Chapter 2: Edge of Corruption “Kill me.” I laughed at my father’s ironic words as he released me from my chains. *Clang clang* The heavy chains bound around my wrist fell and hit the floor. I looked at my father and shook my head, “Kill you? I have no desire to kill you anymore, Father.” Do I hate my father for what he did to me? No. Not anymore. There was a time when I was crazy enough to take a dagger to my heart if I could get him back just once, but now, I didn’t care anymore. I continued, “Death does not hold the same value to me anymore. What is it to me if you died? If anything, I would have to deal with the Imperiosus and… Mother as well.” “That’s right. If you killed me, it means nothing to you,” he paused and leaned back on the chair he was sitting on, “But my death would be of benefit to Dominia.” I gave my father an inquiring look. He continued, “You sister has become a Militis and is following your mother’s footsteps to be baptized as an Arceo so that she may be a paladin of Dominia, but you… You have chosen to follow my footsteps as an Impersiosus.” I nodded my head. If the Arceo was the shield of Dominia, then the Impersiosus was the dagger. When souls lost in the abyss or the outer world were not recovered in time, then they would corrupt and become Monstrum. With the passage of time, large waves of Monstrum would form and floor into Dominia. The Arceo were tasked with the defense of Dominia while the Impersiosus would look for Monstrum hidden within the population and get rid of them. This was basic knowledge that was taught to all children from birth. There were many other paths one could walk as they aged, but I had decided to follow after my father. He was renowned as one of the most effective Impersiosus for his efficiency and success. He never failed a mission he was given. But now that I knew about the Twin Recasus, I could understand why. I looked at my father’s eyes and noticed a brief hesitation before he asked, “Do you know what the most important quality an Impersiosus must have?” I frowned at his question and nodded my head. Everything came together. It was like the feeling I got when I was able to align all the pieces of a chessboard towards my inevitable victory. “Resilience to corruption.” My father nodded while releasing his breath, “That’s right. You’ve understood.” “Just now…” I spoke while clenching my fists, “You were testing me?” “No. I wasn’t simply testing your resilience. I was perfecting it.” *Ding* ~~~~~ Skill Acquired: Resilience to Corruption (Advanced Lv: 5 | 0%) Your mind has developed a strong resilience to corruption. Whenever your mind is inflicted with an abnormal side effect, then it will be alleviated after 5 seconds. ~~~~~ I was bitter. I wanted to be angrier, sadder, feel something more, but the feelings that swirled within my mind dissipated the moment they arose. ‘Resilience? Isn’t this just apathy?’ “Damn,” I cursed. Not out of anger but habit. “Now for the final test,” my father spoke slowly, “If you are able to complete this task, then you will take my place as an Impersiosus. Are you—” “Wait. You’re not going to ask me to kill you again are you? I still don’t understand why I have to kill you.” I knew what he was suggesting, but I wanted to figure out why. He responded to me with a chuckle, “You don’t have to kill me. It’s not a requirement actually, but it is your responsibility.” “Responsibility?” My eyes grew wide in shock, “Then…” “Right again,” he admitted while chuckling again. “I’ve reached the tipping point.” His face twitched and contorted. “Soon, I will join the darkness… and bring instability to Dominia. No, Cogito, everyone is a liability…” His breathing became heavier and he dropped the Recasus he was holding onto the floor. “Kill me.” *Ding* ~~~~~ Class Quest: Path of an Impersiosus Your father, a once mighty Impersiosus, has become corrupt and is becoming a Monstrum. You must kill him within the time limit or else he will begin rampaging and bring instability to Dominia. Difficulty: E Reward: Can change to the Impersiosus class. Warning: If you fail to kill him within the time limit, difficult will rise to A. You cannot reject this quest. ~~~~~ *Ding* ~~~~~ Quest accepted. Time remaining: 2 minutes ~~~~~ “Are you serious?” I stared into my father’s eyes as he stared back into mine with a pleading look in his eyes. Everything happened so quickly. My father’s words replayed in my mind as my mind processed the information bit by bit. ‘Not like this… This isn’t going to work… If I had more time…’ *Ding* ~~~~~ Time remaining: 1 minutes ~~~~~ ‘Then, there’s only one thing I can do…’ I raised the Recasus Father had given me. *Stab* *Ding* ~~~~~ You have died. You will be revived in 3… 2… 1… ~~~~~ --- I looked proud at my son. He had killed me with our family heirloom, no hesitation, just anger and sheer determination. ‘How many times must that have taken him? I remember the time when I had to go through the Morionis bapti—’ “Father, I know what I have to do now.” My son’s voice interrupted my reminiscing. I stared at my son as he stared back at me with a strange determination in his eyes. Last I remember was him killing me, but I’m sure I got him back after that. ‘Did he realize?’ “I’m going to kill you.” ‘Amusing. So this is what it feels like to be on the receiving end…Judging from the determination in his voice, I can see that he’s made up his mind. But since I’m still alive, that means he didn’t kill me yet…What happened?’ It was a bit unsettling, but my son had found a way to gain the upper hand on me. I thought he would have killed me for sure when he found out about my… condition. ‘His resilience to corruption is already beyond mine.’ I smirked. ‘Very good.’ “I have no doubt that you will, my son, but why haven’t you kill me yet?” My son smiled, pure and innocent, “I wanted to spend a little more time with you.” My heart ached. Here I was trying to mold my son into a cold blooded killing machine using whatever despicable means I could, but my son just wanted to spend time with me. I wanted to remain strong until the end, but I couldn’t. The tears that swelled in my eyes betrayed me. “Son, it’s your win. It’s unfortunate but I won’t be able to be by your side after this. The stakes have changed, and the game you will be playing has changed as well. Can you win?” I asked while holding out the Recasus in my hands to him. “Of course,” he replied confidently while taking the dagger from my hand, “It’s just a game, right?” I laughed while nodding my head, “That’s right, my son. It’s just a game.” ‘Show those monsters, the power of the Morionis family.’ I closed my eyes as my son crossed both of his daggers in front of my throat. *Slice* ‘Phi, it’s your turn now…’ My body relaxed and I let out the last of my breath. … I devoted a good chunk of my life establishing the peace of Dominia within the frame that Clautz worked so hard to create. Dominia was only stable on the outside, but I had every intention of making the false sense of security that the masses felt a true reality. I think I did well. Getting rid of the crazies, those on the verge of corruption, while holding onto my own sanity wasn’t easy. But in the end, the crazies got me too. That’s why I’m going to leave it up to you, son. Don’t let them get you, too… ‘Ah, I’m glad I could die a father…’ --- *Ding* ~~~~~ Class Quest: Path of an Impersiosus [II] After learning that your father had become corrupt, you killed him with no regrets. Since you killed him before he became a Monstrus, a huge disaster has been avoided, but since there were no witnesses, you will not be able to become an Impersiosus until you are officially recognized and fame will not increase until your deeds are uncovered. Find a way to be recognized and accepted by the Impersiosus. Reward: Can change to the Impersiosus class. ~~~~~ *Ding* ~~~~~ Level Up: Dagger Mastery (Advanced Lv: 3 | 0%) After fighting against a master of the dagger in countless life and death battles, your dagger mastery has improved by leaps and bounds. When you fight using a dagger, attack routes will be highlighted and attack speed will increase by 80% after you have determined a route of attack. If an enemy is using a dagger, then their attack patterns can be analyzed and shown as well, but enemies with a higher dagger mastery than you may deviate from the predicted attack patterns. ~~~~~ I looked at my father’s corpse. He was smiling. “Create resurrection point.” *Ding* ~~~~~ You have created a resurrection point. The next time you die, you will be revived here. ~~~~~ “I have no regrets either, Father.” ‘But how am I going to explain this to Mother and Amber?’ I looked up the stairs of the basement leading towards the living room and started my way towards the door. ‘I feel like I’m going to have to go through a lot of trial and error…’ *Tick Tock… Tick Tock…* As I climbed up the stairs, I noticed the clock hanging above the door. ‘4:13 AM… I woke up in the middle of the night, was knocked out, and awoke in the basement. It’s been at most… three hours? Shit… I’m going to have to get used to the temporal adjustments.’ “Where is it?!” A shout interrupted my thoughts. It was coming from the living room. On full alert, I crept little by little until I was behind the door and listened in. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” It was my mother’s voice. “Don’t lie to me, bitch! As you are right now, I could kill you.” I readied my daggers. ‘This can’t be coincidence. Father was very meticulous with the traps he placed around the house. I didn’t even notice them until a week ago when he forced me to kill the intruders who were foolish enough to get caught in them… Could this be another test?’ “Commander, I can’t find the girl or the necklace. There’s no traces of her husband or son either.” ‘Another person. Seems like I’ll have to be careful, or at least, that’s what I would have had to be a few hours ago. Hm… And a commander? Looks like I am dealing with militia. What are they doing here?’ “Leave my family out of this,” my mother hissed. *Thud* I heard a body hit the floor, which I assumed was my mother’s because she was now coughing in agony. “Have you checked the basement yet?” the commander asked. “Wait! Don’t go int—” *Whack* “Check the basement, but be careful, I noticed some half eaten food prepared on the kitchen table with a letter to her son. He should be around somewhere.” *Step Step Step* I heard footprints rush towards the basement door. ‘I guess now’s a better time than any.’ I swung the door open knocking one person back and noticed another person leaning against the wall besides the door. He was holding his sword up prepared to rush in, so when I jumped out, his body was already in motion to cut me down. ‘I’ll have to deal with him better next time.’ I extended my right arm to reduce the momentum of his swing and stabbed him in the neck with my left. ‘Not as painful as I thought.’ His body went limp, and I rolled over his body and took a quick glance behind me before taking off towards the kitchen. ‘One… Two… Five people, including the commander.’ My mother was on the floor in pretty bad shape, but it looks like she had also beat them up pretty badly. Some of the soldiers were missing limbs and their armor was dented in various places. The commander looked fine but blood was dripping down the side of his face. He was staring at me with his left hand stretched towards me. “Contabesco!” *Ding* ~~~~~ Your motor cortex has been weakened. Your body has lost its strength. ~~~~~ ‘Are you serious? Isn’t this a Diabolus spell?’ I collapsed in front of the kitchen door. *Ding* ~~~~~ Resilience to Corruption activated. In 5 seconds, your motor cortex will be restored to normal. ~~~~~ “Get rid of him!” “Cogito!” my mother cried. I didn’t have enough strength to lift my head to see the soldiers rushing towards me, but I could hear their footsteps. ‘Crap. I don’t think I’ll be alive in another three seconds.’ “Wait! Don’t kill him.” *Whoosh* I heard the sound of a sword swing through the air, but it had stopped mid-swing. “What’s the matter, commander?” I rolled my body over, pretending to still be affected by the weakening. Two soldiers were pointing their swords at me while the other one who had almost sliced my head off was waiting for the commander to reply. I was curious as well. “He has the dagger.” ‘Huh? This is bad. How does he know? It sounds like he has a countermeasure. I better restart as soon as I can.’ It didn’t look like I would last long anyway. Blood was seeping out of the gash I had received when I had exchanged blows with the soldier next to the door. I looked at my crying mother with a smile and then switched my gaze to the commander who was glaring at me. I wanted to say something cool before I killed myself but thought better not to risky anything and just went for the kill, stabbing myself in the heart. *Ding* ~~~~~ You have died. You will be revived in 3… 2… 1… ~~~~~ I only blinked, but now I was staring at my father’s corpse that had fallen on the floor. ‘Hm… that Diabolus doesn’t know that I have the Recasus yet, so I should find a way to conceal them somehow.’ I looked around for something I could use and spotted the rolls of bandages my father had used to patch up his victims before torturing them again. ‘This should do for now.’ I picked up a roll and wrapped the hilt of both daggers so that only their blades could be seen. If someone looked closely enough, then they would still be able to see the ‘M’ that was engraved on the blades, but aside from that, they looked like normal daggers. After I finished wrapping the daggers, I went up the stairs. ‘4:15 AM… Looks like I spent a little too much time wrapping the daggers.’ *Step step step* I heard footprints rush towards the basement door. ‘Here we go again!’ I swung the door open while smashing the dagger in my right hand towards the wall besides the door where I knew a soldier was waiting and used all my strength to thrust the dagger into his heart while using the counterforce to continue pushing open the door, knocking over the other soldier who was behind the door. As the door swung open, I pushed off the door frame with my right foot and used the forward momentum to tackle the third soldier who was standing further back while throwing my right dagger towards the commander. “Conta—Ugh!” The dagger I had thrown interrupted his spell, and he had to move to deflect it. When the soldier I had tackled landed on the floor, I rolled over him and continued to charge at the commander with my left dagger poised for the kill. ‘Winning War 101: Killing the head makes the body useless.’ *Thrust* “So fast…” muttered the commander before slumping over. ‘Checkmate. Now to take care of the limbs.’ I turned around to look at the soldier I had tackled. He was getting up while rubbing his head as if he were in a daze. ‘Well, I guess there’s only one left? Though I should double check after killing him. Even chickens can move for a while after their heads are severed.’ Before he could stand, I thrust my left dagger into the back of his head. When he had collapsed on the floor, I turned to my mother and smiled. “Hello Mother.” She looked stunned. Her mouth was open, but she wasn’t saying anything. ... “Eight seconds…” I raised my right eyebrow at her words. “Eight seconds from the time you opened the door to the time you killed the Diabolus… But you took a little long finishing off the last soldier.” “So this was a test?” “Huh?” she looked confused, “Is this the first time I told you? How many times did you loop?” I frowned, “Just once.” The confusion on her face turned into shock and then joy, “Marvelous! Your father would be proud!” ‘Would be…?’ “Then…” *Ka-cha* The kitchen door opened, and I turned to see my sister in tears. “Yes… We know, Coggy.” *Sigh* I felt the substance in my heart dissolve into emptiness. It was a good time to cry, but instead of crying, I sighed. Any normal kid would have cried. I mean, I had to kill my father only to found out that my mother and my sister were in on it. How do I react to something like that? Even if I went back to experience this moment again, I don’t think my reaction would differ all that much. … Mother stood up and hugged me while Amber ran in to embrace me as well. It was warm, and for a moment, I felt tears well up in my eyes. ‘At least, I’m still human.’