“That’s where you’re mistaken, they cannot be saved. Their bodies, you saw it before, they’re basically slime, the same substance that makes up the creature at the center of the bog. To set them free is the same as killing them. It only kept their minds, or some of it, while it ate away at everything else. They’re husks, hollowed moving husks nothing more nothing less…” Van Dijk raised his hand up and snapped his fingers, summoning a candle-like flame that was pitch black.
The moment the elder saw it, “What are you doing?” he said worry clear in his eyes, “Setting you free, from this cage…”
With a snap of his fingers, the flame in his hand began splitting into dozens of smaller spark-sized flames that flew all over the village, landing upon the Hollowed Wretches, and their homes.
“Be free, it is what you wanted,” Van Dijk said. Almost instantly, every one of the villagers’ bodies got lit up with black flames.
Their screams filled the place. And only then did Ludwig see their true self. Each of the villager’s bodies began morphing, revealing the extent of their transformation. Their skins which burnt rapidly revealed oozing slime, and unnatural growths and appendages hidden beneath it. Their bones were corroded and rotten, hollowed but for some slime inside it. Their brains were not there as the outer slime melted it revealing more slime inside it
Though burning and turning to burnt sludge their screams still filled the place. Until all turned to ash until the houses were burnt to a crisp, and until the ground itself hardened from the intense heat. Only then did their screams finally end.
“This is the cruelty of the world, disciple,” Van Dijk said, “Letting them live is the same as releasing this plague upon others. If we had left them here with what one would call mercy, they’d still be stuck in this perpetual cycle of hunger and pain, and may even taint others. That mercy will one day be turned against you.”
Ludwig had a feeling that Van Dijk’s words were more aimed at himself than Ludwig’s.
“I understand the logic… but I still believe that there was no harm in letting them live if they’re confined here… is it cruelty to destroy them, or cowardice to avoid finding another solution?”
“Sentiment is a weakness you cannot afford, you’re far too young to understand it, one day you’ll thank me for showing you what it takes to survive Ludwig.”
“I hope it’s worth it,” Ludwig said.
“It always is, always,” Van Dijk said as he witnessed the last embers die out then he turned and walked away.
Ludwig followed behind his master thinking about what just happened.
He knew that his master was right. They weren’t human anymore, not that he had any right to dictate what ‘humanity’ is. But those guys were just far too gone. They had no will of their own and only lived to suffer. He, though excluded from humanity still is able to think for himself and have his own choices.
But they fell victim to their instincts and couldn’t be saved anymore. Mercy? Cruelty? Perhaps both. The words Greater Good came to his mind, but that’s just hypocrisy. This wasn’t for the greater good. This was lawful evil.
Ludwig remained quiet as he followed behind Van Dijk, the latter seemed busy thinking about many things.
Feeling bored, Ludwig decided to do something while they were walking.
He remembered his master’s spell, the one he just used earlier. From what his master told him, that flame was something that he created.
A flame that is sourced and fueled by the emotions of the caster. Ludwig channeled some of his mana onto the tip of his fingers. He then transformed it the same way he would to fireball, a rapid acceleration of mana that would ignite it.
At first, a few sparks lit up on top of Ludwig’s fingers, sputtering and popping everywhere. And when he gave it more mana it turned to an uncontrolled flame that he soon dialed the mana down so it wouldn’t be too distracting to his master or too obvious for any of the monsters of the bog.
Little that Ludwig know, his master had already taken interest in what he was doing and watched him on the side.
Ludwig took some time before he got the flame to calm down and steadily flow like a candlelight.
Now the first part was done, but the hardest part was still there for him to understand.
He hadn’t asked his master for the details of such a spell, so he was navigating blind, trying to figure things out by himself.
Thomas Vondel had told Ludwig that emotion is what could fuel a spell, and for Ludwig who had dulled emotions and could only mimic them, it was a far too steep a cliff to climb.
Checking upon the souls he had in his lantern, Ludwig realized that Thomas Vondel’s soul was finally recovering, but he wasn’t awake yet. The last time Ludwig used it, he consumed a lot of its ‘vitality?’.
So, he checked the rest of the souls. Most of them were just white globes, undefined souls of things and entities that had died.
Finding something like Thomas Vondel’s soul, which was physical and had characteristics of its own like clothes and a body was not possible.
Ludwig frowned, he couldn’t exert the emotions of something he didn’t know. But still, there was one emotion that every soul would have before dying. And that emotion is unanimous.
Fear.
Death is the great unknown, and everything that is dying would usually fear it.
If he couldn’t use rage, like his master, he’ll use he second? Best thing. Fear.
Ludwig grabbed at one of the many souls he had and squeezed it, forcing out its emotion onto the flame he had in his fingertip.
There was an instant reaction. Ludwig’s flame surged up, to the point that it became bigger than a fireball, but there was something different this time.
A purple hue appeared around it, though it lasted for a fraction of a second, Ludwig definitely saw it.
The moment Ludwig lost focus however, the whole spell sputtered out and he felt his mind almost blanking out.
[You’re Out of Mana!]
‘What happened?’ Ludwig thought to himself.
“What was that?” Van Dijk asked.
“Oh, I was just trying something…” Ludwig replied sheepishly.
“Do it again, because that wasn’t just something…” A wide grin appeared on Van Dijk’s face.