managed to remain, those that managed to protect their lives to that point would only become all the crueler.
Amunet was sure of it. That was the selection bias this world had, and she thought she had already done good enough.
She clenched her fists.
~Why?!~
An image of Grey’s roar, the pain on his face, the look in his eyes reflected in memories once again.
She still didn’t understand the question. He knew exactly why, so why would he even ask it. They had only known each other for such a short period of time, so why was he in so much pain? Was he really that naive? Was he really so sensitive? So fragile?
Amunet closed her eyes, her fingers trembling as they opened up.
The arms shook, swaying in the air slightly. Their palms subtly, so very subtly turned toward Grey just the slightest bit as though to prepare themselves.
Grey didn’t show any signs of moving, but except for that time he had ended up gasping for breath and falling to a knee, he hadn’t really shown any signs of moving before either.
All of his attention had always been on the treasures, treasures that she had, in her own small way, helped him get. Just like she had helped him in the Vampire Instance.
What right did he have to be enraged that she had just taken what she was owed? Had she not left him with the Blood Witch Tome? Had he not monopolized enough of the other treasures? Did he want more?
The more Amunet thought, the more enraged she became and the more the arms shook.
~"I got what you said, I just don’t care, lady."~
Amunet’s eyes reddened.