"So, what did you say to him?" Vera muttered.
"Nothing much, another warning that's all." Aurea replied with the same tone.
Inside a smaller-than-usual cave, the scent of food flowed around the rocks bringing some comfort to everyone inside. Well, only to the two people awake, as there were two boys seemingly deep asleep.
Zenon put his head towards a wall while supporting it with his arm while listening to the girls' conversation. This was something that happened every night without fail.
Since he didn't trust his ability to wake up just in time for them to start chatting, he remained awake until they stopped their conversation.
"Just that...? Aurea, I don't think you realize how dangerous he is... I'm not saying you are dumb for not noticing but I can't trust him."
After some seconds of silence, Aurea muttered, "I already told you, in three days he will be gone."
If this statement was said in any other situation, Zenon would've fainted just from hearing it. But there was some blind faith that attached him to Aurea's words, he knew that she wasn't the type of person to tell a lie just because of pleasure.
Zenon crossed his fingers and tried to fall asleep.
---
Void Sacrifices: [30/1500]
"Hey! That was our kill!"
Zenon made a hidden smile just before getting rid of it. He took the dagger that was deep inside an Emperor's thorax, cleaned it from the blood, and stored it.
This day turned out to be extremely beneficial!
He managed to kill six Second-Ranks, meaning that he got nothing else than twelve Sacrifices! Ever since Aurea told him that in three days something will change, he adopted a more carefree attitude that consisted in going head-on against a Layer Beast.
Sure, this mentality almost cost him an arm... several times. But he wasn't going to backseat any longer watching how the people he despised took his hard-earned Layer Beast.
Not only that but acting a little bit more recklessly also worked better for his skill improvement. Seems like having your head centimeters away from being cut in half is a good teacher.
Grabbing the Emperor by the wings, Zenon began dragging it towards where Aurea was. Just as he put it behind her, she said,
"You can throw it to the river, there's enough food for a month and the sack isn't going to store more than this anyways."
"I'm surprised it managed to store that much." Zenon dragged the Emperor to the edge, letting gravity do its job and fall towards the violent current.
Leviathan came from scouting having found no other Layer Beasts in a long, long radius. Taking a deep breath, Zenon was about to sit down but Leviathan got inside the void and told him something else.
'You what?'
Leaning on the wall once again, Zenon listened closely to what his Familiar had to say and was surprised by it. Seems like he found something interesting two ravines away from here.
Knowing that they had some time until sunset, Zenon crouched next to Aurea and muttered,
"Leviathan found something, I'm going to check it out."
The girl silently nodded and Zenon began running toward where Leviathan was going. Ever since they got closer to the center of the canyon, the edges became wide enough for multiple people to run side by side, but there was a catch.
The fall towards the river was way higher and the ravine's width increased a lot as well, making Zenon resemble a small ant. The Shifting in this place was also way slower but far deadlier than the one near the border.
After some minutes of running, Zenon finally reached the place Leviathan found. It was another opening to a cave so he didn't know what was so peculiar about it anyways.
'What's exactly inside?'
Leviathan hissed and went inside, making Zenon follow him.
Passing through the narrow passage, he finally set foot inside and was surprised by how spacious the cave was. If you were to fill this cave with Unseens, there could be space for around fifty of them.
Zenon activated Void Sense and his sight was filled with a faint light, and noticed how the thin purple veils were moving toward a specific part on the side. Confused, he slowly walked towards it and realized... it was just a normal wall.
'Maybe... something behind?'
He began touching the wall, searching for any loose rock or maybe... a hidden button that would open the wall. Anything was possible in this constant-changing realm.
After some touching and pulling, Zenon came across a hollow sound, with rocks that weren't supported by anything. He augmented his shoulder with void and began smashing himself toward it.
Slowly but surely, part of the wall began falling down, and suddenly,
*BAM!*
Zenon completely destroyed it, making his entire body fall to the ground under some rocks. He began coughing due to the amount of dust lifted by the sudden fall of the wall while getting up.
Dusting his Solis Vines off, he began looking around the newfound cave. It was way smaller than the last one, but enough to contain some things. Zenon walked toward where the void was moving.
Leviathan was also where the void ended and was surprised when he found that all of it revolved around... a skull-less skeleton.
'What the hell...'
Zenon began analyzing the corpse alongside Leviathan.
The skeleton sat on a wooden chair, the usual chair you would find thrown in the trash. Some of his bones fell off, but the others seemed to hold together due to the presence of the Void, which led Zenon to think about this.
Quickly turning toward Leviathan, he muttered, "Is he… Well, I don't have a good idea. But the void sure is violent around here."
Instead of replying, Leviathan pointed at the skeleton's left arm bones, which were thrown to the ground. Kneeling down beside it, Zenon noticed two fingerless black gloves on the floor.
The void was revolving violently around them as if there was something hidden deep between that silk. Not only that, but Zenon could see the form of a hand created by the veils of void as well.
He slowly approached its hand intending to grab both gloves, and the moment he touched them.
'-?!'
They disappeared into purple particles.
Out of a sudden, something ignited inside Zenon's and Leviathan's Soul ending a wave of piercing pain around every single fiber of his being along with a scream from both.
Leviathan was able to withstand the pain faster, and quickly went inside Zenon's Soul and was surprised when he saw it. A tiny - almost unnoticeable - section of his soul, had patterns of void that revolved beautifully.
Breaking, connecting, changing.
Breaking, connecting, changing.
They made the same movements with extremely inhuman precision, turning the once-known incomprehensible algorithm of sheer entropy into a beautiful art.
Zenon clutched his head trying to dig his nails deep inside his brain to stop the information overload. After all, memories unknown to him were slowly making their way inside...
---
"Traitor! Vrodhre, you damned traitor! We trusted you! I trusted you! Why would you betray us?!"
A pale man with purple hair shouted as he was being held to his knees by two humanoid beings wearing red dragon masks in the middle of a cave. The fire of their masks was enough to make the man sweat.
Vrodhre was leaning on a wall - sadness written all over his face. He was clutching his arm as he grits his teeth, trying not to look at his dear friend being held on the ground.
Suddenly, a taller man appeared from nowhere, wearing the same red dragon mask but with an extra horn. He eyed the pale man kneeling in front of him and switched his view to the blue-haired man beside him.
He put a hand on his shoulder, making Vrodhre jump in fear.
"Do not worry, you made the right choice." He walked forward as he said, "Consider yourself lucky, whatever you wanted to deliver managed to get through the Rift."
The pale man's anger instantly turned into relief as he was delivered said news. He looked at the leader in front of him and said with a cold tone,
"Then you should consider yourself dead. Not now... but the future won't have mercy on you."
The leader on the other hand didn't seem as amused as the man. Instead, he began walking around the cave while clicking his tongue and shaking his head. After a while, he stopped in front of Vrodhre.
And his body was cut in half and instantly consumed by flames.
"Vrodhre!! Brother! You bastard! I'll kill you! You fucking Keeper!"
It happened so fast... that man suddenly moved his hand and Vrodhre's body was perfectly divided in two. And the next second his body turned into ashes.
There wasn't either a scream or a beg. Just a cold-blooded murder.
The leader, on the other hand, turned around confused while tilting his head. He pondered for a second before saying,
"I wonder why you feel pain for his death. He betrayed your kin at his most important moment. He completely destroyed your heart as an ally, as a friend… as a brother. He cheated on your trust. Yet now, you dare feel remorse for his death?
There's nothing more disgraceful than betraying your town... betraying your people! It must be considered a sin. A sin that must be paid in blood. A sin only paid with death!"
Both men stared at each other, the pale one gritting his teeth so hard he even broke one of them. The leader sighed and commanded one of their subordinates to approach him.
"We are running out of time. Prepare the ships now, we are headed for the next town when the sky marks the sixteenth moon. The faster we get to Fallen, the better.
We can only hope for her to arrive earlier than the message."
The pale man laughed in the midst of his tears and said as the other masked being left, "Fallen? You will never reach him, he's already protecting him. The very god you wish to destroy is the protection of the kid."
The man lifted his head and said, "I hope that Fire is ready... because the last thing that will burn in this universe will be his body."
After some seconds of silence, the leader moved his hand and everything turned black.