Chapter 12

The gentle breeze sways the leaves of the nearby trees and also the strands of your hair continuously, yet it remains unnoticed by both Samantha and Hye, whose eyes become increasingly misty and their fists clench, wrapping around the stems of the white orchids in their hands without hurting them.

Raising her head, Hye finds herself surrounded by several tombstones that keep rising before her eyes.

The cradle of heroes. A sacred place for all the residents of that area where only those who truly dedicated themselves to protecting and aiding the people of that country could be found. The cradle of the hunters who gave their lives to keep that nation alive.

The path of golden tiles, tiles made of gold, stretches among the various tombstones and the beautiful trees that accompany it until its end, where, like three other paths coming from different directions, a large golden circle is surrounded by all the tombstones around it.

With orchids in hand, Hye bows before the two tombstones that stand in the center of the golden circle, surrounded by various types of flowers, from chrysanthemums to lilies, from roses to anthuriums, all carrying different shades, even having large flower crowns scattered around.

Samantha, on the other hand, remains standing. With the push of the wind, the flower petals around sway, and as this happens, her hands tremble constantly. Faced with those plaques whose colors change like a beautiful rainbow, as if an invisible hand were squeezing them, her heart tightens and her eyes quickly fill with tears.

[In memory of Carolina Santos de Oliveira]

[In memory of Maicon Santos de Oliveira]

Tears incessantly roll from Sam's eyes, and as she carefully places the orchids in front of the tombstones, they also trickle more slowly down Hye's face... each tear imbued with her profound guilt.

Standing before those stones that mark the location of her parents' bodies, her chest tightens, and as Alyia's influence over him gradually diminishes along with the production of tears in his eyes, Hye can only feel immense guilt for, over the years, not having felt anything at all for those who brought him into the world.

Now, as his mind continues to clear with the constant departure of his feelings, distant voices and cries emerge in his mind.

The endless sobs he can hear, the tears falling towards the cold ground he can feel. However, with a pencil in hand and a notebook in front of him, the pain of his parents couldn't matter less to him than those exercises he kept completing endlessly on the days he still went to school.

And, with the falling leaves of the trees around, the weight on his chest extinguished. For then came the cessation of the winds surrounding them, taking with them what little remained of his feelings and leaving only a mere memory of the sensation it passed on to him during this short period.

Indifference returns to his eyes immediately, leaving no trace that at any moment any feeling had been expressed there.

Tears no longer form, yet, recalling the anguishing and desolate sensation he felt moments before, Hye managed to replicate a paltry version of the guilt he felt, something that caused a single small tear to appear in one of his eyes.

With the fall of that drop that disappeared immediately upon touching the ground, nothing remained for Hye, nothing but his last words before leaving that place.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."

Dry words, perhaps. After all, they were not steeped in any kind of feeling. However, if those two, Carolina and Maicon, were present in that place and could hear Hye's voice at that moment, they could easily say that those had certainly been the most "sentimental" words he had ever told them so far, as Samantha noticed the same.

***************

"No place is safe anymore. Hunter associations around the world warn the population about the current danger of dungeons, as sudden dungeons have been appearing around the world without any warning or even commonly seen clues, which do not follow..."

People nearby quickly gathered around the display window where the television was and stopped so they could watch the news.

Their bodies tremble as the journalist continues to provide information, and fear is seen being stamped on their faces.

Mothers embrace their sons and daughters, and couples squeeze each other's hands without even realizing how much force they're using.

Even if they're not hunters and even if they don't enter a portal, it doesn't matter. From this day forward, no one could say they're truly safe anymore.

"Huh? Is that true...? I see... New information has just been sent. Attention! There's suspicion that the new dungeons appear according to the number of people in a certain area, so it's recommended not to gather in large groups with twenty people or more, as that's the average..."

People exchange looks, and a deafening silence spreads throughout the place. Surely there were more than twenty people together on that small sidewalk.

Without listening to the rest of the information being provided, starting with those at the edges, everyone quickly ran, dispersing the crowd and running to places where they could be safe away from other people.

"Huh? Did something happen?" Alyia wondered when several frightened people ran past her. "Did a portal appear here..? But there's no mana fluctuation..."

Suddenly, something vibrates in her pants pocket, and she quickly grabs her smartphone to answer the call.

"You're still in Korea, right?" the voice questioned.

"No, I'm already on my way home..." Alyia replied, raising one hand quickly and causing a huge white door to appear before her eyes. "I'm already at the door."

"Stop fooling around and deactivate that portal. Before you come back, do something for me, since I'm too busy to leave right now."

"..."

Alyia sighed, and with the lowering of her hand, the white door disappeared completely.

"What do you want...?"

"Samantha stopped responding to me a few minutes ago, and... I also can't sense her mana. Find out what happened, since it's practically impossible for her to have entered a dungeon."

"She may have just concealed her own mana, right?" Alyia said, looking around and realizing that, despite there being no dungeon, there was no one in those streets.

"No, she's not good enough to conceal it completely like that."

Alyia sighed.

"Fine," she said, looking around at another deserted street. "I'll see if something happened."

"Aah... This lack of mana is really a problem... Damn..."

"Update!" said the journalist, speaking to an absolutely empty street with no sign of life. "Attention! According to investigations by hunter associations, there's a possibility that the new dungeons only appear in places where there are hunters or people close to awakening. Another hypothesis is that the people nearby, even if they're not awakened, serve as an addition to the number of members in the raid. Speculations point to the possibility that these dungeons have fixed numbers of participants, so..."