"…It's unusually windy today." An individual with a sombre tone to his voice uttered to himself, as his cold, pale hands grazed and brushed against the leaves of a tree that reached indoors of the small wooden hut, "Could this be the winds of change?"
Such words were spoken by a beautiful, rather than handsome, young man. He had long grey hair that flowed freely down his back and small strands of hair that framed his face.
He stood within a wooden hut in the deep delves of the forests, held up by a giant, sturdy tree more than double the size of an ordinary house. In this particular part of the forest, he was surrounded by both nature and the presence of humans, which seemed to co-exist in this land.
"Elder Xiao!" A voice suddenly spoke behind him.
Now behind him was a young woman, who wore her brown hair in a neat bun and carried a clad short blade, and yet, besides that, she didn't exactly seem to care about her appearance. This woman's name was Lín Fēng.
"A strange person has suddenly arrived!"
"…Who is it?" He asked, in a tone that spoke the words, 'I am not amused', at her face, which made it look as if she had a playful personality around him most of the time.
"Is it your brother, Liè Fēng? Or someone else?"
"No, I'm serious!" Lín Fēng replied, raising her voice slightly, "There is a strange visitor that has come here, with a large creature on his shoulder."
"A strange visitor?"
"Yes. As he entered our land, I, alongside some of the Forest Keepers, noticed that his eyes were of a faint, blueish hue, but as we dealt with him accordingly, his eyes, unexpectedly flashed a crimson red hue for a moment, and it was as if he was ready to attack."
"At that moment, I felt that even I would have trouble dealing with him."
"However, he didn't do anything, anything at all…"
"Interesting." Elder Xiao replied, rubbing his chin.
"…Nonetheless, he may be someone incredibly dangerous, someone in possession of a Runic Spell, so I urge you, as the young elder of the Forest Keepers, to aid us in subduing him."
"Hah… then, let me see for myself, this unwelcome visitor, you say?" Xiao asked, "I'm expecting this visitor to be special, especially after taking your concerns in mind, Lín Fēng."
The feeling I have in my heart… the winds of change… aren't blowing for no reason. I hope he is here for a good reason.
He followed her out, and they quickly hopped down the great tree to see what the commotion down below was. And he saw his forest guardsmen there, the Forest Keepers they were called, with their spears pointed at the intruding visitor in a circular formation.
"Keepers! Stand down!" Elder Xiao spoke, as he approached calmly, "I shall deal with him."
"Who are you?" The elder asked the intruder in an oddly serene manner, almost to entice him into answering.
"…I'm here to head to the capital of the Eternal Nation." The intruder, who was Shuku, replied, his eyes still that gruesome hue of crimson red.
"…And, for what reason are you going there?"
"None that you need to concern yourself over," Shuku replied, just before Lín Fēng pointed her short blade at him, glaring fiercely.
He could vaguely sense she was strong, maybe even as strong as the Resistance Hunter he fought against before, meaning he would have a tough struggle against her if it came down to crossing blades.
But, the true threat around him was the esoteric young man, who stood ahead of him.
He had the Eternalmark displayed right on his cheek, visible for everyone to see. As for his calm demeanour, the intruder could tell that the composure he maintained meant he wielded great experience with that power.
"From the way you're scanning me… Do you think of me as a threat? I know my calmness can be unnerving, but, I am not all that horrifying," He spoke, letting out a small chuckle.
"Besides, you seem like someone with a fascinating life behind you, and the fact that you didn't attack any of the Forest Keepers, let alone the forest-dwellers that live here, is showing enough."
"…I don't see any reason to. But, if they had continued pestering us, I'm afraid I wouldn't know what I'd do."
"…Us?" Lín Fēng asked, to which he quickly corrected himself,
"I meant 'me'," Shuku quickly corrected himself, but what Shuku said did little to nothing to dispel suspicion, as Elder Xiao began to squint his eyes at him. He gave a little glance at Lucas, who made him misspeak by distracting him briefly, uttering the words,
"Don't do anything rash! The person in front of you may be far stronger than you could ever imagine."
But, as Shuku knew that Lucas was wise, being a magician and all, he kept his words in mind as he said,
"If you don't believe me, you can check the forests behind me. I did not bring anyone wit-"
"Shuku, watch out!" Lucas spoke, his warning echoing inside Shuku's head. Right at that exact moment, the earth itself beneath them began to rumble, and, an enormous treeroot shot up from beneath the ground and into the air, separating Shuku from the guards, Lín Fēng and Elder Xiao.
"Gah?!" Shuku exclaimed, and at the same time, Azure screeched, before being flipped on its back, as he was knocked back by the force of the tree root,
"What was that?!"
"A tree root."
"A tree root? It came out of nowhere, so I had no time to react…" Shuku replied, panting and clutching his aching head, before glancing backwards.
And then, to his astonishment, there he saw the young leaders, as well as Nuru and Lilac, emerge out from the woodlands.
"Look! I knew he was up ahead! Sprinting through the forest for so long was worth it!" Hinote clamoured, even though he was out of breath. But, surrounded by potential foes, it was not quite a wise decision to shout like that.
The Forest Keepers, led by Lín Fēng, swiftly charged at them, prepared to maim and kill, and Lín Fēng herself targeted Hinote, the closest to her, and with her short blade, she slashed him in a wild frenzy in quick succession.
However, as Hinote, who gritted his teeth through all the blood spilt, tried to counterattack, unexpectedly, he was interrupted by giant Ents, that arose from the soil, surrounding them in such a way that prevented the fearful forest-dwellers from being attacked. At that moment, they were all entangled in formidable tree roots, which were surprisingly difficult to break.
And then, Elder Xiao, who had appeared suddenly, sighed with subtle annoyance and asked in a low voice,
"Do you fellows know where you are currently?"
"…Nope. Not exactly," Kyōji replied, sneering as if he was fired up, "But, if you don't let us go right now, I think I know where you'll be going…!"
"…Hmph. Let me inform you all then," Elder Xiao said, as then he gestured behind him, to the sturdy trees and the great throng of forest huts constructed in the high places,
"This is one of the 161 Forest Palaces that make up the capital city, Shèngyuán Jīng, with each one spanning the size of a small village."
"And, that means I am one of the palace elders."
"…So what?" Hinote muttered, aggravated by the injuries he received, "We'll kill you all!"
"…You can't," He replied in a plain tone, "You may not know this, but we are directly under the Sage of Resurrection Path, slightly below the Nether Judges, but, in terms of fighting ability, we are almost on par with them. And, as palace elders, we have also witnessed the first and second realms of the Supreme Fold Path from the Sage, the 'World's Origin' and 'Divine Utilization', and just that divine experience alone granted us access to extraordinary power."
"So, unless you slip into 'that' realm by pure fortune, which you would have to be a Destined One to be able to do that by chance, you might not even be able to comprehend the true extent of my power."
Destined One? Shuku thought to himself, Didn't Duran call us that?
"Huh… He's talking about the Supreme Fold Path so freely. I thought, even in this day and age, it was just an 'idea' that magicians knew about."
"What do you mean?" Shuku whispered, under his breath.
"It is one of the few things I studied my entire life. The Supreme Fold Path, that I mentioned before. The only way to ascend beyond total mortality…"
"Human mortality?"
"Listen to ME!" Elder Xiao conveyed, his soft-spoken voice somehow even managing to reverberate, gaining the full attention of those who were ensnared, "Tell me where all of you are heading, or else… I will execute you all by sunrise tomorrow."
Why-" Kyōji began, right before being interrupted by Bōshi, who said,
"We're heading to the Darklands region, and more specifically, the Black Dragon Manor."
This earned a surprised look from the elder, while Hinote yelled,
"Bōshi?! Why on earth would you tell him?!"
"Because…" Bōshi muttered, "I'm sure that he'll be a great help in 'subjugating' the Black Dragon Manor."