Chapter 35: Going Out, Why Is Everything Different?
Richard held both daggers in his hands. The new pattern engraved on the metal and the strange gem in the center of the weapon might seem grotesque to anyone, but to him they were a work of art.
No one understood better than he what he truly had in his hands. Could anyone comprehend what it meant to possess a weapon with an ego? Obviously no one could imagine the magnitude of such an enviable treasure… and now he had something for which all of humanity would be willing to fight.
"...Although that means I'll have to invest a lot of resources in you."
It didn't matter. As long as he could improve the daggers' talent as their power increased, any cost was acceptable. Richard wanted to caress both blades, but he ended up sheathing them. He didn't want to be labeled a pervert. After all, inside those weapons dwelt the soul of a girl.
"I almost feel bad for deceiving her…"
At first he had thought of ending Isolda's life. It could be taken as if he wanted to honor Elías's last wish as thanks for his talent. But he also wanted to be selfish. Throughout his life he had barely seen three beings with an alma and a partially immortal body, and that was saying a lot considering he had delved into the depths of the abysses in search of at least one way to obtain a talent.
The first had been an eight-headed serpent. Each head represented a different personality and the hunting difficulty lay in that it could not die unless all its heads were destroyed at the same time.
The second had been a human soul that had managed to obtain a body thanks to their spiritual talent and which had, strangely, been corrupted by the Doomsday phenomenon.
The third had been that damned leech that had made his life miserable his whole life. It could control people so well that no one could tell if they were a puppet or a real person.
[Weapon Created: Crimson Oath] [Ego: Isolda][Rank: B]
[Affinity: Necroplasma energy]
[Durability: Medium]
[Special ability: Minor Absorption, Nightmare Miasma, Organic Corrosion]
Richard looked at the condition of the daggers. He nearly jumped for joy. In a moment like that he wished he had brought a bottle of alcohol and some snacks — a perfect celebration to welcome his new weapons.
"Wait… Rank B?"
The warm touch he was giving the daggers stopped. His spirits dropped as if they had never risen in the first place.
"How can it be that my weapon has a talent greater than mine…?" he murmured, shaking his head to dispel those thoughts.
This life was playing a bad trick on him. His luck had run out with his transmigration, though it wasn't as if he had been lucky in his past life enough to be called the favored child of fate.
The sound of footsteps made him turn. Richard had been so absorbed in all his treasures that he had forgotten his companions.
"W-what the hell did I just see?!"
The dust of ash made Damián cover his face as he limped forward, dragging his right leg. He had probably dislocated it. Adrenaline was, without a doubt, the hormone keeping a tired man standing.
Richard watched them. Two fragile figures.
"These two are like specks of dust in a blizzard…"
The genuine worry on their faces made him forget Damián's remark. They were his comrades-in-arms; they had fought covering his back. In that moment he understood them better than ever. Nothing forged brotherhood like a battlefield in hard times.
"What can I say? This is my true talent… word control."
The lie came out naturally. It was the best lie he could come up with at the last moment. Could a young man with a broken mind fall for that claim without thinking twice? It's not like he hadn't shown he could form symbols with blood in the same way Elías had.
Hearing the answer, Damián grabbed his hands as if they were the greatest treasures of humanity. His eyes shone with a hint of curiosity.
"I see… so you can control everything just by writing, even form words using various elements around you. That's an amazing skill… you could also create explosions like me."
And apparently Damián's weird brain had saved the day again.
"Yes… of course I can."
Richard sighed. There was nothing left to do but wait for John to wake. Damián, for his part, collapsed once the adrenaline left his body.
The human body was fascinating. In the end he was left alone again and his eyelids began to close, the fatigue weighing on them like lead. The energy he had expended was taking its toll.
Sleep was pulling him under. Richard looked for a place to rest, a corner free of scorch marks. The fire had long since died, and the last thing he wanted was to wake up with his face covered in ash.
* * * *
As he had imagined, the tumble of ash had turned Richard's clothes into funeral attire. Although there was no time to complain about it.
The sky began to fill with crystalline fragments. The entire pavilion where they were darkened, just as it had at the beginning, when they had been brought to this crazy place.Drowsy, Richard calmed his pounding heart that was beating a thousand times. Now he understood why one should not wake someone with a loud noise; people were fragile by nature, and when asleep, even more so.
[Error Error Error, system failing, proceeding with the elimination of foreign territory]
That dreadful message reappeared in the sky. To Richard's eyes it seemed that everything should be normal; after all, everything had already been completed, the error in the sky was nothing more than the subspace they were in breaking apart.How wrong he had been at that moment. It was like contemplating the entire abyss shattered, madness and absolute chaos. There was no way to describe what Richard was seeing: the only thing that could be said was that what dwelt on the other side of that dark space was something far too dangerous.
Those blood-filled pupils that seemed to look into every corner of his soul. And no matter how much you wanted to look away, you couldn't, feeling weaker and weaker."What the hell was that?"
Could you ever imagine staring the apex predator in the eyes? That was the sensation: total helplessness. However, as time passed, the creature seemed to lose interest in Richard, as if he were an insignificant being.Everything shattered like a mirror struck by a ball. The strange phenomenon disappeared as if it had never happened in the first place. But from what dimension had that entity originally come?
Weren't they supposed to face only the infected? Richard's mind was chaos. Since accepting this mission, he had discovered that the infected of his world were only the tip of the iceberg of all the shit the universe could throw at him.
Richard carried Damián and John on his back. Later he would return for Elías's body; he wanted to give him a proper burial. But the priority was to find Noah. He had to tell him everything and, above all, find out how much time they had spent inside.
The hallways were no longer as he remembered. Richard quickly reached the exit."When did it become morning?"He covered his eyes with his hand. The sun shone high, a beacon offering faint hope."When did the sun start to shine again?"
He looked confused at the wasteland where they were. Everything was the same as when he had come with Noah, except for the bright sun, the absence of rain, and the notable absence of Noah.The refuge, or whatever it was where they had been, was a mess, but he doubted very much that Noah had abandoned them just like that. Feeling his companions awaken, Richard proceeded to shake them."Wake up, both of you…"
He had to discuss the next steps with them. He had not memorized the path; if they found a vehicle, at least they could find out what had happened."Is it morning already?"
The first to wake was Johan. Still with bones aching from the fight, he couldn't help a grimace of pain on his first attempt to get up from the ground."Did we manage to get out of that damn place?"
Richard gave his friend a quick look before helping him up. A few steps away there was a block of concrete, so he dragged him there to sit."Yes, we got out… although I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."
Damián was the next to react, stirring with groans. Upon regaining consciousness, he let out a guttural grunt, hugging his own body as if trying to contain the pain that tore through his muscles."Man, never again am I going on any mission Noah gives me."
He turned his gaze to Richard."Are we still alive? Damn… I thought I had already gone to hell."
He got up with difficulty. The metallic taste burned in his mouth, so he spat a thread of dried blood onto the ground, a remnant of all the blows he had taken."And Noah? Where the hell is Noah?" asked Damián. He wanted to settle some unfinished business with that old man.
Now that he thought about it, he had every right to complain about him. Although, looking closely, not even the vehicle they had come in was there.
Richard shrugged, his face hardened by distrust."That's what I want to know."