Five days had passed since the purge of the wolves.
During that time Rue and his temporary 'companion,' the Birdy, had gradually traversed through the gloomy ambiance of this new landscape.
Frankly, he preferred the Crimson Planes rather than this cessation of impediments.
Beasts lurked everywhere, and almost every beast here was within the Third Destination.
After being saddled on the back of the bird after a long period of time, Rue naturally grew bored, but boredom was a constant comrade he had grown accustomed to.
There were seldom stimuli within this place, and unfortunately, many of the lower Destination beasts had long grown to avidly avoid Rue and the bird.
Yeah, there were small skirmishes against a few wandering Fourth Destination beasts, but such fights were empty, lacking really any substance.
Most of them died within a few simple slashes, this mostly due to the surprise and unprecedented stealth of their attacks.
The emptiness of his mind was a constant acquaintance—luckily, in contrast with his old 'accommodation,' he was currently free within the world, fighting, exploring, and riding on the back of some oversized bird.
Where ever that may be?
It made Rue reminisce about his youth.
Such times were tainted with unresolvement, harsh and muddled with memories he would rather forget.
The adversity he faced when he entered the academy, his mother's rape—his old man's neglect, the memory of his first drink, his first kill, the woman he slept with to resolve that pit of emptiness within him—all of his vices.
'Life's a bitch, but we gotta do what we gotta do to survive.' he joked half-heartedly.
Did he necessarily regret anything from his past?
simply put, No.
He wasn't particularly religious—sure, it was contradictory given his profession, but it made sense.
Becoming an inquisitor was merely done to pay back the goodwill he received.
Nothing more, nothing less.
At the time, becoming an inquisitor for the Sun Goddess had seemed like the best way to resolve his debt.
Such naivety.
At the time, he had still donned the blinders of oblivion towards the truth of the world.
Killing 'heretics,' or so they were called by the church, was not done from ill will on his part, but of demand.
He wasn't a connoisseur of violence and death.
The higher-ranked inquisitors within the church would assign him a few targets—here and there—and he would kill them.
So much for good will.
Groaning in frustration, the inquisitor adjusted his current position into a more comfortable one.
During his adjustment, Rue, from the outermost edge of his peripheral vision, caught a glimpse of a large structure.
Scrunching his brow in surprise, Rue smiled in hope.
Were they close to human settlement?
Realisation drew upon him.
Quickly that smile stiffened before turning into a thoughtful frown.
The Wall…
'If there really are people settled there then their impending death is inevitable.' The inquisitor said solemnly.
Was he really as heartless as to not warrant a few warnings before continuing on?
It wouldn't even take that long.
Yeah, he might've become an inquisitor not due to any particular moral uprightness or some grand altruism— rather a debt.
But contrary to his general beliefs, Rue still felt the weight of his responsibility.
To banish heretics—the other, to protect the weak.
Even if weakness was a sin within this shitty world, it didn't mean he shared that sentiment.
The powerful desired strength, while those who desired peace were taunted with a guise of cloth labeled as 'peace.'
When the powerful fought, then this veil would immediately crumble. The peace that had become their reality could easily be eliminated with a lazed flick from a relatively powerful Adapted.
His ideal was pathetic, stupid even. He was a mere Fourth Destination being—sure he was powerful, but he wasn't that powerful!
What the hell could he do?
'Too much thinking, Rue. All we need to do is say a few things and leave with the damn bird, a loud yell should suffice…' Brushing off unnecessary thought, Rue tapped the bird's side.
"We're going over there," Rue exclaimed, pointing towards the structure's general location.
With a scoff, or what sounded like a scoff. The bird changed its direction, heading towards where the human wanted.
Why the bird complied with the request was unknown, even to itself.
Maybe it had taken a liking to them?
After thirty seconds of diverging its course, the bird arrived at the specified location.
Unstraddling the bird, he landed onto the gray grass below.
Swiping his chest of any lingering dust, Rue steeled his expression and released a deep breath he hadn't known he had. Before he knew it, he was already walking towards the structure.
His expression was cold and indifferent. He exuded a distinctive regal charm that seemed to follow him, it was unlike a nobles whose aim was allure rather than depth, Rue's was more distant and abstract.
His gait, earlier slouched from his annoyance, was now as straight as a sword.
This was who he truly was, an Inquisitor.
Now face to face with the structure, he involuntarily tapped his chin as he noticed something odd about it.
"It's a wall?" He expressed with uncertainty.
It wasn't necessarily the wall that aroused surprise, but rather the state of the wall.
Corrosion, evident from the passage of time, stained the exterior. There were large segments of the wall that flaked and had collapsed over a long duration of no maintenance, revealing the metal wire skeleton of its innards.
Leaping into the air, Rue easily scathed past the wall's sixty-meter blockade.
Landing on the walkway elicited an immediate groaning and metallic echo before returning to its monotone silence.
"Hmm?" Moving to the walkway's adjacent side, Rue, perched from his current position, was finally able to view what the wall concealed from the outside with its vast exterior.
There was nothing… or mostly nothing, except for a large crater that ate several hundred meters within the center.
Everything seemed to be destroyed—now reduced to mere rubble.
Hopping from the wall's zenith, Rue descended onto a moderately sized pile of rubble below.
BANG!…CRUNCH!
Crashing onto the pile of rubble, Rue, now stifling a yawn, pulled himself up.
Sprinting forward, Rue closed the distance between himself and the crater after a few seconds.
Looking at the crater, Rue noted something else.
Tracing his finger across the ground, he pulled his finger up after a second.
A thick layer of dust had collected on his finger.
Brushing off the dust, Rue averted his gaze once more towards the crater.
Controlling his strength, he hopped into the exterior rim of the crater.
Resting gracefully onto the hard soil, Rue, without much difficulty, seeped his hand into the ground, scooping a handful of soil.
Bringing his open palm to his face, Rue licked the dirt.
With a moderate portion of soil within his mouth, the inquisitor padded his tongue onto the roof of his mouth as he danced the dirt around.
After a little while, a prickling sensation began to spread throughout his mouth.
Sensing the feeling, Rue scratched his chin before opting to intake a larger portion of the soil.
After a few minutes, the effects of the soil took their toll.
The flesh within his mouth began to darken, and large tumors formed within his cheeks and jaw.
His skin became a ghostly translucent gray, whitish pus and black blood spilling from the weak membrane of his epidermis.
His jaw loosened, and the muscles that allowed motion of the lower mandible snapped and splattered onto the ground.
With what remained of his deteriorating tongue, Rue spat out the soil.
Curious about the soil's effect on him, Rue closed his eyes and watched the flow of Will within his body.
Feeling the monoclinic pulsed shape within the center of his brain, he found, to his surprise, that there was no foreign Will or energy that he detected within his body that could be held responsible for the process within his mouth.
Commanding his Will to impede their healing process for now, Rue felt his cells.
'Ah, I see now,' Rue concluded, with what would be a sigh. 'Ionized radiation.'
There was a genocide among his normal cells—most of the cells within his mouth had died via exposure to the powerful ionized radiation within the soil.
The cells that managed to survive the high-energy waves were rapidly mutating due to the proliferated DNA.
He had a suspicion, but it was unconventional, so he hadn't dwelt on it.
Releasing the dam against his Will, his lower face rapidly began to heal.
His jaw that had fallen off was replaced, as with a new set of unblemished skin.
"Nuclear weapons, eh?" he mused aloud.
Licking his lips a few times, Rue, curious about this revelation, jumped into the crater's center.