Raze looked at the man with a cold glare. "Just tell me what the plan is with the abominations and why you and your cult decided to spread it like a disease?" Raze asked.

The man hesitated to speak, but Raze pressed the bat down on his back as a threat, and the man finally started speaking.

"The reason is because the cult wants to overturn the kingdom fo—" When he got to the part, his voice stopped and he began choking hard. He grabbed his throat, struggling to breathe. Raze watched without emotion. His throat got bigger with every passing moment, and then finally, his throat exploded, splattering blood all around. His head was decapitated from his body in an extremely gruesome way.

Raze and Fey looked at the body with flat expressions. "Tsk, I should have known he would have a curse to stop them from speaking," Raze stated.

Fey nodded. "Seems the cult is extremely big on secrecy. We didn't get anything good from this encounter," Fey said.

"I wouldn't write it off exactly. We at least know they want to overturn the kingdom," Raze said before cleaning his bat on the ground and walking away.

"So what are you going to do about it?" Fey said.

Raze stopped and grabbed one of the limbs of the abomination and placed it into his ring. "I am no hero, but since I can, I'll work on a cure during my free time," he said.

He opened a gate back to the training area and walked in. Fey followed behind, and they arrived back.

[....]

Clang! Clang!

The sound of swords echoing could be heard in the early morning. Raze, Ella, and Elaine stood watching the group of townsmen training with swords. In only a few days, they had come along and were showing good prospects, and Raze was impressed.

He had taught them all how to use Qi, and though the progress in that regard was slow, they managed to make a lot of progress in the short time they had been working.

Beyond that, the wall and house projects were ongoing. The workers had shown that they didn't need to be watched all the time to make good progress, and Raze liked that.

"What exactly is the method you used to train them?" Ella asked. "Their physical strength isn't normal even in the slightest," she added.

"Hehehe, it's something unique to me. Since not everyone could easily use magic, I am using a method that actually brings out the latent strength inside the bodies of people," Raze said with a proud look on his face.

"I'm sure if the kingdom knew you had such a technique, they would want it from you?" Ella said.

"The kingdom wants everything from everyone. That's how a government works. They want control over things, but they won't get it," Raze stated.

"And how will you stop them?" Ella asked.

"By stopping them. My plan for Ribest is to make it a self-sustaining place of its own. Though attached to Vermillion, it's going to be one of a kind for certain," he said, looking at the people training.

After training was over, Raze left. He had a lot to do, so he needed to get into the library fast. He made it to the house, got in, and searched for his room, but right close to his door was Andrew.

Andrew stared at Raze. Their eyes locked for a heavy second before Raze cracked a smile. "Hello, brother," he greeted, but Andrew didn't respond and just walked past.

"I do hope you know nothing about Shadow," Raze suddenly said as his brother walked past. Andrew froze. "What are you talking about?" Andrew asked.

"Your pause is all the answer I need," Raze said and kept walking. Andrew turned around.

"Answer to what?" Andrew barked. Raze pushed the door open and then paused to look at Andrew. "An eye for an eye, brother. You should really begin to worry about your well-being. I'm not one to forgive," Raze said and then slammed the door behind him.

Andrew stood there looking at the door. 'Could he know that I worked with the count to assassinate him? Tsk, why didn't he just die, that kid… arghhh.'

[.....]

Raze got into the library, and the first thing he did was throw the abomination arm from his ring onto the table.

"Librarian, come help me," he called out. It didn't show up. "Where the hell is it?" he asked, then looked around, only to see it floating behind him, giving him a scare.

"Can you stop doing that?" Raze said after seeing the Librarian. He pointed at the abomination arm on the table. "Look at that. Can you find any book that has anything related to it?" he asked.

The Librarian floated over to the arm, stared at it for a few seconds without moving, then suddenly shot straight up to the second floor, scanning through the aisles at high speed. It pulled out a thick book with a black cover, floated down, and placed it gently on the table.

Raze blinked. That was fast.

He stepped closer, opened the book, and the very first page stunned him.

A diagram of a beating heart, actually beating on the page, though it was nothing but ink. And every few seconds, a dark energy crawled out from behind it, wrapping around the heart.

As he stared deeper into it, he suddenly fell into a trance.

His vision blurred. His breath hitched.

He saw his own heart being wrapped by that same creeping darkness. The energy latched onto it, drowning it, turning it pitch black, robbing it of all color.

He watched himself from outside, powerless, unable to control his body, unable to breathe, unable to scream, as something bound him down from the inside and crushed him with pain while taking control of his flesh.

It repeated. Again. And again. Five times in a row.

Only then did he manage to gasp and snap out of it. That was the feeling every being that was turned into an abomination felt, helplessness, pain, horror, everything in between, and yet they couldn't fight it.

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