“As far as I know, it’s the only weapon that has ever hurt an Interfectus. I was nearly killed in the process, but I once broke the surface of that bastard’s leg. I don’t think any other weapon could have dealt that much force,” Lazaro said as he set his warhammer down in the sail-rana.

“Are you serious?! You hurt an Interfectus? I didn’t think its skin could even be pierced! That’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard.”

As Hatasuko stared on at his mentor, he could hear the orchestra of howling voices grow louder in the abyss of his mind. They could feel the sense of hope which now surged through his system, and they grabbed onto this energy. Some of the screams grew hopeful, although they were still unintelligible. Some of the screams cried on as ever before.

“The Interfectus is a demon which wears its shadow skin as armor. There is a spot on its ankle which is essentially the boundary between two plates of armor, and that is where I struck. I snapped the plate of armor and made a shield from its skin,” Lazaro explained.

Hatasuko glanced over to the shield inside the sail-rana. It looked like a black, semi-transparent rectangle, though as he looked at it more closely, he saw that it resembled the skin of an Interfectus. It shimmered slightly from the pulsing starlight that pierced the trees above.

“Only an Interfectus is strong enough to block an Interfectus,” Vaida said as she walked up to his right side.

“You don’t know how incredible this is! You two must be the most powerful people in all of Agrideī,” Hatasuko raved with his golden eyes open wide.

“No… I wish. Lazaro may be the most powerful man, but not me. I’m pathetic. I don’t know why he even lets me come with. I probably just slow him down. I’ll probably just slow down both of you,” she confessed with her eyes half-closed.

“Vaida, how could you say something like that? You saved my life back when we-”

“I don’t have time for this. We need to finish up quickly. I have a few contacts in Lumipyla whom I haven’t seen in ages. There’s no sense in wasting time here,” Lazaro ordered.

Lazaro walked over to the sail-rana and grabbed the only weapon which Hatasuko had not yet seen. It was the strange-looking sack that Lazaro and Vaida had both carried during the attack. Hatasuko watched curiously as Lazaro finally opened the bag, but to his dismay, the sack was only full of rocks. Lazaro picked up a rock that was about half the size of his big fist, and then he tossed it over to his apprentice. Hatasuko quickly passed the whip into his left hand and caught the rock before it hit the ground.

“So what is this for? Breaking windows?” Hatasuko asked.

Lazaro simply scoffed and shook his head. After he dropped the sack of rocks into the boat, he asked, “Boy, what do you know about the third weapon of the Interfectus?”

[https://imgur.com/fj5xbuO.jpg]

“The third weapon of the Interfectus is a scattershot of shadow spheres. The demon creates a cluster of energy balls and launches them onto a crowd. As soon as they strike something, the shadow ball explodes with a burst of blue fire. It’s possible to dodge the scattershot if you’re lucky, but it’s the deadliest weapon they’ve got,” Hatasuko answered, reciting it exactly as he had heard.

“That is correct. Over sixty percent of the people who die in an Interfectus attack are killed by the scattershot. But just as you said, the shadow balls explode as soon as they hit something, and that includes a rock. Hatasuko, you’re gonna need to work on your aim and your throwing arm. In time, you’ll use this weapon to strike the scattershot in the sky, make the bombs blow each other apart before anyone gets hurt. Sometimes you’ll miss, sometimes you won’t. Sometimes the explosions will hit the others, sometimes they won’t. But over time you’ll save some lives, and that’s the only thing that matters anyway. Do you have any questions?” Lazaro asked.

“That’s brilliant! You’ve really thought this through. Thank you for taking me under your wing, sir. I’ll do my best to make it worth it,” Hatasuko graciously said to his mentor.

Lazaro nodded but said nothing. He quickly looked around to make sure they had gathered all their belongings in the sail-ranae, but he froze when he looked over at Vaida. He started walking toward her with an ominous expression; Hatasuko could see by the way she slunk and hid her eyes that she was afraid of him. Hatasuko had already noticed that Lazaro treated the scarred girl terribly, but it was not his place to intervene. He was new to the group, and therefore he could not question the conditions of their relationship. When Lazaro finally reached Vaida, he ripped the albapomus from her scarred right hand, took a huge bite out of it, and then dropped it on the ground.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“Vaida and I have something to discuss. In the meantime, I want you to follow the creek and roll the sail-ranae toward the river. It shouldn’t be far,” Lazaro said to Hatasuko.

[https://imgur.com/IjZrdtO.jpg]

Hatasuko nodded and ran over to the two boats. Though they were both the size of canoes, he managed to easily roll them over the forest floor by pushing them from behind. Each boat had a steering wheel at its front, though it looked to be locked in place; the boats did not veer off course as he rolled them away. And though the tempest of souls screamed loudly in his tortured mind, Hatasuko narrowed his eyes and focused instead on the gentle sound of branches swaying in the swift wind. He could hear the patter of his own footsteps moving across the forest floor. He could hear the quiet movement of water flowing through a tiny creek. And even though he quickly walked away from Lazaro and Vaida, he heard it very clearly when Lazaro smacked his heavy hand against Vaida’s face. He felt a shocked confusion at first, but it quickly morphed into a flood of sudden anger; he immediately stopped pushing the boats. When he ran into the clearing, he saw Vaida half-crouching beneath the starlight. She held her hands on her cheeks, but he could see starlit tears stream from her blind eye.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, Vaida?!” Lazaro shouted.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry. I just froze… I was so afraid. I’m sorry,” she whimpered.

As Hatasuko watched on with anger, he squeezed his hands so tightly that he lightly warped the wood at the back of a sail-rana. Vaida dropped onto the ground, but she did not use her hands to hold her weight. Her jacket had fallen open in the commotion.

“Do you think he gives a shit about your fear? A man died in there, and you didn’t do a goddamn thing to save him! What do you have to say for yourself?! That it’s not your fault? That you’re just afraid of fire? It can’t hurt you any worse. I should just leave you here right now,” he yelled.

Hatasuko watched with an onslaught of conflicting emotions as Vaida lifted her hand and covered her dead eye. As soon as she realized that she had hidden her scarred face with her scarred hand, she slapped her left hand on top of it.

“I know I’m useless. I know I’m ugly and weak and afraid. But please don’t cut me loose. I know I can become better. I have to. This is all I’ve got,” she said with her quiet voice.

“You have one more chance. I’m tired of dealing with your shit.”

Hatasuko was hidden from their view because of the trees and the dimness of the starlight on the forest floor, but he watched on for another minute. In this time, no words passed between the two. Vaida stayed on the ground in a pool of her own misery, but Lazaro stood apathetically with his back against a tree. He stared toward the treetops with his cold green eyes. Hatasuko sighed and continued pushing the sail-ranae toward the river.

As he pushed, he whispered to himself, “I haven’t even been with them for a day, and I think I already hate my mentor. I think he might be an awful person, but he’s also strong. I can’t let an opportunity like this disappear. Not since I’ve been given the chance to save souls from ever entering the tempest.”

For many minutes, Hatasuko continued to run alongside the small creek while pushing the boats. He watched with intrigue as several starlit creeks all came to converge up ahead into the mouth of a narrow river. Though the river was not very wide, it was surprisingly deep. The sail-ranae could easily enter the river, and the current appeared to flow quickly southward. Hatasuko remembered hearing that Lazaro intended to travel to Lumipyla, which was almost halfway across Agrideī. This meant that they would have to boat south until they eventually reached the massive west-to-east river, which would carry them most of the way to Lumipyla. Once he parked the sail-ranae at the riverbank, Hatasuko turned and started jogging back over to his new friends.

He said to himself, “I don’t know if it’s an affront to the tempest, or perhaps a betrayal to all the promises I’ve made to the screaming souls that dwell in this abyss. I know that I swore to slay the Interfecti, and that has not changed. That will never change. But until I become strong enough to fight the demons that put them in this place, I will save as many lives as I can, so that I can stop more from joining these souls. Even if I have to work beneath a monster that disguised himself as a man, I will do everything it takes to fight the misery in this world. It’s the only way I can apologize to everyone I couldn’t save.”

When Hatasuko finally made it back to the clearing where he had last seen Vaida and Lazaro, the starlight shone slightly brighter than before. He looked at the canvas in the sky between the branches and leaves; the stars shimmered brightly in the endless sea of darkness. Lazaro stood in the same place as before with his back against the tree. Vaida stood at a short distance with an aterpomus in her hand. She held the black fruit closely to her face, but she had only taken a few bites. There was a clear sadness in her eyes, but she gave a small smile when she saw Hatasuko.

“Everything should be ready,” Hatasuko announced to his new friends.

Lazaro nodded and muttered, “Alright. Then let’s get out of here. I’m tired of smelling smoke.”

[End of Chapter 2. For information about my AI-generating practices and the inconsistencies therein, please check out my blog, linked in my profile]