[coment and give me power stones!!]
"nnngh!!..." I moaned in pain as I tried to open my eyes, I had rarely felt this weak and it was never pleasant.
My head was spinning, I could barely breathe and my eyelids felt extremely heavy for some reason.
But besides that I noticed something.
I wasn't buried in rubble or anything like that, i wasn't trapped in a cage or gagged, no.
I was lying on the ground, it was already night and next to me there was a bonfire that slightly illuminated the environment.
Ok...this is new.
"Ugh! Shit!" I complained as I tried to get up.
"Oh? Wow! You're awake!" Alek's voice woke me up completely, I turned sharply towards him and tried to attack him but no magic came out...
"Wow... you're totally dry, buddy! And you only slept a couple of hours! You should rest!"
he said with a smile while he turned some meat that looked like wolf meat with a stick.
"..." I remained silent as I looked at him, I used my hands to keep myself standing but my whole body was extremely heavy, my legs?...both amputated but now they were bandaged...
"Oh yeah! That's right!" He muttered, slapping himself lightly on the head. "If it hadn't been for your confession, my friend... I would have killed someone innocent!" He said with exaggerated hand movements.
"...where is Gesse?" I asked while looking around.
"tch...your attack killed him, I confirmed it, his body was split in half, we still need to burn it since I can't use magic" he said coldly but I could notice a hint of disappointment on his face.
"Well...that's a relief," I said, letting out a sigh of relief.
"He told me I could be a hero, you know? That you were an evil villain who had terrorized people in Millis and you were heading to Ars to do the same thing!..But now that I found out that guy works for Hitogami!...he probably orchestrated all those attacks using your name!" Alek said in frustration and devoured a heavy piece of meat that was already roasted.
"I see...and I see that you got me out of wherever I had been and healed my wounds...I thank you" I murmured with a smile.
"Ha! It's nothing, it took me some time to regenerate my wounds too! That attack caught me completely off guard!" He said excitedly while gesticulating exaggeratedly with his hands.
At his words I was embarrassed for a moment so I decided to apologize.
"I'm sorry about that attack, it had already been launched before you confirmed your true nature," I said with a little embarrassment.
"It's okay! I saw it myself! I honestly thought that you had failed the spell because of its cone shape and that you had simply gotten rid of it," he said with a smile.
I smiled back and allowed myself to lie back on the floor.
My whole body hurt like hell and I was incredibly sleepy, but I still needed to keep talking to this guy. Maybe it was just a plan to make me let my guard down or something.
But then why didn't he do it when I was unconscious?...
"Dude! I swear I thought that was the end for me! The stone pillar literally tore me in half and I woke up a couple of hours ago!" He said with obvious enthusiasm.
"Yeah...that's one of my strongest moves but I have to throw it really high to get the fall speed" I explained.
"Hmm I see, that makes sense!" He muttered while nodding with his eyes closed.
"You have no idea what I'm saying, do you?..."
"No, not a bit!"
"haaa..." I could only let out a sigh of exasperation as I felt tiredness building up inside me.
"And what will you do now?...I suppose you still want to follow the path of a hero, right? I asked quietly as tiredness filled my mind.
"Yes... I will definitely do that, but if I really want to be a hero then I will have to surpass my father in everything he did! Only then will I become a true hero!" Nile said, I could see his excitement growing with every passing second.
"..." I was silent for a couple of seconds as I tried to stay awake through sheer willpower.
"You know... I think trying to surpass your father won't do you any good, my friend. You should focus more on creating your own legacy, on what's yours, not on the past," I murmured weakly.
"...my own legacy? What do you mean by that?" He asked, clearly confused, and I sighed again, this time in exasperation.
"I'm telling you to create your own feats, not to recreate the deeds of others. To think about your future? The hero whose deeds were copies of past heroes? Is that what you want?" I asked him and he frowned firmly.
"No...I don't want that, I want to be recognized by everyone for who I am!" He declared and I nodded.
Baby steps Paul, baby steps...
"Well...that's good, and you should also stop being so naive, look how Gesse fooled you so easily, you were about to kill me and what would happen if you had killed innocent people afterwards?, How could you call yourself a hero knowing that?" I stated firmly and a yawn escaped my mouth.
Alek clenched his fists firmly and held my gaze for a few seconds, then nodded.
"Yes...I got carried away" He answered simply but I could notice the sadness in his tone.
"It's good that you realize... (Yawn) Hey, what are you going to do after tonight?" I asked, already getting ready to sleep.
"I'll wait for you to recover, you can use Saint-rank magic, right?"
"Yes, but my mana is completely exhausted , I'll need about...eight hours of sleep to even be able to cast another spell."
"Well, I have nothing to do anyway, sleep well Paul" he said and I nodded and without waiting any longer I fell asleep.
...
I opened my eyes again, the sun was shining directly in my face which bothered me.
My vision was blurry and my ears were ringing slightly as I stood up, feeling ill but not totally exhausted.
I looked around, the campfire was already out and smokeless so it had been a couple of hours.
I was still lying on the floor but I managed to sit up
"Fuuuu...let's see how it is" I muttered as I looked at my ruined legs.
"Ha...better than I thought" I murmured with a smile.
My legs were broken and in the wrong direction, but there was no need to amputate them...just rearrange the bones, which is even more complicated.
"Oh! You're awake already! Can you cast spells?!" Alek's voice echoed behind me.
The guy carried a decapitated wild boar on his shoulder and laid it down next to the campfire while I looked directly at him.
"I feel better, it will take me a little longer to restore all my mana but I am better" I said with a small smile.
"Good, that's good! You'd better hurry up, the monkey's body is already starting to stink!" Alek said as he began to skin the boar.
"Yes, yes, I just need to heal..." I muttered.
"Okay...here we go...ahhh!!" With all my strength I forced the bones in my legs back into place and then used holy magic to repair my legs.
The process took about five minutes and I even needed help from Alek to hold the bones in place while I healed.
It was a slow and terribly painful process that I didn't think I would ever have to repeat...
But now that I think about it...
"Haaa...haa...haa...hey?...you, why aren't you hurt? You say that my stone pillar almost killed you, but I see you without a scratch" I asked.
"Oh? Didn't I mention it?, I have immortal demon blood from my grandmother but my regeneration is not as good as hers but it works" Alek explained as he opened and closed his hand.
"...as I remember, it's Atofe, right? I heard about her in my history classes," I muttered, and Alek nodded in embarrassment.
"Yes, that's her, she's crazy by the way! But with your skills she wouldn't be a challenge for you Paul!" He said and I smiled.
"Thanks for the compliment..." I muttered as I stood up. "Now...take me to where Gesee is."
Alek nodded seriously and started walking towards the forest where I followed him.
We walked for about three minutes until an unpleasant smell reached me and...
There he was, his body...
His lower half was missing and his expression was one of absolute terror. I could see that there was a trail of dried blood that extended for one meter, so he tried to move before he bled to death.
"..." I just looked at the body in silence and Alek frowned.
"I couldn't find the lower half, and when I found it he had already been dead for a couple of hours," Alek muttered angrily.
"It's okay, he won't hurt anyone else," I said dryly and threw a medium-range fireball.
His body started burning in an instant and the smell of burning flesh made me nauseous but we both stared at his corpse.
Memories of our time together quickly filled my memory and I frowned.
Was he an apostle from day one or did Hitogami use him when we were traveling? These are questions that would have no answer no matter how hard I tried to find out.
Gesse's personality never changed until that day in Shirone...the faceless bastard must have given him an ultimatum or something like that.
But now that didn't matter, Gesee is dead and I will live another day, I won this fight but not this battle.
I lost a friend and Hitogami a pawn, there's nothing to celebrate.
Gesse's body was reduced to ash and bones in less than a minute as a sour feeling formed in my chest.
The appreciation I had for him as a friend, the anger I have for his betrayal and the helplessness I feel for not being able to make him see reason on time creating an unnameable feeling inside me.
I didn't even know if I should bury him or leave his remains just like that But for the months that we spent as friends, I decided that the least I could do was to make him an unmarked grave.
With gravity and earth magic, he created a one-meter hole in the ground and poured his bones and ashes into it, then sealed it.
I did nothing else and I did it all in silence.
"Okay...it's done" Alek said and patted me on the back.
"Yeah...I guess this is our goodbye, right?" I mumbled and he nodded.
"Yes, my brief conversation with you made me think about many things and I will put them to the test, thank you," Alek said and extended his hand for a shake, which I quickly reciprocated.
"Well, I hope the next time I know something about you it's why you became a real hero," I told him and he smiled determinedly.
There were no more words and in a split second he jumped up and started running north at the speed of sound and I stood there looking at Gesse's grave.
"Haaa...okay, see you" I muttered as I rose into the air and sped away from that forest.
My only regret?...that I couldn't collect my reward. Now that I think about it, why the hell did those wolves explode like that?...
I guess those idiots had something to do with it, am I so predictable that they knew I would go on that mission?...
This thought made me frown again.
I continued flying until sunset and only stopped...because the ring Orsted gave me started to shine...
...
I had been traveling for a couple of hours and was now in the middle of a forest towards Nishiru province which was a stopper towards Fittoa.
But the ring shining in the middle of the forest just left me completely confused.
It didn't say if Orsted was nearby or something just flashed.
"..." I remained suspended in the air for a few seconds but in the end I decided to come down to the ground.
"Hello?!...Orsted?!" I shouted as I walked slowly into the forest.
The ring shone again and this time the brightness was stronger than before.
I pointed my hand forward and started to turn slowly, I turned north and the light from the ring decreased, I turned south and it increased again.
"This way then..." I muttered as I started walking.
Use the ring as a guide for half an hour, always changing direction every time it lost its shine, even a little.
I came to a rather thick and rarely cleared part of the forest with a large rock with branches covering it which had a seal that resembled that of the Dragon God...
"What is this?..." I muttered as I approached the rock.
"Paul Notos Greyrat..." Orsted's voice suddenly reached me and I jumped in fear until I almost fell.
"aggh!!...damn idiot you almost scared me to death!!" I screamed as I quickly got up.
Orsted just frowned and walked towards me.
A few meters away from him was Nanahoshi with her typical white mask, she looked at me for a few seconds and then she spoke.
"Paul...see you again," she murmured dryly.
"Yeah...things haven't turned out very well for me but...how about you? Did you manage to find any clues about your colleagues?" I asked.
"...no, nothing yet" she replied curtly.
"Wow...that's a shame" I muttered but she just made a "hmmp" sound with a subtle hint of disdain.
Ok...
"Actually, I'm surprised you got here so quickly. You were headed south, weren't you? The Red Wrym's jaw is still about three months away. How did you get here so fast?" I asked.
"You don't need to know that, the most important thing is...what did he tell you?" Orsted replied and I could see how the temperature of the room cooled down.
"W-well...to start I must apologize and!...I want you to promise me that you will not attack me no matter what I say because I am confessing to you anyway!" I said accusingly pointing with my finger towards Orsted.
The guy just narrowed his eyes even more and clenched his fists.
"Tell me what happened to you," he said dryly.
"w-well..." I gulped loudly and concentrated the mana in my hands just in case
"I-I actually lied to you...when you asked me that day...if I had met Hitogami and...
I could barely realize it, Orsted's image blurred from my sight and created a pillar of earth in front of me just in time.
(Boom!)
Orsted pierced the pillar with his hand as if it was nothing and I rose up with gravity magic while Orsted glared at me angrily.
"Hey!! I told you not to attack me!! " I shouted and Orsted looked at me angrily.
"You were an apostle of Hitogami...you must die!!" He said and broke my own mana flow but I broke his mana flow with disturbance magic which made him open his eyes wide.
But I wasn't fast enough and he closed the distance between us and grabbed me by the neck.
"Ugh!...Wait! Wait! Let me explain!!" I screamed in pain, the guy was holding me with his right arm and with his left hand he put it diagonally while looking at me.
"Orsted wait! Let him talk!" Nanahoshi suddenly shouted as she stood between the two of us, more specifically between his left fist and my chest.
I hadn't realized when but she had already taken off her mask and was looking at Orsted in terror.
"You heard him, right? He's an apostle, and a good apostle is a dead apostle," Orsted said dryly, looking me in the eyes.
"No! You said it yourself! In no loop does Paul Notos Greyrat become an apostle! And besides, you know he's from my world! Just listen to him!" She shouted in despair while Orsted looked at me.
I stared into his eyes and he narrowed them further and after a few seconds he dropped me to the ground.
I fell like a cat and jumped back as I looked at him.
Nanahoshi sighed in relief and stood by Orsted's side now with her mask uncovered.
"tch...bastard! I told you not to attack me!" I yelled reproachfully as I healed my injured neck.
"I didn't promise anything, talk now" he said and I stared at him while sighing to calm myself.
I clenched my fists in anger at this response, knowing that I wouldn't stand a chance against this bastard, not now...
"Hitogami contacted me on my tenth birthday, about a year and three months ago..." I declared, Orsted's eyes widened and he took a step forward but hesitated and stood there.
"...at first he only presented himself to me as a protective guide or something like that, as I was teleported to the great forest he simply told me to stay there until night and that's what I did, After that his advice became ambiguous as if he didn't want to tell me the truth behind these..." I continued while staring at Orsted, his posture had relaxed a tiny bit as if he was really listening to what I was saying.
"The following times he would tell me to go and rescue this person and you will meet up with an acquaintance and that's what I did and therefore I managed to find Hilda, Lilia and Flute, some of my traveling companions" I continued, Orsted continued staring at me and then raised an eyebrow as if he didn't understand what I was saying.
"And so we continued our journey, I ran into Gesse...with Laws and his wife and with Roxy and they all accompanied me but Gesse betrayed me in Shirone..." I muttered and Orsted nodded to himself with his closet while he was muttering something that I couldn't understand.
"He ambushed me with Millis's men and I almost died several times...but I managed to survive and in response to this Gesse said something to me...He said that he had seen the truth that "he" had shown him, that as long as I existed the world would be in great danger and then...when I arrived in Ars and discovered that my family died...Darius told me something similar, that "he" had ordered him to kill my family for some reason and when I found out Hitogami spoke to me in my dreams..." I said as I clenched my fists in anger as I remembered everything that had happened.
Unlike me, Orsted seemed unfazed but I could see that his expressions had relaxed significantly.
"Hitogami...that bastard made fun of me!...And I also tell myself that as long as I existed, his existence was in danger." I declared while looking at Orsted fixedly.
Orsted was surprised by this and his lips trembled a little and his gaze on me became more intense.
"And in the end, he said...that my firstborn and my grandchildren would help you defeat Hitogami, and that's why he wants to kill me and my brother, because as long as I live, his destiny is dark." I declared while looking firmly at Orsted.
"..." Orsted didn't respond and Nanahoshi just looked at me with confusion completely oblivious to the topics discussed and she had already put her mask back on.
I just stood there waiting, Orsted had one hand on his chin and had closed his eyes.
A few seconds later he opened them and then looked at me.
"You'll have to tell me more," he simply said.
You have to be fucking kidding me!!