A Story of Evil

Chapter 54: The Core

"So how's the scouting going boy genius?" Alice walked on top of a ruined building stacked on top of another.

"Pretty dull. They're all basically afraid of us at this point."

The two set their camp there. It was the highest point that had the best cover. It was also near their spawn point.

Alice watched as another beacon came down on an area that was far from where they were - just like all the others that came before it. The beacons were created whenever titans teleported to the arena of the Culling. And ever since the incident against the lightning titans, nobody dared teleport to where they were.

"Your scare tactic was pretty effective huh."

"Of course it was. Even without the live feed, the mere shock from all the data displayed would make them hesitate. Two powerless Voids took down five lightning titans within their first thirty minutes of transport."

"You're forgetting the golems." Alice said in a proud tone.

"Exactly. Without the live feed showing them how we did it, fear would give way to creating monsters in their head. They would see us as threats wielding some sort of secret weapons of mass destruction. Where in fact, all we did was a simple execution of a well-planned surprise assault."

They sat back and relaxed. Their work for that day was already done and, all that was needed was to finish pinning down the locations of all the other titans. It was Sol's job of course since, he has the whole map memorized and could easily put tabs on all locations in his head.

"So should I bring out the food now?"

"Sure. What did those guys have?" Sol said, referring to the food of the lightning titans.

"Oh you wouldn't believe. It's a couple of high quality hound meat."

"Waitseriously?"

"Yup. Of course they also have regular provisions but man, they must've thought this was just a picnic." Alice began heating the food, getting items out of the bag one by one.

"They've basically been well fed and trained since childhood. Bringing stuff like that isn't surprising at all." Sol said, watching another beacon light up and putting tabs on it.

"Okay that gives us another hour to wait." Sol got up from his post, hiding the binoculars which he used to scout.

"Good, you can set up the tents then."

"Didn't I already ask you to do that?"

"You did. But you also asked me to bring all our things here. You also asked me to bring the things of all those dead titans. Plus, you also asked me to cook you food you ungrateful moron." Alice said in a sarcastic mellow tone.

"Hey no need to be all aggressive about it." Sol smirked as he began looking through their things and, grabbing hold of another item by mistake.

"Hey Alice." He said, taking out the item which was an orb that had a light blue color.

The thing Sol held at that moment is called a [Core]. The item basically works like mana crystals and, higher quality ones can produce thrice the output. But the item isn't easy to harvest nor is it morally correct to just harvest them because, cores can only be taken through the dead bodies of humans.

"I never thought I'd ever get my hands on that beauty." Alice said, already thinking of the profit she'd gain by selling them.

"To think something like this would get inside our bodies soon." Sol said, bringing the core back to the bag.

Every human who has mana flowing through their veins has another peculiarity. That is, their hearts have another organ right beside it. It is the second heart, the unrefined core. Just as the heart circulates blood throughout the body, the core also serves the purpose of making mana flow inside a human.

Upon death, this organ turns into a sphere. Sucking up all the mana that lies within the body as it becomes hard as a crystal. Containing all the mana of the host from where it came. Of course different domains had different cores and, some of these even has special properties on them. It was this very thought that sparked a question on Alice's head.

"Hey Sol."

"What?" The boy was busy setting up the tents as quickly as he could.

"You think we can use the lightning cores in the fight?" Sol looked at her in a pitiable way, sighing as he returned to his task.

"Not a chance. Elemental cores are highly volatile and the only way we can properly harness their power is through an item that evenly disperses its energywithout suddenly exploding, or freezing. or generating a lightning bolt that is."

"Yeah but what if we use them as bombs? We can just throw one of these bad boys and the enemies are guaranteed to die."

"Hmmthat's actually a good idea. But I'd like to avoid that as much as possible because you know" Sol mad a money sign with his fingers.

"Right, we need that too." Alice finished cooking the first two pieces of steak as she said this. Meanwhile, Sol was also done with his job and so sat on the other side of the fire crystal's light.

It was a calm night for the two. They've done all that they could and were still doing more. The road to victory is still a long way ahead but, that doesn't mean they couldn't rest along the way.

"I'm gonna take guarding duty after we eat. You should rest as much as you can."

"Awwww is the boy genius acting all chivalric now?"

"Idiot. Most of the physical burden was placed on you. I know your body is tough and you have [D.B.S.] but that doesn't mean you can't get tired." Sol said, chewing on the meat and swallowing it immediately.

"I need to wait for all the beacons to appear so that we know all the locations. I'd be doing two jobs at once if I also take guarding duty."

"Alright fine. I was just kidding, no need to hit me with your brains." Alice mentioned, putting both hands up with the steak already finished.

"That's not possible." Sol teased.

"It's metaphorical!"

With that, the first day of the Culling ended peacefully for the Void titans. Everything was flawless up to that point, easing up their tension and allowing them to have enough preparation for the following day.

However, the same cannot be said about the whole of humanity within the domains. There was turmoil and anxiety as they waited for the replay of the first day. The one which would show them what truly transpired between the Void and the Lightning titans.

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