Part 8: New Horizons
Lope, a village near the border of the Topaz Guild, served as the Western Alliance’s temporary military base. The village was owned by the Ortoz Guild. After James Rack’s death, his deputy, Kray, had become the new leader of the alliance. She had made a deal with the Ortoz Guild’s president, ensuring that Lope’s military base would remain as long as needed due to the ongoing tension in the Western Continent.
It had been a week since the Obscure Guild’s collapse, and all battles had ceased. Both the Topaz Guild and Tremblay Guild had grown quiet, as everyone needed time to recover.
Isaac yawned and rubbed his eyes. He sat up in bed and realized he was in a hospital. Seven more beds were lined up along the wall: Aaron, Gabriella, Ejiro, Luo, Jenna, Christopher, his own, and another empty one. Where was Seth?
Isaac concentrated red magic in his eyes. “My soul’s weakened… theirs too. What happened to us?”
He looked closely at Jenna and found cuts all over her arms. “Huh?”
At that moment, the door creaked open, and a man in a wheelchair entered the room.
“Seth?”
“Hi, you’re awake! Do you still have red mana left? I need a favour.” The man pointed at his legs.
Isaac rushed over and healed him.
“Thanks,” Seth grunted as he stood with the aid of his staff. “Teleporting you guys took its toll on me… on all of us.”
“So, you teleported us. Why? Where are we?”
Seth shook his head and pointed to the other side of the room. “Heal their wounds first. I’ll explain.”
Isaac knelt beside Aaron’s bed and saw he, too, was covered in strange cuts like Jenna. The cuts weren’t normal - they formed patterns that swirled across his body. “That’s not natural.”
Aaron stirred and looked around. “Where am I?”
He glanced out the window beside his bed. “Isn’t that the military camp?”
Seth nodded. “We’re back in Lope.”
“Isaac?” Gabriella opened her eyes groggily as Isaac approached her bed.
“Hey Gab, one second.” He touched her arm, infusing it with his red mana, but as a vampire, her wounds had already healed.
After waking up Ejiro, Luo, Jenna, and Christopher, everyone gathered around Seth, who sat in his wheelchair in the center of the room.
“When we defeated that apostle, I found a purple stone within his remains. However, once I took it, I lost control, and before I could do anything, I noticed the stone was about to explode. I managed to teleport us away, but the teleportation took its toll on our bodies.”
Isaac frowned. “I felt souls pouring inside the stone. There were millions of them… maybe even billions.”
“I felt something strange too,” Jenna added. “Seth, what was that power that entered your body?”
“What you felt was my something greater than magic but rejected by this world. That’s why you were bruised after I teleported you with it.”
“Huh? What does that mean?” Ejiro asked, stunned.
“I’ll explain when the time comes.”
Aaron scratched his head. “If you could teleport us, why didn't you teleport the stone away? Wouldn’t it have stopped the souls Isaac felt from entering it?”
“I couldn’t use my power while touching the stone, and I don’t know if that would have even worked.”
Seth was full of mysteries, but the elephant in the room needed to be addressed first. Luo asked after a long silence, “What happened to the Obscure Guild? Has anyone been saved?”
Seth sighed. “Only a few thousand were rescued. The guild’s walls contained the explosion, but they collapsed soon after. Entire cities are buried under concrete.”
“What? You mean the explosion killed billions of people?!”
Christopher sniffed. “My home is gone… my people dead?! How could that happen? That strategist… Stephen Cure. Wasn’t he supposed to prevent such a scenario? Why-”
“Stephen is dead.” A woman entered the room.
“Hello, Deputy Kray,” said Ejiro.
“Hi. It's Commander Kray now. I’ve risen in rank.”
She took a remote, turned on the screen near the door, and showed a live stream of the explosion’s aftermath. The Obscure Guild lay in ruins. Aircraft circled above, searching for survivors amidst a grey sea. Some people were likely still alive, trapped underground.
The Obscure Guild’s concrete walls, designed to block infrared and thermal imaging, made finding all the survivors a losing battle.
“So, it’s real…” Christopher couldn’t look away from the sight of his home, forever ruined.
A thought crossed his mind. “Seth said some people were rescued. Were there any werewolves?
Kray shook her head, and the werewolf shut his eyes.
“Did you find vampires or other Cursed?” Gabriella asked.
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“We didn’t,” Kray replied. “Although, reptoids might still be hiding from us.”
Isaac frowned. “This is all our fault, isn’t it? We should have known the Dark Faction wouldn’t let us win no matter the… cost.”
Gabriella jumped up from her bed. “But why? What motive does this cult have to do such a thing?!”
She stared at Seth until he sighed. “It’s because of faith.”
“Faith? Like a religion?” Ejiro asked.
The master tightened his grip on his staff. “I’m old. I’ve heard things, read things, seen things.”
Everyone in the room looked at him. What secrets did he know?
“Religion is not nearly as popular as it was centuries ago, due to science and philosophy, but it is a strong power. Science and philosophy both seek the world’s absolute truth, but religion - religion alters it.
“The Dark Faction has a goddess, and its true members love her unconditionally. They kill and die for her because they believe death is only the beginning. They’re hiding, waiting, playing their cards to regain the control they once had. As long as they have faith in their goddess, they don’t care if it takes decades or centuries.”
Not much was known about the Dark Faction, and no one in the room had ever heard of a “goddess” before.
“A goddess… Is she real?” Gabriella asked, skeptical.
“Maybe.”
“How do we stop the Dark Faction if a single envoy can massacre a fifth of the continent?” Jenna asked.
Seth didn’t have an answer. The room grew quiet as Gabriella paced, Christopher crossed his arms, and Isaac stared at the floor. Luo and Kray looked at the livestream.
Aaron clenched his fists. “There’s only one way. We have to become stronger.”
They nodded. Seth smiled faintly. “Good, you still have your resolve. But apart from Gabriella and Ejiro, who can recover their souls as vampires, none of us should strain ourselves for the time being.”
“Then what should we do? I don’t want to sleep all day.” Christopher complained.
“You can help around,” Kray said, walking toward the door. The military camp was filled with refugees. If not for the soundproof glass, they would’ve been overwhelmed by the stench of overflowing toilets, the cries of babies, and the roar of loud vehicles rushing past pedestrians.
“Isaac,” Seth said, standing up from his wheelchair, “come with me. There’s someone who wants to see you.”
“Who?”
Seth paused at the door. “Do you remember Snoid?”
“Snoid? The one we captured in the Obscure Guild?” Ejiro asked.
“Yes. Ejiro, you can come along.”
“Alright,” he replied, “but I have to go to the bathroom first.”
…
Seth, Isaac, and Ejiro walked through the grimy road, passing refugee tents and the parking lot full of military vehicles. They arrived at a police station, heavily guarded by soldiers.
They bypassed the counter and halted in a hallway. Seth signalled Isaac to enter through a metal door.
Inside, Snoid was sitting on a small chair, his hands tied to a desk with a chain and anti-magic handcuffs.
He waved his fingers. “Good morning, Isaac. It is morning, right?”
Isaac scowled.
“Show me your magic,” the Snake Humanoid smiled, “I want to see how much you’ve grown.”
“Will you answer our questions if I do?”
He flicked his tongue. “I’ll answer whatever I can.”
Isaac sighed and lit red magic in his right hand's palm.
“Your hand’s glowing! But… oh, what a pity. You’re not complete yet.”
“What do you mean?” Isaac narrowed his eyes.
Snoid attempted to stand, but the chains restricted him. “You could’ve become so much more powerful if you’d listened to me, instead of locking me up.”
“You’re delusional. Your Soul Transportation Machine nearly turned me into a mindless monster. I just regained control of my electricity magic!” Isaac’s left hand glowed blue.
“Oh? So you’ve purified your red mana... But for how long?”
“Huh?”
“You don’t know how to purify it again, do you? Once you accumulate more red mana, it’ll taint itself, and you’ll lose control of your magic again. Free me, and I’ll show you how.”
Isaac hesitated, glancing toward the door, which remained firmly closed. “No. I’m not falling for that.
“Urgh, what a pity.”
The door creaked open as Seth entered, with Ejiro trailing behind. “Answer me, Snoid. Tell us who you know in the Dark Faction, and where they are.”
The prisoner shook his head. “You know I physically can’t answer such direct questions like that. However…”
Ejiro and Seth stepped closer.
“You visited the Tech-Think building in Etheria, didn’t you?”
The vampire frowned. “So what?”
“Hihi. Were you so focused on waging war that you forgot your true mission?”
“What do you-” Ejiro paused, eyes narrowing. “Gathering intel on the Obscure Guild… What’s in Tech-Think?”
“Doesn’t it strike you as odd how the Obscure Guild has survived on its own for a hundred years? That’s because it hasn’t. We’ve been receiving supplies, and I secretly logged all our trades in Tech-Think’s data center.”
“Supplies from where?” Seth asked. Snoid was telling the truth. He had already seen where the data was hidden when he was investigating Tech-Think but didn’t have time to access it back then as security found him.
“That, I can’t tell you. You’ll have to find that out yourselves.”
Seth turned around, “We’re leaving.”
Ejiro followed him.
“Wait, Isaac,” Snoid called. “Since I’m feeling generous, I’ll teach you how to purify red mana.”
“I don’t trust you.”
“I know red mana well. When you first acquired it, it didn’t control you because your body was fighting against it. That’s why you’d sometimes rage. But once it dominated you, I’m guessing you stopped feeling anything at all. Now that you’ve purified it, you’ve started feeling normal again. Isn’t that right?”
“I guess…”
“You might not have realized it yet, but it works both ways. If you let yourself get angry, your control over the red mana weakens, and it numbs your senses. So, all you need to do is be yourself. But if your idea of being yourself means caring about others, it’s impossible. We’re all selfish, deep down.”
Isaac shook his head, but Snoid continued, “If you keep trying to be good, the red mana will always control you. The truth is, you need to embrace your true self. Once you accept your darker impulses and selfish desires, you’ll dominate the souls within your mana and purify them!”
“So, you’re saying I need to become… a monster?”
Snoid laughed. “What, you don’t have it in you? Then I guess the Dark Faction will never lose, because it’s—oh…”
-Psch!
Snoid’s head exploded. Blood and brain matter sprayed across the room, even splattering onto Ejiro at the door. An eyeball rolled to Isaac’s feet.
Isaac wiped the blood off his face, watching as Snoid’s headless body slumped back in the chair, the chains keeping him propped at a sharp angle.
“Wasn’t he the one saying he couldn’t talk too much? How stupid.” Ejiro muttered, removing his soiled jacket as he left the cell.
Isaac touched his chin. “Hey! I felt the red magic again, just like that time with the Bone Mother. Could I have lifted the curse by absorbing the mana?”