Chapter 429: A Darkness

Veran looked through every trail, tree, and grove to find what the Seika asked of him. However, it was no easy feat to look around when a voice told you to kill your best friend.

"He will betray you," the voice whispered when Veran looked at Kaza, who was climbing a tree for a vantage point. "You need to eat him before he eats you."

"That"s a weird one," muttered Veran in amus.e.m.e.nt. At first, he thought that the voice was his own and that he was a vile and rotten man. Then, however, a past incident proved otherwise. Something was whispering within him, and Veran called it Void.

Void would tell him to commit heinous crimes and sometimes even push him into doing them. However, something else helped him resist the voice, and he believed that thing was Kaza"s presence.

"There is a carriage ahead," Kaza reported before jumping down. "I believe they are merchants with a broken carriage. Let"s go there and help."

"Kaza, the Seika gave us but a few hours to find some abnormality," Veran sighed tiredly. "A merchant can handle it themselves; we are better off without wasting our time."

"The Seika is an eccentric man, and we can"t even be sure that there is anything in the forest," Kaza dusted himself. "We are wasting our time anyway doing nothing. So we might as well help these poor people."

Veran would have thought they were goody two shoes, only seeking to impress the world or themselves if anyone else said this. However, Kaza"s kindness touched him before, and it wasn"t like that. It was a genuine kindness, and he would die to protect it from being defiled.

Veran nodded with a smile and followed after the blond head into the woods. Finally, they found the road that the merchants took and came close to the accident site.

As they arrived, they found a few wounded people and a giant carriage with a broken wheel. The merchants seemed to have a few wounded mercenaries, and they were confused about what to do.

"h.e.l.lo, we are here!" Kaza called out as he ran over toward the group. His bright smile made everyone at ease, and the merchants let down their guard.

Veran stared at the group from afar, making them nervous. Then, finally, he could hear their story, and it was something like this: "We have chosen a different path because we were short on time, and our greed brought danger. Who would have thought?!"

Of course, they didn"t say that. That was what Veran thought of these idiotic merchants. People were all the same, greedy beyond reason. And when things turn south? They run to the closest good person they can see, like Kaza.

As Kaza began helping the merchants, Veran stood afar and watched him use his ability to restore the carriage"s wheels. They were short on time, but here they were.

"The Seika will be disappointed," Veran thought, and that was expected of him. They didn"t find any traces even though they had been looking for so long.

There were exceptions to rules, but the Seika wasn"t one of them. He spoke of pretty ideals like abandoning t.i.tles and whatever, but he didn"t even have a name other than his t.i.tle.

"What a hypocrite?"

Veran asked around about his story, and it involved some pretty insane things. In the span of a few months, the Seika rose from a slave into a city"s lord. His story made things seem easy as if rising from weakness is a given.

It reminded Veran of heroic tales of the past, and that"s why he hated the Seika. Stories lie, and so does their lord. However, Veran could forgive him for one reason: the man can Void shut up, and it allowed Veran to sleep.

"The Seika is disgusting. Kill him. Kill him in his sleep. Kill these people. Rape those women. Kill. Kill. Kill."

"Disgusting," Veran sneered. Of course, Void and Kaza were the exact opposite, but Veran had to admit that he was similar to Void, not to Kaza.

Then, the smell grew stronger. It was always there, usually, but this time it was stronger than ever before. Veran frowned as he looked at the group, but it didn"t come from them. Instead, it came from the forest.

Veran walked into the forest, his fist tightening around the dagger. The smell first appeared after he killed a group of bandits, but it rarely got stronger like now.

Well, there was one time where it did, and that was when he came across a corrupted human, but it disappeared as soon as he was killed. As for Veran, he was never found out.

After walking a few meters into the forest, Veran could tell he was going in the right direction. Unfortunately, it was the direction of the lake, and it was dangerous to proceed. However, they needed something to appease the Seika.

The forest grew darker as if no light came through. As he walked further, Veran suddenly realized that there was water beneath his boots. However, the lake should still be a distance away.

Veran frowned, and he looked ahead. That water seemed to be rising, but it suddenly stopped. A presence appeared from the direction of the lake, and there was a feeling that asked him to run away.

After the water returned to normal, Veran resumed walking. Then, he found the source of the smell. There was a circle on the ground that was entirely black as if it was a hole that led to h.e.l.l.

"Power, more, take it," Void asked him, and Veran knew he wasn"t lying. As he took slow steps toward the hole, he could see that the black material was moving, calling for him.

Veran wanted power to live without being pushed around, without having to suffer, and without meeting the fate of that corrupted human.

As the black and tar-like tongue protruded from the ground to reach out to him, Veran did the same. He was but inches away from power when a hand grabbed his arm.

"You will grow powerful if you touch this," the Seika"s voice appeared beside him, and Veran turned to look at the man with golden eyes. "However, I will kill you because you will be nothing but a monster."

"I won"t lose myself," Veran said as he tried to shake his hand, but the Seika"s grip was firm. "I think this is the clue you wanted us to find."

"Not the clue that I want you to pursue."

"I can handle the darkness. I always managed to do so," Veran said a bit too desperately, a bit too weakly. "Let me touch it, and I will tell you what I see."

The Seika"s face slightly eased as if he was tempted. Veran had no idea what the Seika wanted from him, but what was he beside his darkness?

"I can tell you what I see. You need me to be your eyes in the darkness," Veran urged the Seika, and the man"s grip of his arm grew weaker.

"I know that power is tempting, but you will lose Kaza," he said, and Veran wished that he did not.

The name of his friend rang through his body like a summoning call that sought to bring him back into the light. Veran calmed down, and he nodded at the Seika.

Kaza had many sleepless nights just to calm the voices, and those were the only nights where Veran could sleep easily. But, if he indeed allowed more darkness into his body, then what would happen to his dearest friend?

"I understand," Veran nodded his head and pulled his hand away from the darkness. However, in that second, something took hold of his body. In a moment of weakness, Void took the reins of the carriage and jumped toward the darkness. "No!"

His hand touched the darkness, and it engulfed his body like a hungry monster. Veran was being devoured alive as power filled his body, but the cost was too great. A warm feeling spread from his back as he was taken over by the mindless desire to destroy everything.

A gentle wave of light washed over the darkness, pushing it away from Veran"s body. The darkness trying to eat him alive was now fleeing, and Seika"s hand appeared on his back.

As Veran looked back, he saw Seika"s face looking at him with sympathy. Something was gravitating about the Seika that made everything want to return to its root, Veran included.

The darkness that was added into his heart stayed, but Veran wasn"t devoured in the process. Instead, his mind grew at ease, and it was then that he saw it. It was beside the lake when it happened, many days ago. 

His eyes were no longer his. They belonged to the Seika. Veran saw what happened that night clearly, and how the darkness stole something from the water. A cry for help and summoning of a disaster.