Chapter 142 - Hesitant Steps

Putting Leo on the Miniature Floating Platform, Rynold checked on his condition.

The guy wasn't so bad that he had been critically injured. Leo has been knocked out because of the weird bump on his head.

'Must've been from the falling debris.'

The red bump was relatively swollen. However, it wasn't bad enough that would make Leo have a concussion. Still, it could be quite some time until Leo recovers.

Rynold, now standing on the side of the Miniature Floating Platform, commanded it out of the building. He had been lucky since none of the falling debris ever touched him. What's more, was the fact that the grapple had wrapped around Leo's hand.

But, the circumstances were still far from ideal.

As they went out from where Rynold had come in, the two moved on to the street. Rynold quickly jumped down from the ledge into another nearby rooftop, one which was relatively more stable.

While remotely controlling the Miniature Floating Platform to carry Leo over slowly, the two soon reached where X was standing.

'Eh?'

From a glance, something about the Mech Knight seemed different. Rynold couldn't really figure out what happened, but the appearance of the Mech Knight was far different from before.

As Rynold got closer, he tried to take a feel of the Mech Knight's metal exterior.

'It's... crumbling?'

"Master. You are back."

X, unaware of what had happened to him, spoke with an indifferent tone. It seemed that the Mech Knight was out of the loop as well.

"Are you alright?"

Rynold asked with great care and worry. It was his first time seeing X be in such a sorry state. Despite all of the battles that the two had gone through together, Rynold's experience with anything other than physical damage was lacking.

That's why he was rather surprised at X's current state.

"Yes, I am fine. I was struck with multiple lightning strikes. I will need some time to recover to my original state."

'How the hell is this fine?'

Naturally, the Mech Knight had no reason to lie to his Master.

Rynold, however, was still skeptical all the same. No human can ever survive multiple lightning strikes in his body, after all.

But then again, X was no human.

Seeing as how he can't wrap his head around this, Rynold let out a deep sigh. He frustratingly shook his head at the current situation.

Because of Leo's reckless actions, the distance between Rynold and the Duke became significantly larger. In addition to that, Leo was unconscious while X could barely fight.

'Shit.'

The Duke was on his way to the castle right this very second. There was a chance that he might have gotten there already.

So, what were Rynold's current options?

He could leave both of them behind and face the Duke alone. However, it seemed too big a risk for Rynold to do alone.

But, it didn't seem like he had much of a choice.

"X, take care of Leo. Head to the castle once you've recovered."

Without so much as a goodbye, Rynold left the Mech Knight to supposedly "recover" his strength. Having X there in the fight would only hold Rynold back.

Running at full speed, Rynold was faster than when he was traveling with X. Now that he didn't have to wait for the Mech Knight, Rynold covered the same distance with double the speed.

As Rynold continuously ran along the main road, he kept his eye out for anything strange, which, coincidentally, didn't take long for him to spot something unusual.

'That doesn't look right...'

Rynold slowed down to a walk and looked at his surroundings. The plants, bugs, everything that had signs of life were shriveled into raisins. The sight of which was rather creepy.

However, Rynold didn't stop. It would be wrong to do so.

As he moved along, Rynold spotted the same thing over and over again. It wasn't like somebody had poisoned the plants. No, it was as if something had sucked the life out of them.

Rynold didn't stop moving along the Main Road until he spotted what looked like an arm out of the corner of his eye.

'No...'

With hesitant steps, Rynold moved towards the unmoving arm and soon discovered what was attached to it. It was the unmoving body of a corpse.

Rynold's expression sank once he got a closer look.

Just like what happened to the flora and fauna, the corpse was shriveled too.

It had gotten to the point where the face was unrecognizable. But, the size and shape of the body seemed to indicate the person was merely a child.

His hands trembled as he turned the corpse over. Rynold cradled the body in his arms and looked closely.

Trying his best not to vomit, the face of the child was truly indistinguishable. But, the expression seemed to indicate fear, terror.

Rynold had to stomach what he had just seen.

He looked up and down at the dried-up corpse to see how they have passed. Only then would Rynold find a way to avenge their deaths.

Rynold's eyes immediately went cold as he looked at the child's chest.

Bullet holes.

He cursed under his breath as he counted the holes that were in the child's body. However, he was disgusted when he got to the second count.

The child's death was undoubtedly merciless. Rynold was sure of this.

They were killed by the soldiers who carried around their guns with no restraint. These soldiers massacred this child without holding back and continuously riddled the body with bullet holes even after death.

Rynold was sure that the child had died from this. The shriveling up of the corpse was something that followed after.

And, Rynold was sure who did that too.

With a cold, heavy heart, Rynold turned his left Mana Gauntlet into Strength-form. From there, he shoveled up a patch of the open ground underneath a withered tree.

It was an informal burial. However, it was a lot more proper than leaving the withered corpse out in the open.

When Rynold finished, he slowly raised the child with both hands. Rynold carefully shifted the body into the hole that he had dug.

Unintentionally, Rynold placed the child in a fetal position. Following this, Rynold covered up the hole, burying the child in an impromptu grave.

Rynold then slightly bowed to pay respects before leaving.

His heart felt heavier than its ever been. But, Rynold had to continue forward, facing the menace that had started all of this.

This wasn't a game anymore. No, it never really was one.

'I swear I'll end this.'

Running at full speed once more, Rynold started to get riled up. He planned to face the Duke with every ounce of power that he could produce.

However, along the way, he couldn't help but feel the need to stop.

That was because there were still corpses scattered within the immediate surroundings of the main road. Corpses that were similar to the child that he had buried before.

Rynold's heart ached every time he crossed one.

The number of deaths that he had turned a blind eye to started to pile up. The mental burden of which started to take effect on Rynold's movements.

Suddenly, he stopped. Looking around, Rynold could barely take into account the number of people that had died. The number couldn't be counted with just a single hand.

As Rynold stood in the middle of nowhere, he felt broken. The empty feeling of death was all around him. His eyes shifted from one dead body to another.

It was then that his gaze suddenly locked on what looked like a mother holding her child's hand.

'Tsk.'

Rynold knew what he had to do. He had no choice but to focus on the task at hand.

Shaking his head to realign his thoughts, Rynold looked up. With the castle just out of eyeshot, Rynold started running once more.

'No. No more.'

Gritting his teeth, Rynold didn't stop running until he reached the castle gates. But, lo and behold, something suddenly shot out from one of the mosaic windows.

Or, someone, rather.

'Is that...?'

From where he was standing, he couldn't recognize who the person was. But, it was familiar, nonetheless.

Suddenly, the figure shot out an arrow from a bow, an arrow made entirely out of fire. Rynold, seeing what the figure had done, immediately jumped up to catch the falling person.

"What is up with people and getting thrown out of things today?"

Rynold was tastefully sarcastic as he reunited with Lissa, who was in his arms. It wasn't as 'heroic' as most people would make it out to be, but Lissa was impressed by Rynold's perfect timing.

"You're here!"

Lissa exclaimed as Rynold landed on the withered grass. He immediately put the Princess down as they had business to attend to.

"What's the situation?"

"Well. I decided that confronting Wilfred would be the best use of my time. One thing led to another and..."

The young Princess pointed at the window that she was thrown out of. Rynold raised his head slightly to see what was happening and immediately saw intense flames all around the room. It was as if a mad arsonist has been let loose.

Rynold's expression immediately gaped in surprise.

Despite the clear instructions that he had left Lissa, she went the opposite direction instead. She clearly opted to seek out violence instead of laying low.

Thankfully, nothing bad happened to her because Rynold left the Spirit of Fire with her. Otherwise, there would be no Princess anymore.

Sighing, Rynold motioned Lissa to stay still. He clearly didn't want the young girl to fight any more than she already had.

"Hey, I can fight too!"

Lissa yelled out, making Rynold glare at her with a terrifying look on his face. Clearly, Rynold was not in the mood for jokes.

Rynold shot out his grapple up a small ledge and raised himself to the broken window. From there, he stepped on the window frame and launched himself in.

As Rynold threw himself to the bodyguard, it felt like he hit a wall.

A literal wall. That was what it felt like.

The bodyguard looked down at Rynold, who had fallen to the ground. He immediately kicked Rynold to the side and hit an actual wall this time.

'What the hell was that?'

First, the Duke threw him off a cliff. Now, a casual kick from a bodyguard threw him across a room?

"You alright?"

Prominence Alpha's voice echoed within Rynold's head. It was something that Rynold didn't realize he missed.

However, as Rynold looked up to respond, he saw that the Spirit of Fire was a bit disfigured.

"Oi. What happened to you?" Rynold asked as he stood back up.

Half of Prominence Alpha's voice was missing, along with several other parts of his abdomen and legs. Rynold thought that Prominence Alpha was all-powerful. For its opponent to disfigure it like that, it was rather unbecoming.

"I'll live. You up for another fight?"

Rynold had a tough couple of hours.

He was suddenly imparted with great responsibility from the Emissary of Order. The number of deaths that he had realized on his way to the castle. All of the lives that were lost.

Rynold was mentally crushed by the heavy weight on his shoulders. The same weight that had gotten heavier the longer he stayed here. In this castle. With the mad rulers and inadequate military.

If anybody else were in his shoes, they'd have already gone mad.

So, the question that the Spirit of Fire asked had a lot more weight to Rynold than anyone would ever realize.

Regardless, though, Rynold reformed his Mana Gauntlets to Strength-form.

"Always."

He responded with a smile on his face.

Along the way to the castle, Rynold had realized something important. It was pretty damn obvious, but important, nonetheless.

The power to change fate. To fight against it. That would always mean that he would need to fight.

'Man... I'm pretty dumb, huh?'