"I must be cursed to remain the only sane person when the world is ending."
He spoke with a shivering voice, the reality not sunken nearly enough for him to accept what just happened.
'May you rest in peace…'
"Dear mother." His voice pitched up and down even though he spoke only two words.
Covering Ann's face with the blanket she was originally sleeping comfortably in, Cole moved towards the exit of the room, his eyes red and puffed from the tears, and yet, the rest of his expression remained stoic, unmoving.
Tears ran without halt even though not a single muscle on his face twitched.
He moved towards his room, entered it, and took hold of whatever equipment he deemed useful, which was but a simple bag.
There wasn't any light protruding through the windows, everything was dark outside where he was going towards to.
'If it's going to be the end of the world, let it be as I died out in an adventure…' Taking one last look at the living room, kitchen, and the rest of the cottage of a house, he finally moved towards the gate.
Creeak!
Fwoo~
"…"
Pulling the door towards him, Cole was met with a brisk gust of wind that washed over his face, making his wet cheeks feel chillier than they were supposed to.
Feeling as if nothing was real at this point, Cole raised his head towards the blood-sun.
'It's growing closer and wider with each passing second, huh.' He thought to himself as he gazed at the dark-purple substance growing bigger and bigger as if swallowing the whole world.
Step, step, step.
As Cole walked on the cobblestone streets, he looked around, taking in the sight of the town.
Shops were abandoned, people who were out for their daily errands were found every few meters in the same freezing position as the old man, and everything was rather quiet.
Taking in a shaky breath, Cole finally managed to pronounce words. "Let's see, where could I go that qualifies as an adventure during my last moments…?"
"Hmmm… Oh? The forest where I train in, that's the best match!"
Quickly reaching at a choice, Cole began making his way toward the forest outside of Elyndor, where he had spent the majority of his time training as an outcast.
Pacing undisturbed through the streets and towards the gate of the town, Cole and his overactive mind for answers couldn't help but think about what the blood-sun may be.
He scanned it with his eyes, noticing visibly the pace at which it grew bigger and the bubbles popping one after another.
"It reminds me of disgusting boiling dishes…" Sticking out his tongue in disgust, he continued his stroll with quicker steps.
"I don't want to be crushed or burned uselessly after all."
He voiced to himself, the forest already in view.
"It's already reaching the tree tops, huh?"
Cole moved into the forest, not bothering that the whole world had grown darkened, the only tinge of light being the one coming from the boiling blood-sun.
"The way this thing is taking its sweet time is really annoying!" With complaints, Cole found himself moving towards the river he always went for a dip in after a long and tiring day of training.
"Should I jump in for a bath now? Nah, ending up dead naked seems a little bit… pathetic."
Getting rid of that idea immediately, Cole decided to unsheathe his sword one last time.
"Hmph!"
With a swift motion, he slashed through the air, the whip of the blade audible to the naked ear.
Fwip~
He swung his arms upwards this time, not breaking off his momentum and instead using it to make a 360-degree turn with the blade aiming down the feet of the imaginary target.
"Sigh."
Breathing out slowly, he stopped his slashes and instead skewered the tip of his blade into the ground, using the hilt to support his weight.
"This is the end, huh?" With the blood-boiling sun just a few inches above his head, Cole asked a question that was already answered.
'Might as well meet my end in a profound way, even though it is quite pathetic on its own.'
He thought as he decided to stare at the swallowing substance, closing in slowly.
'This really is disgusting.'
He couldn't help but frown at the grotesque sight.
The giant matter that grew big enough to swallow the world and make everyone unable to act out of terror, something began to part from it.
A small slimy part began to stretch out from the rest of the batch.
'Is it sentient?'
Cole questioned from within as his body stagnated, unable to move even an inch of his limbs as an eye of some sort blinked open from the lower end of the moving liquid.
The small part of thick, viscous liquid moved around as if searching for a target, and once its end made 'eye' contact with Cole, it gradually started stretching out towards him.
'It's really after me…'
The slime dropped down towards Cole's face, his eye specifically, and then…
Eye-to-eye.
'It's touching me.'
He thought as the eye from dark-purple liquid came into contact with his blue-white iris.
'I can't move.'
Ding.
'Huh?'
A sound entered his mind, getting him confused even though he thought that nothing more than this might happen.
It was quite the opposite.
[Special Conditions have been met!]
[Mythical-Race Attribute: 'Curse Sealer' has cast the curse away towards [Attribute-Sharing]
[Attribute-Sharing is Activated]
[Attribute-Sharing has cast the curse upon 'Cole Deimos'.]
Cole's sight darkened, and numerous unique words appeared before him.
'What exactly do these things even mean?'
Unable to stay without asking what those meant, Cole's mental cogs kept spinning, trying to reach an answer, and yet, it was useless.
There were no leads, no clues, nothing.
He didn't know anything, and so, naturally, he lacked an answer.
"…"
After what felt like an eternity spent inside this space of darkness and going through manic episodes, Cole finally heard a sound.
Ding.
[The Curse has sprouted successfully]
[Curse: 'Angel of Destruction' has been successfully cast upon 'Cole Deimos']
'Huh? Angel of Destruction? Curse? Myself?'
More and more questions kept arising within Cole's mind which was overloaded with the numerous texts.
[Attribute-Sharing has finished its purpose]
[Attribute-Sharing has fully deactivated]
The texts that appeared one by one and stayed long enough for Cole to read them, slowly transitioned out of existence, leaving Cole with that same quietness.
Albeit, this time only for a short while.
"Huh?"
He blinked his eyes open and what he was met with, was far from anything he expected.
"The blood-sun is… gone?"