Nightreign

With a practically non-existent white collared shirt, burned to pieces, and tattered jeans, now actually worse quality than the ones his classmates wore, Lunite Seren descended through the smoke.

Deserved.

After nodding his head at Seren's falling figure, Free pushed himself upward, practically unharmed from the comet's landing.

The prison dune had taken the damage for him!

Scanning the area around him, Free quickly found a transparent crystal, as wide as a village house and even taller than the jungle dunes, a couple of feet in the direction of the smoke cloud.

The crystal was dyed a blood-red by the moon and towered before him...yet Free felt oddly attracted to it as his legs subconsciously began moving forward despite his lack of strenght

Wide and short piles of sand, remnants of the collapsed dunes, were everywhere, transforming the previously jungle-like habitat into a small, hilly environment.

However, the origin of the smoke also became apparent.

A ring of piercing crimson-red fire surrounded the base of the crystal, somehow emitting more smoke than a factory on modern Earth.

Unfortunately, the Lunite was also aiming to land right inside the ring of fire, and it wouldn't be long until others arrived.

Channeling all his strenght into his legs, Free sprinted forward at the ring of fire, a bit hesitant at first.

Would he be teleported backward again? It had already happened twice.

Yet, after a few steps, nothing happened, prompting Free to abandon all sense of caution and rush forward.

It seemed, just as the sand had blocked the Lunite's power earlier, the ring of fire was as well.

Leaping straight through the wall of flames before him, Free flew forward, feeling a searing heat explode across his skin like a thousand tiny needles.

Smoke flooded his lungs, burning his throat and filling his chest with a burning pressure, while sparks of fire danced on his pitch-black hair and eyebrows, partially burning them.

Time slowed as Free's vision blurred red and white; his body begged him to retreat, but momentum unwillingly carried him forward.

The fire wrapped around his body like chains, and Free's mind went numb as the thunderous roar of his heartbeat echoed throughout his body.

A moment later, though, a sudden gust of cool wind rushed against his face while the crimson-red reflection of the moon, through the transparent crystal, flashed across his vision.

However, as Free brought his now exposed knees to his chest, bracing for landing on the sand, his vision suddenly blurred.

In the next moment, he found his already inflamed body...flying toward the wall of flames once again.

His poor-quality clothes had completely disintegrated under the intense fire, leaving him completely exposed, and dark burn spots covered his face.

Yet...here he was again, flying back into the wall of fire.

Before Free could even scream out in pain, his entire brain went numb.

The surging flames enveloped his bare skin, instantly painting his pale white skin a dark brown.

Whatever hair he had left from the first jump...eyebrow, skin, facial, and eyelash ignited and disappeared within seconds.

"AHHHHHHH!"

A painful scream involuntarily escaped his mouth as his burned body emerged from the ring of flames...yet no sign of relief appeared on Free's face.

His previous smile upon the appearance of the end crystal was replaced with...a grim expression.

With burned spots covering every part of his body, to the point where not even his classmates would be able to recognize him, and an almost bald head, Free tumbled forward.

Pain like no other surged through his entire body, setting off every receptor in his nervous system, yet...Free was kept conscious.

Not a single part of his body was left unharmed.

It hurts...I can't.

Die...I want to die. Surely, it was better than this.

I regret it...everything...just let me die.

It seemed that the luck he had just received was bait meant to lure him in and capture his hopes.

If he had accepted his death to the Lunite in that prison dune...none of this would have happened.

Why couldn't the comet have just killed me....?

A luck gifted to him, not by any god, but by a devil.

Free didn't even blink as his surroundings suddenly shifted, and the sand below him turned to flames.

He couldn't move his body.

All he could do was watch, like a spectator, as his own body unwillingly tumbled towards the burning hot flames.

Why?

Why?

Why?

The Lunite had been by the comet head-on...how was he still using his powers?

How?

The saying, "Never underestimate your opponent," now resonated with Free through pure and utter pain.

The crystal was waiting right there...in all its glory, like a piece of candy teasing his child self from a cabinet too high for him to reach.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!"

A moment later, another wave of pain overwhelmed Free's body as he passed through the flames.

If a piece of pale skin had been left on his bare body after the second jump, it would have just disappeared.

Free's body no longer resembled that of a human as he busted through the other side of the flames for the third time.

His naked body had been cooked to the maximum, with his skin charred a leathery black and his muscles twitching involuntarily under the scorched layers of flesh.

The bottom of Free's feet was covered with blistered lumps, and the skin on his fingers had peeled away, exposing his bones and tendons.

Free could barely even see from under his swollen eyelids, and his lips were cracked and bleeding from the heat.

Below him, the soft yellow sand came into sight, yet Free simply waited.

For another round of this hell.

Yet...it didn't come.

*BANG*

Free's charred body banged against the sand, lifeless like a corpse, while a gust of soft wind brushed against his bald head.

It took a Free for a moment to realize his body had come to a stop, and another couple for him to even realize he was still alive.

Dazed, Free reached his right arm forward and crawled ahead like a slug; however, a sudden bright light blinded him.

*WHOOSH*