Batcat had gone back to sleep atop Rieren’s head when they had left. Apparently, its sadness about Folend had been enough to wake it, but not the fact that the chamber they had been had crumbled away to nothing. Elder Veylie had finally removed her vines holding the place together. With a great, grinding crash, most of the chamber had sunk into the lava below.

As they walked on ahead, Rieren found Batcat looking up at her with its teeth bared. It wasn’t making any hissing noises or displaying any other sign of anger. Just showing its teeth.

Rieren would have outright asked the cat what it was trying to convey if the Elder hadn’t been there. Then Batcat snapped its little teeth together. Teeth. Biting. Rieren blinked as she was reminded of an incident a while back.

Batcat had bit Elder Olg not too long ago. That bite had apparently been enough to draw in his memories, which Rieren had then been able to go through by channelling some Essence through the monster.

She did so again. It was obvious what Bat as trying to tell her. What it was trying to show her however, well, she was about to find out.

As before, Rieren channelled the Essence through the cat to attaint he memories it had stolen. She hadn’t considered them as theft before, but really, what else was she supposed to call them? Their original owner had most likely not consented to Batcat taking them in.

Rieren wasn’t surprised to see that the memories were of Folend. But still, the sequence of images that flooded her mind wrenched her heart in a way she hadn’t expected.

“So this is what Folend’s life is truly like?” she murmured.

Folend had been raised in a rich household that wasn’t his. Pictures of splendour flashed through her head. Rich clothes and jewellery, fancy feasts and meetings, a manor decorated with beautiful gardens, terraces, waterfalls, and the like, and a great number of guards all around. All of it was distant. Formless in a strange way, as interacting would make them disappear.

It seemed Folend was the son of one such guard. A man who had served the Karlosyne clan so well and so faithfully that the patriarch had asked one of the branch families to take man’s son under the clan’s tutelage. As such, Folend and his brother had been taken in by the clan to be trained alongside their scions.

Thus it was that Folend had been taken to the same Sect that Rollo went to.

Unfortunately, the Karlosyne clan patriarch had died. Rollo’s father, who had been the one to raise Folend’s father, passed away, leaving the clan’s leadership in Rollo’s uncle’s hands. The same uncle who had taken Folend under his wing. An uncle who was nowhere near as generous as his brother had been.

Many of the previous patriarch’s administration came under the new one’s scrutiny. They did not bear him the same goodwill and loyalty as their previous master.

Slowly and systematically, the new patriarch rid himself of them. Some he replaced, some he had disposed by various means, and some were smart enough to leave on their own terms before something foul befell them.

Unfortunately, Folend’s father, one of those who had been too slow to show the new patriarch the same loyalty he had shown the previous, fell into the middle group.

The memories where Folend and his younger brother mourning their father’s death was heartbreaking. At that time in their lives, they were both too young to understand the truth behind their parent’s demise. They were too young to know that his death was no accident.

But little Folend understood one thing. There was no one left to truly look out for him and his family anymore. He would have to do it himself.

From then onwards, it was easy for the new patriarch to convince Folend to give his life to the Karlosyne clan in return for his younger brother’s prosperity. The patriarch himself was too important to deal with such matters personally, of course, but the same unctuous delegate Rieren had seen at the Arteroth encampment was happy to take charge of Folend.

Year after year, Folend had been used and abused by the Karlosyne clan for various deeds. Meanwhile, his little brother was kept safe and happy enough, was granted opportunities here and there to learn and make a better life for himself. All Folend would have to do was continue to serve the clan to the best of his abilities.

Which was what had led to their current situation. Folend had been charged by the clan to ensure Rollo’s prosperity in the Sect. If that meant giving his life, then so be it.

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At least his little brother was alive and maintained the chance to make something of himself.

Rieren blinked out from the heavy barrage of memories. She was breathing a little heavily. The problem with the memories that Batcat stole was that they were often came attached with the emotions the original owner had felt then too, which threw Rieren’s equanimity out the proverbial window.

“Are you alright, child?” Elder Veylie asked with a slight concern.

Rieren nodded tersely. “I am fine, thank you, Elder.”

Folend wasn’t fine, though. He was dead. Gone. And she doubted anyone in the world truly cared, least of all her. He hadn’t been one to endear himself to anyone. In fact, none of those memories had been about his bond with his brother.

Nevertheless, he had spent his life pursuing a better one for his sibling. The only person who he had cared for.

“Do you know why Folend sacrificed himself, Elder?” Rieren asked.

She supposed the question was hanging between her and the Elder like a rotten fruit that hadn’t yet been properly disposed of. If allowed to remain and fester, its stink was likely to distract them from the business at hand. Best to clear it out while they still had some time.

The Elder didn’t answer immediately. Rieren looked down at Batcat. It had gone to sleep again. Was that why it had chased after Folend? Because it pitied him? Felt sorry for him? Wished that he’d had a better life to live than at the servitude of a clan that cared nothing for him and was only abusing his love for his brother to make him do their bidding?

“He was a strange young man, Folend,” Elder Veylie finally said. “He did not value a lot of things, but what he did value, he protected to the best of his abilities. He was rather headstrong that way.”

An evasive answer. Perhaps the Elder didn’t know whether she ought to share the details. She didn’t look like she was overly surprised by Folend’s actions, which meant she had to know about his motivations.

“And what were these things he valued so dearly?” Rieren asked.

“His friends. His family. His clan.”

Rieren’s mouth twitched for a moment. The sad thing was that the Elder wasn’t wholly wrong. Not if one viewed it from a certain perspective. “I do not know much of his family.”

The Elder glanced at her with an unreadable look. “He has a younger brother. They were close, as far as I was able to ascertain. The poor boy. From what little I know, the brother has no intention of being a cultivator.”

Had. With the fact that everyone now had a system and a class, they would all have to cultivate if they wished to grow stronger properly.

But she was right. The brother needed to be informed of the goings on. Having no idea what their relationship was like, she couldn’t even begin to imagine how he would feel.

“Tell me of yourself, child,” Elder Veylie said, shooting Rieren a look.

Ah. A diversion from their morose topic. Rieren was supposed to pay for the context she wished to learn about from the Elder by providing context about her journey so far. She supposed that was only fair.

So, as they continued onwards their destination, Rieren gave Elder Veylie a brief summary of all that she had gone through so far.

The Elder didn’t react to any of it in any way that Rieren could glean what she thought of it. Instead, Veylie seemed content to absorb the information passively. She didn’t even ask any questions. None of it seemed to surprise her.

“I hope you are satisfied, Elder,” Rieren said. “May I please learn what happened with you and the others? I imagine Essalina Arteroth passed by, considering Folend was there.”

“They certainly did. Essalina Arteroth seeks to lay claim upon what is rightfully the Sect’s only because she thinks she can assist. With the power of the Arteroth behind her, that will be a complication that will need some careful handling.”

“I had a feeling that was all she really wanted here. The Dungeon Core. Was no one else with you when they finally came?”

Rieren recalled all the corpses all around the chamber. They had been too bloodied and too disfigured for her to figure out who they had been. Still. Fellow disciples and guards who had given their lives. It wasn’t easy seeing so many pass away like that.

But Rieren held on to the hope that they hadn’t been all of the Elder’s group. After all, Elder Alm had a larger group. It was likely there had been more under Elder Veylie’s command who had made it out alive.

“No,” the Elder said. “Apart from those who left, the dead accounted for most of my group.” She didn’t sound mournful, but she did pause for a moment. “They did well. May they find some solace in the Beyond.”

Rieren was silent for a respectful moment before going on. “Who were the ones who left? And why did they leave?”

“My, aren’t you forward with all your inquiries.”

Rieren felt herself flushing a little. “Apologies, Elder. I do not mean to be rude.”

“Hmm. I do not mind your questions, child. But since we are nearing the end of our destination, I will say that they have not truly left. When the time comes, they will join us as well.”

Rieren wondered who they could be and what they might be doing. Cerill, Silk, and perhaps a few others she hadn’t seen yet. Silk… that pale girl was mysterious too. Rieren couldn’t even recall much about her, just that she had disappeared without a trace in the previous timeline. The Sect seemed to be in on it for they hadn’t raised a fuss about it.

But the Elder was right. They were nearly at their destination. As they passed the fork Kervantes had mentioned, Rieren began to hear strange sounds.

She would have been alarmed that it might indicate more monsters ahead, but the Elder wasn’t alarmed or surprised. In fact, she looked like she had expected it. Rieren focused her Essence and found she couldn’t sense any Abyssal irregularities.

For a moment, Rieren considered letting the Elder go on ahead so she could slip away and takt the other route. She decided against it. For one, she didn’t want to disrespect the Elder in the way she had done to Essalina. For another, she was curious about what was going on and Kervantes wasn’t likely to have been fully healed yet.

As they turned a corner, they reached the end of the tunnel, and the spot where the central chamber of the dungeon was supposed to begin.

Instead, they found Essalina.