Echoes of the Abyssal Blade: Path to Free Will-Chapter 49: The Abomination’s Core

With steady steps, Rhydian walked towards it.

It looked up at him, with its detached head, barely clinging to its lifeline.

"I am special....you know...." it croaked.

Rhydian crouched beside it, his gaze was cold, and with a stern voice, he said, "In this world, except for the heroes, nothing is special."

The abomination’s eye widened, it wanted to say more, but couldn’t, as it took its last breath, and its one eye turned dim.

Rhydian stood there in silence, and finally, after a moment, he exhaled, and let the silence settle.

The altar cracked further, crumbling into black ash, the ichor that had poisoned the ground began to turn into ash and dust, fading into nothingness, and the malevolent energy that had choked the area had been lifted.

Jonan and the others finally dared to move, Elias fell to his knees hardly breathing, Marla clutched her blade like a lifeline, and Edric was completely focused on Rhydian.

Rhydian then turned to face them, and said, in a calm but eerie voice, "You’re safe now."

He walked past the cohort, his steps were calm, leaving a trail of faint footprints behind, approaching the majestic physical body of the abomination, he thrust his blade, into the abomination’s chest, and cleaved below it.

Taking back his blade, Rhydian then thrust his hand into the abomination’s chest and plucked something out, it looked like an orb, it was glossy, and dark green, and it had multiple tiny nodes of light swirling around inside.

After rubbing the orb clean, he then examined it for some time, and then threw it at Jonan, and said, "This is something of great importance and of none at the same time, this is a gift from his highness, you will do well to appreciate it."

Jonan was stunned upon receiving the orb that was inside, he knew this was the core of the abomination, from where it generates all its energy, but what he couldn’t fathom was why Rhydian gave this core to him.

From what he knew, while this thing was of utmost importance for the abominations, once taken out of one, it had no use, some tried using sorcery, while some tried implanting it in other living beings, but it never worked, it was tried to be used for refining weapons, unfortunately, that didn’t work.

It was only kept as an ornament for showing off their might to others, and proving that the person can slay an abomination, which is a feat in itself, any abomination that is born with their core is only for them to use, not for anyone else.

Jonan turned the core over in his hand, the orb was pulsing faintly with residual energy, its tiny green lights swirling like dying stars, when Rhydian mentioned to him that His Highness had gifted this to him, he understood that he was mentioning his father, but he couldn’t comprehend, for what use was he provided this orb which was of no use to anyone.

Rhydian had vanished handing the core to Jonan, his presence was gone like a passing wind.

Elias finally sat back, breathing unevenly. "Did that just... happen?" he said, staring blankly at the broken altar.

Marla didn’t answer, her grip on the blade remained tight, and her knuckles were white, from clenching, she slowly approached Jonan, her eyes narrowing at the core. "Why would he give that to you?"

Jonan shook his head, unable to find a satisfying answer. "I don’t know."

Elias laid down with a thud, beside them, "Hoooo, and here I thought we would all be turning into companion ghosts, although I must say, Marla, having you as a ghost neighbor would be pretty annoying, I mean just imagining such a scenario is giving me chills."

Suddenly a blade was thrown at Elias, but it only hit the floor, but he dodged it effortlessly, "See, your annoying habits are this persistent while living, god knows how annoying you will become living as a ghost for eternity."

"Your family is a ghost, you old man, hope you die in a ditch, and live as a slave ghost for all eternity."

The atmosphere turned joyful at least from the tense state, everyone was in, Edric simply glanced at Elias, and nodded his head in thanks, which only the two of them could understand.

They all fell quiet again, the weight of the moment settling fully, the ground where the abomination’s body once lay was already turning to ash, dissipating unnaturally fast, nothing of its corrupted form remained except for the faint impressions in the soil and the orb Jonan held.

"I saw what leader did," Elias finally said, his voice hoarse, "He didn’t just kill it, he... made sure to turn even its remains to dust."

Jonan frowned, "How is that possible to turn pure flesh into dust, and that too a flesh and blood of an abomination."

"It is better that he did, after all, their rotten bodies create problems too," Marla said. "Their very essence is revolting, and poisonous to nature."

"Yes, we would have to clean up anyway, better he did it so effortlessly," Edric said.

"Do you all think, he will help us like this with other missions too," asked Elias in a teasing tone, but Edric hummed grimly in response, and said, "You should be grateful, that he saved us before that abomination could have killed us, you should know better than anyone, members of the Starfall family do not care for anyone’s life, not even their own"

Jonan thought back to Rhydian’s parting words:

"This is something of great importance and of none at the same time."

The contradiction gnawed at him.

Later that night, after the camp had been set up a safe distance from the ruined altar, Jonan sat alone by the fire, the core resting in a pouch he carried, the others were nearby, but it was quiet, nobody seemed eager, after such a frightening encounter.

Elias approached and sat beside him with a grunt, sipping from a battered tin cup. "Still thinking about it?"

Jonan didn’t answer immediately. "Yes, I thought he was sent by my step-mom to go on missions with you all, but listening to our leader, I feel like, things are different from what I had figured, and that explains my journey."

"Yeah, you are a smart kid, I knew you would eventually find out," Elias said, staring into the flames,

Marla joined them a few moments later, stretching her arms and looking thoroughly worn. "Hmphh, is there another mission for which we will have to sacrifice ourselves for this brat?"

Jonan frowned at her remarks, she wasn’t wrong either, so he simply ignored her jab at him, that’s the only way, there would be no internal conflict.

Jonan pulled and stared into the heart of the orb, "He was trying to understand his father’s words, after all in the Starfall family, no matter what, His Highness Draven’s commands were absolute, and while this wasn’t a command, he knew there must be something he had to figure out."

They fell into silence again, broken only by the crackling of the fire.

By morning, the unease hadn’t lifted, the abomination’s might and aura still lingered in their minds of certain death.

Jonan woke early and sat near the edge of a stream, staring at the orb under the light of dawn, the water beside him ran clear, free of the black ichor that had infested the nearby woods just a day ago.

Marla joined him not long after, she kept ignoring him as if she was annoyed by him extensively.

He gave her a tired glance, he was also not ready to listen to her, as the abomination’s mere presence had taken a toll on their minds, requiring them to rest. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

By midday, the team had resumed their march through the forest, they were making their way back to the city of Wailing Shadow.

"Rhydian," Elias said, breaking the quiet. "Damn, just what was that power, I never thought the leader was experienced, and that to someone with an ability."

The question caught them off-guard, yet they also couldn’t agree more on this.

"What else would he be?" Marla asked.

"You saw what he did. That blade, it didn’t just cut, it burned inside the abomination, and broke it from inside out."

Jonan looked ahead, remembering Rhydian’s eyes, empty of rage, yet brimming with some great resolve, like a man who’d carried centuries of silence.

"I don’t know what he is," Jonan admitted. "But he’s no ordinary warrior, He walked into that battle like it was already over."

"And left it like he’d done it a thousand times," Edric added.

They all agreed silently, that Rhydian their leader was a man of few words, his origins were unknown, and that too he was such a powerful figure was astonishing to them, even if the abomination was interrupted midway through its evolution, and it had many beasts before that, but Rhydian’s strength couldn’t be judged.

Meanwhile, Jonan was thinking about Rhydian’s blade, just what was that crimson and dark energy, it was too potent and powerful, and despite completely learning many things from the library, he couldn’t figure out what it was.