Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

Chapter 593: Ryun

Broken

Ryun sat on the soft grass, a large tree looming over him as he leaned back against its trunk. The Essence in the small grove, a garden really, was thick. The tree behind him in particular was giving of high tiered Soul Essence. This was a place of healing, of recovery. Just being here could alleviate pain, could hasten regeneration, could mend wounds that few other things or people could.

It was one of Ender’s great works, legacy he left behind. There were other people in the grove, walking around and tending to plants, but all of them kept their distance, giving him space.

He looked up, his eyes on the branches and leaves obscuring his view of the sky, but he wasn’t really seeing anything—his mind was wandering.

He held delicate fingers in the palm of his left hand, grasped gently. The warmth he felt from sitting next to her served to remind him again that she was alive.

“So,” Ryun continued with his story. “Now we’re going to war, again. The other Sects grumble, as Anrosh says, but they’ll follow. It’s how we live our lives, the strong lead, and I am the strongest.”

He shook his head. “What is it about this world that everyone always makes such stupid decisions. All I want is to be left alone, and always there is something that pulls me away.”

He sighed. “I know, I know, I’m the weird one. At least I have Selia and Erdania to keep me on the right path. I guess… I’m not the most stable of people, I’m rash, I do things without thinking through consequences, at least not beyond the most immediate ones. It served me well, but… I thought that I had grown, that I had changed. I mean, I fell in love again, I’m going to have children too. Can you imagine it? Me? That scares me more I think, it made me regress a bit, my fear of losing what is important to me again.”

“I understand your actions better now, I was naive to try and ask you not to go after your revenge. Or perhaps the mistake I made was not being forceful enough. I always put importance on personal decisions, the autonomy everyone has to choose. It was why I let you go. I shouldn’t have allowed you to go, or I should’ve gone with you. I regret that, and regret… it’s not something I feel often.”

“I don’t know if I can do what they ask of me, you know. I mean, I love the two of them enough to do it anyway, but… All I want is to burn everything to the ground. I guess that’s growth too, me being willing to listen to them over myself.”

Ryun leaned his head back, hitting the trunk and closing his eyes. “I wish I could talk with you, but you’re not here anymore, are you?”

He opened his eyes and looked at the person next to him. Tali sat cross-legged next to him, wearing nice, clean, and comfortable robes. Her wings were folded over her back, and her tail curled around her legs on the ground. She stared straight ahead without blinking.

Her body was healed, there was nothing wrong with her. Even her Soul was whole, or at least it appeared whole to everyone. But her mind was empty, the best healers and mentalists had examined her, and found nothing wrong. Yet everything was. No attempt at healing her had any effect, not even spending time in this grove.

Some suggested that her state was caused by the trauma she suffered under Ra’azel’s torture. Ryun… he didn’t believe so. She was stronger than that, and his power should’ve erased that time from existence—in fact, there was no sign of anything on her.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

She was supposed to be whole, and yet she wasn’t.

He turned her hand in his, holding it so that her palm was facing upward. Then, he pulled out a sphere, one that looked like it was made out of a pink cloud. He placed it in her palm and pressed her fingers so that she was grasping it.

Then he looked up at her face, waiting, searching for any change. He sat there for a full, long, hour, just waiting.

Nothing happened. He sighed and shook his head.

“I thought… They bond to the Soul and maybe… Love is a powerful emotion, it can change even me. But I guess not.”

He grabbed the Bearer of Thriving Love and stored it away. He had hoped that it could help, but he had always known that it wasn’t likely.

“I think that I know what is wrong with you,” he whispered, almost inaudible. “I remember… barely, things from before, when I was True Death, before I split myself in half. I… it’s so muddled, those memories so filled with fog that I can’t be sure.” He didn’t voice his thoughts out loud, he didn’t want to speak them into existence, didn’t want it to be true.

He shook his head. He had a suspicion, but he had no idea what to do about it, or how to prove it right. How to fix her. “I’ll figure it out, I promise.”

He raised her hand up and kissed her palm, then turned his head to the side and waved.

A Sect attendant walked up with a sad smile on her face.

“Take her back,” Ryun said.

“Of course, Sect Head,” she bowed, then leaned down and helped Tali to her feet.

She followed instructions, could walk, eat, but if left alone she just… remained there. Alive, but broken.

He watched the two of them walk away as someone approached him from the other side. He didn’t turn to look who it was as he already knew.

“So, you find him?” Ryun asked.

A low growl filled the air. “I have,” Ereclaw responded.

Ryun stood up and turned to face him. Ereclaw had changed, his power was directly linked to Ryun’s. He looked far more human now, one that had a few wolf features. Aside from wolf ears on top of his head and a tail, along with claws on the tips of his fingers, there wasn’t much that would suggest he once was a beast. Well, his body mirrored Ryun’s in another way too, he had cracks in his skin like Ryun did, though his were more orange in color, fitting for someone who was a Emissary of Twilight.

He could still take on a more wolf-like form, but now he could fit in with other chosen races far better. Most would just assume that his appearance was a result of a True Body.

“And?” Ryun asked.

“He moved along the border, never left his ship, that I’ve seen at least. It was difficult to keep track of him, his ship travels through the Void, and something about it makes it so that he can move great distances in a short period of time.”

Ryun grimaced. “He doesn’t engage?”

Ereclaw shook his head. “Not that I’ve seen. I would say that he is relaying orders, but I doubt that he needs to, the Exalted Empire must have ways of communicating without needing to send people in person.”

Ryun nodded. “Any pattern?”

Ereclaw grimaced. “None that I could see. The issue is that he’s moved away from the front. He feels far away now, enough that I would assume he’s back to the Exalted Empire’s old territories, their home.”

Ryun tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. “Arrogant of him to leave the front, but I guess that he hasn’t even engaged himself and the Sect had faltered.”

Ereclaw nodded. “Either he didn’t engage for fear of drawing powerful Sect warriors out, or he doesn’t believe that it is necessary.”

“The Sects did get caught unaware, aside from a few exceptions, their plan did work. They assassinated a lot of our powerful High Rankers,” Ryun narrowed his eyes in thought. “And you are certain that he’s that far away?”

Ereclaw inclined his head. “Unless he replaced his crew, obviously.”

Ryun grimaced. Ereclaw had been following the Herald of the Machine on Ryun’s orders, or at least his movements. The power that allowed him to track people had evolved and gotten stronger, but he had never been able to get close to the Herald of the Machine, Ryun had given Ereclaw permission to try and assassinate him, if possible, but the fucker was never alone or anywhere where Ereclaw could get him.

So, Ereclaw had been tracking an officer that served on his ship, the Memory of Stars.

“He could’ve rotated back to replace his crew,” Ryun commented.

“It is still an opportunity.”

“You’re right, of course,” Ryun said. “I’ll send word to Anrosh, we want to counterattack while he’s away.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Keep an eye out, keep following the Memory of Stars, and kill him if you see an opportunity.”

His anger demanded that Ryun kill the bastard with his own hands, or at least it did. He had gotten a handle on it now, and he wouldn’t allow it to rule him.

Ereclaw waved a hand and space ripped open, with a nod, he stepped through, heading back to the front.

Ryun closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He would be going to war, and there was still one more thing he wanted to do before going. It was time to advance.