CHAPTER 58: IT CANNOT SEE YOU EITHER

***

"He killed them all so easily!"

Lothar seemed almost aggrieved by that fact.

"Did he use a Rune there? Or was that his strength?"

Still, he didn’t let that stop him from doing his job.

"And how did he call on his sword?! Is that his Second Rune?!"

And that was, of course, to hype up the crowd.

"In any case, it seems we were not wrong!"

Something that he did well.

"Disciple Xenos is a name to be reckoned with!"

Very well.

"Sixty-Second Fool!"

"Sixty-Second Fool!"

"Sixty-Second Fool!"

"Sixty-Second Fool!"

"Sixty-Second Fool!"

Though not everyone was excited.

A few confused and downright annoyed faces could be seen in the crowd.

Amongst them was Xenos’s very brother, Draven.

For the first time, he said nothing...

And for good reason, there wasn’t really much he could say here.

Rather, he had a question to ask: since when could his brother fight like that?

Never in all those sixteen years they lived with him did he move like that.

Just what happened to him?

Something that his older sister, Selvara, asked as well.

Though she came more from confusion than hate.

His mother, Lyssandra, did so as well.

Only his father, Veynar, looked calm.

’...there’s no denying it.’

He seemed to have come to a conclusion.

***

The further Xenos went, the worse the world got.

Behind him, the tomb grounds already looked bad enough, but this was worse.

The land ahead wasn’t ’land’ anymore but a damned swamp.

A swamp of blood.

It was thick and dark, stinking of iron.

Right in the middle of this swamp stood a shack.

A small, broken thing, half-sinking into the red.

The roof sagged, one wall was gone, and something faintly moved inside it.

Xenos stared for a moment, then exhaled.

"Yeah, sure. Why not?"

He channeled his [Wise Fool,] a low flicker through his legs, and ran forward.

It stood to reason that he could use [Wise Fool] on things other than his sword.

His ’armor,’ for example, was stated in the Rune’s description.

So what if he decided that his boots were ’armor?’

And what if he used his Divinity directly on them?

The ’crit’ on them... what would it be?

He’d find out now.

"Crit."

Reaching the edge of what he could stand on, he leapt, Divinity bursting beneath his boots.

"WOAAAAAAAAAH!"

He flew high, crossing the swamp in a blur, landing on warped boards with a dull thud.

They creaked but held, allowing him to roll, softening the landing.

’Hoh, that was good.’

***

"Just how did he do that?!"

Lothar’s loud voice echoed in the Colosseum.

"Does he have super strength?!"

Since neither he nor anyone else understood what ’crit’ meant, they couldn’t even begin to guess what his Rune was.

"How does a Luck Element have that?"

Still, that didn’t stop them from being surprised.

Xenos previously taking out a sword from nowhere was a surprise too, but not like this.

That one could be explained by a Divine Relic, a Dimensional Item, but again, not this.

Such a large effect of a Divine Relic wouldn’t come from a tiny item.

And no, it wasn’t his boots.

They looked no different than any other!

So the only conclusion they could come up with was—

"HE HAS SUPER STRENGTH!"

***

The planks felt soggy, but they held.

’Good enough.’

Next to him was a door half off its hinges.

Xenos was about to enter through it, but before doing that, he quickly peeked through the windows nailed by someone who hated rectangles and saw the same figure inside.

’Hm.’

Respectfully, he knocked at the door...

"Excuse me~."

And pushed in.

Inside, he saw one table, one chair, and one candle that burned with a black flame.

Sitting on that chair, behind that one table, looking at that candle, was a man.

He, of course, was cloaked, his hood up, his face visible though barely.

Good thing that was, because his skin looked melted and frozen mid-drip.

Whatever happened to him here had likely been worse than a life in Tartaros.

"You’re new."

"..."

Xenos didn’t reply to his rasping.

"Doesn’t matter..."

His voice was faint, almost swallowed by the swamp’s hiss.

"You’ll die soon anyway."

The candle’s flame was snuffed out.

Caring not for that, Xenos remained quiet, but that didn’t mean that he said nothing, as his stare was sharp enough to count as talking, or more accurately, a warning.

And that alone seemed to bother the disfigured man until he began to do what this Stranger before him wanted, info dump:

"This land... it’s wrong. You feel it, don’t you? The Laws here are broken. Too much Divinity stored and mixed up with the fallen Runes, tangling it up beyond reason."

He tapped the table.

"It’s a fracture... reality’s tiny little scab. And though Divinity drips here, it’s spoiled, for Death breeds in it."

Xenos tilted his head slightly.

"Hm, sounds cozy."

That earned a small, bitter laugh.

"It’s more than that; this place eats order. You’re not the first to fall here, and you won’t be the last. And yes, there were many others before you, too many, even Shepherds, yet they all were either hanged on the tree or forced to remain here, rotting in blood. Those who stood the test of insanity... they built something."

Xenos frowned.

"Built?"

"A kingdom."

The cloaked figure nodded.

"A kingdom of the lost."

...This was a lot bigger than Xenos expected.

"They linger before the Hanged Man’s Tree, all of them. Those who wouldn’t dare pass through, those too afraid to face Death. Many truly rotted, became things better left unseen. Even those who remain... half-baked Runebearers, they’re tainted by Death, although too proud to admit it. They try to mimic what is normal for the chance to pretend they still live."

Xenos crossed his arms, the information settling slowly.

"So that’s what’s ahead."

The figure gave another small nod.

"If you make it that far."

Xenos turned after that, about to leave—

"Wait."

Only for him to call out.

"What is it?"

Xenos stopped.

"When you reach the maze..."

His tone suddenly hushed.

"...stay quiet."

He looked back over his shoulder.

"Quiet?"

"Yes."

The figure’s ruined mouth twisted.

"It cannot see you either."