“I’m one of the people who rescued you, Karyn of the Guardians.” The woman answered straightforwardly.

A wave of pain suddenly washed the man again. He heard a loud piercing sound in his ears. “Huh? Why would I need to be saved? Where am I?!” he yelled out as the pain was becoming very painful.

“You are in the detention cell in the Krook city. At the North border of the Kingdom of Alura. We found you closer to the borders with the Fang empire. You were being consumed by a tree. We don’t know why, or what that was but we know that it wiped out a farmers village.”

The man listened, shocked and confused. He didn’t remember much. Actually he didn’t remember anything coherent. His memories were just flashes, not making any sense.

The loud piercing sound in his ears was increasing. The pain it was causing was now almost too much to handle. His head was hurting and he couldn’t focus well.

Karyn noticed that he was in pain as he was pushing onto his head with his hand. She then hurriedly asked. “Are you alright?”

The man put his hand down, trying to ignore the increasing pain. “Uh… Yea. I’m fine. Why am I in this cell?”

“We don’t know whether you are dangerous or not. However, I don’t feel any evil aura on you.” Karyn seriously replied.

The man was annoyed and confused. “How would you know if I bear evil aura?”

Karyn laughed. “Of course I would know, I’ve been a priestess for over a decade. It’s not hard to feel evil auras for me.” She then looked curiously “However yours is not evil. It’s the contrary, it’s pure, far too pure. It feels unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.”

The man kept silent. The pain still didn’t go away and he was trying his best to ignore it. But the conversation wasn’t helping it, on the other hand it was making it worse. When she mentioned the aura the sound in his actually even increased.

At this moment a group of 4 people entered the room.

“I see that our guest is already awa-.” Antar’s voice was cut off as he noticed Karyn staying next to the cell.

“What are you doing here?” He asked.

Karyn frowned. “I arrived here a little sooner, was trying to get some information but didn’t get anything.”

“You should have told us that you will go earlier but that doesn’t matter now. Let me try.” Eldrich casually said as he made his way to the cell.

Karyn shrugged. “Be my guest.”

“Hello, I’m the leader of the Guardians, Eldrich. Do you remember anything?”

The man then dropped on his knees, gasping for breath. The pain suddenly became unbearable. He couldn’t cope with it was only getting worse.

“Fuck, cast healing magic on him!” Eldrich ordered to Karyn. She then cast a healing spell to ease the man’s pain. However it didn’t seem to work.

“Ugh… Ugh…” He was gasping for breath. His head was ringing like crazy and his eyes were losing focus. His vision swam.

Suddenly another, even stronger wave of pain washed over him. He was quietly growling as he was suffering.

“How the hell that didn’t work?! Cast it again!” Eldrich yelled at Karyn. She didn’t have time to be shocked by her magic not working so she cast another healing spell on the man.

But it didn’t seem to have any effect either.

The man then dropped on the cold floor. Deadly quiet. Contrary to a moment ago he wasn’t making any sound. Nothing at all.

Suddenly, he pushed himself to his knees and let a loud, almost animal like, roar.

He could feel images filling his mind and numerous sounds, connecting into coherent scenes. His memories came back. All of the memories of his time being a Holy Lord, Sieging the temple of the thousand suns, killing the Holy Lord of One and then detonating his energy in the fight against the cold looking woman. He was Aleir, The Holy Lord of Nine.

However his energy felt different. Before, he couldn’t control it well and had an ominous dark aura around him. Making others fear him. But now that aura was gone. It was all contained in his body and nothing was leaking out. It was as if there was a qualitative change to his energy.

The whole group watched this unfold. For a second they even thought he had died. However they realized that wasn’t the case as the man got up on his knees.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“A-Are you okay?” Karyn lightly asked

Aleir got up from his knees. His mind was racing. He knew what had happened after the last of his powers became the dark crystal. He had full memories of the massacre at the village. Although he didn’t feel particular attachment to people it still was something he was forced to do by Corruption. He didn’t know much about the Corruption. All he knew was that it could devour life force and give him a powerful abilities. Far stronger than what he was able to use as a Holy Lord. However, the idea that he was controlled by Corruption instead of him controlling it annoyed him. “I will make sure I can control it. This thing can’t happen the second time. Also how did I manage to even revive? I thought that I had made sure to detonate all of the dark energy yet I was somehow resurrected. Did Corruption do that on its own? Forget it, there is no way to know that. Only time will tell who is truly in control.”

Karyn looked at the man getting up from the cold ground. She opened her mouth to repeat herself but the man turned to her. His expression was completely calm. It felt like he was a different person. Before he was aggressive and not at all cooperative. But his current calmness was very confusing to her.

“I’m alright, your healing spell must’ve helped me, thank you.” The man answered her question in a calm voice. His expression was deathly calm as if he wasn’t staying in a cell, surrounded by the strongest soldiers in the city and several tens of guards.

“Uh… That’s good.” Karyn was stunned by his response and the change in behavior.

“Alright, seems like you feel better now. Can you tell me who you are now?” Eldrich cut off their conversation.

“My name is Aleir, however I don’t remember much. All I can recall right now is my name.” Aleir thought that it wouldn’t be the wisest idea to tell them that he massacred the village when his powers were out of his control. If they had known that, they probably would have tried to kill him. He didn’t know how strong those people were but from what he could tell they shouldn’t be a threat to him. He once devoured another Holy Lord. In this world Holy Lords were one of the highest existences, very few individuals could rival their strength, especially when they were in their temple. However, there was no reason to bring additional attention to himself. He still freshly remembered the cold looking woman who almost erased him from this world. He couldn’t beat her nor escape. Meeting her now could be a death sentence to him.

Eldrich seemed quite unsatisfied with the answer but there was nothing else he could do right now. On top of that Aleir was giving him a bad feeling. Despite being in a cell he was way too calm. Far too calm. It seemed weird to him. It was as if Aleir didn’t feel threatened by them, or the guards. However he had a plan in mind.

“Excuse me, could you let me out?” Aleir smiled at Eldrich.

“Huh? No, we don’t know if you are dangerous or not. And we aren’t risking the safety of an entire city.” Eldrich was taken aback. The question was far too ridiculous. However…

“Actually… you will take a walk with us.” Everyone in the room was shocked. No one knew what the purpose of this was but they trusted their leader.

Aleir’s smile got wider “Oh? Where are we going to?”

Eldrich order one of the guards to open the cell. “To the place where we found you.”

“Are you sure it’s a good idea?” Zenon wasn’t sure what the leader was trying to achieve and she didn’t want to see what had happened at the farmers village repeat.

“I said he will take a walk with us!” Eldrich looked sternly at Zenon. She was shocked. Eldrich was usually very serious and composed. Not many things could make him snap out like this. There must’ve been a good reason for that. Zenon then stopped asking any further and just followed with whatever her team leader wanted to do.

Eldrich then waved at a guard to tell him to open the cell.

“Lead the way then.” Aleir then walked out, shackled by anti-magic handcuffs that were blocking a mage’s control over the magical energy.

While they were leaving the barracks Antar leaned toward Karyn. “I have a bad feeling about this. Be ready to sprung up the barrier if something goes wrong.”

“You are worrying too much. Nothing will go wrong. Aleir isn’t a bad person?” Antar almost fell to the ground from shock when he heard that. “Are you serious?! How do you know that? You see right through every person you see?”

“I’m a priestess. I can tell what kind of people are by their aura. He didn’t have an evil aura. I have a faith in my abilities. He isn’t an evil person.” Karyn casually explained.

“Pche, just because you have can faintly sense an aura doesn’t mean you know the person. Trust me, just this once, Be ready.” Antar asked of Karyn almost in a pleading voice.

She could see that Antar was seriously worried. “Alright, I will.”

Antar gave her a grateful smile and then they both followed the group.

After a while they arrived at the farmers village. The whole time Aleir was calm to the point it was making others nervous.

“Is this the place?” Aleir calmly asked.

Eldrich looked around. “Yea… yea it is.”

“Did you remember something?” Eldrich asked while observing the destroyed village, not even looking at Aleir.

“Yes… this place used to be a forest. A big one. A long time ago…” Aleir looked at the destroyed village. He felt anger. However he didn’t pity the villagers. He was angry at himself for being too weak to control Corruption. Too weak to kill the cold woman. Far too weak to change anything.

“Look at the mountains in the distance Eldrich. Did you know there used to be a temple on top of the mountains?” This all felt reminiscent of the past. He went here from the temple. Yet he was still hunted down by the woman and reduced to nothing but a crystal. And that crystal after a long time caused his awakening.

“I remember reading in an old chronicle that several centuries ago there used to be a huge forest. Right under the mountains. But temple? How would there be a temple in the mountains? It’s the Fang empire’s territory. It’s right at the border. There can’t be a temple.” Karyn said out loud

Aleir loudly laughed. Karyn’s expression turned ugly as she was annoyed by the laughter. “Little priestess. There are many things you don’t know about. The temple is not something the likes of you can reach.”

“And it’s something you can reach?” Eldrich interrupted their conversation.

“I’ve already reached it before. However, the temple should be nothing but a ruin now.”

“That’s enough! Tell us who you are, now!” Antar cut in, getting tired of this whole situation.

Aleir smirked. “Why would I tell you anything?”

“Because if you don’t we will kill you. Right here, right now.” Eldrich calmly said.

Aleir bursted into another laughter. “You can certainly try to.” Aleir smirked once more but now it looked more like a devilish grin of someone about to commit a murder.