Chapter 85

𝕾𝖔𝖓𝖌 𝖙𝖔 𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖓 𝖙𝖔: 𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝕹𝖊𝖊𝖉 𝕿𝖔 𝕮𝖆𝖑𝖒 𝕯𝖔𝖜𝖓 𝖇𝖞 𝕿𝖆𝖞𝖑𝖔𝖗 𝕾𝖜𝖎𝖋𝖙

***

The sweet taste of salt air, the rusted feelings of the whispering breezes, and the abyss of the cloaked night cascaded through the barren land, the once land of the Silvian, but now it turned out to just be a deserted place.

Abandoned. But no one even cared.

No one, and just as the passing breezes caressed the sands of the time that our feet continued to float, I tasted a different kind of emotion.

Just as I managed to keep the coat of my hood from uncovering another darkness within my soul, I felt a hand weighing enough on my shoulders. Turning around, I looked into those dull eyes, that felt like it died earlier.

"Just as I was about to warn you, you managed to sneak from my grasp and saw this on your own Lady Vestia. But don't you ever ask me what happened here, because I won't entertain any questions besides the Belfore East," I knew the moment I saw his eyes that the land meant something else to him.

IT meant as if he died the second time we went into this barren land while the sands continued to be caressed by the endless breezes somewhere around.

I sighed and silently closed my eyes before finally adjusting my coat again but this time, I was the one who was already holding him by the arms as we took shelter from near the other border where we came from.

"Then I guess this should be fine?" I asked and I saw his ever dull eyed to shine for a moment before finally landing his back on the tree while I did the same thing.

We were currently in the Silvian state, and before I knew what was about to happen, a vague feeling enveloped me the moment, I felt his hands.

As if there was this tiny sliver of magic that made me see some figments of his past, a past that I could call a century that had passed.

The air from where we were was much more fresher than the land from the deserted place. As I tried to look around, the place was divided into two, the one in front of us was a deserted place, full of brown sands and some tsunami that might even impede us from coming.

While on the other hand, the one within our back was the Silvian forest, when we went here earlier, it was Jer who took care of the beasts lying within but as much as he could, I knew that I ended up moving to the other side.

It was such a long night, to begin with, but I guess it was such worth to have come two days later when I knew that Anna was indeed safe in that household.

"That young lady, who was serving you named Anna," Jer started and my vision that rested on the cloaked night went to him, but he never did the same thing, instead, his eyes were fixed on the deserted land as if it was precious to him but it was way more than it killed him to his soul.

"Why?" I managed to utter with my gaze remaining but he just gulped and closed his eyes for a moment before finally speaking the words that I couldn't help widen my soul.

"She reminds me of someone I cared about, a lady I failed to save, someone who had saved me where I couldn't even save myself..." in that very first moment I laid my eyes on him, it was I first saw his tears, that felt like diamonds trickling down his face.

But what captivated me wasn't his sight, but the way he looked at me, his lips were curled up while saltwater continued to stream down his face.

"And I just couldn't help but give that necklace to her, when I knew her soul was the one I've been searching for my whole life, Lady Vestia"

"How, what, where, when——"

But before I could finish these circulating questions within my mind, and ask him for a proper one, we heard a loud cry enough to make my ears bleed.

I calculated where the source was then I immediately narrowed my eyes to eh place while enveloping myself with Jer with the magic I've newly learned from Oratio.

"Spectrum!" As soon as I said that word, a book appeared right in front of me where the circular seal was, the hue was green and I could eventually see where the line pointed.

It was from the farthest side of the north and yet, the cry was loud enough to be heard even in here.

I looked at Jer and there weren't any tears in his eyes anymore, instead, he looked at me with narrowed eyes before finally nodding, and in a blink of an eye, before hearing him snap, lightning appeared and he immediately faded through it.

I shook my head and nearly hit my forehead if I weren't able to hear more of the loud cry again. This time, I was the one that faded through the time already.

At that moment, I knew for sure that Jer would handle it but I was wrong, I saw him flying and crashing through the trees ahead. I looked at who was the beast's opponent this time and I gasped.

It looked like it was a human with its height, but there was this greenish aura enveloping it. The human had the face and feet of a reptile and yet he had these long hair.

As soon as I landed my feet on the cold penetrating ground, I could feel the intensity of the echo he had. His hands which felt like a lizard's hands went to his ears and he swayed his head over and over again.

But when I looked closely at the creature, tears were forming under his eyes, or was it just some of his saliva from shouting? I don't know but there's something about him that was mysterious to figure out and before I could be able to kill him, I must know what it was.

It's just that, my chest felt a little heavier than before.

"K-kill m-me, k-kill m-me, please! B-Before I-I devour all the c-children from t-that place. K-Kill m-me!!!!" He shouted and I could eventually hear it clearly from the language of a human.

And yet, as wide as my eyes could be, were the words that Key managed to utter.

"There were numerous experimentations that happened decades ago.... And up until now, no one knows where the others were until we managed to land our noses on some..."

Just the thought of those words, ringing through my head, I looked at the creature once more and now, he was indeed kneeling on the floor with his hands over to his head.

He seemed to be crying but his cries were loud enough to make anyone die.

Just as I was about to walk a little closer to him, and reach my hands as if to purify his soul, the cloak of the knight became crimson and the hands that continued to reach over the creature no longer could do so as I tried to close my hands with it.

The only visible being right in front of me, the one whose shadow was looming over my figure, had this dark aura, and cold gaze, with the slicing weapon called the deathrock as he previously mentioned, had immediately taken hold of that huge hand from the being, slicing it enough to make it scream and kneel.

This time, it was a different kind of scream, one that contained no malice, but pleading like what I'd heard earlier.

"Please, kill me and end my suffering, I promise I will give you all what you wanted from me," my body felt like it was stamped to the ground.

I couldn't move even though my hands were unnecessarily shaking.

The coldness didn't even disappear, and when I gazed at my comrade, I knew he wasn't looking at the being anymore, but he was already gazing at me with this compared narrowed side-eye glances one that I couldn't help but take a hint and yet, I shook my head.

"Jer, no, we could still save him——"

However. Before I could finish my words, it was already the being that took Jer's weapon and ended himself leaving us with the faintest glow of his soul until they dispersed carried over by the wind.

"Why?" I asked but when I knew that I could have landed my hands first on him, it was as if I couldn't reach him and so when I closed them, I felt as if I was closing a door from within my soul that didn't deserve to be.

The vagueness of my surroundings crept to finalize my thoughts enough to carry the mud of the soil to my nails, enough to grab my soul to a never-ending coldness in the view of a glacier's arc.

But then, just when I tried to reach that light, earlier, that I thought had disappeared from the darkness of the night, something formed from nothing, and now, it was glowing.

Jer who stood right beside me knelt in front took off his coat and placed it on mine once more. However, he whispered some words that I, couldn't even help but widen my eyes.

"He's one of the experimented beings from the Belfore East and he must have run away to prevent the disaster he would cause leaving him with an unbearable amount of aura that he needed to be killed before he could become completely like a monster," he paused

"A being like that, couldn't be saved, Lady Vestia, not when he's already beyond saving," his words kept their might in my mind and the very last thing I remembered was his face and the glowing light right in front of us before fainting to the darkness.

"But int he very last moments of that creature's life, he wasn't lying about what he said, and this might be one of our keys to finding them, Lady Vestia..."