Inverse System

Chapter 163 - Disparity

"I can't take them off..?" Rein's heart dropped as he tugged on the artifacts. "What the hell's happening, Versys?" Rein asked his system, who was just as confused as him.

"No clue, partner," Versys shrugged. "But it looks like they've directly connected to your energy. Taking them off isn't going to be easy, at least without killing you," he concluded after performing an appraisal.

"Fuck this… Just my luck, as soon as tragedy strikes these fucking artifacts decide to have minds of their own," Rein monologued in anger. "I can't even inverse this shit…"

"Yeah, it doesn't look good. Along with your stats, your perceptive abilities have also been greatly reduced due to the interference with your energy. Sorry, Rein, that's all I know," Versys apologized.

As Rein stood in the remains of the Hasbin Gulf, he felt a sense of helplessness. A sense that he was very familiar with. He felt blind, weak, and most of all, anger. However, there was 1 feeling missing from within him, an emotion he was closely familiar with. Fear.

Despite his greatly depleted stats and perception, he relentlessly pulled through and continued his search through the city, though as it stood, the situation was dire and bleak. He checked around the rubble for any signs of life, but he found none, the hanging air of death hovering over the entire cavern.

"I can barely cover any ground with this speed…" He thought, cursing the artifacts that were now stuck onto him.

After thoroughly scanning the entire residential area of the city, he stood at the path towards the academy, seeing the field, the main building, and the future Echo company building that was being used by Saphrilla and Raxo in shambles.

"I couldn't find the bodies of any Rangers… Either they're in here, or they managed to escape," Rein concluded. "Even Chloe and the others couldn't defend against this… Just how strong were their forces?" He clenched his fists as the thoughts ran through his head, slight bits of fear starting to find their way into his heart as he entered the academy grounds.

Though he was confident that his friends were able to escape, he had to confirm it with his own 2 eyes. He thoroughly swept the remaining parts of the main school building, running through the ghostly abandoned halls.

He found nothing within the main building, so he made his way to the academy field, where he performed another thorough search of the area, once again coming up with nothing. He moved on to the academy arena, which was relatively untouched compared to the other areas. As expected, he found nothing in the arena, and finally moved on to the final building, the last one he hadn't checked. The future Echo company building.

This 2 story building was in worst shape than any other building on the academy grounds. Though it still stood, all of the windows were broken, the walls on the outside were cracked, and the inside was a mess from what Rein could make out from staring at it from outside.

Though his sense of perception was dimmed, he somehow felt unnerved as he took a step into the establishment. The quiet, straining area was killing him in suspense, and though the lack of light was eliminated by his skill, he could still feel the dark atmosphere as he checked between the rubble in the building.

The mechanical wonderland that was this building had now all been brought to ruin, the inventions and contraptions disassembled, thrown in a mess across the floor. As he finished scanning the first floor, he found nothing out of place, almost tripping over the disheveled junk on the floor as he reluctantly made his way to the stairs in the corner of the large room. He took a deep breath, raised his foot, and placed it on one of the steps on the stairs, lifting the rest of his body upwards as he continued up the flight.

His steps were shaky, though they continued up the stairs at a constant pace. That was until he reached the top, where all breath left his body, and the life in his eyes was sucked straight out of his soul. His constant steps came to a gradual halt as he stared at the scene in front of him, mouth gasped open with widened eyes, crushing despair flooding his soul.

"V-... Voron..?" He uttered, a single tear flowing down his left eye as his mind was still in disbelief.

After a long, grueling pause on the stairs, his trembling steps finally resumed, entering the second floor of the building, which was the workshop floor. Scattered across the floors were countless engineering tools, wrenches, and screwdrivers, nails and hammers, drills and welds all filling the floor of the dreadful room.

At the back was the source of Rein's despair, the body of Voron, the man who had taken care of him for 6 years, the man who he grew to view as his father figure, lifelessly laying against the wall directly opposite to the stairs in a sitting position. His hands and arms were dropped to his sides, veiled with a red liquid, his mouth splurged with the very same substance, his coffee-stained white coat now stained with a crimson tinge, the origin point of the blood being a wound to the heart.

As Rein unwillingly approached the body, he laughed in disbelief, though the evidence in front of him should've been enough to convince him beyond a shadow of a doubt.

"C'mon… You're kidding, right old man..?" Rein painfully laughed to himself as another tear excreted from his right eye. "Wake up Voron… It's the joke's gotten stale now," his shaky voice uttered, still trying to deceive himself, trying to live in a world of delusion.

"Please… Wake up…" With the feeling of helpless disparity encroaching into his body, Rein collapsed to his knees and began weeping, beginning to relive a feeling that he wasn't very familiar with, tears overflowing from his eyes by Voron's still body.

Suddenly, Rein felt a twitch in the body in front of him, seeing him wearily open his eyes, his breathing starting up, though it was incredibly weak.

"Re…in..?"