Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

Chapter 471: Berion

Resolve

Berion's thoughts came as if they were passing through a fog. His eyes were unfocused, and there was a ringing in his ears. There was yelling all around, people running toward them. An armored figure was on the ground, orange blood slowly dripping from the cracks in the caved in chest plate. Someone was gesturing next to him, but Berion couldn't focus on it. He was drained, his willpower all but spent, and beyond it, there was... his hands were shaking. He clutched his left in his right and looked down. Through his unfocused eyes, he saw his limbs trembling, his fingers were twitching, not from exhaustion or pain, but... he didn't know what was happening.

His breath was quickening, yet he felt like he could barely fill his lungs, as if there was something pressing down on them. His eyes rose almost on their own, and looked at a shape in the corner, an unconscious form, bound with power. He saw her through senses other than his eyes, the runes branded on her Soul. Their new prisoner, one part of their mission accomplished. Yet... Berion couldn't help but wonder if he had done the right thing.

I saw it, he whispered to himself. They fought against each other and the weak died. I saw the result of what they had done.

The terrible scars left as a mark of their battle had been terrible. Berion closed his eyes, remembering the past, when they hunted other High Rankers, the monsters that killed the innocent, that oppressed others for their gain. They held terrible power, but, Berion didn't remember ever seeing anything like what he had just witnessed. He saw High Rankers killing armies, destroying forts, draining rivers, but never inflicting such damage on reality itself. Everyone is getting stronger.

The danger was becoming greater with time. People grew, they discovered new ways of killing and oppressing one another. Even they had grown, with the runes they could match all but the most powerful monsters.

His eyes were glued to the bound woman, Zacharia's words replaying in his mind on a loop. He didn't know why he felt this way, why his hands shook, why he seemingly couldn't catch a breath. The man was nave, and Berion owed Kael a debt. Without him, he would've still had a collar around his neck.

Slowly, almost unbidden, his arm reached for his neck, for the memory of the weight around it, his eyes never moving from the woman chained up in front of him.

His spiral was interrupted by someone shoving his shoulder.

"Are you even listening to me?"

Berion focused on the shorter woman in front of him. Maya looked up at him in anger, her fist clenched tightly.

"What?" Berion managed to get out, the spell that held him tightly seemingly broken.

"What was that?" She asked. "You were supposed to keep him occupied!"

Berion blinked, and then looked away. "He was too strong."

"You should've taken the gifts that Ra'azel offered then! It was power and you refused it for no reason. I didn't even see you use any Runecraft at all!"

Berion winced, she was right, he hadn't. With it, perhaps he could've held Zacharia for longer. But he thought that they understood why he wasn't using them. The runes weren't inherently wrong, Berion knew that, they were just tools, the same as any other focus. Berion had learned them, his mastery over them was greater than anyone else in their group. And yet... Ra'azel unnerved him too much. His goals were not the same as theirs, no matter what he said. No matter how much help he seemed to give.

No matter how good with the Runecraft Berion became, he was just a child compared to Ra'azel. He didn't dare use any complicated rune scripts for fear that what Ra'azel had taught them had things hidden within. A simple single Rune was safe enough, Berion thought at least, but the things that the others used? Long scripts that had complicated effects? The gear that Ra'azel had crafted for them?

They used them, but they didn't understand what those tools were. None of them did.

Berion was afraid, for himself and his friends. And the fact that none of them saw what he saw made him hesitate even more.

"Cool off, Maya," Kael said as he walked over.

"Cool off?" Maya nearly growled. "Exiled Shell could've died! We should've used the bolstering runes from the beginning, we could've killed him then."

Kael nodded. "Maybe, but those runes have a great cost, you know that. We underestimated just how strong he was." Kael turned and gave Berion a look.

Berion winced, he hated using those runes. He was the only one that had fully mastered carving them, aside from Ra'azel. He hated them because they were short term power boosts that damaged the soul. He was the one who convinced Kael to go in without using them, the one that told him that their gear would be enough. The others kept pushing themselves, but they didn't understand what those runes did to them, none of them save Ra'azel did, and Berion didn't trust his word.

Now Exiled Shell had been injured. He watched as the healers carried him away in a hurry. Kael stepped in front of him, filling his vision.

"What happened Ber, you said that you could hold him for long enough?"

Berion wanted to look away, but he couldn't, he owed Kael everything. Still, when he opened his mouth he found himself telling a lie. "He was stronger than last time," Berion said, it was the truth, but it wasn't why he had failed. "And I... I'm not fully used to my new power yet."

Kael gave him a long look, and Maya narrowed her eyes. For a moment Berion worried that Kael would see the doubt inside Berion's heart. Kael reached up and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You came through in the end, we've accomplished our mission, as much of it as we could at least," he said as he glanced at their prisoner.

Ber found himself unable to follow his gaze, he couldn't look at her at all, guilt was eating him up inside. He could've left her behind. Zacharia's words were echoing inside his head, and he...

Ra'azel arrived, Berion felt his weight on the space around him and stiffened. Kael turned and Berion took a step back, letting his friend's hand slip from his shoulder.

"Teacher," Kael said. "We've brought her, as you've asked."

Ra'azel glanced at Anatalien Far Sola, then turned to look at Kael. "Was not our agreement for three? Not one?"

Kael rolled his shoulders in a shrug. "They've killed each other before we could interfere. They've demonstrated... immense power."

Ra'azel tilted his head, the many rings of his eyes probing. Then, he turned his eyes back at the prisoner. "She'll have to do, I suppose."

"I need to speak with you about our gear," Kael said as he walked over. "You told us that it was stronger than any eternal item, but Exiled Shell nearly died."

Kael gestured, and Ra'azel glanced at the corner where the healers were removing Exiled Shell's armor and healing his wounds.

"If you had mastered their use, that wouldn't have happened," Ra'azel turned his eyes back to the prisoner. "But I'll take a look and improve them, make them easier for you to use."

"And our deal?" Kael pressed.

Ra'azel waved his hand. "Yes, yes, later, you'll have everything that you need. First, I need to study her."

Berion looked at the yeti as the side of his mouth rose in a grin, and the only thing that he could think about was what Zacharia had said.

Not for the first time, he wondered if he was making a mistake.