“Luke… right?” the man’s slow words gave off the feeling of supremacy. It was as if this man’s standing was beyond everyone else.
Regardless, Luke did not stand down, he was here in Aya’s place. He may not have her strength, but this didn’t mean he was going to stand by doing nothing.
“Go back, you shouldn’t be here. I’ve already got my hands full already.”
“What’s Rei planning?”
“Just go back, keep your head down. It’ll be all over soon enough.”
This was extremely odd for Luke. He expected the mercenary in front of him to threaten him at least.
“I could’ve done that, but I still chose to go here.”
“Speaking of which, I’m pretty sure Houston didn’t tell you about this place. How did you know?”
“This was one of the only few places that’s still undisturbed. I just got lucky.”
“Lucky, you’re more than just lucky meeting me. If it was one of those two, they would’ve misinterpreted the meaning.”
“Hah, this is why I hate the Land of Fate. Random things keep happening for no reason,” the man continued.
“Does this mean you’ll tell me?” Luke was expectant now.
“Fine, I guess Rei won’t mind you knowing.”
On the other side of the city, Aya was running away when shadowy hands kept appearing from her shadow. Unable to run away, she was forced to find sources of light to remove these growing figures behind her while Houston was casually throwing more knives in her direction, this time however, these knives were coated in a dark eerie membrane. When she deflected the first one, her hands began to sting and numb at the same time, but the feeling quickly faded away.
While in a constant state of alertness, Houston was telling Aya more information about the world.
“The world is composed of laws, the power that reality itself is made out of. Our world is corrupted beyond what should be even possible, this corruption led us mortals to grasp laws. A Gifted like you should be even more susceptible to these laws. Your strengthened body is because of these laws.”
Saying this, Houston stopped throwing his knives and made a hand motion. All the knives he previously threw away suddenly returned to his grip. On the way, Aya was caught off guard and multiple knives struck her back and limbs, only grazing her due to her tough skin.
Aya’s body shook and fell down, the shadowy hands that once failed to reach her now swallowed her up. She was completely and utterly detained by these shadowy hands, unable to move an inch.
“The laws inside you are murky, impure. Your contradictory speed and toughness are the result of this impurity. You have to find your way on your own, the best I can do is try to clash the laws I can use with you.”
The shadowy hands started to disappear, they blended into the ground as if they were never there. The only indication they were ever real were the hand marks left on her body. She stood up right after and got ready to handle the next round of attacks.
Annoyed, Aya asked, “Can’t you do it in a nicer way?”
“I can slowly use the laws I know to stir up your body. But that’s too boring, this is much more fun.”
Aya glared at Houston wildly smiling as he conjured up a gust from behind him. Aya closed her eyes when she felt an even stronger blast of wind from Houston, she slowly backed away instinctively. After a while, Aya suddenly felt the current of air disappear, she looked at Houston and he just disappointedly sighed.
“Come back, tch, damn God’s Domain. Something always has to ruin the fun.”
Aya looked at her arms and felt a tingling sensation as if another limb was sprouting within her. She tried to grasp this feeling but it slowly faded away. She was confused if this was what Houston was trying to make her grasp so she asked.
Houston got curious at this anomaly, she didn’t feel any law prop up when he was trying to stimulate her but she suddenly felt something inside the God’s Domain.
“Really weird, this is why I love living here, there’s always something odd,” Houston casually smiled and went back deeper towards the middle of the formation.
“Hey! What does this mean?”
“Oh, right! It could mean so many things that it doesn’t even matter. I honestly don’t know,” Houston shrugged her off.
Aya turned furious, “What do you mean anything? At least give me something!”
“Alright, geez. Uh, let’s see. You could have the bloodline of some kind of monster from the Land of Evolution, that’s always a fun conclusion. You have an affinity for the God of Trials, that one just seems like a normal thing to assume. Oooh, you might also have the budding prospects to become a New God, I personally like this idea more. You could also just be blessed by this land, for no rhyme or reason. There’s also-” Houston was tapping a finger per the explanation he gave, it seemed as if he could keep going for many more minutes.
“I get it!”
“See, there’s no point in assuming what’s happening. Just gotta make do with what you have and not worry about it too much. That’s a lesson I learned a very long time ago.”
Aya followed Houston and went back to where they initially met. On the way, with Aya’s new understanding, her questions become much more inquisitive.
“If a God is a personified law, and a God’s Domain is their law being applied. How are you using your law inside the domain?”
“I can’t,” a quick simple answer.
“But you just used it!”
“That’s very simple, Rei made some weird contraption to cancel out the effects of a God’s Domain for a small area.”
“You can do that?”
“Kind of, involves too many moving pieces I’d rather not go into it. If you want to ask Rei, go for it, he’s right there,” Houston pointed to a man who was casually sitting by the bench, a crutch was beside him as he rested with his eyes closed.
“Reinhold?”
“That’s me…” Reinhold’s voice was husky and the bags under his eyes were extremely dark. His expression was tired but it didn’t hide the immense aura around him. Aya’s instincts made her subconsciously step back, she felt something off about him.
There was a barrage of questions that Aya wanted to ask but she needed to know one thing.
“How sure are you about stopping the trials?”
“Stopping the trials, I could stop it right now if I wanted.”
Hearing this Aya’s expression turned into one of shock, if he could do so she didn’t understand why he didn’t do it as soon as possible.
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“Then why-“
“Why haven’t I stopped it? Because I’d have to kill everyone inside here to stop it. I’m assuming you also don’t want to end it like this either.”
Aya didn’t see him smile or frown, simply as stoic as before.
“You know that’s not what I meant.”
“Then tell me what you mean,” an immediate reply.
“How confident are you in preventing the bloodshed?”
“Which bloodshed, the one caused by the trials or the one caused by the other citizens?”
“Both.”
“Two answers then, for the trials, I’d say I can keep 95% of the remaining survivors. As for the citizens killing each other, I won’t do anything to stop that.”
“Why not? If you can save them, why won’t you?”
“Oh? You want me to keep the citizens from killing each other? That’s fine as well, I can guarantee that no citizen will kill each other but I’m confident not even half of the survivors will survive before the next trial.”
“Why are you being so difficult?” Aya snapped at his answers.
“Aren’t you?” Reinhold opened his eyes, Aya’s temper faded down right after, anger replaced with unwillingness.
Reinhold continued, “How much manpower do you think I have?”
“You have the entire guild at your disposal! Why aren’t you letting them help? At least Argen had the common sense to help!”
“That’s what it seems, huh? I actually went by the guild right after the second explosion.” Reinhold raised the hair covering his eyes and he dazedly stared into the bright blue sky covered by a hint of red gold.
He continued, “I threatened everyone to stay still for what’s next to come. That’s what people will tell you but it was actually only aimed at the Fanged Lioness. She’s the only person the guild listens to, good thing I managed to bring Houston and Hannah on my side before tragedy struck.”
Aya got confused by Reinhold’s words.
“Think about it, this is a chance to get out of this hellhole. Who wouldn’t want to take it?”
“I wouldn’t,” Houston smiled brightly from the side.
“Not the time, Houston.”
Houston shrugged and continued to daydream.
“So you’re saying…”
“The biggest threat is the guild itself. As simple as that, the Fanged Lioness understood this as well, so rather than letting these time bombs out, she only let Argen out, the only person she knew wouldn’t do anything like this.”
“If you can’t use them then…”
“I have nothing. I don’t have your strength, I can’t even walk properly. So, tell me, what do you want me to do?”
“You should…” Aya couldn’t think of anything that was reasonable.
“See, so either follow my orders or hide away with everyone else. Of course, I already know what you’re going to say. The moment you showed up your answer was already set. I wouldn’t have done all this if you’re answer wasn’t to my liking.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
“I was given no choice but to move forward, and that’s what I’m doing.”
“You want me to stop the people you hired?”
“If you would be so kind as to, yes,” Reinhold unironically replied.
“You should be able to control them, why do you need me for?”
“Other than Brun, the other two are rogues who only follow the money. If they could get out right now, they would. They’re just biding their time to figure out if the trial’s a lie or not. Soon enough one citizen will be able to get out and they’ll follow right after.”
“You have Houston with you right now, don’t tell me he can’t do it. He already knows where they are. He already beat me, what’s stopping him from controlling them?”
“Me. He’s too valuable to be sent to take care of those two. Besides, you’ve been insulting me with your naïve thoughts, go ahead and prove yourself. Houston, finish up her realizations, I want to get some rest.”
“Sure thing, boss-man!”
Reinhold’s back was slowly fading away as Aya glared at him.
“Aya, I’m sure you understand how stupid you look right now," Houston's entire aura vividly changed into something scarier, "He’s literally doing more than you and you’re getting angry at him. Save them, help them, fight against the bad guys, if you want to do something then do it yourself. This is why I hate kids,” Houston finally brought out his core affinity, madness.
Aya could feel Houston’s aura suddenly change, unlike earlier when he casually used some laws that were barely able to pierce her skin but this time… she felt extreme danger.
She saw that Houston wasn’t playing around anymore, and she immediately dashed away, using the ground as leverage to use her full strength to run away. Houston casually took a step forward and appeared in front of her, he reached out his hand and tried to grab her face.
She ducked down, trying to escape from his grasp. Even though she dodged his grasp, her face burned with pain, it was as if it was set on fire. She knew she dodged it, but the pain said otherwise.
“It hurts, doesn’t it? Even existing is painful,” Houston’s earlier happy-go-lucky tone shifted to something extremely, ear-piercing, a high-pitched screech. His voice had a dominating aspect to it as she felt her whole-body tremble before it.
Her legs started shaking uncontrollably Houston’s law started to shatter her existence, she couldn’t properly run anymore. Her body dropped down as she felt an unknown power slither inside her body, she felt as if snakes coiled around her body and their fangs bit down on her skin. As if their venom spread inside her veins, scorching, and ravaging her insides.
Her body was burning in agony yet her body showed no signs of injury. This was Houston’s core law, the Law of Madness.
“A little suffering will do your future self good. If you could still hear me, you should understand something, I have never seen someone as practical as Rei. He planned for every single possible outcome, even this. Even the part where Luke goes in your place to meet up with them.”
Aya’s muddled eyes gained clarity as she shouted out in agony, escaping the net of madness she felt. From the edge of insanity, she came back to lucidity.
“Luke? Where is he?!” Aya subconsciously threw her hands at Houston, conjuring a red light to pierce Houston's heart.
A black liquid sprouted from Houston’s shadow to block this red light. Other than slowly dimming into nothingness, this red light was of no significance. Houston finally saw which law Aya had started to awaken, the Law of Sacrifice.
“That was quite weak, I guess that’s par for the course with that disgusting law. No matter, it ends off here. You should be able to mimic the techniques I taught you with that law. Figure it out yourself.”
After saying so, Houston threw Aya outside where the God’s Domain could once again affect her. Aya felt her power start to hide deep within herself as if she never awakened her law at all.
“Luke’s in safe hands, if you want him back then detain one of the two mercenaries and then bring them here. I’m waiting.”
Aya felt the pain subside, only to be left with an extremely energetic body. She had no wounds, no injuries, and not even the slightest discomfort. The pain seemed to sprout only within her mind, it was as if she went mad.
She looked at Houston depart, leaving her alone to deal with what was to come. Awakening her power made her realize that her initially off-balanced body was more balanced out, her awkward body felt more natural now, and her entire physical attributes rose according to what she lacked. Although the rise was extremely minimal, it was enough to deal with everyone in the city who hadn’t awakened their law.
She walked off when she felt an odd sensation in her pocket, she took it out and it showed the location of the two mercenaries. Left with no other option, she ran to the address.
Houston walked back to where Reinhold was taking care of something on the ground. The base of this item was plaid with gold and countless runic symbols were engraved on it, on top of this item was oddly enough, a tattered book, the book was named “Old Gods: Encyclopedia.”
“I’ll never cease to be amazed by this nifty tool,” Houston reverted back to his jovial nature, completely suppressing the madness within him.
He continued, “Making an artificial domain with nothing but a book, is truly amazing.”
Gods are nothing but the personification of laws, meaning, they were laws themselves. To fight against their domains, one has to use another god’s domain as well. Oddly enough, these artificial domains are too crude in their structure to fully bring out the laws that these Gods held.
Reinhold’s father’s book somehow held enough power in it to singlehandedly dispel a small portion of the domain. Reinhold started to ask more questions about his father but as far as he could recall he wasn’t anyone too remarkable.
“Houston, what do you think about this book?”
“Really odd. It’s not inherently strong but it somehow contains wonderous laws of multiple gods. The materials that it’s made of are nothing but of the common variety. It’s valuable but only for research value.”
Reinhold nodded. There were too many questions he wanted to ask, his father died in his bed, peacefully. While his mother, also died due to an illness. There wasn’t supposed to be anything unordinary about him.
Houston excitedly said, “So are we going to use this book to nullify that inquisitor’s sword?”
“It’s too risky, I have another plan. Artificial domains are in the end… weaker than natural domains,” Reinhold mysteriously trailed off.
“Natural domain… that seems fun. What do I need to do?”
Reinhold smiled, “Let me get some sleep first. It’s been too long since I peacefully slept.”
“But it’s noon,” Houston said in uncertainty.
“I know.”
Back to Luke’s dilemma, he was currently getting dragged away by the tattooed man. With the sheer difference in size, not to mention, one was Gifted, the other was not.
“Brun, let me go!”
“Rei needs Aya to learn how to fight. He can’t stay here for too long,” Brun was carrying Luke on his shoulder, Luke’s resistance wasn’t even worth noticing.
“Then let her learn after this! She doesn’t need to suffer like this!”
“After hearing the entire plan, you still expect me to let you go?” Brun grumbled.
“I don’t have a reason to tell the inquisitors anything!”
“Not even if Aya gets captured?”
“What are you talking about?”
“There might be a future like that. Only if that golden-armored inquisitor or Raxer moves.”
“So, you’re letting Aya go straight into danger for no reason?”
“No reason? She has to learn how the world works, this is a baptism if anything, at least that’s how I see it.”
They continued to move on, Brun was running across the city, going to where Reinhold was hiding. Luke decided to stop protesting and just waited in silence. His stomach was starting to ache from all the pressure hitting his stomach, but he kept mum.
Brun thought to himself, “Someone has to protect the people Rei will leave behind. There’s no other option than Aya. It’s tragic that she has to go through this but she’ll come to understand soon enough.”