NOVEL NEXT Chapter 146: Foraging (3).
The humans of the world had learned one thing over the centuries.
Persistence...
The ability, or in this case, the burden to forge ahead irrespective of the unavoidable death was engraved into their souls.
After the death I the first human, the others charged collectively, desperation in their eyes as they beat, stabbed and hacked at the monsters attacking them.
Even a titan would fall if it was bitten by enough ants.
This was true, regardless of the species. The combined strength of the humans was enough to break past the defenses of the Abomination, tearing at its fur with their hatches and knives, skinning it alive.
In mere moments, the Abomination was reduced to a bloody smear on the ground.
The humans picked their weapons and launched themselves right at the next Abomination.
In just a few minutes the entire attacking pack of Swamp Thalls were decimated, their corpses laying limp on the ground.
His breathing heavy, Nero wiped the blood off his face and finally turned around.
What he was met with, was a sight of devastation far more appetizing than he had expected it to be.
Sure, there was some dead on the ground. But most of them were the Abominations. There were only two deaths amongst the humans.
Nero sighed in relief.
'It's good.'
However, very soon, he quickly noticed something strange.
Despite the fact that the battle was over, the humans didn't seem joyous.
He raised a brow and turned his gaze towards them again.
That was when he noticed that all their gazes were trained on him.
In their gazes, he could see, terror, fear, disgust, disbelief, joy, hope...
All these, directed right at him.
"D-Did you really kill so many on your own?" A man took a step forward, his eyes wide in shock as he stammered.
Nero glanced down at the ground.
Although the sight of slaughter around the other humans was terrible, it was nothing compared to the island of torn body parts and the sea of blood surrounding him.
Nero couldn't help but feel the overwhelming need to retch in that moment.
However, his disgust faded very quickly, replaced with a chilling indifference. He was no longer thrown off by the rancid stench of the blood.
Compared to the seven creatures felled by everyone else, a total of twenty bodies lay at his feet.
Emif, his breathing labored, looked up at the terrifyingly glorious figure.
Bathed in blood and a wretched light, in that moment, the young man that stood before him, that was no older than he was, looked absolutely marvelous.
No. Not just that. There was something else.
It was as though he was staring at hope itself. A light in the dark.
A Messiah.
"A god..." Emif muttered under his breath.
Nero huffed and wiped some of the blood off of his face. Then he turned to Obed who also had an incredulous look on his face.
"What's the matter?"
Obed was silent for a moment. Then he sighed,
"No. It's nothing."
He pulled out a rag and threw it at him,
"Here. Clean yourself up. Then we'll get moving."
He turned around, "We'll rest here for a while. Gather the bodies. Aisha..."
While they performed a cleaning, which involved burning the bodies of the dead and cleaning up traces of their presence, Nero wiped the blood of his face and body with the rag he had dampened using water from the Waterskin of Purity.
He noticed the strange gazes from those around him, but he chose to ignore it for the moment.
He did something he had not done in a while.
He called upon the runes.
A scattering of golden, burning symbols appeared. They looked nonsensical for a moment before settling into a recognizable pattern.
***
Seals of Sin: 301/1000
***
Nero's brows trembled.
'I've broken through another threshold.'
For every hundred Seals of Sin he acquired, it felt as though a certain minor barrier was broken through.
He clenched his fists. He felt filled with incredible power.
The world seemed far clearer than it had ever been. The strength of his senses had increased generously as well. Although the increases weren't tremendous by any means, they were noticable, especially in the battle against the Abominations.
However, there were some changes he noticed. His mind has become sharper. But his heart had grown colder and desensitized. His body had also grown colder as well. Surprisingly, he felt no chill whatsoever.
Nero frowned, wondering what these changes could mean.
He pulled out the runes once again.
***
Name: Nero.
True Name: Armageddon, Angel of Judgement.
Seal Rank: F
Seal(s): Seal of Divinity (locked).
Relics: Silver Blade, Wandering Spirit's Journal, Gungnir, Book of Mephistopheles.
Skills: Heretic Eye, Shadow Shift.
Description: Refugee.
Sins: Heretic, Witness.
{Heretic}: You are one who truly does not believe. Thus, you have been deemed a Heretic by the heavens and have acquired the Curse of the Divine Will.
{Witness}: The Heart of a Heretic is the One true witness, for it is the only thing not bound by belief. The Witness cannot be easily afflicted by knowledge and madness.
***
Nero's eyes quickly scanned through the details.
'There aren't a lot of changes.'
He froze for a moment and gently ran a finger over the cross shaped scar on the back of his hand.
He had completely forgotten about it.
It had been dormant all this while so he had put it out of his mind.
'If it is a relic, I wonder what it's purpose is.'
He sighed, 'There's no use thinking about it now.'
Obed signalled him over.
He kept the rag and rose to his feet.
When he walked back to the group, Nero noticed the gazes on him had become more reverent than anything else.
It was strange.
Obed lightly patted him on the shoulder and leaned in,
"Good work. These people will now be relying on you."
Nero grimaced, "That... Isn't very convenient?"
Obed chuckled, "You'll have to deal with it."
He paused for a minute then said,
"You are strong, Nero. This, is the burden of that strength."