Chapter 138 - Fighting Against Fate

"Indeed, it isn't. The power you hold is out of your control."

The Emissary of Order didn't mind much of Rynold's dissatisfaction. In fact, she might have been ignorant of it.

"However, it is only a matter of time when you will be able to control such power. Time which we currently do not have."

Rynold glanced at the Emissary of Order before standing up. Feeling muscle aches all over, Rynold stretched and limbered up.

"I suppose we have to stop the madman from going any further, right? The question is: how am I going to go about that?"

The last time Rynold had encountered the Duke, he had gotten badly injured. It was a very unideal first encounter between the two parties. What's more, the Emissary of Order dubbed the Duke's magic as cursed magic. Naturally, Rynold was skeptical of fighting against that.

He, clearly, had no means of fighting against the Duke's cursed magic. As far as he could tell, Rynold's entire Mana could be corrupted by the slightest touch of it.

Case in point, his Mana Gauntlets had exploded at mere contact with the cursed magic. He hadn't expected something like that would happen. No, Rynold was sure that he'd be dead by now if he didn't try to defend himself.

In hindsight, though, that might not have been the best thing to do either.

After all, his Mana Gauntlets were bonded to him through a Mana Bond. If his Mana Gauntlets were to suffer corruption, it wasn't a stretch to assume that his Mana Core would be damaged as well.

Using Mana Bonded items was a two-way street.

And, as far as Rynold could tell, the Emissary of Order wasn't going to give him any direct help either. Considering how they were normally inactive, the Emissary of Order was only probably going to give him some indirect, overly generalized advice.

"Here, Child."

With a simple touch of her finger to his forehead, Rynold immediately received what he could only describe as enlightenment.

Light immediately filled Rynold's vision as an influx of information entered his mind. Rynold could barely make heads with what's going on. Not that the whole thing lasted long, anyway.

[Secret Conditions Complete!]

[Recalculating Candidate's Sigil...]

[Calculation Complete!]

[Sigil: Path of Order Unlocked!]

Rynold distinctly remembered the experience he had with the Mech God.

The sigil on his hand started to burn once more with a hot sensation. Even if Rynold hadn't looked at it, he could tell that the sigil had extended its reach. Initially, the thing was small as a coin. Now, a couple of strands had extended from the back of his hand to his wrist.

Following this, a couple of other notifications popped up. The Path of Order seemingly had a lot more to it than Rynold had realized.

'Another favor, huh?'

As the light faded from his vision, Rynold's thoughts wandered to a common feeling. The feeling of not deserving such favors from others.

As far as Rynold was concerned, he didn't deserve any of this. He would easily pass it off to someone else if he could. Unfortunately for him, though, the damned responsibilities were all on him.

"I have blessed you with the necessary strength to defeat this foe and restore order. The fate of the world rests in your hands."

"Can I ask one last thing?"

Rynold had one last thought in mind before heading out to defeat the Duke once again. Whether he would get an answer or not... Well, that depended on the Emissary.

"How am I able to fight against fate in my sleep? How can you even tell?"

The tone of Rynold's voice was casual. He didn't seem to care what the answer could be. That "power" was out of his hands, anyway.

"You have no recollection of those fights?"

The Emissary of Order deviated from her natural tone into a more surprised one. After which, she quickly recovered.

"I suppose that is entirely reasonable... There must have been times when you've woken up exhausted, correct? Times in which you've woken up as if you had undergone a hard battle?"

"You're saying that my night terrors are because of something as ridiculous as that?"

"Ridiculous as it may seem, you've been doing it for years now. Perhaps you might have no recollection of the times you've fought against fate. However, it is apparent that you have succeeded more often than not."

Rynold was dissatisfied.

The answers that the Emissary of Order had given to him were vaguer than he had thought. Normally, he would have gotten at least something out of all of that. But, now...

The night terrors he's been having are terrors that he had no control over. What's worse is that he seemingly fought against fate without having control over whether it was a worthwhile battle or not. His soul had done it on its own.

One way or another, at least he was alive now.

He didn't know what the consequences of his subconscious fights against fate were. He had no choice but to live with it now.

Scoffing, Rynold soon realized something.

His will and conscious mind wanted to stay away from conflict as much as possible, only ever acting when he needed to. But, it appeared that Rynold himself had an uncanny ability to fight. His instincts were prodding him to throw himself into danger every time something happens.

'Damn. I'm no protagonist.'

Rynold's entire being was two different personalities. One where his will was prominent, while the other was one he had no control over.

It was overly complicated for a mortal human to handle. A power much greater than his own, while a mind that had nothing to do with it. The answers that he got left him a lot more unanswered questions.

With a deep sigh, Rynold stared at the Emissary of Order.

"Do you know what the enemy is up to?"

Deciding to move on, Rynold directly asked the Emissary of Order a question. There was no time for him to doubt his intentions, after all.

"The person you are after is currently holding a Soul Orb, one of many. Throughout time, Soul Orbs have been lost to ruin, leaving only a few working in existence. By sacrificing souls, the wielder can raise the dead. However, this wasn't all the Soul Orb can do.

"While many different variations exist, the one in the hands of that person can copy a specific soul onto a new vessel. However, to do so would require numerous other souls as sacrifices in the process."

Gritting his teeth, Rynold finally realized what the Duke was after. All this time. All of the deaths. They were all in the name of bringing one person back to life.

If that weren't a good enough reason for Rynold to fight, he didn't know what is.

Characteristically, Rynold gave a slight nod in agreement. It was a simple act that indicated his willingness to do what he had sought out in the first place.

"I wish you great luck, young one."

And, just like that, light entered Rynold's vision once more as he woke up, back in the real world.

"Master. You are alright?"

The sound of the Mech Knight's worrying words emanated through Rynold's ears. As he blinked twice to refocus his vision, Rynold was immediately greeted by the Mech Knight's face.

"Yes, I'm fine."

Rynold sat up and noticed something was different. He gazed down at his legs and realized that the pain wasn't there anymore. There were no scars or any visible injuries. It was good as new.

Using his hand to reach out and cop a feel of his healed leg, Rynold realized something else.

'That's... different.'

The Mana Gauntlets permanently infused to his hand looked a lot cleaner. The color was more pristine, while the details were a lot more evident.

'She really did patch me up.'

As Rynold stood up on his two feet, he felt better than ever. The Mana Gauntlets felt a lot less clunky, while his legs made it feel like he could run a marathon.

Suffice it to say, Rynold was in the best shape of his life.

With a smile on his face, Rynold motioned the Mech Knight to follow. The two started a long trek back to the castle. The insides of which still remain unchanged.

Apart from a few things, that is...

While Rynold and Leo had been fighting and, occasionally, almost dying, Lissa had been busy at work. Currently, there was no way for her to fight on the frontlines, after all.

"Where are we headed, milady?"

The captain of the guards that had previously sworn loyalty to her asked. They were currently aimlessly running down the halls.

"Where else? We need to head towards the place that Wilfred was last seen. You know where he is, right, Clint?"

Clint, the captain of the guards, nodded and turned towards the side. He took to one of the hallways that were rather bare and unguarded. The rest of the castle guards were clearly sticking to their orders of protecting the King and the Queen.

"He was last seen in the medical ward. Because of a previous circumstance, the kid had been knocked out in the middle of the courtyard by an unknown assailant. It appeared that he had superficial injures and was left in the care of his bodyguards."

Lissa was informed of the situation at hand.

Clearly, none of the castle guards had known that Rynold had fought against the Duke's son four hours prior. Well, not that it mattered to them anyway. There were other things that took priority.

"Stay here and keep watch."

As soon as they arrived, Lissa ordered the guards that had followed her to standby in the meantime. Ganging up on Wilfred would only make him hostile towards them.

Lissa held the doorknob, but before opening the door, Prominence Alpha interrupted.

"You want to do this by yourself? There are two people there that are dangerous for someone at your level."

"I'll be fine," Lissa answered, "I'm just gonna talk to them, anyway."

The young Princess dismissed the Spirit of Fire's warning, unbeknownst to her what troubles lie ahead. As a novice Magic User, she couldn't stand her ground against the two people that were currently inside the room.

She clearly had no idea what troubles lie ahead.

With a shallow sigh, Lissa turned the knob and walked in. Upon entering, she was greeted by a man that had stood over Wilfred's unconscious body.

"Princess."

The man greeted without even looking up at her. He was so focused on watching over Wilfred that it had become creepy. His entire focus seemed to only be on the young boy.

"How is he?"

Lissa easily passed as an innocent bystander. That much, she knew. Unfortunately, no matter how much she pretended, the bodyguard was much wiser than she had thought.

"Stay where you are. Why did you come here, exactly?"

"I... uh... heard that my cousin was here. I just wanted to see how he's doing, is all."

The bodyguard was clearly skeptical of having the Princess being concerned with Wilfred. It was rather uncharacteristic of her to do so.

But, before anything else could happen, the sound of thunder rumbling in the distance quickly escalated the situation.

"I suggest that you leave the castle, Princess. It isn't safe for you to be here."

With a very threatening overtone to his voice, the bodyguard clearly didn't want Lissa to be in the room. The thunder in the distance could have meant a lot of things, but the man was sure that the Duke was moving.

Lissa, on the other hand, knew that the thunder had meant a completely different thing. It indicated that her own brother was fighting his hardest, all the while she didn't do anything special to pull her weight.

"Then, I suggest that you should take your leave as well."

Back against the door, Lissa immediately pulled her shortbow out. Pulling back the bowstring, a Flaming Arrow immediately appeared.