Corruption Marking

Chrysos rested his chin on his hand while watching Meiros eat in front of him. This kid suddenly attacked him earlier, but he could see that he didn't mean any harm. He was just afraid.

He also gave him the Creamgrass Goat Edlari that Chrysos cooked for himself. It was Chrysos' favorite dish because of how the firmness of the goat meat is neatly blended with a subtle softness. Mixed with the sweet milky flavor it has because of the goat's nature, each part of the goat including the organs fuse together with the spices and vegetables added to make a delicious meal.

Chrysos didn't regret giving it to him even though the dish was delicious. But now he had some doubts.

"Hey kid, what's your name?" Chrysos asked before thinking of the dish any longer.

Meiros grabbed a cup of water and drank it. "Meiros, that's my name." Meiros wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

"When did you awaken as a psychic?" Chrysos has been wondering about this for a while. "And why are you using corrupted Divinious? Aren't you afraid that you'll be caught by the knights of Ironmountain?"

Divinious is decided by the user the moment they awaken it. If they decided to funnel negative energy through their body during their awakening, they would become a corrupted one.

A corrupted one can become a heroic one by using extremely powerful positive energy to convert their Divinious from corrupted to heroic. This goes the same for heroic ones as well. There have been cases of heroes subjected to horrible pain that their heroic Divinious converted into corrupted Divinious and ended up as villains shunned by all.

"I didn't have this Divinious before." Meiros shook his head. "I thought that I was going to die, but there was this man that gave me this ability. That's how I've been able to eat every few weeks." Meiros answered but didn't dwell too much on the matter because of how fixated he is on eating.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Chrysos asked him. "Wait, a man gave you this ability?" Chrysos didn't believe what he was hearing. Divinious awakenings can be forced? And from what he's seeing, Meiros is already at the Iretior rank. Skipping both Initium and Pragius rank.

For someone his age, this is almost impossible. No matter how talented someone is, without the resources to support themselves, they can't grow this powerful so quickly.

"Yes, but I don't know why he did it." Meiros used his fork to pick up a slice of meat to his mouth. "But I am grateful that he did.."

"You seem calm.. Aren't you worried that I am just tricking you?" Chrysos stood up and grabbed the cup. He walked towards the water dispenser and filled the cup with water.

"You seem kind." Meiros looked at Chrysos with certainty. "I can feel it."

"You can feel it? Hahaha, interesting." Chrysos decided that he would help this kid as much as he could. He also needed to know who that strange person who marked Meiros was.

Placing the cup on the table, Chrysos sat back down.

After dinner, Chrysos told Meiros that he could sleep in the bedroom while he brewed potions.

Meiros slept comfortably in a soft bed.

Meanwhile, Chrysos was in his kitchen brewing many potions as usual. While doing his work, he thought to himself.

"Although I've never experienced it, is corrupted Divinious really that bad? Divinious is only an energy after all.." Chrysos showed some interest in corrupted energy, but he quickly shook his head.

"No, maybe not now.. I'm doing well so far as a heroic one, so why should I ruin it? The law will become troublesome if I do so… it's not worth it." Chrysos sighed and continued brewing his potions.

...

Fifteen years ago...

In a village far away from Ironmountain, a woman was cooking food for her family. Her name is Seffora.

She wore simple clothes and an apron. Her hair was dark blue, and she had violet eyes.

Seffora was slicing vegetables in the kitchen. She is a mother of two children. Her husband is a farmer and she works as a teacher for the children of the village. It was a peaceful day.

Her daughter and her son were playing with the other kids outside.

The door opened and her daughter ran inside.

"Mama!" The little girl ran towards her.

Seffora turned around and her daughter hugged her leg. She chuckled. "Shalra, where's your brother?"

"He's still playing outside with the others. I just want to get my toys." Shalra ran to her room and opened a box.

She grabbed a few wooden toys and ran back out. "Bye!" Shalra waved her left hand at her while her other hand grabbed her toys.

Seffora waved back and sighed.

Watching her children play outside, she couldn't help but remember her past.

She looked at her hand and summoned a purple clump of Divinious that gathered in her palm. Everytime she looked at her children's smile, she would remember how she used to be a villain who would ruthlessly rip apart a human with no remorse.

She decided that the life of a corrupted one wasn't worth it, so she took a new identity to live the rest of her days normally.

"My past has nothing to do with me now." Seffora released the corrupted Divinious from her hand, and it vanished as if it's never been there in the first place.

She lit up a pot and cooked the vegetables.

...

Shalra was playing outside with her little brother. Her brother couldn't walk yet, so Shalra was responsible for carrying him everywhere.

Seffora's husband, Erick, was working at the fields until he saw knights from an unknown city. Their horses made their way into the village.

This roused the villager's attention.

The village chief came out to greet them. "Welcome to the village of Perinaf, how can I help you?" The village chief lowered his head. He knew that he couldn't offend these knights.

The leader of the knights looked at him with contempt. "Your village has been suspected that it is hiding a corrupted one. Bring them out now, or else we will kill every single one of you for blasphemy against the Heroic Legion. We have no mercy against those who collide with evil and degeneracy."

The villagers gasped.

The village chief looked at the knight with shock. "Sir, we don't know what you're talking about. Please let us know why there's a corrupted one amongst one of us?"

However, the knight only smiled with a cold glint in his eyes. "They're all hiding the corrupted one. We have the right to kill them now." The knight raised his hand and pointed forward.

The knights began their massacre.

They weren't planning on using peaceful terms to begin with.

They chased the villagers and killed them. Those who rode horses ran into the village and threw incendiary potions and burned the houses down.

...

Seffora saw the fire from afar and had a bad feeling about it.

"How did they find me?" This was in Seffora's mind, but she knew that her children's safety had to come first.

"Shalra?! Shalra! Where are you?!" Seffora ran out of the house and saw her daughter running towards her with her little brother.

Shalra was crying while carrying her little brother. "Mama... they killed..." She couldn't stop her tears from flowing out. She was covered in her own father's blood.

Seffora's heart sank. Erick was an honest man. Even though she knew that her sins were irredeemable, did Erick really deserve this?

"Shalra listen to me, you're a brave girl.. Take your brother away with you and run far away. Understand?" Seffora lowered herself to Shalra's level and held her face.

"No! I want to stay with you!" Shalra shook her head and hugged her mother's arm.

"I'll be fine, don't worry.. take your brother with you." Seffora used her Divinious and casted protection magic to both of them. "Now go, I can't stall them for too long."

Shalra was still crying.. but she knew that she had no choice.

She ran far away from the village.

…

Markings on Seffora's back appeared.

They were thick, spiked chains that began breaking one by one. She gathered corrupted Divinious in order to put up a fight.

Seffora approached the knights. Her purple Divinious was coiling around her hand like a snake.

"There she is!" One of the knights shouted.

The knights turned around in unison and pointed their weapons at her.

And specifically the leader, revealed a joyful smile and said, "Well well well, if it isn't the Great Sorcerer of Adrha."

Seffora narrowed her eyes as she glared at the leader. "Coefinel…. Hah, I thought I killed you?"

Coefinel laughed. "How could I die? You should know that better than anyone." Coefinel jumped off his horse. His long golden hair fluttered in the wind. "And you should've made sure I was dead.."

He wore armor clad in gold and silver. His boots had feathers designing them ever so beautifully. His armor had two red gems on his pauldrons and one blue gem on his chest, generating a powerful Divinious protection layer.

He had a tall nose bridge and his forehead was smaller than average. He had green eyes and an arrogant temperament.

"You're right. I should've." Seffora's eyes wandered around the piles of dead bodies.

As if knowing why her eyes were darting everywhere, Coefinel grabbed something from his back. "Looking for your husband? Coefinel threw a head towards Seffora.

It was Erick's head.

"Here he is." Coefinel looked straight into her eyes.

Seffora's eyes shone with a dangerous glint. "You're going to regret this.." Seffora's hand moved and suddenly, snake-like creatures with a chain for a body and a human skull for a head appeared around her.

A large long necked bird appeared behind her with a weeping woman's face covered with hands. The bird's feet were human hands and its spine was protruding from its back.

Unique Ability, Sealed Graveyard.

Seffora controlled the Divinious in her hands and the chained skulls lunged forward Coefinel.

"Old tricks all over again! Seffora, you've fallen behind..." Coefinel was confident. "I'll let you have a taste of something I've made just for you." Coefinel snapped his fingers together and a surge of Divinious summoned a beautiful white coffin in the air covered in gold.

Epic Tier Ability, Holy Coffin of Divine Punishment.

The snakes began to disappear the moment they touched the coffin suspended in the air.

Seffora shook her head. "This coffin seals corrupted Divinious, but you can't dispel it or else my Divinious would return, correct?"

Coefinel nodded and then shook his head with dismay. "It suppresses the corrupted Divinious. But it also takes a toll on my Divinious reserves, so I can't use it for long." Coefinel unsheathed his sword. "That means we can only fight using physical attacks."

Seffora smiled bitterly. There are almost two hundred knights in the village with Coefinel, but she's alone. She knew that she couldn't survive this.

Seffora stomped her foot and a sword flew up in front of her. She caught it and took a deep breath. "I'm not going down without a fight."

"That's the spirit." Coefinel licked his lips.

...

After a bloody battle.

Seffora was being held by two knights and she was brought in front of Coefinel. Her eyes were dug out, she was missing a few fingers and toes, some of her scalp was burnt, and her left leg was chopped off.

Coefinel enjoyed every second torturing her. For years, he feared this woman who almost took his life. But now, that same woman was suffering under his fist.

"Just... kill me..." Seffora's tongue was cut off and healed back, leaving a grotesque flesh stump without her tongue. She couldn't even kill herself if she wanted to.

"Oh, I don't think so.." Coefinel caressed the left side of his face. "I remembered how half of my face was taken away by you.. Back then, I felt so hopeless that I wished for nothing else but death." He looked at her and laughed joyfully.

Coefinel punched Seffora, making her fall down from the two knight's grasp. "I'll make you feel the same thing I felt all those years.. the nightmares, the pain, and the suffering you caused me." Coefinel laughed so much that a tear fell down from his eye. "Also, if you think that your children are safe, I've sent knights after them.. they'll be gone soon enough.."

"Narcissistic as ever…" Seffora laughed hopelessly.

Seffora couldn't do anything except mock fate. It was unbelievable. How did her life turn out like this? What are the things she could have done to prevent this? But in the end, she just accepted it. She didn't resist.

"Sir Coefinel.." A knight approached him.

Coefinel turned around and looked at the man in front of him. "What? Did you catch them?"

The knight hesitated.

Noticing this, Coefinel sighed. "They escaped didn't they?"

The knight then spoke not knowing the fate that awaited him. "T- They were lost but we found the knights searching for them and they were d- dead!"

Coefinel sneered. "Useless." He stood up and snapped his fingers. Knights then began to wipe the blood off his armor. "I'll forgive you this time. But since it's still a minor offense, it wouldn't be the same in the future. Understand?"

The knight prostrated and spoke with a tone breaking from fear, "U- understood!"

…

In a certain prison cell.

"Ah!"

Shalra woke up from her cell. She was breathing heavily.. "That nightmare again..." She clenched her fists. She looked around her stone cell. She was alone in here with no one to talk to. The guards barely even fed her. Not only that, she couldn't even use Divinious because a strange poison inside her prevents any type of Divinious from being used.

Her stomach still had the same wound that never healed. Shalra blamed no one else except for the man who put her here.

Remembering his smug attitude made her clench her fists tightly.

"Once I get out of here, I'll get rid of you first.." Everytime she remembered Chrysos' mask, she couldn't help but feel enraged.

Shalra calmed down after a few minutes. She looked out of the window and sighed. "I wonder how Meiros is doing now.."

She was separated from her brother that day.. she tried to go back, but she couldn't find him. If she continued, she would've been found by the knights sooner or later.

She ran far away and was captured by slave traders. She was sold in Ironmountain where she eventually awakened Divinious. And that's how she began breaking out of her chains, surviving alone, investigating the reason for her village's destruction, and she also searched for Meiros to no avail.

...

...

The next day, while Chrysos and Meiros were having lunch, they were having a conversation. Meiros mentioned his past. And it took Meiros thirty minutes to finish telling his story.

"So you were found by an old man and you were given to the orphanage from a young age?" Chrysos repeated Meiros' story.

"Yes." Meiros nodded. "He was a merchant from Ironmountain and since he didn't have enough money to raise me, that's when he gave me to the orphanage."

"So you don't even know who your family is?" Chrysos showed some pity in his eyes. "That's sad.."

"I know.. but I can't worry about that now." Meiros didn't feel anything about his family anymore. Once he escaped the orphanage to find his family, he was full of hope. But now, he realized how naive he was. He figured out who his mother was, and the only time he saw her was when she was getting hanged.

Unbeknownst to Meiros..

After Coefinel got his revenge, he went to Ironmountain for some unexplained reason and decided to execute her right there. Probably in an attempt to fish out her children.

Seeing Meiros like this, Chrysos couldn't help but feel sympathetic.

"You know, I also lost my mother as a kid." Chrysos suddenly said.

"You have?" Meiros was surprised that this powerful man in front of him went through something as well. That was something that he didn't expect. "I thought that your parents were still alive."

Chrysos shook his head. "Nope, my mother died and my father now thinks that I'm dead."

"Oh." Meiros felt bad for Chrysos. "Why don't you try and go to him then?"

"It's complicated.. I can't go back to where I came from even if I want to." Chrysos shrugged.

"So it's like that." Meiros laughed quite silently.

Chrysos knitted his eyebrows before looking at Meiros. "What's so funny?"

"You're also like me. But you became that powerful in the end, so what do I have to worry about, right?" Meiros smiled.

Chrysos saw this and thought. "He's still a naive child.. However, that innocence is also good. He'll learn along the way.."

Chrysos nodded. "Yeah, what do you have to worry about? I'm here for you anyways."

"Erm mister, what should I call you?" Meiros was ashamed that he never asked for the name of the man who saved his life.

"It's Gerald Greenwood." Chrysos passed Meiros an empty bottle.

It was the first potion he brewed when he transmigrated.

"And I'm currently in the mood to take in a student, so what do you say? Are you willing to be my student?"

Meiros' eyes shone. "Yes! I'm willing."

"Good, from now on, you're my student." Chrysos crossed his arms as he laughed.

"I'll be calling you master now." Meiros bowed.

Chrysos gestured to Meiros by waving his hand dismissively at him. "Are you sure you're up to the challenge? It's going to be real complicated real quick. Also, you're going to be doing the chores if you want to stay here."

"O- Okay..? I mean, I can do it." Meiros was a little confused.

"Eh, don't worry about it, you'll learn everything you need from me if you put in the effort." Chrysos shrugged casually.

"Very well then, Master Gerald?" Meiros accepted Chrysos' teachings.

Seeing this, Chrysos nodded in approval.

"Well, let's just hope he learns anything from me.." Chrysos thought to himself.