The Way The World Is

The dagger inside the man's brain came out bloody as he retrieved the dagger a strange thing happened.

The white specs of light inside the Crystal all lit up one by one, then from the man's body a deep blue mist like the ocean rose as it made its way to Leo. The deep blue mist took the shape of a river as it came towards him. It entered through his chest and stopped near the Crystal as it spun around it.

This scene mimicked the accretion disk of a black hole as it devoured everything in its vicinity, including light which in this case was the deep blue mist. The mist got absorbed by the Crystal as the seconds ticked by.

The color of the Crystal changed from the night sky to that of the ocean.

The Crystal was now visible to him not through his eyes, but through the mind, he could see all the changes happening to it.

'Was it because I killed the man?' Wondered Leo looking at the man's body since this happened right after he killed the man also he believed it was unlikely this was a coincidence and that it had no relation to the man's death.

The process sped up so much that when debris cleared the Crystal now looked like an ocean.

Confusion chose to not let go of his mind as he had not read in the book about a Crystal that could absorb other Crystal's power or their Elements. The man could use the water element, so it was easy to guess that this Crystal now had the power of water also the fact it looked like the ocean strengthen this point.

Using water to clean the wound came to his mind, but he did not know how to activate it.

The pony-tailed girl approached him she looked at the corpse unable to understand why he killed the man. She never liked to kill anyone as to her that was going against her beliefs. She believed by killing a person she would only contribute to the evil of the world even though her background entangled with this same evil she wanted to be the one to change it.

So looking firmly into his eyes to stand up to her beliefs she asked: "Why did you kill him?"

Leo looked back at her but instead of answering the question he replied with another question "Why did you not kill that man?" While shifting his vision from the girl towards the unconscious man.

'Huh?' Was the word that came to her mind when she heard the question "I did not kill him because killing him won't do any good in fact now with him captured I can interrogate him and I can know who sent him to kill me also if I had not involved you after killing me they would have killed you," She stopped then continued while crossing her arms between her chest "I believe it was smart."

"That was not being smart rather it was stupid," Said Leo as he removed the cloth that covered his wound which now had more redness that spread across it.

"Huh?" She said out loud, "What did you say?" This had struck her weak spot.

"I said what you did was stupid that man tried to kill you but you showed him kindness even though he never showed it to you," The words stopped for some time as he touched the swollen wound then continued "We live in a world where kindness cannot prevail, If a person raises his sword against someone then he himself should be ready to die." These words came out from the fact that to him this world was becoming similar to his old world.

Kindness could not prevail in both worlds where the strong killed the weak.

Surprised by the answer she took a moment to think however this did not change her belief "Well, I don't believe it this world might be cruel now but I know it can change, I will change it" Determination radiated her eyes as the words flew out her mouth.

Leo said nothing in return but in his mind, he said 'Foolishness one person alone cannot change the world.'

She waited for a response but got none, then as she looked at him she noticed his wounds "Want me to help you?" She asked.

He said nothing but in his mind, he was pondering on how to activate the Crystal to use the water to clean his wound, however, he failed to find a way.

After getting ignored once again she checked the corpse for any clues regarding the origin of these two killers.

Then 5 minutes later rapid footsteps approached them there were 4 men led by another who stood at the front.

As soon as the leading man saw the girl, he rushed towards her with an apologetic look in his eyes he said as he ran his fingers through her hair "Forgive me, Mia, It was my mistake I should have taken a better look into the details of the mission."

"It's okay father it was impossible to know it was a setup," She said as she placed the palm of her hands on top of the hand on her head.

Noticing Leo he looked at Mia who said: "He helped me kill them if he had not come I would have died."

"Oh?" Her father said as he took out a pill from his dress then threw it over to Leo who caught it "Crush it over your wound it'll heal it." He could see that Leo had no magic power when he looked at his Crystal.

He could tell this because when a person increases their power a vertical line representing their rank would appear on the Crystal also a horizontal line that denoted their level would also appear. For example, a person at Normal Rank Level 1 would have a single horizontal and a vertical line in the shape of a plus sign. With Leo, his Crystal had no lines, so he could tell that Leo had no magic power.

The pill was like a rock in his hands but when he applied pressure to the pill; it crumbled like power he then spread it across his wound a stinging pain came to his wound as the powder touched it.

"Where are you from? And how did you get here?" Asked the father of Mia curious how a person with no magic power reached here.

But before Leo could answer one of the 4 men that accompanied the father shouted pointing at the corpse while taking his sword "Look that is the crest of the Eternal Hunters Faction!"

Hearing this, all of them looked towards the corpse near it laid a crest with a green outline and a sword and spear crossed against each other.

"How dare he try to deceive miss Mia," Said another of the 4 men as he drew his sword prepared to kill Leo.