"Where the hell did this kid come from?!" Josh shouted in surprise, while pointing at Virgil's quiet figure.
Virgil was already a cultivator powerful to a point where any undead would not be able to harm him.. so Daniel decided to let him out of the pocket dimension he had created for him, and allow him to experience this foreign world, and if possible, gain a bit of fighting experience.
The group observed as Virgil walked in front of Daniel, and stood quietly in wait.
To the others this behaviour was odd, but Daniel knew perfectly well what Virgil was doing. He was aware that Daniel was able to read minds, so he was trying to communicate with him through his thoughts.. But since Daniel was unable to read Virgil's mind due to the odd blockade that prevented mental warriors from scouting other people's minds, he moved his hands into a few gestures which meant "I can't read your mind here. Use your hands."
Virgil quickly understood, and began to talk to Daniel with the use of the sign language that they both knew.
"Is that sign language?.. What do you guys think they are saying?" Asked Alex before biting into the piece of meat he was holding in his hands.
"Why did you take me out?" Asked Virgil while standing straight as an arrow, and looking at Daniel with eyes filled with confidence.
That was the state of mind that most people would be in, right after starting their cultivation. They would feel the power in their body increase by leaps and bounds, and that would fill them with endless confidence.. Until they would realize that they hadn't become special, but that they had simply reached the lowest standard of the world of cultivation.
Daniel thought for a few moments about what to say, the responded by saying out loud "Outside of these four walls are unintelligent beings who are weaker than you, but that will try everything in their power to kill you. Kill fifty, and come back."
After listening to Daniel's words, Virgil appeared a bit nervous. "Are they evil beings?" he asked with a few movements of his small hands.
"Go and see for yourself." responded Daniel before opening a door into the wall.
Virgil stood in front of the passage that Daniel had created in the wall for a few moments, then turned to look at him, and after nodding, he walked out. The passage closed right behind him.
"What are you doing!? It's dangerous outside!" Said Hannah before running in the direction of the closing passage, which shut down right before her eyes.
The rest of the group followed suit, but were ignored by Daniel.
"If you don't want to help him, just let us out! That kid will die!" Shouted Felix while standing angrily in front of Daniel. However, no matter how much they shouted or screamed, they were unable to approach Daniel closer than two meters of distance.
"We have to get out of here.. Give me a hand, I'll climb out." Said Hannah to George, which was high and strong enough to help her up the wall, and out of the room.
George turned towards Hannah and placed his back against the wall, then bent his knees, and joined his hands. Hannah run-up to him, and after placing her right foot on his joined hands, darted up at a high speed.
However.. the moment her fingertips were about to touch the topmost part of the wall, the wall grew taller at a mind boggling speed. Before Hannah could ever touch the ground, the walls were already hundreds of meters tall, making it seem that they were at the bottom of a square well. As the group stared at the wall in dismay, it slowly went back to its original size.
"Why did you let him out? He is just a kid!" said Felix to Daniel in clear anger.
Without turning to look back at him, Daniel muttered "Not kid.. Cultivator."
Just as he finished speaking, loud noises came from the other side of the wall, and numerous lights shone above their heads like fireworks. The moaning of the dead ones was muzzled by the crashing of waves, the sound of rock breaking apart, the crackle of fire.. And the sound of thunder.. Until finally, in a matter of minutes, there was silence once again.
The opening in the wall that had closed a few minutes earlier, leaving Virgil out by himself, opened one more time. Behind it, was the nine years old kid.. covered in darkish blood and gooey substances. His eyes were wide open, and he was breathing heavily.
He walked back in front of Daniel, and with trembling hands he gestured "I killed them."
"You didn't kill anything. Those people were already dead. Just moving corpses which were trying to kill you. It will be a lot different from when you will kill those who killed your family." Responded Daniel while creating a layer of water around Virgil, and cleaning him up from the remnants of his prey.
Moments later, Virgil was clean and dry.
"Now that you've experienced forcing your way into survival, do you think you would be able to do that to living humans?" He asked while looking at him straight in the eye.
Virgil closed his little fist, thinking if he would be able to take a life in order to save his own.. But before he could give a clear answer to Daniel's question, the scream of a woman came from far down the road, causing the heads of all of them to turn in that direction.
Daniel extended his sensing ability in order to observe what was happening, and what he saw, was a horde composed of thousands of dead ones, follow a limp girl down the street. What had made this girl limp was not a bite mark, but a knife wound on her thigh.
At the same time, about thirty meters ahead, was a young man that ran away in desperation. In his hand, was a bloody hunting knife.
Ever since Daniel had sensed them, the situation had been solved. He wouldn't have allowed the two living humans to be killed by this horde of undead, but he decided not to intervene, as he had something else in mind.
He turned to look at Virgil, and said "You are still young, but you have more power than anybody else in this planet. You can use your power for survival, but that's only a necessity.. What is the purpose of it?"
Virgil turned to look back at Daniel, and getured the word "Revenge.."
Daniel shook his head faintly, then said "That is temporary. What can you do with your power?" He asked once again. He wanted him to get to it on his own, so that he wouldn't think that he had been lead into that path of life by him, when he would think back to this moment, later in life.
There clearly was a right answer to this question, and someone with Virgil's age was too young to find it.. But that did not stop him from thinking about it. His memory went back to what he had gone through.. His parents being killed, him and his brother being attacked by the followers of those who his parents believed to be their closest friends.. And finally, being saved by Daniel.
The moment his mind reached the last of these memories, his eyes opened wide, and he made a single gesture directed at Daniel, which after seeing it, said "Go then." He then opened the passage one more time, and looked as Virgil ran out with confidence.
The sign that Virgil had used, meant "Protect."
—–
"Please help me!! Don't leave me here!" Screamed the girl to the escaping man as larger and larger quantities of blood gushed out of her wound, and dripped down her leg. The dead ones were hot on her trail, and if she stopped for even a second, she could be caught and torn to pieces.
"YOU ARE FUCKING CRAZY! STAY AWAY FROM ME!!" Shouted the man in response as he stumbled in the numerous obstacles that littered the street. "STOP FOLLOWING ME!!"
The girl was crying visibly, and her expression was one of sheer anxiousness and terror.. Exactly the emotions that a demon from the Church of Damnation would hope to feast on, when starting such a terrifying scenario in the world that was assigned to him or her.
The pain that came from the girl's leg became stronger and stronger, and the strain and loss of blood was causing her to waver uncontrollably.. Until finally, she stumbled upon her own foot, and fell on the cold ground.
"AAAAAAAAHHH!" she screamed as she turned to see the wave of undead reach her like a barrier of death ready to claim her life.. But moments before this horde could reach her, a kid appeared in between the two.
Virgil dropped on his knees and placed his palms above the pavement of the road, which quickly began to crack, and tremble, then rose to form a barrier between him and the group of moaning corpses.
He then focused on the control of the earth essence, and before losing it, he forced this barrier to grow thirty meters taller, and until it was in the shape of a massive tombstone with hundreds of corpses at its base. Then, before the undead ones could find a way through or around the slab of stone, Virgil forced it down on their heads, crashing them completely.. And burying them underneath the road.
"Wuuuhh.. Thank you!" said the injured girl while bawling uncontrollably. She just had a closer encounter to death than most could say to have had, and had barely managed to get out alive, so it was understandable for her to be unable to stop herself from crying her emotions out.
However, despite being able to guess what the girl had said, Virgil was unable to understand her language, so he helped her up, and dragged her towards the area where Daniel was in order to have him help with her injuries.
Hannah, George, and the rest of their group had been let out by Daniel so that they could witness to what was happening, and once it was all over, Alex ran towards the escaping man, and shouted "YOU COWARD PIECE OF SHIT!"
The man was fazed by what had happened just a few meters behind him, and didn't expect for someone to attack him, so when Alex reached him, he was unable to prevent him from tackling him to the ground.
Once on top of the man, he grabbed his fist, and slammed it against the ground until the young man let go of the bloody knife.. then began to punch his face repeatedly. He not only had refused to listen to the cries of help of the girl, but had also stabbed her leg so that she could distract the horde of undead from coming at him. In Alex's eyes, he deserved to be eaten alive.
The rest of the group ran towards Virgil, which was carrying the injured girl as if she weighted nothing, and tried to help him out..
Virgil was too short, and even if the girl's weight was nothing to him, his size didn't allow him to pick her up from the ground completely, so he allowed Felix and George, which were the tallest people of the group, to carry her back into the four safe walls that Daniel had created.
When the group entered, Daniel lifted his head and look at the girl with the faintest of smiles.
Meanwhile, the man was trying to desperately cover his face from the fists that were raining down on his face. "Stop! STOP!" he shouted in between punches.
After landing a few good punches, Alex calmed himself down and got off the young man.. He then said with disgust "How could you do something like that.. We are all trying to survive! You disgusting piece of shit!"
The man looked at Alex with fear, and yet, as if he had gotten everything wrong. "NO!.. I-I don't know her!.. She appeared out of nowhere.. stabbed her own leg.. She then put the knife in my hands.. She is crazy.."
