Chapter 245 - The Second Verse (1/2)

The room itself was simply a back office used to entertain important guests. There wasn't anything like a s.e.x room or some such in the back of restaurant because despite the obvious s.e.x.u.a.l overtones of the place, it was simply a legal business... with a bit of flare.

Laz stood there and stared at Malene as she stared back at him. Neither of them spoke at first causing the silence to almost be become overwhelming.

Laz didn't want to speak first since he had no idea what to say.

Malene didn't want to speak first because there were so many emotions going on in her head that she just didn't know what she should feel.

After a while though, Laz finally broke the silence first.

”I didn't know you would be here.”

”Is that a problem?”

”No... but... I don't know...”

”I get that. I get that you don't know a lot, do you?”

”Uh...” What Laz didn't know was that sometimes, the hardest wall to break through when a woman was mad at you and refused to speak, was just getting her to start talking. As soon as you did that, you would definitely hear everything that was on her mind, assuming she cared about you. If she didn't care, she wouldn't bother speaking so much.

”How could you know? It's not like you ever bothered to find us? Or ask about us? Or even figure out what was happening with us? Did you ever once even think about me? Did you even think about how frightened and scared I was after you disappeared for a whole year? Did you ever once stop long enough to understand that the people you left behind never stopped caring about you? Or worrying about you? DID YOU?

Laz wanted to argue that technically speaking, it was her and Kennedy that left him first. On top of that, he noticed that while she started off talking about the group, she ended up focusing on her own feelings? Maybe that was a good thing?

On top of that, he noticed that her power truly was strong and bountiful and it revealed itself as she became more emotional. In fact, if she wasn't already in the late stage foundation realm, she would be soon. The only reason he understood this point was because despite her having more energy than him, his was still much more compressed than hers.

So although there were tons of things he wanted to say, Laz wisely chose to keep his mouth shut.

”You think I'm going to far? You wonder why I am blaming you? When I gave you everything, EVERYTHING? AND YOU JUST UP AND DISAPPEAR? AND EVEN WHEN YOU GET BACK, YOU JUST KEEP MOVING ON?!?!”

Laz was sort of surprised that she had kind of guessed his thoughts, but he didn't blame her for them. He had accused himself of that very same thing more than once. But it always came back to a very simple point for him, he could barely take care of himself. How could he take care of others?

He was nowhere near strong enough.

And that was why he never went looking for her, hoping that being away from him would keep her safe.

One that he watched die right in front of him.

He didn't want to bring danger to anyone else because of himself.

-Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.-

A thought appeared in Laz's head, one that seemed to clear the fog. It hit him like a freight train when he wasn't expecting it and almost caused him to fall over. Laz swayed on his feet and almost fell, falling against the desk to keep himself upright.

”What the hell is that?” Laz said out loud as his eyesight suddenly went dark. Once he regained his vision, he noticed he was looking at the foundation base within his core. The previous words had lit up thanks to something that Tyr had imparted on him. Even now, Laz had no idea how that had happened. But now, with Malene yelling at him, another line or runes had lit up.

-Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.-

Laz couldn't help but think about how these words made sense to him. Life... really is simple. Being happy, doing the things you enjoy, spending time with loved ones. All things that we don't really put much thought into and sometimes push aside for reasons of work or responsibilities. Or better yet, why do we let people who mean so much walk away? Trying to keep them safe? That's their choice to make... so why not let them make it.

Malene, seeing Laz almost fall, rushed to his side in an instant and placed her hand on his forward, sending her immense spiritual sense into his body to see if she could locate the problem. She never once thought he might be faking it.

Just when her sense was about to reach his core, she felt a mind boggling amount of fear hit her as she backed out quick.

Even though Laz tried not to, he started to greedily suck in energy from all of those places, causing everyone to feel like they were being drained.

Malene suddenly figured out what was going on and reacted. Within her small purse, she pulled out a massive chunk of rock, one far larger than should have been able to fit in the purse and shoved it into Laz's stomach, causing his hands to grab on to it.

The large, watermelon size chunk of rock suddenly burst to life, glowing with a bright orange color that drowned out the soft white of the overhead lamps in the office.

Feeling this thing start to act like a battery, Laz focused his attention on the rock, causing all of his energy drawing to come from that and nowhere else.

Freya, who had rushed to the office and was about the bust the door down, slowly backed away. Suddenly, a pictured formed in her mind, giving her instructions. After a moment, she bowed in the direction of the crystal coffin and called for the four sisters.

”Stay here and make sure no one gets close,” she instructed. Just as soon as they nodded their heads yes, a milky white barrier sprang to life behind them, blocking the office door.

This was the work of the sleeping goddess yet again.

The black flame inside of Laz, after it's inital explosion, started growing at a slower pace, constantly fed more and more energy from the strange rock that he had been given. The flame went from being the size of a matchstick to suddenly being candle sized. After that, it keep growing larger and larger, doubling in size again and again as more and more energy was drained from the rock.

Finally, when the flame reached the size of a large campfire, it stopped growing. Laz opened his eyes, causing the red glow to explode out and hit Malene. Luckily, her spiritual strength was immense and Laz meant no harm so she was able to resist with only a minor effort.

Feeling like he had been reborn, Laz couldn't help but want to jump and shout at the top of his lungs. It took a lot to resist doing so.