AoP | B2 | Chapter 55: Differences (Patreon)

Pushing himself up as his entire body screamed in protest, Seth looked over at Nightmare. 'You okay?'

'Yeah,' the direwolf answered while limping toward a shallow alcove in the cavern wall. 'It's not like you could give me a potion, anyway.'

Seth grimaced. Nightmare was right. The distortion field's chaotic aether was still prickling against his skin. It had rendered his Protecting Belt, his bracelet, and his Storing Ring useless during the fight. And now, it locked away the healing potions in his Endless Pouch, leaving all three of them to bleed and suffer. He made a grim mental note to keep at least a few vials out and able to be used once they were out of the field.

He glanced at Kaelen, who was slumped against the wall, one hand pressed hard against his bleeding flank. "You'll make it?"

"Yeah," the assassin grunted, then glared at him through a curtain of dark, sweat-soaked hair. "Great idea you had, by the way."

"We won, didn't we?" Seth retorted with a shrug and limped toward the glittering blue crystal the Ice Elemental had left behind.

He crouched, his ribs screaming at the movement, and picked it up. It wasn't a beaststone; it was too clear, too pure, pulsing with a faint inner light. He cast Intermediate Identify. 

Ultimate Blizzard (Crude)

Spell-shard

Tier: Silver Affinity: Ice

Grade: Epic

Restrictions: 

- Elementalist

- 180 Arcane Power

- Ice Affinity Low-Silver or higher

[...] 

This could be useful for Elena, he thought, a flicker of excitement cutting through the pain. Once she reaches Silver.

Spell description

- Summons a powerful blizzard of ice shards in a direction.

- Decrease Toughness by 50 for 5 minutes after the end of the spell.

- Potency scales with Arcane Power, Ice Affinity, and spell quality.

- Cooldown decreases according to spell quality.

- Consumes 400 uniums.

- Cooldown: 6 hours.

Seth's mouth twisted to the side. It's powerful, but it will leave her vulnerable afterward.

The crystal still clutched in his hand, he moved toward the alcove in the cave's wall where Nightmare and Kaelen had both collapsed.

The moment he reached them, he felt a cold, predatory thought surface from both Nightmare's mind and his own: He's injured. This is the perfect chance to finish him. 

But the instinct died as quickly as it had come, smothered by the memory of Kaelen's intervention. The young man had saved Nightmare's life. And they had fought and survived together. That created a debt that even their bloodlust couldn't ignore.

"You're not going to try to kill me?" Kaelen asked, looking up.

"Why would I? You saved him," Seth retorted while nodding toward Nightmare, who was now curled up a few feet away and licking his wounds. "That would be shameful."

"If I were in your place, I would."

"Then that's the difference between us," Seth answered with a shrug. "As you said, words don't mean anything to you. They do to me."

Seth slid down the wall to sit next to Nightmare—he winced when the movement jarred his broken ribs. He held up the crisp, blue spell-shard. It felt wrong to keep the entire reward for himself; the fairest thing to do was to offer him a share of its value.

"Anyway, the Elemental dropped this. As you know, a friend of mine uses Ice spells, so I'm keeping it. But I'll give you a third of its value as soon as I can use my Endless Pouch."

The Dark Assassin seemed to catch himself before scoffing, as if the sound itself were too ridiculous to utter. "You don't have to," he said. "Anything I find here isn't mine to keep."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm an acolyte of the Black Reapers," Kaelen answered flatly. "Everything of value I get goes to them. If they're feeling generous, they might offer me a scrap of it, but most of the time they keep it all."

"That sounds excessive," Seth said, but then a cynical thought surfaced. It wasn't so different from how things worked in Kastal. If he'd been born into a noble house, he'd have been expected to do the same for its patriarchs.

"Says the one whose king prevents anyone from acquiring Seeds, Legendary spells, or anything else that could make them stronger," Kaelen retorted. "It's all so he can seize them under the guise of fighting rebels and hoard them for himself… or others."

Seth grimaced, but before he could reply, the Dark Assassin continued, "And in a little more than a week, you'll probably die for that man."

"No need to worry about that," Seth said, resting his head against the cold wall. "And if I'd had a choice, I wouldn't be joining this damned war at all. Fighting for that person disgusts me."

Across the alcove carved into the rock façade, Kaelen lowered his gaze to his hands. He said nothing, but the look in his eyes said enough: he felt the same.

"Humans," Nightmare's aetheric voice rumbled from his maw. "Always fighting and killing for leaders they don't even care about. It seems to be the same in every one of your countries."

"No," Kaelen answered with a glance. "It's worse in your nation, though the empire isn't far behind. But there are places out there… where leaders are chosen, and every voice matters. Where people can live without fearing their families will be slaughtered in retaliation." 

Seth's lips pressed into a thin line. That's how they keep you on a leash, isn't it? he thought. They rob you of any choice by threatening the ones you love.

'People always have a choice,' Nightmare retorted through the Link, reading his thoughts.

Seth looked at the direwolf. He wasn't wrong. As much as Seth felt trapped, he knew he could just run. Hide somewhere far away, find a Scribe to remove the inscription on his forearm, and vanish. It would be difficult and would cost a fortune, but it was possible. Tempting, even. Yet he knew why he hadn't done it.

Elena, Jenna, Devus, and all the others.

Leaving now would mean abandoning them, letting them face the war without him. And if he ran, people from his own squad—Henry, Selena, and the rest—would all have an even higher chance of dying. 

Sure, he could justify it. Flee to grow stronger and return later. But it felt wrong. Cold. Like a heartless calculation, sacrificing a few now for the greater good later.

Maybe there is another way, Seth thought. What if I become something so fearsome that no one from the Bridan Empire would dare face me? Someone whose mere presence could make the other side surrender before the battle even began. But could he really reach that point?

Three weeks ago, he would've said not a chance. 

Now, however… with Dusk Scythes, with most of his spells near the top qualities, with Nightmare's Seed and Colossus's Mountainborn Exoskeleton—it no longer felt impossible. Unlikely, sure. 

But not impossible.

The only way to know without a doubt is to see the war through, he thought. If I feel like I can't make a real difference, then perhaps leaving is the only true option.

"I should be able to move in about thirty minutes," Kaelen said ahead as he glanced down at the gash in his side, which had finally stopped bleeding.

"Good," Seth replied, his core stirring a little from anticipation in his chest. "If we're lucky, we'll run into another Ice Elemental on the way."

Kaelen shot him a look of pure disbelief. "If we're lucky? Why in the world would you want to fight another one of those?"

"To get stronger," Seth answered with a humorless smile. "That's the point of being in this Rift, isn't it?"

"So you're one of those battle maniacs," Kaelen said with a sigh. "The kind that hunts until they collapse. That Primalist class fits you well."

Seth raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you one of those too? Look at yourself. You're probably younger than me, and you're already at the peak of Iron. For at least weeks since you were at that Rank during the skirmishes."

"Months," Kaelen corrected, his voice devoid of pride. "But that's different. I was forced to train, forced to kill, forced to get strong. You… you seem to do it for fun."

"No." For an instant, Seth's fists clenched on his lap. "I do it because I want the strength to make a difference. To make sure bastards like the king of Kastal pay for their actions. My country is rotten with corruption, with nobles who make people suffer for their own gain." His thoughts turned to the Black Hounds and Lucius' brother still free in the wild, causing his nails to dig into his palms. "They sell people like livestock, and no one punishes them for it. If I'm strong enough, I can crush them under my boot and make them face consequences."

"So you want to replace one dictatorship with another?" the Dark Assassin asked with a dry laugh.

"I don't want to rule," Seth retorted. "I just want my presence to be enough to keep them in line. To make sure whoever is in power is just and tears down the stupid laws keeping people from forging their own destiny."

"A shadow dictatorship, then," Kaelen replied, a brief smile touching his lips. "You know, a few decades ago it was like that in the empire. The Emperor was just a figurehead. The true leader, the one in the dark, was the chief of the Black Reapers. He decided everything." He paused, his smile fading. "Well, until he died."

"How did he die?"

"Old age," Kaelen answered. "A rare thing for a Black Reaper. For any assassin, really." He shifted, a wince crossing his features when the movement seemingly tugged at the gash in his side. "But from what I hear, things were better then. People like me didn't have to kill someone just for daring to look at one of the empress' daughters the wrong way."

Seth grimaced. Sending assassins for something so trivial… In the end, the empire and Kastal were just different shades of the same rot, despite what he'd originally thought. "A shadow dictatorship doesn't sound so bad, then," he muttered.

"Depends," Kaelen said. "That's pretty much what you have now. From what I've heard, another country is pulling your king's strings. He funnels your nation's resources to them, and in return their protection keeps anyone from invading."

Rubbing his tired face, the Dark Assassin went on, "But now that we're at war, that doesn't mean much. Our empress is overreaching, and my own nation will pay for it whether we win or lose. Those puppet masters won't be happy when your king are forced to give up something of equal value to what they stole… It will likely be territories."

Seth's stomach churned. So that was the reason for everything: the suffocating taxes, the hoarding of resources, the laws designed to keep everyone weak. It wasn't just the king's greed; it was treason. The idea that their ruler was selling out the country to keep his throne made him feel sicker than simple tyranny ever could.

"Do you know which country it is? The one controlling him?"

"Yeah," Kaelen answered with a sigh. "And there's a chance you do too."

"Why would I?" Seth asked as his brow furrowed.

"Your eyes," Kaelen said. "Back during the skirmishes, you were hiding their true color. They were green. Makes sense. Draeria doesn't seem like a country that tolerates deserters."

Seth's heart skipped a beat, but he remained silent. Sooner or later, people were bound to find out. That was why he'd acquired the Proof of Citizenship from the Oracle Guild with Marcus.

The Dark Assassin leaned his head back against the stone, a brief, ironic smile tugging at his lips. "Quite a coincidence, isn't it? Those controlling that greedy king of yours just happen to be one of the nations that's been at war with Draeria for fifty years." 

Kaelen paused, eyes half-lidded. "Volantis."