It was a spectacle.
Alright, calling it a spectacle is more morbid than I intended, but still. I lack another word to describe it. Zhao'er's sword had gotten deathly sharp, to say the least; honestly, I don't think even Long Tao can take it head-on anymore. That thing could cut through a planet's core and barely make any noise.
Rayce, too, had just so many words that he kind of stat-checked their Shaman. If this was a pay-to-win game, Rayce was definitely paying with the 'passively write these basic words' while he could dedicate his time to writing more complex ones.
And the phrases.
He finally used one, for the first time. Even he didn't know what the fuck would come of them, let alone me. The phrase he ripped was 'Deep Tiredness'.
It affected about thirty people beyond his primary target--the other Shaman--and it genuinely looked as though they were all a soft lullaby away from passing out for 72 hours straight after a week-long drinking binge. Their reaction times plummeted, allowing Lan'er and Xiu'er to figuratively--and kind of literally--walk all over them.
The fight that was already kind of easy became less of a fight and more of a schoolyard bullying session.
... where just shy of a hundred people died.
Haah.
I've really become rather callous to the death and destruction. There was a time (relatively not too long ago) where the death of a few dozen people in front of me would have me gasping for breath and having a full-blown panic attack, and now... well, it's not nothing, especially within the context of how it occurred, but, yeah. May as well be nothing, to be honest.
Watching so many just fall down, the tethers of their lives cut short... it's kind of amazing, really, just how adaptive human brains are. And this was after promising myself repeatedly that I wouldn't let this world change me.
The battle wound down relatively quickly; Light, Lao Shun, and I didn't even move from our original spots. Even little Naǒ demanded to be let out so I let her fly around a bit, 'contributing' (mostly just cawing like a cheerleader), with Long Tao having sprinted away after the leader, and only coming back at the tail end of the fight. It was likely that he simply waited somewhere in the shadows for it to end, observing what to fix about the way the kids fight, and stepping out when it was all over.
Quite morbidly, he was holding the damn heart right there in the open, on the palm of his hand; even from this far out, though, I could see a faint layer of 'frost', though it was probably just Qi, likely used to preserve it.
The kids quickly put out a few fires that had been started and came back, with the few who witnessed the fight but did not participate retreating to whatever they called homes in this godforsaken place.
"The heart you wanted, Master," Long Tao said with a faint smirk as I grimaced at his extended hand. I switched my pursuits long before I was ever allowed to hold a freakin' heart, though of all disturbing things, this was probably the least disturbing one--as I'd seen a human heart before, and even saw it held.
... still didn't touch one, so grabbing it was, uh. It was an experience.
It was firmer than I expected, to be honest; in my very limited assumptions, I'd just assumed I'd have to hold it with barely any force or I'd tear right through it like it's made out of paper, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I mean, I wouldn't be able to play basketball with it or anything, but hey, it was definitely sturdier, at least.
[--a flash-frozen heart containing Illusionary Heart-Seed discovered][Illusionary Heart-Seed is one of the three most potent Heart-Curses and Heart-Poisons, and the legacy of how to make it is known to very few. The host can spend points to slowly dismantle the protections and discover who had implanted it][...][Estimated Costs: 60,000CP for complete dismantling of the protection][Estimated Time it will take: 3 months][...]
... well, fuck you too, system. It's not like you don't know the situation with my points, and you still had me chasing something that will take at least a couple of years to be able to afford? No, seriously, screw you.
Haah.
Whatever.
I tossed it into the 'prison' and glanced around the city; it was... destitute, to say the least. Comparing it to how it had been when we first arrived...
Was it my fault?
Had I not let Light kill the man... would it have turned out differently? Then again, I don't even know the truth of what happened here. It could be that the man had simply given into his madness fully--the one thing holding him back, the last shred of humanity that he had in him and the reason for it, after all, was gone: his daughter.
With her away... perhaps he simply got tired of holding back and let his desires consume him in totality.
Or it could be that he sensed that he was dying and lost his mind.
It might even be that man was lying to me, and the truth of what happened here was more complex. Or perhaps simpler.
It's the Occam's razor of it all. Not the generic and kind of misquoted 'the simplest solution is most often the truth', but more that the simplest solution is the best starting point. The fewer variables there are, the easier it is to 'investigate'.
So, shorn of all added variables and just what I definitely know... it was likely that the man simply died one day, and his death left a massive power vacuum, especially as it was unexpected. And though not always the case, in vast majority of situations like that, some kind of a mini civil war broke out, leading to near-total destruction of the city.
There were now only ashes and memories, and they, too, will soon be gone. By the looks of it, the entire place had been stripped of all that was valuable; the only buildings that were left standing were the old and worn-down ones. There were zero of the dozens of the statues that I'd seen the last time we arrived here. Even the river cutting through the city was now likely more toxic than rat poison.
There was no life to be had here any longer, and there's a good chance I'm the one to blame. It's still not easy, carrying the burden of death. I'm far too tempted to just say, 'Well, I'm fighting to save the entire cosmos; this one small thing shouldn't be held against me in the grand scheme of things!'. Beginning to get how those big-headed narcissists used to excuse their shitty behavior.
It's for the greater good.
... nah, fuck that. It was a mistake on my part. I'm not saying that letting him live would have made this place better, but if I hardened myself enough to kill him, I should have stayed behind and made sure it didn't turn into... this.
"You're overthinking it," Lao Shun snapped me out of my thoughts.
"What?"
"Cities rise and fall by the thousand every year," he added. "It is inevitable."
"... it's alright," I said. "There's a saying in my hometown: the price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it," the reason Thoreau's quote was still swinging around in my brain all these years later is very simple: it was one of Yas' favorite quotes, especially towards the end. "This is simply the price. Alright, everyone. It's time to go. Come on."
There will be many more days and moments like this, I imagine, as my life here continues. One way or another, I'll have to bear them. Can't very well have the kids to it for me, and whatever's left of my conscience simply won't let me ignore it.
Come what may, as it were. I will be ready.
Went on a bit of a side-tour to revisit the few things I left hanging in the air and finally close them up. And, finally, we're onto the Island ^^Hope you guys enjoyed today's chapter & see ya' tomorrow.