22 Rumors (4)

Shining violet eyes met my grey ones as she whispered to me, pulling me closer to her, our lips almost touching.

"You have some pretty lips, Voidwalker~. You didn't kiss someone else with those pretty lips, did you?"

Her eyes narrowed as she released a wave of oppressing mana, distorting the surrounding space. Although she still smiled, it seemed more like a threat than a welcoming smile.

"Did you?"

I furrowed my brows as she kept forcing herself on me, pressing me against a nearby wall in the hallway.

Acedia kept talking about 'never leaving her again', but I couldn't remember ever meeting her before, thus doubting that she was talking about me.

I guessed that some of her memories were projecting someone else onto me. We probably looked similar, which resulted in a sort of trigger for her obsession corrupting her.

'Have I triggered her abandonment issues?'

As she didn't mention anything about something like this before entering the Depths, I guessed it was the first time such a thing had happened.

Sighing, I grabbed her by the shoulders, using some force to push her away.

"You're too close."

"Not close enough."

Acedia used more force to bridge the distance between us as she glared at me from below, her two violet eyes glowing dangerously.

In her current state, she was more of a handicap than a help, so I considered knocking her out and just carrying her on my shoulder.

However, I didn't even have to do anything as she suddenly froze up.

Her smile was still unmoving, but her eyes widened.

As I looked into them, I could see that the emptiness inside of them was gone, and the usual sparkle returned in her eyes.

She then blinked twice before her eyes started moving around, looking at her shoulders.

Then, her face turned red as she slapped my hands away and turned around, burying her face in her hands.

"Oh, god. That's what they meant with a mutation of the curse."

She muttered, barely audible. Her voice was shaky, whispering the words to herself.

"It seems like you snapped out of it by yourself. How impressive."

"Yea."

She flashed me a weak smile.

"Insanities of the Depths usually don't pass through my mental barrier spell, but it seemed like it attacked a weak point that I wasn't aware of before.

She chuckled softly before raising her hands and putting a fist in front of her mouth, coughing weakly.

"Don't worry, though. It adapted pretty quickly."

Crossing my arms, I nodded in her direction.

"Is that so?"

I seemed right with the theory of me, triggering some memory of her.

However, as it wouldn't matter from now on, I decided not to ask her, although I had to admit that I was curious.

I, too, had some things that I would rather not talk about after all.

"If it won't be a problem anymore, then I won't bother asking any more questions about it."

Facing to the side, I looked into the never-ending hallway.

"Then we should hurry up. We already wasted too much time."

"Oh!" Acedia raised her hand, swiping her finger down. "Let me just do something really quick."

She then opened a dimensional storage and stuck her arm inside, pulling out multiple empty, transparent orbs.

"Is that an..."

Acedia nodded.

"Yes, it is."

Giving me a slight close-lipped smile, she glanced at me with crinkled eyes.

"As Raum mentioned that we'd enter a ruin, I prepared some empty orbs to absorb the Ether."

Raising her arm, she formed an ok-sign with her hand as she tilted her head to the side, flashing me a wide grin.

"It's not every day that you find a ruin, do you? They are very rare, after all."

I rolled my eyes, realizing why she brought those orbs with her.

"So, you brought those orbs with you?"

She nodded.

"I could sell them for quite a hefty sum."

I chuckled at her plan, amused by her idea.

Even though I entered ruins multiple times, I never once even considered bringing empty orbs with me to absorb the heightened Ether density of those ruins.

She was quite smart.

Acedia giggled before raising her head, looking into my eyes and flashing me a quick wink.

"A mage workshop is quite expensive. I always gotta chase the bag to pay for it."

***

***

"When are we theeeeeree?"

Complaining, Acedia threw her head back, asking for the 52nd time.

I sighed as I pinched my nose, irritated by her repeated questioning.

"Soon."

"This is the 52nd time you said we will be there soon! Why does this hallway have to be so goddamn long for no reason?!"

"It's in the Depths. What do you expect? Besides that, aren't you used to this already? This is not the first time you enter a ruin, is it?"

Acedia pressed her lips together, furrowing her eyebrows in annoyance.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm getting used to this uselessly long hallway anytime soon."

"In my defense, 'soon', was a measurement for my own speed if I went there alone."

"Huh?! Are you trying to say that I'm slowing you down?"

She put her hands on her hips as she raised an eyebrow.

"As a reminder. You were the one to refrain me from blinking all the way from here to the end of this damned hallway! Instead, you're forcing me -a mage-, to do physical work!"

"You shouldn't waste your mana so uselessly."

"What do you mean, wasting uselessly?"

Acedia crossed her arms as she paused.

I turned my head to her when I noticed that she had stopped walking, spotting a questioning expression on her face.

"I'm a mage. M-a-g-e. Wasting Mana is my specialty."

"I see."

Amused by her behavior, I decided to play along.

"If you wanna waste your mana so badly…how about a race, then?"

"Really?"

She leaped forward, using wind magic, landing right before me as she playfully spun around.

A newfound excitement shone in her eyes, washing away all the previously built-up exhaustion and irritation.

"Don't be too upset when I win, though, Loser."

"I have high hopes in your abilities, 'cutest magician girl'."

Her smile froze as her ears turned red, seemingly embarrassed by her nickname.

However, she didn't pay any attention as the surrounding mana began to distort, sucking her into nothingness.

"Catch up with me, chicken legs."

Those were the last words that she uttered before completely vanishing from my side.

Acedia used the spell 'blink'.

Blink was a Tier 3 Spell, which was a simple form of spatial magic, making it a very popular spell for mobility among mages.

Although that spell was quite effective, it consumed an enormous amount of mana, limiting its uses for a lower-tier mage.

However, as a mage breaks through the 8th tier, they gain the passive ability of high-speed mana regeneration, letting a high-tier mage use that spell consecutively multiple times while also raising the travel distance of that spell by a magnitude.

I chuckled, readying myself to sprint.

BOOM

"Your speed is unfair."

Acedia stated as she finally arrived at the large gate, touching it.

"Compared to you, I only used my physical abilities. What should be so unfair about that?"

Acedia raised her eyebrow in response, looking at me like an idiot.

"Yeah, there's nothing unfair about a person who literally destroys their surrounding by sprinting."

She sighed as she swiped the sweat from her forehead, giving me a wide grin.

"You should have used Voidrunner as a name instead of Voidwalker. Cause damn, that's if that was you walking, then I don't even want to know how it would look like if you started running."

I chuckled softly at her joke before brushing back my hair and tying it into a ponytail.

My face hardened as I turned to the gate, putting my hand on the gate.

"You know what happens when we pass this door, right?"

The metallic gate vibrated as I touched it with my finger, almost like it was calling for me to open it.

Its yellow color glimmered in the dark, crumbled castle hallway, contrasting its dull grey color. My eyes trailed down, looking at the golden edge of the gate -or, more importantly- what was beneath it.

Although it had already lost its color, a faint liquid could be seen, emitting an iron smell.

"It seems like it's a lost ruin."

Acedia grimaced as she noticed the faint liquid. The playfulness in her voice fully disappeared, and the look of an experienced veteran I saw when we first entered the ruin reappeared again.

I nodded in response.

"Probably."

Ruins in the depths came in different forms and shapes.

However, although they were all different, ruins could still be assigned to specific types.

Those being the trial ruin, the lost ruin, and the prison ruins.

Those different types were identifiable by the color of the gates, representing the amount of Ether that the place behind those gates possessed, ranging from green to yellow to red..

The trial ruin was a challenge where waves of enemies had to be fought. However, those enemies were usually weak, making that type of ruin the easiest one.

The only reason why such a place turned into ruin is because of the collective masses of monsters gathering in one place, thus also gathering an enormous amount of Ether in one place.

It was usually quick to finish, which made me prefer them the most, as it essentially was a good way to bow off some steam.

The lost ruins were a bit more special. These types of ruins took place in a place, most often an abandoned kingdom.

It is theorized that these ruins were manifestations of the wishes of deceased souls who strongly desired to become king and rule over a kingdom.

Even after death, their soul didn't vanish, thus being stuck in the Depths until the corruption of the soul takes place,

Combined with the ether, the corrupted soul gains influence over the Depths, influencing it in some way and fulfilling its wish, which is a kingdom.

However, as the corruption took place, the wish couldn't be fulfilled in its fullest form, thus being abandoned, only inhabited by the monsters of the Depths.

And lastly, the prison ruins.

The prison ruins were the type where multiple souls gathered together and sacrificed themselves, trying to seal a single monster away.

That seal, however, only lasts for a certain time. Thus, such portals appear again, bringing those beasts to the surface.

Although in the history of humanity, it only occurred once, its impact on the Overworld was immense.

"It's a yellow gate."

I stated the obvious fact as I turned my head to Acedia.

"It is dangerous to enter a lost ruin, you know?"

Acedia rolled her eyes, huffing in annoyance.

"Entering any type of ruin is dangerous."

She then forced some mana into her arms, slowly pushing the gate open, creating a loud creaking sound that echoed through the whole hallway.

"Don't worry, Voidwalker. I won't hold you back."

Turning her head to me, she gave me a reassuring smile.

"I'm the head of the mage tower, after all."

"Zenith."

"Huh?"

She furrowed her eyebrows, confused about why I suddenly said my first name.

"You can just call me Zenith. Voidwalker is too long of a name."

Acedia's eyes widened for a split moment, before closing themselves in a smile.

"Yes. It certainly is."