Chapter 298 – Re: Main

Day 36 (Cont)

"Where is she?" Jax asked, his finger twitching on the trigger of his crossbow, ready to get the hell out of this dungeon. Those bastard hobgoblins had killed their assassin before the healer could get a spell off, then escaped out into a mine. He plugged the one holding a sword with a couple of poisoned arrows, but it appeared to be made of sterner stuff than he thought possible for a hobgoblin and had escaped. Now they were stumbling around the dungeon, looking for that damn carbuncle they had tangled with earlier. She was the real prize; that gem on its forehead would provide all six of them with enough money to buy their own kingdoms if they wanted.

Five, now, I guess. Damn it.   

"You keep asking that, but I don't have the answers. Rahl was the one with the tracking skills." The mage said, flexing his hands on his staff, ready to strike again if more hobgoblins showed themselves.

"Yeah, aren't you supposed to be the backup scout? You find her." The swordsman added.

"I'm trying, but it's like she isn't here anymore."

"Well, try harder! The sooner we're done, the sooner we can get back to civilization and never have to lift a finger again."

They bickered as they walked, making way too much noise, but their eyes were peeled for any danger. They moved deeper into the complex, the long hallways having very few places for anyone to hide, even a tiny carbuncle. As they stepped through another archway, he raised his hand to halt their advance. "I smell something?"

"Is it the score?"

"No... it reeks... like goblin, but worse." He said, looking around for the source of the smell.

"That's not very nice. Kichi only missed a bath for a few days." A deep male voice said.

"I told you that you should have joined us at the waterfall." A more feminine voice added.

"I... umm... I couldn't. Was guarding you from more... fish people."

"You're cute when you're shy, Kichi."

Jax and the rest of his party spun around to the sounds of the voices, and had to look up, way up. Somehow, three massive ogres had approached them from behind without him detecting them.

"Kill them!!!" He shouted, raising his crossbow.

"New Order - Mesmerize!" Another deep, female voice said. He tried to look for the source, but a bunch of shiny lights started to circle his head, drawing his attention. He tried to look away and deal with the danger in front of him, but he lost interest immediately. The lights were just too interesting to watch.

"I guess that is that. Why doesn't your ability ever work on that Dragon?" Another voice said. Then several more started to talk, but most of their conversation slid off of him as he concentrated on the lights, trying to reveal their secrets.

"It does, but it's as if she can just warp reality around her and it slides off. I have no idea how she does it; isn't that your department, Mr Magic Man?"

"Umm... Is this it? I thought we needed to beat some skulls in?"

"Please don't kill anyone under the control of my Quirk; it leaves a bad taste in my mouth whenever that happens."

"Rou might want to question them first and find out what they’re even doing here."

"Mmm... probably right."

"I know I am. Now, let's just knock them out and tie them up. We can kill them later if he tells us to."

"Okay."

Jax suddenly saw much more light before everything went dark; his last thought was that he was sad he couldn't figure out the light's secrets before he was knocked out.

"Sui! I need your help!" John called out, rushing into the mana well with Sei's body in his arms. 

Aqua and Mi were sitting on the edge of the pool, with Aqua holding Mi's half-arm under the trickle of mana coming from the well. They both looked over at him with concern, and Aqua jumped up and met him partway. 

"What happened to her?" Aqua asked, already casting some spell on Sei’s body.

"Took a poisoned sword to the gut. I could detoxify her body, but... my magic can't heal the dead."

"She's- How long?"

"A few minutes, maybe ten or fifteen at most. I'm not sure exactly."

"Shoot... okay... ahh... let me... hold her so she is floating on the water's surface." She said, pulling her staff out of her pocket dimension. 

John floated her into the middle of the pool, supporting her body. She looked peaceful lying in his arms, like she was just asleep, though the wound in her guts had leaked out a fair amount of her blood, soaking her clothing. 

The blade missed her heart and lungs... it shouldn't have been able to kill her that quickly. It must have been a powerful poison. 

Aqua held her staff over her body and began to chant a spell he was unfamiliar with. The blue crystal in the tip of her staff started to flash, dimly at first, then brighter and brighter. The whole pool seemed to respond to her magic, forming a thin mist on its surface, lifting Sei up from his arms and causing her to float about six inches above the water.

Aqua continued to chant, her focus completely on Sei, casting spell after spell into her body. Some of the spells felt familiar to him, akin to his own healing magic, while others were foreign, seeming to use elements outside of the holy magic he normally associated with healing. He watched the process, but couldn't help wondering what in heck happened today to cause everything to explode all at once. 

I should have been down there with them. If I was, maybe... Damn it, man. Stop blaming yourself for something you had no control over. If she is dead, then... do we DEN out until one of us has resurrection magic? Alec, this better not be your doing, forcing me to choose divinity over someone's life.  

No answers came from above, leaving him to watch helplessly as Aqua continued her chanting. Mi had moved beside him, silently watching her work her magic on the corpse in front of them. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and waited for Aqua's verdict, though he already knew that she was gone.

Several minutes, or several hours, had passed; he wasn't sure, but finally Aqua stopped chanting. She looked up at him with a troubled expression. "Rou... I... I'm sorry, I can't do anything as I am now."

"I know." He said, stepping forward and picking up the lifeless corpse. "I know. Thank you for trying."

Too much time has passed.

He didn't know how he knew; he didn't even have resurrection magic yet, but somehow he knew she was gone. 

Day 40

John woke to the sound of rain hammering down on the roof, the pattering noise soothing his weary soul.

He looked around him at the pile of bodies that were now sharing his bed, their numbers filling even this massive California king-size. Aqua was under his right arm, as was her normal place, with Mi pinning her from behind, preventing her from tossing and turning at night.

On his left was Sato, and behind her Ruby, both of them not wanting to sleep alone. The two of them had grown closer since the funeral, and oddly, barely ever left his side.

He could feel below the sheets that Riana was doing her normal morning routine, albeit much more quietly than usual. Ee was down there as well, but he didn't know if she was awake and watching, or still asleep. She usually slept as hard as the stones she mined, needing a natural disaster to wake her from her slumber before the sun rose. 

He didn't really care too much right then; He had been operating on autopilot for the last few days, just going through the motions while dealing with growing the village. Sei's death had hit him harder than he wanted to admit. He looked out the window and thought about what transpired after walking out of the mana pool.

He had built a tomb on the hillside behind the Riana's tree using Dig stones the day she died, laying out her body on a stone platform in the middle of it. They had a short ceremony for her, though the goblins had no such customs for the deaths of their people, so he coached Sato to tell them some stories of their time together. She was the closest thing Sei had to a family in the village, so it seemed appropriate to him for her to do so.

She cried as she shared a few of her memories, and he rubbed her back with Healing Hands activated, encouraging her to go on. Afterwards, he dripped some mana from the well onto her head and said a blessing over her body.

"Your journey has ended, so I release you of the burdens on your soul. Rest in peace, knowing others will take your torch and carry on in your stead." He intoned, then turned to the small gathering outside of the tomb. "She may be gone, but she lives forever in our hearts."

Afterwards, Aqua and Ee sealed the tomb, while he brought Sato down to the mine, where the five adventurers were stripped and tied up, still being guarded by Kichi's team. After questioning a couple of them, he learned they were looking for that carbunkle and knew nothing about their village. Apparently that jewel on her head was worth a significant amount of money, and they seemed to think they would be kings after they sold it. 

He had asked Sato what she wanted done with them, or if she wanted to handle it herself. Not that it mattered; he had no intention of letting any of them live. She had looked up at him for a moment, her maroon eyes red from the tears she had shed that day, before she drew her sword and began to lop off the adventurers' limbs. Screams echoed through the mine as she dismembered them one by one, both hers and theirs, as she screamed out in rage at the loss of Sei. 

When she finished, she turned back to him, her face and body covered in their blood. "Burn them. Burn them in the fires Sei used. They deserve no less!"

"Inferno!" He had chanted, casting the spell, then kicking a few of the limbs and bodies into the centre of that circle of fire. Their screams cut off after a few moments, but he kept feeding power to the spell, not wanting anyone to have to clean up these men's corpses. They would be erased from the face of the planet, never to be remembered again. 

The heat from his fires blistered her skin, but she didn't back off as they both watched until there was nothing left but ash. She then held onto his jacket and planted her face into his chest and cried. He held her for some time, healing her skin and rubbing her back as she let out her feelings. He didn't say anything, just held her as he thought about his own response to this... execution.

He was hardly a saint, having caused excessive pain against his enemies before, but this time was different. They were already captured, unable to fight back, and had no information he needed to get out of them, yet he didn't feel bad about letting her torment them before sending them to their end. He didn't feel anything at all, no righteous anger, no disgust at the excess, nothing. 

This was the start of the lethargy he'd felt over the last few days, trying to figure out whether he had lost some of his humanity, or if something else was wrong with him. 

He kept plodding along, working around the village, supporting the others around him as best he could. Being strong for others, being a leader, a chief, a friend. But the act of executing those people in such a savage manner and not having any feelings about it was bothering him immensely.

He just didn't have anyone he felt like he could talk to about it.

The goblins are already predisposed to acts of violence, so they wouldn't understand my concerns. Aqua would be horrified to know what we did. Twinkle and Constantine are off hunting down Pande, and I wouldn't want to tell Lina or any of the human women about this. They're still dealing with their own problems; I don't need to make them think I'm turning into an actual monster on top of that. 

The drumming of the rain this morning seemed to cue something inside of him, making him feel better than even Riana's morning ministrations did. He still didn't feel anything about being part of that killing, but he knew he had to move on, to grow beyond this moment and do better in the future. 

"Good morning, Rou," Sato said, bringing him out of his thoughts.

"Good morning. How are you feeling?" He replied, turning to her. She had joined them in bed that first night, not wanting to be alone, and showed no signs of leaving. Ruby joined the next night, practically begging to be allowed to join their group activities. He just laughed, since other than Riana in the mornings, all they did was sleep, but let her join the sleepover anyway.

"Happy." She replied, looking up at him. Her maroon eyes were looking more red now, and she did have a small smile on her face. 

"Happy?"

"Yeah. It's raining, and Sei loved the rain. We would always watch the rain from the cave mouth and talk about things. She would tell me that the rains meant renewal, growth, and the driver of the cycle of life. Hah, she told me so many things she learned in her books that I can't even remember them all. But I remember she loved the rain."

"I like it too; the sound helps me calm my mind and relaxes my body." He replied, looking back out the window.

The sky was just beginning to lighten a bit, telling him that dawn wasn't far off. Riana would leave shortly to rejoin the women for the last time, as they neared human lands. From there they would be on their own, gathering information, supplies, and possibly new settlers for the village. He and Angel would monitor them from a distance, making sure things were going smoothly. 

Everyone else would get up shortly, the mansion and the village coming to life; things didn't stop just because of the rain. He looked over at Sato, and while she was smiling, a couple of tears were running down her cheeks. "Let's take it easy this morning and just sit back and enjoy the rain." He said, deciding that the farm could wait a bit. 

"I'd like that." She replied through a sniffle. She wiped her tears with her hand, then laid her head back down on his chest. "I think I'd like that a lot."

"What else did you two talk about when it was raining?"

"Oh, everything. She once told me about these amazing things the elves do during the summer solstice. Apparently they wear..." She said, then started telling him more stories about her time with Sei.

He just nodded along, happy that she was smiling again. He squeezed his arms a bit, tightening his hug around the four women and storing his problems back in his mind for another day. 

Sometimes, it was easier to sit back and listen to the rain.