Finding Contentus

Chapter 32: The R&R Tale (1)

To Renero's surprise, his and Minaleese's home looked exactly like how they left it the day Petora got attacked. Nothing had changed. Not even the very air he breathed inside seemed different. It was warm, cozy and inviting as always. There was no toxicity or infringement the likes of which he saw outside and all around the dark forest.

The dark forest that aside from the threat of primals always looked so beautiful, so colourful, so relaxing and mesmerizing. Only to be tarnished and tainted into becoming a literal graveyard of nothing else but death incarnate.

From the look, to the smell, to the nature of it. Death, death, death.

If death was an illness or disease like the primal gene to humans, Renero glowered at how sickened and infected beyond repair he was, while being unintentionally immune to its reoccurrence that only continued to spread and fester uncontrollably.

"There's no place... like home..."

To say Ramsis's voice wasn't just laced with nostalgic reminisce but brimming with dire futile longing for happier times in life would be the shallowest degree of such a comparative measure.

In the same way Renero's eyes pasted themselves on the burning lights that illuminated the main room due to the closed curtains, Ramsis's eyes glued themselves on the shadows that the burning lights plastered over their bodies.

The difference between them was as clear as day and night. Where Renero instinctively sought the light in the dark, Ramsis could only focus on the shadows that added to the dark.

Neither had spoken directly to the other just yet since both had entered the home. Both merely walked around each other admiring the furniture and features of the inside, without fear, as though they were two friends about to sit down and converse over some drinks.

If only that's how they were. If only that was the truth. If only the fact that they were enemies was the lie. If only the fact that they would be doing war was the lie.

If only things were different.

Soon both stopped to gaze at each other considerably from opposite ends of the main room at the same time and on cue. Ramsis still had his Anubis mask on, and Renero's expressionless mask still remained.

Since Renero decided to make the first move in directly confronting him while he waited, Ramsis decided to break the ice by setting his crafted mask ablaze. Now there was no more hiding, no more fronts and no more deception. Only the cold hard truth of reality between the two men.

Now that his face was revealed, Renero's blankness cracked to be overwritten with guilt. This only continued when Ramsis proceeded to remove the upper half of his hooded robe. This scene instantly reminded Renero of when he had revealed his scarred body to Genesia and Neosa when they had first arrived at their new home. And now, he was staring at a reflection of himself in another.

The disgusting artwork of scars, wounds, burns and gashes all over the torso and arms of Ramsis were exactly the same as the ones on his own body.

No, they looked more horrendous and sickening to the churning stomach. Renero didn't know how such a sight was possible when simultaneously he knew the answer given that Racaans had faster healing than humans. But even still, he couldn't help but let his mouth hang open slightly to showcase his shock at the permanent damage on the body of Ramsis.

Did I also—

"You can rejoice... a bit. The only physical damage that I sustained from you directly, was here."

Ramsis let his hand brush over the one half of his face and around his throat that had clawed marks and slashes that rendered it unrecognizable to the other half of his face that looked...