Chapter 96: Asterion

’Something’s not aligning...’

For the first time since coming back from the Tower, Genesis Eyes seemed to have settled into a more suitable way of reading a person’s status, feeding him information it hadn’t offered before.

A great deal was still closed off. Theo still couldn’t see the skills of higher-ranked targets the way he once could. And for monsters in particular, he’d expected even less, a status locked tight against him. But this man, Asterion, had a name. An age. He was a dark elf sitting in the Enhanced Realm, though his stats read strangely low for that Realm.

’Even I, stuck in the Mundane Realm, have more interesting numbers than this. Maybe he’s hiding something.’

Two things caught Theo’s attention above everything else. The creature’s Class authority. And its status effects.

’By what I’m seeing, this is a creature out of the Tower and not a monster. What is going on?’

Theo stayed on the branch above him while the dark elf kept loosing arrows into the canopy where Uthed had gone. Eventually Uthed broke for cover behind a wide trunk, and still the elf didn’t stop, hammering the bark until splinters rained.

Theo decided that was enough.

He dropped without a sound and set his blade against the elf’s throat.

"Asterion, is it? Call off your subordinates."

The elf went rigid. His breath caught, and after a moment he let out a low whistle, something close to a forest bird’s call.

The arrows stopped. The forest went quiet again.

Theo nodded.

"Now explain yourself. Were you sent from inside the Tower? Tell me one lie and I won’t hesitate to open your throat. Was it the Disaster King? The Villain Association?"

Asterion looked genuinely confused.

"We’re searching for shelter. We lost our place in the Tower, cast out through the aperture, and we came upon this land. We’ve been moving through it carefully. This place suits us. There’s a strong wood affinity here, strong enough that our Forest Spirit would prosper. Grow. We could build a home out of this place."

Theo’s grip loosened, just slightly.

But it was enough.

Asterion wrenched free, dropped from the branch, and was already airborne with the string drawn by the time he loosed at Theo.

Theo was gone before the arrow left the string, and waiting when the elf landed.

He drove Raindrop into Asterion’s shoulder and slammed him back into a tree trunk.

Asterion whistled again, fear plain on his face now.

"You— how are you doing that?"

Theo grimaced.

"Did you really think you could outrun me, starved and mana-drained the way you are?"

Asterion glared through the pain.

"Wretched humans. You’re all going to die here, even if I have to die making it happen. Your kind chased us out of our home."

Theo frowned, thrown.

A fresh volley came down through the branches. Uthed appeared out of nowhere and cut one vicious arc through the air, a single stroke that shredded most of the arrows before they reached Theo. The rest scattered wide or buried themselves in bark.

Theo glanced back, the corner of his mouth curling, then turned to the elf.

"You were saying?"

Asterion smirked through the blood.

"This is a losing fight for you. You have no idea how many of us are in this forest right now. We’re going to take your home the same way you took ours."

He grinned, vicious and desperate at once.

Theo wanted to help these people, in whatever shape that ended up taking. Right now, mostly, he was getting irritated.

"How many?"

Asterion’s grin faltered.

"What?"

"Your people. How many are hiding in my forest?"

He stared at Theo for a long beat before answering.

"Enough."

"That’s not a number."

"It is when you’re surrounded."

Theo held his gaze a moment longer, then let Genesis Eyes drift past the man pinned to the tree and out toward the deeper woods, chasing something he couldn’t quite name yet.

[Target Identified: Forest Spirit]

[Condition: Severely Weakened]

[Growth Environment: High Wood Affinity — Suitable]

[Current Location: Suitable]

[Potential: Undetermined]

So that was the shape of it. It wasn’t that they were an army but rather a dying thing, and a people carrying it.

"Your Forest Spirit," Theo said. "It’s what’s actually keeping you here. You need to save it don’t you? Then drop the act and beg."

Asterion’s jaw tightened before he answered.

"It won’t survive another move. Neither will most of my people, if we try. This land is the first ground we’ve found strong enough to hold it."

Theo looked past him at the trees, and for the first time didn’t see a threat in them. He saw a manor he’d been slowly filling with people the world had already thrown away. A forest he hadn’t done anything with yet. Wives who needed the ground under them to stay quiet and safe.

’If I drive them off, they die, or they become someone else’s problem down the road. If I let them stay, they might become mine. Unless.’

"What happens," Theo said slowly, "if you get the place you actually need?"

Asterion blinked at him like the question didn’t parse.

Theo tipped his head toward the woods.

"You said your Forest Spirit needs this ground."

"...Yes."

"And your people need the same thing."

"Yes."

"Then why are you trying to kill the people who own it?"

Asterion had no answer ready. It was written plainly enough on his face, the assumption that there had only ever been two doors, conquest or dying in the cold, and no third one anybody had bothered to build for them.

"You don’t get this land for free."

Theo said, before the silence could turn back into an insult. He held up one finger.

"You don’t attack my people again."

Then he held a second finger.

"You don’t hide weapons around my home."

Then the third finger.

"And if I give your Spirit somewhere to root, that ground is still mine. You live on it. You don’t own it."

Asterion’s eyes narrowed.

"You want us for slaves."

Theo actually laughed at that, short and honest.

"If I wanted slaves I wouldn’t be standing here arguing terms with an archer who just put four holes in my best friend’s tree."

Something in the panel shifted, a soft chime only Theo could hear.

[A potential Investment has been detected]

[Target: Forest Spirit]

[Current Compatibility: Low]

[Potential Investment: Undetermined]

[Warning: Target does not meet Villainess classification]

Theo stared at that last line for a second too long.

’I wasn’t planning to marry a tree.’

He shook it off and looked back at Asterion, who was still bleeding quietly against the bark, still watching him like a man waiting for the catch.

"Bring your people," Theo said.

Asterion went very still.

"What?"

"Bring them here."

Theo pulled Raindrop free and wiped the blood off along his sleeve, unhurried.

"If everything you’ve told me is true, I’ve got no reason to kill you. But if you come at my home again, I’ll finish what I started tonight, on every last one of you."

He looked toward the treeline, where the dark had gone soft and green again.

"And you people are apparently very good at growing things. I happen to have a few things I’d like grown."

Asterion said nothing for a long moment, jaw tight, pride and hunger fighting it out behind his eyes. He didn’t thank Theo. He didn’t kneel. He just gave a short, grudging nod, the kind a man gives when he’s chosen the lesser of two humiliations.

Theo almost let it go at that.

Then the panel flared again, sharper this time.

[Warning: Foreign Authority Detected]

[Source: Tower]

[Status: Partially Sealed]

Theo’s smile dropped.

"Asterion."

"...What?"

"You told me you were thrown out of the Tower."

"I was."

Theo’s eyes cut to him, cold now.

"Then why is something inside you still tied to it?"