193 – Could this be a crossroad? End of Arc 9

The cold, windy top of the obelisk stood beneath me once again.

Or had I been returned there?

Either way, I was back.

Snow continued to fall, and the forest remained as endless as before.

I narrowed my eyes, deep in thought.

I was wearing a beanie, yet Galeia had touched my hair directly.

A sigh escaped me, along with the fucks I might've given about it.

The past few hours had been eventful.

I had successfully conjured a spear, tried to learn how to fly, eaten a bird, learned a Power Tongue along with every language in history, and finally met my creator—all in the span of a few hours.

The effects of the mushroom soup had vanished along with the headache, which disappeared when I met Galeia.

Honestly, I was in a pretty good mood.

Shorvanna stood where she had been before but slowly turned to face me. "Do consider, Young Protector," she began.

I waited.

"I felt neither Galeia's presence nor the fading of yours," the Goddess told me. "And yet, the shift in your emotions is telling. Your anger vanished, and a tranquility unlike any I've felt from you now abounds—from one instant to the next."

A small smile curled my lips.

"I invite you to ponder: how can Galeia warn of events that are to come?" she suggested.

I shrugged, then ventured, "Maybe... seeing the futu—ah." I realized. "Is that why you told me to meditate on Eternalism?"

"Yes," she confirmed. "Now, how can you Protectors foresee danger? Is it just instinct, or something more? The Me'ik, the Giganto Cyclops, the dungeons, the Demon..."

I tapped my temple. "We're connected to Galeia," I replied. "Simple as that."

"Then you understand why Protectors are referred to as Eternals, do you not?" she asked patiently. "Though the original meaning has been lost to most..."

I nodded. "Makes sense to me."

"Apply that when you meditate, Young Protector," Shorvanna advised. She glanced down at the ground, then back at me. "Let us take a break. The Elmari Elf is looking for you."

"Mmh... I'll be going, then. Thanks for today, Shorvanna," I said, tapping her shoulder plates with a smile.

The suit of armor remained still and silent.

With a brief instruction to the building, I emerged in the room my girlfriends and I had been using for the past few weeks.

The Elmari Elf had her back to me, one hand placed against the wall, wearing a shirt and leather pants. The other three were on the bed, tangled in a mass of limbs, fast asleep.

However!

The instant my mind registered their presence, an overwhelming pull seized my thoughts, my body, and my very essence.

A call to journey to Ualrin, to the dungeon lying deep beneath the earth.

To grow stronger. To fulfill my duty as a Protector of a planet teeming with countless lives, both sentient and not.

Pokora turned around and spotted me. "There you are," she chirped, her lips quickly forming a smile. "I was trying to reach you, but couldn't for some reason," she explained, nodding at the wall. "It wouldn't let me," the Elf added, walking toward me.

When hunger strikes, the next logical step is to eat to stave off death. It's instinct, written into every strand of DNA in the cells of a mortal body. It's survival.

"Shorvanna and I were busy. Maybe she didn't want any interruptions," I ventured with a shrug.

The pull felt similar: a call that must be answered or death would come, written on every particle of E'er in my body. But this time, it was a matter of obeying duty.

"Interruptions?" the Elf scoffed, folding her arms across her chest, amused.

Despite the pull's intensity, it wasn't urgent, and it wasn’t me who would die.

I smirked. "Pesky mortals should know their place," I joked.

It wasn't a call to face an immediate threat. Still, the dungeon needed clearing, and the sooner, the better.

Pokora stopped in front of me, looking up. "You seem better than earlier," she commented, placing a hand on my hip. "That's good."

Full to the brim with Undead and Cursed Ones, the dungeon would eventually spill them out, bringing death and decay wherever they went.

I smiled. "Slept enough? It's only been a few hours."

Ualrin, as it happened, lay just above the dungeon. The residents, ignorant of the danger, as mortals sometimes must be.

She wrapped her arms around my waist in a tight embrace. "A nap was enough. I don't want to ruin my sleeping schedule," she explained. "Alyssa offered to put me to sleep with a spell, but I don't like the idea."

Peace is an illusion. Mortals must be ignorant of that to enjoy the beautiful lie.

I returned the hug, resting my cheek on her head. "Want to hear something incredible?" I asked.

She hummed, then leaned back to get a better look at me, squinting. "You're wearing a beanie, a winter jacket, and track pants," she observed. "Even you feel cold sometimes?"

Those who notice the lie face two choices: try to destroy it or inherit it.

I chuckled and shook my head. "I met Galeia," I told her, unwilling to let my girlfriends live in ignorance.

Alas, I Protect.

Pokora's eyebrows rose, eyes widening slightly. “Wha...? That's... Galeia as in... the planet we're on?” she stuttered, her voice thick with skepticism.

Therefore, I will kill, as much as I must.

“That's right,” I confirmed with a nod. “It was quite the experience.”

“So it's true, then?” she inquired. “I always thought people spoke of Galeia as a spiritual thing, like... Mother Earth or something.” She blinked and inspected my face. “You're not taking the piss, are you?”

“Nope,” I laughed, shaking my head. “But... it's more of an entity than anything. Galeia is not a woman,” I clarified.

Pokora nodded slowly. “I see,” she muttered, leaning her head on my shoulder. “People always compare you Halves to natural disasters: inevitable, overwhelming, unstoppable, indestructible, undeniable... I never really gave it much thought, to be quite honest. Yulianna, Miraztor, Desseyr, and Nilenna felt distant in a way I'd never meet, off somewhere dealing with threats we mortals could never imagine facing, mostly on their own.”

I kept quiet, focusing on her voice.

“But then I met Nilenna,” she chuckled. “If you can call that a meeting. I couldn't get a word in except to thank her. I was face to face with the pinnacle of archery on the planet, but she was all smiles and laughs like an extrovert on a caffeine marathon. Instead of an apex predator carrying the authority to dissolve countries, I saw an overly enthusiastic person enjoying life.”

My eyebrows furrowed a little at the mental image and I hoped Pokora was exaggerating, but then I remembered the energetic woman's letters.

“So that got me thinking all sorts of things,” the Elf continued. “Was life in the army enjoyable? Was I having a good time? I've... always wanted to find out if there were others like me... from Earth. I thought about it for a good year or so, then left the army. Anyway, this... notion that Halves are part of some great design... I never really believed it, not fully. They seemed like Wild Dragons: always talked about, but very rarely seen.”

I nodded in understanding.

She separated a little, looking me in the eye. “But the Dragon seems very real now... and I'm a little scared, Natasha,” she admitted, worry etched on her face.

I raised a hand and moved a lock of black hair off her face. “Scared of what?” I inquired.

Pokora took a deep breath and let it out. “That I might not agree with some aspects of your duty, and that doing so will create friction between us. That I won't accept your explanations. That I can't make you promise things. That no matter how close we become, we can't be equals. That Yolin, Alyssa, and Lapia are so quick to agree and accept these things, but I'm not. That you're answering to something I can't fully understand.”

I hummed, not sure how to reply. Her apprehensions were valid, but there was little I could do to ease them.

“That's why we talk about it,” Yolin's voice came from the bed.

The woman in my arms turned her head around.

My eyebrows rose on their own as I looked at the Oni sitting on the bed.

Alyssa, Lapia, and Yolin were looking at us with various degrees of sleepiness.

“True, Natasha's duty as a Halve is and will be her priority,” the tank continued, clearing her throat. “And there's little we can do about it.” She rubbed her eyes and ran her black tongue over her tusks. “But that doesn't mean we must stay silent about it. Look at her,” she nodded at me. “She's listening, isn't she?”

Alyssa looked positively lost, her white hair an absolute mess and her red eyes unfocused.

Lapia was squinting at us, her head bobbing up and down as if deciding whether to continue sleeping or not.

“Now,” the red woman started, but yawned, then continued, “We've essentially followed her everywhere she goes, but I can't recall a single time we were forced to do something we didn't want to.” She thought of something, then chuckled. “If anything, it's the other way around. She didn't want to go up to Paarjo, she didn't want to fight the spiders in the mine, and she didn't want to go to the Royal Palace alone.”

Pokora hung her head a little.

“Your feelings are valid, Poko,” the Oni assured. “And she's listening. We all are.”

The Archer nodded, then chuckled—probably at Alyssa and Lapia's sleepy faces.

“So, come here and let's talk about it while we cuddle,” Yolin suggested, opening the covers for us to enter. “We have time.”

I sucked air through my teeth at that. “Yeah... about that...”

Yolin and Pokora turned to me.

I puffed my cheeks and released them, then sighed. “I... have to go,” I told them.

The two-hundred-year-old woman arched an eyebrow. “Right now?” she asked.

I bit my lower lip, focusing on the pull that demanded my attention. “I have around an hour,” I concluded after a moment.

Yolin nodded. “And we'll talk about that as well,” she suggested. “Now come here.”