章節 65: We’re Worse
It took Emile and Blood a little under a week to reach the peak of the Hollow Mountains again. During that time, Emile experimented with his new Gift.
From what he could tell, his Soul Essence wasn't the only thing that went through a drastic change. His healing got better too.
Before the potion, most of Emile's healing capabilities dealt with non-lethal wounds like deep cuts and fractured bones since he didn't have the essence to heal more than that.
But he healed Blood's broken ribs and ruptured lungs with less than twenty essence! If he had to do something like that before, Emile is sure it would have drained him entirely, he might not have been able to heal Blood completely in the first place.
So the potency of his healing increased and the amount of essence he could tap into also increased, it was a net gain. At first, Emile was upset he lost three-hundred souls, but the immediate effects of the upgrades were incredible.
Another thing he had to consider was the potions effects long-term. Since Emile was still Chosen, did that mean from this point forward he would consistently be five times stronger than opponents of the same rank?
Were there ranks to Gifts, outside of evolutions? Were some Chosen Gifts inherently better than others? Of course some Gifts were, Emile's healing was one of the higher tier ones, but Emile was more so concerned if there were statistical differences between Gifts.
For example, Emile found out that Blood had three-hundred Soul Essence available to him at the Enlightened stage. Assuming he also had a hundred as a Chosen, would he have nine-hundred as a Perfected?
Or did some Gifts inherently have more essence? Were Gifts that altered the physical capabilities of a person given less essence because they theoretically used less? Or was it the same for everyone?
He had asked Blood previously but he didn't know either. At the end of the day it was something Emile was going to have to keep track of.
***
The duo passed between the passageway that led to the other side of the Hollow Mountains and when they did they finally witnessed the results of their actions.
An enormous crater sunk into the earth between the peaks of two mountains. From their birds-eye view, the crater looked like a scoop of the planet had been picked up by a God and moved elsewhere.
A tangible heat escaped from the crater disrupting the waves of lights around them. The world looked malleable and wavy through the heat.
Not only was the crater immense, but a sea of lava plagued the bottom of the crater and it seemed like it was only rising. Looking down, Emile could recognize the area where Blood and the Drake fought.
In the walls of the crater, lining the edges, hundreds of holes littered the surface. Each hole represented a passageway that led somewhere, whether it be a village or something like the pit.
Peering into some of the holes, Emile could actually already see villages. Their houses were carved out of rock, most of them lay piled on the floor in pieces, broken from the mere tremors caused by the Drake.
Emile followed their path with his eyes and about halfway down the mountain he saw large groups of people organized in lines. Many of them had bags or satchels slung over their shoulders while some of the kids held nothing more than a blanket.
In tattered clothes and ripped shoes, the people of the Black Gates descended the mountains.
It took Emile and Blood a few more hours to make it to the lines of people, but once they did they were bombarded with the woes of misery. Just through listening, Emile could hear the cries of young children, their stuffy nosed parents, and the barking of orders to "stay calm and keep moving forward."
"I think we've got a gist of what happened." Blood suddenly said.
Standing far away enough to clearly not be part of their group, Emile watched the newly homeless people trudge down the mountain, "Yeah, and I'm sure the Collector already knows about this"
"Did you just wanna see your girlfriend one last time?" Blood snickered.
Blood couldn't see it, but Emile rolled his eyes, "Not my girlfriend—" Emile corrected, "and I don't know if I could say anything to her anyway."
"Why not?"
"Her dad—Khon's dead and it's our fault." Emile sighed.
"What?" Blood blurted out, "It's not our fault. We didn't kill him."
"Yeah I know, but he was following us. We led him into the labyrinth."
"And?" Blood fired back again, "He chose to follow us!"
"Blood look at what we did!" Emile pointed to the pit of hell beside them, "We destroyed his home! He was right to come after us!"
"He was a bad guy, Spright! He ran the pit!"
"Blood look!" Emile stressed even more, "The two aren't comparable! Sure, he's not a great person, but we're worse… we're monsters."
"Okay, I shouldn't have fought the Drake!" Blood exploded, "You're right. It wasn't our assignment. We caused this and that sucks, but there's nothing we can do now. Come on, let's just go."
Blood stepped past Emile's shoulder and continued to walk down the mountain towards the massive group of people. Emile stayed for a few moments longer, watching the displaced people.
The only place they could go was Fallen Sky. The underground kingdom definitely had the space to house all of these people, but would they be accepted? What would happen to the leaders of the Black Gates?
Emile had a feeling they weren't the type of people to surrender their authority so easily, even in a special circumstance such as this one.
'Is it even my problem?'
'I don't know anyone down there'
'…'
'I hope they all make it'
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