"What!?" Xane could not believe his ears. Did they get here only to die? He rubbed his forehead in confusion and asked, "Dude, you have to explain to me what's going on here, man."
Zayn thought for a bit and said, [ Xane, I'm sure that both of us are inside a novel world.]
"Novel? What do you mean by that?"
[I don't know how or why, but we are in 'The Light of Vareth Rift,' and we are inside the body of a character who is going to die within a year.]
It took a moment for Xane to process this absurdity, but he did not deny it. After all, only this nonsense made sense of the situation.
So, they were reincarnated into this world.
He had read about these terms in a few novels as a kid, so it wasn't like he was completely unfamiliar with these imaginary concepts. It's just that he never thought those imaginations would come true.
He asked just to confirm, "Are you sure we're reincarnated? Could some virtual reality stuff explain this? Maybe some hidden government project or something?"
[Ah, I don't think the government has that kind of technology yet. And even if they did, why would they waste it on a college kid like me?]
Xane relaxed a bit. He knew about a few hidden things, but still, if Zayn was just a college kid, then they wouldn't have dragged him into this. "So we're in a novel world… But what kind of world is this, and why are we going to die?"
Zayn paused for a moment and said, [So, this novel revolves around the amalgamation of two worlds: the Cursed Land, Vareth, and the Land of the Living, Zerathia. Right now, we are in Zerathia.]
Xane's mind started spinning. "Oh, so that mess at the start must've been Vareth."
[Yeah, and look at the family portrait next to you.]
Xane shifted his attention to the portrait. There, he saw a family of four. Two parents, the owner of the body and his sister, who looked about the same age as the original.
From the look of it, they were part of some big noble household in the novel.
Zayn continued. [You see the girl next to us in the picture? She's one of the main heroines of the novel, and we are her brothers who are destined to die at the hands of the protagonist. What was his name… ah, yeah:Viyron Zenaris.]
"Viyron Zenaris… oh, that's a cool name. But yeah, why would the protagonist kill us when we're related to this girl?"
Xane mentally repeated the name while staring at the picture of the red-haired girl. She also had blue eyes. The father in the picture also had blue eyes, just like that red-bearded old man from before.
It looked like red hair and blue eyes were some kind of family trait, but he noticed that the shade of blue was different for each person.
In the portrait, both the father and sister had dark blue eyes, while he had a much lighter blue.
Now that he looked in the mirror, he noticed his own eyes had gotten even lighter, almost like a greying sky blue.
Zayn said, [It's because of family politics. That girl is one candidate for the next leader. Forget about that, just say, 'Hexis Core Status.']
Xane raised an eyebrow and said, "Hexis Core Status."
The moment those words left his mouth, a black screen popped up in front of his face with red letters.
===
Name of Hexis core: Son of Chaos.
Type of Hexis core: Item-> Card type.
Nythra connection: The abyss of pandemonium (the cursed land of chaos).
Element of Hexis energy: Chaos.
Nythra entity: The holder of the sky (mythic).
Essence left: Nil.
Element-based core potential: Mithril Core
Hexis ability: Shroud of madness.
Hexborn level: 0 (new cursed master).
===
Xane stared at the status with intrigue.
As he focused on the screen, he felt a weird energy coursing through his body, gathering right at the center of his chest.
He could see an illusion-like dark black card with a shiny dark silver border.
The entire card was nothing but different shades of darkness. However, within it, he could make out the faint image of an entity covered in black robes, holding something.
A baby.
The child was the darkest part of the entire black card. For the first time in his life, Xane realized that the different shades of black could form something visible.
At this moment, Zayn started cursing. [Shit, shit this is worse. Forget about living; can we even survive by the end of the month?]
His reaction confused Xane. He was about to ask when his ears started buzzing, and he began to hear murmuring sounds.
He looked around in confusion, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from.
Zayn asked, [What's wrong?]
Xane, still confused, said, "Can't you hear those murmuring sounds? It's like hundreds of ants crawling around."
Zayn suddenly shouted, [Close the status screen fast! You're facing the corrosion of the abyss!]
Xane didn't understand why Zayn was screaming in his head, but after everything that had happened so far, he would not take chances.
He tapped 'Close' at the bottom of the status screen.
The moment he closed it, the murmuring faded. But along with it, a numbness spread through his ears and then to his entire body.
Before he could make sense of what was happening, everything blacked out.
He abruptly lost all his senses, leaving him in darkness.
Then, in the next instant, he found himself floating in this massive, tattered hall, the familiar place in which he had woken up a few hours prior.
Everything from the dark moss covering the walls to the floor littered with corpses remained unchanged. Surrounded by all this mess was a boy focused on scribbling on the ground.
It took him a moment before he realized the boy was Viyron.
Xane noticed he was in this semi-illusionary state. These looked like Viyron's memories before he and Zayn took over him.
This intrigued him, and he floated next to Viyron, examining the circular diagram.
He had seen these remnants when he had woken up in that hall.
What was more surprising to him was that Viyron was scribbling all this with his blood.
After completing the circular diagram, he saw Viyron licking his fingers to stop the bleeding. However, what happened next almost threw him off.
Then, without hesitation, Viyron bit deep into his arm, tore a chunk of flesh, chewed it slowly, and spat it into the blood-drenched circle.
The ritual wasn't over; it was only beginning.