Mikhail felt something in him change when he heard the name Michael…
A faint flicker of… Clarity.
'That… That's what my name was…'
His brows furrowed.
'But… It doesn't feel like it's mine... It feels like it's the name of someone else. Mikhail is my true name now. And Michael… Michael is the person Murzol just mentioned.'
Yet, despite the clarity he felt, he was outwardly revealing disbelief. And rightly so… Because, this lunatic just tried to say that he was responsible for the death of his own friend.
"Look at you… You've got nothing to say for yourself, do you?!"
Mikhail looked behind the crazy clown, searching for Yagnar's gaze. And what he saw was… Disgust. Not at Mikhail, no, but at Murzol.
"Of course you don't… Why would you! You know damn well I'm right! Your whole bloodline is fucking cursed!"
Mikhail was so flabbergasted that he didn't know how to respond. Was he supposed to respond? He didn't think so. He almost knew that anything he tried to say was going to get shot down.
But, that didn't matter, not anymore.
"I've had enough of your bullshit."
Mog's fist was shaking with fury, and his voice was laced with rage. Mikhail could now see a crimson light on Murzol's face.
The short lad became a blur in Mikhail's eyes, his mind too weak to keep up with that level of speed.
SQUELCH!!
In the next instant, Murzol's head was gone, replaced with Mog's fist.
Splat.
The blood and viscera hit the ground behind Murzol's headless corpse, almost looking like it was sprayed across the ground.
Mikhail went slack-jawed.
"MOG!"
"Huh? What is it, fool?" Mog said while turning around, his tone returning to a casual one.
"You… How… What… WHY? Why did you kill him!?"
Mikhail felt his heart race as he watched Murzol's body crumple to the ground. His eyes darted from it to Mog, and then his eyes darted to all the adults, before stopping at Yagnar.
They weren't doing anything!
'Wait… They're not doing anything?'
Mikhail looked around at them again, noticing how they were neutrally standing there as if nothing of note had just happened. His eyes then darted to the dead body, and then back to Yagnar…
"Yagnar… Aren't you going to do something?"
He looked at Mikhail with a raised eyebrow, seemingly having not been paying attention to him and Mog the past few seconds.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. One second."
A ball of fire suddenly burst to life above his hand, and he casually tossed it underhand style onto Murzol's body.
It burned the body and the clothes he wore unnaturally well, spreading across not only every inch of the body, but to the floor wet with blood, as well as the stray viscera. And then, it erupted into a long wall of fire!
The fire went from orange and red to orange and yellow, making the surrounding air feel scathingly hot for a few moments before the fire died down, burning out completely and leaving no trace of Murzol's body.
Mikhail looked at the charred ground with wide eyes.
Mog looked at him with a bit of confusion, and then finally answered.
"Uh… Because he deserved it? The fuck kind of question is that, fool?"
Yagnar let out a helpless sigh as he approached, patting Mog on the back.
"Mikhail obviously isn't used to this kind of stuff yet… You three should go to sleep. I'll give him the talk."
"Oh, the talk… I see."
Mog looked apologetically at Mikhail.
"Uh… Sorry. I slipped up and forgot you're not all there… But uh, you'll get used to it sooner or later, if you don't remember what's what, anyway..."
Mog, Yatur, and Yargol all left for the mens' sleeping tent.
Yagnar gestured for Mikhail to follow him, and he reluctantly did so, walking with him over to his chair. When Yagnar sat down, a stone stool rose from the ground.
"Sit, Mikhail."
He did so, his hands shaking a little from the shock.
They were silent for a while, leaving only the sounds of the adults packing up and getting ready for tomorrow morning's departure.
During the period of silence, Shel brought over two stone cups filled with water. She gave one to Yagnar, and then handed the other to Mikhail.
"Drink up," Yagnar said before downing his own cup.
It was only then that Mikhail felt how dry his throat was.
So, while Yagnar only took a sip, Mikhail drank down the entire cup of cool water in one go. "Well, looks like someone was thirsty," Yagnar said with a bit of a chuckle.
Mikhail nodded, putting the stone cup down.
"Yeah… So, this talk you mentioned… What the hell just happened?"
Yagnar took in a deep breath, before letting out an even deeper sigh.
"Listen… You're well on your way to exiting the realm of mortals. The shit you just saw… This is something that six year old kids are already used to."
"That doesn't answer my question," Mikhail said with furrowed brows.
"I know, I'm getting to it. Impatient bastard…"
Yagnar rolled his eyes before continuing.
"Murzol was a scummy guy. And I'm sure you're well aware of that, considering you broke his ankle last night."
"He… He basically got what was coming to him. He crossed Mog's bottom line, and let me tell you something…"
"Crossing the bottom line, anyone's bottom line…"
"That's when you put getting killed on the table. It's not too terribly common, since bad buds are usually cut off to heal before they inflict any real damage… But it still happens."
Mikhail didn't like what he heard even a little bit, and his face made that obvious.
"But that's just so…"
"Too…"
Yagnar sighed again.
"Too cruel?"
Mikhail nodded, failing to think of a word that shared the same weight as barbaric in Shagar.
"For the world of mortals, maybe… But the world of {Evolvers}... Our world is different."
Mikhail had heard that a few times now, but didn't know what it meant. It didn't make sense, and although he had been using context clues to try and parse out its meaning… The context here was much different from before.
{Evolver} didn't just mean someone that was strong like he thought it did.
No…
There was far more to it than that.
"Yagnar… What is an {Evolver}, anyways?"