Rio and Lia had a light breakfast before the two of them sat in a car and headed towards the Rex mansion.
[Yes, when Lia awakened her foresight ability and found her own ’Path’ she beca much stronger and that was likely when she broke that ’curse’ you speak of...]
Hearing Kai’s words, Rio heaved a sigh of relief.
’It turns out she managed to deal with that curse on her own... she was able to break it and get rid of it with her sheer willpower... that’s impressive...’
Rio was confused why his sword intent couldn’t find any miasma or its lingering side effects in Lia’s body.
According to Alverto’s mory, which he saw back in the Spire of Ascension, it is certain that Lia’s mother was inflicted with the ’curse,’ and Lia inherited it from her.
But it turns out, Lia managed to keep that ’curse’ suppressed, and she even destroyed it completely later on.
Her strong willpower and her constantly rising strength, along with the awakening of a legendary spirit, Kai, caused her to gain trendous resistance to that curse.
Due to this, Rio was confused and had no other choice but to ask Kai about the situation, as he’s deeply connected to her ’sea of consciousness’ and is a part of Lia’s ’pathway.’
Of course, Rio only ntioned that he was concerned that Lia’s mother died from a curse and Lia might have it too.
Rio didn’t tell Kai about Alverto or anything else.
Kai didn’t have any other choice but to cooperate and tell Rio about everything honestly, as Rio sword intent gave him too much pressure.
He seed to have never sensed any curse on Lia, which is obvious; after all, it’s a curse created from the power of a being who’s even above SS-rankers.
Detecting it and dealing with it is very difficult, but it seems that Kai did notice that Lia seed to have broken so shackle holding her back when she awakened foresight and realized her ’path.’
Rio concluded that Lia likely broke the curse at that point and thus beca stronger.
’Well, it’s a good thing she’s okay; I won’t have to worry this way... what happened to Kira was truly horrifying...’
’I won’t even wish such a fate on even my worst enemy...’
Kira was truly miserable; she was just a normal girl living her peaceful, happy life with her loving family and her good friends.
She had great talent in being a historian, and she would have been a successful person who could have at least reached peak S-rank given enough ti to grow.
But everything shattered due to Alverto’s interference.
Her dreams, her ambitions, her entire being... She lost everything and beca a mindless puppet for a demon who used her to commit horrible deeds to the end.
She was used like a pawn by Alverto to deceive Fade and everyone else; she beca the reason for the lava lake dungeon incident, as she leaked the coordinates.
This caused the death of many of her own friends in that incident.
Unlike Lia, who inherited a much weaker version of the curse from her mother, Kira was cursed directly by Alverto, and she had no chance of even resisting it.
The mont Fade beca the ’haven’s chosen’ and awakened his system, she lost herself and beca a living corpse.
A living corpse that hard her own friends and caused imnse misery for herself and everyone else too.
Her fate was too miserable.
’Up until now... I didn’t think much of it... but now that I know these things, I have to get to the bottom of it all...’
Rio is destined to fight that great being in the future one day or another.
’When the ti cos... I must find out why that ’being’ suddenly ca in contact with Alverto...’
’I need to know what caused such a major change in the original novel’s plot... Alverto should have died... but sothing caused that great being to co in contact with Alverto and save him...’
’I must find out about that...’
Although Kira doesn’t have anything to do with Rio, he doesn’t want to keep on living after knowing that there is so kind of power that can turn a person into a living corpse and use them as a puppet.
Such a power is too dangerous and must be dealt with sooner or later.
Rio himself has a power to directly shatter a person’s soul, but he himself doesn’t use it much, as that power is way too evil.
Generally, when a person dies, their soul goes to the afterlife, giving them a chance to be born again and live a better life again.
But the soul-splitting technique can shatter a person’s soul, directly killing them in the ’truest’ sense.
It completely destroys the chance of the victim ever being able to live again.
If such a power were to fall into the wrong person’s hand, it would have been a nightmare.
Similarly, now that Rio knows that there’s a being who can turn people into its puppets, he be even more cautious in the future.
’Now there’s one more reason to kill that being... the list just keeps increasing...’
While thinking about all these things, Rio let Kai go and placed him back on the car seat.
As Rio and Kai had talked using ’telekinesis,’ Lia didn’t know what they talked about at all; she was still looking at the passing scenery outside with a gentle smile on her face.
Rio glanced at her face and thought to himself in his mind.
’I just want her to stay happy... I must get stronger if I want to protect that smile...’
Rio’s own smile had disappeared long ago; nowadays he only pretends to smile, but he has decided that no matter what, he must protect Lia’s smile atleast.
Thinking about this, Rio rembered that even Alverto wanted the sa thing.
’In the end... we are similar to a great extent... we could really have been friends, Alverto...’
...
A few minutes later.
Rio and Lia arrived at the Rex mansion without any delay on the road, as most of the roads were empty today.
The entire nation has fallen into a national ergency as ’Ashtel Rex’ is in a coma, and fear has spread among citizens.
Most people are hiding in their hos and are constantly staring at the news channels just to find out whether Ashtel recovered or not.
Ashtel is basically a pillar of stability for the entire nation; him falling has caused the sky over the empire to collapse.
Hundreds of thousands of people are praying for his safety and swift recovery, and the internet is completely flooded with people talking about this sa topic.
"The safety here is really sothing..."
To enter the Rex mansion, even Rio and Lia had to go through strict security checks despite being friends with Link.
They even had to show what was stored in their space rings.
Lia’s father was also on guard duty, so he had already told Lia that if she wanted to co here, she must not carry anything that might cause trouble.
Due to this warning, Lia and Rio both emptied out most of the inventory from their space ring.
Not to ntion the Rex mansion the entire district was being strictly monitored by dozens of S-rankers constantly to prevent any incident.
"Phew, finally the security checks are over..."
Rio and Lia managed to get in after a full ten-minute-long security check; they even had to hand their swords over to the guards and weren’t allowed to carry them inside.
’Well... it’s pointless to confiscate my sword; I can just summon it to my side without any restrictions...’
No matter how tight a place’s security, there are always loopholes and things that create gaps.
Rio didn’t bother dwelling on this matter for long and entered the mansion along with Lia and Kai.
The mont they passed through the main gate, a car was waiting for them inside, and Link was standing there with a depressed look on his face.
"You are finally awake... You really took your sweet ti heh..."
Link spoke in a slightly mocking tone to try to hide his anxieties, but the depressed look on his face was showing his emotions vividly.
Rio walked over and lightly jabbed him in the stomach before replying in his usual emotionless tone,
"Sorry to keep you all waiting... How’s the situation now? You don’t need to hide it... I can see the look of anxiety and worry on your face, you know."
Link sighed at Rio words and opened the car door to sit inside.
Rio and Lia followed him in too.
"Well, I am not stone-faced like you... I can’t keep my emotions from spilling out and showing on my face... keeping a poker face like you all the ti is impossible for ..."
Link sighed as his back bent down, showing that he was tired and depressed, both.
"The Elven Queen healed him but well, he’s still in coma; Riya is staying beside him for the ti being..."
"He seems to have exhausted a trendous amount of power and likely won’t recover anyti soon..."
Link then glanced into Rio’s eyes and spoke.
"Professor Jin’s situation is even worse... we aren’t even sure if he will ever wake up again..."
"It’s the worst situation... sigh..."
Saying those words, Link could only shake his head.
"Don’t worry, I am quite sure that both of them will be fine... They will wake up; there’s no need to be that depressed..."
"You just need to believe in them..."
Rio didn’t know too much about consoling, but he said what he felt.
He could feel with his instincts that the two of them will recover.
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