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Condemned To Death
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15th September, 1507
"My name is Evan Anderson, and I'm a second-year student at the Chimera Academy," Evan confessed, defeat lacing his voice as he remained seated on the ground, his gaze fixed on Seren's imposing figure.
Elise and Susie approached Seren cautiously. They were awed at how Seren had easily dealt with 3 upperclassmen without sustaining any major injuries. They watched in silence as the interrogation unfolded before them.
Seren fixed Evan with a steely gaze, his voice carrying an undercurrent of intensity. "How did you know I had soul stones on me?" he demanded.
Evan shifted uncomfortably, his nervousness betraying him under Seren's unwavering scrutiny. After a moment of hesitation, he relented. "It's normal for all students to keep tabs on what's happening in the academy, especially if it's related to the heir of the Ashbourne family," he admitted reluctantly.
Seren's glare intensified, his eyes boring into Evan, and then he said “Fair enough. Do you just go around robbing people weaker than you?" he pressed, his voice tinged with disdain.
Unable to withstand Seren's piercing stare any longer, Evan's resolve slowly crumbled. "...Yes," he confessed meekly.
Seren didn’t question any further as he just stared at Evan in silence with a contemplative gaze. He then turned his attention to Susie and Elise, who stood a few meters away, their hands pressed firmly against their noses to ward off the noxious stench of blood.
Seren looked down at his blood-soaked state and grimaced, the foul odor assaulting his senses. "Do you have any relics on you that can wash me?" he inquired.
"Yes, I do have one," Evan confirmed as he lifted his hand and activated his relic.
A single drop of water materialized above Seren's head which gradually expanded until it formed a sizable sphere. With a gentle motion, Evan directed the sphere to descend upon Seren, enveloping him in a cascade of water. Evan repeated this process a few more times until his soul energy ran out. By the end, he was breathing roughly with veins on his forehead bulging and tiredness prevalent in his eyes from overusing the relic.
Finally, as Seren emerged from the torrent of water looking clean and refreshed, Susie and Elise approached with concern etched on their faces. "Are you hurt anywhere?" they inquired, their voices laced with worry.
"I'm completely fine," he reassured them with a warm smile on his face and then, he turned his attention back to Evan and asked, “What should we do with him?”
Susie remained silent with her expression unreadable, while Elise's grin widened into a mischievous smirk as she glanced at Evan's forlorn figure.
"Run his pockets," Elise suggested with a wicked gleam in her eye.
…
“WHY ARE YOU SO BROKE?!” Elise yelled, annoyed that Evan had practically nothing on him.
Evan only had 2 relics with him, the Guard talisman and another relic which looked like a blue stone in the shape of a water droplet.
Suspicion flickered in Elise’s eyes as she questioned, “Didn't you say you robbed other people? And where's the relic that you used to control that bristle back?" she pressed, her tone laced with skepticism.
Evan could only offer a feeble defence as his voice tinged with desperation. "This is all I have. I sold all my other relics to buy the Beast-Caller relic, and I-I can't give you that, otherwise, I won't be able to complete missions to buy back my relics," he confessed, fear and desperation coloring his words.
Seren interjected with a plain expression, his voice devoid of judgment. "What class is that relic?"
"...Class 3," Evan admitted, his voice barely above a whisper.
Elise and Susie exchanged stunned glances at Evan's revelation. The gravity of the situation sank in as they realized the significance of Evan's possession. A class 3 relic is coveted by even the most seasoned warriors. The sheer cost of such a relic is known to be staggering, and they understood why Evan had resorted to desperate measures like selling all his other relics to acquire it.
‘I wonder how many people he had to rob just to get his hands on that thing’ Elise let her thoughts wander off.
Meanwhile, Seren's contemplative gaze remained fixed on Evan, his mind buzzing with questions and uncertainties. ‘I could simply snatch the relic from him, but do I even want it? This relic is two levels above my rank, and I did read in a book at the library that a Lexarch activating a relic above their rank drains more soul energy than usual, you can’t use the relic to its full extent and you will also suffer from severe side effects with prolonged use. Is that why the Bristle back was so weak and he was acting irrationally during the fight?’
Seren tried to observe any abnormalities with Evan’s body, but other than him sweating profusely, there was nothing out of the ordinary.
‘I could just sell the relic but…' Seren peeked to the side and saw Susie looking a bit nervous, while Elise had a slight excitement in her eyes.
After thinking for a while, Seren made his decision, “Fine, I won't take your Beast-Caller relic," he declared, surprising Evan with his unexpected leniency. "But I will be taking the Glimmer Amulet and the Raindrop relic.”
Evan's expression registered surprise and relief, his expectations defied by Seren's unexpected act of mercy.
“Huh? Seren are you really letting this opportunity go?” Elise asked with incredulity in her voice.
Seren responded with a gentle chuckle, his demeanor relaxed yet resolute. "We are still young and ignorant, and susceptible to making poor choices," he explained, his words carrying a note of wisdom. "I'm sure he will learn to be a better person in the future from this experience."
Elise found herself at a loss for words, her thoughts swirling with a mixture of surprise and admiration for Seren's unexpected display of compassion. ‘I guess he really was a priest in his past life’ she mused inwardly.
Evan's gratitude resonated in his words with his voice tinged with genuine appreciation and admiration. "Even though I tried to rob you… Thank you, I won't forget your kindness," he expressed earnestly.
Seren acknowledged Evan's gratitude with a nod and a warm smile, his actions speaking volumes as he wished Evan well before taking his leave. Susie followed behind Seren with a light smile playing on her lips, while Elise trailed behind, her thoughts consumed her as she redefined the image of Seren she initially had.
Normally, Seren would have just broken a few of Evan’s bones or even beaten him to the brink of death until he eventually gave up the relic, but Seren chose to restrain himself this time. He needed to get close to Susie and Elise for his future plans, but if he acted like a tyrant in front of them, then they might unconsciously become scared and have their guards up against him, not allowing him to make any progress in their relationship.
"I didn't know you were such a nice person," Elise commented.
Seren's reply was matter-of-fact, tinged with a touch of resignation. “I have always been a nice person, but sometimes I am forced to make choices which I don’t want”
Susie then chimed in and asked curiously “Seren, how did you use your Luminar crystal relic like that?”.
"The relic only gives me the ability to bend or create light," Seren said, his voice steady. "That laser you saw was just me bending light around us into a line. You might not know this, but when you focus enough light on a single point, it can create heat capable of burning through almost anything."
Susie's curiosity remained unsated as her questions flowed one after another. "But then how did Evan lose his vision momentarily in the fight?" she pressed, her brow furrowed with concentration.
"He probably just bent the light around Evan’s eyes to miss him," Elise interjected, her own understanding of Seren's abilities evident. "He can’t see anything if there is no light reaching his eyes."
Susie’s eyebrows shot up in realization, surprised at the versatility of light as a weapon, but then another question popped up in her head. "If you knew all this, then why didn’t you pick the Luminar crystal instead of the Swift cloak relic back at Orion’s library?" she queried.
Elise just laughed awkwardly at this and replied “I have my reasons”.
Susie now wondered what possible hidden way could the Swift cloak relic be used for.
As they walked in silence with each lost in their own contemplations, Elise couldn't help but feel a sense of relief that Susie hadn't asked further. ‘I can’t say it’s because one of my favorite characters in an anime had this ability’ she thought to herself, a secret smile playing on her lips.
…
As the city began to fade into darkness, the trio found themselves on the outskirts, the glow of streetlights casting long shadows on the pavement.
"Alright, my home’s in that direction," Elise announced, preparing to depart.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Before Elise could take leave, Seren's voice halted her in her tracks. "Wait, I have a request," he called out, causing her to turn and regard him with curiosity.
"Do you mind if I borrow your Swift cloak relic for the night?" Seren inquired, his tone earnest.
Elise looked at Seren with a confused expression and asked “Sure, but why do you need it?”
“It’s just to run some experiments to see if I want to buy it in the future” Seren explained.
If it was anybody else, Elise would have been reluctant to hand over her relic like this but Seren seemed trustworthy enough so she gave it to him without asking much.
Suddenly remembering something, Elise posed a question of her own. "Oh wait, I forgot to ask. Where do you live?" she inquired, her curiosity piqued.
"I live on the first floor of 80 Ruinside Street," Seren responded.
Elise's gaze then shifted from Seren to Susie. "What about you?” She inquired.
Susie opened her mouth to respond, but then a realization struck her, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment as she faltered with her words getting caught in her throat.
Elise's confusion grew as she observed Susie's sudden change in demeanor. "Is everything okay?" she asked, her concern evident in her voice.
Before Susie could muster a coherent response, Seren interjected with a matter-of-fact tone. "She lives with me," he stated plainly, his expression neutral.
Elise's eyes widened in surprise with her initial confusion now replaced by intrigue. "Oh?" she remarked, a mischievous glint dancing in her eyes.
Susie's blush deepened as she avoided Elise's gaze, feeling exposed under her scrutiny.
A sly grin spread across Elise's face as she grabbed Susie’s shoulder and leaned in closer to Susie, her voice dropping to a low whisper. "A single man and woman living under the same roof. I didn’t know our Susie was such a naughty girl," she teased, her tone playful.
"Ah, no wait, that's not—" Susie attempted to clarify, but Elise interrupted her with a wink before releasing her shoulders.
"Good luck, Susie," Elise said with a grin as she walked away, seemingly delighted to have stirred up some drama.
Susie watched Elise go, feeling a mix of embarrassment and regret wash over her for revealing her feelings about Seren to Elise.
Seren turned to Susie with an unreadable expression. "What did she say?" he asked, his voice calm.
“N-nothing!” Susie attempted to brush off the situation but her nerves got the best of her in front of Seren as she stuttered.
Seren ignored her strange behaviour and changed the topic. “You can go home first, I need to handle some work and perform the experiments with the relic I got from Elise”.
Susie’s eyes lit at this as she asked in an excited voice “Can I tag along, I want to see how you conduct the experiments”.
Susie had never excelled in any aspect of her life, and her knowledge about relics was limited. Therefore, she desired to observe Seren's experiments, hoping to draw inspiration from his expertise. Susie regarded Seren as more intelligent than herself, eager to absorb as much knowledge from him as she could.
Just as Susie was imagining how she could get creative with her relics, she heard Seren say, “No, I like to be alone during my experiments and not be disturbed”.
“I promise I won’t disturb you, I just want to learn from watching you” She pleaded trying to get Seren to take her along but he still refused.
The disappointment was etched across her features as Susie reluctantly accepted Seren's refusal.
"Maybe some next time, okay?" Seren offered with a gentle smile, attempting to ease her disappointment.
Susie's attempts to persuade him proved fruitless, and with a heavy heart, she bid him farewell with her shoulders slumped with dejection.
Once Susie was out of sight, Seren turned away and retreated into a nearby dark alleyway with the dim glow of the streetlights casting shadows around him. Chimera Vale, despite its grandiose name, was nothing more than a quaint medieval-style town, with only its peculiar architecture adding to its charm.
‘This luminar grade gap is much more troublesome than I initially thought. That fight with Evan depleted more than a third of my soul energy’. Seren felt a sense of urgency knowing that if anything unexpected had caused the fight to become prolonged, he would have been in deep trouble when his soul energy ran out.
As he wandered through the labyrinthine alleyways of Chimera Vale, the sights and sounds of the town unfolded before him. Multiple homeless figures were huddled against the walls with their clothes tattered, barely offering protection from the chill of the night. Some were asleep, while others scavenged through discarded scraps of food with their hunger evident in their desperate actions. The stench of human waste lingered in the air as Seren continued walking.
Despite everything surrounding him, Seren remained unfazed, his gaze steady as he navigated through the maze of poverty and destitution. Handicapped individuals approached him as their eyes pleaded for assistance. Without hesitation, Seren reached into his pocket and withdrew a single gold coin, offering it to those in need.
To the homeless, the mere sight of gold was akin to a miracle. For those accustomed to scraping by on the barest of necessities, such wealth was beyond their wildest dreams. Some attempted to refuse Seren's generosity, overwhelmed by the magnitude of his gift. Yet, Seren insisted they take it as he pressed the coin into their hands.
Tears welled in the eyes of the recipients as gratitude washed over them like a tidal wave. They bowed before Seren with their heads lowered in reverence for his kindness. Each gold coin bestowed upon them represented a glimmer of hope in their otherwise bleak existence.
Seren continued his altruistic gesture until nearly all the gold he had won from his bet with Lorien was given away.
"Boy, what’s your name?" A voice called out from behind Seren, prompting him to turn around. Before him stood an elderly man with a stooped and frail form as he leaned heavily on a worn stick for support. The man's clothes were tattered and threadbare with his weathered face framed by unkempt white hair hidden beneath a worn hat. Despite his aged appearance, there was a sharpness in the old man's eyes that caught Seren's attention.
"Do you want more?" Seren inquired with a warm smile, recognizing the man as one of the homeless he had helped a few minutes ago.
"Thank you for asking, but no, I am satisfied with what I have. I just wanted to know my benefactor’s name," the old man replied, returning Seren's smile with a hint of gratitude.
"In that case, my name is Seren," he introduced himself.
"Hmm, a nice name. Seren, do you mind giving me some of your time? I wish to show you a magical place," the old man requested, his tone sincere.
Seren regarded him calmly, his curiosity piqued. "What type of place is it?" he inquired,
"The Twilight,"
Seren fell silent as his gaze assessed the old man before him. The old man didn’t move as he waited for Seren’s answer with a light smile on his face. After 10 seconds of complete silence, Seren agreed to the old man’s request.
The old man turned around and said to follow him. Seren followed him quietly and through the night sky.
Normally, Seren would ignore such a strange request from a shady old man who looked ancient if not anything, but Seren had come to the alleyways looking for someone.
<<< (means the past)
5 years ago, when Seren was a young child, his days were fraught with hardship and uncertainty and his nights were spent in the dimly lit alleyways of Chimera Vale. Survival was a constant struggle, and Seren often found himself scavenging for scraps of food amidst the trashcans of Chimera Vale.
It was on one such night, as Seren rummaged through a trashcan in search of food, that he encountered a stranger unlike any he had seen before. Clad in casual attire, the man exuded an aura of kindness as he distributed gold coins to the poor souls that populated the slums. Intrigued by this act of generosity, Seren approached the man and timidly requested a coin for himself. To his astonishment, the man not only obliged but bestowed upon him two golden tokens of wealth.
Curiosity piqued, Seren shadowed the man as he continued his benevolent deeds, quietly observing as he brought solace to the downtrodden denizens of Chimera Vale. But then, the man was approached by a homeless individual, who beckoned him to follow.
Seren trailed behind the pair, careful not to attract attention as they navigated the labyrinthine alleys of the slums.
The homeless man passed a mask to the man standing beside him before heading toward an inconspicuous wall. He lightly touched the wall and then the ground beneath both individuals to instantly start to liquefy.
Seren watched in astonishment as the homeless man and his companion were gradually engulfed by the ground, like sinking in quicksand. Within moments, they vanished completely, and the ground returned to its original state.
Seren approached the spot where they had vanished and searched for clues, but he found nothing unusual. He then attempted to replicate the homeless man's actions as he touched the wall, but nothing happened. He tried to dig into the ground but found that it was just like any other ground.
Over the years, Seren kept a vigilant eye on the alleyways, and would occasionally see new people that would hand out gold coins to the poor. Just as before, they were led away by various homeless individuals, only to vanish without a trace.
The homeless guides differed each time and so did the routes they took and the methods of disappearance. The only thing common between them was that every time they approached someone, they would say something strange first that didn’t make sense most of the time, and before disappearing, they would always give a white mask to the person.
<> (means present)
“We are here”
Seren came out of his memories as he realized he was in a completely different location from before. There was no one around and there were barely any lights around, making the area appear extremely dark.
The old man then let go of his stick and moved his withered hands in the air in a coordinated and elegant way.
‘Square, Circle, Cross and Dot’ Seren visualized what the old man was drawing in the air. The old man used a combination of these movements to create an invisible complex pattern in the air with his hand.
Then, with a single clap of his hands, the old man set the air in motion which caused it to ripple and distort before his eyes. A small red dot materialized in the distortion and hung in the air like a suspended breath. Seren watched as the dot then began to expand until eventually, its size grew to half that of surrounding buildings.
Countless tiny ripples danced across the surface of the dot as its form shifted and morphed with each tremor. Seren could feel the ground beneath him quiver with the force of the transformation.
Finally, after a few seconds, the dot settled into a new shape entirely and its new appearance bore no resemblance to its former self.
Seren stood rooted to the spot with his shock palpable as he beheld the new image of the dot that had materialized before him. The once innocuous dot had now transformed into the face of a demon, its features twisted and distorted into a nightmarish semblance of a living being.
The demon's skin bore a dark red hue with patches of decaying flesh and festering wounds that oozed with sickly white pus from its pores. Giant white feathers sprouted from one side of its face, a stark backdrop against its malformed form, while 2 horns had sprouted from its forehead with one of them being broken. Its eye sockets were empty voids of darkness, devoid of any semblance of humanity, and its nose was split in half, revealing the raw flesh within.
But it was the demon opening its mouth that truly unsettled Seren. As it opened wide, Seren saw rows of tiny human hands writhing around like snakes in place of teeth, and the eerie laughter of children echoed from the depths of its throat.
"Here, take it before going inside," the old man's voice broke through the oppressive silence, offering Seren a plain white mask. Seren accepted it solemnly with a grave expression.
“While inside, make sure to not open your eyes for 10 seconds” Then, with a gesture from the old man, Seren followed him into the darkness.
When Seren got close to the demon, the countless hands inside its mouth twisted and stretched out to grab Seren.
Seren didn’t resist as he let them take hold of him and forcefully pull him inside. Inside the mouth, countless hands grabbed every part of Seren’s body as they slowly engulfed him. Behind Seren, the giant mouth closed shut as everything became dark, the only thing heard being the creepy laughter of children echoing in his ears.
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Condemned To Death
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