Chapter 49: Rusted Roots 3

The walls were black, and ash was everywhere. Materials lied about as countless rusty tools hanged from the walls.

Skeletons of people could be found sitting with their backs behind the wall, the little clothing that they have already turned to dust.

The darkness was chilling, hiding the monstrosities within, the air was stale and cold, and yet a stinging sensation crawled through their bones.

Rueben and Gwynne looked towards the darkness as they explored the place. Before long, they found themselves in a place where tons of things were left on the ground.

The two looked at each other, seeing the glint in their eyes before nodding in undersanding. They checked each thing that looked like something they could use and placed it on the cart.

Rueben came across a rusty dagger, studied it for a while before nodding his head, and threw it to the cart.

Gwynne, on the other hand, was drawing the machineries found inside, even studying them. She even took some smaller ones to study it later.

The whole place seemed deserted, cobwebs already filled the whole ceiling, dust already covered the whole place, each place 3 inches thick.

The two explored more and more, clearing the dust while they searched the entire place. Before long, Rueben found a gauntlet and a belt of some kind. He studied it for a moment before putting it down.

Rueben hesitantly looked at the gauntlet, thinking if he should put this thing in the cart or not because just a piece of armour was useless to him.

As with the belt, just when he decided to leave them when Gwynne looked over his shoulder and softly patted his back, "Bring them with you." she softly said.

It took them a while to ransack the whole place and take the useful ones.

They found a few armor pieces, some rusty weapons that only needs to be sharpened again with a whetstone, some books and notes, a whole lot of blueprints and other technologies, and an emblem with an "Eye" symbol in the middle.

Rueben looked back towards the darkness before turning around, leaving the tree. He then walked towards the cart and started toiling away while Gwynne studied the materials that she took from it.

"Where to next?"

Gwynne looked towards the map and tapped her pen. "Here." She smiled and said, "To the north."

On the map, the name of the location she tapped was "Entrance?"

***

The two were resting by the side of the road, Gwynne was studying the materials she found, her back on the cart.

Rueben, on the other hand, held a book in his hand. He was given this book by Gwynne, who told him that he should at least try to read books.

He did try to refuse, after all, they were pressed for time and he didn't want Sara to wait for him for too long but Gwynne managed to convince him that rushing would only bring disastrous results.

After hearing that, he calmed down and sat beside the campfire. They rested for a while before continuing to their journey soon.

Rueben looked at the cover of the book, a leather skin for a cover, its colour already turned brown from how old it was.

The book was not too thick, nor was it too thin.

He turned his attention to the title of the book,

"To you, 800 years later."

He said aloud, then turned the cover to the first page.

"To you, 800 years later.

Written by Michael Morningstar"

"Have you wondered what would happen if the world is approaching destruction? What does the world look like when such an event happens?"

How do the people cope with such a thing? How do they react? And whatnot.

Though it may seem farfetched, i may be able to make you understand, and by the end of the book, i hope that this will help you.

I will tell the story of a boy who lost his parents and decided to destroy the world. The boy was young when he lost his parents, and he witnessed their murder happening in front of his very little eyes. The suspect ran and rushed to escape as the officers followed after him. The boy filled with vengeance, ran after the murderer and killed him by using tricks and furniture. Filled with disgust and hatred towards himself and the murderer, he hid away to the darkness.

The boy then went on a journey far, far away from his home. So far that he had grown into a fine young man in the dumps. The young boy ate trash to survive, begged to live, and fought against other children to quench and satisfy his hunger. In the dumps, it was chaos and cold, everywhere laid bodies of dead children who could not endure the trials of life.

The young boy was suddenly caught by a man while he tried to pickpocket them. He was beaten and beaten in the back of the alleyways until his skin turned blue and purple, yet the boy did not cry nor scream in pain. Not even a little grunt escaped the boy's lips.

Then, a catastrophe happened right then and there. A large bear suddenly came and bit the arm of the men that beat him. The men ran in fear and left quickly as blood dripped from their wounds. The young boy looked at the bear, saliva dripping from its hungry mouth. The boy softly closed his eyes and accepted his death when a gunshot sounded out from behind him.

There, stood a woman, the bear was scared by the gunshot and ran to the opposite direction to avoid the woman while she came to check on the young boy. The young boy was barely breathing, and she swiftly took the young boy to a hospital nearby, forgetting the enraged and hungry bear that she had let go to save the boy.

Rueben turned to another page and propped his hand to his cheek.

The woman left him in the hospital under the nurses' care and went to hunt down the bear. Then she came back to the hospital, bloodied, and in her arms was the head of the bear. She strode towards the room where the young boy was and found that he was gone, out of plain sight.

She asked the nurses and found out that the director in charge of the hospital kicked the young boy out and that they could do nothing but follow his orders. This made the woman mad at how twisted the moral of the director had become but turned her attention to look for the boy.

After searching for few hours, she found the boy hidden in a make shift shed by the lake inside the park. She approached the boy and took him in as her disciple. Years slowly passed as she passed down everything she had learned and mastered to him, as she watched him grow, she began to worry as she was gettng older while the young boy was heading to his peak.

"AHHHH!!"

His reading was cut short when he heard Gwynne scream in pain, he hurriedly turned to look at her while holding the dagger in his hands. Then he found her clutching her hand in pain.

Then he looked around the vicinity and found nothing amiss. Then his eyes caught something.

Gwynne was wearing the gauntlet that Rueben found a while ago and from the gauntlet, a knife was protruding from the edges.

He went to her side and saw that her ring finger was cleanly cut off, he grabbed her cheeks and forced her to face him, her eyes had tears flowing down as her face scrunched with pain.

"Ouwhh.... Rueben, help meee..."

Rueben's eyes narrowed into a slit as he heard Gwynne's pathetic attempt to get help before softly sighing and grabbed the gauntlet, he swiftly took off the gauntlet from her, then he rummaged the cart for some Ichor Siphon and softly stabbed it through her right leg.

Then he watched as Gwynne's fingers rejuvenate into a full finger. The flesh slowly moves up and countless worms like flesh formed the bones, muscles, tissues and skin of the finger.

After a moment, a brand new finger was created yet Gwynne was still crying from the pain.

His eyes rolled to the side, and waited for her to finish crying.

It took her a moment to gather herself back before grabbing the gauntlet from Rueben's hands. She then gave it a slap while mutttering underneath her breath, "Stupid gauntlet...."

"How did you cut yourself? Or did you finally go insane and hurt yourself for no reason?" Rueben asked as Gwynne tinkered the gauntlet.

She softly shook her head to the side and held the gauntlet infront of her, she then wore it carefully before clenching her hand.

Shing!

A knife popped up from below the gauntlet in an instant, Rueben looked at the gauntlet in surprise as Gwynne grinned.

"Wonderful, isn't it?" She opened her palm and the knife went back to the gauntlet.

"What is it?"

"Probably a weapon? Its more inclined for stealthy kills than other weapons though."

She closed her hand once again and the knife protruded out immediately. She studied it for a moment before opening her hand and grabbed the knife.

"Ohh.. You can change the way you hold it, this thing is versatile. You can hold it like a knife, or even an ice pick or something." She rotated the knife for a few times before hiding the knife back to the gauntlet by opening her hand.

She took off the gauntlet and studied the machine underneath.

"The gauntlet is made of leather... High quality too, mixed in with some sort of metal armor, probably for protection or something? I don't know how this thing works but the person who made this must be a genius!" She smiled and studied it for a moment before giving it to Rueben.

Rueben took the gauntlet and wore it on his left hand.

He opened his palm, and the knife popped out.

Gwynne grinned, "The machine thingy underneath might be where things are working, without a trigger it won't work and we cannot see a physical trigger. So that must mean that for it to work, it must be detecting the movements of our muscles and is working perfectly fine for some reason."

Rueben looked at the new weapon, and softly nodded his head.

He closed his hand, opening them, he swing the gauntlet around before shaking his head, "This thing is used for assasination or quick kills or maybe a hidden weapon that you always have whenever or wherever."

She nodded her head, "Of course. So, are you going to use it?"

Rueben gave it a thought, before nodding his head. Gwynne smiled and took it off his hand and took out a whetstone to sharpen and take out the rust from the gauntlet.

"Go on, continue reading, i'll disturb you once i find something interesting."

She then hummed a tune as she started working, Rueben looked at her for a moment, before turning his head to look at the book on the ground and pursed his lips.

He went to the book and read it slowly. He continued where he left off. He licked his thumb and turned the page.

The two slowly bonded over the years as the woman taught the young man everything she knows. The young man went on a journey just like her, to save people from despair and bring light.

The woman worried for him as the years passed by.

The boy suddenly returned with his face covered with a mask. His arm nowhere to be seen as blood spilled from his torso, in shock and in disbelief, she went towards him in a hurry and urged him inside. She mended her wounds and was about to call for a doctor when she was stopped by the young man.

The young man whispers in her ear that he was currently being hunted down by his enemies, calling a doctor would only endanger them. The woman looked at his resolute eyes under the mask and softly nodded her head, she continued to tend the young man's wounds.

After a few months went by, as the two stayed together once more, the woman found him more and more distant as the days go by. The once close relationship suddenly had a large abyss that she could not cross.

She had seen his face when he took off his mask sometimes, both of the skin on his cheeks were gone, revealing the muscle, tissues and teeth. One of his eyes was a dark hole and his nose only leaing behind the holes where his nostrils were located.

His body filled with scars, mechanical objects that help him support his rapidly decaying and exhausted body. She wondered what he had gone through to have a body like that.

After a few more months, the young man decided that his injuries were healed enough, and left, leaving the woman with worry. Before he left, he gave her a token and told her that if people with gold armour came to her doorsteps, show them this token. They will leave her alone in his name.

The woman kept the token and watched as he left while the moon still hung in the night sky. Years went by, her hair slowly turned grey, her skin wrinkled and her body weak. That was when people donned with golden armour came to her home. She remembered what the young man had told her before he left and showed them the token.

They looked at the woman in surprise, before laughing. One of the men then took the token from her hand and threw it to the ground, he said that the token no longer had anything to do with them. Then he took out a knife and stabbed her in the stomach before he ordered the men behind him to destroy the house.

The woman lay flat on the floor as blood spilled beneath her, she looked at her wrinkled hand as tears fell down from her eyes before rage bursts into existence.

Her white hair slowly turned to their original color as her complexion became rosy and her skin became smooth and jade like. She then turned towards the men as they watched her float up in the air.

Soon, everyone in that general area died.

The young man quickly heard what happened and swiftly ran back to the house. Upon arriving however, what he saw was the entire town decimated and burned to crisp and the house, his home, was destroyed. No dead bodies were found as if everyone turned to ash, the young man kneeled infront of the house and vowed vengeance upon the person who did this.

So when he came face to face at the murderer, his face crumpled in shock and disbelief as his will was shook once more. The woman, his mentor, his teacher, and his mother, no longer.

Her face crumpled into a self deprecating smile as she held the hilt of the sword she had given him. That same sword now plunged in her chest as she watched her disciple, her son, breaking down, almost going mad. Just as she was about to leave this world, her hands moved and suddenly, she found her hands plunging into the heart of the young man. His hands guiding hers over to his chest.

The two met their end together, their lives gone in a blink of an eye and the suffering they endured left them to find other targets.

The man went to Hell and suffered for his sins of planning and trying to destroy the world 66 times while the woman was sent to have her soul destroyed because of her crimes of loving a mortal.

The story of two people who suffered, betrayed and killed, of the Witch and her Disciple, has come to its epilogue.

Beware of the Witch, this is my message.

Sincerely to you, 800 years from now."

Rueben closed the book and pursed his lips, before he stood up and stretched his back. He then threw the book to the cart and turned to look at Gwynne, who was sleeping near the torch, he gently steered the edge of the blanket away frm the torch and sat down to warm up.

Gwynne opened her eyes, looked at him, before sitting up and adjusted her position. She softly lied her head down on his lap and tucked herself in.

Rueben looked at her, his eyes narrowed into a slit, he was about to push her away but decided not to when he saw some tools and weapons neatly placed in a row. They were all clean, sharp without rust.

He thought of giving her some privilege to rest her head on his lap because she worked hard for him.

Rueben softly grabbed a dagger and looked at it as the darkness closed in on them, the torch the only source of warmth and light. 'Witch...'

He thoughtfully said the word inside his mind, his eyes narrowed and he let out a small chuckle. "Its just a book."

No need to overthink it.

He softly closed his eyes and emptied his mind.

Because overthinking will only become a knife for others to use.

Then he opened them, his eyes gaining clarity yet still bloodthirsty. He looked towards the darkness and saw a black pale figure, he let out a smirk and softly muttered, "I'll get you sooner or later."