Disbelief spread across the room at the unexpected words. This quickly turned to panic as many began to hysterically throw questions at Patrick, many balling up into tears.

  A skinny, brunette woman pushed to the front and asked in an angry tone, “You don’t know!?”

  Patrick shook his lowered head. “I’ve only got the most basic information regarding this demon. But what I can tell you is that it’s strong, relying on possession of some kind. I’m not sure what the demon does, what clan it’s from, nor whether its actual body is here or not.”

  The woman’s mouth quivered with fear, unable to comprehend their situation. Others were in the same boat as their murmurs deafened the room.

  Patrick loudly said, “But there is a plan!”

  At those words, silence permeated the room as people began to think amongst themselves. It wasn’t an easy situation whatsoever. A demon as strong as a colonel was now in their presence and it could be somebody in this room, rendering this entire plan completely useless.

  But what else could they do?

  The woman finally spoke. “And this plan is?”

  Patrick swallowed for a moment before hesitantly saying, “We just need to come up with some idea on how to restrain the demon, or at least keep it from leaving until the military arrives. But that means we’d need to fight the thing.”

  “Fight?!”

  “We’re fighting that thing?”

  “Fuck that plan!”

  All around, people were already refuting the plan at the mere mention of fighting the horrific being laying dormant within Anthony’s sleeping body.

  The woman from before, infuriated at the words, yelled, “And why the hell would we even fight that thing?” She waved her hands around the rooms. “Just look at us, we aren’t capable of fighting a soldier alone let alone a colonel! Why in the world do you think we would be able to survive against that demon when it wakes up?”

  Joshua stepped forward in defense of Patrick, with Oliver stowed behind him. “Now hold on, Alyssa. Let’s just trust his words, yeah?”

  Alyssa let out an exasperated laugh. “Oh wow! Just trust that idiot with a plan like this, what a wonderful idea! Do you even hear yourself, Oliver? Tell me, can you fight a demon that matches up to a colonel? You’ve gotta be delusional!”

  Oliver angrily approached her but quickly stopped, stepping back with an extended arm from Joshua. But despite the restraint, Joshua and his group bore equally irritated faces, glaring at Alyssa and the angry crowd around them.

  The situation was just terrible, the mood even more so. All around, Patrick could see the discontent at his words as well as the distrust. Of course, some such as Joshua and Oliver seemed to trust him, but that was a small minority of maybe five people out of the dozen remaining angry at him.

  Somebody in the crowd asked, “What about the military? What are they doing?”

  Murmurs of similar perspectives broke out as people questioned the strange situation.

  Needing to inform them, Patrick let out a sigh. “The military got one of the bodies it has under restraints. At the moment, according to my source, they’re preparing to bring more people to contain the demon.”

  That seemed to be a good idea as a wave of relief washed over the group, slightly lifting the terrible atmosphere. But only by a little as Alyssa and her team remained unsatisfied.

  “So why can’t we just run, exactly?”

  Patrick was about to speak, but was cut off by a familiar distorted female voice.

  “Because they’ve sealed the doors.”

  Behind him, he saw a black figure emerging from the shadows, startling those near it. Everybody tensed as some backed away in caution while others ran to the complete opposite side of the entity.

  Eventually, the shadow slipped off the figure like a blanket as the familiar face of his unfriendly teammate broke through the veil of darkness.

  “Connie?”

  She waved, her face looking irritated as per usual and somehow more tired.

  “What do you mean sealed? We’re trapped here?”

  Connie nodded. “That’s right.”

  Now panic ensued as some tested that theory as they tried entering the Medbay, but to no avail as the metal doors remained unmoved. Some cracked open the door leading to their dormitory, taking a peek at the exit leading to the outside only to find that the door had disappeared, replaced by a stone wall similar to the rest of the room. They were truly trapped here.

  Alyssa sank to her feet, her eyes welling up with tears as the fire in her eyes dulled. “It’s over for us…”

  Others were of similar reactions as many stood there motionless, their eyes dulled and grey as they completely lost hope.

  Connie approached Patrick and patted his shoulder. “This is just a copy I made of myself so I can’t stay long. But please get them up and about again.”

  He looked at her incredulously. “How?!”

  She shrugged. “That’s for you to figure out. Frankly, I don’t really care about them but Leo seems to I guess. So do your best!”

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  With a thumbs up, her body fell down like water, returning to the dark below. .

  Motivate them? He couldn’t even motivate himself for this task! How could he even bring people in like this? A speech? Would that even work?

  His head began to hurt as he struggled to think of a way to get them up and moving, sinking down as his back slid against the stone wall. Sitting down on the cold floor, his hand held his head as he continued thinking.

  No matter how he looked at it, the situation was as hopeless as everybody saw it. They couldn’t fight a demon any greater than a baron, let alone a regular soldier. These people had no training nor did he know how much experience they even have killing demons. But from the looks of things, they had little to none at all.

  The regular civilian would just run at the sight, not bothering to fight. Why? Because it was pointless!

  Demons were basically unkillable for the normal person because they didn’t bring a physical body into their world, but a sort of manifestation of its body. That meant if they ‘died’ in battle, they would just make a new body from scratch from where their real bodies were.

  If it were a foot soldier or maybe a low-level baron, then this instance wouldn’t be the case, but Patrick knew that colonels’ would usually be on par with at least Marquis, which were already three levels above that of a baron!

  This meant they didn’t feel fear, didn’t feel worry, didn’t feel hesitation.

  Those abominable things felt nothing other than joy in battle. The rush it gave them left no pause in their actions, only the singular goal of annihilating the being standing against them.

  Of course, there were exceptions to that, but those kinds of people were a dime in a dozen!

  So how in the world could he motivate people faced with a situation against a nigh-immortal being like that?! Everybody here was basically fodder compared to that monstrosity!

  Patrick’s mind went into overdrive with the sole purpose of finding a way to encourage the people. If not, their future is guaranteed death.

  ‘Ack, just why can’t people understand this is better than nothing! C’mon, Patrick, you’ve got this. Leo’s depending on you right now, you can’t let him down! Think! Think! Thin-’

  A hand on his shoulder jerked him out of his thoughts. Turning to his right, he saw Joshua with a weak, but warm smile as he looked at him with care.

  “Patrick. You don’t need to think so hard. You don’t owe that to us. If anything, we owe it to you for being there for us.”

  Confused, Patrick couldn’t understand what he meant by those words. He had been there? When? How?

  A weak voice broke out from his lips, slightly catching Joshua off guard. “I haven’t been there for you guys…I never have been…Look at me, I’m such a coward.” He raised a trembling hand for Joshua to see. “Look at me, I can barely hold myself together.”

  A chuckle escaped Joshua’s lips as he brightly looked at Patrick, crossing his arms as he sat with his legs crossed on the cold floor. “I can see how you’re scared and confused. It’s normal. You’re still basically a kid after all!”

  ‘What?! I’m almost twenty!’

  Joshua shrugged it off. “But what I mean is that you really don’t have to make a plan for us, y’know. You should’ve just ran when you had the chance. Most would’ve. I know I would’ve. Do you know why?”

  Patrick shook his head.

  His eyes glinted with amusement. “It’s because we’re cowards! The lot of us! How else do you think we’ve made it this far? How else do you think we’ve killed when we needed to? It’s not because of some big goal of becoming stronger or better. It’s not because of some big noble cause. It’s because we’re scared. It’s because we’re desperate. It’s because we’re hoping that the next day, maybe, just maybe we’ll be able to see the beautiful rising sun. That the next hour, we’ll be able to see the vast sky covering the world.”

  He paused to catch his breath before continuing. “It’s because we’re hoping that in the next second, we’ll be able to take another step forward. And with that step, we live with excuses for what we did.”

  He pointed towards Alyssa. “I know she killed her friend in an opposing team in the first trial, and she’s still feeling guilty about it. But she continues on making some lame justification that she needed to survive to support her sisters.” He scoffed. “What about her friend? Did she not have a reason too?”

  He pointed at Oliver. “Oliver there left behind his family, with the excuse of needing to find a better life than out in the wilderness. But in truth, he was just tired of living the pointless life of surviving by the day. He wanted to make a name for himself! And so he took some of his family’s rations and left without a word. Is that not the definition of being selfish?”

  Patrick looked at him bewildered by his words. He had lived in his family, all with the common goal of being stronger to serve the family. The basic idea of fearing for one’s life was foreign to him, let alone desperation.

  If anything, today was the first time he was experiencing genuine fear for his life. No, it wasn’t that. It was fear for the lives of those around him. All around him, people were scared, yelling not out of anger, but out of fear that their future would cease to exist.

  There was also the fact that they were all suddenly being put into such an absurd situation that caused many to simply stop thinking.

  It wasn’t because of some big conflict, nor was it because of personal hate towards them. It was because they were just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

  Joshua, with a warm smile, patted him on the shoulder. “But you see, Patrick. In that cowardice, is a hidden motive they have for this fear. You know what that is?”

  Not a word came out, so Joshua answered. “It’s the will to live.” He motioned his hand towards the group. “Look at them, Patrick. They’re scared because they want to live. They’re desperate to cling onto a hope that they can’t find themselves.”

  He poked Patrick’s chest with an index finger, pointing at him. “From what I see, you’ve got that hope. You just don’t know how to convey it to those idiots.”

  He pointed at Patrick’s head. “The problem is you’re trying to speak with what’s up there! What you need to do, instead, is…”

  He poked at his chest. “You need to speak with your heart. Say what comes natural. Don’t say words that aren’t yours. Instead, just give it your all. After all…”

  He got up as he pushed off his knees, stretching his arms up. With a smile, he left, leaving behind one final message.

  “...the life of a coward is about giving it your all.”