~~~
Jin's mind raced through his options like a cornered animal. He could spin some bullshit excuse, but Rudy wasn't stupid. He had always been too perceptive for his own good.
I can't tell him the whole truth—that I'm actually someone from another world who read about this one in novels.
But I can't lie completely either. Rudy deserves better than that, and he's too smart to buy complete bullshit.
A modified version should work. Just enough truth to be believable, with the right omissions.
Jin knelt beside his friend, relief and dread warring in his chest as consciousness slowly returned to Rudy's battered form. Blood still stained the corner of Rudy's mouth, and his purple eyes held the glassy sheen of someone who'd been through hell.
"Rudy?" Jin's voice was softer than he intended. "You're alive. Thank god, I thought—"
Rudy's hand shot out, gripping Jin's wrist with startling strength for someone who'd just been unconscious. His lips trembled as he forced words out, voice raw with confusion and fear.
"Aawsdaw... How? Hasdow didasd youda..." The words came out as garbled nonsense, tongue thick and unresponsive.
What the hell? Did he hit his head too hard?
Jin frowned, studying Rudy's face. His friend's eyes were unfocused, pupils dilated, and his words came out as gibberish.
"Aasdwawe! Wwadaw!" Rudy's voice cracked with desperation.
"Rudy, Rudy..." Jin grabbed his friend's shoulders, trying to steady him before he spiraled into complete hysteria. "Calm down, breathe. What's wrong with you?"
This isn't natural. Something's interfering with his ability to speak, to think clearly.
Jin closed his eyes, focusing on his essence and extending his senses toward Rudy. After a few seconds of careful probing, he felt it—a subtle wrongness in his friend's aura, like static interference clouding his thoughts and scrambling his ability to speak coherently.
Yeah, this is definitely a fucking curse.
Fucking cultists. Of course, they'd have contingencies in place. Can't just attack a city—have to curse the survivors too.
"I gotta do something…" Jin muttered as his mind raced. "Think, Jin, think... Fuck... using another sorcery would be bad in my current state, but it's either pain or I lose Rudy completely..."
He'd do the same for me. Hell, he probably will before this is over.
"Damn it!"
Jin cursed under his breath.
Shaking his head, he took in a deep breath, essence stirring as he spoke the incantation:
« "O River that flows unclouded, wash away what does not belong—let your waters clear his mind!" »
A faint rush of coolness erupted from Jin as the sorcery took hold, sweeping through Rudy's mind like a cleansing tide. Almost immediately, his friend's eyes refocused, and the mental haze lifted.
Jin doubled over, coughing blood as the spell's backlash hit him. Even though his knowledge about sorceries worked in reality, they took a heavy toll on his pitiful essence reserves.
At least being cut off from the outside world means the curse can't reestablish itself. Small mercies.
"Jin? Jin!" Rudy, now back to himself, rushed to kneel beside Jin, rubbing his back supportively.
"A curse?" Rudy's face darkened with understanding and guilt. "Fuck, Jin, I'm sorry. I couldn't think straight—it felt like something was dragging me down into darkness."
Jin laughed, showing Rudy a bloodied grin that was equal parts relief and exhaustion. "Glad you're okay, man. Really glad."
"I am... sorry for being like that." Rudy's voice was subdued, embarrassed by his loss of control. "And are you okay? That's a lot of blood."
"I'll be fine. Just give me a few minutes—I think I strained my essence pretty badly." Jin grunted in pain, waves of exhaustion washing over him.
After five minutes of agony and recovery, Jin finally found some relief. He sat up slowly, drinking water and chewing on Sargoma stalks—not wanting to waste more of their precious healing potion.
Rudy remained uncharacteristically silent through it all.
"You okay, Rudy?" Jin asked, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. "Silence doesn't suit you."
Rudy hesitated, opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water, clearly struggling with something he wanted to say but wasn't sure how to phrase it.
He deserves as much truth as I can safely give him.
"You're right, there's a lot I haven't told you, Rudy. A lot I couldn't tell anyone."
Jin laughed, knowing what his friend was thinking. "It's going to sound crazy, Rudy, but I swear everything I'm about to tell you is the truth."
"There's a lot I need to tell you, but to begin with..." Jin took a deep breath and then, with the most serious expression Rudy had ever seen on his face, spoke four simple words: "I got a quest."
Those four simple words were enough to stun Rudy into complete silence. He shook and trembled, pointing at Jin with a finger that wavered like a leaf in the wind.
"You're... you're not joking, right?" His voice came out shaky and barely above a whisper. "Holy fuck! A quest!"
"Yeah. And I hope you understand why I didn't tell anyone, Rudy."
Rudy went completely silent at that, his face paling even further. It was common knowledge in this world that those who received quests grew up to become influential and powerful people—but it was even more commonly known that any hints of a quest's existence would lead to the bearer's death.
The Thornfield Incident. Lady Mirabelle's Execution. The Cascade Massacre. All because someone talked.
History was littered with the bodies of quest-bearers who'd trusted the wrong people or revealed their calling too soon.
The powerful know that controlling such people is impossible, so they resort to primal means. Death.
That naive girl… one of the supposed main leads ended up dead because she thought people in power would help her save the world.
I still get chills remembering reading that chapter. Her head was decapitated and hung as a reminder in the capital city, Lumire, of all places.
Although the blame was shifted onto the cults, it was the so-called righteous faction members who killed her. All those who sit at the peak of power will do anything to maintain the status quo.
"Holy hells, Jin." Rudy ran both hands through his hair, his usual composure cracking. "How long? When did it happen?"
"This morning. Just before everything went to hell."
Inwardly, Jin sighed in relief; his gamble paid off.
"Rudy, you know how dangerous receiving a quest is..."
"I know. I fucking know, Jin!" Rudy ran his hands through his hair frantically. "HAAA! Goddammit... let me digest this."
"Wait, was this attack because—that pressure? I remember blasts... those screams..." Rudy mumbled, but Jin cut him off with a shake of his head.
"No. They're not for me."
"It's only been a few hours at most since I got the quest, Rudy. Along with... well, very disturbing visions. Very disturbing ones that I'm still trying to process."
"This doesn't make any sense..." Rudy whispered.
Jin nodded grimly. "That makes two of us, Rudy. None of this shit makes sense, but here we are."
Rudy's jaw hardened with resolve. Without warning, he drew his dagger and made a shallow cut across his palm, letting blood well up before pressing his bloody hand to his heart.
"Rudy, what are you—"
"I swear on my heart and essence that whatever secrets Jin Winters shares with me shall never pass my lips. Should I break this oath, may my essence turn to poison and my heart cease its beating. By blood and soul, I bind myself to silence."
The words carried power—Jin could feel the magical oath taking hold, creating an unbreakable bond of secrecy that settled around Rudy like invisible chains.
"Rudy, you didn't have to—"
"Yes, I did, Jin." Rudy's voice was firm, cutting off Jin's protest. "You and I both know that if I even accidentally let this slip, not just our heads will roll—our families will die too."
"Yeah... sorry for dragging you into this."
"No, Jin. You saved my life back there, and you're trusting me with something that could get us both killed." Rudy's eyes held steady determination. "We're in this together now, no matter what. So tell me everything."
Jin nodded, settling into a more comfortable position on the strange grass, organizing his thoughts, and after a pause, he spoke.
"The quest is weird, though. Really fucking weird.
Rudy frowned. "Weird how?"
"Well, the quest is related to something that's going to happen around ten years from now, give or take."
"Huh? Ten years from now?" Rudy's confusion was evident in every line of his face. "What the hell, Jin? Then what was all this about—"
"I'm getting to that, bro! Let me speak!" Jin held up a hand.
"Sorry… go on"
"Anyway, so yeah—the quest is for something that'll happen in a decade. I need to get stronger while also making sure other children of fate keep up with their development."
"There are others?" Rudy mumbled, his mind racing with implications.
"It would seem so. Whether they've already awakened to their quests... that's not something I'd know."
"What I do know is that along with the quest, I was shown visions. A lot of them. Hundreds, maybe thousands of glimpses of possible futures." Jin's expression grew darker, more introspective. "This is how I know how to cast some sorceries and know where that dungeon portal was located. The knowledge just... appeared in my head, like someone downloaded a bunch of files into my brain."
"But Vienna…"
"But what, Jin? What about the attack on Vienna?"
Jin met his friend's eyes, and Rudy must have seen something there because his expression began to shift toward horror.
"That's where things get a lot darker, Rudy. A lot more fucked up than either of us is prepared for."
"Dark? Jin..."
"Rudy, in all of my visions, in every single glimpse of the future I was shown..." Jin's voice dropped to barely above a whisper, and the weight of what he was about to say settled between them like a death sentence. "There was no Vienna. No us. Not even a mention of this place existing."
The implications hung in the air like a death sentence. Rudy's face went ashen as he processed what Jin was saying.
"What do you mean, no Vienna?" Rudy's voice cracked.
Jin met his friend's terrified gaze with eyes that held knowledge no seventeen-year-old should possess.
"I mean, Rudy, that in the visions—Vienna was supposed to be destroyed. And everyone in it was supposed to die.
~~~