“We… should have all escaped… what happened?” Jasmine, now barely conscious, began to question herself and the peculiarities around her.

  Ayumi couldn’t respond, only continuing the healing process.

  …

  When me and Kael arrived back at Clifton, the entire village seemed to be engulfed in a blanket of unease. Everyone in the town either looked scared or saddened, looking to the forest. Some of them held long, metallic fork-like objects, while others had already lit torches, holding them in their hands as they made their way to the edge of the forest.

  Kael extended an arm, silently signalling them to stop walking. He asked, arching an eyebrow. “What happened here while I was gone?”

  One of the villagers, a woman huddled beside her two children. “Bandits! They stole some sheep and cattle!”

  Kael immediately sighed, rubbing his glabella. “My comrades must’ve been asleep or something.”

  He scanned the entire village, taking in the palpable unease and worry among the people. The crimson-haired man walked forward, raising a hand and clenching his fist above his head.

  “You may be scared for your livestock, but don’t fret, my people. Me and my young friend here shall set off to retrieve them.”

  I tensed the moment Kael wrapped an arm around my shoulder, pulling me a tad bit closer. As cheers began to surface across the town, he leaned in closer to me, his warm breath brushing the small hairs near my ears.

  “You want to help them, right?”

  “Yeah… I do,” I replied, a small smile forming on my face.

  Hearing my reply, Kael smirked and turned around, hands clasped behind his back as he addressed the village once more. “May I ask where they went? Any ideas among you?”

  “East! You can see the tracks of their horses!” A village man pointed to the snow-covered road.

  On the ground, one could see countless circular-shaped horse tracks. There were more than one pair, indicating this raid was conducted by countless people utilizing countless horses. Kael turned back to them, gazing down at the horse tracks in the snow. He clicked his tongue and smiled.

  “There we go.”

  Taking my arm, Kael began to walk forward, slowly following the tracks down the road. As the village gradually went out of view, dissipating behind the thick, snow-covered trees, he turned to look at me, his voice dropping to a whisper. He extended his palm, crimson-colored flames emerging from his palm.

  “I figure it’s time for your second lesson.”

  “Really now? What could you possibly teach me at this time?”

  Kael looked down the rows of tracks, watching as they continued into the forest in a linear path. After a second or two, he chuckled. “In this world, those who do evil will always receive their due.”

  He looked back at me, his brows raising. “Now, shall I fill you in on my plan?”

  “S-sure…” I kept walking, following the tracks as they crept deeper into the forest.

  “Alright.” Kael’s pace slowed for a moment. “We’re dealing with bandits. They’ll be armed with weapons; how else do you think they were able to steal from Clifton’s wonderful people?”

  I nodded, taking in the details. “So we’ll have to disarm them?”

  Kael hummed in acknowledgement. “Have I ever told you what happened when my father and his wife journeyed into the forest for an outing?”

  “No, I don’t think you have.”

  “Well… my father and Bella were exploring the forest, as my mother had always loved nature and its wonderful creatures.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Of course, Khorvath had sworn to protect her from danger, as she was just a woman. But, of course, the Adligon Clans are known for their ability to fight. When I say that my mother was quite literally a goddess with the bow and arrow.”

  Kael looked down at the snow as he gently rolled the flames in between his fingers. “Unfortunately, they had made a miscalculation one time, and they had gotten ambushed by a group of traffickers, hoping to abduct my mother and use her in… I can only describe it as something you wouldn't want to hear.

  “They didn’t even lay a finger on her before Khorvath had sliced off their hands with just his own digits. He gathered their limbs up and burned them as kindling back at the palace. Of course, before that, Khorvath had told them to never return, maybe even killing one of them to make his words mean something.”

  After finishing his story, Kael paused as the forest gradually dissipated, giving way for a ravine that crept down into ink-black darkness. The only thing allowing one to cross the ravine was a stone bridge. Its surface was partially cracked, but it was wide enough to let a horse or two cross side by side.

  “I’m not asking you to slice off their hands and burn them for warmth, but if you are to digest your potions faster and become a good person, I recommend getting a little dirty. After all, my father once said the apotheosis of humanity is to be born through blood, chaos, conflict, and violence.”

  Me and Kael both approached the bridge, pausing before it. Kael was the first one to step forward, giving its surface a quick, integrity-defining stomp. The frame and structure of the bridge didn’t shake at all following this. Seeing the lack of changes, he smirked.

  “How about I teach you something to pass the time?”

  “I… wouldn’t mind that,” I replied, feeling a little sheepish.

  Kael took in my reply and nodded. “Alright. First of all, have you heard the story of how all things came to be?”

  I nodded my head. “One of my friends once told me about it.”

  “Ah.” Kael’s expression furrowed. “They’re most-likely wrong.”

  “What do you mean?” I felt my stomach bubble slightly.

  “To be frank, your ‘friends’ back in that haven you called Seraphis Kingdom primarily believe in Mother Nature, believing she’s the mother of all life and everything around us. Of course, we know that an entity older than time itself created everything by exploding.

  “But what if I told you that the explosion wasn’t an accident, but something… orchestrated?"

  “Orchestrated?” I walked a little slower.

  “Yes. First of all, me and my organization believe that the Primordial Creator was actually a She, not a He to be exact. She was the rationality of the universe, she was the side that loved all life, she was the one that wouldn’t hesitate to raise a lost child. But, of course, this existence was unfathomably powerful, while also extremely… naive, to say the least.”

  Kael waved his hands, causing a sheep-skin to appear before me, surrounded by crimson flames. On the paper, I could see an enigmatic figure sketched out. She had long, multi-colored hair, seemingly of every color the human eye could see. One of Her eyes was the sun, the other the moon. The freckles on Her face were the stars, and her body seemed to contain the entirety of civilization.

  “When there’s a sister, there’s also a brother…”

  “A brother, who could that be?” Countless guesses had already begun to surface in my mind.

  “Why, we like to call him the antithesis of creation. Where She shone Her light, He reflected his own darkness. When She nurtured and birthed new stars and planets, He would rip them from their orbits and clench them between His unfathomably large hands.”

  Another figure appeared on the sheep-skin sheet. The figure's form wasn’t properly defined. It was all-black in color, and had two beaming crimson eyes. On its face was an unfathomably large smile, and in its large, clawed hands were countless plants being torn to shreds and stars becoming supernovas.

  “Is this the other figure you mentioned, the brother?” I looked up at Kael.

  Kael nodded. “While She was the Mother of All Things, He was the Father of Absence. According to myth, after creation was born, He was cast away into the abyss, an endless, scorching sea of unfathomable darkness at the edge of the universe itself. Though, even while sealed He still caused chaos, as chaos is eternal… it can’t truly die.”

  Another shape appeared on the sheep-skin, it depicted countless winged entities plummeting from the sky, all hideous and horrifying in shape. Above them, standing on the clouds, was a woman with a body made of stone. Her eyes were made of radiant gemstones, and Her hair was composed of vines, branches, and foliage.

  “Legend says there was an unfathomable war lost to history. Mother Nature cast the Demons and Devils, alongside their ruler, into the abyss.”

  “Was their ruler… the brother? Wasn’t he sealed earlier?”

  Kael clicked his tongue. “Across history He had countless agents of chaos—Horsemen is the proper term. One symbolized conquest, the next symbolized war, the other famine, and the eldest as death. Even to this day, we prophesize an event, something that would happen at this very moment. Due to the death of the Primordial Mother, the Abyss could have undergone strange changes; it’s weakening to this day.

  “One day, maybe even now, the brother shall break free from His prison, and bring an end to all things, not out of spite for creation, but because we simply believe it’s inevitable. All things live, and all things die and perish, falling back into His arms.”

  Hearing this, I fell silent. “You said this is just a myth, correct?”

  I gazed at the sheep-skin paper floating before me, engulfed in red flames.

  Kael nodded. “It could be true, it could be a legend used to keep children in their beds at night, but one thing is for sure—truth is only available to those powerful enough to seek it out.”