111 The Weight of His Karma (1/2)

Having made up his mind about what he needed to do, Reed had sent out a summons to a select few — the people he trusted the most and those who needed to hear the truth.

Velvund. Haydn. Violett. Sebastian. Astor. Horatio. Ophelia.

They had been instructed by Reed to gather in the abandoned ruins of an Ancient Mulian city in the North that had been lost to time.

It'd been one of the many cities that had fallen during the Great Barrier War in defense of the continent thousands of years ago. Soon after, what little remained of the former metropolis had been buried under an eternal layer of ice and snow for millennia... until now.

Reed felt his stomach churn in dread when he noticed their arrival and took a long, deep breath.

You have to tell them. You have to do it. You owe it to them. Do it.

Lu'um tightly grasped one of Reed's hands and said, ”You can do it, Ka'an. I will be beside you the entire time. …Come, let us go and greet them.”

When Reed saw Astor, Horatio, and Ophelia he nearly lost the will to step forward.

An eye-patch covered Horatio's right eye along with a jagged scar on his face. Astor had fared better in the sense that he had only suffered a broken arm and shoulder. Ophelia seemed the least hurt of the trio, even though her arms had been completely covered in gauze.

From what he could tell, the blessing he had given them had worked as intended. Reed had purposely cast it for this purpose — to ensure that the contenders who survived the battle would not end up crippled.

Conquerors — if they reacted fast enough — could purify and heal the toxic wounds they had sustained in battle. Contenders could do it as well… but not at the same speed as their superiors. A wound that a conqueror could heal in seconds would take minutes for a contender to heal themselves with their abilities.

During a real fight against the Infestation — against the endless hordes of Infested — wounds that like that were common. That was why contenders were usually forbidden from participating in large-scale operations.

In fast-paced and extremely chaotic fights such as those — like the battle at the Reef — contenders were all but guaranteed to a painful death.

Were it not for Reed's blessing, nearly every contender that survived the fight would have likely died not too long after from their wounds or poisoning. He knew that the continent would not have been able to afford losing its future pillars of support, so he had intervened for the sake of the future...

When Reed and Lu'um dispelled the obfuscating veil they had cast upon themselves, their guests noticed the Anima ripple it had created in the air.

They turned toward the disturbance and finally saw the one who had summoned all of them here. He had a weary, solemn expression on his face as he walked toward them in tow with his ever-enigmatic partner.

It seems that a couple of fellas have followed them here, huh. They seem like bodyguards from the look of their uniforms. Why bring them here?

Reed snapped his fingers and then… everyone vanished in an instant.

The hidden squad of conquerors hurriedly rushed onto the scene, frightened by what they'd just seen happen. It'd happened so fast.

Needless to say, everyone present had been stunned speechless. Never before had they seen, nor heard of someone performing such a feat before. They'd been dragged into the void with a single snap of his fingers.

His figure seemed to blend in well with the empty void, as if he'd become a part of it. He suddenly seemed much more distant to them all.

”There's no need to worry about the negative effects of the void. I have anchored your souls to mine. You will not fade away so as long as you remain under my protection,” said Reed.

”It'd be rude of me not to offer all of you a proper place to relax. Come with me...”

As soon as he finished his sentence, the void trembled and a colossal sphere of light descended onto the empty landscape.

”Into the Reef.”

A secluded courtyard filled with soft, golden light and old, blossoming trees awaited them. It was the place of peace where the departed had been laid to rest. They would forever be allowed to sleep here, undisturbed until the end of time...

At first, Reed found it hard to speak. He knew what he needed to say, but the words wouldn't come out of his mouth, so he started from the beginning and recounted his way from there.

The fight that he and Lu'um had gotten themselves into against the Holy Church.

Little by little, he continued regaling what he had gotten himself into, what he had done.

Their desperate struggle against the Grand Swarm to fix what they had caused and… the consequences of their actions. Lei-den.