"How dare you betray me!"
Ren screamed at the little girl as he struggled to keep himself afloat in the pool.
Just when he thought it was over, he was kicked in the ass—literally—into the same pool that the bounty hunter's bloody corpse was floating in.
The girl said nothing. She smiled as she watched Ren in the middle of the pool. He had never felt so small. It felt like a toddler fuming at an adult, who couldn't help but be amused.
"The pure waters of the Pool of Rebirth shall give you life and redemption..." the girl recited the words.
Ren paused in the middle of the pool.
She smiled again, "Does that sound familiar, Ace Renora?" she asked.
His eyes widened more than they should.
"What? How did you know my name?"
"The path holds your name from the moment you first step on it."
Light bursted out of the girl's body and her body dissipated into rays of light. The rays scattered and converged at the same point the girl had stood, revealing the golden lady.
She unveiled her face.
'Ah yess, my most expected moment.'
The light that radiated from her face would've have been enough to blind any normal human. But Ren? He grinned at her, squinting to catch a glimpse of her face.
She waved her hand over her face and the light dimmed, revealing her white, beautiful face.
"At least you can live peacefully now," she said, smiling at Ren.
Ren grinned like an idiot.
She walked to the pool and dipped her forefinger into the water. Light spiralled from her finger into the water. It spread all over the water in a matter of seconds, giving it a golden hue.
"You are healed," the golden lady's voice echoed in the cave.
Ren winced as the water rose around the spot he was floating in. The entire pool rippled and the centre began to twirl.
"Look up," she said in a tone that was commanding.
Ren's eyes flicked up to the roof of the cave like someone forced them up there.
A deck of cards forged itself out of thin air and descended on him.
"You have been gifted a divine core in place of the corruption that was in you."
The deck landed on his palms and was immediately caught up in flames. The crimson strings swam into his vision again.
"Name: Ace Renora
Status: Binged
Ranking: Kindling
Designation: The Incendiary Target, Fated Mortal, The Lost Light.
Core: The Fool's Flame
Special Core: The Burning Deck"
"What does all these mean? Why didn't you tell us about this before we got on the path?"
"It is the path speaking to you, and not me. And what it means, the path has revealed it all to you. You just have to pay a closer attention to what it spoke to you. You won't see this anymore when you leave the path, which is why you must remember it."
"That is also confusing like the path itself."
"You're a force of change, Ace. Your purpose is one that would change the world forever. Your path is one that leads to the end of all things and the beginning of new things. Through you, the world will burn or be reforged."
Ren swallowed hard.
"I thought this was just about healing?"
"You have been chosen by the Divine for a special purpose that even the Seraphs would war about. You are a fated mortal."
"Well tell him, or her, that I don't want it."
The pool roared beneath him. Water spiraled faster, pulling him toward the vortex at its center.
The lady stepped back, her golden robes fluttering in a wind Ren couldn't feel.
"Hey!" Ren tried to swim away from the centre, but the more he swam, the more he was being pulled to the center.
The vortex exploded upward and a column of water slammed around Ren, yanking him toward the twirling center like invisible hands.
"Wait!" He screamed.
"Ace Renora," the lady said as the water swallowed his waist, his chest, and his throat. "The world has awaited you for thousands of years. You shall return there."
Ren shrieked, kicked the water and clawed at it, trying to swim away. The water didn't feel like water anymore. It felt like a hand closing around him and squeezing the life out of him.
"Awaken."
It was more of a command than a just a casual word from her mouth.
The roof caved in and the walls collapsed at the sound of her final word. The pool swallowed him whole while he screamed.
Darkness struck him as he ran out of breath. The world spun in the darkness, until a golden light cut through.
Ren's back slammed onto a hard surface. He gasped, jerking up to sit.
He tried to stand up but his legs wobbled and he collapsed to the floor again.
He sat up slowly, because his entire body felt like it was still floating in the pool.
"What… the hell…"
His hand pressed against something warm. It squished beneath his palm like rotten tomatoes. Ren jerked back, gasping.
He realized he was sitting in the middle of a huge mound of bodies. And not just normal bodies—corpses of Rancid humans, Binged that had been slain, twisted and dismembered parts— all rallied around him in layers of circles, just like the spiral of water.
'Did I do this?'
Ren scrambled back again, this time slipping on a dead Binged's arm.
He collapsed to the floor, forced to taste a bit of the hard surface. It tasted like melted volcanic glass and soured meat.
In the center of the spot where he landed, a single burning symbol glowed— a card-shaped glyph, flickering with crimson flames.
"She definitely wasn't bluffing."
He whispered to himself. Finally he could believe the golden lady's words, but he wasn't going to give it much thought.
He bounced off the floor and checked his skin. He sighed, relieved to see his usual fair skin again. He instinctively ran his fingers across his forehead.
An angered frown crawled up his face as he felt a rough pattern on his forehead.
"Goddamn —" he was about to rain curses on the trial, the golden lady, the Binged, rancidity and everything that led to the experience he just had, but the sudden appearance of a young man with a rifle stopped him. He clutched a small wooden box in his free hand.
"Hey, you!"
Ren froze with his hands in the air. He'd recognized that uniform anywhere. He was definitely a guard in the mines.
"Are you the one searching the bodies for stuff?"
Ren remained silent. For once, he chose to remain completely silent for fear of his voice selling him out or his words complicating matters for him. He simply nodded when the soldier kept staring at him.
"Then what the hell are you dallying around here for?"
He tossed the box to Ren. He caught it firmly between his palms.
"If you found any valuable items on them, add it to the collection. The truck is waiting."
The young soldier turned but paused.
"What were you doing anyway?" He asked, his eyes darting down to the oddly arranged corpses.
"Uh..." Ren cleared his throat, "Searching."
The guard grimaced at him, shook his head—in disgust— and marched away, muttering under his breath and spitting.
'He must be new. He doesn't recognize me.'
Ren smiled.
His eyes went down to the box. He felt around its sides till he found an space between the layers. He inserted his finger in the space and flipped one layer that must've been the lid open.
Inside the box were a variety of personal adornments and odd objects. In between them he saw the diamond shaped pendant the old noble man had given to him before he was brutally beheaded.
He hesitated for a second.
"Find Susan Botch at ZeCO..." he heard the old man's weary voice echo in his head again.
'I bet this is my only way out of this shit hole.'
He picked it out after a moment of consideration and shoved it in his trousers.
"Hey! Are you coming or what?"