Solar Mage

Chapter 70: The Bad Ending Part: 2

I fly past the burning piles of ash and fire, the entire district filled with screams, ignoring it like it wasn't even there, flying back the route I came.

It's really a shame I wasn't able to find Bran, but I'm sure he's safe.

In my flight, completely forgetting the world below me, I look up at the pink sky, and the sun setting in the west, with my pupils' completely devoid of light, a black husk of its vibrant brown self.

That's also a shame, I wanted to see the sun high in the sky again. Wait, why did I want to see it again? I think it had something to do with what I thought back at the Mint Estate Clinic, but I guess I forgot. Whatever, let's not get so worked up about it, it's probably no big deal. I need to stop procrastinating, it's quite a bad habit of mine. How will I be able to find Tin's wife without Rachel, or any other party member? I don't know, but I guess we'll see, who knows, I might just see Bran eating some candy along the way!

In my mindless flight back, retracing my steps, the fiery houses and smoke filled air come to an end.

Hey, it's not so hot anymore. I wonder what's different, but I guess I shouldn't get off track.

Inside the adventurer's guild, it's quite empty, all except for a few who form a small crowd around the receptionist's desk, a few sentences being heard before it turns to indiscernible screaming.

"I WANT TO TAKE THE FIRE EXTERMINATION QUEST!"

"SIGN ME UP!"

Papers fall down through the air, as the small crowd of adventurers grasp for them, quickly running past me, out the door once they get one.

What dedicated and good adventurers, they're all so eager to help out against the fire monster thing or something similar to that. I hope I can be like those adventurers in the future!

When the crowd disappears, I come face to face with the stressed-looking receptionist.

Oh hey, that's a familiar face! I don't quite remember who, but if I don't remember her with evil intentions, that must mean she's good!

"Hey ther–"

I try to say, closing my eyes and trying to put on a smile.

"Oh hey! It's you! What can I do for you, great patron? Oh! Have you come back for your change? I have it right here!"

She hurriedly reaches down below her new, unbroken desk.

"There's no need for that, I need your help to find someone."

I say, while continuing to smile at her with my eyes closed.

She lifts her head out from under the desk.

"Oh, you're talking about failure right? You must not have been able to find him because of the fire some crazy arsonist started in the slums, I heard it started somewhere near the lower merchant district actually.

What is she talking about? I don't remember speaking to her about this, or seeing a fire, my memory is perfect! I haven't even tried looking for him yet, I just got here. My memory is perfec–

An imaginary cracking noise is sent to my brain, as I feel my mind start to scream in pain, even though my brain remains undamaged.

"AUUUUURRRGGHHHHH!!!!"

I scream out in pain, holding my head and tugging on my hairs in order to try and relieve even a bit of it.

"SIR? ARE YOU OKAY?!"

The receptionist looks at me with a face full of worry. However when she blinks and her eyes open, her worry for me turns into worry for herself, now looking up at me, now standing upright and looking down at her. She looks at me terrified, like I was a monster.

"AAAHHHH!!!!"

We merely exchange glances at each other, but when her eyes meet with mine, she shrieks in fear.

"Is something the matter, madam?"

I say while unknowingly staring fiercely at her with my pitch black eyes, endless like the void, and tilting my head to get a better look at her.

What? Is something on my face? Why's she screaming like that?

The receptionist's body, frozen in fear, looks at me with eyes that begin to calm down, still far from normality.

"N-no, there's nothing wrong, dear patron."

She says, her voice trembling as she quickly looks away from me once she notices she has control over her eyes.

"Alright then, could you please explain more about Bran, I mean failure? And what we spoke about last time?"

I smile widely, showing great sincerity again by closing my eyes, however, an ominous aura continues to exude from me.

"We-we've spoken about this before, you asked me about failure, the twin brother of David and gave me this artifact in-in exchange for telling you where the Bracken Bandits were located!"

My eerie smile stays unchanging, while my eye slightly twitches, staying silent and continuing to stare at her.

"Did you say something? I– I've never spoken to you before and I've never gone looking for– ... who?"

My eyes become unfocused and my smile disappears, my head tilting as I try to remember, my eyes regain focus as my pupils suddenly veer back at the receptionist.

"Haha– hahaHAHAha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

I laugh maniacally, my voice echoing through the entirely empty guild hall, my smile remaining after I stop.

"Greetings ma'am, how are you doing this fine evening?"

She stares intensely at me, in great fear, unable to respond.

"I just have one question for you."

I lean in, up close to her sweating face.

"Where is the C rank adventurer, Tin's loving wife and kids?"

In her nervousness, the receptionist gulps, the soft dulled sound moving throughout the silent room before she speaks.

"Didn't you want to know where Bran is–"

I smash the table, the erupting sound cutting her off before she finishes her sentence. Her panicked eyes try to shut, but open again in the time of two blinks, focusing solely on my hand, drenched in blood, dripping down as I lift it up. When it goes up to my face, the receptionist starts praying to Pyro as she sees my face, no longer smiling, my eyes, marked by insanity, attracting her gaze no matter how much she tries to go against it.

"I DON'T KNOW WHO BRAN! IS JUST ANSWER!"

I grab her wrist with my blood covered hand, and hold onto it tightly, the pressure I put onto it increasing by the second.

"WHERE. DOES. TIN. LIVE."

The receptionist bursts out into tears, screaming while her hand that I held turned purple.

"I DON'T KNOW!! PLEASE!! PLEAse..."

I stared, first seeing her blackened hand, the blood from my hand transferring onto hers, and then the puddle of tears under her. And it made me angry.

As I left the adventurer's guild, there were no humans left, no adventurers or workers, the only thing being a puddle of blood that happened to be from the same person as the new coating on my hand.

Time to do this the old fashioned way I guess.

***

Adventurers carrying water buckets run past me, to try and put out the trail of burning houses behind me, the only source of light in this dark, cloudy night created by the smoke.

Ah, so this is it, the last house on the street. I will admit, it would have been easier for me to find this place if Rachel was here with me, but I'm here now regardless. Now all I have to do is hope that this is the right house, or I may have to stay in this village until morning.

I take a look down at myself, walking back to the building I just left to get a better look at myself with better lighting.

Hmm... I don't know how my clothes got this ragged, but this is certainly not a respectful appearance for apologizing to the family of Tin who– What happened with Tin again? I don't know, maybe it's his birthday or something. In that case, this attire is perfectly fine.

Just as I finish looking at myself and convincing myself once again, I turn back to the last house, but something low on the ground catches my eye.

Huh? What's this?

I lift up my shoe and see a crumpled up, flat blue lily on a dirt patch, broadening my range of vision, I look to the right of it, and see a whole garden full of flowers.

Ah, how beautiful. These flowers would be a perfect gift to give him! Well, maybe not him but his wife. It doesn't really matter, any gift at all is better than none.

Without hesitating, I crouch down and with one hand, pull out a handful of red flowers from the dirt patch.

I'm not a florist, but these flowers look pretty good.

I pat down the flowers a bit, to remove the dirt from them, as well as my clothes where some of the dirt landed.

Perfect.

I walk up the steps of the porch and taking a deep breath, I knock on the door, softly and rhythmically, the door slightly pushing in a bit.

No one's responding huh? I guess I'll just take that as an invitation in!

I grab the doorknob and slowly push it open.

"Huh, what a nice and cozy place, you sure got yourself a good house, Tin."

I look at a single picture standing on a wooden shelf, where Tin, along with a woman and two children smile happily in a grassy meadow, full of flowers and plants.

Looks like this is Tin's house.

"And a good family too!"

I make my way further into the house, admiring the welcoming furniture along the way.

"I brought some flowers for you and your wife! Since you know, it's your birthday..."

My voice lowers as I suddenly feel a sticky pull on my shoe when I step into the dark living room, and a weird sound comes from it.

"What the hell is this stuff? It smells like– blood..."

I intensely look down at my feet, but still can't get a good look at what it is without light.

Finally, I hold up my hand and summon a dim Dawn, making me certain of my idea.

Yeah, this seems to be a relatively small puddle of blood.

My eyes continue to look up from the blood beneath me, revealing a sea of blood spanning from the small puddle beneath me, to the edge of what Dawn lights up.

Okay, so not just a small puddle of blood, but where is it coming from?

The bright blue moonlight shines through the window as the smoke from the fires start to clear up.

Ahh, how beautiful, it's like looking at the sun. Just... calmer. I can feel all of my stress and troubles leaving me. Drifting away like ash through the wind.

However, as I bask in the moonlight, one large shadow blocks my face from being soaked in the glorious moonlight. I fight the urge as much as possible, but eventually, I succumb to it, and open my pitch black eyes, now seeing the room in its actual self.

Yeah, there sure is a lot of blood over the floor, it seems what I stepped in was but a fraction of its entirety.

Finally, after much delay, I glance over at the three hindrances in front of me, blocking my view with the moon. I glance at it for a long time, without showing any emotion through its entirety. I only look away for a single second to unroll the makeshift bandages I wrapped around my head, standing the lowest in the moonlight, of the three figures dangling from the ceiling. One the size of a woman, her feet reaching as low as my chest, and the two other figures, whose feet don't even touch the tips of my hair.

I take one last deep breath before I fall to the ground in a blurry daze as all the forgotten memories rush back into my head, unable to even hold myself up with my arms, collapsing onto just my head and knees.

"HAAAAARRGGH– HAAG AAAAHHH"

My body ached, my breaths coming more frequent and shallow, coughing uncontrollably while gasping for air as tears and saliva slobbered out from their openings. Unable to deal with the overload of information and emotions, as the final blow, my mental brain shatters, crackling into fragments and scattering across the library that is my mind.

In the far end of my mind, one point reaches a state of clarity within its own insanity.

Tin, you were right, humans are evil. But I'm not speaking to you right now to apologize for not being able to stop them. I'm sorry that I was unable to be any different from them...