Greed

“Where’s Robert?” Jimin asked, watching the Wordwraiths walk into the reception area. Mina and Bob were there too, waiting for everyone to arrive.

“He’s waiting for Chaewon,” Senia said. “Apparently she has some meeting with Gaeul right now and Robert’s afraid she’ll not survive the wait for the elevator because you know, gagging.”

“Ahhh~” Jimin nodded with a smug, closing her cookbook in her hands.

“He said they’ll both join us directly at Spellbound headquarters, so we can just go,” Dylan said. “Where’s your boyfriend?”

Jimin blushed.

“B-Bathroom. Had to take a poop.”

“Unnie…” Rei groaned. “That's too much information. I didn't need to know that.”

Right then, Voidborn walked out from the washroom, approaching the group.

“Heyo, Jimin’s boyfriend,” Dylan waved.

Voidborn gave a small greeting nod.

“Did’ya have a good poop?”

Senia smacked Dylan’s shoulder.

“You idiot! Why would you ask that?”

“I was just trying to be friendly!”

Senia shook her head and apologised to Voidborn.

“Please ignore him.”

“It's alright,” Voidborn said. “I don't mind.”

“See?” Dylan chuckled and poked Senia’s shoulder. “He doesn't mind. So… how was it?”

“It was good.”

“Did you wash your hands?”

“Why wouldn't I?”

“I don't know, some people don't wash their hands when they leave the washroom.”

“I do wash them. With soap too. Twice at least.”

“That's good… that's good,” Dylan muttered. “It wouldn't be nice if you didn't and held hands with your girlfriend.”

“Anyway, let's go already,” Senia said. “Joy is already at the headquarters waiting for us.”

“Alright then.”

Jimin stood up and called out to Mina and Bob, who acknowledged and joined the group, leaving the building. They took the bus like yesterday, making their way down the extravagant zone towards Spellbound.

“Why is it you again today?” Rei asked, looking at Bob as she sat behind him on the bus.

“I’m not needed today. Plus, I will be the permanent one following your group, so be prepared to be sick of my face.”

“Ehhh, why though? Didn't Gaeul say you guys will be rotated?”

“She needs the others more,” Bob explained. “There's been a surge of criminal incidents such as infighting, assault, domestic violence and even homicides. She has her hands full just trying to manage the countless reports coming from most of the Empire’s detective branches.”

He waved his hands in the air and made a translucent air barrier.

“I’m more attuned and specialised in defence rather than offense, so I’ll be the perfect fit to protect you guys.”

“That make sense,” Rei said.

Silence.

“That's it?” Bob asked.

“What?”

“You ended our conversation just like that?”

“Yes? I asked my question. You gave me the answer. I have no more questions. Of course I would end the conversation. Do you have any questions for me?”

“Err no?”

“See? Then there's no issue right?”

“I guess?”

The bus ride returned to the awkward silence. Jimin was drawing shapes on Elian’s thighs, Senia playing with Dylan’s rebirth stone. Bob just sat there watching everyone in awkward silence, hoping someone would talk to him, but no one did. Rei scribbled in her tome without stop, Derrick fiddling with some gadget, even Mina was occupied with just staring at Voidborn.

“Maybe I should have just rejected this assignment…” he muttered.

Just one more stop and they all alighted the bus. They headed into Spellbound, seeing Joy already there, waiting for them while seated in the couch.

“Robert?” Joy asked.

“He’ll be late,” Senia said.

Joy frowned. “He's not chickening out right?”

“Nah, he's waiting for Chaewon.”

“Alright then. We can start with Dylan first. I’ll let them know to shift Robert’s appointment to a later slot and let others go first.”

Joy walked over to the receptionist and informed her of the changes, then came back shortly.

“Let's go.”

Joy led the group towards an open door by the side, leading them towards the lobby.

“Where are we going?” Voidborn asked.

“Hmm? I guess you haven't experienced a Rebirth at all, haven't you? Have you seen anyone undergoing it?”

Voidborn shook his head.

The elevator arrived with a ding. The group entered and Joy pressed a button, before waiting for the door to close automatically.

“Mhmm~” she hummed softly. “Forced Rebirths usually take place in very high security areas due to the inherent risks that come with it. You can ask Derrick. They should have a similar system in place as well back in Zylos.”

Voidborn looked at Derrick, but he was engrossed in his gadget, seemingly trying to meld two pieces of metallic joints together with a condensed laser shot from Beam.

The sharp tip of a flat shoe was sent flying towards Derrick’s calf.

“Ouch—hey what the hell, Rei?” Derrick exclaimed, rubbing his leg with his palm. “Why did you kick me?”

“Joy-unnie is asking you a question…”

“Me? I didn't hear anything though,” he looked at Joy with a puzzled look.

“She did—nevermind. She didn't.” Rei turned towards Voidborn. “Anyway, Joy-unnie’s right. Since there is a risk of encountering one of the Three Ends during a forced Rebirth, every advancement is closely monitored.”

Voidborn watched the number on the elevator’s display.

B22… B23… B24.

Ding~

The doors opened. Joy guided the group out, and what laid before their eyes were countless rooms that lined across what seemed like a never ending corridor. Two people stood on guard outside every door, seemingly acting as gatekeepers that kept both inside and outside safe.

They walked down the corridor, past the first doors. Guards bowed as Joy raised her emblem, one that showed her rank as a team leader and a Rebirth 3.

Voidborn looked to the side. Large panelled windows lined the corridors, showing everything that was happening inside each of the rooms, but they were all empty.

“It’s still early,” Joy said, noticing Voidborn's gaze. “I booked the first slots in the morning since I figured you guys might want more time to explore the city.”

He took in her words and continued down the corridor, watching the rooms intently. Each one was bigger than the last, more sophisticated than the ones which they passed.

“Different rooms for different Rebirth levels,” Mina explained with a straight face.

Without waiting for Voidborn’s response, Mina continued.

“Their degree of corruption upon failure also affects the abomination that could possibly form from one of the three endings.”

“Why take the risk and not advance naturally?” Voidborn asked.

“It takes too long for the average person. Our lifespan is limited after all, that is until we reach Rebirth 4. Once a Reborn has reached that stage, their bodies change drastically and aging slows down by more than ten times ”

Mina touched her face and smiled.

“Apart from chasing power, most Reborns are chasing after everlasting youth and an extended lifespan. Imagine if you could keep this beautiful face forever.”

Realising that her narcissism had taken her out of character, Mina snapped back to her cold demeanour.

“Ahem—yes. Reaching Rebirth 4 earlier means you get to maintain your youthful look at an earlier age, and your lifespan increases accordingly.”

Joy nodded and stopped outside a door labelled “R3 Advancement Room”.

She said, “Through history, it has been proven that a person who reached Rebirth 4 at eighty could only have their rate of ageing slowed by two times, while for one who achieved it at forty had it slowed by ten times.”

“That's our current Emperor,” Bob said. “Emperor Regulus. Full title would be Emperor Regulus Tiberius Constantine Valerian Augustus the Undying Light of Kandar.”

He finished the entire mouthful of words in a single breath, which Jimin gave an impressed whistle.

“He has been ruling Kandar for close to six hundred years, after succeeding the first Emperor of the Revolutionary Era.”

“With that repertoire, it would make sense if he were now a high Rebirth reborn,” Jimin remarked.

“No one knows,” Bob added. “But that's where the rumours of him being a Rebirth 6 originated from.”

“Well, that's that,” Joy said. “It's time for your advancement, Dylan. Head on in. We’ll watch from the observation room.”

“Good luck~” Jimin chimed, and Rei and Derrick followed with their well wishes.

The Wordwraiths all summoned their tomes and pressed two fingers between their eyebrows and closed their eyes.

“May the Literatim of Eternal Knowledge guide you towards enlightenment.”

Dylan did the same, muttering the prayer. Unsummoning his tome, he gave Senia’s hand a small squeeze before heading into the room.

Right as the door closed, Joy gestured to the small door by the side.

“We can watch from here.”

She opened the door and led them in, which they were directly greeted by an escalator of sorts formed by levitating enlarged books. Joy said they called it Levibooks, but Derrick argued that Bookscalator was the original name.

Voidborn followed the rest and stepped on a book which sunk slightly under his weight. The book floated diagonally upwards, bringing them up in a line towards a larger enclosed room with another large glass panel.

There were tables with seats scattered around the room, each one with a scroll-screen that transmitted the view of the advancement room below from different angles. One could watch the process directly from the window or the table.

Everyone took their positions.

Rei, Derrick and the Wordwraiths crowded around a table, some settling in the seats, while the rest stood to the side between gaps, watching the screen.

Elian walked to the window, standing there in silence as he watched Dylan standing in the centre of the room. Jimin shuffled to stand beside him, hooking her arm around his and hugged it tightly.

“I don't understand,” he said.

“What's wrong?” Jimin said, looking up at his cheek.

“Why take the risk? I understand the desire for eternal youth or power. But isn't the risk of corruption not worth it?”

“Advancement through natural understanding is not easy. You’d have to have talent and luck. Furthermore, progression slows down as you near the advancement threshold. It’s easy when you just advanced. Learning powers is easy. Understanding them is difficult. Perfecting them takes enlightment, which happens when it happens.”

“Don't worry, Voidborn,” Joy called from the side. “Dylan and Robert are both on the final stages. They just need enlightment, so they are on the precipice. The risk is close to none.”

Derrick nodded and added, “This is the usual recommended method that bears the least risk, allowing the highest chance of success while not robbing Reborns of their time.”

Elian looked at the room’s surroundings. Scholars stood at every corner, each one with their tomes summoned, ready to make a move if anything goes wrong.

“I’ll begin.”

Dylan’s voice echoed out of the scroll-screen as he took the Rebirth stone from yesterday out of his pocket. The sky blue whirlpool twisted slowly inside the deep purple stone, as if it were hypnotising the holder to consume it.

Dylan held up the stone and looked at it.

As if the stone understood his intentions, the purple began to deepen even further, pulsing as the whirlpool swirled towards the vortex at an increasing speed.

Voidborn focused his eyes.

Despite his confidence, there was a definite yellow nervousness gnawing around Dylan’s heart. He watched the yellow spread towards the fingers that held the stone, as if each one contained a condensed fog of sulfur. He looked up at the observation room, staring at Senia’s backview.

The yellow faded inside of him.

In a single go, he stuffed the stone into his mouth. The moment the stone touched his tongue and his lips were sealed, the purplish exterior began to melt, dissolving into a viscous fluid that seeped into his throat, flowing down into his gut smoothly.

Right then, Robert and Chaewon floated up the Bookscalator, joining the rest in the room.

“Yo, what's up?” he greeted, waving to the rest. “Is Dylan done?”

Chaewon followed behind, giving Jimin a small wave before joining the rest at the table.

“He just started,” Joy said. They continued looking at Dylan through the screen.

Dylan closed his eyes and focused, feeling the liquid recondensing back into a stone, before the twirling whirlpool inside accelerated to a speed that made it look like a perfect blue circle. With a shattering sound that pierced through the observation glass, the stone was crushed into pieces by the whirlpool’s centrifugal force, each chunk stabbing into the walls of Dylan’s gut.

Mini whirlpools swirled inside each individual piece, which ground the chunks into powdered dust that stuck on to the gut’s walls.

Dylan’s eyes shot open, a soft purplish glow flashing across his pupils. The powder was slowly absorbed into his blood stream, carried throughout his body through the blood vessels. But they didn't travel randomly. Right after the powder circulated through the capillaries of his toes and fingers, they were carried back to his heart through veins.

Each particle stayed within the confines of the heart, gathering into a small ball of purple dust that shook as it endured the incoming waves of blood and squeezing walls of muscle.

Once the last particle had joined the purple sphere, his heart skipped a beat and clenched as hard as it could, launching it right up into his brain through the carotid artery.

With a crackling sound, the purple sphere burst into glowing pieces, exploding like fireworks inside his head, the light spreading across his entire body. The next moment, the light surged back up towards his brain, making it glow into a dense violet before calming and fading into nothingness.

“A success,” Mina declared.

Senia heaved a sigh of relief.

Dylan disappeared from their sights and the next moment, his head appeared into view as he was carried up the Bookscalator.

“Congratulations,” Joy said with a warm smile.

Dylan received the well wishes from the rest and quickly slid into the seat beside Senia.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” she replied, snaking her hand into his. “I was worried. Very worried.”

“I know. But I'm alive. And that's what matters.”

He pressed his forehead on hers and gave her lips a small peck.

“Well that's that. Robert's next. You ready? You won’t chicken out right?”

“Uh… I guess?”

“There's another person first,” Joy reminded, pointing to the man who just entered the advancement room. “Who asked you to be late?”

“Well, I wanted to wait for Chaewon…” Robert said, looking at her who was sitting opposite him.

“I'm not a baby,” Chaewon grumbled, before looking away back at the screen. “I can handle myself.”

But her cheeks flushed red.

At the same time, a group of two people stepped off the Bookscalator and settled into an empty table beside theirs. They looked at the rest and gave a small nod of acknowledgement.

Voidborn looked over. They were a man and a woman, both seemingly quite young. Eighteen? Nineteen? Barely twenty years old.

The woman was biting her fingernails nervously, muttering incessantly as the man kept firing questions at her.

“Why didn't you stop him?”

“How was I supposed to? I'm just a Rebirth 1, and he's a 2!”

“But you could have spoken some sense into him! He just only forcibly advanced yesterday!”

“What makes you think I didn't? He spent the entire night mumbling about how he wouldn't be that unlucky, that he'd been blessed his entire life, and that fate would be on his—”

A flash of purple filled the advancement room.

Voidborn’s head snapped towards the young man in the centre of the room. He had just consumed the stone, and it had already begun to melt in his mouth. Contrary to the blue whirlpool in Dylan’s stone, his had a crackling yellow lightning thundering within.

The stone melted much slower, but it still flowed into his belly nonetheless.

Voidborn focused his eyes and peered into him. A cool and frosted aura was spread throughout his entire body, somewhat similar to Mina.

He turned towards the young man’s companions.

“Does your friend mainly use ice spells?” he asked.

“Yes, but how did you know?”

Voidborn frowned.

“And that stone is presumably from a Scholar that dabbled in lightning spells?”

“Yes? So? Is that a problem?”

“Tch,” Rei grunted. “Idiot. He's fucked.”

“What do you mean fucked?” The female said, raising her voice as she stood up in agitation. “Are you saying that he’ll fail? My boyfriend has always been lucky all his life. Take your words back!”

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry. But I'm just stating the truth,” Rei apologised with a shrug, raising a finger. “It’s not as if he's in a rush. Why take the risk and court death by one: immediately attemping another advancement right after a successful one.”

She raised another finger and continued.

“And two, he chose a stone with the least compatibility. Ice blocks lightning, you know? Lightning cannot conduct through ice well because the particles within are locked in place.”

A loud roar ripped through the room below. Electricity sparkled out of the young man as he collapsed onto the ground, his entire body now covered in patches of ice.

It was as if his body was rejecting the electricity, trying to expel the foreign energy.

“Chris!”

The young girl ran towards the window, face full of worry as she slammed her fists on the glass.

The guards at all corners tensed up, their tomes opened and ready.

A woman walked forward before stopping about ten metres away from the young man named Chris.

“Focus. Try and draw the energy back into your body. Otherwise, you’ll definitely fail and die.”

Chris grunted and shouted in pain as he tried to pull the scattered lightning back in, but the ice patches around his body kept deflecting them away.

Voidborn focused his eyes. He could see the deep purple stone in Chris that had been long shattered by the lightning, each chunk now stabbed into the walls of his guts. The lightning was now slowly breaking down the chunks into powder, but a layer of blue frost had formed around the walls of Chris’s gut.

His body was rejecting the stone.

Chris kept screaming and shouting in pain as the lightning lashed at him from both inside and outside, the exposed areas unprotected by thin pieces of ice burning into char.

“Why aren't they making a move?” Jimin asked, her hands now wet and clammy as she watched the young man writhe in pain from the prolonged torture.

“Until the point where he actually fails, there exists a small chance that it succeeds,” Joy said, but her voice was filled with solemnity. “Spellbound will try their best to uphold their end of the agreement to provide a fitting end only when an advancement is deemed as a definite failure.”

Another scalp-peeling scream ripped through the air.

Then silence.

The screaming stopped.

Voidborn looked back at the young man.

He was now standing upright, his entire body black with smoke wisping out of his skin. He raised his hand and looked at his fingers.

“Did he succeed?” the young woman asked.

As if to answer her question, Chris turned and looked at her.

His eyes were filled with nothing but absolute darkness, and endless tears streamed out from them. His mouth moved, muttering something that read:

I’m sorry.

Right as the muted words reached the young woman's eyes, letters and shapes sprouted out of his chest. They filled his entire body, wrapping around every inch of his skin, forming a black rash of symbols that glowed purple.

Then came the sounds of fluttering pages.

The flesh of his fingers began to peel off in layers, each one containing the symbols that was wrapped around his body.

“No—Chris!”

The young man stood there as his body flaked into floating shreds of flesh sheets, each one swirling and encircling him as his body was slowly converting into a torrent of flying papers.

“Young man. Trust yourself. We will not move until you completely fail. So keep trying.”

The woman’s words thundered towards Chris, but at this point, his arms and legs were totally gone. What's left was his upper torso, which that too, was feeding into the ball of paper that surrounded him like an external sphere.

All pairs of eyes were glued onto the paper ball, yet none except Voidborn could see past it.

“Get ready,” the woman ordered the other Scholars in the advancement room.

Voidborn focused his sight and looked at Chris.

His body was gone, and the only thing left in the ball was just the stone that he had consumed.

It had condensed back into its original state, levitating in the center of the sphere as it glowed a deep purple.

Then the paper scattered.

Whispers filled the air and seeped outwards, spreading across the room in soft ramblings. The papers then surged back towards the stone and rearranged themselves.

“He’s coming back!” the young woman exclaimed, tears of joy spilling out of her eyes.

“No.”

The papers lined flatly against each other as they assembled from the stone, forming four thick paper stacks that branched out like limbs.

More fluttered towards the stone and reordered themselves into the shape of a large book, the small pieces mended and bound together through an unknown force.

The Scholars had already begun to move, their tomes glowing red, ready to burn the paper abomination into crisp.

“What are they doing!” the young woman screamed, slamming her fists against the glass in disbelief. “Stop them! He hasn't failed! He’s coming back to his human form!”

The Scholars couldn't hear any of her protests through the glass, and a giant red orb had already condensed above each of their heads.

The papers finally stopped moving.

Chris, or what was once Chris, had now been turned into a human book. His upper torso was now a gigantic book with the stone embedded right where his heart should have been. Mini books stuck to each other and formed elongated stacks that branched out from the large book’s four edges, extending outwards into the air like arms and legs.

The large book opened. Countless symbols and letters filled the insides as the pages flipped, before settling at an empty page.

Then everything stopped moving.

“Are you still there, Chris?” the woman asked firmly.

As if he understood her, paper shreds that made up each page started to move.

They tore off the filled pages and pasted themselves on the empty page facing the rest, shifting around the page as if it were trying to draw something.

Voidborn frowned.

He could see a yellow crackle forming on the two circular diagrams that were assembled side by side, and a blue frost misting out of the elongated horizontal shape below the two.

A face had formed on the page — the two circles its eyes, and the long shape its mouth.

More torn pages peeled off its body, floating in the air above Chris as they arranged themselves.

The woman squinted her eyes and looked at the letters on the papers.

“D.I.E.H.U.M.A.N.”

The diagrams started to glow.

Electricity crackled out from the two circles and shot towards the woman like lightning spears. At the same time, glinting icicles stabbed out from the elongated shape, blasting towards her.

She closed her eyes and sighed, waving her hand in dejection.

A fire wall erupted from the ground and melted the ice with overwhelming heat, the droplets instantly evaporating and disappeared. The lightning spears crashed into the wall of fire, but they disappeared into crackles, spreading across the fire like weak currents.

“Execute.”

The woman declared.

“No!”

The young woman watched in despair as four blazing beams tore through the book, one from each corner of the room.

The papers instantly erupted into flames under the unending fire beams, burned alive. It tried to draw more circles with its paper shreds but they were instantly burnt to a crisp.

The room became a crematorium.

Chris, who had been monsterified, was burning under the streaming eyes of his lover. She wailed and sobbed non-stop, but her companion knelt beside her, pulling her into an embrace.

By the time the flames had died, ashes of dust lay in a heap on the ground, a stark reminder of the harsh consequences of greed and desire.

The woman in the advancement room walked forward and summoned her tome. The pages flipped and it began to glow green, a gust of wind swirling out from her outstretched palm.

The ashes, which were swept up by the wind, was gather into her hand, squeezed tight till they formed a dense ball of dust. With her free hand, she popped open a ceramic container and sent the ball in, before sealing it shut.

It was an urn.

Chris’s urn.

She then bent and crouched, squatting right before the two remaining items lying on the floor.

They were two Rebirth stones.

One from what Chris had consumed perfectly like how it was before.
The other a new addition, the deep purple containing a miniature snowflake that emitted a subtle and weak icy frost.

She picked up the items and slid them into her side pocket and walked back to her original position.

“Next.”

A solemn voice echoed and reverberated throughout the observation room.

Robert stared at the charred ground and smoke still lingering in the room.

He looked back at the rest, then raised his hand.

"I'll pass."

INFOGRAPHIC