A week after Sky had killed the level seven monster and retrieved the memories about the hunt. He noticed a group of monsters leaving the nest.
In this group of monsters, Sky felt a very strong presence. Sky had once fought against a level eight Lamina, But compared to this monster, the Lamina seemed to be lacking something.
Sky followed behind the monsters at a distance of five kilometres. With his enhanced vision, he was barley able to follow them without being noticed.
The group of monsters walked for about Six hours before they stopped. They then started resting in that place, totally confusing Sky.
This group of monsters did not look like they were on a hunt, rather they looked like they were waiting to meet up with someone.
After an hour of waiting, Sky turned towards the horizon and saw a new group of monsters coming over.
"Are those the prey?" Artha asked Sky doubtfully. These new group of monsters coming from the horizon were too relaxed to be the prey.
"No! Something's not right. These new group of monsters also have a level eight monster." Sky's mind tried to figure out what was happening, but he just did not have enough information.
As Sky watched, this new group of monsters caught up to the first group that Sky had been following. The level eight monsters of both the groups nodded and the new group and the old one started moving once again.
Sky followed behind them, his heart dropping with every step. His left hand gave him a vague sense of large threat. His eyes twitched as he recalled that every time his left hand gave him this feeling, Sky had lost someone dear to him.
"Um! Artha, no matter what happens, please don't leave the hand." He said seriously.
"Huh! What are you saying now?" Artha was confused by Sky's sudden request. Why had Sky suddenly become so overprotective. In the first place, without's Sky consent she had never left the left hand. Was it even possible to even leave the hand if Sky did not wish to.
Sky also knew what he asked was a foolish request. Without his consent, his left hand rarely allowed anyone to come out. Just now, Sky has been so concerned that he spoke out of reflex.
These two group of monsters walked for about three hours before stopping.
Seeing them wait once again, Sky's Herat started to beat faster. Just as he expected, a new group of monsters headed by a level eight monster joined them.
He seriously started considering, what were his chances of beating three 'level eight monsters' and numerous level seven and level six monsters?
He finally came to a conclusion that he did not like.
He still followed the group to expand his horizons. Even if this turned troublesome, he could just flee. With his left arm, he could just absorb all those who block his path into his third space and escape.
He could then kill them when he had sufficient power.
"Ah!" Artha let a scream suddenly.
Sky's heart immediately stopped, "What? What happened Artha?" He screamed.
Artha looked towards the monsters once and then she took a deep breath and cooled down. "The place they are heading towards, It is the EverLight town." She said.
"EverLight town?" Sky did not know what kind of place this was.
"Yes! The EverLight town. It is the next town after the Sunrise town. They heading towards the town." Artha told him.
Sky relaxed as he heard this, seems like there was no danger to Artha. "So you are saying that they are going to hunt the monsters from the town. Isn't that obvious, if they don't hunt the monsters from the town, from where would they gain prey?"
Artha was shocked by Sky's words. Did this mean, Sky knew the monster's destination all along. Yet he just followed them.
"What are you going to do now?" She asked, even though she already knew his answer.
"We wait for a chance, if we can abduct a level eight monster, with my immortality, I would eventually be able to kill it. So we wait for a chance to abduct a level eight monster." Sky answered honestly.
"What about the lives of monsters in the town." She asked. She had a vague guess to what Sky thought. But she still wanted to hear it from him.
"Well, Don't you see that this group of monsters are pretty powerful but they still walked slow, this is not because they are actually slow."
"This is them giving the higher level monsters of the town some time to escape from them. Only the lower level monsters would not be able to leave the town."
"These monsters only require food, they are not here to fight. So I am assuming that they would just kill the lower level monsters who could not leave the town and won't bother with those who fled."
Sky did not hear Artha's voice for quite some time. He grew anxious as he tried to guess her emotions. "Artha, this a dog eat dog world. The monsters from the towns also hunted the unintelligent monsters, just that this time, it is the unintelligent monsters hunting the normal ones."
He did not receive a reply for quite some time. But eventually a soothing sound came out of his left hand. "Sky, the reason you saved us from the Minotaurs when we met for the first time, what was it? What was the reason Sky?" Artha asked.
Sky had a blank face. What was the reason? Was it because the Minotaurs started to attack him before the foxes, or was it because he found the Minotaurs ugly.
No! It was none of that. Sky saved the foxes because he chose to. It was his own decision that made him save the foxes. In other words whatever the momentary reason was, he saved them because he chose to side with the foxes.
"You would have probably figured it out by now. You save because you chose to save. Now between the unintelligent species and the monsters from the town, whom do you choose Sky? Whom do you choose?" Artha asked, her voice turning a little emotional.
Sky took a huge breath, calming down he spoke in a warm tone. "Right now, you and Carnage are the only ones that still keep me alive, you are the only two who give me hope. If I have to choose someone, I would rather choose you two."
"I lost Mey when I was six, I lost your sister when were captured by the werewolf. I recently found out that Mey could still be saved and that gave rise to a new hope."
"Both Carnage and Mey are waiting for me to save them. If I get captured.." Sky's voice was kind of hoarse now, as he tried to explain to Artha. "If I get captured now, I would be safe, after all, I got my immortality."
"But what about Carnage? What about Mey? Would my Left hand be able to sustain their stable condition even after a hundred years of my capture. Can you even guarantee that I won't lose my mind if I get captured once again."
"Last time I was captured, it was you who brought me out of that nightmare. I am sure you would be able to preserve a part of my conscience even if I get captured once more, but the new Sky would not be 'your' Sky anymore."
"So if I have to choose someone's side, I choose my side, your side, but only if no harm comes to you, or my people." Sky poured out his true emotions to make Artha understand how important she was, compared to random strangers to Sky.
A drop of tear fell down Artha's chin as she looked at her sister's dead body. Sky's words hit her hard and made her understand the value of her companions.
The unintelligent monsters were walking too slow. If Sky took a detour, he could reach the EverLight town two hours before them. They would have plenty of time to evacuate the residents.
Artha knew that they had a chance to save all the residents, but she did not speak anymore. If they evacuated every resident, then the number of chances Sky would get to abduct a level eight monster would turn to null.
After all, Sky was counting on the confusion of the town to abduct a level eight monster. If there were no residents, how could there be a confusion?
Artha kept quiet precisely to let Sky gain this opportunity. She had understood that Sky was more important to her than the thousands of monster's lives in the town.
Sky was pleased that he was able to convince her. It would have been a pain if she insisted on saving the town.
Sky mentally decided to reward himself with Artha's body next time for being able to convince her.
Who knows, this time his golden spear might just come victorious over her cave.
He smiled evilly as he followed behind the three groups.
......