CHAPTER 57: CHAPTER 56: THE END OF THE JOURNEY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WHIRLPOOL OF MEMORIES (4)

From the top of one of the trees, Tell stood almost completely still. Her wings were folded while she watched the scene below.

She had no idea how she even ended up here in the first place. The last thing she remembered was the moment the masked man raised his gun at Orion.

Then a short phrase she could not fully hear, and after that everything inside that city vanished right before her eyes.

She woke up on the ground among twisted trunks in a forest, the fog sliding through every direction above her.

She was the first to open her eyes, even before Oliver. And the moment she felt she could move, she flew upward, climbed between the branches, hid herself, and waited.

After long minutes, the masked man appeared in the fog, and she watched that conversation between him, Aria, and Oliver.

And as soon as he left, she followed him.

She moved lightly from one tree to the next, keeping herself hidden so Oliver would not notice her.

And when she found him collapsed on the ground, she moved fast and rushed toward him.

She landed beside him, flapped once, then approached closer.

"Are you alright?"

The moment he heard her voice, he rolled onto his back and turned his face toward the sky.

"Do I look alright to you?"

Tell frowned as she looked at him.

"What happened? How exactly did we get out of that city?"

The masked man lifted his head slightly then rested it back on the ground.

"I eliminated the mythical creature that created it."

Tell blinked several times.

"You say it so coldly, as if you chopped down a tree, not ended a mythical creature."

"It is not remarkable."

"What does that even mean? What were you doing with your life before you visited the village?"

"Nothing specific."

From all over the masked man’s body, thin strands of fog were slipping out.

Tell leaned down a little and stared at the fog.

"What is happening to your body exactly?"

"A side effect, if you want a simple explanation. Killing a mythical creature without leaving too many consequences around it requires a lot of effort, especially when the creature has swallowed this much of souls and memories."

"You expect me to buy that? No. First, I want to know what happened between you and Orion. What did he say to you before everything happened?"

The masked man kept staring at the sky as he remembered the last thing Orion said to him, or rather the mythical creature that took his shape.

"You will not last much longer in this state, Mythical Creatures Hunter. You are destroying your body yourself. In the end you are just a human. There is a limit to what you can do."

He repeated Orion’s words to himself several times, then closed his eyes for a moment, opened them again, and turned toward Tell.

"He was giving advice that holds no value."

Tell flapped her wings.

"A mythical creature lecturing you before you kill it? That is stranger than everything else that happened today."

"In the end it had the personality of that prince."

"Didn’t you tell me yourself that this type of creature has no consciousness? Like an empty shell that moves?"

"I do not know if mimicking a person’s personality based on their memory counts as consciousness, but these creatures evolve the more powerful they get. They come close to gaining real awareness, but such cases are extremely rare."

Tell stood in front of him. Her wings were fluttering quickly in the air.

"And you think it gained awareness?"

The masked man did not even look at her. He simply turned his gaze away from the sky.

"I do not care about that."

"Is it normal out there to have people like you? Where did you get all this power exactly?"

He lifted his head slightly and stared at her with a tilted look.

"There are many far stronger than me. But I doubt any of them would do what I do."

"And this thing you do is what exactly? Hunting mythical creatures as a hobby?"

"You ask too many questions. Why do you not go to that small one over there and leave me alone?"

Tell crossed her arms, and her wings lifted slightly above her shoulders.

"I need to make sure you will not run off and leave us here in the middle of the forest."

"A good excuse. But do not worry, I am not capable of running in this condition anyway."

"Then why are you here? Shouldn’t you be sitting near them?"

"Showing weakness in front of others is a bad idea."

"And now you are showing your weakness to me?"

"I can kill you at any moment without feeling a shred of regret or guilt. And you will not leave this forest to tell anyone anything about me. It is that simple."

"You are saying you are ready to kill me anytime with this kind of coldness?"

"Followers of mythical creatures are as evil as the mythical creatures themselves."

"Do you not think you are exaggerating? The Great Spirit of Autumn protected the human village for centuries."

He turned toward her with his single gray eye.

"Mythical creatures do nothing without a price. Protecting the village? That was just to exploit their belief in it so it could grow stronger."

"Belief? What is that strange term supposed to mean?" she said it while pointing at him with her finger. "And we spirits are noble beings, not evil."

"Maybe you are not evil, but in the end you are made from the power of an evil creature."

"You are insulting the Great Spirit of Autumn?"

"Yes, it is merely an evil creature. Look at what it became. And if I had not stopped it fast, half this forest and your people would have turned into monsters. And that is not because of the Spirit of Autumn alone. It is the result of your tribe cooperating with the cult."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

The masked man tilted his head slightly while fog rose from his shoulder.

"What will happen if the other tribes learn about that?"

She did not answer.

"Oh, right..." he said as he looked at the sky between the tree leaves. "There are no witnesses. And everyone is supposed to believe you died with them."

He turned toward her again.

"The only one who knows the truth is your father. The elder."

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

She leaned closer to his face. The masked man raised his head toward her.

"Your father, the elder, intended to turn the Great Spirit of Autumn into that form from the beginning."