MM - Chapter 192 - HEAVY HEARTS

The haggling with Vought had been intense, nearly ending in death several times. In the end, they both got what they wanted. All Raine wanted to do when he fell back into ZionLine was lie back in the grass and catch his breath. Instead, he awoke to pain much more acute than his real body and an interface of strobing crimson with a long series of damage notifications.

[Critical hit! A Princess of Celendine has struck you for -2,981 unaspected physical damage]

[Critical hit! A Princess of Celendine has struck you for -2,981 unaspected physical damage]

[Greater Werewolf’s Regeneration has healed you for +841]

[Greater Werewolf’s Regeneration has healed you for +841]

[A Princess of Celendine has struck you for -490 bleed damage]

[Greater Werewolf’s Regeneration effect nullified by Heal Cut]

[You have taken -112 bleed damage]

[You have taken -112 bleed damage]

[You have taken -112 bleed damage]

When Raine’s eyes snapped open, said Princess of Celendine was kneeling over him, tears and snot running down her face. She gasped, jerking back before sobbing all the harder. “I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!”

On the brink of death, all Raine could think to do was lift a shaking hand atrophied by the weakness of blood loss. Selena grasped his hand in both of hers, clutching it to her chest while repeating herself. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t have a choice. I—”

Her words were cut short in a choking screech as her body seized and convulsed. A wave of green energy swept over her skin, then consolidated at their clasped hands before rushing into Raine. [-2,983] [+2,983]

By the time she came back to her senses, Raine had rolled away and was standing over her. He held a staff in his hands like a baseball bat, ready to clobber. Selena jumped to her feet, facing him with sword drawn. “Celestials’ sisters, that hurts! What in the inferno is wrong with you?!”

“Says the one who tried to kill me! Care to explain yourself?” Raine’s harsh tone had Selena retreating a step, blustering incoherently.

How did she even hurt me when I was logged… Oh.

Raine found the logout error before the flabbergasted princess managed to respond. “I was trying to save us! Rahman’s shrine only activates with spilled blood!”

The staff disappeared from Raine’s hands as his intent to fight vanished. Healing Burst restored another large chunk of health, though was unable to fix the bleeding status effect. Raine dropped to his ass before falling to his back, hand pressed tightly to the hole in his chest. She’d aimed for the heart, and he was damn lucky to be alive.

If he had been even 30 seconds slower in finalizing a deal with Vought, he would have been screwed. Reduced attributes for 100 days, lost level and Superiority, kicked from the Primal Realm, failed quest, dead princess, Bhima gone. There was more, but Raine’s overstressed brain refused to further delve into the negative.

Unaware of his inner turmoil, Selena kept right on shouting. “The beasts were coming! I-I had no choice! I tried my own blood first, but the shrine wouldn’t activate. I only meant to spill a little of your… your.” She swallowed hard, shaking her head as the memory of what she’d done replayed. “That didn’t work either. Then, you began regenerating, and I realized Rahman would not accept a sacrifice that lacked the intent of death.” 

By this point, Selena was babbling. She also dropped to the grass, legs clutched as she rocked back and forth, face pressed to her knees. “Why did you have to leave? I was so scared.”

Staring at the beautiful sky, Raine reached for words that she would understand. “A tier five god showed up at my door after I killed his disciple.”

Selena stopped rocking, wide, tearstained eyes searching for the jest. Not finding it, she arrived at the only logical explanation. “It took so long to return because you were resurrecting?”

Raine snorted, “Nope. Travelers only get second chances on Vaateaire. Bluffed my way out of it. One of my better moments... probably. Not off the hook yet. I’ve got to meet him again later tonight, or he’ll kill everyone I’ve ever loved before pulling me apart piece by piece. Otherwise, it went pretty well.”

“You’re not serious. Are you? Shouldn’t you be panicking right now?”

Raine sat up, unable to sit still longer than a few seconds without experiencing a distinct sense of discomfort. “What good would panicking do? Am I concerned, stressed, afraid? Sure. But that pressure brings focus and conviction that I can aim at developing my path. If anything, I should thank him for reminding me that more is at stake than what’s happening here and now.”

Raine cracked his neck, eyeing the cooldown on Soul of Reformation. The second it was up, his health jumped to full, then 200% beyond that. With the bleed from Selena about to expire, it was time to go.

“No more delays. We’re going to hit the rest of the shrines as fast as possible.”

“You believe that we’ve been going slow?!” Selena sputtered.

Raine walked in the direction of the next shrine. “Get ready. Soon as I thin out their numbers a bit, join me and we’ll make a break for it.” His pace increased to a jog, then a sprint as Selena shouted at him to wait.

Raine ignored her, skipping across the water with light steps. Bloodlust led the way, sinking deep beneath the surface to fish out the lurking Fetches. 

[Negative affliction applied (Enfeared): Enemy attributes reduced by 20% (Duration 4.21 seconds)]

As their attributes plummeted, the Hatchet of Vile Pestilence appeared in his grip. Sliding forward over the wet surface, Raine heaved the valuable weapon forward and up in a smooth slice. Water parted as soil packed with deadly energy erupted from below. Thanks to the damage boost from being at 60% Primal Energy capacity, Great Divide instantly killed the fifteen beasts hiding within range. [-251,844] [Critical hit! -512,937]

[Hatchet of Vile Pestilence: Durability -8]

Raine jumped to the side, avoiding a thrown Water Bomb. The motion flipped him upside down so he could strike toward the heaving water. His hatchet skittered off the skull of a leaping Fetch as it breached the surface. [Critical hit! -10,992] Wreathed in fire, Raine’s free hand blurred in a Flurry of One that shattered the beast’s face. [-76,277] It fell back to the water, unable to respond as a Rupture finished it off.

Still upside down, Raine kicked off the air above him in a Lunge that sent him toward the nearest group. Flawed Conversion restored the Discipline he’d used so far, simultaneously bringing both Armsman skills off cooldown. The monsters erupted from the water, flinging deadly balls of energy.

As each bomb entered the range of bloodlust, they sprang into lucid clarity, standing out in Raine’s thoughts. Utilizing Connection, he smashed a knee into the air, sending him into a whistling spin. The first two zipped past. Another touch of thought, and his elbow impacted to flip him sideways. Two more sailed over and under. Tucking his legs allowed the last to harmlessly sail by.

A refreshed Great Divide cleared the beasts out. Raine was blasting through a spray of water toward the next group before the damage numbers appeared. In similar fashion, another four groups died in rapid succession before he swapped to the Bulwark of Reaper's Revenge. Decree and Punishment wasn’t as effective as Great Divide, but paired well with Rupture and near-instant reuses of Flurry of One. Raine's murderous rampage was only slowed by a slim margin. 

Flawed Conversion ate away at his tripled health pool. However, Greater Werewolf’s Regeneration restored nearly three thousand health per five seconds. The combination was more than enough to keep up with his Discipline expenditures.

Unwilling to swim, and for good reason, Selena thrusted herself across the water's surface. She flew right toward Raine with an extended hand. He caught her and slung her over his back in one smooth motion, then they were off, leaving the dangerous lake behind.

“Please don’t tell me we're going to fly again!” Selena’s shout was unnecessarily loud in his ear.

“Hold on!” Raine growled, swapping to the Fraction of Grace and triggering Grace of Nirvana. They rocketed forward, skipping across the sporadic hills jutting from the water. In the wide open, treeless terrain, they were nearly as fast as flying. The next shrine was in sight when the skill ended. Unsurprisingly, it was in the center of another lake.

Not as pressed for time, Raine dropped Selena at the nearest dry land and cut his way across the hiding Fetches before returning to pick her up. He only let her rest long enough to clear out the opposite side of the lake before they were off to the seventh shrine.

With each fast-paced battle, Raine’s grasp of incoming killing intent deepened. What were once vague sensations of hostility became sharp daggers aimed at his throat. So long as the attack originated within the 20-meter range of bloodlust, he could feel it coming without needing to see or hear it. While clearing out the beasts between them and the eighth shrine, Raine closed his eyes, forcing himself to trust in the new sense.

In the past, fighting in darkness was never something he could call a strength. It still wasn’t. He made several sloppy mistakes: Diving face-first into the electrified water, colliding with a Fetch instead of cutting it in half, and missing entirely with a wide-range Rupture. Yet in the end, it was he who survived while his enemies died.

As he fought, Raine experienced a profound effervescence. His senses thrummed with purpose, each and every nerve alive and focused to a razor’s edge. This was what he was meant to be: a beating heart that spread death with every pulse. With eyes closed tight and enemies all around, he saw more clearly than ever before.

The lake beneath him was water no longer; it was an ocean of blood that lusted for more. Raine dove into the murky depths of his mental ability. He became the ocean of blood, and the ocean was him. There, he found that the soil of its bed was the bones of those he’d killed, its shores the dried remains of their flesh, its waters their hopes and dreams, cut short by his bloody knuckles. As the Primal Energy in his body reached 80%, Raine realized he was not extending bloodlust into the space around him; the space around him was becoming an extension of what he had been all along: a monster come to collect another liter of blood.

No wonder two mental abilities can’t share the same space. Space becomes the ability; it cannot be two at the same time.

A powerful, internal urge shouted that there was another, more profound truth resting just beneath the surface of this most recent discovery. Raine yearned to glimpse it, to understand, to take another step.

Unfortunately, Selena’s shout disrupted his moment of epiphany. “Alaric!”

Raine’s eyes snapped open to find her hurtling toward him, crimson shell of energy fading fast. He reached out and clasped her hand before she plummeted into the lake. A few quick hops brought them to the shores of the eighth shrine. 

He left Selena behind, eager to dig deeper into the mysteries of bloodlust. This felt like his last chance to take that step. After this shrine, he was sure the terrain would change again, likely presenting far more drastic challenges, and beyond the final four shrines was a world boss in serious need of a rematch.

Celeste Luu Rahn

- ZionLine -

“That, that, that jerk!” Celeste spun away from Mel and the distant recruits, baring her teeth at the innocent forest. “Can you believe it? He didn’t respond to a single one of our questions!”

As always, Mel was quick to defend Raine, “You know he’s busy, and probably doing something a lot more dangerous than us.”

“I know… but that’s half the problem!” Celeste threw her arms to her sides in frustration. “Aren’t you tired of being too damn weak to help with anything important?”

Mel’s brows lifted as her gaze noticeably shifted to the recruits. All the remaining divisions were present, leveling together off an ever-growing monster rush. They were fighting tooth and nail, putting their all into advancing as quickly as possible for the coming confrontation with CronGate. 

It was obvious to everyone that they were too weak. The fastest method anyone had come up with was grinding Superiority by attracting the largest monster rush possible. Unfortunately, their progress was already stalling since the maximum level of enemies in the starter zones was only ten.

Celeste responded to Mel’s unspoken statement. “Yes. This is important. It's just… I want to be there wi—”

“Don't you think it's odd?” Mel had never interrupted Celeste before. Her distant gaze and wistful tone indicated the girl likely didn’t even realize what she’d done.

Celeste’s curiosity was piqued. Not to mention, she was eternally thankful that Mel stopped her from spewing the embarrassing nonsense she had been about to say. Celeste cleared her throat, a hand fanning the warmth creeping up her neck, “Uhh, what's odd?”

Mel’s whisper was so quiet Celeste had to lean closer to hear. “He asked for help. He never asks for help. The only time I’ve heard that word from him is when he wanted me to carry the remote for the stage. I almost died. Do you think something like that is going to happen again?”

Raine’s messages had come only a few minutes ago, relaying the same short request to both of them. “I need your help. Meet me outside HQ at 4:30 PM CAT (Central Amanath Time).”

Celeste had checked the time in her interface at least 5 times since receiving the message. 7 hours. Whatever was coming, they didn’t have long to mentally prepare. “Yeah, I don’t like it either. He usually tells us what to wear or bring. Is he really that busy?”

“Oh! He does, doesn't he? That’s got to be a clue. Do you think I should call Pamalaiha, in case things get dangerous?”

Celeste recoiled, instinctive bile rising in her throat. “What?! No! Absolutely not!”

Growing serious, Mel planted fists on her hips, “You should try to get along with her. She’s important to him, to his plans. You know what she did for you, and me.”

Celeste clicked her tongue sharply, “Don’t care. Doesn’t matter. Once she gets what she wants and betrays us all, you’ll understand why I can’t stand that hussy shrew.”

Not willing to have the same argument for the twentieth time, Mel swapped back to the previous topic. “Aaaaanyways. What should I wear? I’m getting nervous just thinking about it. He’s been avoiding me since the duel. I... I shouldn’t have freaked out when I saw him like that.”

“Knowing him, we should expect a fight.” Celeste pointedly ignored Mel’s musings, distinctly uncomfortable with the conversation. If she had acted differently when waking up in his bed, how much worse would he have treated her? The thought she came so close to being pushed away sparked instinctive fear that made her chest clench so hard her heart struggled to beat.

Celeste cleared her throat, dislodging the forming lump, “We should wrap things up and get everyone logged out within the next couple hours. Most of them haven’t had a real break since they finished syncing with their headsets.”

Mel looked away; the hurt from being ignored was obvious to anyone with eyes. Being her usual self, she forced cheer into her voice. “Good plan. I want to finish moving into the tower before this afternoon. If I never spend another night in a hotel, it’ll be too soon.”

Mel’s bravery reminded Celeste of the other person in her life who never showed a hint of pain, despite his suffering. “Yeah. I should go see my Father.”