Ray looked at the dead body with a complicated gaze. 'I've never killed anyone before. Yet, I don't feel anything.' He thought while looking at his hand. The hand that was now dirtied with the blood of a human.
He never thought about it before, but he knew killing people will become something normal to him at some point. To his surprise, that didn't take long and he was already accustomed to it.
'What's happening to me? Is it because of Sanguis?' Many questions weighed on his mind with no answers. Then, he felt a hand touching his shoulder, he looked back to see Flora looking at him with worries.
" Are you ok? You could've left him alive if you felt uncomfortable with killing him." She said.
Taking a deep breath, he erased all of those thoughts and smiled at Flora lovingly. "It's the opposite, I didn't feel anything. I'm scared....scared that one day I will change to the point where you won't even know me anymore." Ray confessed what was on his mind the whole time.
"You silly. Even if you change to a whole new person, Ray is still Ray...The man I fell in love with. Your essence is the same and will stay the same. So believe in it and you will always be on the right path. I'm sure of it!" Flora poked his chest where his heart was.
It came as surprise to Ray, her words somehow calmed him and made his troubles vanish like they never existed. 'What did I do to deserve someone like you?'
As if raking by the moment, Ray couldn't hold himself and he pulled Flora into his arms and hugged her tightly. She made a cute sound of surprise but then she hugged him back.
"Thank you. I feel better now." A few words were enough for her to understand his feelings and she nodded quietly.
They stayed in that position for a good 5 minutes, sharing the warmth of each other's bodies. They didn't talk, or to be more precise they didn't want to talk. People say 'The body speaks louder than the mouth' and this was a good example of it. In the middle of all this destruction and despair, they looked like two beautiful flowers growing in the middle of despair and sadness, rebelling against the cruelty of the world.
Flora felt peaceful in his arms as if she belonged there. 'I hope we can stay like this forever' She thought. But there was no such thing as eternity and everything comes to an end.
Ray pulled himself from the hug and looked deeply into Flora's eyes. "As much as I want to keep embracing you like that. We need to go." He said with a displeased tone. If not for the important things they needed to do, be would've probably hugged her for hours.
" Fufufu... You look cute when you're angry." Flora chuckled elegantly.
"Cough...Anyway, I think I know where to find this cult."
"Coming to that. How did you know he was one of them?"
"Hmmm... Very simple, When I healed him. I felt his mana signature. It was the same as the chimera." Said Ray.
"Mana signature? What's that?" Flora tilted her head cutely. It was an adorable gesture but Ray couldn't mention that when they were having a serious conversation.
"You never heard of it? It's something I learned in the holy kingdom. Basically, Mana signature is a unique sign that every mana core has. Just like fingerprints." Ray explained briefly.
This shows that the lower realms were still way behind in terms of magic. Such a simple concept was still foreign to this world.
"He tried to blend in and wait for our help and then run away. I'm sure he's just a small fry as he said." Added Ray with contemplating look.
"Their headquarters are in the forest? It's weird how we didn't see any suspicious things there."
"You're right. Let's go. We should reach there in a few hours. I guess the trip will be on hold until we deal with these folks."