The Second Blessing (1)

Gradually Hex started to become aware of his surroundings.

Everything was hazy and his mind buzzed. His heartbeat was normal but his body was hot.

He remembered that feeling. It was the heat he felt spread over his body whenever there was a lot of energy coursing through it.

'D-did I have a breakthrough?'

The moment he wondered about the abundant energy he felt, his mind started to replay the events that had transpired in the cave and the chasm.

Memories of Vitor's lifeless eyes looking at him, made him twitch involuntarily.

Aran's maniacal laugh made him grunt in anger.

'I will kill him,' echoed through his mind.

Other visions flooded his mind. The sight of more than ten people caged and used for sick experiments only served to fuel his anger even more.

The last vivid memory he had was that of Gorge being on the verge of dying. It made him shudder.

The feeling of helplessness and weakness sent a jolt through his body. He jerked and wanted to roar.

His body moved. He screamed.

"STOP!"

The vision shattered.

His eyes were wide open.

Seeing the softly burning fire under a little pot, startled him. It disoriented him.

"Wha…"

As he looked around his eyes met Hestia's gaze. She was sitting close to fire, looking worried and amused at the same time.

"You, okay?" She asked finally, once she saw he had calmed down.

"What happened?" He asked. His memories after seeing his opponent point his sword at Gorge was fuzzy. It seemed shrouded by some sort of mist.

"I should be the one asking that," Hestia replied with a pout. "We just found you laying around, in the middle of a collapsing chasm."

"What about the other boy? And the rooms with caged people?" Hex asked hurriedly. 'Did Gorge and all those people die?'

"If you are asking about the young boy slumped on the side, we got him. Also the girl. But we didn't even have time to peek inside…"

Hestia shifted uncomfortably as her voice fell. She hadn't even considered other people. Her sole focus had been on saving Hex.

Hex's face fell. Yes, he felt glad that Gorge was saved. He was happy to be alive himself. He didn't want to think about it, but he had been very close to dying. And that too at his own hands.

But the sight of the other people inside the cages appeared once more in front of him. Their lifeless and helpless appearances pained him.

'If not for the encounter with that bear I might have been one of them.'

Somehow that thought made his already torn feelings even worse. Was he lucky to have faith different from others?

"You can't save everyone."

Hex's worries were interrupted by a calm voice. Adgar had at some point entered and gotten close to him.

Seeing the man's stoich face, he involuntarily thought about the baron. This time he didn't think about the injustices done by him, but about the story Sir Ivrain had told about the destroyed city.

Had the baron also felt helplessness and anger at the sight of thousands of people dying without being able to save them all?

"You did what you could. That's all we can do," Adgar patted his shoulder and sat opposite him. He opened the lid of the pot and stirred.

Grumble.

A sweet aroma drifted over, causing Hex's stomach to grumble. Only then did he realize he hadn't eaten for a while.

"Haha, see? You are still alive. You still have a chance to save more people," Hestia said as she picked a small bowl, which Adgar filled with the soup.

"Eat boy. You helped save two people," Hestia gave him the warm bowl with an encouraging smile.

Hex took the bowl and looked at Hestia a bit confused. Only now did he register that she had mentioned a girl and just now she said two people.

"What girl? Wasn't there another male?" He asked in confusion. He couldn't remember a second person, aside from his opponent.

"The only other male there, beside you and the boy you saved, was a dead person. You smashed his head open like a melon."

Hestia did a thumbs up as if she was proud of him bashing another human open.

"I killed him?" It was a part of the memory he still couldn't remember clearly.

"And the girl is someone you know," Hestia continued. She pointed at the other end of the cave they were in. He could see the outline of two people laying on the floor.

He slurped the soup, emptying the bowl and walked towards the corner.

He recognized Gorge immediately. The boy seemed asleep. The Knights had put a fur cloak on him.

"Oron is gone to call for help. They will be transported to the castle where Lira will check upon them."

Hex nodded and turned to the other side. He gasped as he saw the girl with light brown hair.

"Alice?!"

Memories of their first Mission flitted through his mind. He heard she ran away as people such as Vin, Greg, Allie and others were killed by the Disaster stage Heartless.

"Yeah. I think she was captured by the Dawnbringers. Maybe part of some experiment?"

Hex thought about the cavern and what he had seen. But he hadn't seen Alice in the second chamber with the other people.

'She should have been in the third one,' he concluded but it made it all the more confusing. 'How did she get out? Was she the one being carried by that man? But why?'

He had many questions raging inside him. He took a seat around the fire and started to tell the Knights everything.

He saw the anger on their faces when he told them about Aran's betrayal. They didn't blame him for the death of Vitor. On the contrary, according to them, it was probably all caused by Aran.

But they let him continue. They would act against Aran in time.

Hex explained the things he saw in the cavern. The experiments, the humans and about his opponent. He also disclosed his confusion regarding Alice.

The Knights seemed also confused about why she was treated different than the others.

"I will ask Lira to give her a thorough check," Hestia said. "Hopefully we can use the results on her to understand more about them."

Hex continued with things about the booklet and more about the caged humans.

Only things that were connected to the secrets about his heart, did he keep secret. He vaguely described his battle, but didn't go into depth.

Luckily, the Knights weren't too interested in that part. They focused more on the experiments.

"I think we can safely assume that the weird behavior of the beasts and the appearance of so many Fiend and even Disaster stages are caused by that group," Adgar concluded with certainty.

"They should have been doing so for a while now, even before our Mission."

When Hex heard Hestia say that his mind went to that day before the ritual. Never had he seen a Demon stage bear act in such a mindless and berserk manner.

'Don't tell me they were already actively doing experiments then? Was the bear on one of their first trials?'

Hex subconsciously glanced at the glyph on the back of his right hand. But he was shocked to see two triangles.

'Did I make a breakthrough when I inserted those crystals directly into my heart?'

He quickly grasped the cause behind his second Blessing. It didn't happen as he had wished, in the temple using the monolith, but he was happy it did work out.

In less than a month, after becoming a Blessed, he had become a Squire with two Blessings!