[Eon’s POV: ]
“Phew…”
Tens of feathers now lay on the ground with an ice spear of Quin aimed at the creature kneeling before her.
‘It was a tough battle.’
After Chry backed off from the fight, the fight continued on with Quin alone facing against the creature.
It was simply a (Blue) ranked beast, and yet the strength that it displayed far exceeded all of their expectations– not only was the creature strong, it was smart enough to implement strategies.
When Chry backed off, it knew the mage was confident enough to defeat him by herself. It also knew there was no way it could escape with Chry having him locked on.
If it tried to make any silly moves, Chry would move even without Quin’s permission. He would put as many holes on his body as there were feathers around him.
He knew how strong the two of his opponents were, as well as how even just the mage could defeat him.
Still, it did not give up on his life. It used its feathers in a way that made it difficult even for Quin to use her spells properly.
It utilized the terrain to his advantage and moved them in a sophisticated manner, igniting a battle that went on for a few more minutes.
Quin would have ended it already, but she was intrigued by the creature’s powers and stayed to observe what it could do– which was ultimately a mistake.
She ignored the other skills that the creature had since it was only using its feathers. As a mage, she should have been more careful since, by ignoring it, she gave the creature the needed opportunity to cast his restriction skill, which binded Quin for a brief moment.
Her Mana was not restricted, but the sudden restriction of movement came with a hole in her defences.
A few feathers made their way towards her, but, since even Chry was being restricted with a different skill of the creature, he could not come to save her on time.
‘It was at this moment…’
She exploded the Mana around her and spreaded it all around her. Then, controlling that released Mana through her innate Mana, she interfered with the Mana that was imbued within the feathers of the creature.
‘She severed the connection between the feathers and the one controlling those feathers, making the creature’s eyes go wide…’
It was at this moment, when it lost control of its limb like feathers, that it realised he had fucked up.
‘The restriction was lifted, and the control over the feathers as well.’
She had won the battle, and so, she was now standing before the creature who, finally accepting his defeat and fate, had fallen to his knees.
[{ “It’s the law of nature.” }]
[{ “The winner gets to claim everything.” }]
[{ “The defeated ones loses their precious possessions, including their lives.” }]
It is what it is.
Anna did not like it, but from how we had not spared any creature that we were fighting, she believed this time would be the same as well– that the strong, pretty, and the cool creature would lose its life to them as well.
“Go.”
But that did not happen.
“Go to the east.”
Quin released her offensive spell, and instead created a hand-like outline with water.
Then, looking the shocked creature in the eye, she picked it up without any warning and threw it to the east with that magical hand of water.
[{ “Hmm?” }]
Anna was surprised by her actions, obviously. She let the creature live even though there was a chance that it would aim for them once again.
The feathers that it had were still here so it wasn’t going to have its weapons but it preserved its life. And, the little one was happy to see this sight…
[{ “No surprise there.” }]
[{ “It’s Quinny we are talking about.” }]
Aside from a certain young girl, none of them were surprised by this. They all had expected this much already.
They knew she would not kill the creature after it had shown such genuine emotions.
‘Had the creature not put up such a fight with just the powers that it had, had it gone berserk instead of staying calm and challenging her throughout the fight, then there was a chance that she would have killed him.’
But the creature was desperate to survive and it did everything it could until the very end, earning the right to live from its opponent.
[{ “Sister Quinny… let the creature go. Then!” }]
Anna was going to jump up shouting as all the people inside the Jeep could see, but before she could, Quin herself spoke up.
[{ “It’s not that I spared the creature, Anna.
The reason we aren’t letting others live is simply because of their nature.
You saw how this one behaved, didn’t you? It wasn’t going to attack not because it had accepted its fate but because there was nothing else left on him.
It was now harmless to us, unlike the others we have faced that would give up on their own life without any faith in hope.” }]
She was over explaining herself. If it were Carla, she would have just said she threw it far enough so that they don’t follow them.
But, what she said was correct as well. So, I added into her perfect string of words…
[{ “You have to distinguish what kind of end your opponents deserve. There will come times when you have to think of an appropriate ending for your opponents. So, think about what kind of end you, as the winner Or the loser of the battle, shall give them.” }]
This.
This was a life lesson I wanted to teach her for a long time now.
‘Thankfully, the opportunity presented itself today.’
Hope by itself is a kind of bitch that every being has. It is the power far beyond any truth that exists in the world.
Despair that stands opposed to hope, as some people might understand it, does not ever extinguish that light. Even the demons and dead souls of hell have hope… it is this singular property that could be used as a judgment scale on a stage of moral values.
[{ “Yes. As Eon said, we never needed to kill all of the opponents in the forest. There was never any need for that.” }]
We moved forward and Zoe picked up the pace this time.
The destination was close so we weren’t going to stop now. The path ahead from here on out was clear so we picked up the pace and made our way to the first checkpoint of our destination.
[{ “If there was no need to kill all of them, then… why did you kill the rest of them?” }]
[{ “It is all about one’s judgement, Anna. We cannot teach that to you, you will have to understand and figure out the reasons by yourself this time.” }]
It was not something that could be explained with the calculations that we make inside our heads.
All lives are important, and which one we take in this forest before Anna was always going to be a big question for the rest of us.
‘There’s a reason grandpa did all the cleaning.’
Had it been the rest of us taking care of the creature on our way, it would seem like a mindless killing where we are simply having fun killing the creatures.
‘She hasn’t been with dad and our uncles when they are having fun or else she would have been traumatised a long time ago.’
For her, these things are still new. She is not going to become anything like the traditional individuals who kill the energy beasts for the profits or their skills and energy cores.
For her, killing is going to be a different kind of ethical limitation… or not. We don’t know how exactly she will turn out to be, but this is what we have concluded after long contemplations.
‘She will be a thoughtful judge that values all life.’
Her tendency to value life will make her ruthless when it comes to taking one, but unlike me, or grandpa, I don’t think she will turn out to be a ‘cold’ individual.
Her warmth would melt the ice around her. Or at least, that’s what would happen in the near future I’ve foreseen in a fallen moment’s gap.
“Gurrrrr!”
{ “Took you all long enough!” }
We had reached our first destination and Taika was already waiting for us here.
She had secured the parameters perfectly. A quick scan of the place was enough to reveal how everything was in order, just the way we asked her to make it.
“Good work, Taika.”
She had cleaned up the place as well so there was not much for Anna to know. She wasn’t going to find out what things had happened here in her absence and it was better for it to be that way.
“We will rest for a few hours and move. We have to move to the second point if we want to have a good night’s rest.”
The first anchor point was reached. There are still eleven left before we reach the lake so, by the time we arrive at the lake, I guess Anna would have seen a good amount of things.
‘Not just the things that we want to show her, but more than that.’
This forbidden forest always showed me what I did not want to see. It’s not going to change its nature with all of us around… it’s always unexpected so we are always going to face unexpected things.
It’s a given. After all, the Mana here simply makes all of the boundaries of normality meaningless.
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