Bro, I'm not an Undead!

“For greed is me,

Benevolence is you,

When you devour me whole,

I perish from sight,

Cruelty says I,

Kindness says you,

When you speak your name,

I crumble in fright…”

Gabel recited with passion a set of words that those who heard elsewhere couldn’t understand at all.

It was the genuine look of solemnity, and enlightenment he wore that made the audience feel as if they were the ones who were insane, and too ignorant to understand.

Even the fundis among them who understand deep facets of hidden messaging, obscure poetry, and contradiction, couldn’t quite place what any of this could relate to.

Worse than this was what came before, with veils, lady of the veils, crimson silks and whatnot.

Even though there were other contenders having more interesting endeavours, adventures, and battles which were shown all around on the screens, a few of the witnesses couldn’t help but dedicate a few moments to try and understand this man.

Since the Royale began, he had encountered two creatures of the same type. They both looked like jaguars, one with two tails, the other with three. From previous viewing – as at this point, several of the contenders had exposed the special abilities of these beasts – the witnesses had expected Gabel to be surprised by their reanimating gimmick.

The surprise didn’t show on Gabel’s face however. It had remained hung low, tracing the pages of his small book, with a large glaive leaning close to it, on his shoulder. The audience had instead been blasted aghast when the creatures had simply been left stuck in place, mid-lunge in their effort to attack him.

No exchange had occurred.

No scuffle.

The second Retriever hadn’t fared any better.

Seeing the intruder who didn’t even bother to look at it had fuelled its rage, but it was bound to keep its emotions to itself, because it was left stuck in place as well, as if paralysed while Gabel passed.

This little bit of showcase had left the witnesses wondering, and eager to see and understand Gabel. Sadly, all they could lean on was his muttering, which made as little sense as his powers.

***

The chase continued.

Even though Skullius was sure the Fleeting Pioneer wasn’t interested in him, or at the very least didn’t even know he was pursuing it, judging by its slacked jaw in tandem with its dazed eyes, he remained cautious.

His urge to kill it had vanished ever since he had discovered that these beasts were likely one of, if not the only way to get to the GOAL quickly!

The principle of the clouds still stood.

As long as Skullius wasn’t targeting the mountain, he could move quickly, provided his target was close even if directly aligned with the GOAL. Initially, he had thought to exploit this, exchanging close target after close target in order to get closer to the mountain, but it didn’t work that way.

Not exactly.

Sooner or later, the intent to reach the mountain showed when one followed through with this idea.

Keeping the mountain in sight, making sure you were headed in the same direction for thousands of kilometres, maybe more, was ridiculous. The intent to reach the GOAL, as hot as it would become, would cause hiccoughs in speed, since, as it seemed, the clouds above could discern one’s intention.

Approaching carelessly, with how ‘sacred’ the mountain seemed to be, was a taboo.

However…

A solution had shown up.

The Fleeting Pioneer!

As Skullius had been chasing after the damn thing on its unclear journey to the mountain, he found that his speed of travel wasn’t restricted!

If he wanted to, he could even use [Destined Warp Steps]!

Suddenly, the name of the creature began to make sense!

‘Fleeting’ because it would vanish when close to being harmed, and ‘Pioneer’ because it showed the way!

Skullius was convinced it was impossible for any hostile creature in this place to play the same role as this one. After all, he didn’t think any other monster was dying to reach the mountain as quickly as this one – for whatever reason.

Perhaps it was like a sacred messenger of sorts.

Following it as a target, worked wonders. Even the clouds didn’t bother him, even if his focus on it slipped.

‘So, I assume there are more of these creatures out there. Do they only live in the forest? I could try to capture a few of them, just in case. But wait, would that even work?’

‘Tomato flinger…’ Sila called.

‘What?’

‘Are you sure this is safe?’

‘Of course not! But this is my first lead since getting here, and it could be my last. I just have to follow for now. Who knows? Maybe your better luck allowed me to actually find the thing.’

‘You tend to be more optimistic than I imagine, tomato flinger,’ Sila said.

‘Is that a problem?’

‘…no.’

The journey seemed to turn smooth for a while. Skullius’ biggest worry was that the Fleeting Pioneer would fleet its way out of sight, disappearing for good somehow – because why not?

Every unfortunate possibility had to be accounted for.

When the Pionner had gotten side tracked once, Skullius had panicked, and followed after it only to find it relieving itself, something he somehow always forgot happened for normal living creatures. This, semi-fortunately, turned into a marker that confirmed for him that an hour and sixteen minutes had passed since he began racing after the Fleeting Pioneer. All this time had flown completely over his head!

Skullius stayed hidden for a while after the Fleeting Pioneer finished its business, and sat down, seemingly having forgotten about its mission.

Then, in a comical scene he would never forget, the creature had rose, stumbling like an idiot left and right while almost – and Skullius could have sworn he saw right – checking its wrist, whatever that meant.

 The Fleeting Pioneer raced this way and that before looking past the clouds – an extraordinary visual ability it had perhaps – and started for the mountain again, completely oblivious to Skullius following a few meters behind it.

Perhaps ‘fleeting’ also referred to its memory.

A few other instances of this had occurred again, but Skullius had gotten used to it, his and Sila’s concerns mellowing a bit.

It had been baffling how large this forest was, and when Skullius had finally started to see pointed spots of light in the distance, expressing that the close knit arrangement of trees was about to end, his heart had leapt.

Finally.

The dreadful surroundings were about to disappear.

However, the Fleeting Pioneer didn’t seem to share his urgency.

It and Sila, almost at the same, were attracted to something to their left that Skullius couldn’t see, or rather had been too distracted by the prospect of freedom to notice.

It was only when the dark haired creature turned its head, and stopped that Skullius looked to where its face was directed.

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About a dozen Fleeting Pioneers were huddled around something a few hundred meters from the trio.

The one Skullius was following suddenly dashed towards them at full speed, much to his frustration.

‘Damn it!’ Skullius scowled, and followed after it.

He couldn’t continue without it, or he’d start on a slow journey all over again. Maybe it would be distracted for a longer period given that these were its buddies.

That said…

Since there were a few more of them, perhaps Skullius could find a way to control them all, releasing them one at a time in order to ensure that he always had his ticket to the GOAL despite any other unexpected distractions.

‘If capturing them doesn’t trigger their powers, sure…’ was Sila’s response to this idea of Skullius’.

The Hybrid Luman slowed as he approached the group, with the latest Fleeting Pioneer joining with an even more dazed look to it.

What were these creatures looking at?

….

“What… is that?” Skullius voiced as he saw the odd thing in the midst of the group of long faced creatures.

It looked like a large, plum coloured flower, with a dull, ghoulish pink glow coming from the inner parts of its curved petals that were open wide, revealing what seemed like a… fat barrel within.

Yes. Barrel was the right word.

The shape seemed to match, only, the thick thing had multiple holes all over it, and seemed to be taking in deep breaths that showed with its expansion and contraction!

A dark shudder bolted through Skullius’ body as he stared at it. He had followed the first Fleeting Pioneer until he reached within fifteen meters of the huddled group it joined, perfectly entranced by the flower.

But it wasn’t a flower.

It couldn’t be.

It was so out of place given the environment, which now lacked even a blade of grass near the end of the forest.

Something wasn’t right.

Even if [Primal Caution] didn’t give a warning, Skullius was sure this wasn’t a good thing to be around.

‘Tomato flinger.’

No Skullius couldn’t get close to that thing. Ever. Not him. Especially not him.

‘Tomato flinger!’

If he let himself get drawn like the Fleeting Pioneers, it couldn’t possibly do someone like him any good.

‘TOMATO FLINGER! STOP!’

Skullius heard faintly Sila’s voice that rocked his mind, mildly clearing it of dark thoughts, and stretched his senses that had somehow gotten restrained along the way….

Along the way to the strange flower… huddled around by the Fleeting Pioneers with an enthralled look on his face that bordered on insane.

Skullius was among them.

He was already looking at the fat barrel that grew and shrank, the pink glow, while dark in his sight, possessing his interest all the same.

How had he gotten here?

He didn’t know.

‘…FLINGER!’

And for a moment, he was startled as Sila kept raving, and screaming at him from somewhere.

‘Wait. What am I doing? Right! I have to get away from the… from the…’ Skullius thought, trying to resist a sharp pull. An unrelenting draw that went in so deep. Too deep in fact.

As he tried to resist, though, the view around him changed when he blinked.

Somehow, it was all snow now.

Thick ropes stretched taut from a large… mansion, if he could it something, that stood at the top of this height, connecting to another place hundreds of meters away, appeared in his sight.

Surprisingly, he couldn’t see too far. How strange.

‘Where am I? Genhuis? How did I…?’

Skullius paused, appalled.

First, because he realised that he could see perfectly now. The colours registered perfectly in his view; white with hints of green for the snow, the gold and blue ‘mansion’ he was looking at from below…

Second because…

“Brother…”

A voice called from behind him, making him turn while stricken stupid by the outrageous rush of unexpected events.

Brother?

A few paces from Skullius, stood a girl, naked in the cruel cold, flakes of snow beginning to pile on her hair and shoulders, turning her into a pale ghost.