Sin Collector Cultivator

9. Second Chain: Eternal Regret

Chapter 9: Second Chain: Eternal Regret

The night wind on the outskirts of the fog forest whispered through the leafless trees, carrying the lingering scent of burning from distant Xandros. Arion stood in a small clearing surrounded by the ruins of ancient stone pillars. Before him, Serafina sat on her knees, her white robe, tainted with black stains, fluttering gently in the wind.

[System: Atmospheric Conditions Open. Location: Ruins of the Fading Moon Temple.]

[Notice: Post-Xandros Malice energy is highly unstable. Reservoir Capacity: 92%. Requires immediate anchoring for the Second Chain.]

Arion pressed his forehead, which felt burning hot; the chain seal there pulsed with an intense purple hue. "Sit still, Serafina. Do not resist the flow of energy."

"Can you feel the weight of it, Arion?" Serafina asked in a hoarse voice. Her gray eyes stared at Arion’s hand, which now glowed with a grayish-black light. "This isn't just energy. It is the collective final breaths of those I failed to save. It is every cry from the corners of the Red Silk."

"Stop being so melancholic, Serafina," Lyra snorted, leaning against one of the stone pillars with her arms crossed. Her eyes never left Serafina’s neck, where a new chain mark was beginning to form. "He isn't interested in your history of pain. He just needs your burden so his head doesn't explode."

Arion shot a sharp glance at Lyra. "Lyra, watch your boundaries. She is part of this structure now. If she fails to synchronize, your chain will also experience an overload."

"Why does it have to be on the neck?" Lyra pointed to the chain tattoo on Serafina’s neck with her chin. "I have mine on my wrist, the mark of a fighter. But her? On the neck? Are you trying to make her a pretty pet, Arion?"

Serafina offered a thin smile, an expression that seemed foreign yet meaningful. "Perhaps because it was in this throat that all my old oaths were once held back. Or perhaps because Arion wants me to always feel choked by this regret. Isn't that right, Lord of Shadow?"

"My name is Arion," he replied shortly. He reached out both hands; one toward Lyra’s chest, the other toward Serafina’s neck. "Prepare yourselves. Dual-vessel synchronization."

[Initiating Dual-Chain Synchronization: Hate and Regret.]

[Malice Transfer: 5,000 Units beginning...]

Arion closed his eyes, and instantly their surroundings seemed to vanish into a dark void. There was only Arion, Lyra, and Serafina, connected by two lines of light—one a burning red, the other a dark gray.

"Ack—!" Lyra shrieked, her body tensing as she felt a surge of emotions that weren't hers flood her mind. "What is this? It feels... so cold. This isn't anger. This is absolute loneliness! Serafina, get this out of my head!"

"It is a part of me now, Lyra," Serafina said calmly, even as cold sweat began to bead on her forehead. "I feel your blade. I feel the betrayal of that man named Caspian. So sharp, so hot. Your anger is the fire that warms my frost."

"Shut up! I don't want to be connected to you this deeply!" Lyra cried out.

"You have no choice," Arion cut in. "System, explain the effects of this bridge."

[System Report: Inter-Vessel Link occurred. Passive Skill Formed: 'Bittersweet Revenge'.]

[Description: Lyra's attacks now contain the 'Necrotic Deceleration' effect. Every slash that hits an enemy will cause mental regret that slows the opponent's motor reactions by 15%.]

"Good," Arion muttered. "Lyra, you cannot kill something perfectly if its soul hasn't been destroyed first. Serafina’s regret will erode their inner defenses before your blade cuts their breath."

Lyra stared at her wrist, seeing that her chain tattoo now had fine silvery-gray streaks amidst the black. "It feels like holding a sword covered in mud. Heavy. But... the power has indeed increased. Tsk, you really know how to use us, Arion."

"What about me?" Serafina looked at Arion demandingly. "I gave everything to you. What do you give me besides a heavier burden?"

[System: Granting 'Primary Vessel of Eternal Regret' status to Serafina.]

[Skill Unlocked: 'Empathic Transference'. Serafina can transfer Arion's or Lyra's physical wounds into her soul to be processed into regenerative energy.]

Arion released his hands, and the light slowly faded into their respective bodies. "That is your answer. You will be the one who keeps us standing. You won't fight on the front lines, but without you, Lyra would just be a destruction machine that breaks after a few uses."

Serafina touched the chain mark on her neck. She now stood with a more stable grace than before. "So I am the poison containment vessel for both of you. As a former palace healer, this task isn't too different from my past. It's just that now my patients are monsters and slaughtering tools."

"So what’s your plan now, Chain Holder?" Lyra cleaned her sword, which didn't even look dirty. "The Alliance surely knows General Valerius is dead. The Order of Pure Light will surround a hundred-mile radius from Xandros."

"We are going west," Arion pointed toward the horizon, which was beginning to show indigo hues before dawn. "Toward the border of the Kingdom of the Setting Sun."

"The Setting Sun?" Serafina frowned. "That place is surrounded by toxic deserts and impenetrable fortresses. And there are only the stubborn ruins of old powers there. Why go there?"

"Someone is waiting for me there," Arion walked ahead of them, his steps light as if the burden of 20,000 units of Malice he carried meant nothing. "Isadora."

"That Cursed Princess again?" Lyra hissed while following Arion. "Why must we search for a blind woman in the middle of the desert?"

"She isn't just a blind woman, Lyra," Arion turned slightly toward her. "The System detects that she is the 'Vessel of Despair'. And her despair is so potent that it can alter the probability of the future."

"Future sight through despair," Serafina murmured, her face showing intellectual horror. "I’ve read about that. The talent of 'The Cursed Oracle'. She sees every possible disaster before it happens. No wonder her own people locked her away in total darkness."

"We are going to get her," Arion affirmed. "This world needs to know how it feels when the hope they cheer for every day is extinguished by the vivid visions of a woman they discarded."

"You want to gather six people, don't you?" Lyra asked suddenly.

"Six chains, six aspects of human sin betrayed by the holy system," Arion answered without hesitation. "Hate, Regret, Despair, Fallen Pride, Emptiness, and Tainted Loyalty. Once all six are complete, no law of karma will be able to hold us back."

[System Notification: Main Quest 'Dance of the Six Chains' updated. Progress: 33%.]

[Current Energy Capacity: 21,000 / 50,000.]

[Dual-Use Bonus: User's automatic energy recovery increased by 25% when near both Vessels.]

"Arion, there is something you should know before we continue this long journey," Serafina quickened her pace to walk alongside Arion. The scent of roses and ancient dust wafted from her. "Valerius... before he died, he whispered one thing through his regret that was caught by my senses."

"What was it?"

"The Order of Pure Light has built a giant tower near the entrance to the western desert," Serafina’s face tensed. "The tower is called the 'Celestial Scales'. Its function isn't to protect the citizens, but to suck every drop of karma from newborns to be sent to the Sky Realm."

Arion stopped walking abruptly. His eyes flashed with a sharp purple light. "Sucking the karma of newborns? Doesn't that mean those babies will have no 'luck' at all from the moment they take their first breath?"

"It’s worse than that," Serafina swallowed hard. "Without base karma, those babies are considered 'Voidlings'. They will have lives full of catastrophe, poverty, and pain. The Alliance deliberately creates suffering so they have more 'sins' to purify later."

"A very sustainable system," Arion laughed cynically, a laugh that made Lyra shiver. "They plant suffering to harvest gratitude when they 'save' humans with their fake laws."

"They use the term 'Cycle of Holy Suffering Cultivation'," Serafina added bitterly. "I was fired and cast out because I tried to treat these Voidling children with medicine that was supposed to be the ration for the high priests."

"Now you know why you are here, Serafina," Arion resumed walking, but now with even greater intensity. "That tower will be our next target before we reach Isadora’s palace. If they want to weigh the world, let us give them a weight they cannot bear."

Lyra smiled wildly, her hands beginning to glow with a black mist. "Climbing a holy tower and dropping their 'justice' onto their own heads? That’s an idea I like."

"I don't like violence if it isn't necessary," Serafina straightened her shabby robe, "but I feel very excited to see the faces of those priests when I tell them that the healer they insulted has returned bringing the apocalypse."

[Detection Warning: Enemies ahead. Sky Sword Sect: Shadow Tracking Unit. Distance: 2 kilometers.]

Arion waved his hand. Instantly, the fog around the temple ruins thickened, turning a deep purple.

"Lyra, front line," Arion gave a short command.

"With pleasure, Chain Holder." Lyra darted away, vanishing into the fog with a speed that surpassed her former human capabilities.

"Serafina, behind me. Keep 'Regret Sync' active. Don't let a single one of them realize they have walked into our spiderweb."

"Understood," Serafina stood one step behind Arion, her eyes closed as silver vapor began to leak from her pores, adjusting the frequency of regret throughout the entire fog forest.

That night, a group of elite tracking disciples from the Sky Sword Sect entered the forest with full confidence. They carried holy nameplates and light energy in their blades. However, they did not know they were entering a territory where the laws of physics no longer applied.

"Hey, why did you stop?" one tracker asked his comrade.

"I... I just remembered when I left my sick mother to join the sect," the tracker wept without cause. His holy sword fell to the ground. "I... I'm so sorry..."

"Are you crazy?! We're on a mission!"

"He isn't the one who's crazy; all of you are simply being reminded of your debts," Arion’s voice echoed from all directions, hollow yet oppressive.

From within the fog, Lyra appeared like a ghostly flash, cutting the throats of three trackers at once in a single horizontal slash that was graceful yet lethal. Holy blood soaked the dry snow remaining on the forest floor.

[Absorbing 1,500 Units of Malice. Level 4 Progress: 25%.]

"Let’s go," Arion said without looking at the corpses. "Their blood is merely a road decoration for the next tower."

The three of them walked through the ending night. Three black shadows bound together by the chains of karma, moving west to shatter the scales of heaven and free the princess locked in the darkness of the future.

The regret was now eternal, but for Serafina, regret was no longer a quiet sob in the corner of a brothel room. Now, it was the sigh of death’s breath that would infect every step of the 'holy' ones.

"Second Chain: Eternal Regret... has been fully locked," Arion’s System murmured as the first red dawn touched the tips of the trees, illuminating the silver chain on the neck of the healer who had just been reborn as a goddess of regret.

The trio's dynamic was formed. Arion the brain and reservoir, Lyra the fiery executioner, and Serafina the lethal spiritual shield.

"Only two chains, and heaven is already trembling," Arion thought, staring at the desert sands beginning to appear on the horizon. "Wait for me, Isadora. Your despair is my guiding light."