Ch07. Goodbyes and bitter welcomings

Ruun enjoyed killing his brother time and time again, after everything he made Ruun go through.

But he felt slightly apprehensive towards the lack of answers from Vartas.

It just wasn't natural for someone to not bend or break before Ruun's absolute power.

Also, it wasn't everyone who held the power over life and death in the world.

Kora taught Ruun about every single deity she knew, in exchange for Ruun accepting her as his disciple.

Which meant that he knew mostly everything the gods and goddesses that ruled the cosmos.

The only problem was that...

All of their powers came from the mana.

"But what I felt there, Kora, was dark, ancient, even." Ruun said, as they landed on a deserted road, far away from the kingdom.

"So you didn't want to scare the girls?"

Ruun scoffed.

"Do you really think they won't be able to handle themselves, once they find out that my slave's mark extend to them as well?"

"I still don't understand why you favor them so much, master."

There are, still, a few things that you don't know about me, Kora." Ruun patted her head. "And one of them is, that I don't 'favor' people here. I use them at what they do best, and I designed Theresa to rule."

"You... What?" Kora's eyes shook, and her jaw dropped.

"You heard me, kid."

And as they walked, Ruun explained to her.

"I was granted one wish, as I was resurrected. And I couldn't change the whole world, but I could rewrite reality for one person."

"And why did you rewrite 'her' reality, master?" Kora looked more and more confused.

"Because, despite how rough her first life was, she never mistreated me. And even though she went through hell for how she helped me a few times, she kept doing it. Because it was the right thing to do. So, since I wanted to change things with my new powers, I rewrote her story, and made her as the king's daughter, hoping that if she became queen, she would help me make the realm a better place."

Kora scratched her chin, speechless.

And as they walked, in silence, they finally arrived at the entrance of an old village.

The wooden gate looked like it could use some fix, and the village itself felt like it had been ransacked.

The whole place felt like a ghost town.

"Hum... What exactly are we doing here, master?"

"This is the village of Kinnar, and if my senses are not mistaking me, here we'll find the only person with the answer to how we can handle all of this, without waging a full-scale war over the realm, and if not, the world."

But before Ruun took one more step, Kora stopped him, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt.

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND, MASTER!"

When Ruun looked at her, she had tears in her eyes.

Ruun raised his brow, and gently put Kora's hands off of his collar.

"What don't you understand, kid?"

"I mean... They did all those awful things to you, and yet you're still trying to save them... Why?"

Ruun broke out in laughter, after Kora had spoken her mind.

"It's not like that, my little disciple..."

"What you understand not, is that Ruun, something else is. He tries to save the people not, but the people, part of the world are. Consequently, if saving the world he loves is what he wants, then, irrevocably save the people in it he will."

The voice appeared out of nowhere, right behind them.

It sounded like an old man with a frog on his throat.

Ruun and Kora turned to face the owner of the voice, and were greeted by a hunchback with no more than half Ruun's height.

He wore glasses, had a bald head, and a beard that reached to his knees.

"So you're still alive, old man..." Ruun greeted him with a snort.

"Alive and well, young Ruun A'Sahr, ruler of mortals and inclement owner of the Heart of the Abyss. Or ruler of the dragons, should I add?"

"Sharp as ever." Ruun smirked at the old man. "So you already know why we're here."

The old man looked at Ruun and approached him.

After a few, silent seconds, he began floating, until he reached Ruun's eye level.

"Whatever you need to do, just do it quick, old man Gwessar. I'm in a hurry."

"In a hurry always are you, but if patient you be not, answers will come not." The old man said, touching Ruun's forehead.

The old man's eyes glowed in a golden light, and as several more seconds passed, Ruun yawned, bored, tucking his hands to his pockets, while Kora watched as it happened, her eyes wide in awe.

When it was over, the old man, Gwessar, fell on his butt to the ground, and got up, scratching it.

"Boy, oh boy..."

"what's that, old man?" Ruun asked, but soon raised his eyebrows, feeling a different vibration from him. "Where's Gwessar, old man?"

"I'm sorry, kid, but Gwessar's last vision was yours, and now, the last of the gods is gone from this world..."

The old man began breathing heavily.

"And what were his last words to you?"

The old man looked at him, his breathing getting heavier by the second.

"It weren't... Words..."

Ruun waited as the old, tired and dying man turned around.

And when he did, he reached for the air with one hand. Then, he split the air in front of him, opening a rift that resembled a portal, a gate, filled with light.

"That's the answer..." The old man said, falling to the ground, his life, leaving his body little by little. "Although I fear for your past, present, and future, oh, sweet boy..."

Ruun decided not to rebuke the old man, since it wasn't the right thing to do to a person who had spent his entire life, hosting a god of prophecies.

So he just took Kora's hand, and as he entered the rift, with Kora following him, he said.

"I hope your faith in me isn't misplaced, old man. And you too, Gwessar. Rest in peace, at least while my job isn't done."

And they crossed the threshold of reality.

To find themselves in Ruun's castle, with the Great Constellation glaring at them.