Chapter 32: Map
Jake listened to Rion, and he couldn’t help but feel slightly bad for him. "You are a few years younger than me, right? Does the mark have any age limit?" Jake asked.
"From what I heard, no, there is no age limit for who the mark can choose. A hundred-year-old man, a small baby newly born, the mark can choose whoever.
It’s a horror to many families, waking up to see their son or daughter with the mark. But no matter how bad all of this is, no one complains," he said.
"And why’s that? Why don’t they say anything?" Jake asked.
"Because the abyss is real, a threat worse than death. It’s looming over us, and the day there is no guardian to stand in the way, the abyss will come to us, and this world will be lost.
In this day and age, many believe it to be tales that had never happened. But deep down we all know it’s true, because the tainted exist, and the records from past trials tell of how the chosen sometimes come in contact with the abyss," Rion explained.
"So the world bears the lesser pain in order to make sure the greater pain never comes," Jake said.
"Exactly," Rion replied.
"I can’t say I accept either, but it would be foolish to dream of having what you want in life. The best you can do is to work toward it.