Chapter 101

Even if we had to go back, none of us were in a good state to do anything about it.

I was still exhausted and desperately needed to sleep, Eve had burns and cuts all over her body and was probably even worse off than I, and Koise still hadn’t woken up.

On top of that, there was still the issue of the supplies and the wagon, which we still couldn’t move without Koise.

After our brief conversation, Eve drifted off into a light slumber again while I tossed rocks at the ever-boldening goblins from time to time to keep them off the road.

‘Come on, Koise… Wake up… Please…’

His breathing remained steady, at least—I checked his pulse from time to time and watched the steady rise and fall of his chest.

‘Just… stay… awake…’

With each hour that passed, I grew more and more tired. Each blink brought a stinging pain to my eyes, and the wind rustling through the trees and bushes grew faint.

‘Just how are the demons spreading so quickly? And how am I supposed to stop it? Why me, of all people?’

Falling deeper and deeper into my thoughts, I stared at the Second System’s status panel, willing to guide me or give me more information.

‘All this time, and the most you’ve told me is to not join the Lion Guild…’

What exactly was the Second System?

‘It has to have some sort of intelligence, right? Why else would it talk so directly? Where does it even get its power from?’

That brought a new series of questions, such as how the System even gave us power in the first place.

‘Something can’t be created from nothing, right?’ Following that logic, our power had to come from somewhere. That applied to both the Second System and the regular System.

Since the weird demon fog interrupted the System but didn’t touch the Second System, I was inclined to believe that each System drew power from a different source.

‘It makes sense that the System has a far higher need for power than the Second System. It’s not like I’ve heard of anyone else with a different System, after all.’

Just what could supply so much power? I hadn’t tried it, but it was doubtful that even a Relic had enough power to grant so many different species and beings a System.

‘Just what…?’

“Hey… Aizen, are you still awake?” a woman’s voice from behind jolted me from my thoughts.

Leaning against the back of the wagon, which wouldn’t even have moved if I pushed it with all my strength due to some form of magical braking I didn’t even want to try thinking about, I turned to see Eve.

She took a swig of water from the canteen I’d given her earlier, set the canteen down, and wiped the moisture from her face with the same hand.

“I’ll take watch for a bit,” she said. Moments later, she hauled herself from the back of the wagon, huffing slightly from the effort.

“Ahhh…” A sigh escaped her lips as she stretched out her arm and arched her back, straining her muscles for a moment with the effort.

“Are you sure?” I asked, eyeing the burned-over scars still visible on her skin. Since she didn’t rely on the System, her recovery was limited to the natural rate of her species.

“I’m tired and sore, Aizen, not dead. If you stay awake much longer, I’m afraid that might not be the case for you. Come on, get some rest.”

I couldn’t exactly argue with that. “Alright, well, just wake me up if something happens.”

She waved me away, not concerned in the slightest.

Gold and blue system windows swirled in my mind, clashing and bouncing off of each other in brilliant flashes of light.

“Ah!” I woke with a start, rubbing my head in confusion.

‘What was that about? And how long was I out?’

Sunlight no longer crept through the wagon opening. Instead, the silvery light of the moon rested just outside.

“About time you woke up,” Koise’s voice reached me.

Had he woken up at some point while I was asleep? He and Eve were both leaning against the back of the wagon.

“Why aren’t we moving?” I asked.

“Honestly, my head is killing me. I only woke up a few minutes ago. If you’d slept any longer, we’d probably already be going again.”

“Still to Karfana?”

“Yeah. Why, did you want to head back? Eve told me what happened with that other elf and the city lord. Can’t say I still fully believe it, but either way, Karfana still needs these supplies, and we need to update the others.”

“I’ll be going with you back to Karfana,” Eve said, standing next to Koise. “Now, if you’re ready, maybe we can get Koise to get this thing moving.”

“It’s a plan, then,” I said, “We’ll meet back with the others and decide what to do next.

Of course, I already knew what we’d have to do next—we’d have to return to Londo and overthrow yet another city lord.

That begged the question of how we would pull such a thing off. Rhil, probably the strongest Awakener we had, was still bound by her collar.

‘Is it just going to be us again?’

* * *

Rhil rubbed at her scabbed fingers. Velle had found her during one of her breakdowns, bleeding at the neck and fingers in the storage cellar of the Association building.

“You didn’t really think you could remove that thing with just your fingers, did you?” Velle asked.

The two were sitting in Velle’s room while the woman gently wiped the dried blood away from Rhil’s neck with a damp washcloth.

“Haa…” Rhil sighed. “How long have you been an Awakener for?”

Velle scrunched her eyebrows for a second in thought. “Since humanity arrived here about… oh… three or four years ago now?”

“Right. I also became an Awakener around then. Killed my first monster when we appeared in front of it and it slaughtered two people before we even knew what was happening.”

The first days of the Merge had been like that—completely chaotic and filled with confusion. That was when the most deaths had occurred.

“And you can’t stand the feeling of being normal again? It’s not permanent, you know.”

Rhil nodded, wincing from the slight pain the movement sent shooting through her neck. “You don’t know what it’s like. It’s not just my abilities… it’s everything. Stats, skills, passives… all gone. People used to look up to me, now I’m nothing but a leech.”

She winced as Velle continued to dab at her wounds.

“I won’t pretend to understand what you’re feeling, but you at least know what you have to regain. You’re the Skybreaker. When Bernard and I first came here, we heard the stories of how you helped defend the city when it was little more than a collection of huts.”

Scoffing, Rhil reached up to seize Velle’s wrists and stop her. A heavy silence hung in the room, its weight wrapping around them and settling into each nook and cranny, hiding behind the nightstand, lurking under the bed.

“Walk into the Central Cities and such stories are a dime a dozen. Why do you think I never left Karfana, despite my decision to stop being active? I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back…”

She let go of Velle’s wrists and heaved a sigh. “I wanted the best of both worlds. To be a renowned Awakener and to not have to worry about fighting and surviving another day. You’d think three years and constant sleepless nights would be enough of a price to pay.”

“Then what about now?” Velle asked. “It’s the same either way, isn’t it? You went months without fighting a single monster or even leaving the city, so shouldn’t you be used to it?”

“The difference is that it was my choice. Deep down, I knew that I could handle anything the world threw at me. I didn’t have to fully rely on others.”

“You still don’t. Have you seen the way those new Unawakened look at you when you’re assigning rations and quarters? You’re a lifesaver to them. They don’t view you as just another Unawakened.”

“Maybe I just want to punch another demon in the face. Lord knows I did enough administrative work before the Merge. Never thought I’d be stuck doing fucking ‘desk work’ again.”

“If it makes you feel better, Bernard and I originally came here in the hopes of clearing dungeons, saving people, and making a name for ourselves. We never signed up to be demon hunters or to help keep a bunch of Unawakened fed and housed.”

“Then why stay?” Rhil asked.

She stood from the small table they were sitting at and turned her back to Velle to walk over to the room’s small window. Outside, some of the new Unawakened were leaving the Association with bundles of food in hand, gazing in awe at the half-ruined city around them.

“Because leaving would be wrong.”

“Do you also feed or give money to anyone who asks on the street?” The sunlight wrapped around Rhil’s silhouette, darkening the room around her.

Velle raised her hands in a sign of surrender. “It’s one thing to ignore a single beggar. I can tell myself they should be able to care for themselves like any other Awakened. These people, though? They literally know nothing. It would be like leaving a baby to starve.”

Leaning against the window itself, Rhil crossed her arms. “You could say that’s how I feel—like a baby again, but with all my memories of being an adult. Aware of how helpless I am.”

Velle tapped the table in thought. “Then let’s fix that… As soon as the others get back, I have an idea.”

She took a scroll from her storage bag and placed it on the table with great emphasis.

“The collar is bound to its creator, right? With this, we can hunt that bastard down.”

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