WebNovels

Chapter 20 - Dawn 20 - Triumph over weakness 

Standing up to his fullest, Rue looked at the shriveled body of the creature below.

Its body splayed across the darkened grass, its limbs staggered—jerking in a constant irregular rhythm from the past nerve sending's.

The creature was still alive, even if barely.

Within the center of its brain, the marble-sized structure that housed the creature's Will stubbornly held on, biding its time, patiently waiting for any moment it could exploit to recover and flee.

Finalizing his study on the entity's physiology, Rue, feeling satisfied with his findings, now commanded his Will to discharge from the creature's body and back into his own.

Feeling the command, the Will, now beguiled by the sudden message, attempted to persuade its master to allow it several more minutes to explore this new landscape, but—much to its dismay—these pleas were quickly dismissed by Rue.

Begrudged, the energy reluctantly left the creature's nervous system, retreating back into its host.

Sensing no ambient Will left within the creature's body, Rue scratched his chin in thought.

"Now what should I do with you?" the inquisitor contemplated aloud.

Glancing at the creature's bark-textured cranium, Rue recalled the creature's unique self-preservation mechanism.

It was rather ingenious. If he hadn't been as knowledgeable as he was with the unique biologies of countless beasts, then Rue would have overlooked—or, if he by lucky chance found it, he may have dismissed it as the creature's Initial—but this clearly wasn't the case.

While it felt like an Initial, the marble's structure didn't emit the same wavelengths as latent energy would during the death of the host. Rather, it stuck subtle within its tissues, however compared to normal vitals, the energy was spaced in a scattered manner that forcibly veiled the majority of the Will from accidentally escaping.

That marble was the creature's Ego.

'I reckon killing this bastard would be a waste due to its potential uses and some more in-depth research, however…' collapsing his stance into a squatted position, 'the threat it poses will always be there if I allow it salvation.'

'It's not like the threat could be disregarded due to the coincidence of the time and place, but from the entity's terrifying adaptability and rapid learning during combat.'

'Hell, that could merely be the tip of the iceberg—who knows what this thing could do given enough time,' he shuddered.

"Man, what the hell is going on with the world." Pinching his brow, Rue let out a long-exasperated sigh. 

'First it's that damn Wall that gave the impression the world was its opposition, then the weird energy in the air that, while negligible, still gives me an uneasy feeling, and now we have some damn rando beast that was able to actually put up a good fight.'

After several seconds, Rue had made up his mind. 

"Death it is, friend."

Clenching his fist, Rue punched the creature square at its cervical spine.

The head exploded into shards of bone, and black-colored brain matter splattered around the vicinity.

Staring at the creature's corpse, Rue nodded, reassuring himself that this was the proper decision.

Bending down, Rue picked up a small dull green pebble from one of the larger piles of onyx gore.

Held between his index finger and thumb, Rue, enticed by his curiosity, began to channel a sliver of his Will into the green pebble.

Several seconds passed before the stubbornly still object began to yield visible signs of shaking.

Through its tremble, the pebble, as a byproduct of its fear, began to release a dull, poorly hidden aura of instinctive terror.

This fear—it was the same type a rabbit would adopt when faced with a predator.

Noticing the reaction from foreign stimuli, Rue caressed his cheeks.

Unbeknownst to him, a small smile was tugging the ends of his mouth.

"How interesting," he mused aloud. "Well, now that I've gotten rid of the major nuisance… what should I do with you?"

Pondering over this spectacle of ingenious ingenuity that was palpably forged through countless generations of the species' many forefathers—it truly was a creative means of self-preservation.

Twirling the stone around his fingers, Rue expressed a sigh before dismissively tossing the object into his rucksack.

He would figure it out later, during a more presentable time.

Without as much as a glance toward the humanoid's remains, Rue began to sprint in his chosen direction—or so he was until—

The air indescribably felt lighter, as if an odd constant resignation had lifted.

Rue's mind felt clearer.

The pessimistic mindset he had taken hold of during the past few weeks had suddenly vanished?

His train of thought was no longer lethargic, depressing, regretful, or apathetic.

That self-deprecating burden no longer weighed heavily on his mind.

Rather, those feelings were being suppressed by his Initial into a void of nothingness.

Those insignificant feelings were gone—their meaning diluted into nothing more than a meaningless last thought.

Rue's mouth slacked agape, and his eyes simultaneously widened incredulously.

"Riddle me surprised," he said, "just what the hell is going on today, eh?"

With his attitude and mental perverseness—he glanced over his shoulder toward the location where the Wall should be, several tens of thousands of kilometers away, moving at breakneck speeds toward his general direction, causing calamity and leaving only destruction in its wake.

While Rue wasn't able to view the Wall physically from within the constraints of the gloomy forest, given the pesky omnipresence the fog's natural impediment seemed to pose, even though Rue was within this forest—where perception was restricted equally for all, and where unknown threats loomed commonplace—he was able to sense these hidden red flags and avoid them with ease.

Even when his avian comrade was still up and kicking, Rue would exploit his inherent spatial awareness—transmitting where and when to maneuver past or traverse paths.

Of course, that beast was now dead. 

It's unfortunate, the birds passing was nothing more than the result of his own blunder combined with the unseen ailment that burdened his mind.

The ailment would grow stronger and stronger with each day that passed.

Annoyingly, this insufferable feeling had unknowingly rooted itself into his mind the same day he should have celebrated shedding his shackles and breaking free from his cell.

Rue's first encounter with the Wall could only be described in one word—"TERRIFYING."

At the time, the inquisitor had put up a false front of confidence in order to save face, but internally, he was reeling with fear.

The pressure the Wall widely flaunted was suffocating—so much so that his breath caught in his throat, not daring to escape—any words cut from his confusion and fear—and his advanced perception did little to quell it.

Being anywhere even remotely near its vicinity felt akin to the cold whisper of death breathing along your neck.

Rue had only felt this type of fear once before—when he first met the pope of the sun goddess. 

His mind had diverged from the joy of his escape to the fear of dying a dog's death.

However, those chaotic energy fluctuations from the Wall had just abruptly vanished.

'Should I be glad or fearful?' Jerking his head back to normal, Rue tilted his neck's orientation toward the sky.

His expression was a mix of joy, and discomfort. 

Narrowing his eyes, Rue's heterochromatic irises glowed—one an uncontrasted jade-green, the other bright amber.

Tussling his hand through his already unruly gray locks, Rue began to massage his temple.

'The absence of that leans to one of several things, with the most likely of these being…' 

'The Wall's destruction.' 

Looking affront, Rue began a paced jog before immediately reaching his top speed.

The air whistled in a low octane, and the area he had taken off from remained the same—with the exception of some pressed grass.

'Assuming that I'm correct and the Wall is truly destroyed, that would mean that several Apated are nearby. Normally this would spell doom for a fugitive as myself, but luckily, considering the Will's energy fluctuations from its node, my presence would be nothing less than a minor nuisance within their perception. This is, of course, assuming they decide to scout out the woodland.' Rue bit his lip out of habit.

'Using this fact, I can logically deduce the reason as to why it took such a long time to properly neutralize the threat.'

'Somehow, I must've been teleported into an extremely remote region. How this is the case I genuinely can't determine, however, given this and how they have just now decided to eliminate the Wall, would signify a high chance that I'm—or, in the case of the Wall, are—on course to approaching or reaching a populated region.'

Clicking his tongue, the inquisitor stunted his pondering for the time being. Vacating his mind, Rue tunneled his perception only toward his surroundings.

For now, he was going to continue his already determined path, regardless of the Wall's existence.

Rue literally had no other reason to diverge from this path—he lacked the proper knowledge of the territory's geography, where he resided, or how he had even managed to teleport countless miles away from the main body of the terminal.

Just like that, several days had passed in a blur.

During this short intermission of time, the number of beasts he encountered increased exponentially—and so had the average Destination of each beast.

Fourth Destination beasts were in excess. 

Yet, in a positive light, the presence of the fog's restriction gradually began to weaken the farther he got.

His perception which in the beginning was limited to a mere kilometer in radius, now it stretched to ten kilometers. 

It was evident that he was nearing the end of the territory.

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