16 Chapter 16: Back to the Inn

Standing outside of the building Faith wasted no time in leading them away from it, Annie staring intently at Jayson while still holding a trembling sword that was trying to escape against her chest. Soon the inn where they were staying came into view, in front of the door was a child wearing a green shirt with a piece of leather armor over it. He was staring at the door silently contemplating, after a moment he walked away murmuring. His face contorted in confusion, Faith paid little attention to him and proceeded inside followed by Annie and Jayson. They all stopped when they realized Kenny had stayed outside the door, rushing back they found him gazing in the direction in which the child went.

Faith stepped out gently slapping his back, her normal cold demeanor was replaced by a genuine concerning look, "You ok?" She inquired quietly.

Kenny returned to his senses, with a heavy sigh, he nodded. He turned toward Faith lips curled in his usual wide smile, " That kid just now, if you looked at him carefully you could see his aura. I couldn't do that before." He said cheerfully.

This shocked Annie and Faith, Jayson however was unbothered and plainly responded, "Oh? You can do that too? Here I thought it was a special skill."

"Nothing special about you."

Faith commented calmly not taking her eyes off Kenny, sending Annie and Kenny into a laughing fit. Wiping away the tears from his eyes, Kenny regained enough breath to say, "I hope this world has medicine for burns."

Jayson's face darkened as he disappeared inside the inn, the others soon followed. Walking towards the stairs Faith causally eyed the room, to her surprise various people inside had various colors about them. The mixture of colors overwhelmed her senses for a moment, when a hand on her shoulder brought her back to reality.

Faith turned her head and saw the gray hair of Old Jo who was smiling with an endearing look on his face, "Almost fell over there, look like you saw a ghost. Are you ok?" He asked carefully as he didn't want to upset her.

Faith steadied herself before saying, " I'm fine." Walking forward she noticed the people were staring at her, looks of greed and lust was shared amongst the crowd. Maintaining a look of indifference Faith continued on to their room, inside she found Kenny and Jayson sitting before Annie.

Faith was surprised to see that sword was still fighting only now it had grown in its ferocity, thrashing madly in attempts to free itself generated small shockwaves that shook the room. Annie normal bright look was replaced with one of distress as she didn't know what to do with it.

Now that Faith was actually paying attention the sword casing was glowing a blueish-green color, "Unidentified Item Detected."

The system notified, which immediately annoyed Jayson,

"You are way too late for that, super slow system. How do we get it to stop?"

The system went silent and didn't respond, which further aggravated Jayson, who was on the brink of screaming. A flash of gold fur interrupted his soon to be tantrum, and brought his and everyone else's attention toward the bed.

Alan loitering about with multiple links of sausages hanging from his mouth, carefully setting them at his feet. Alan looked towards Annie as a smug smile visibly appeared, as though he was cat who cornered a mouse, "Seems like you could use my help, I'm willing but you must rub my belly for a few hours afterward."

Kenny chuckled, " So you just want to be pet? I could do that while you tell her how to control that sword." Before his sentence ended and Alan could react, Kenny had appeared before the dog and scooped him up into his arms.

Alan began to struggle just as violently as the sword, "Release me freakishly strong human, you . . . Oh to the left a bit." Kenny had started to scratch his belly and Alan's attitude changed. Seeing this occur Kenny's eyes began to flash as a revelation came to him, he turned to Annie a bright smile on his face, " Just like how I did it."

His words seemed to trigger something in Annie as she immediately understood what he meant, "I just gotta pet it's belly, since it's a magic sword, use magic."

Annie channeled a small stream of her mana into her palm and rubbed the casing, to her surprise the mana was sucked into the casing before contact. Her mana was gone but the sword calmed a bit, fighting less vigorously as before. Annie's eyes flashed with excitement as she sat crossed leg on the floor, holding the sword against her knees.

Soon enough Annie sunk into meditation, as her mana was constantly being sent into the sword. Now that the sword was being settled, Faith turned to Jayson, "Explain." Her stare alone was enough to send shivers up Jayson's spine, but combined with her voice turned his knees to jelly.

Jayson told her of his trip to the Adventures Guild, his meeting with Grammy Chi, and how she wanted them to fight in a tournament. Carefully leaving out the reward for accepting the quest, Jayson went on to tell her about his win over Craig The Noble, and the spoils from the fight. Showcasing the one-handed ax, and the storage cloth.

Jayson barely unfolded the cloth when Faith extended her hand and took it from him, it seemed to be an ordinary cloth with various stains. With a horrifying smell coming off of it, that made her eyes water and stomach churn.

Faith jabbed her hand through watching in amazement as it vanished within, " Its a pretty fancy backpack that's for sure, this guy you took it from is going to want it back. Be careful." The last part of her sentence was a definite warning, who knew what Craig The Noble might do to get his stuff back.

Jayson nodded slightly, understanding her message while forming his own plans on how to deal with him. Kenny had released Alan at this point and lost himself to the icon screen, as Kenny checked his list of skills a new one had appeared.

Death Magic had appeared in his, delighted by now having a type of magic to himself, Kenny began to chuckle.

"I wonder what sort of trouble this will bring?" He thought to himself amused and worried at the same time, flipping his palm a dark, gritty light that danced light flames appeared. As one stared at the odd looking flame, they could feel their life force being drawn toward the darkest reaches of the flame.

A chill shrouded the room as the flame shined, Kenny's eyes flashed as his subconscious was drawn inside.

He was surrounded by darkness, it was quiet as there was not a trace of life to be seen. All things that lived met their ends here, yet their presence never faded. Standing in the darkness were silhouettes of all things death had claimed, they reached out toward Kenny's subconscious the quiet darkness was gentle. Like carefully extinguishing a candle flame, as it was connected to his actual mind Kenny felt his body grow heavy.

Faith coughed lightly, and drew Kenny from his trance, " Don't be so hasty."

Kenny shook himself, returning the vigor to his body. As he looked to Faith and nodded, he was in such a rush to try and understand his new ability, that he didn't realize he was dying. If Faith hadn't interrupted the process when she did, it may have been too late.

"Thanks. I almost became literal dead weight." Laughing as he spoke with a weird shifting of his legs, Kenny laid out on the bed.

His face bright with excitement thinking about the experience, Faith shook her head at the sight before turning her attention to her own Power Tab. Staring at her skills for a moment before falling into thought, " I started out with this Flame Manipulation, though I haven't had time to investigate."

Thinking here Faith directly activated her Flame Manipulation without hesitating, her soul and consciousness shook at that moment. The room faded away along with Kenny and the others, leaving Faith alone in a completely dark space. Dazed by the sudden change in scenery Faith stood straight, stumbling slightly from the head rush that followed.

As Faith regained her balance, a small bead of sweat dropped from her nose. However it evaporated the second it left her skin, it was only then did Faith realize that temperature was rising fast. As sweat began to pour from her body, not a single bead hit the ground turning to steam midair.

"Fwooosh"

A small flame appeared before Faith, that danced lazily in her vision as though guided by an invisible force. As Faith watched it silently, she felt a closeness to this flame. As though it was summoned by her own powers, which left Faith confused because she could not actually summon her powers. Having tried to do so to investigate the flame, a thought appeared in her mind as Faith reached out toward the flame.

However before Faith could close her fingers around it, the flame danced away keeping its lazy and lofty pace. This slightly annoyed Faith but she calmed herself down quickly, and proceeded to attempt again only with the same result.

Faith sighed, "Well it's obvious I can't catch it, so I guess waiting it out would be the next move."

As her sentence fell the flame shook, then expanded violently, quickly filling up the sides of her view. There was only silence as the flames gathered over her body, swelling to the size of the sun. It hung in the air before swallowing Faith whole, and remained still after doing so.

It all happened in an instant.