Out of everything Marcus had imagined and prepared for, seeing someone fall and wither like a leaf wasn't one of them.
Fear, and confusion overwhelmed his thoughts for a while.
"How did this come to happen?"
His eyes lingered on Benicci for a second.
Marcus walked to his side and placed a finger below his nose, then on his neck.
There's no pulse.
Such a bizarre way to die… he walked towards the exit.
In the hallway, there were many withered-up corpses, in thick winter coats, resting silently.
Their lives have long been claimed.
Marcus walked slowly at first, taking in this sight with a disoriented heart.
He checked the Pulse of many others and the results remained the same each time.
Cold, still, and withered.
Marcus's steps quickened, turning into a jog as he moved around his mansion.
Every breath he exhaled puffed up cold mists.
Every corner he took had a withered corpse.
Is this why everything has been so silent?
He found Brown slumped against the gate, sword still in hand. Logail lay facedown in the snow.
Even though this wasn't his first time seeing a corpse of theirs, the choking sensation in his throat still burned the same.
By the time Marcus ran out of his mansion and into the snowy streets of concrete bungalows, he was already running.
He scoured the area, searching for another living person.
But there was none, no one but him.
His knights, staff, and people had all died in a bizarre way.
Suddenly, Marcus clutched his chest and fell to a knee.
He coughed up a mouthful of black blood and his sight began to wane. His body temperature rose to an alarming degree, as though he had fallen sick.
"What is this‽"
Blood began trickling down his nose, then his ears, and then from the corners of his eyes before dripping onto the snow-covered ground.
"What is happening to me?"
Breathing became harder for Marcus. He struck his chest a few times, as if he was trying to clear it of its obstacles.
But this didn't get him anywhere.
Everything seemed like a nightmare that only worsened as time went on.
Marcus opened all the Pulse points he had cleared, drawing power from them.
For a few seconds, the blockage in his chest subsided, but it soon came back stronger.
"Damn it!"
Boom!
He struck the floor with his fist, causing the floor to crack, and sending a dusty cloud of snow into the air.
"This can't end like this, it can't!"
Nothing Marcus did changed the situation.
Despite his Pulse points being open, he felt as though his strength was being stripped from him.
Dispersing into a void he couldn't track.
After a while, Marcus completely collapsed on the floor, breathing and bleeding heavily.
A life wasted without finding out the truth…
His heart ached.
Dying wasn't the problem, dying without a better solution to this predicament was.
"I can't give in now. I... I have to get up." Marcus tried to move his hands, but they felt as heavy as a mountain to him.
"I have never seen anyone as determined and persistent as you, young lord."
This abrupt voice, oddly, sounded familiar to Marcus. At first, he thought he had started hallucinating.
But the soft steps inching closer and closer to him by the second made him realize that he wasn't.
Marcus managed to open his eyes and looked to his side.
A few feet away, Maney stood silently with his hands behind his back.
His brows remained furrowed, as though he was trying to figure something out.
Upon seeing him, Marcus drew every ounce of energy he could muster and tried to stand.
His body shook as he managed to get on his feet. Marcus tried to lunge at Maney, but he collapsed on the floor breathing heavily.
"You! You hateful bastard, you did this." Marcus cursed out.
Flakes of snow fell on Marcus's head.
"Indeed…" Maney replied after a while. "But what I don't understand is how you're still alive. Everyone within Agard is dead, except the two of us."
"What did you do to us?" Marcus asked, not because he wanted to, but because he needed to.
Maney paused and looked at Marcus, secretly trying to discern how he was still alive.
Seeing that the man wasn't interested in giving a response, Marcus sneered at him. "Are you scared of telling me how?"
"Yes. I can sense the strings of Causality warning me to be careful with my words."
This response caught Marcus off guard.
What the fuck does that mean?
"I'm a dying man, what could I possibly do to you at this point? I've already lost my people, my lands, my life…"
"It's warning me especially because you're dying. But even I can't make sense of this caution." His brows furrowed further.
Could it be that one of his abilities is similar to clairvoyance? Marcus wondered. That would explain why he felt as if he had been going in a circle.
Why it had been so difficult to find Maney's weakness?
A few minutes passed and Marcus was closer to the jaws of death.
His body's mass was visibly shrinking when Maney finally sighed.
As if his worries had subsided. At this point, Marcus could only move his eyes.
"Curse of Dalmon."
"An ancient curse of plague, used to reap lives for sacrificial purposes. It starts as a sickness that ends with death, and yet, you were able to cure the symptoms of the curse, delaying its effects."
Understanding shone within Marcus's weak pupils. His stomach burned.
"That's unprecedented."
Receiving this praise from Maney greatly disgusted Marcus.
"And yet, I still failed."
"As a matter of fact… it didn't matter what you did, the curse would have continued. From the moment Aethera's Casket drew your blood, your fate was sealed."
The image of that cube that he saw in the altar came to mind when Marcus heard this.
As if the box could read his mind, it appeared beside Maney, looming silently.
"This is the same Aethera's Casket your father used to own… that is why I said it was a matter of fact. Even if I don't want to harm you, the Casket won't let you be. You are the catalyst and the inhibitor."
Silence mixed with snowflakes, and a morning sun that soullessly observed the plains.
These were the last things Marcus was able to see before he lost his sight.
"If I could go back in time, what could I have done to beat you?"
This time it was Maney's turn to be surprised. He never expected this type of question from the young lord.
But it made sense.
A dying man's regret, his question embodied this statement.
However, the pull of the strings of causality became stronger, warning Maney to be careful with his words.
Why? He is already dying, and it's not possible to turn back time. What is this warning for?
Maney couldn't wrap his head around this.
While Maney was thinking, Marcus sighed. He could feel that death was only an inch away.
Enough time had already passed for him to conclude that Maney wasn't going to say a thing about that.
We go again.
Marcus thought when suddenly, his ears perked up, Maney had spoken…