SSS Ranked Awakening: I Can Rewind Time!-Chapter 32: It Was My Flaw.

I watched the shadows drown the world in an endless darkness, a bright azure light bleeding into existence, through the cracks in the lightless sky, and with their harrowing presence... came the dark mist.

From beyond the darkness, it emerged; a tenebrous mist slowly clouding the world of nightmares.

I stared at it with a grim expression and scowled.

"Where the hell does it even come from?"

That was one of the questions that had been heavily weighing on my mind. The origin of this terrifying eldritch horror. However, no matter how hard I pondered, with the little clues I had, I wasn’t able to arrive at a reasonable conclusion.

Sighing in exasperation, I decided to remove the thoughts from the walls of my mind. Instead, I continued to stare at the lightless void above. Beautiful and harrowing in its nature, it was a remarkable existence... a miracle as to how the beautifying and harrowing nature of life could be perfectly blended together.

"Whoever it was that created this land must have truly taken their time to create some nasty wonders on it," I muttered under my breath, a deep scowl marring my features.

With a light exhalation, I shrugged it off. Not like I could do anything about it anyway.

I was already here. And the only thing I could do apart from cursing the bastard who created this land, was to... try and survive.

Try to live. Try to breathe. Try to see the next day, and the day after that.

...And I will.

Clench!

"No matter what it takes me, I’m going to survive."

In that moment, I felt a surge of determination rise within me.

Even if it meant going through hell, or something far worse, I was going to live. With clenched fists, I stared at the void beyond, a surge of emotions rolling within me.

...Before long, the endless darkness claimed my vision just like it had done to everyone else.

***

As the crimson constellation rose from the horizon, everyone slowly crawled out of their deep slumber. The green haired guy glanced at the others, and then said while yawning.

"Morning Guys."

Livia glanced at Aezel and smiled.

"Morning Aezel."

Aezel smiled and walked towards her, patting her head.

"Morning Sis."

"...Morning bastard." Aezel didn’t need to look to know who had said that.

However, he still turned to face Dean and smirked. "Oh- I almost forgot about the little rat."

I stared at him, considering the best way to get back at him. However, with a dark smile, I decided to shrug it off.

’Now was not the best time.’

I turned to face Mia and grinned.

"Morning my lady."

Mia glanced at me and shook her head, a light smile creeping up on her features.

"Morning Dean."

Aezel smiled at the scene. But then, he shook his head.

’Bro has got to do better if he wants to get a shot at ’his’ daughter...’

Lightly shaking his head, he walked towards the rest of the cohort. Before long, they prepared their meals with Mia’s flame, and dined on the roasted nightmarish carcasses.

Afterwards, Aezel proceeded to practice his archery skills on the durable, impenetrable walls of the ancient monolithic structure. Albeit barely, with each knock of his arrows, he was able to pierce a large, gaping hole in the dune structure.

And honestly, I had to give it to him. I had a general idea of how strong those walls were, after all. And... he could be cocky and all that, but unlike most people, he had the strength to back it up. And really... in this wretched and cursed land, that was all that mattered.

With a light sigh, I turned to face Mia.

At the very edge of the dune structure, Mia trained with her weapon, probably aiming to improve and sharpen her already overwhelming battle prowess and skills. Like a war goddess, she twisted mid air and swung her golden sword forward. In a flash of golden, she retracted her sword, faster than I could blink.

As though envisioning an adversary, she moved and dodged, swinging faster and faster with each passing second.

’Fast.... Very fast.’

Those were the words that I could use to describe her movements. They were insanely fast. And... I had no doubt about it, if I were the envisioned opponent, then I wouldn’t last more than ten seconds... well perhaps, a little bit more.

I shuddered at my thoughts. Grimacing and with gritted teeth, I tried to force down the paralysing sense of fear and unease.

One that slowly sought to consume me.

Exhaling sharply, I clenched my hands and prepared to rise to my feet. It was then that a voice resounded in the dark:

"I really miss those days when I was still a good fencer."

I turned to face the blind girl, perplexed by her sudden set of words. My brows were raised in confusion.

But, it didn’t take too long for it to dawn on me.

’Probably before she got blinded...’ I grimaced at the thought.

However, the more unsettling question was:

’How did she get blinded in the first place?’

I couldn’t help but wonder. But alas, with the little I knew about her, and that which she knew about me, I couldn’t expect her to tell me such. So in the end... I chose to keep quiet.

...However, as though the blind girl could read my mind. Her face paled and darkened as she said:

"...It was my flaw. The flaw I got in return for my divine blessing."

***

In that moment, I needn’t rely on the cracks in my memories to understand the common terminologies in regards to divine blessings. After all, more than ever, Garren mostly taught me about the gods... and in retrospect, the divine blessings. And I could still vividly remember what he said about the so-called divine blessings:

"They are granted by Gods or divine beings to mortals. But, of course... it wasn’t always out of the kindness of the heart. In most cases, it was done to fulfill one or two wishes of theirs, ones which they couldn’t handle themselves due to one reason or the other."

Well, that was all about it. What Garren had said anyway. And... so far so good, as much as I hated admitting to it, the bastard might have been a betrayal, but a liar he never was.

And somehow, that filled me with this strange sense of frustration. However, what frustrated me even more was that I didn’t know why I was frustrated. But then, it dawned on me as a grim expression darkened my features.

...A betrayal he was, but Garren was never a liar. And, that somehow sent a surge of rage coursing through me. Because... I felt if Garren had been a liar, I would have found more reasons to blame him for the betrayal.

’How.... pathetic,’ I thought as a dry laughter escaped my lips, its jagged sound mirroring the fractures in my heart.

However, calming myself, I noted various things about the cohort members:

’...Like why Aezel never engaged in physical combat. Perhaps that was the flaw he got in return for his divine blessing.’

Aezel’s own, I was sure of. It should be that or something close. Which meant his divine blessing was related to archery. That was pretty much obvious.

Mia’s own, on the other hand, if I had to guess was probably her fearsome combat strength. No...

My eyes widened at the sudden realization. ’It was her weird flame!’

If it was truly a divine blessing, that would perhaps explain why the blue flame was agitated by it.

That pretty much accounts for the cohort members’ divine blessings... save for Livia’s.

...The blind girl’s own seemed varied. No matter how hard I pondered on it, it eluded the grasp of my knowledge and taunted the walls of my mind in ways that defied mortal comprehension.

At such a point, I could only wonder what her divine blessing was exactly. After all, according to Garren, the stronger a divine blessing was, the more debilitating the flaw was. And considering the weirdness, and the flaw surrounding the blind girl’s divine blessing, I could pretty much confirm that hers was stronger than that of Aezel’s and Mia’s.

Which was to say that Livia’s divine blessing was unfathomably strong. As for how strong? That was what I was also curious about.

Thinking to this point, I was really starting to see the blind girl in a new light. A frightening, solemn light.

My gaze shrank and my body trembled, and slowly, as I stared at my trembling hands, the familiar feeling sinking into me, clawing at me with each frantic breath, it slowly dawned on me.

I was scared. S-Scared of the blind girl.

’How ironic.’ A sour taste filled my throat.

However, what I couldn’t understand was that, even after facing numerous horrifying supernatural creatures, I was still scared of a girl. A blind girl no less.

’No. It wasn’t that.’ In that moment, my eyes widened in understanding.

’What I wasn’t able to accept was the fact that I was still filled with fear even after all this. Even after all the moments of fear and unfathomable dread I had been through.’

...With a dark expression, I turned to face Livia and shivered subtly.

I knew she was great at the whole prophetic vision stuff and all that insight whatnot. But I just had this weird feeling that there was much more to it than just that. But what exactly could it be?

That, I had no idea of. But I knew I would find out soon. Soon enough.

***

Glancing at the blind girl, I said evenly:

"...I don’t know what your divine blessing is. But for your flaw to be so debilitating- perhaps the most inhuman flaw I have ever come across- then I can only say the other side of your blessing is equally as powerful. You just need to learn how to utilize it and trust me, when you do... you will remember this conversation in the future and laugh at your naivety."

This, I was somehow sure of.

The blind girl forced a smile.

"Perhaps," she said as she turned her face away.

’I hope so.... I really hope so.’ Covering her face, she fought back the wet liquid that threatened to drop.

She didn’t want to be a burden to anyone. She hated it. Yet it was the nightmare she had one day woken up to.

Biting her lips, she forced back her tears, and forced a smile to tug at the corner of her lips. Her white eyes now flickered with intense hope and determination.

I glanced at her, and slowly, I started to sense the rolling emotions.

They were at first, a spark. But slowly, they grew into a blazing fire that threatened to consume all that stood in their path.

The sight brought a smile to my lips.

Knowing I had succeeded in making her smile, I had succeeded in giving her a future to look forward to, it somehow made me feel... good.