The Path of Ruin

Chapter 69: Words of the Guardian

"No... No, the fact that I know these things makes a lot of difference. You won't kill me, for example."

Despite all the vines staring at him, controlled by Amar, Kael was not afraid.

Or rather, he made sure he wasn't afraid.

"I couldn't be sure before, but now I am certain. Your guardian is... dying, Amar. And I mean that in the most serious way possible."

He raised both hands in the air as the vines closed in on him step by step, taking a position completely open to attack. Yet his expression did not change one iota.

"It is constantly growing, constantly expanding. Yes, it benefits its environment. Yes, it protects the place from creatures. But it is also slowly killing itself."

One of the vines was right in front of his forehead at this moment. And... for some reason, even though it was a plant, it looked as sharp as a sword.

"Because the more it grows, the more energy and resources it needs. And our world doesn't have that. So it tries to get the energy it needs from eon. But even that's not enough, so there are differences that shouldn't be there in its color, in its eon flow, even in its respiration."

He felt the tip of the vine on his skin, just in place to pierce his brain.

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But... it didn't go any further.

When he realized that the vine had stopped, Kael was relieved, but he continued, careful not to let it show.

"If it can really communicate with you... it must have some consciousness. You can warn him not to grow any bigger, Amar. We can try to help him. Together, even. Do you really... want to see the 'guardian' you care so much about dying more and more every day? Are you really sure you won't regret it when that day comes, when you find out that everything I said was true?"

"Tch."

Kael was so focused that he hadn't blinked since Amar had first appeared. But there was a limit, and he finally blinked as fast as he could reflexively.

When he opened his eyes again...

The vine in front of his forehead had disappeared. Amar's eyes were their original color again.

"Well... fine. I'll trust you, because what you said makes sense."

He folded his arms across his chest. He looked at Kael with an expression that told him he still didn't like him, even if the hostility in his eyes had faded a little.

"Still... I'm still keeping an eye on you. I'll take your life the moment I see the slightest sign of wrongdoing."

Kael relaxed so much at these words that he felt as light as a feather. Although he hid it, he was deeply affected by the bloodlust and eon... so much so that if Amar had continued any longer, he would have been unable to breathe.

But he got away with it.

For now.

"All right."

He glanced in the direction of Fesila and the other worker. They were both on the floor, both unconscious. Amar must have knocked them out before they approached him in the first place.

'He didn't kill them... right?

He felt relieved when he saw Fesila's chest move slightly, indicating that she was breathing. Then he turned in front of him, taking one last look at Amar.

Neither of them said anything, but that look said a lot. He had asked for his permission to continue. And Amar had given that permission in that short moment.

So, he turned his gaze to the heart that had been beating in the same rhythm throughout this whole process.

He took a deep breath, raised his hand again... and this time, he touched the heart without a hitch.

At first... nothing happened.

It felt like touching a soft wall that was simply moving. It was no different from touching the vines in town.

But then he turned off all his senses and put everything into feeling the eon. He infiltrated the Guardian's eon with his own. And the moment he did...

Everything went dark.

He didn't see eon lines stretching for who knows how far. He didn't find himself in countless streams of eon.

Just... darkness.

Nothing.

'H- huh...?'

He pulled his hand back. Or rather he imagined he did... but he couldn't feel his hand.

'What's going on?'

Amar... had he done something? Could he have tricked him?

'Did he... kill me?'

If he quickly tore his body into several pieces, he would probably be dead before he realized what had happened.

'But... I can think.'

Even more confused, he forced himself to calm down. He closed his non-existent eyes, then checked the eon in his body.

And... he managed to feel something this time.

'I can feel my eon and the way it flows matches my body. So I am actually alive...'

He could even feel the hand he was holding out because of the eon passing through it. So he was still where he was, not dead.

'Then... what happened?'

He kept thinking. He didn't stop even though he couldn't find any conclusion.

Then he paused.

He focused again on the eon in his body. He extended it along his arm that touched the Guardian's Heart, then tried to repeat what he had done before he found himself in this darkness...

But then he paused once more.

'What... what is this?'

He realized that a thought was starting to form in his mind.

Well... it was normal. Everyone thought every time, after all. He himself was usually someone who did most things in his mind, who didn't say much. So there was nothing as normal as thinking.

The only problem was...

It was that the thought was not his own.

'Uh... this is... too weird...'

Illness.

Madness.

Death.

"Ugh... Agh, aagghh..."

His mind was hurting. He felt the pain in his head with each word that appeared before his eyes.

Deception...

Enemy...

Outside...

Each thought was a simple word. But they were so heavy, so painful...

"AAAGGHHHH!"

Eon...

Dungeon...

Dense...

Finally, he couldn't stand it.

'Ah...'

The pain suddenly stopped. The darkness in his mind was gone in an instant, and he found himself in front of the heart again. He felt the tears falling from his eyes on his cheeks. The beating of the heart made his fingers and body shake.

His eyes watered even more. He collapsed weakly as the strength in his arms and legs disappeared.

He didn't even have the strength to think.

*******

Amar... wasn't thinking much as he watched Kael.

There was only one thing on his mind. And that was... to kill Kael as soon as he caught him making one mistake.

That's why all his focus was on him. His eyes were sharp and he was watching all the eon flow through Kael's body.

But as he did so, he was faced with what was bothering him all over again.

'And he calls himself a bearer...'

It was simply not possible. He had never seen a bearer with so many eon in their body before in his life. If his blessing or curse had something to do with it, maybe... but even that was absurd. Someone with so much eon should have already started on a Path, should have become a follower.

He was most probably lying.

'Look at this...'

Amar confirmed his thought again and again as he watched Kael's eon condense along his body and move towards his arm.

But when Kael's eon made contact with the Guardian's heart... all his thoughts vanished in an instant.

His eyes widened. His arms crossed over his chest involuntarily released.

"What?"

The Guardian's way of communicating with Amar was quite simple.

Whenever Amar touched one of his vines, he could hear the voice of the Guardian's primitive consciousness in his mind in the form of words. This allowed him to anticipate the threats the town would face. And that's how he became strong enough to be where he is today.

Because the Guardian was not only communicating with him, but also empowering him.

But the Guardian had never said a word to him about the threat to the town. He simply refused to tell him about it.

And now...

"It's... talking to him?"

Amar quickly knelt down, placed his right hand on one of the vines on the floor, and closed his eyes.

He waited for seconds. An answer, any words that would pop into his mind, any reaction.

But nothing came.

When Amar opened his eyes again... he stared blankly ahead of him. He didn't even know what to think.

'There must be a reason...'

His eyes narrowed again, turning cold. He looked at Kael's body, which had collapsed at that very moment.

'It has something to do with that boy.'

He approached Kael with slow steps. He nudged him with his foot and made sure he was unconscious when he didn't react.

"Tch..."

He still didn't like Kael. There was always something about him that bothered him. And Amar usually trusted his guts.

He turned his eyes to the Guardian's heart.

"Do you trust him, really?"

The heart continued to beat without any change in rhythm. As if it had not heard Amar's question. Amar only let out a deep sigh.

"So be it... all right."

But... he made a mistake.

Because he had no idea what actually the Guardian was thinking with its primitive consciousness at that moment.