Chapter 13

Unaware of the Necromancer's plight or his connection with him, Rey held his staff tightly as he glared at the Orc Skeleton menacingly, growling as anger and resentment filled his eyes. Not bothering to think about anything else, Rey launched towards the Orc Skeleton, stunning the Necromancer as he expected him to try and run away in this situation.

As Rey neared the Skeleton, thanks to him using a staff, Rey used his reach advantage by swinging down diagonally, only managing to clip the side of the Skeleton's face as it barely managed to step back in time. Due to momentum, the staff slammed into the ground just before the Skeleton, causing a crater double the size of the one the Skeleton made. The Necromancer was stunned as he couldn't figure out how Rey had practically double the strength of his Skeleton when he was a Mid-Novice and Rey had just broken through to the Low-Novice stage.

Using the principles of the Vicious Reed martial art, which centered around a continuous, unpredictable flow, Rey used his staff like a pole vault and launched himself at the Skeleton, delivering a vicious kick to it's rib cage, slightly cracking it. Kicking off of the Skeleton and causing it to stumble, Rey landed on his feet with a pivot, and swung the staff horizontally at the Skeleton.

The attack blasted the Skeleton into the forest, only for the Skeleton to smack against the tree with a sickening crunch. Hairline fractures spreading all over the Skeleton. What Rey didn't know was that the Necromancer was currently shaking inside of a hollowed tree right next to the one the Skeleton crashed into. If the Skeleton hade crashed into the hollowed tree instead of the larger, denser one that it did, the Necromancer might've been turned into meat paste at that moment.

Still in a rage, Rey dashed over to the Skeleton to finish it off, but when he got within range and was about to smash it with his staff, he was caught off guard by the Skeleton's red flame eyes flickering brightly.

'Get away, young one, undead of the ability to implode at their master's command!' Jinbe shouted in his mind in a rare show of fear and concern.

Hearing Jinbe's serious tone, the cloud of rage disappeared from Rey, as he used his quick lion reflexes to try and leap away, but it was too late. Faster than Rey could react, the Orc Skeleton imploded, sending out a burst of the red flames that fueled it, as well as a million shards of sharp bone pieces flying. Rey was impaled by many little shards while the red flame blasted him away with a strong force, turning his Healer's robe into shreds while some of his fur got singed.

Everything happened so fast, Rey barely had time to even register he was injured before he roughly landed, his face on the ground while he bleed onto the hardened, well-traveled road. If a passerby saw him now, they would think fore sure that he were dead. That is, until they heard the pained roar he let out.

"Ahhhhhh, fuck!" Rey roared as his whole body was writhed in pain. Every time he struggled to take a breath, he felt like his lungs were filled with a mix of blood and tiny shards of glass.

'Young one, I know you're in pain, but you must push through it and get to safety. There's no telling how many enemies we have or where they are at.' Jinbe said in a tone full of concern.

He secretly worried if Shinigami's old enemies had already found them. He knew when he was first bound to Rey that there was a split second before he was able to suppress his aura. Though it was only for a fraction of a second, Jinbe knew that was plenty of time for them to find his general location in the world. He didn't know how to break it to Rey that they'd have to leave this village soon before they brought calamity upon it.

Though Rey wanted to curse Jinbe out for telling him to try and keep moving, as he was the one in pain, nearly on the verge of death, but Rey knew that Jinbe, as usual was right. Doing his best to push past the pain, Rey managed to barely stumbled onto his feet. Using his staff as support, Rey began shuffling back towards the farmhouse as he gradually increased his speed. Soon enough, with the help of his staff and pure willpower, Rey was running to the safety of the farmhouse again.

Back at the hollowed tree, the Necromancer stumbled out of the tree that was now destroyed thanks to it taking a brunt of the damage. Still, he didn't get away unscarred either. Stumbling onto the road and into the moonlight, the Necromancer could be seen to be a young Goblin with green skin, orange hair that matched his large, almond shaped eyes, and bit of orange peach fuzz on his chin.

He had wide, long, pointed ears that drooped down slightly. He had an over-sized black cloak over him that dragged across the ground when he walked. If Rey were to see him, he would think that he actually wasn't as ugly as some media depicted Goblins to be, just different.

'Come on, Jace, keep moving. I've failed, so I need to get Naz to safety before they get to her.' the Necromancer, Jace, told himself, as like Rey, he willed himself to keep moving, despite the red burn marks that now covered much of his face and body.

* * * * * * *

Back to Rey, it was already well into the night by the time he managed to stumble through the door and collapsed on the floor loudly. Rory had been staying up, worried sick about Rey, planning a long lecture for when he finally came home, so when she heard the front door open and the sound of something falling to the floor, she rushed to the living room only to find Rey laying face-flat in the doorway, bloody and unmoving.

She let out a horrified scream as she rushed to him, gently flipping him over and resting his head on her legs. Harris appeared in a flash the next second later only to find Rory sobbing over a half-dead Rey. Harris didn't even have time to be shocked at Rey somehow managing to breakthrough to Novice stage, as with his senses and experience, he could tell that Rey was near deaths door.

Wasting no time on logistics, Harris reached into his pocket and brought a small blue pearl to his mouth, channeled some of his Chi into it and spoke, "Joryne, wake up and get here fast! The lad is dying!" Harris said in a grave tone before he stopped channeling his energy into the pearl and it crumbled in his hands.

Harris's heart bled seeing such an expensive tool crumbling away, but he knew now was no time to worry about money as he feared that even with Jory's help the boy may not make it. With a sudden bright blue light flashing outside, Harris knew that Jory had made it. Rushing through the door, Jory wasted no time immediately coming before Rey, closing her eyes and holding out her palm towards him as the very mana in the air swirled around her.

'Divine Healer's Light!' Jory thought in her mind, as without chanting a single word or drawing a rune, the mana concentrated around Rey before a powerful pillar of blue light enshrouded his whole form. Were anyone even remotely knowledgeable about magic, their jaws would be to the floor, as Jory just performed magic that many of the world believed to be downright impossible. Chantless Magic.

The next moment after Rey's body was covered in the divine light, countless shards of Orc bone came flying from his body and clattering to the floor, the wounds they came from began healing immediately. Next, a cloud of red ethereal mist flew from his body, while Harris and Jory's brows furrowed as the mist evaporated in the divine light.

It didn't take them long to piece together what happened to their poor apprentice when they saw his wounds, Orc bones, and that corrupted mist. Rey suffered from the detonation of a Necromancer's Undead Skeleton. One with a powerful backer if they could afford to waste an Orc Skeleton like this.

Not long after, the blue divine light disappeared and all of Rey's wounds and scars were gone, but he was still not moving, making Rory's heart break more by the second.

"G-grandma, he isn't waking up... Why isn't he waking up?!" Rory questioned, forgetting that she wasn't supposed to address Jory as grandmother any more after the capital incident.

With a sigh and heavy heart, Jory just knelt down and hugged her poor granddaughter and stroked her long blonde hair. Because of Harris and her, not only did Rory lose her parents and birthright, she was forced to be alone on the outskirts of the kingdom for the majority of her life. Now, when she finally found someone to get close with, her and Harris's old enemies might've taken him away.

"I'm so sorry sweetie... Divine Healer's Light is very powerful, but it can't perform miracles, and Reymond was already at death's door by the time I arrived. He is alive for now, but now the rest depends on him and his will to live." Jory said regretfully. She knew it wasn't what her granddaughter wanted to her, but she deserved the truth.

Deep inside, Harris and Jory had already resolved in their hearts that they had already lost their precious new apprentice, as they looked at his still form with heavy hearts.

Hearing that she may never see Rey alive again, Rory broke down and began crying onto Rey, praying that he came back to her. Rory wasn't sure why, but she felt so deeply connected to Rey that she felt if he truly died, a small part of her would die with him.

Rory swore in her heart that if Rey were to wake up, she'd become so strong that no one could ever hurt him again. She didn't care if the whole world saw her as a villain, as long as she could stand by Rey's side, that was all that mattered.

* * * * * * * *

Waking up with a start, Rey began panicking, as no matter where he looked, he saw nothing but endless white.

"Holy shit... Is this heaven? Oh! If it is, please don't send me to hell for saying 'shit' Jesus!" Rey shouted into the nothingness, hoping he wasn't about to be greeted by endless flames instead of endless white.

Hearing a chuckle coming from behind him, Rey turned to see a wizened, ancient old man. He looked like a human with weathered, dark brown skin, a big, yet neat looking white beard, and glowing golden eyes. He had on nice black robes that was under a golden, sleeveless cloak, a large hood hanging down his back. The one unsettling thing about this wise, friendly looking old man, was the thick, ethereal red line between him and Rey. Rey was building a faint idea of who this old man could be, but when the old man softly smiled at him and spoke, it was all but confirmed for Rey.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Young One. Though, I wish it were under better circumstances." The old man, who was clearly Jinbe said.

"Jinbe? What's happening? How am I seeing you?" Rey asked with a bit of uneasiness. There was no scenario to where him meeting the soul that was tethered inside of him, face-to-face, was a good thing. As if you prove it, the grandfatherly smile on Jinbe's face soon turned into a saddened frown.

"I'm sorry to say this, Young One, but your soul has passed on. Well, at least a small part of it." Jinbe said cryptically, leaving Rey on the edge.

"Look, I get that you old, wizened types like talking in riddles to seem smart and mysterious, but can you spare me the bullshit and talk straight?! This is my life on the line here!" Rey blurted, barely able to keep himself from cussing Jinbe out. He was not in the mood to bullshit.

Jinbe didn't get offended or upset, he merely let out a heavy sigh as he shook his head. "Youth these days, always in a rush for something. Still, what I said wasn't a riddle. A part of your soul truly did perish, only it wasn't 'you',"Jinbe said, still confusing Rey. But, before Rey could get a chance to complain again, he continued.

"I'm not sure how it happened nor how to fully explain it, but some version of 'you' died due to that attack. The best way that I can explain it is that a separate, heavily damaged soul was housed in this body as well, only, the soul seemed to also naturally belong to this body as well. It is a truly strange phenomenon." Jinbe said with a look of puzzlement.

Suddenly, Rey gained a look of horrified realization. Though Jinbe may not understand what happened, even with his lifetime of knowledge, but with the information Rey just received, he knew in his heart exactly what occurred. Rey was not the original owner of this body, and was suddenly transported inside of it without his knowledge or will.

He always assumed the body was either made for him or worst case, the original owner already died. But now Rey has just learned that not only was this the body of an actual, living person, said person's soul was just destroyed in place of his.

Though other MCs might not think about the implications of this revelation, but Rey had already feared such an thing happening. The body he was now inhabiting was birthed, had parents, family likely looking for him, and now he will forever be gone. It was a truly sickening and depressing situation, as though he had no control over being transported, he was not only using the unfortunate soul's body, that unfortunate soul was also unintentionally sacrificed thanks to his weakness.

Guilt began to mount in his heart. He was still far too weak and enemies he didn't even know he had have already nearly killed him. Yet, as if he already knew all of Rey's secrets, Jinbe spoke again.

"The blame is not yours, Young One. Through our bond and the last moments I saw of the poor soul that perished, I not only already know your soul is not originally from this world, but the identity of those responsible for this attack."