- Puzzles Make a Bloody Picture (Epilogue)

The skill went off only minutes later, Lia suddenly - like the rest of her companions - found the ability to move again. In fact, the effects wearing off were so sudden that many of her friends, in their effort to get free of the effects, nearly threw themselves to the ground when their speed returned.

Immediately after the blood in her lungs began rushing, Lia ran to Kal, whose eyes still lingered on the spot where Kara had once stood, the dust still settling from where Lia watched as she turned tail and ran.

Kal didn't turn to face her, and she knew he was deep in thought. Chase her? Or stay?

"A difficult decision I must say."

Lia said, joking to herself.

"Be a Hunter and give chase, or be the protector and defend your space."

At this, Kal turned to her, a small bit of surprise lingered in his eyes, before it quickly disappeared.

In his hand, he produced a dagger, the very same curved dagger the Shinobi had used before his death. Its hilt was rough with leather from years of worn use, while the steel was as sharp as if it was brand new. No - better than new.

"It is done."

Kal spoke softly, one of the few words he had ever spoken throughout the entire bout between her and Kara.

"I can see that."

Lia, for a moment, stood staring at the dagger in his hands, before she instinctively, without thinking too deeply on the matter, hugged Kal tightly. The action seemed to have caught him off guard, as Kal didn't move for several seconds, his arms suspended in mid air.

Lia could almost picture the face Kal must have behind his mask. But soon, that feeling of wonder and anxiety disappeared from her, as she felt two large and round hands wrap around her.

After about a minute of hugging, Lia broke away to find a stoic faced Kal watching her.

'He's trying to pretend it didn't happen.'

She smiled, finding it somewhat funny that Kal was trying hard to keep his composure.

But soon her face grew serious, losing all the comfort she had kept within it, as she laid eyes once again on the space Kara had once stood.

"Will you go after her?"

Lia asked this as if she wasn't quite sure if they should. The battle was over, and now that Kara was gone, to who knows where, they were safe. The Grockoils had long since vanished, called away by the true unknown owners, Lia had no doubt.

What would follow the day after? The week after? The month? The year?

She didn't know. But she knew something.

"Gods I'm tired. Don't know about you Kal, seeing as you are someone with an unholy amount of stamina and speed, but I'm going to go to sleep."

Saying that, she raised her hands in defense and walked off, leaving the rubble behind. Kal, taking one last glance at the spot Kara once stood, turned to follow.

One thought lingering in his mind.

'It's all yours now.'

***

Kara ran through the woods, brush and branches full of leaves slapping against her face, arms, legs and so on.

She didn't stop. She didn't need a reason to. For more than half the trek of her journey deep into the forest, every snap of the branch, rushing off the grass or leaves underfoot - her own foot even - made her pick up the pace even quicker.

Finally, Kara came to stop in a small clearing, clearly out of breath as she placed her hands on her knees and breathed deeply.

In. Out. In. Out.

Her breath was raspy, unclear, and more than anything, sounded difficult. And it was.

The loss of a summons to a summoner may not be as deadly as what the summons had to endure, but the backlash from having the magical tether from the Ancestral world and the Eternal world severed would be great. It was no pin prick.

"Ha…ha…Hagh! Mark my words Lia! When I get done with you I'll -"

Kara, attempting to vent her frustrations, raised her head upwards to yell out to the stars, but instead, found two pale blue eyes staring back at her, cutting her off.

Immediately Kara was afraid this was Kal, having tracked her through the dense forest wood and brush. However, when she took a moment to make out the features of the figure standing just at the edge of the clearing, watching her, she found the two blue eyes to belong to a small boy, no more than a young teen.

"Who…ha….who are you?"

The teen said nothing, and it was then that Kara took notice of a large goat horn around his waist, attached to his belt. At first it seemed familiar, and then she knew from where.

It was the very same style of horn Ren and his brothers had used to send the Grockoils on their rampage. They had brought it back boasting about their control over the beasts, though it only worked once.

Instantly, Kara became more on guard against the young teen, but stopped when she began noticing something else about him. Something eerie.

High cheekbones. Messy blackish-brown hair. Pale blue eyes, and a jaw line that she knew all too well.

For she had the same pale blue eyes and high cheekbones that he did, the rest inherited by his father.

"Ryan?"

The teen didn't say much of anything for several minutes, before finally speaking.

"It's Ryzler now. Mom."

Kara scoffed, finding the timing of such a situation so…ironic.

"Ryzler? I still remember calling you Ryan."

"Ryzler will do."

Kara shrugged, she didn't bother with the name, since 'Ryan' was just a fleeting thought when he was born.

"Whatever you want to call yourself now. But…why are you here? I remember…I…You were-"

"Sold?"

Kara flinched. Clearly she didn't want to use that choice of words as it might hurt Ryan or Ryzler for that matter. But seeing as he barely contained any emotion in his words when he spoke, he had a better chance accepting the truth long before she ever could.

"...right."

Kara rubbed her arm with the palm of her hand, glancing away. Clearly the shame was still there, hot in her cheeks as well as her neck.

"I…I thought…"

She turned to him, eyes kind and brimming with the same love a mother would show her child.

The sight of it made Ryzler sick.

"I don't know why your here, but…clearly that man -"

"That man?"

Ryzler's tone changed when she referred to the man she sold him to, the very same bandit that had beaten him and the other boys like they were animals. Part of the very same bandits that killed his friend and love.

"That man?!"

"Honey, please-"

"Don't you dare. My name is Ryzler! That was the name given to me by my best friend, before I could even remember what it was my mother called me when she sold me!"

Kara flinched again at the sound of his tone, raising her own to speak on his level, trying to calm him down.

"I didn't sell you!"

She said slowly, emphasizing each word, but grew quiet as the truth became an admittance of guilt.

"I…it was a debt. I had no choice."

This time it was Ryzler's turn to scoff, finding her words pitiful and pathetic.

"Debt? You mean the very same debt you chose to have?"

"Ryzler-"

"I guess the debt for knowing your opposing mayoral running party's dark secrets does have quite the heavy price. You sold me, for power! To ensure that you would be mayor!"

"I didn't know the price until after that man told me, okay? I-I didn't know. It was a mistake."

Kara seemed to huddle in closer, the guilt creeping up like a snake along her spine.

"Then I suppose my father was also a mistake? Just like me?"

"Ryzler, you were never a mistake-"

"Don't lie to me! You got what you wanted - power. So you thought you could chip away at someone else's power like it was just another day for you. You wanted to hurt Randolph - the guild master - by ruining his emotions!"

Kara shook her head, covering her ears as if she didn't want to hear what he was saying.

"That's not true! I loved your father! He…he just didn't love me as a mother…"

Ryzler almost felt pity for her. A single mother whose lover ran away once he found out he had fathered a child. A pitiful picture.

Almost.

"You loved him?"

His voice was cold and spite full, like frigid needles against the skin.

"You loved him so much that you just happened to seduce him when he already had a wife - a kid, just for yourself. Then when you found out his absence didn't have the effect it wanted, you banished him!"

"No!"

Kara reared her head up at him, eyes brimming with small amounts of anger.

"Your father was a whore! I didn't know he had a wife at the time, less that he knew Randolph personally."

She slammed her fist against the ground, exacting her anger on something other than her son.

"It wasn't my fault!"

Ryzler didn't speak for several minutes, letting the silence settle in around them as it had before he arrived. The forest woods let a peaceful silence - a nature filled with life settle in around them.

But he had to break it once again.

"I know everything. I know that when your plans to hurt Randolph failed, you threw me away. You had debts at the time, and it was better to get rid of an unwanted son than it was to keep one and settle your debts with a criminal."

His words were cool and calm, showing no anger whatsoever. Perhaps this was the reason Kara's anger spiked, already in a dangerous mind set from moments before.

'This brat! He thinks….oh he thinks he's better? I'll show him!'

"Yes! Yes, I got rid of you because you were unwanted! Happy now?! What was I supposed to do, keep you? Do you know what that would have looked like; a newly upcoming mayor and town speaker suddenly has a kid without any knowledge of who the father is?! It wasn't like I could admit it!"

Finally, Ryler nodded his head, getting the answers that he wanted.

"Yes…this is what I wanted to know. Thank you Town speaker. You've given me the very thing I needed."

"Wha…what?"

Kara raised her head to meet Ryzler's, finding his voice somewhat different than before.

Instead of meeting her son's pale blue eyes - her eyes - she met two crimson red ones instead. Two raging flames staring back at her.

"Who…who are -"

"You spent your whole life believing you could get whatever you wanted because you had someone strong at your back. Someone who could make all your enemies disappear."

Ryzler spoke instead of the man, bringing Kara's attention back to him.

"Well now, I suppose I can do whatever I want. Seeing as how I have someone strong backing me."

"You…You're a summoner?"

Kara at first couldn't believe it, and in fact didn't want to believe it. But then a thought crossed her mind that erased all doubt.

'What if I use him to…yes - that might work!'

She turned to Ryzler, looking between him and the man before speaking.

"That's great Ryan - Ryzler. That's great. Would you like to introduce mommy?"

A scoff broke her train of thought, and Kara looked up to find it was the summons who was scoffing, struggling to hold back a smile. But when he did smile, she found it all to…let's just say it wasn't a happy smile.

"When in doubt Ryzler, humans will never change. In their last moments, they will put on any mask they have to wield any weapon that comes with it."

To Kara's utter bewilderment, the summons spoke, and in the same voice she recognized from before. His deep and bellowing voice echoed throughout the forest, yet it was silent enough that it felt like he was speaking normally.

"H-How…how are you…"

The summons rotated Ryzler around so that they were facing each other, the man on one knee so as to be eye level with the other.

"You've done well confronting your past. Starting with getting rid of all that brain washing those bandits gave you, and now this. I'm proud of you."

Ryzler shrugged , the true value of his effort in his eyes being meaningless.

"You gave me back my real memories, and got rid of the hypnosis they put us all under. It's really you that deserves -"

"Take credit where credit is due kid."

Patting Ryzler on the back, the man made a motion to the forest behind them, completely ignoring Kara who was still kneeling down in the dirt, recovering from the shock of hearing a summoned being speak.

At first she would have believed it to be a fluke, then she would have denied him ever being a summons in the first place. But the magical energy practically flowing like a flood from his body told her otherwise.

Her connection to the Eternal world may have been severed, but she could still slightly feel the magic coming from him. And for someone like her, who had lost their connection to feel as much as she was, it had to mean he had more in there somewhere. Lots more.

"Ryzler…Ryzler wait."

In a desperate attempt to claim that power for herself, like a thief seeing a pile of gold, Kara reached out for her son, trying to stop him from leaving, her own feet unable to stand in that moment.

Ryzler didn't hear her, and instead, being guided by the man, walked off into the forest.

"Ryzler? Ryzler! Ryan?! You come back here you ungrateful brat! Get back here!"

Her voice finally dropped all the fake love and showed her true side once and for all, her stark and crazy eyes searching the dark woods for any sign of her son.

But all she saw was the fading glow of two crimson red eyes.

Then it came.

-Snap!

At first, several minutes passed in silence, as Kara sat there looking at her empty hands, the realization now slowly hitting her.

'I…I've lost it all.'

She was so out of reality at that moment, she didn't feel the brimming heat on the side of her arm, where her rune circle used to be.

The pain from the burning sensation would have sent any man into a fit of screaming and wailing pain, but Kara just sat there, clearly having lost her mind.

"i…I've lost it all. After everything…it's all…."

She didn't feel anything.

Even when the fires sparking from her faded rune circle engulfed her, brightening up the forest in a warm orange and yellow light.

She didn't feel anything at all.

Even as her last words left her mouth.

"...gone."

→End of Arch 3: Corruption←