Prelude:

„Congrats!”.

The boy smiled being praised by his parents.

The past year's political conflicts made everyone’s life harsher, but it was finally time for some happy events and celebrations.

A younger boy looked up to his brother, not uttering a word, but the look in his eyes gave his every thought away.

The older one noticed this.

“Do you want to come and watch me sometimes?”

The younger one nodded shyly, “can you craft something for me too?”

The mother smiled, “he is going to be very busy”, however, the older boy denied this.

“I’m sure I can make something simple and safe for Skil”.

Skil’s eyes shone bright, hugging his older brother.

This was a fragment of Skil’s past which he vaguely revealed to Zafer on a random occasion when they were out drinking.

“Oh”, Skil gasped, “did you hurt yourself with a hammer?”

The older brother looked down noticing a bruise on his hand.

“No, I-… I don’t remember hitting myself with a hammer”, he smiled patting his younger sibling.

“How did you get the bruise then?”

The boy pondered for a second, “Well, I am so tough that sometimes I don’t even notice, so I don’t remember!”

They both laughed.

Bruises and wounds were nothing unexpected given how every regular male citizen was prone to work an exhausting physical job.

Nevertheless, although Skil was way young at the time, he slowly started to notice some weird things.

His brother was invited to work at a Miyalin blacksmith, so the two saw each other less frequently.

Once however they went together on a hike to spend some time with each other.

His brother changed a bit, but that was mostly due to him growing up.

Nevertheless, as the two of them were descending the hill back home, Skil noticed a pond of blood near the hiking trail.

He was too confused and scared to admit it, but that was the same spot his brother relieved himself that very morning.

These symptoms were pretty unique for the Inverse disease. Some mutated abruptly while the others took even months.

It was a core memory that constantly reminded Skil that there was no easy or rough time.

There was no point in enjoying happiness, since the sadness that comes after always overpowers it by a lot.

Part one:

The invasion of Razihelnor was not over yet, and although the meadow had gotten quieter, Zafer was in the middle of the heat.

He was still fighting the 2nd officer of the Nubis province, and despite his winning, a problem he faced became more obvious.

He was trying to figure out how to put an end to this fight and kill Skank, but nothing seemed to be good enough.

Cutting through the Miyalin armor wouldn’t be possible, and smashing it wasn’t an option either.

Although the armor could get deformed, it still possessed some runes meant for protecting what was inside of it, and Zafer’s axe wasn’t strong enough to overpower this.

A Crushing rune really would come in handy now, and it became more obvious to Zafer just how important runes were.

Of course, there would be no need for such runes if Zafer’s Iron Fist anomaly was strong enough to break Miyalin.

Striking Skank’s helmet was the only option he had, but it would prove to be quite a challenge since the former always expected it.

The time slowly passed, and Zafer’s mind got tired of hyper-thinking and improvising.

He had difficulties making unexpected and creative moves and was more and more afraid to do something risky.

Also, the acid was still eating his skin, and he started to bleed all over his body.

“You are desperate to kill me, aren’t you?”, Skank spoke.

They were both catching a breath and Zafer finally noticed how peaceful the meadow was.

There were no sounds of cannons firing or people fighting.

Where was everyone?

“You aren’t retreating?”, Zafer asked mocking him, but Skank only smirked.

“I will soon. Do you think our attack was focused on the city? We are already the richest province dumbass! We could care less about plundering your peasant faction!”.

Zafer listened.

“The main goal was just to send as many of you Temper rats to the Gathering Hub”.

In Pashtrik that was an expression for the place where the dead gathered after passing away.

Zafer clenched his teeth, “How ironic”.

He dashed towards Skank with another inspiration. The last push.

Unfortunately for him, his hyper-focus was too concentrated on Skank to notice a shadow approaching him from the side.

As a result, Zafer got knocked down and plowed the ground in a straight line, creating a trench.

Now, there were 3 people present on the meadow as far as Zafer could see.

“I had it under control Marek”, Skank commented not to lose face, but the other one ignored his words, only passing by him.

“Don’t interfere. He is mine now”.

Skank frowned.

The guy who just appeared seemed young and didn’t even have a black painted Miyalin armor like the rest of the Nubis members.

He didn’t even have any armor and was just like Zafer.

Who was this Marek guy?

“What did you say to me candidate?”, Skank raised his voice, but the former one ignored him again, going straight for Zafer.

Another interesting thing was that the guy held no weapon, yet charged faster and faster.

This was a difficult situation for Zafer since he didn’t know what to expect.

He had play defense, but what should he defend from?

A punch? A kick?

He thought of dashing forward at the last second and striking Marek before he even reached him, but that wasn’t an option anymore.

Marek summoned his weapon out of nowhere.

It was a pitch-black hammer with a long handle and a bulky head.

This couldn’t be Miyalin, but still appeared out of nowhere as if it had a rune. What is this?

Could it possibly be a black-painted Miyalin hammer?

Zafer pondered but quickly gave up.

Miyalin was expensive even as a mere axe. A hammer this size would cost gazillion of units.

Marek swung sideways, and Zafer hastily stretched out his arm, so that his palm met the head of the hammer.

He trained his Iron Fist anomaly for quite some time now, and although his shoulder wasn’t his main focus, its strength also increased.

It should be easy for Zafer to stop the hammer in place.

He only blinked, and the shadow of the hammer had already engulfed his entire body.

Zafer’s shoulder was indeed very strong, so upon impact, his hand didn’t break.

Nevertheless, his legs couldn’t keep him on the ground, and he got blasted away.

This was because he positioned himself poorly, so the kinetic energy of the hammer wasn’t absorbed in his shoulder.

His heart made a couple of sudden strong beats, being surprised by this outcome.

What a strength! This guy had to be stronger than even Hydra with his Repeater anomaly activated!

Nevertheless, that wasn’t where it ended. Marek was still charging at him, not stoping even for a second.

Zafer quickly got back on his legs. What should he do now? Should he try to avoid or to position himself better this time?

He should try to preserve his anomalous pool for as long as he could, but then again he should end this fight as quickly as possible.

There was no telling if Skank would come back.

Marek lifted his hammer, and Zafer gritted his teeth. It was too late to think of something better now.

Nevertheless, something weird happened.

The hammer fell apart into dust, and then solidified into an axe!

This wasn’t just any weapon, it was an anomalous ability! Zafer wasn’t sure which one though.

He had no time to think.

He blocked each attack with his axe but got blasted away each time as if he got hit by a truck. Don’t forget that Zafer was under the effect of a purple potion!

How is this guy able to be so much stronger than him?!

Is that also an anomaly? An euclid Repeater perhaps?

He had no time to think.

He didn’t even have time to counterattack.

Aside from being unnaturally strong, this Marek fellow was also very skilled!

Did Skank call him a candidate? This was bad.

Zafer could not see it, but a TP tattoo that led to Knuckles’s flame flower grinder appeared on his face.

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He was starting to overheat.

Drops of blood slid down from his eyes, but he could not feel it since his whole skin was damaged and covered in blood due to Skank’s acid.

At some point, Marek summoned another weapon.

And I don’t mean the black dust one, but an actual weapon made out of Miyalin.

It was a dagger with a single black thread writhing within its blade.

At that moment, Zafer couldn’t help but lose complete focus from the battle.

Over the past few months, Zafer had devoted only a small amount of time to studying runes, as The Book of Runes and Curses was primarily written for scriptmen and was quite complex.

However, one thing that stuck with him was a vivid description of the 'black string' rune.

While paladins made no distinction between types, the book classified it specifically as a curse rather than a rune.

The curse was triggered automatically upon killing a human, crystallizing their soul and anomaly into an artifact.

Zafer hadn’t fully understood the book’s explanation of how this crystallization process worked, but he remembered that only one anomaly could be crystallized per person.

Which anomaly was chosen depended on several factors, such as its grade (primary, secondary, or tertiary), intensity (measured in Verms), nature (regular, euclid, or inverse euclid), and more.

Marek didn’t only intend to kill Zafer, but also seal him!

He was probably after his euclid Almighty Eye.

Zafer’s heart skipped a beat as he was slowly diving more into a disadvantage.

Nobody knew what it felt like to be crystalized into an artifact. Some said that one’s conscience would remain trapped in there forever.

Not like people knew what happened after death, but being turned into an artifact was definitely a different experience. Possibly a more unsettling one.

Since even blocking hits dealt a lot of damage to Zafer, he gave his best to avoid them completely, but that wasn’t easy to do.

This required a lot more movement and he slowly got tired.

Despite jogging huge distances every day for the past 4 months, it just wasn’t enough.

Zafer jumped away barely dodging Marek’s black axe, but one of his feet slipped on the ground, making him lose his balance and putting him in an even worse position for the upcoming attack.

He couldn’t dodge this one, so he tensed his whole body, bracing for the impact.

Marek lifted his axe, blocking the setting sun, but then paused, glancing to the left.

It was Skil, and he ran towards them.

“What are you still doing here? You need to get away!”, he swung at Marek to help Zafer but got instantly smacked down.

This was when Skil also had the same revelation as Zafer. This guy’s strength was unfathomable.

Zafer’s heart twitched, looking at Skil who couldn’t stop his body from rolling on the ground. Where did he come from? Did he return to the battlefield to help Zafer?

Marek turned towards the initial target, lifting his axe again ready to smash him down, but another person appeared between them.

This time, not even Marek was fast enough to react. His heart twitched.

The mysterious shadow grabbed Zafer by the arms and dashed away with him.

It was so fast that Zafer remained in the same position, ready to eat Marek’s swing.

He slowly glanced around only to realize he was on a whole different hill now!

He quickly stood up. Unlike Marek, Zafer was too tired and focused on his opponent to notice what exactly happened.

A person was standing beside him, staring at the plateau. Was he the one who dragged Zafer away?

Was Zafer even dragged away? The tall walls of Razihelnor were barely visible from here. This distance was humanly impossible to cross in just a second.

Unless of course, it was via portal.

The person beside Zafer held a colorful Miyalin Axe labeled “40”.

It was a Divine!

His Miyalin armor was painted black, indicating that he was an enemy.

How come there were still so many Nubians in the meadow?

This wasn’t good at all, but Zafer couldn’t care less about his life right now. What is going on with Skil?

If he was going to die, there was no way he would drag a friend with him.

“Calm down. If I wanted to kill you I would have done that”, the Nubian guy turned around.

Zafer’s breath lagged as his eyes fell upon the guy's face. He was a mutation survivor.

His whole head looked like that of a bear with white fur, ears, and muzzle.

This was the first time the 2 of them met in person, but they both heard about each other.

“You are Jean? Neimell’s brother?

Jean didn’t comment on that.

“Thanks for looking after her. Most people would freak out”.

He referred to when Neimell went inverse. It was thanks to Zafer not killing her on the spot that Jean managed to save her for the 2nd time.

Zafer wanted to nod but wasn’t sure what Jean’s intentions were. Why did he interfere just as Skil appeared?

This was not the salvation Zafer was hoping for.

“I need to go back”, he stepped backward but Jean grabbed him by the shoulder.

“You will die”.

Zafer pushed his hand aggressively, “So will my friend!”

There was no time to waste.

Only a single minute had passed since Jean appeared but given how strong Marek is, Zafer was afraid of how much longer Skil can withstand.

Not to mention that Skank was still alive.

Nevertheless, instead of permitting Zafer to go, Jean got distracted by Zafer’s eyes. He looked inside of them, so deeply that he could see Zafer’s bare soul.

“Huh…. What are you?”, Jean asked.

Zafer frowned. What kind of question was this? In any case, this was a perfect chance to dash away towards Skil.

He should still be near the place he saw him last time, which was west of the Razihelnor walls.

However, before he could even tense his leg muscles, Jean grabbed him again as if he predicted what Zafer was about to do.

“Both of you will die. He is a monster”.

This time Jean referred to Marek.

“Speaking of which…”

The so-called monster was searching for them the whole time.

Zafer couldn’t Marek, nor could Marek see Zafer and Jean, but his current trajectory would lead to them, and in just a few seconds, Jean’s prediction would prove to be true.

Marek stopped as soon as he climbed the hill and saw Zafer with Jean.

Zafer’s heart dropped. Did Skil die already?

“Your friend is still alive. Marek was searching for us the whole time”, Jean comforted him.

The Nubis candidate couldn’t care less about Skil. For him, his life goal was unreachable without Zafer’s death.

“What are you doing?”, Marek asked. Wrath was spilling from him.

Jean placed his elbow on Zafer’s shoulder, “What do you mean? Nothing”.

“He is mine”, Marek lifted his black axe and pointed it at Zafer.

The truth was, Marek, got promised something from certain someone if he killed Zafer with a weapon carrying the Vestige rune.

“Oh, I see. Alright then you can have him”, Jean figured it out, “beg”.

The silence resounded.

Marek was about to offer Jean to take Zafer’s Almighty Eye artifact once he kills him, but that was out of the question now.

Such disrespect could not be tolerated, even if the two were members of the same faction.

Yes, Marek was a candidate, but Jean was also just a regular paladin.

“Beg, and Hydra can have him. Or whoever made a deal with you”.

Marek's black axe collapsed into sand-like particles and then connected again into a halberd.

“Do you think I give fuck about Hydra’s deal? This is also a personal matter”.

As Marek said that, he dashed towards Jean as if Zafer wasn’t there at all.

It was obvious that Zafer was in no condition to fight anymore. This was a one versus one.

Jean chuckled, “You know that I can literally see through people?”

He pushed Zafer to the ground and blocked Marek’s halberd with his “40” Divine axe.

Unlike what one would expect, Jean remained in the same spot, while Marek was the one who got knocked back.

He landed softly, and his weapon quickly fell apart, forming a spear that he threw directly at Jean.

Zafer observed the two fight. He knew that he would instantly get killed if he moved only a little.

He could only pray that Jean would prevail and that Skil was safe.

Nevertheless, Marek wasn’t only incredibly strong but also very skilled and accurate!

The black spear went straight towards the heart.

However, could he kill Jean? How strong even was he?

Before Marek even “summoned” the spear, Jean had already swung his Divine axe vertically opening a portal.

When the spear was thrown, the portal was already opened. Marek’s heart twitched.

Through the portal, he could see his own back!

The black spear he threw went right through the portal and exited from behind him, piercing his abdomen!

He practically hit himself!

This prediction…This intuition.

Neither Zafer nor Marek knew what Jean’s anomaly was, but it had to do something with seeing the future.

Was this what Jean meant when he said could see through people?

Groans of surprise exited Marek’s mouth, which made him kneel for the first time today since the attack on Razihelnor started.

The spear fell apart once, and the black dust reassembled in his hand taking the form of an axe.

His clothes were soaked in blood, but the wound probably had already closed since it didn’t hinder Marek by a bit.

Jean was right. This guy was a monster.

He dashed forward once again, swinging his axe at Jean just the way he did before, except this time he put 100% of his strength in.

“Alright, that’s it”, Jean was not amused.

He stepped aside, not only dodging the swing at the perfect time but also grabbing Marek in a deadlock.

He then opened another portal and with a sharp turn threw Marek over his back through it!

Zafer couldn’t see where the portal led, and once Jean closed it, there were only two of them in the meadow again.

Marek was gone.

Goosebumps embraced Zafer’s skin as his glance fell on Jean. The guy was unfazed.

It took Zafer a couple of seconds to come back to the reality. Skil! Was he still there? Was he fighting someone?

A lightning bolt fell on the meadow, near the walls of Razihelnor.

“Don’t even think about it”, Jean spoke.

“He is still fighting! I can’t let him die”

“No”, Jean denied.

Zafer was still under the impression of Jean’s fighting performance, but he could not just let Skil fight alone. No matter who he was fighting against.

Jean argued that Zafer would die, but it didn’t matter. Zafer would rather join Skil than do nothing.

He had to help him.

He had to be there with him.

Zafer’s blue potion effect was about to wear off, so to use it, he suddenly stood up and pounced toward Skil’s assumed location with all his might.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t surprise Jean.

The guy started moving a split second before Zafer did! How was this possible?

Nevertheless, Zafer expected this and suddenly halted in place as much as one could with his speed. The dirt below him got dug up.

He abruptly turned around and summoned his axe, blindly swinging at Jean.

Jean’s eyes widened. He flicked back as much as he could, even having to turn his head sideways, but once the blade of the axe missed him, he kicked Zafer in the liver, knocking him down.

The timing and the length of his axe were perfect!

The blade of Zafer’s axe only scratched Jean's face.

Given how sharp Miyalin was, it made him bleed, but it wasn’t as deadly as it could be.

Jean took a few steps back, wiping the blood off of his face to see how deep the wound was.

“I… didn’t see this coming…”

He was somewhat astonished, and his comment could be perceived as praise.

“Why do you care about me so much?! Fuck off!”, Zafer held his stomach while kneeling.

Jean wiped the blood off of his face again.

“I will hit you harder the next time”, he lifted his “40” now.

Given that his axe was a Divine that possessed every rune in existence, a direct hit could kill Zafer 10 times.

Zafer clenched his teeth, looking up at Jean with wrath in his eyes.

He bore no hatred, Jean could see that, but he could also see many other things.

Zafer stood up and dashed once again, this time towards Jean. He knew fighting Jean was pointless, especially in his current state, but it didn’t matter.

If running away was impossible, maybe showing his tenacity would change something. Maybe Zafer will get pity.

Jean blocked his swing with ease and then grabbed Zafer’s hands by the biceps, but so did Zafer his.

This was a huge advantage.

Yes, Jean’s body was covered in Miyalin, but Zafer could still use his Iron Fist muscle strength to throw him down.

Unfortunately, all the strength from his anomaly has vanished.

This confirmed that Jean’s anomaly was the Almighty Eye.

Zafer panicked. He quickly spread his legs apart so that it was harder for Jean to throw him down, but the Nubian still managed to do so!

How? Zafer couldn’t help but scream on the inside as he was falling.

He specifically positioned his legs in a way that wouldn’t get him thrown down! What was the deal with this guy?

Neimell never mentioned that her brother was a freak!

Jean kneeled over Zafer’s shoulder, immobilizing him completely.

Zafer’s face got pushed against the soil. The only thing he could see was the setting sun and the blades of grass.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t over yet. Zafer couldn’t accept this.

He was in multiple deadlocks and still resisted trying to get up.

That was when Jean had enough of it.

He pulled Zafer’s shoulder out of its joint.

The latter let out a loud cry. Tears started streaming down his face.

Jean gritted his teeth, “Now I see why Rat adores you so much…”

He referred to Simra. That was his nickname among the enemy paladins.

“It’s not that you are a crazy lunatic like Banana… you are just as stubborn as a mule”.

In reality that wasn’t exactly why Simra liked Zafer, but played a role.

With another groan, Zafer calmed down.

“You have a TP”, Jean looked at Zafer’s face, “use it. Be gone”.

The tears were still streaming down Zafer’s face, but he wasn’t in any physical pain anymore.

“Fuck you”, he cried.

At this point, he didn’t even care about assisting Skil. He just didn’t want to let Jean have his way. That was just how stubborn he was. He provoked Jean to kill him.

Nevertheless, Jean also didn’t want Zafer to have his way. He could care less about some random teenager, but the fact was that Jean was also a very stubborn person.

Just as he was about to open a portal and get rid of Zafer the way he did with Marek, another mysterious portal opened around 50 meters from them.

Simra flew out of it, rolling on the ground.

His armor was dented on a couple of spots and was covered in dirt and blood.

Following up another portal opened in the vicinity of the first one, and Zlatko jumped out of it.

His appearance wasn’t much better than Simra’s.

The two of them seem to be fighting for quite some time now given their condition, but the fact was that Hydra was also participating in this brawl but got left behind.

Simra bit his lower lip as he saw the situation Zafer was in. It had to be Jean out of all the people.

Simra did well fighting both Zlatko and Hydra at the same time, but he made a mistake by opening a portal here.

There was no way he could take Zlatko and Jean at once. He experienced enough to know that.

He spun his Divine axe and it flashed a couple of times. Each flash was a rune activation, and he might have even overheated his weapon with this.

“Faze!”, he shouted.

That was the name of the 1st officer of the Temper faction.

He was physically nowhere around, but he heard the cry.

“Fuck”, Jean stood up bracing for impact.

The space started to bend around everyone and just then Simra hit the ground with his axe using all his might.

The impact was so strong that Zafer never even observed the explosion.

He just went unconscious.

However, at the same time, he woke up somewhere else.

He was on a huge floating island that was surrounded by myriads of others. The sky was pink, and 2 moons were floating near the setting sun.

He could hear a waterfall somewhere but could not see it. The ground was covered in green grass but there were also hands sticking out here and there.

Finally, a person was sitting at the edge of the island, eating a loaf of bread and enjoying the view.

He looked the same as Zafer, but with blushed cheeks, black hair, and wide-opened eyes as if he was high.

“What is this place?”, Zafer asked.

The one sitting turned around, “huh? You should like this place”.

Zafer didn’t understand what that answer meant, although the view was indeed nice.

It was also very calm and the two of them sat there in silence for a couple of minutes.

During those times, however, Zafer couldn’t help but throw a few glances at his black-haired imitation.

“Um… Are you my consciousness?”

The imitation frowned looking at Zafer “Your what?”

“My consciousness”, he repeated himself, “like the voice I hear when I’m thinking”.

The imitation turned his eyes back towards the view, “perhaps”.

This answer wasn’t helpful but Zafer gazed at the floating islands, trying to see what the imitation was looking at.

Nevertheless, this wasn’t successful, as he couldn’t help but keep pondering.

“No seriously, where the fuck am I”.

The imitation ignored the comment squinting his eyes.

“Do you see that there?”, he pointed ahead.

Zafer frowned looking at the floating islands in the distance, “Where?”

“In the direction of my gaze”.

Zafer looked at the imitation and then placed his cheeks next to his, trying to align his gaze with imitations.

“Man! Never mind. It went away now”.

Suddenly everything became blurry and bright.

Zafer woke up, but this time to where his body was.

He was still alive.