Chapter 30: Why?

Human emotions are like countless threads woven through the soul—joy, sorrow, anger, fear, disgust, surprise, trust, and anticipation. Each one is tangled with the others, bound so tightly that pulling at one makes the rest tremble.

You cannot simply cut away a single emotion and expect the others to remain untouched. Remove joy, and sorrow loses its contrast. Erase fear, and courage becomes meaningless. Strip away anger, and even love may lose the strength to protect what it cherishes.

They are not separate threads, but a single tapestry.

And when one thread is torn beyond repair, the entire weave begins to unravel.

Something inside Rael broke some part of his emotions. Something he had never known existed until the moment it snapped. His fear for Aurelia disappeared. His body stopped shaking due to it.

He still held Lila’s body. The last warmth was leaving her. Her muscles had already begun to stiffen. The only question left in his mind was Why. Why did she have to die? She never even wanted to enter the Dream Realm. She had told him she would never return once she escaped from this place. She was a pure soul. All she had done was help him took care of him when he was going to break. And now she was dead because of him. If he had never came to there city all of them would have been alive. She could go back to her sister and live a peaceful life.

He held her tighter. The tears had stopped sometime earlier. Then the connection with Alex tore apart.

A sharp backlash slammed into his chest, like a needle driven straight into his heart. He felt the disturbance in the souls outside. Aurelia was coming. He had to leave. But he could not leave Lila’s body behind.

He lifted her and walked out of the cave. Blood dripped steadily from the places where her legs should have been.

Outside, the air itself had changed there were dark clouds appeared. The corpses that had lain in heaps were now standing looking at him with empty gazes. They formed a wide circle around him, silent and waiting, like a living wall of the dead. Beyond them the dimensional gate still pulsed with light.

Aurelia walked between the corpses. They parted for her without a sound. She was hurt—he could see it in the way she moved—but her eyes were clear and cold.

"I left you for a minute and you gone to bring your whore," she said.

"Don’t call her that. Atleast she was better than you."

Aurelia laughed. "What can you do with a corpse anyway? Give her to me. I can at least eat her brains."

Rael looked at her. "I understand what kind of woman you are, Aurelia. You’re a sad, evil and emotionless bitch. Do you ever think about what the ones you kill feel?"

"What about them? They’re garbage. They live like cockroaches and so what if they die like cockroaches. Big deal."

"They’re humans. They have emotions. They have dreams. You took that away from them."

She tilted her head. "You talk as if I’m the only evil person in the world. You think Blackthorns are innocent you think the kingdom treats them equally? Tell me, Rael—did you ever think about people like them before you were called classless?"

"I at least didn’t kill them."

"But you were indifferent. Don’t you know how people like them are treated in this kingdom? They are just tools to be used for the means for people like us. It’s not a big deal if a few them die. More will just appear."

"Don’t speak for all of humankind, you ghoul."

"That hurts Rael. I only told you my secret because I thought you will accept me."

Rael glanced at the standing corpses. "How can you control their souls? Now I know they don’t just follow the command unless they wants to. They don’t follow you on their own will."

Aurelia smiled. "Nothing much. I simply offered them a new body to live in. A soul doesn’t really have much brains anyway. They are easy to manipulate."

She stopped. Her eyes narrowed.

"How did you use my class in the first place?" She thought for a second, then her smile widened. "Wait. My class wasn’t the only one you used. Before that you used the fire mage boy’s skill... then that whore’s skill... and now mine." Her voice softened with something like delight. "You can use any skill, can’t you?"

Rael said nothing.

"That confirms it." She stepped closer. "Wow. A class that copies other classes. Do you know how many people will come for you once they learn about this?"

"God, I love you more now. You’re so special. Become mine, Rael. No one will ever hurt you again. I’ll protect my things."

Rael smiled, but there was no warmth in it.

"That’s your problem, Aurelia. You think of everyone as things to take or kill. A human is not a thing. Maybe if you had come to me without the killings and the games, we could have been friends. But now I’d rather die than be with you."

Aurelia’s expression hardened.

"Then I have to take you by force."

Red tentacles came out and burst from her back. One shot forward like a spear at a very fast speed. Rael slowly put his hand up and casted multiple Fireball, but the flame only licked the surface. The tentacle kept coming.

Lila’s body slipped from his arms and hit the ground. The tentacle coiled around his wrists and yanked him into the air.

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