The elders of the village were the oldest and wisest of all Thalls. They were the ones to have survived all through the years and proved that their knowledge of the world was superior to others by virtue of their longevity.

Everyone respected their opinions. They were the ones to decide when a hunt would occur, or when a hunt was forbidden. The elders were there as any birth happened in the village, making sure that the Thalls were born without any problems.

“Blasphemy! Everyone go back to your homes and cover your ears from his madness!”

The oldest Thall, with his back hunched and his skin sagging, shouted at the villagers. He looked at Achram with spite, as if he was looking at a mortal enemy.

However, when he shouted to the villagers, none of them moved. They were all looking very confused and conflicted as to who they should follow. Some of them were looking at the Meaty Mushroom in their hands, tempted to ignore the elder’s warning and join Achram.

All of them were wondering, hesitating. If God’s kingdom really existed on the top of the mountain and had food and water that would never run out, would it be such a bad idea to join him? If they could get this delicious food without hunting, then they would take the chance to be there immediately.

Maybe when the village wasn’t suffering from famine, they wouldn’t be as tempted. However, all of them were suffering from a lack of food. The hunters were bringing less and less game, making life in the village hard, especially for those families with no hunters.

When the oldest elder saw them hesitate, it felt like his authority was vanishing. These villagers used to follow his every command. If he wanted them to go home, they would. If he wanted them to contribute their food to the village, then they would.

He knew the reason for this change. It was the intruder!

“Look at all of you! You are all tempted by a Bad Spirit!”

Many of the villagers gasped when they heard that. There have been rumors and superstitions about bad spirits since they were younger. The elders always said that when a Thall acted out of reason or with malice, then that Thall was most likely possessed by a Bad Spirit.

The doubt started creeping into their minds. It made sense. A Bad Spirit was a minion of a god to do their bidding. In their beliefs, a God was only there to punish them, not give gifts like Achram was saying.

“The original Achram died on that mountain. And the God there made a Bad Spirit take over his body and lure others out into their death on the mountain.”

They looked at Achram with suspicion. The elder’s words were getting to them, even though they had no basis for truth whatsoever.

“My dad isn’t a Bad Spirit!” Uno shouted. “You’re a Bad Spirit! My dad is simply spreading the joy and gifts that God gave him. He’s not forcing anyone to go there, unlike you!”

Rhita wanted to calm down his son because this was a talk between adults, but she also couldn’t help but be angry at the old codger. Why was he so insistent on bringing down her husband?

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She knew that the accusations of a Bad Spirit were bogus, especially since she knew that Bad Spirits didn’t exist. It was just a tale told to them as a kid to scare them off from doing bad things.

“Everyone is struggling in this village. We don’t have enough food for everyone. However, the mountain God will provide us with everything we have ever wanted. This Meaty Mushroom is proof of that.”

When Rhita tried to give a small piece of Meaty Mushroom to the elder, he simply swatted her hands and let the Mushroom fall in the dirt. He looked at her with disdain. “You will not tempt me, bad spirit!”

“You…lay your hands off my woman.” Achram’s words were calm and cool, but the elder found himself backing off when he heard that. He was a hunter back when he was in his prime. He knew when an apex predator was looking at him with the full intent of mangling his entire body.

Achram was exactly that, an apex predator.

“You are a Bad Spirit! You have already killed your fellow Thalls. You have killed Bucko and the rest of the celebrated hunters!”

Everyone gasped. Hunting was already becoming hard at this time, and they needed all the hands they could get. If they lost their experienced hunters, especially a veteran hunter like Bucko, then they would lose about a quarter of the food they were hunting. In this famine, they needed every food they could get.

When everyone looked at Achram and saw that he didn’t deny it, everyone gasped and took a step back away from him.

Achram simply looked at the elders in front of him. “You knew why I killed him. Did you tell all of your villagers that they were all planning on selling off my family to the human merchants as slaves?! You didn’t stop them. You were complicit!”

In his anger, Achram’s eyes glowed yellow, with his marks getting brighter and more intense.

Most of the villagers didn’t know about this deal with the humans. However, an elder who knew every business in this village would certainly know about Bucko’s plans. They could have stopped him with just one word. But they didn’t, which meant that they approved of his plans.

These elders right in front of him were accomplices in the crime against his family. If he hadn’t arrived in time, his wife and his children would be sold to the humans as nothing more than an object. He couldn’t imagine the atrocities they would face if he hadn’t rescued them.

Now, these elders were accusing him of being a Bad Spirit, an evil entity that would harm their fellow Thalls. What a hypocrite!

If Rhita wasn’t holding his arms tightly, he might have already killed the Elder right where he stood.

The villagers couldn’t believe that Bucko would do such a horrible thing. They especially couldn’t believe that the elders wouldn’t try to stop Bucko from selling off Rhita and her family to the humans. That was an atrocious crime that went against everything they had ever preached.

“Nonsense!” The elder was flustered. “They weren’t going to do that! You are mistaken. You are lying! The Bad Spirit is lying! Who are you all going to believe? This…intruder or me, your elder?”

Most of the villagers were inclined to believe the Elder. After all, they grew up with their teachings and their wisdom guiding them all this time. However, they were still doubtful that Achram was a Bad Spirit.

If he was, then he wouldn’t bribe them with gifts and just kill all of them without any problem. He already showed arrows were incapable of hurting him. None of the hunters could stand against him.

The seamstress and the rest of the weak families who didn’t have hunters were deathly afraid when they heard that Rhita and her family were kidnapped. If it could happen once, then it would happen again. Would they have been next if Achram hadn’t appeared and killed Bucko, foiling their heinous crime?

“Leave this village, you Bad Spirit!” shouted the Elder. The rest of the villagers stayed silent. They didn’t try to defend Achram.

He inwardly nodded. Leaving the comfort of their own homes and moving to an unfamiliar place was an extremely hard thing to do, especially since this journey included trekking up the cold snowy mountain. Not everyone was ready to take the leap of faith.

“We were about to leave anyway.” Achram said. He knew that he couldn’t convince the villagers with force. If they wanted to go with him, then they should go on their own accord. If he tried to force them, then the elders would simply use that as an excuse to push the accusation that he was a Bad Spirit.

“If you want to join us in God’s kingdom, then come to the foot of the mountain tomorrow morning. We will depart by sunlight.”

As soon as he said that, a lot of the villagers started to have doubts. They were conflicted with the desire to go with Achram to God’s kingdom and receive his gifts, and the Elder’s warnings against it.

Some decided completely. They weren’t going to join Achram, while there were also some people who wholeheartedly believed that God’s kingdom was a real place in the mountain. The seamstress was one of those people.

She believed that it was safer to journey through the mountain rather than stay in this village where even the Elders tried to sell off a family to humans.

When the Elder saw that Achram and his family were leaving, he couldn’t help but taunt them. “That’s right, leave! No Bad Spirit can threaten the safety of this village!”

Achram, in a fit of anger, kicked the ground. A large crack suddenly appeared and continued to spread directly towards the Elder. As soon as it reached the elder, a large fissure suddenly appeared under him and made him lose his balance.

He quickly lost his consciousness, not because of any injury, but because of fright.