171 Alone In The Swamps (1)

Arnold stepped out of the portal thinking, how quickly sometimes love can be turned to hate. How easy it is to let the negative emotions swallow you and pour acid into your soul. How easy it was to give in to hatred.

He thought about how he fought for the good memories, fought against an entire guild just because they dared to lay a finger on his sister. How he fought to keep himself empathic even as every terrible thing he had predicted came true. All his struggles and pain came back to hit him in the face. He kept thinking about the reasons to be kind to Nicole or anyone in that regard, but this time he couldn't find any, he felt hurt in a way he had never been hurt before, not even a Wyvern's attack hurt as close as Nicole's words did to him.

All this negativity bothered him in a way nothing ever had, 'I need to calm myself down.'