Chapter 33
Within Heart, Without Mind
"Don't!!" a young voice cried out abruptly as Ethan crouched above Ronald, a blade formed wholly of blood pointed at the young man's throat, seeming as though he was about to stab through it. Ignoring the voice, he pressed forward, the blade inches from the throat, when he suddenly felt a strange force repel him. It was not strong enough to actually stop him and if he wanted to he could have easily pushed through, but he held his hand steady and hid a smile, forcing a cold look on his face before looking up.
Elijah stood some ten feet from him, both arms extended, a shimmer of faint golden evident on his fingertips. His eyes were closed and his posture derelict, but he somehow stood firm, feet implanted in the ground. He'd Awoken, Ethan realised. It was a widely cast suspicion that Elijah had one of the few known cases of 'Spontaneous Awakenings', where a person woke up to the feeling of Mana and magic without needing to actually utter the word and undergo the change.
The most famous example, perhaps, was one of the members of the so-called 'Ten Beasts', Fabian Weber who Awakened in a bid of cataclysmic destruction of his hometown after a failed clear of a Tunnel. At the tender age of 12, he became one of the strongest Awakened in the world, overnight.
Ethan didn't press forward, disbanding the bloody blade and standing up. He'd already tended to the major injuries of both kids and now it was simply up to their bodies to heal themselves back up. It would take a while, he garnered, which was why he retreated to the dip and sat down.
"Open your eyes and stop wasting Mana," Ethan said, prompting Elijah to finally look around. He saw Ethan sitting in the back with both Tara and Ronald lying motionless on the ground. But they were alive. He felt it, somehow, felt that they were alive… and that they would heal in just under three hours. Heal completely. "Sit with me," Ethan invited him and Elijah obeyed. He expected to get punished for following them when he was supposed to watch over Layla, but when the young girl fell asleep, Elijah snuck out and ran over. He felt something was wrong with the three adults ever since they came back yesterday after Ethan left abruptly, but he didn't know quite what. And still didn't.
"..."
"What's the name of your Class?" Ethan asked.
"... Aegis Weaver," Elijah mumbled softly.
"A cool name. Mine's Blood Inheritor. Yours is much cooler."
"... yours is cool, too."
"Tell me about your Class." Ethan said, taking out two bottles of water from his Inventory and handing one out to Elijah who gingerly accepted it.
"I… I have three abilities," Elijah replied, half-excited to share with someone that he's no longer dull and wasteful, and half-terrified to express a part of himself that seemed like it should stay secretive. "Astral Armor, I… it's, it's a buff I can cast on two people. It increases their Health by 15% and their defences by 5. It's Level 1, so… it, it can grow?"
"It can grow," Ethan nodded. "What are the other two?"
"P-Pulsar Surge," Elijah stuttered out. "What… what I used, back then. It… it says it creates an anti-gravity force to repel two objects. Its size and strength are dependent on how much Mana I use."
"And the third?" Ethan remained expressionless, causing Elijah's heart to sink ever so slightly. He'd expected more of a reaction, as he felt the Class really was quite cool.
"Quantum Weave," the boy said. "I, I can move objects through space."
"Oh, that's pretty cool," Ethan nodded. "I'm guessing there's a small billion limitations at Level 1 though, right?"
"... yes. I, I can only move particles right now."
"Eh, that's not too bad."
"It's not?" Elijah knew that Quantum Weave could potentially become the coolest spell in his arsenal, but for it to be classified as even 'not too bad' felt like too much.
"There's a lot of death that can be packed into particles, Elijah," Ethan grinned lightly. Ethan was a bit shocked inwardly. This did sound like Elijah's Class in the past–in broad strokes. Elijah was the type of 'preventive support', the type of support Class that was all about either preventing or lowering incoming damage rather than healing it back up. However, that was all he was–preventive support. His current Class read more like a mix of preventive and disruptive.
There were quite a few Classes whose entire purpose was 'setting the stage', so to say; this included terrain manipulation, size manipulation, and even gravity manipulation, but they were hardly popular as they were far too one-dimensional and often felt mostly unnecessary.
It was difficult for Ethan to confirm as Elijah of the past never divulged his Class name or that many details about it. The man in the future who seemed to have gotten the same Class, however, did–and the Class' name decidedly was not Aegis Weaver. It was Valiant Sentinel.
Ethan rubbed his chin in silent contemplation. The truth of it all didn't necessarily even matter; whether it was because Elijah's Class originally was Aegis Weaver and he simply chose to ignore a whole aspect of the Class, or it was some other Class entirely, this was still more a boon than a bust. Combo Classes were exceedingly rare. Most were sterile in the sense that they served a singular purpose, and expanding beyond that purpose yielded little to no benefits.
On the other hand, Combo Classes also required a lot of resources due to their nature. It was similar to Ethan's own Class, in fact; Blood Inheritor was, contrary to Logan's portrayal of it, a Combo Class–it was as much a drain tank as it was a damage dealer. The added benefit of 'minions' through sub-Classes wasn't Blood Inheritor exclusive as most Vampiric Classes held similar benefits in one way or another.
The reason why Blood Inheritor would be much easier to itemise for, however, was because the Class demanded raw Health more so than any other stat–and raw Health was largely viewed as one of the least important stats, even for tank-oriented Classes. As such, he would be able to hound all Health-related items as there would be little competition for them. Elijah's Class, on the other hand, would likely require a combo of Intellect, Wisdom, and a lot of raw Mana to be built optimally. The thing was, though, that those three, precisely in that order, were number one, two, and three of the most wanted stats globally. So, any item that had all three would skyrocket in price and demand, a kind of demand that supply never matched, not even when over half of humanity was gone.
But that was ordinarily–Ethan got his hands on a golden goose, and he would feed it whatever it wanted as it was golden. Elijah, in more ways than one, was a perfect support for not just him, but Tara and Ronald as well. All three of them had natural healing properties and would start unlocking more and more drain-type Spells as they levelled up which paired perfectly with preventive-minded support like Elijah. Maybe, Ethan mused, the Tunnel's raid wasn't as doomed as he first thought.
"... you… you knew I was there," Elijah mumbled, fiddling with the bottle.
"I did." Ethan confirmed.
"Did you… did you know this would happen to me?"
"... no," Ethan shook his head. "I was just wondering whether you'd have the balls to step out. And you did. As I said, you're a good kid, Elijah. Stupid, yes, but good."
"Why… why did you do that to them?" the boy asked.
"... the place where we're going will do that and much worse," Ethan replied. "Sometimes, to build something grand, you have to break it first."
"I–I can protect them," Elijah spoke with a flint of conviction. "So, so…"
"I'm sure you can," Ethan gently ruffled the boy's hair, prompting the latter to look up at him with wide eyes. "But for you to protect them, they first need to be able to protect you. Don't worry about them. They're fine."
"..."
"Well, physically they'll be fine," Ethan added. "Mentally? We'll see. You should go back," Ethan added. "Layla can't wake up to nobody being there."
"... yes," Elijah stood up.
"Read through your abilities and stats and everything," Ethan said. "Understand your Class so that you can protect them even better."
"Yes," Elijah nodded firmly before turning around and running toward the lodge.
Ethan watched the fading, stumbling back of the young boy with a smile that faded quickly. Things weren't colliding–stories of two worlds were diverging quickly and they were diverging aggressively. Whatever he did early on post-Descent seems to be having massive echoing effects globally.
Maybe it's not me, it was a thought that followed him all the time and one that he didn't want to entertain. But… it seemed more and more likely the more time passed. He came back–that alone was enough proof that it was possible. And if it was possible once, there was no reason to believe it wasn't possible for the second time. Chances were that he was simply thinking too much about it–he affected the future in a million small ways ever since he returned to the past. It was entirely plausible that all of the diverging effects were entirely due to him. But…
It's possible they're not.
That was the scary thought–the possible truth that terrified him.
He glanced at the two kids lying on the ground, slowly recovering, and wondered silently what the future held in store not just for him, but for the two of them as well. He was pushing them too hard–there was no monster in the world, right now, that had the ability to do to them what he did. He was breaking them too violently, too savagely, and too quickly. And if he pushed too hard, he may just snap them beyond repair.
In the end, he banked on the two of them being anomalies from the onset–their adaptation rate was already abnormal, so he'd hoped it would kick in once again, and that they would wake up to the betterment of themselves. However, having seen their previous reactions, he doubted it.
Whatever veil of strength they wore, Ronald and Tara were children. Not only were they children, but they were children cradled in comfort their whole lives. Just having access to Mana and the ability to endure and survive having your knee shattered into smithereens did not mean that the ill-equipped mind could endure it all and reconstruct itself as muscles could after training. He knew that wasn't how a mind worked, a normal human mind at least. It needed time and nurturing to adapt… but he didn't have time. He had ten days, ten days to unmake them as people and make them into monster hunters.
He sighed, wishing he had a cigarette at hand even though he had never lit one up in his life. In some ways, life was far easier in the distant future; he'd wander the ruins of the cities and towns and be well aware that any person he came across likely wanted to skin him alive. There was a simplicity to the absolutely barbaric nature of man in the future–but currently, nuance was the mother of life. And it was hampering him, for better or for worse.