Jon woke up from his bed. He was in a large room in the Left Sanctuary, a sanctuary built on Pathan!
His social standing earned him this space. The order of life in the sanctuary was a lot different; here, people were literally valued based on their worth and superiority, which meant the strength of oneās humanoid summon.
The Hierarchy was clear.
The stronger they were, the more superior they were. They could feed their summons the best and also eat the best. The inferiors served them, worked for them, and dreamed ceaselessly of becoming them.
Cain held all this with a promise that they could be chosen to become a superior one day, and Jon was just one of the examples.
Cain had the ability to make anyone powerful; he could turn charcoal into gold, he could change a manās life with a snap of his fingers.
He told them how special they were. The world was no different from the wild. It was the survival of the fittest in the wild, and humans stood as the apex of that food chain.
In fact, they were gods to those wild animals, and that was the promise Cain gave them toward beast summoners.
The same way humans dominated other species of earth, they would dominate other types of summoners. Those beast and plant summoners would become their pets, their food, their entertainment.
Jon rose from his bed and looked at his wall. All four corners of the wall had the names of Godfrey and Snow etched into it. A faint smile appeared on Jonās face when he remembered what he did to Snowās family.
He went to the wall like it was a magnet and began to carve a word with his finger.
āGodfrey!ā
His eyes gleamed as he wrote the name.
"Once Iām done with Snow, Iāll come for you," he hissed.
For now, Snow was his target; he was the weaker one. While he dealt with Snow, he would use the opportunity to keep getting stronger.
He wasnāt naive like before. Godfrey wasnāt a weakling. Snow had seen his feats, heard his titles, but every mountain was meant to be scaled.
All that humiliation, he would return it. Snow and Godfrey should shudder; Manhattanās king was after their heads!
Jon took several steps back, staring at the name he just wrote. Rage and Obsession, his summons had broken the normal limits of healthy emotions, turning him into a walking embodiment of rage against those named in his death list and obsession for a girl that wasnāt his.
But who cares? Once obsession became madness, mortality didnāt matter. Whoever had the means would get what they wanted.
Jon covered his face as rage gleamed in his eyes. He knew what he had become, but there was no way back. That was why he would help Cain destroy civilization, since he would thrive in Cainās supremacy.
āHaha... To think I grew up hating Fanatics, Godfrey isnāt one, but somehow, I am. How ironic.ā
Jon slammed his fist into the wall, his eyes gleaming from behind the strands of hair that hid them.
"I guess I couldnāt stop hating him. If this hate has given me such strength, Iāll never stop loathing until I have his head."
****
āItās been an entire day,ā Godfrey said inwardly as he stood outside the room given to Snow in the Pendragon mansion.
No one had been able to reach out to him, not even Rowana.
They all had things to do. Lucy had to return or the cohort would come looking for her with the assumption that she was in danger. Neila constantly urged Isaac to go dungeon raiding so they would grow.
She was used to being at the top of the food chain, a Demigod with great advantage even amongst other demigods but Earthās current state was more volatile that the arachnid world.
She had to get stronger.
Isolde had to monitor the progress of her domain or risk it spiraling out of her control.
But they had dropped it all to find Jon, yet it was a loose trail and they were not certain he was the perpetrator, although he was their prime suspect right now.
Godfrey looked at the door. His knights were currently out there, making sure they handled dungeons and kept an eye out for Jon.
He remained here to make sure Snow was monitored.
āHeās been silent. I expected him to rage, to burn with the fire of vengeance but... he broke. Completely.ā
Sighing, Godfrey opened the door. "Snow..." He looked at the bed, but Snow wasnāt there. After checking the bathroom, he rushed back to the bedroom and saw the night breeze blowing the curtains.
Godfrey rushed to the window. It was wide open. His eyes went straight to the lake, which was within his line of sight.
āDonāt tell me heā!ā
With clenched teeth, he jumped out of the window, dashed toward the lake, and jumped in. Maybe Snow left; that was better than trying to drown himself.
Unfortunately, Godfrey was wrong. He saw Snow at the bottom of the lake. He must have been here long enough to drown to death, but that didnāt happen because his summon took over.
His hair was pure white, same for his eyebrows and eyelashes. He laid on the lakebed, black glimmer billowing off his body.
Godfrey used telekinesis to lift Snow from the lake to the ground beside it. Upon emerging, he found the man coughing as his summon deactivated Possession.
Both of them must have been at war because his summon usually had the ability to control his body perfectly. But Snowās will to die clashed with its will to keep him alive, thus keeping them in that state.
Snow looked at Godfrey. "I forgot I wasnāt alone when I decided to keep quiet. We both knew I wasnāt the killer but Isolde was supposed to be a secret. Now Iāve taken the fall for you... my familyās dead. I donāt even know what to feel."
He turned away. "I canāt even die without my summon intervening."
Godfrey was silent. As water dripped from his body, he sat a few meters away from Snow, his head hung low.
"If I told you Iām sorry, it might not change how you feel. If I told you we would avenge your family, it wonāt bring them back. Yet, Snow... Iām terribly sorry."
He turned to Snow. "If there was anything I could do, I would. If I could bring them back to life, if I could make you not feel this pain, I would. But, Iām also powerless in the face of true death."
None of them had any idea; Isolde watched from the forest. She stood behind a tree, listening to their conversation by enhancing her hearing.
Snow kept quiet for a while, then spoke. "I canāt feel anything. I donāt feel pain nor do I feel anger toward the killer. I just canāt feel, and I donāt know if I want to."
He just spoke what he felt, not responding to what Godfrey said.
"What youāre actually feeling right now is guilt," Godfrey replied softly.
Silence reigned between them for a long time.
"What happened when you lost Isolde? How did you feel?"
Snow finally turned to face him.
"I laughed." Godfrey looked at his palm. He clenched and unclenched his fingers while speaking gently. "Do you know that sometimes when weāre extremely happy, we end up crying, and when in deep unbelievable pain and disbelief, we laugh? I didnāt see her corpse at first, I only heard the news. I doubted it, yet a part of me knew it was the truth."
Godfrey exhaled slowly. "I couldnāt think. Tears filled my eyes, yet my mind denied it. Turns out my heart knew the truth. It knew she was gone at that moment even when my mind said otherwise."
He looked up at the dark sky. "When I saw her corpse, I already had hope." Godfrey remembered the mana fruit he took from Arianās yard.
"If it didnāt work, I would have ended up much worse than you. I would have killed and killed and killed. The monster in me would have been unleashed. I am a wrathful man, so angry at the injustice that the justice I fight for will melt before my seething anger. Iām flawed in every possible way. The cage that locks away that monster is Isolde, my parents, and my friends."
Godfrey looked at Snow.
"Iām not better than you, Snow. If I was raised like you and you were raised like me, I would have ended up much worse. If I lost everything like you, half the country would already be in darkness."
His eyes flickered. "Weāre different."
Isoldeās hand went to her mouth as her eyes quivered while Snow looked at Godfrey in silence.
"I see. Thereās something I havenāt told you," Snow said softly. "Possession is a skill I activated when I fought a stone elemental titan in a dungeon, and since then, Iāve been dependent on it, but every time I enter that state, my Symbiosis increases and increases. My summon also gains more personality."
He finally sat up.
"I feel like thereās a reason Symbiosis was capped at 50%. The moment we exceed that, weāre leaving our humanity behind, and I believe once we hit 100%, weāll become our beast."
He turned to Godfrey. "Iāll become a monster, the same thing weāve been fighting all our lives."
Godfreyās eyes narrowed. "Thatās why you didnāt want to grow anymore."
Snow chuckled bitterly. "It wouldnāt stop the inevitable, it would just slow it down. My summon is becoming something else, a completely different version of me. Iām afraid my journey as a summoner has ended."
Before Godfrey could speak, a white gate emerged before Snow. The bright white light illuminated both of them.
"Snow..." Godfrey said, watching him rise to his feet.
"This might be the last time you speak to me..." Snow chuckled. "Iām tired and I canāt stop my summon anyway. Adonis dies here. I guess this is peace."
Snow walked into the gate.
"This is what the mana tree wants after all."