Chapter 76: The Weight of a Cold Heart
The air in the alleyway was suffocatingly cold, but the tension between Ren and Adam was even colder. Ren's hand trembled slightly as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the crumpled piece of paper. He smoothed it out, revealing the detailed sketch of the jagged iron necklace and its glowing diamond-shaped stone.
"Wait, Adam. Don't move yet," Ren whispered, his voice urgent.
Adam glanced at the paper, his eyes narrowing as he took in the intricate runes Ren had drawn. "A necklace? What is this, Ren? Some piece of jewelry you want to buy for a girl?"
"This isn't a joke, Adam," Ren hissed, his eyes filled with a desperate light. "I saw this on Hana's neck last night. It was glowing. It's a cursed item. I'm certain of it. It's controlling her, changing her personality... it's making her into someone else. Someone dangerous."
Adam stared at the drawing for a long time, his expression unreadable. "I don't know much about these things, Ren. Artifacts and ancient curses... that's Master Kara's specialty. You'd have to ask her. But..." Adam paused, his voice dropping to a low, hollow tone. "I'm sorry, Ren. It doesn't matter what's controlling her."
Ren felt a chill run down his spine. "What do you mean, it doesn't matter?"
Adam pulled his daggers closer to his vest, his gaze fixed on the shop's entrance. "My orders from the High-Ups are absolute. I am to enter that 'church' and eliminate every living soul inside. No witnesses. No survivors. We cannot risk a single member of this cult escaping to spread their corruption elsewhere. If Hana is in there... she is an enemy of the state."
The world seemed to stop for Ren. Rage, hotter than any Vane flame, surged through him. Before Adam could react, Ren reached into his coat. In one fluid motion, he pressed the cold muzzle of his golden revolver directly against Adam's stomach.
"Don't you dare," Ren whispered, his voice shaking with fury. "You won't lay a single finger on Hana. If you even try to step toward that door with your blades drawn, I'll pull this trigger."
Adam didn't move. He didn't even look surprised. He just looked down at the gun pressed against his ribs and then back at Ren. "Put the gun down, Ren. You're being emotional."
"I am being protective!" Ren shouted, though he kept his voice low enough to avoid detection. "She's being controlled! She's innocent, Adam! She would never hurt anyone of her own free will!"
"Even if I let her live," Adam said, his voice terrifyingly calm, "what then? What she's doing in there—associating with the God of Curses—that's high treason. At best, she'll spend the next thirty years of her life in a high-security hole where she'll never see the sun. Do you really want that for her?"
"I'll save her!" Ren countered, tears of frustration stinging his eyes. "I'll find a way to break the curse! You don't understand... you don't have a heart, Adam! How can you talk about killing your friend's sister so easily?"
Adam let out a short, bitter laugh. It wasn't a sound of amusement; it was the sound of a man who had already died inside. He looked at Ren with eyes that were suddenly filled with a haunting pain.
"You think I don't have a heart?" Adam whispered. "You think I don't know how this feels? Ren, I killed my own mother with these very hands. Do you know why? Because the Vane corruption turned her into a feral. She was eating the neighbor's child when I found her. And my brother? I had to slit his throat because he became a high-ranking member of a curse cult, just like the one in that shop."
Ren froze, his grip on the revolver loosening as the weight of Adam's words hit him like a physical blow.
"I've lost more friends than you've even made in your entire life," Adam continued, his voice cracking for the first time. "Every person I've ever loved has been taken by this world. I don't kill because I like it, Ren. I kill because if I don't, the infection spreads. If I don't kill Hana and the Academy finds out I spared a cultist, they won't just kill her—they'll kill me, and then they'll come for you. I'm trying to protect what's left of us."
Ren's eyes blurred with tears. He looked at Adam—the boy who smoked to forget and drank to numb the pain—and realized the nightmare his friend lived every day. "But there has to be another way... please, Adam... she's all I have."
Adam looked away, his jaw tight. "I'm sorry, Ren. I truly am. But duty doesn't care about our feelings."
Ren was about to speak, his heart breaking, but the heavy silence of the alley was suddenly shattered.
BANG!
The shop door flew open. The girl from behind the counter—the one with the fox-like eyes—leaped out with unnatural speed. She didn't hesitate. She leveled her dark, runed revolver and fired a shot directly at Ren's head.
"Ren, move!" Adam roared.
In a split second, Adam's training took over. He didn't have time to push Ren; he delivered a powerful, calculated kick to Ren's chest, sending the boy flying backward onto the hard pavement.
The Vane-infused bullet whistled through the air, missing Ren's skull by mere inches and slamming into the brick wall behind them. The impact caused the bricks to shatter and glow with a sickly purple light, the stone melting under the intense heat of the cursed round.
Adam didn't wait for a second shot. He rolled across the ground, his daggers appearing in his hands as if by magic. The girl in the doorway hissed, her eyes glowing yellow—just like Hana's.
"Sacrilege!" she screamed, her voice sounding like a chorus of dying whispers. "You dare bring the filth of the Academy to our Master's doorstep?"
Ren scrambled to his feet, his chest aching from Adam's kick and his mind reeling from the sudden ambush. He looked at the girl, then at the shop door where Hana was still inside.
The battle for Hana's soul had begun, and the line between friend and enemy had just been blurred by blood and bullets.