Garyon's health condition was crap after that monumental fall.
He would have to be dead, be the remains that the animals devoured, if not for the luck that his arm got caught between some thorns that extended by the wall of earth and rocks. When he managed to get away, he cried at the top of his lungs as he pulled out each spine from his limb, in that couple of hours that he was hanging he became infected with such disgusting things that he had no choice but to use his resonance on himself, to give himself the order to ignore the pain and to be able to go in search of his companion.
The idea that Eheron was dead… it wasn't an impossibility, but why?
He walked in the middle of the cold night, the moonlight illuminated the path up to Eheron's two-split chest, he knelt down and tried to etch that image in his mind, the empty eye sockets, the pierced throat, the nose broken, bruises... Half the wounds were more than enough to take his life, there was no need to go further.
He opened his eyes wide, took the chains, removed the intestines from them, and pushed them aside to clean them later. He made a hole, he didn't think about how to do it, he just used both hands to dig. He didn't care that the holes in his left hand were filled with sand and bugs, he had to honor the end of Eheron's life.
When he closed the hole, he took the chains and walked to a river, washed them, and went back to create a makeshift headstone with a couple of sticks. Knelt down and waited until dawn.
"You know boy? It will be difficult to replace you ..." looked up at the dark sky. "You were very good, indeed, you were the best with those chains." A tear welled up in his eye. "I withdraw what I said, you are irreplaceable my friend, I know that I promised not to use my resonance with you, but if you allow me this time..." The sun began to appear on the horizon. "I would like to give an order to what is left of your soul..."
He clenched his fists.
"Rest in…" he choked out his words and involuntarily pressed his forehead to the ground. He was supposed to have ordered himself not to feel regret years ago, he shouldn't have cared about the lives of others. He scratched his head, that was the problem! His silly resonance and the literalness of it.
He straightened up and took a deep breath.
"Eheron, my friend, forgive me." Gave the first and last command to Eheron.
He rose along with the sun, ready to do his duty to cleanse the world of insane people with more insane resonances, starting with the boy with the blue locks.
———————————————————————————————————
The trail had led him there, in front of the huge scarlet-leaved tree. Garyon's injuries were still considerable —large scabs on his arm and swelling all over his face —for how much he had dedicated his soul to recover his body with the help of his resonance.
Half an hour ago he ran into Hojita.
He had forced the fairy to disappear to witness with his resonance that invisible thread manifest and thus have a clue of the location of his victims, despite this, he could not feel the soul of anyone in the vicinity.
"Did they have time to go?" hesitated.
He walked between the monumental roots of the still greater tree, calmly, climbing and descending the slope around it. Perhaps they managed to deduce a little about his resonance, it would not be the first time that someone understood how to hide from him.
"Hell..." It wasn't a daunting task to prevent Garyon from detecting you if you stray far enough, just don't use your soul for anything other than using your body as usual.
Garyon bit his thumbnail and pushed away a mountain of leaves with his feet, taking those steps, his foot snapped a small branch that alerted a squirrel that ran out and attracted Garyon's attention. What a shame, where was his confidence? He leaned back on one of the roots and lowered his head in exhaustion.
There, at his feet, was the tomb of Echsos with the beautiful blue flower surrounded by stones and fallen leaves. Garyon closed his eyes and focused on detecting the souls around him.
"Boy, your soul was easy to feel." He reached down and pushed the blades away from the stone circle. "I guess your friends weren't that stupid." He sat down, defeated, without the Echsos resonance active all the time, it would be hard for him to chase them.
———————————————————————————————————
"How are you doing Layd?" asked Airys jokingly.
Layd was leaning on Sandy's back with his face to the sky, legs spread, moving from side to side without the slightest hint of motion apart from the fact that the panorama in his eyes was changing, branches and portions of clouds were left behind.
"To be honest is very comfortable" he commented incredulously. "I feel almost no agitation and…" he yawned, gratified. "I love how he molded for my back."
Indeed, it was another way for Sandy to use the ability to undo and redo his body: Recreating the legs at the correct height so as not to move his back from position, the ultimate natural suspension.
"Right?!" she squealed herself smugly. "Sandy is the best, I wish I had played more with dirt when I was little."
They were almost at the foot of the mountain, next to a small river where the less hostile animals gathered in the afternoons to satisfy their needs. They had taken a quick detour through Seng's dirty hut to collect some things, and from there they set off in the direction of the foot of the mountain.
"How many hiding places do you have?" Natsume questioned.
Seng smiled at her showing his hands and waved the fingers of both hands.
They kept a calm stride, so Sandy could carry Layd as well as possible and also carrying the Airys bag with the sand tail.
Ahead of that pair was Seng with his bag of clothes —which included that colorful shirt that only Airys had seen so far —and a couple of personal things. The distance between them was not that much, close to meter and a half maximum, Seng led.
"Have you thought about where you will go?" Seng said as he rearranged the bag in his shoulder. The wounds on his body had disappeared on the outside, but on the inside he still felt pain when doing these kinds of movements.
"We will return to our city, the Cathedral" she replied with a discouraged expression. "They wait for us there… all three of us."
"I see..." Seng turned to the right and indicated the less steep path.
The ride was uneventful, Seng didn't speak much, the only person keeping the conversation alive with Layd —and Natsume —was Airys, with inconsequential questions, mere youthful curiosity.
"Do you have any creatures you can summon?" Airys said.
"A little butterfly, but I need sugar, so I don't use it much."
"Oh yeah, you have to go to a bakery or something."
"Yes… that's why…"
"In the end you didn't tell me how you discovered your resonance."
"What I did was a lot of meditation, then I realized that I was bonding with the earth near me."
"Only that?"
"Well, it took me a long time."
"That is not that different from what I am doing now."
"A-aha? Was that what you two were doing?"
"Yes" she laughed in disappointment, although deep down she didn't need that kind of help anymore.
"I think it would help you to try what I did" Natsume said, she slowed down a bit to be next to that pair.
"Are you going to tell me?" Airys was filled with anticipation. Natsume's resonance was something spectacular, and if she learned to use it without meditating, maybe it was something incredible like dedicating herself to doing special postures or something much more fun. She rambled like this for a few moments, imagining the possibilities, a teacher who doesn't yell or hit her.
"Of course." As soon as Natsume said that, Airys squealed and hugged her tight from behind.
"When do we start Master?!"
"I-I don't think we'll have much time" Natsume broke free from Airys's embrace. "We are going to part soon, shortly after leaving the mountain."
"Aaaah...?" Airys complained. "So fast? But Layd is still badly hurt."
"T-that's right" Layd agreed like lightning as he sat. "I think it will take me a couple more days to be able to walk for the whole day."
Layd's tone of voice made her believe that he was not sincere, however, surely it was because that creature was truly a rewarding transport, so she lowered her eyebrow and decided to relax.
"Talk to Seng, I doubt our destinies match much."
"Y-yes, I will."
With that said, Layd lay back down to let those two have their conversation. Distracted again with the idea of having to return to that city. He couldn't allow that, Echsos wouldn't want it, the purpose of all this was to get out of there, but… how did he tell her? He covered his eyes —excusing himself from the sun —she wouldn't forgive him.
"Demons! Why it got so complicated?!" stifled his crying with all his concentration.
"And what was it that helped you?" Airys resumed the conversation.
"Simple." Natsume paused for a moment and put her hands on her waist. "You have to wish it."