Chapter 79: Erness... you can call me Erness Iroha
Empty.
That was probably the feeling Renessa had carried with her all this time. She felt so utterly hollow that she’d started to believe there was no point living in a world where she had nothing left at all.
Her home had been completely seized by ’them,’ leaving her with nothing left to even call a home.
After escaping, the only thing left for her to do was wander endlessly, a little girl who knew nothing at all.
She remembered it well. She’d come close to becoming a malevolent spirit more times than she could count, but she’d always managed to hold on, clinging to a single thought.
"Keep living, Renessa. I’ll always be watching over you."
"My daughter, you are our hope. The only one who can bring salvation to our people."
"My daughter, I love you. More than anything, I’ve always hoped you’d be happy."
The first line came from her brother, Erness Hiora. Her older brother, who’d poured everything he had into helping her escape, sacrificing his own body for her sake.
The second and third lines came from her father and mother.
That became the one and only thing that kept her alive, refusing to let death take her.
But even that wouldn’t last long enough for Renessa. She grew more and more depressed, living without any purpose, existing only because of the final wish left behind by her "home."
She wanted revenge, but what could she actually do? She wanted a purpose, but what could that purpose even be?
Fortunately, right when everything had hit rock bottom, she met that person.
A child who claimed to be an adult, with blue hair, wearing a pair of thick white-framed glasses.
"Want to come with me? I’ll give you a reason to live," he said, sounding genuinely confident.
Renessa, having lost every last flicker of light within her, just stared at the kid and asked who he was.
"Me? Ah, right! Allow me to introduce myself, my name’s Estiel, Estiel Rumias. I can help you get your revenge. Besides, I’m actually a Tower Keeper, you know."
A Tower Keeper.
That was an unfamiliar term, though Renessa had heard it a few times before. In this human world, it made sense to know of them, since they were the strongest pillars humanity had.
"What about you? Please, introduce yourself."
Renessa, who’d had no hope left at all, showed a brief flicker of interest. A long-dead torch flickering back to life with a faint spark.
"Erness... you can call me Erness Iroha."
She used her brother’s name as a reminder that she was only alive today because of his sacrifice, and that of everyone else from her world.
She used that name so she wouldn’t suddenly feel the urge to end her own life.
And from that day on, Renessa had become Erness, building one small purpose after another toward her revenge.
Estiel gave her the path to do it, starting with putting her spirit-race abilities to use, hunting down the hosts of the corruption seed.
***
Blood seeped out everywhere, revealing lifeless human bodies scattered across the ground.
The rain never once let up, leaving the streets soaked in pooling water, mixing with fresh, red blood.
The refugees fled in terror, their faces deathly pale, streaked with tears.
"Run! H-hurry! The white ghost’s gonna kill you!"
"S-she’s coming! Everyone run, arghh!!!"
The white ghost.
Renessa heard that for a moment, but said nothing. Her expression was consumed by chaos, her emotions entirely destabilized, colliding between grief and old trauma, and a rage that made her want to end everything.
Her gaze swept across her surroundings—she’d already killed countless hosts of the corruption seed. But...
’Not enough. I... I need to kill more.’
Her urge to kill only kept growing stronger. Her body vanished here and there, killing everyone carrying a corruption seed in their body, without a shred of discrimination.
Thunder and lightning occasionally lit up the darkness over Clathria that day. Revealing Renessa’s genuinely grim expression.
’Not enough. Not enough. Not enough. There are so many of them. Their growth potential, every one of them, they’re everywhere.’
Her gaze kept sweeping, back and forth. Her mind was consumed entirely by the urge to kill every corruption seed, exploiting the current chaos. But the more people Renessa killed, the more she began to realize just how far Black Genesis had actually gone.
The sheer number of seeds they’d planted was genuinely staggering, to the point where Renessa could feel her entire body heating up on its own.
She watched the refugees fleeing below, her breathing ragged and out of control, her vision growing increasingly distorted, and along with it, her judgment.
Every single one of them, everyone running down there—why did every last one of them carry a corruption seed?
They all looked so dark, brimming with negative energy, along with something inside their bodies continuously absorbing that negative energy.
It was a hallucination, but Renessa couldn’t tell. Her pupils kept spinning in place.
’All of them... I have to... kill all of them...’
Every single one of them.
So that not a single one would slip through.
To prevent the same thing from happening again, this was a necessary step.
Renessa steeled her resolve—even if it meant she’d have to slaughter every last resident of this city, she wouldn’t hesitate for a second.
Rage and fear had completely taken hold of he—
"Erness!"
Renessa froze the instant she heard her brother’s name called out, stopping dead in her tracks, then turned to look across the way, where she spotted a young man running toward her, his face pale.
Messy black hair, sharp red pupils that carried a flicker of fear. Along with a massive sword that looked impossibly light in his hand.
Renessa stared at him.
The corruption seed inside the body of the young man she recognized as Eiros, someone she’d also once used as an anchor to keep herself alive.
Renessa remembered it clearly.
Eiros was a host of the corruption seed, but his stigmata made him incapable of dying. That had led her to develop a certain kind of possessiveness, splitting her mind into two.
Kill Eiros, because he was the single most dangerous threat.
But, Eiros was immortal—if he could survive, if Renessa could make him hers, she’d never have to be left behind again, because Eiros was immortal.
That contradiction sometimes made her attitude clash without any clear reason. She was certain she wanted to kill Eiros, but she also didn’t want to, hoping instead she could keep him entirely for herself, for the sake of her own sanity.
But right now, with Renessa in such a genuinely unstable state, her thoughts had tilted entirely toward one direction.
’If that seed keeps growing... he’ll become one of the most dangerous of ’them,’ because he can’t be killed.’
But that absolute immortality might just be a lie, right?
Maybe Eiros had lied to her, too afraid of getting killed himself.
Renessa turned around, staring straight at Eiros, her gaze brimming with killing intent.
Right. A stigmata like that had to be impossible, didn’t it?
’I just need to keep killing him, until he actually, truly dies.’
She couldn’t let the greatest threat of all keep living, not even a moment longer. She needed to kill him...
And with that, Renessa lunged forward, her body vanishing.
***