Syme had slightly exited her mania; now, outside of town in a grove of trees, she slumped on a rock parallel to Rain.
Her expression was still quite unsettling with shaky eyes like she had just killed her own family. But despite that, she had the eerie smile of a psychopath.
It looks like something had finally broken in her.
Rain, on the other hand, simply sat on an opposing rock trying to internalize the soul he had just devoured.
And though he had also consumed the flesh of that farming family, they possessed no mana, thus no served no increase to his powers but only satiation.
After half an hour passed away with the breeze between the trees, a cold wave of mana seeped out of Rain's body, dropping to the floor like fog and drifting away with the wind.
He had made some improvements, not nearly enough to increase a major stage, but if he were to take on the deceased Daryl in daylight, he would not exactly be disadvantaged.
The cold energy had startled Syme, still seemingly stuck in her semi-crazed state.
It had awoken her usual self now. The psychotic smile had disappeared, yet the eyes were still wide open this time with a flurry of tears welling up.
And soon it all came flooding out.
She cried for a while.
'Was that really me?' she couldn't believe what she had done, with such glee, exhilaration, and the blood she had drank straight from that… that poor mother's heart.
She could still taste the residual iron in her mouth.
'No, no, no, no… that wasn't me' she tried to deny it; reality, however, was never wrong and she soon wept again in her self-loathing and regret.
As tears slid down her face, a gentle pair of hands wrapped around her neckline.
It was Rain.
She could tell. The way his cold breath stung slightly on her nape, the way his hands rested on her collarbone, it was him, despicably him.
"You did good," he whispered in her ear as she continued to cry, some of the tears falling onto his pale hands.
"Let it all out now" and despite the fact that she knew this devil slumped over her shoulders was the source of all her grief, guilt, and irreconcilable emotional turmoil, she felt some sort of comfort in his words.
Her tears continued to stream as the sun hovered above them, drying them as they streaked down her cheek.
She stayed like that for a while.
A while enough that the night was now approaching.
"Let's go, we need to reach the outpost before morning. You still need some sleep.."
"Mm" she nodded, having no more tears to cry anymore.
Though the plan was to take a carriage directly to Gull, none had passed that day, forcing the two to travel by foot.
Through the night they ran with Rain taking the lead. He could see perfectly fine in the as opposed to Syme who struggled to keep up.
There were times when he had to pull on her marionette strings to help her navigate the dense foliage in the dark; and she simply had to trust in the grace of her puppeteer, that her worth, or the joy she brought him in toying with her was more than the burden she now was.
And this night was not just the moon and stars, there was trouble.
A pack of wolves had appeared from their flank as they came to a small clearing.
Rain, being in his natural domain, eliminated the Tier-1 threat with relative ease, feasting on their blood and the mana in their bodies.
Syme, on the other hand, struggled and sustained some injuries in her fight, needing Rain to protect her more times than she was proud of.
Evidence of her struggle, she had claws marks all over her legs and side, dying the white garments she wore with splashes of red that dried to a crimson over time.
She was panting evenly, staggeringing in her steps, before they finally arrived at the outpost.
It was a small encampment with a few basic amenities half a day's travel from one another so that merchants and travelers could rest for a night before continuing on their trip.
From a nearby river, they washed up with their clothes on in the cold night, making a campfire from sticks and a bit of mana to dry themselves off.
There were a few empty rooms with a wooden rack to sleep on. It was no luxury but it got the job done.
That night with Rain beside her, Syme replayed the events of the day, how the mother had screamed, begging for it to stop; how the child watched it all happen as she wallowed in her own mother's blood.
'What have I done?'
Though she tried to excuse herself by simply saying that she was forced to, she knew she had done it on her own. She knew that her own fear of that soul-crushing pain was greater than her empathy for that family. She knew that after a few slashes, after she reflexed from the initial horror, that a part of her–that sick, sick part of her–seemed to even enjoy it a little.
That afternoon, blood had smelled different than it ever had before. And knowing this fact, she was split apart.
"That was the real you, you know." Rain laughed in her arms.
"No, no, that can't be." She recoiled in desperation.
"And you seemed to enjoy it even more than I did"
"You… you made me do it…" she protested.
"Did I really now? The way you laughed, the way you so eagerly drank from her heart… you seemed to like it quite a lot now. In a way, you're more of a devil than I am–at least I had to eat, you didn't."
'More of a devil than…' that remark had left a deep imprint on her conscience.
Was she really?
The girl who was always so innocent growing up. The girl with a soul purer than the brightest morning sun…
The girl who glut her joy on the blood she drew…
She didn't want to think about it anymore, turning her head and closing her eyes–but it was hard, and it would be for a while before she slept with some peace of mind.
She had woken up in the afternoon; soon they set off for Gull. Without food, water, or any other of the necessary amenities to survive in the wilderness, they would have to make the half-day trek today.
So, carried by the wind, they left the outpost, hastening their steps towards the Barony.