I sat next to Naran’s bed. He had been moved to his room. He was still moaning in pain and unconscious. I had tried to rouse him several times, but he refused to wake. I munched on some salted cucumber while looking at him and his ruined face. He looked kind of funny with only half a beard.

“You know, he isn’t the Ritualist anymore, he is the Ritualost,” I said and Naran didn’t react besides another pained groan. “Tough crowd,” I muttered. I heard the door open and looked up. It was Doctor Katz.

He went over to Naran and looked him over. “What’s the verdict doc?” I asked as Doctor Katz checked his pulse and remaining eye. He let out a long sigh and sat on a chair across the bed from me.

“There are three options I have at the moment. The first is to keep doing nothing and hope he awakes. That his body fixes itself,” the good doctor said.

“You feel that is the best option?” I asked.

“It is an option. The other one is to surgically remove the white eye. Based on what the eyes of the monster caused, severe depression, then it might be having an effect on his mental state. By surgically removing it, it could shock him awake and allow him to get a restoration to fix it afterwards. The pain…the pain would be quite a bit,” the good doctor said.

“And the third option?” I asked.

“The riskiest, but the one with the greatest chance of a positive effect. The mental effects could fall either into the sadness and depression type, or an inversion of hope. I list the second due to the eye’s white nature. I don’t know the opposite of either but could only guess as the other two mental effects of fear and joy. Basically, bombarding him with lots of emotional attacks and possibly negating the eye’s effect to wake him up,” the good doctor said.

“So, you think it is his transformed eye?” I asked.

“It is a possibility. Again, we are dealing with complete unknowns. My medical advice is to wait and see. It is the least risky option, but I wanted to give you all the options that I have come up with,” Doctor Katz said.

“I appreciate it, thank you,” I replied.

“If you decide on surgery or crystal magic, let me know. I will keep considering other possibilities, but those three options are the only ones I have right now,” the good doctor said.

“It is fine. I will wait until I speak with the Astrologer and get his opinion,” I replied.

“That is your choice. No next of kin around here, so we are going by teammates. I will let you think the options over,” the doctor said and left the room.

“Naran, what do you want?” I asked him. There was no response except another pained groan. I wouldn’t know what I would want in this situation which was what made it so difficult. The good doctor was on the side of caution and only acting if necessary. I was a person of action, so I would prefer surgery or mental shock with crystals.

But the energy types could have a weird effect and might make Naran worse. Even cutting out the white eye was no guarantee. What if there was some weird thing where a restoration wouldn’t fix the damage? Naran would strangle me if he permanently lost an eye.

While unlikely, anything weird with energy like this, was too close too what consumption did for my liking. There was a risk Naran wouldn’t be able to even use the store for a restoration once he woke up. “Naran, old buddy, old pal. You need to get your ass in gear.”

Nothing happened and he didn’t magically wake up. I let out a long sigh. Clarissa came into the room and took the seat across from Naran’s bed.

“Michael, any change?” she asked me. I shook my head.

“No change. Just discussed options with the good doctor. Not sure what is the best choice. What do you think?” I asked her.

“I can’t make that decision. I…I wouldn’t know what he would want. You spend more time with him than me,” Clarissa replied.

“What would you want?” I asked. I then had to explain the options the good doctor had laid out.

“It is impossible to say. Whatever you pick, make sure to make your peace and that you can live with the outcome,” Clarissa answered. Not that helpful, but I knew no one would be willing to make a decision and risk my wraith if it was wrong.

“Any sign of the Astrologer?” I asked.

“No sign. We will keep an eye out. There is talk of a victory celebration. I wanted to hear your thoughts?” Clarissa asked me. I looked at Naran.

“I am sensing that is a yes?” I asked.

“Indeed. We were thinking about organizing one tonight, but I wanted to check in with you before I gave the go ahead,” Clarissa answered.

“Make the arrangements. If you need me to say something I can. I will put on a smile and everything,” I said knowing what Clarissa was really asking me.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“If you want to step away, I will have someone by his side every moment of the day, until he wakes no exceptions,” Clarissa told me.

“I…that is a good idea. I could stretch my legs,” I replied and got up. I followed Clarissa out of the room as a maid entered the room to watch Naran.

I left Clarissa to her own devices. I left my home and walked outside in my city wear. Two guards fell into lockstep behind me as I left. I looked at the ruined buildings. The debris had been cleared along with the bodies. I looked up to the ruin that used to be the Airship Port. I shook my head.

I did a counterclockwise loop around the plaza. I paused at where I had melted the super hybrid. The hole in the ground was gone like it had never been there. I paused and stared at where my rival had died by my hand.

It was a weird feeling to know I had killed someone I hated so much. There was a sort of emptiness and regret the fight wouldn’t continue, but I quickly crushed those emotions. That was the path of foolish decisions and took a deep breath before letting it out. It had been a hard-fought victory and I had learned several lessons.

I could have done so many things differently or better, but there was no medicine for regret. Chase, you were brilliant yet flawed. How things could have been if only we had worked together. We would have taken the entire Systemic Lands by storm with nothing to stand in our way. Thank you my most hated foe for teaching me how to truly hate.

Also, to always go for the head, even if you are in a nice restaurant. A mistake I wouldn’t be repeating ever again. One Ritualist was enough to last a lifetime. I chuckled to myself as I thought of Batman, just sending his villains to an asylum over and over, so they could break out and bother him again.

If something like that happened with the Ritualist, I would have died from hemorrhaging all the blood out of my mouth. I didn’t look back. My only path was forward. I made it to the East Street and followed it to the inner wall.

The buildings there had been fixed and moved, so the street was no longer blocked off by the inner wall of buildings. I continued to follow the East Street all the way to the main wall. There was no damage on it. The wall was once again whole. The few soldiers there saluted me as I made my way on top of the wall.

I looked out across the rolling grass hills and felt the slight breeze on my face. It was good to be alive and victorious. To revel in my moment of triumph. Naran was wounded and might not make it, but I was alive and that was what mattered.

No matter what happened to him I knew I needed to accept that he was probably not going to make it in my heart. It wasn’t raining but I wiped some water from my face with my sleeve. I slowly walked along the wall. The occasional summon was present or a patrol of soldiers from the RMPF.

Even after the battle they had regrouped and restored order. It was impressive the tenacity of the human spirit. General Smith, you did well and fought bravely. I would have to give him a few words in whatever speech I was roped into at this victory celebration.

I made it to the North gate in my musings and then descended down a tower back to street level. I slowly walked back to the plaza as the light source continued its movement across the sky. If the Astrologer showed up or something happened, I would be found. I had no doubt about that.

I would wait until he returned and then I would go out grinding. Getting more stat points, especially in Body and Mind was quite necessary. Having a high movement speed was too critical to not invest into those stats. Perhaps the Astrologer could answer questions about the stats as well. I shook my head at my foolishness. No one would give away knowledge for free. I wouldn’t do something so asinine, and I doubted someone as suspicious as him would do that either.

I returned to the plaza. Tables and chairs had been set up in the plaza. Food and drink were set out in large quantities. I made my way to where Clarissa was sitting. I took the seat next to her, watching all the people mingling and talking.

“A bit somber,” I said after looking around.

“It is also a funeral for all those who died. If you want to give a speech, now would be an okay time. If you don’t want to you don’t have to. No one else will be speaking,” Clarissa said.

“No. I will speak and then allow other people to speak in remembrance of others. Let them grieve publicly,” I said. Clarissa gave me a nod at that. A surprising mistake in public relations if I was able to spot it, but there might be other considerations. Or she might have wanted a quieter atmosphere out of respect for Naran. It didn’t matter and wasn’t a huge deal.

Looking around there had to be at least a thousand people. Probably two thousand if I had to guess. I didn’t pay much attention to the census since Clarissa had things well in hand within the city. I had been focusing on the accounting books when I audited her.

Clarissa stood up and a guard began banging his sword on his shield. People quieted down and looked over at her. “People of Purgatory, Champion Michael wishes to say a few words,” she said. There were cheers at that. I waved my right arm at the crowd and after a bit the cheers died down.

“Thank you everyone. I stand here victorious over the Ritualist, not as an individual but thanks to everyone’s efforts. From the soldiers to the shopkeepers, to everyone who put their lives on the line.” There was applause at that, and I waited before continuing.

“General Smith gave his life and many others made the ultimate sacrifice for us to be here today. Let us give these heroes a moment of silence,” I said and bowed my head. Everyone was silent. I counted to thirty in my head before continuing.

“Thank you. If anyone wishes to speak of someone that died in the battle or even the entire war with the Ritualist, please form an orderly line to the side and you will be allowed a moment to address the crowd,” I sat down. There was more applause at that, and the guards quickly managed to sort out a line.

One by one people stepped forward and began to talk about all the people who had died. “Cathern, well, she wasn’t the brightest, but she had spirit you know. She thought it was all a game and kept a smile on her face even when things got rough. She died after being melted by one of the worms.”

“I didn’t know his name, but he pulled me from some rubble before a flying monster slammed into him and ripped his head off.”

“Jason, well the man was a true hero. I saw it myself. He killed ten of those were monsters. With just a spear. He single handedly kept the West Wall together until he was killed in the final assault by a thrown spear from one of the monsters.”

“There was this woman soldier, um, the RMPF, I think they are called. She covered for me to get back on my feet when the East Wall was overrun in places. She went down from a beam attack to the chest that rotted out her…” the woman speaking burst into tears and was escorted away.

One after another person after person stepped forward to tell their small story of people who had given their lives. I sipped my fruit flavored water and kept a placid look on my face I was quickly bored to tears. Such pointless dribble, but I would pretend to care and listen to these people.

They had served their purpose as meat shields. The weak meat shields died, the strong survived. There would be more meat shields in the future to keep me alive and that was what mattered. The only important thing that mattered, my life and no one else’s.