Chapter 52

What you lack is Empathy

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~tsk, what’s with all this annoying rain~

Ken grumbles as he drives the car toward the frozen remains of the mountain.

Heavy rain had started soon after the wave of decay and was quickly flooding the forest.

The ground which was once solid, is now full of mud and deep ponds.

-we need to move quickly; this looks like it will turn into a flood-

Celine says as she looks up at the dark clouds above.

The Bulgasari, which is now the size of a slightly big house cat and sitting on Ken’s lap, tries to bite the emergency brakes but gets smacked on the head by Ken.

~stop trying to eat my car already ~

-pfft, I didn’t know you were an animal person-

Daxia chuckles while watching Ken.

The Bulgasari is sitting on Ken’s lap while the lyrebird has been practically glued to Ken’s head all day.

~I promise you I am not~

Celine turns to look at Ken.

-well you practically made the Bulgasari imprint on you, so you reap what you sow –

~okay, I get the Bulgasari, what about the bird? ~

The lyrebird looks down at Ken and opens its mouth.

-It’s not my fault that your hair looks like a nest-

Suddenly everyone goes silent and the Bulgasari begins to whimper as a terrible sense of dread overwhelms everyone.

Celine and Daxia’s alert level goes through the roof and they frantically begin to scan their surroundings looking for the source.

~relax, I am pretty sure I know what’s the source of this ~

Ken reassures them as he continues to drive toward the center of the frozen ground.

Although he is clearly also affected by the sense of dread, he remains calm as though he expected it.

Soon, the figure of a girl sitting in the middle of a pile of frozen and chopped up remains that once belonged to the royal guards and their Girins becomes visible to them.

The girl closes the book from which she was reading and turns to face them and it becomes clear to them that she is the source of their dread.

Saiko squints her eyes as she watches them exit the car.

_You are also scared of me? That’s interesting, why are you scared of me?_

Once out of the car, the Bulgasari quickly runs and hides behind Ken.

Daxia looks at Saiko then turns to look at Ken.

-you know that’s a very good question –

~well~

Ken rubs the back of his head while avoiding Saiko’s gaze.

~it’s an unfortunate side effect of the ritual ~

_please, do explain _

~haaa~

Ken lets out a sigh.

~well, people think we have five senses but we acutely have a lot more than five, and one of these senses is the one we associate with haunted houses and ghosts and whatnot, you know the one we are currently feeling, though usually it’s not triggered by a ghost or anything, it’s triggered by faulty or exposed wiring ~

Daxia looks at Ken and raises her eyebrow at him.

-I am not following, what does that have to do with this?-

~well, if you think about it, that sense isn’t supposed to detect faulty wiring, it’s not like ancient sapiens would have been exposed to the risk of running into random electrical wires, the fact that wires trigger that sense as well is just a funny coincidence ~

Ken looks up at Saiko.

~ for ancient sapiens to develop that sense, they would have had to be exposed to a real and constant danger to their lives, and although no such beings exist today, there are plenty of records of these beings existing in the past, predators, predators that devoured not your body but your very soul. ~

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Saiko recalls how the ritual made her devour the souls of the royal guards and nods her head.

_And you are saying I became one of those creatures, now that’s just perfect, haaa_

Saiko lets out a tired sigh.

Daxia smiles at Saiko.

- I mean it’s kind of cool, look at the bright side, now you can kill anyone you want-

Saiko furrows her brows and looks at Daxia then shouts.

_I ALREADY COULD_

She flinches at herself and at her anger.

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath pushing her rage back deep inside her mind.

_I didn’t need another way, especially not this way_

~that’s not the point ~

Ken quickly cuts in.

~that’s just another side effect, the point is you can absorb life now, we can extend your life span ~

_oh yeah?_

Saiko sneers at Ken.

_and how many lives do you intend to sacrifice to do that this time? _

~huh? ~

_I, in fact, did devour the souls of the dead royal guards and along with their souls I was able to observe their memories, I know you planned this from the start _

Saiko’s lips curl up slightly as she notices the shock on Ken’s face.

_oh, I am guessing that wasn’t part of the plan, I guess, even you can’t think of every outcome, you probably wanted to hide it from me till the end, didn’t you? But you know even without the memories of the guards, I would have suspected something was wrong, it’s not like you not to prepare for something like that, or perhaps you assumed I would be too devasted after I killed the guards that I wouldn’t think about it_

~ listen, Saiko, it was necessary but it’s over the remaining part doesn’t involve any killing, I promise you ~

_I don’t believe you_

~huh?~

_I SAID, I DON’T BELIEVE YOU _

Saiko shouts at Ken and glares at him.

_Even if, you for some reason aren’t lying this time, I still don’t believe you_

~but~

Saiko cuts Ken off and continues.

_ If I didn’t need your help to save the other living weapons, I would have already left, no more rituals, no more messing with life, if you won’t help me save the other children then I don’t need you _

Saiko extends her arm toward the remains of the royal guards.

Black tentacles extend from her hand and grab the remains of the royal guards and their Girins then lift them off the ground.

_ I am going to bury the remains of the royal guards, when I am done either we will move together or I will leave alone _

Saiko announces then walks toward the forest with the remains of the royal guards.

Daxia watches Saiko leave and then looks at Ken.

-well, we definitely come from different worlds –

Ken sits down on the floor and tucks his head between his legs before answering.

~no, that’s not the issue, pretty sure even if she was from our world she would act in the same way ~

Daxia looks down at Ken.

‘I should probably give him some time alone’

She looks at Celine.

-we should go help Saiko bury the remains-

Celine nods and the two of them walk in the direction Saiko went.

As they walk, Daxia notices some lights in the corner of her eyes.

These lights were always present when Naoi, the fiery Jinn, communicated with Ken and Saiko.

In the past, she didn’t know what the different lights corresponded to and just assumed that all lights corresponded to thoughts and so she had assumed that these lights were Naoi’s thoughts.

However.

Now that she worked with Ken and Rin to differentiate and classify many of the lights she sees, she can tell that these lights are like none of them, but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t know what these lights are.

In fact, after the events of today, she knows exactly what they are.

These are the same type of lights that Ken asked Celine to create with her light magic.

‘That means rather than becoming visible, Naoi was using these lights to project what he looks like into the minds of Ken and Saiko, that’s why only the two of them can see him’

The moment she has that thought, she notices the lights shift direction and rush toward her, and then she hears his Voice.

‘that is amazing Daxia, you are only one step away from being able to see me on your own, next you need to learn how to hear colors and how to see sounds, when you do that, your eyes will be able to perceive me.’

Daxia blinks repeatedly.

‘hear colors, the hell is that crazy ghost going on about?’

Daxia immediately flinches as she realizes she just insulted the multi millennia old reality bending invisible ghost.

She braces herself for Naoi's retaliation but instead, she hears Noai laughing in her mind.

-go child and think carefully about what I told you-

Ken watches Daxia's odd behavior then looks up at Naoi.

~I am guessing you are related to that~

Noai nods at Ken and smiles gently.

-that is correct, she is a quick learner, I am sure she will be able to see me in no time –

~ why not just tell her? Wouldn’t that be simpler? ~

Noai looks up at the sky.

-well, it’s true I could have done that, but we don’t usually value lessons that are easy to learn, if I had to her the answer, she likely wouldn’t ponder it and as such would only comprehend a small part of it, that is if she comprehends it at all –

Naoi looks down at Ken.

-take yourself for example, I told you why the book won’t answer you, I told you that you are unworthy and that you would immediately resort to murder and that’s exactly what you did –

Ken looks at Noai and raises an eyebrow.

~huh? Don’t give me that, if you were really against it, you wouldn’t have told me anything ~

Naoi shakes his head at Ken.

-I simply allowed you to make a mistake, that was by no means an endorsement of said mistake, I told you then that the outcome would depend on you –

Ken springs up to his feet and shouts at the fiery entity.

~it was the only way ~

Naoi’s lips curl as watches Ken.

-oh? Was it really the only way? Or was it the quickest way you found? –

Flinch.

Ken flinches at Noai’s question but Noai ignores him and continues.

-you hit a wall, you didn’t know what’s the difference between a dead soul and a living soul, so instead of taking the time to study it, you decided to simply kill a few souls and have the ritual observe the transformation and copy it, do you truly believe you wouldn’t have been able to figure it out had you spend more than a few hours studying life? You had five years –

~I DON’T HAVE FIVE YEARS ~

Ken shouts at the top of his lungs.

~you know she would have done it again, now that she knows how to do it, the moment we see someone else that is injured she would have done it again~

Noai nods his head at Ken.

-indeed, that was a possibility, but you know it was Odin’s attempts to stop Ragnarok that ultimately caused it, your fear, arrogance, and impatience brought upon the outcome you most wanted to avoid, one that you will regret many times in the future -

Noai turns away from Ken and looks up at the dark clouds continuing to rage above.

-you tend to mock others for being controlled by their emotions, but aren’t you the one who is most controlled by his-

Noai glances back at Ken before continuing to watch the sky.

-however, you did not fail because you followed your emotions, you failed because you didn’t value the emotions of others as much as your own-

Naoi turns to look back at Ken.

-what you lack is empathy-

The heavy rain continues to fall down endlessly.

The element of water was enraged.

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