Chapter 64:

Rine gasped into consciousness drenched in a cold sweat. As the drowsiness left him, what came instead were intense bouts of wide-spread pain. Still, the pain meant that he was still alive and that brought him brief relief.

Struggling to sit upright, he began to scan his surroundings. The room was tidy but unfamiliar; furthermore, far from being a hospital, it resembled a home more than anything else. Suddenly, he flinched as he recalled something important.

“Amelia, Calvin, Roe…….” He paused, holding back his tears. “Cort!” He gnashed his teeth in anger and stood up suddenly.

A sudden bout of dizziness caused his steps to falter but his anger remained true. He made his way toward the unremarkable door which was left ajar, but as he approached he noticed the sound of people conversing behind it.

Approaching slowly and quietly, he pressed his ear against the door and the voices grew clear. A man and two women; the man’s identity was obvious and Rine could guess who one of the women was, but the other?

“...In Sirocco's infirmary where, after recovering, they’ll probably be subjected to an interrogation,” One of the women said. By the tone of her voice, Rine guessed that she wasn’t the one with a fox mask.

“Then they should be fine, now can we move on? More importantly, hand over the map!” That was definitely the Fox-masked woman.

“Good, so the boy’s friends aren’t in any immediate danger,” Cort said a little too loudly as if he wanted Rine to hear, “This should help him alleviate some of his guilt,”

Relief washed over Rine but soon that was replaced with shame as he remembered the hundreds his “dark version” killed.

“Guilt-schmilt. Map!”

“Would you like me to top off your tea, Cort?”

“Yes, thank you, Lucy. Also, would you mind passing me the sugar?”

“Sure. You seem to have a bit of a sweet tooth. Or is that also a front,” Suddenly the conversation seemed to grow tense.

“I don’t think you of all people should be talking about false faces, Lucy,”

“When have I ever lied?”

“Not a lie per se, but am I to believe that a simple librarian’s daughter has ties with a powerful criminal?”

“Who are you calling a criminal, bastard,”

“You of course,”

“Tch, this bitch!”

“You see she’s a childhood friend of mines,”

Rine listened as Cort and the other woman, Lucy, continued to talk over the masked fox. Experiencing a slight pity for Fox, Rine felt his anger subside.

He left the door and headed toward the bed but a faint ray of light drew his eye. Noticing the window, he headed toward it, and upon arriving, he drew the drapes.

“Phentar…” He muttered in disbelief. Suddenly feeling nostalgic, his eyes scanned every inch of the place, and upon seeing the forest, a face popped into his mind.

“Old man Carson!” His expression brightened and he excitedly opened the window. But he soon frowned after noticing that he was on the second floor, making jumping a bit tricky. Forget doing it while he was injured, he had no confidence jumping at peak health either.

Scanning the room for anything that may be of help, his eyes came to rest upon his bedsheets whereupon a small smile surfaced on his face.

…………………………………………

Cort watched Fox tip her mask up before boldly chugging down a glass of wine. Luckily, or rather unluckily, she seemed to be a good drinker and wasn't drunk yet despite this being her second bottle.

Briefly, he wondered whether the wine of this world wasn’t as strong as that of Earth’s, but soon he shook his head ‘No, even back home, there are different types of wine with varying strengths,’

He chose to cease such useless thoughts. Though appearing casual, this situation was anything but.

It had already been three days since escaping the battlefield. During this time, Cort was lucky enough to maintain his consciousness, making sure that Fox did not have the opportunity to forcefully take the map from his ring.

To her credit, Fox did nothing of the sort and even gave them ample time to heal. Three days was quite generous, especially considering her disposition.

“You’re thinking nasty thoughts of me aren’t ya?!” She exclaimed angrily after Cort gave her a short glance.

On the second day after fleeing, news from the battlefield came in. The rebellious adventurers fled after receiving a large number of casualties. But the damage was not one-sided. Sorting through the various rumors floating about, it seemed like Borris was heavily damaged as well.

Also, many names were spread out. The vicious child prodigy Rine and his masked friend, the bold Cale and his masked friend. The Fox masked….

‘Hmm, there sure are a lot of masks going around, perhaps I need to change my M.O,’

“Oi, you’re ignoring me on purpose aren’t you!” Fox said as she slammed the bottle of wine onto the table, at some point, she had begun to drink directly from it, completely forgoing any modicum of respect offered by a glass cup. “Or what, have you fallen for me? “Sorry Lucy, it seems like your boyfriend has become enamored with my dashing figure!”

“Yes, even I felt my heart flutter,” Lucy answered back.

“Really? Then!”

“Just kidding,”

Studying their lackadaisical banter, Cort deduced a few things.

One; these two have known each other for a while.

Two; they weren’t in much of a hurry, meaning that they did not have another piece of the map to chase down, or if they did, they were confident.

His piece being the last….. This had both benefits and disadvantages attached to it. On one hand, it meant that they would be more desperate in acquiring his piece, while on the other, it meant that even if he wanted to collect the pieces himself, he needed to go through them.

Well, it wasn’t like he had to do that anyway. He thought of another map, one given to him by an old man who was now gone.

‘Rine should have reached the spot by now,’

While the two women were rebuking each other, Cort’s ring flashed as he took out the map piece and placed it onto the table.

His actions halted the other two’s conversation.

“What gives?” Fox asked blatantly.

“Oho?” Lucy followed suit.

“With this, our deal is done. Now if you'll excuse me,” He stood to his feet, “I’ve a boy to train,”

“Train? He shouldn't even use his magic anyway,” Fox replied while fiddling with the map piece.

“Make sure you tell him properly about his core,” Lucy added on.

…………………………………………

The closer Rine approached Carson’s grave, the giddier he felt. He couldn’t wait to see how the old fogey would react to seeing him as he was now; a bonafide Core formation magician.

Hell, it even seemed like the gods wanted him to reach the old man safely as he hadn’t met a single monster on the way.

‘Not a single one…’

Deep within, he felt troubled. There was something wrong; a quiet dread that grew louder in volume the closer he got. No that wasn’t right, it wasn’t the stillness that worried him, but rather the distinct lack of it.

‘What’s going on?’ He pondered as he listened to the birds chirp happily away. Ordinarily, as one approached Carson’s grave, the presence of other living beings would wane save for the few strong predators who were naturally lesser in number.

‘Something isn’t right,’ By now the excitement in his heart had faded and his steps grew frantic.

It wasn’t until he smelled the blood that he broke out into a sprint.

A few minutes later and there he stood, in front of the gaping crater that used to be Carson’s grave. He gagged, smelling the rancid stench of rotting monster corpses which formed an eerily neat circle around the crater as if by human design.

‘O-old man…’ Rine thought in defeat as he fell to his knees. All at once, everything hit him like a wild truck.

All those people he killed…

All those innocent souls, no older than he…

Was this the price for it all? Was the loss of Carson judgment from the gods.

He could no longer hold back the tears and they fell freely from his eyes. Carson, the only person willing to give him a chance, a chance to be better, stronger.

As the negative emotions roiled about inside him, mixing, intensifying, and multiplying; he began to unconsciously rotate his new core. The pain was immediate and all-consuming, but he no longer cared; rather, he relished it.

At some point he had passed out and was now in the dilapidated village within his consciousness, standing before the door to his room.

Upon opening it he was greeted by the sight of a truly horrendous thing.

Where once a brilliant sun spun proudly in the center of the sky, now a dead sphere cracked and crumbling limped along, barely rotating despite itself.

His core was truly and utterly shattered.

But he did not care.

He no longer cared about the old man’s death, he no longer cared for the intense pain wracking his very being, he no longer cared for the mocking smile present on dark Rine’s face behind bars.

‘What’s the point, I deserve this,’

Though damaged, a core was a core and soon, Rine found himself brimming with Origin so potent it sent shivers down his aching spine.

And at just the right time as a faint rustling sound brought him back into his senses. There, over by the bushes a figure emerged. Perfect.

“Crying again, are we?” Cort uttered robotically. His tone was neither sympathetic nor mocking.

‘This is the true him,’ Rine realized. This man; this thing, it had no soul.

‘Don’t become me….’ He had once been told by the soulless man, and back then he had truly listened.

‘Then why,’ He looked to his bandaged hands from which, blood that was not his own seeped. ‘Why are my hands so filthy…’ A fire sprouted from within his palms and soon a ball formed. Were Carson to see this, he’d have been shocked. The young magician had not uttered a single word nor had he chanted a single verse, yet the spell activated.

Instantaneous casting.

Cort’s eyes narrowed as he retrieved a bow and arrow from his ring.

After the first, a second bundle of flames appeared and the two began dancing around each other both repelling and attracting their partner.

Then a third, and a fourth followed by a fifth. Soon enough a dozen or so balls of fire rotated around each other in an orchestrated waltz.

It was as beautiful as it was frightening.

“Fuck everything!” Rine screamed into the forest before coughing out an alarming amount of blood. In response to his enthusiasm, the bundles of flames shot out in every direction. In contrast to their initially graceful appearance, the attack itself was sloppy and unrefined with attacks wantonly spreading out in every direction.

Cort took in a deep breath as his eyes sharpened and the world around him slowed down.

Identifying the most immediate threats, he shot out two arrows in quick succession before charging forward. The spell’s simple nature meant that reading its trajectory was simple enough, thus predicting it was a breeze.

Boom! Each arrow met its respective target in an explosion of Origin, wood, and steel.

Cort’s eyebrows tilted upwards slightly. The spell was stronger than it looked.

‘Interesting…’

After effortlessly dodging the barrage of attacks, Cort appeared before Rine with his fist cocked; at some point, he had discarded his bow.

“Survive,” Cort advised.