Vale ran far and far.
He ran until his legs had started to hurt.
the sun had risen far above the horizon, basking the world in hue, the smell of autumn had now washed away as the air grew tense with the faint scent of wet earth, cold and damp, as if the soil after a long rain.
Vale's deep continues breathing was the only thing that reached his ears apart from the constant crushing of leafs.
After a certain point, there was a slight mist around the sparse forest, he looked around for a bit, then as if sparing his legs from their misery, he slowed down to a walking pace and kept walking, taking in deep breath as sweat slowly formed on his forehead and temples, his neck felt tingly and his entire body was warm.
He opened his bag and fiddled the loafs of breads to the side and put the hatchet in there, then he closed the bag and held it closer to himself.
As his breath started to get steady, his thoughts started to wander.
The guilt and nausea of having taken a life was being washed away by rationality.
'it was either me or him'
But a life was still a life....
Just like him, every other life is a 'person', they are alive, they have memories, they have thoughts, they have opinion, they have feelings and they have desires.
Simply thinking of a person as.... A background character just irked him the wrong way.
But did that mean that he shouldn't have killed the man?
'no, absolutely not'
If someone wants to kill him, he should kill that 'someone' regardless of gender or age.
In the situation he was, it was simply as he thought before, it was either the man or him. chances were, the man would've probably killed him, so he saved his own life by killing the man first.
'what if he didn't?'
What if he did?
Almost Everything he did not work against an awakened like him, he was strong he knew that.
Ever since he arrived in silcia, he was made aware of the fact how weak people his age were, how rather, how strong he was for someone his age and size.
Not by much, really. Not my little either, he was stronger, faster, probably more intelligent then others. It wasn't narcissism speaking, it was simply an observation.
But one area he truly shined in was his recovery speed, he could recover from a bruise in a 2 to 3 days, he could recover from a broken nose in a single week.
There were almost no injuries that left a mark on him.
His line of thought was broken by a sound behind him, something like a crunch of leafs a dozen or so meters behind him.
He turned around, moving his hand in the bag and grasping the wooden handle of the hatchet, he then looked around the area.
The mist had grown slightly denser, making the golden light from the sun less brigher, the trees remained as sparse as they were when he ran away from the man's corpse, and yet the air seemed to be sharper them it was before, there was a small but noticable presence that vale could almost feel.
Pushing all unnecessary thoughts to the back of his head, vale put all his focus on his surrounding
'....etarnal'
Eternals, beings born from the same primordial etarnal fire that the absolute being was.
The absolute being was a Existance that existed before space, time, and even the material realm.
He created the 9 angels from the part of the eternal flame that created him. The angels created the material realm and the absolute beings body became the spiritual realm.
According to what the books said, the spiritual realm came first, and then the material realm was created over it, but unlike the material realm, the spiritual realm did not occupy a 'space', it simply existed beyond the boundaries of material realms.
Since the spiritual realm did not occupy an 'space', it was endless yet existed only until the material realm was, thus, the amount of spiritual energy that existed in the spiritual realm was infinite, it only depended on the ability of the user how well they could utilise and draw energy from the spiritual through their soul.
Anyway, as said, eternals were being born from sparks of eternal fire, they could not get stronger then they were born. And they were born diffrently.
Unlike humans or tower species, eternals did not need to eat, drink, or even breathe to stay alive, the only thing they desires was to calm their eternal hunger for souls.
They were also differentiated under the banner of different categories such as 'veils'
'drifts' or 'behemoth'.
Etarnels also had a different ranking system then humans, thought the only thing different was the names....
'focus!'
Pulling himself out of his thoughts that were starting to wander, vale examined the area once more before starting to move forward again, this time, with a lot more caution.
His steps were like screams in a quite home as his focus went entirely on his senses, every time he stepped on a leaf, it would alert him.
The after about half an hour he noticed the mist was getting thicker, denser, and it was getting harder to see past 60 meters.
It didn't really matter right now though since 60 meters was about how far his vision went before being obstructed by a tree.
He took in a sharp, deep breath through his nose, the scent of wet earth after a rain came in, it was stronger then before, much stronger.
....
Was it just him or was the forest not getting any denser?
Did he get lost?, no, he shouldn't have, his sense of direction was incredibly good. He was definately going deeper into the forest....
Right?
Crunch
Hearing another sound from his left, vale's head flipped towards the left, only to find nothing in the ghastly mist that covered the land.
He felt his breath quicken for a moment before he forced himself to stay calm.
He had chance of survival, he knew that.
why?
Because he was still alive. Any eternal over rank 1 would have already killed him, the difference between rank 1 and rank 2 is like a toddler and a teenager.
Or it could just be that the etarnel was simply enjoying hunting him or scaring him before it ripped him apart.
'Let's hope for the former'
He took out the hatchet before realising it was still in the hatchet sheath as well as the straps of leather that tied the hatchet to the man's side.
He hurriedly took the sheath and the straps off before gripping the hatchet tightly then adjusting his grip and swinging it lightly.
Then, he stood up straight, and started walking forward, his back still hurt a little when he moved around, and his nose was still tingly, but he ignored them.
Marching through the mist as it got denser, vale kept his vision strained.
Then, right in front of him, something moved.
It was small, like half his size, only reaching to his hip, it had dark gray fur and resembled a wolf except it had a larger maw and had dozen or so yellow eyes where on its head. It also had six legs which vale somehow found more bizarre then the dozen or so eyes.
Vale gripped the hatchet tightly, his heart pushing against his chest loudly. He grit his teeth and immediately became ready.
The wolf like etarnel ran at stunning speed, reaching him in seconds, vale, who finally broke out of his stupor and flailed his hatchet at the direction the etarnal was coming from, which didn't do much other then to make the etarnal stop in its track and stare at him like a hungry rapid beast.
It only stayed for a second before it lowered itself to the ground and rushed towards him, suddenly not scared of the hatchet anymore.
"!"
Vale stepped back and tried to grab thel eft front paw of the etarnel only to have his hand scratched, three straight lines etched into his flesh.
But even though he missed, he still moved his hand forward and grabbed the side of the etarnel and hold it in place as it dug its paw to his shoulder, it also tried to bite him with the terrifying maw but somehow, vale's arm was just long enough for its maw to not reach him.
Then, pushing his hand forward using his shoulders, he striked the etarnel in the head and threw it backwards.
The wolf like beast thrashed around for a while, the hatchet still stuck to its head, as vale quickly held his shoulder tightly, the adrenaline and his focus has somewhat numbed the pain but it was still bad enough that he had a really hard time moving his hand.
Then, as his eyes was starting to get blurry from the tears forming, he saw more shapes move in the mist.