241 Moving On
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From the distance, the heroes quickly realized Aberno died as they saw the green skins scatter, although some of the children wanted them to all die so they wouldn’t bring new dangers, their parents stopped them before they were to slaughter more of them.
“Don’t...” Said Faylen. “Let them go. Every living being has the right to survive and thrive. We fought because they were attacking us and trying to kill us. Now they run, and probably don’t want anything to do with us. They’re intelligent creatures, they know we are dangerous. There is no point in killing them.”
“B-But mother, what if they threaten some nearby village?!” Asked Sylphy.
“Yeah! And the animals... W-What if they end up destroying the jungle?” Asked Aquarina.
“There are no nearby villages in hundreds of kilometers, if not thousands. The jungle won’t be easily destroyed by them, and it needs new inhabitants now that we are moving out.” Said Faylen. “Sylphy, Aquarina, we don’t kill for fun, we kill for a purpose, and we don’t kill for a fear of a future that hasn’t come out yet either... Doing that will only lead to corruption. We kill because of necessity. We kill because we need to eat, or because we need to protect ourselves, we kill because we want to grow stronger, sometimes... There must be a reason for the present, not the future.”
“...”
“...”
The two girls looked down, they seemed a bit embarrassed, although they still thought they had to kill them, they suddenly realized that Faylen also had said some truth... the two girls apologized as they looked back at the scene, there was a big pile of corpses of green skins being left behind, as the caravan quickly moved forward. Sylphy had sneak peek using her vision the battle with Ninhursag and the Blue Demon a little bit, but when he finally died as she apologized to her mother, she suddenly felt “something” reaching her and infusing itself into her soul... It seems that she ended earning some EXP from Aberno, alongside all the EXP from the hundreds after hundreds of green skins that died just a few minutes ago.
.....
This “EXP” were in fact fragments of all the souls of these living beings, which fused into her soul and became fuel for her System to enhance her capabilities- or well, that’s how it was supposed to work, but now most of the EXP was used to repair Alice’s glitches and bugs, there were a lot left, but they had been slowly reducing over time thanks to accumulated EXP. Although it might take many years for her to actually fix herself, so Sylphy and Alice need to be patient.
After a while, Pyuku came back from wherever he had gone to, alongside Ninhursag who came walking rather tired, her expression seemed quite bitter, unlike how everybody had expected her to come back happily... She seemed quite impacted.
“Ninhursag! How did it went?” Asked Zack.
“Zack... It went well.” Said Ninhursag. “I avenged your parents.” Ninhursag smiled back at Zack as he nodded with eyes filled with happiness that the evil demon was defeated.
“...”
However, Ninhursag seemed dispirited, she didn’t looked happy like Zack thought she would be.
“A-Are you okay?” He asked.
“...Yeah, I am okay...” She sighed, as she hugged Zack tightly and kissed his forehead. “I am okay...”
Zack didn’t knew why Ninhursag felt this way, but he hugged her back tightly with his small and short, yet surprisingly strong arms, giving her some of the comfort she seemed to be wanting from this hug.
“Ah... I guess that’s it...” Said Sylphy. “It... Ended? That’s it? It somewhat... It feels dull...” Sylphy sighed.
“Well, that’s how life is, Sylphy.” Said Faylen. “There is not really any conclusion to things until you die... Life continues, and the end of a battle is not really the end of a journey, nor the end of conflicts, even less the end of anything... It is just when you managed to survive, and the other died... That’s the end of a battle, nothing more, nothing less.” Faylen looked into the horizon, as she seemed also quite melancholic, looking at the sun slowly setting below the faraway mountains. The caravan managed to get out of the jungle, as a beautiful and near-endless grassland greeted their sight.
Allan, Shade, and Nepheline, reached the rest of the group as they hugged their children and then looked into the distance, their eyes were all tired. They were tired of bloodshed, of wars, of death... but they had to endure it to survive, and to protect their beloved children. This was life in this world, it was not a fable, it was not a story that had a happy conclusion, it simply was... life as it is, a journey that only ends when you die.
But someone within this party had a special ability... A girl that had the power of absorbing souls through her unique powers... This girl, sometimes granted a new journey to those that had an abrupt death. Perhaps with her... could the journey continue for these people, even after death?
“Let’s go... Past the grasslands, we’ll find the coast, that’s where we’ll move to Atlanta. We’ll have to get through a town or a small city to resupply, and also I will be going back home quickly to bring things with me...” Said Allan. “Well, for now let’s just rest and relax, we have done more than enough.”
Sylphy and Faylen nodded as the two were hugged by Allan, his arms embraced the two girls that made his world, and the reason of his struggles to continue moving forward despite the great burdens that he carried with himself. And even a third one was coming along quite soon, within Faylen’s belly.
“I have to find a good place for our child to be born... I suppose your home is the best one, so we have to hurry, Faylen.” He thought, looking at his wife as he caressed her blonde hair.
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