The light had softened by the time Victor was halfway to the site where Arlen had slaughtered all those goblins.
The sun hung low above the trees, spilling long, amber shafts through the forest canopy.
The air was cooler now, touched by the scent of pine and wildflowers, and the faint hum of insects had just started to return to the woods.
He walked slow and careful with his bare feet pressing into the damp earth as he carried the boy in his arms.
Alrlen's skin burned both cold and hot at once.
His frame shivered in waves, while his breath came shallow, breaking into uneven tremors every few seconds.
The green blood crusted across his chest and arms had long dried into a sickly sheen that caught the afternoon light, while faint streaks of his own still traced over his neck and shoulder.
Victor had cleaned what he could after he brought Arlen to that clearing, wiped the blood off his face, and rinsed the wounds with what water he had.
But he didn't have much.
A gust of wind drifted through the branches above, scattering thin shafts of light over the path ahead.
And Victor's eyes flicked to the setting sun that he could no longer see through the dense trees.
He knew he himself would become the greatest danger to Arlen come nightfall.
Every few steps, he'd glance down at the boy's pale face, eyes half-lidded, but burning with something no virus can snuff.
And that was enough to keep him moving.
Victor's grip tightened slightly, his expression unreadable.
"Damn it, kid…" he muttered under his breath, half to himself. "You'd better know what you're doing."
He adjusted his hold, the boy's arm falling limply against his chest, before resuming his slow tread through the endless green.
"Kid, what do you even need those bodies for?"
Arlen's eyelids twitched, but his tone stayed flat, breath hitching between words.
"Trust… me."
He turned his gaze back to the blue panel hovering over his vision.
[Protocol: Chronos]
Name: Arlen Hale
Race: Human
Circuits: 2
Affinity: Time, Red Lightning
Level: 14 / 100 (Tier 1, Late Stage)
EXP: 15,267 / 19,462
Status:Critical
Condition 01:Goblin's Fester: Bloodborne infection caused by goblin blood.
Immediate effects: Necrotic tissue spread. Immune system collapse.
Estimated time to systemic failure: 13 hours.
Condition 02:Goblin Fever: Neurological and mana-system infection caused by goblin saliva in the bloodstream.
Immediate effects: Neural hyperactivity, increased aggression.
Over-amplification of MP Regeneration by x150 due to forced Core Overclocking.
Resultant effect: Core rupture detected.
Condition 03:Core Integrity: 7%
Function: Compromised.
MP Regeneration: -5/sec (Mana Leak).
Circuits over-exerted.
1 Year before optimal function.
Condition 04:Physical Trauma:
1x Left Shoulder Bite (Severe)
1x Right Thigh Gash (Severe)
1x Left Thigh Bite (Moderate)
Multiple lacerations across arms, face, and hands.
Internal contusions detected.
Estimated time before death: 14 hours.
Stat Points: 0
Stats
STR: 1
AGI: 1
EDU: 1
DEX: 1
MP: 0 / 66
MP Regen: -5/sec (Core Ruptured)
LCK: 1
Magic
Red Lightning Reinforcement (Epic)(Active)(Min. 5 MP/sec)(7 Circuits for Optimal Function)
Skills
Precognition (Legendary)(Active)(Min. 2 MP/sec)(2 Circuits for Optimal Function)
Gear
Crossbow (Heirloom)
Laro's Sword (Common)
Credits: 118
Tabs: [Shop] [Inventory] [Map] [Crafting]
Arlen's eyes lingered on the status window, his expression unreadable.
Goblin's Fester. Goblin Fever.
[That book only said they carried diseases,] he thought bitterly.
[If I knew it was this bad, I wouldn't have stopped to fight.]
He shifted his gaze lower, MP Regen: -5/sec, Core Ruptured.
He didn't need the system to explain that one.
He's read enough cultivation novels to know what a ruptured core meant.
[So that's it, huh? … An entire year before it stabilizes. Don't have that kind of time to waste.]
A small, dry smirk crossed his face.
[At least there's a silver lining.]
His eyes drifted to the level display.
Level 14.
[System. Pull up the quest.]
The panel shimmered before -
{Optional Quest}
Target: Wyvern (Fire)
Predicted Tier: 5, Mid Stage
Time left for completion: 04:58:28
Reward:
5,000 Credits Time Dilation (Legendary)
Slows time to a crawl relative to the user's perception and cognition.
Effective range: 10-meter radius at minimum function.
Before another thought could form, Victor's voice cut through them.
"Okay, kid. Here we are…"
Arlen blinked, and the system screen faded with a flicker as he lifted his head weakly.
And then the smell hit him.
Thick, sour, and metallic.
It crawled down his throat before his brain could make sense of what he was looking at.
The air was thick with the stench of rot and burnt flesh, making breathing feel like swallowing filth.
The ground that once held grass was now a black-green mire of dried blood and scorched earth.
Corpses lay piled in uneven mounds, half-burnt, half-split, and many with missing limbs.
Some still smoked faintly from within, their flesh fused to the dirt in shapes that barely even looked goblin anymore.
Others were crushed flat with ribs cracked inward, skulls caved, as if something had beaten them into the ground with bare hands.
Even the trees hadn't escaped.
Their bark was charred black.
Some still smoldered with thin ribbons of smoke curling up into the dull orange light of late afternoon.
Arlen's stomach turned.
The buzzing in his ears grew louder with a faint ringing that drowned out even the wind.
He'd seen death before, but not this.
He could almost trace it, the rhythm of it.
The streaks of red where lightning must've struck, the smears of blood where something was dragged, and the crater at the center where he must've stood when it ended.
And every path, every scorch mark, every pile of corpses led back to that one place, at the center of it all.
The place where he'd lost himself.
He pressed a hand to his mouth, but the bile still rose.
The sight was sickening in a way that felt personal.
Those goblins didn't die clean. They didn't even die fighting.
Some of them even bore hand-shaped burns across their torsos, marking where he must've grabbed and ripped them in half.
His vision swam, and for a second, he thought he might faint.
But instead, a weak, broken laugh escaped him.
A sound that wasn't joy or madness, but disbelief.
"…I did this?"
Victor didn't answer immediately.
When he finally spoke, his voice came quiet.
"Yeah. You did."
Arlen looked at the destruction again, the corpses and the smoke, the blood soaking into the dirt that had once been alive.
His hand trembled slightly where it rested against Victor's arm.
Victor's expression softened.
"Kid… whatever that was, it wasn't you."
Arlen didn't reply.
But with each passing second, his eyes were burning brighter and brighter while his lips began curling into a trembling grin.
And as the last curls of smoke rose into the golden rays of the setting sun, he finally whispered,
"…Let's get this over with."