Chapter 313: Scaring A Heart To Death, Returning Back Home

-----

"I will do things my way," Riven said. "And I will punch my way through until I get it done. And once we get there, if we do. Then I will also force them to train. I will force every single one of them to fight and grow for their own world and humanity. I don’t care if they dislike it, and I don’t care if they hate me or call me a dictator or whatever."

He listed the steps as if they were already decided and not open for discussion.

"..."

Cagliostro was surprised; his reasoning was surprisingly sound despite his ridiculous dreams. She wanted to call him "childish", but he was probably going to agree with that too somehow. He wasn’t someone that denied his true nature nor was he unaware of the ridiculousness of his dreams.

The more she listened, the clearer it became that he had already thought through most of the problems she could raise.

And yet he continued moving while fully knowing that these things might be completely unachievable, because that’s all he could do right now, to keep dreaming, to keep fighting.

That part of him was hard to ignore even when the plan itself sounded impossible.

"I see," Cagliostro overflowed with power, emerging once more by his side, her voice powerful, as her aura exuded blinding divine golden light. "I understand now, much better, what your wish truly is. I am honestly rather fascinated by your boldness, Riven Claymore... I want to see what you do, and how you face your problems. You can count on my great power, and the strength you’ve allowed me to rise through your unique Authority..." She finished speaking and stayed visible beside him, waiting for his next move.

"Thank you," Riven nodded finishing his talk with her. "For now, we should get going... Ah, but what is this?"

He turned away from the rune on his hand and looked around the chamber one more time.

Riven walked toward the giant Sorrowful Heart, which was seemingly dead. "Right, the heart..."

The large organ still rested on the ground where it had fallen earlier.

"Guinevere stabbed him after he refused to tell her where I had hidden, he’s... I mean, he was good," said Daniela with a deep sigh.

She stayed a few steps back while she spoke, clearly not eager to get any closer.

"Hm..." Riven nodded, noticing the heart twitching, was it reviving somehow? "Are you not completely dead? Or perhaps reviving?"

If this was really the heart of an ancient and powerful precursor, then their cells alone could probably revive themselves for all he knew.

He watched the small movements carefully before deciding what to do next.

Riven attempted to touch it, but then the heart twitched in pain and... instantly died against his own hand.

"Ah, did I just kill it?!" he gasped.

Indeed, he did, he even got a notification for it!

The message appeared in front of him before he could pull his hand away.

Just when the heart was beginning to revive itself through its own cells, it died by being touched?

This really made no sense; how did this even happen?

Riven looked at his own hand, feeling there was some kind of lifeforce entering and gathering it.

"I must’ve accidentally drained its lifeforce. Did my cells react to it?" he wondered, sighing. "It’ll respawn so..."

He took the corpse with him and decided it was better to consume it along the other monsters he’s hunted later.

The heart felt heavier than it looked once he lifted it, but he stored it without any further trouble.

Once the group walked out of the dungeon boss cave, they walked into a wide open area full of massive tanks and other machines scattered there.

Most looked brand-new, and there were even other weapons and equipment.

The open space stretched farther than any of them expected after the narrow tunnels of the cave.

"What is this?" Riven asked. "So many things..."

He stepped closer to one of the tanks and checked the condition of the nearest equipment piles.

"It’s from the soldiers that got here," said Vladimir. "Haha! From what I can tell, it seems they got kicked out while leaving behind all of their valuable military crap! Hahahaha! Serves them right! Motherfuckers!" He kicked an empty crate for emphasis and kept laughing as he looked over the rest of the abandoned gear.

As Vladimir laughed and celebrated this, Riven knelt and touched a long gun, feeling it in his hands, a weapon loaded with powerful mana bullets and the like.

The metal felt solid and well-maintained under his fingers.

"It’s strong, I guess they could be given to believers," he wondered. "For now, let’s leave these things here anyway."

He set the gun back down and stood up, deciding the rest of the equipment could wait.

Riven walked further away and opened a portal to his Spiritual Realm, and once inside, he walked into another portal opened by his shadow, leading back home.

The two portals connected smoothly and brought him straight into the familiar hallway of his house.

And once at home, he was greeted by his wife, Elisa, who had just woken up from a long nap. It was around eleven in the morning.

Carlos sat at the table already, waiting for food while Elisa rubbed her eyes.

"R-Riven?" she yawned, Carlos was by her side as both were about to have breakfast. "You’re back..."

"Hey," Riven smiled, kissing her cheek. "Sorry for being a little late, I’ll go take a bath and then we can start breakfast."

He pulled back and noticed the tired look on her face.

"Yeah, you smell!" she said angrily.

"Sorry, sorry," Riven laughed, walking away, not before checking the TV, noticing some news about the two Gates that disappeared and also the incident with one of the gates having a Mana Reactor and a Blood Crystal and Mana Stone Processing Factory which all disappeared along with it, the tragedy of Elias loss, and his crying mother, Rose, alongside Guinevere, all doing their own interviews.

The volume was already on, so the reports reached him clearly as he paused in the doorway.

-----