Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 460: Spirits’ Home.

"...Why are you so peculiar?..."

Ozul felt a deja-vu hit him. The ’Dark Druid’ had asked him the same questions.

The only difference was that the ’Dark Druid’ in his Broken World kept flickering in and out of existence, while this Spirit was in a tranquil state.

"Do you feel apprehension toward me?" he asked, remembering that the ’Dark Druid’ felt something similar.

"...Hmm... How do you know that? How are you doing this? Mm..."

The Spirit displayed a child-like curiosity to the presence of Ozul. If it had distinct features, one would’ve been able to see her tilting her head to the side.

"I met one similar to you," He answered.

"...Similar? Like us? Where?"

Even Raven and Blaze didn’t know about that ’Dark Druid.’

"In a broken world. She seemed lost," Ozul was patient with her only because he could feel her emotions. There was not even a hint of negativity in this Spirit. There was only a bit of fear and boundless curiosity.

As someone with questions himself, he could relate to her curiosity at the very least.

"...Ah...She shouldn’t have wandered out of home...Poor her," the Spirit sympathized, but her focus quickly shifted back to Ozul,

"That doesn’t answer my questions...Who are you?"

Ozul stood still, sighing loudly. If only he knew the answer to that question. Things would have been so much easier.

"I’m not sure. I thought you could answer that," he replied honestly.

"This is not your doing? This fear in me?" The Spirit was more wary than them.

Ozul shook his head, and answered, "I am not doing it consciously at least."

"Why did you try to harm me then...?" the Spirit asked, even more confused now.

"When did I?" he replied instantly. The only thing he had done was use Purity to protect himself from that poisonous smoke.

Confirming the possibility, he asked, "Were you that smoke?"

"Yes, I was eating and you tried eating me!" The Spirit raised her voice, agitated at being reminded of the traumatic event that had just transpired.

In response to her words, the trio could only share awkward glances. Weren’t they only protecting themselves from her? How was that trying to eat her?

However, Ozul understood that the morals of these Spirits were probably quite different from theirs.

"While eating, you were going to harm us. I didn’t mean to harm you," he explained with patience as if talking to an unreasonable child.

"Hmm..." The Spirit went silent for a few seconds, humming to herself.

"It was my fault then?"

Seeing Ozul and the other three nod their heads, the Spirit went silent again, pondering whether she was really in the wrong.

"I will let others decide...They know more..." She muttered to herself before addressing Ozul, "If I am wrong, I will apologize, so stop whatever you are doing... okay?"

He was about to refute again that it wasn’t his doing, but something told him that she wouldn’t understand even if he were to repeat it a hundred more times.

"We will follow you." He told her and the trio looked at him worriedly.

He knew what they were worried about, but these Spirits were somehow affected by his presence and he wanted to know why.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to convince them. A reassuring glance was enough for them to realize that it was safe.

And so, the four of them followed the Spirit deeper inside the forest.

. . .

On the way there, they didn’t encounter any other Beasts.

Raven and Ozul were a little more aware of their surroundings and knew that there was little to no presence of any life in their path.

"Did you eat everything while coming here?" Raven asked, choosing her words carefully.

"Yes, why?" The Spirit replied without stopping.

"Nothing..."

Unlike Ozul, the three of them didn’t realize that the moral compass of this being was different from theirs. After all, he was the only one who could read her emotions.

But the trio didn’t have to suffer the awkward walk for long as they reached their destination.

Unlike what they had expected from the home of a horrifying being such as this Spirit, it was completely different.

The place was more lit up than the rest of this dark forest.

Suddenly, there was life everywhere as well. Fireflies, blurs of light, floated everywhere, illuminating the entire place and its beauty.

The trees were separated, and there were two small streams of running water, and twinkling light bounced between the water and the eyes of playful creatures like the rabbits.

"Woah..." Zier gasped.

Having been in the dark and surrounded by trees for so long, it felt as if he had come out of the forest if not for the fact that they still couldn’t see the sky.

It was so spacious that it almost felt unnatural.

They couldn’t appreciate the beauty for long as tens of Spirits suddenly rushed in their direction.

All of them were formless beings with glowing eyes but of different sizes.

"You brought humans?"

"Why are humans here?"

"Who is that child?"

"Humans?"

They surrounded the four of them and immediately began questioning them.

The collective voices of all the Spirits felt quite disorienting, but fortunately for them, the Spirits all paused and began to part ways at once.

"Who are you, child?" A Spirit with more visible form than all others slowly approached them. The other Spirits had stopped because of this one.

Ozul could tell that he would have to go through the same questions as the other two. He was annoyed, but there was no other way around it.

"I don’t know myself. I understand that you feel fear toward me, but I am also looking for answers. That is why I’m here."

Behind him, Raven was the only one who found his reaction funny. She could imagine the past him talking in pauses and the Spirit doing the same for hours.

Ignoring her chuckling, the older Spirit was about to reply, but the other one spoke quickly,

"I was eating...when he tried eating me!"

The other Spirits gasped, retreating a few feet back in fear.

Unlike them, the older Spirit remained rooted on the spot. There was more curiosity in her than fear, Ozul felt.

"You can harm her?" she asked, sounding surprised at the very concept.

"I am not sure. I used my abilities to protect myself, and she thought I was going to eat her?" Ozul explained to the best of his abilities. He wasn’t the most vocal person, so getting so much out of him was a blessing in itself.

Unlike what he thought, the older Spirit seemed more wise than the rest. If the others behaved like children, then this one alone acted like an empathetic adult.

"Forgive this one, she does not understand that if she tries to eat someone, they can defend themselves too," explained the older Spirit as she understood the gist of the situation.

"...I was at fault?" gasped the younger Spirit who had tried to eat them before.

The same gasp was released by the surrounding young Spirits, who felt as if their whole lives had been lies.

"Child...I’m sorry..." the young Spirit turned toward the four of them and apologized sincerely before running away from there.

Zier couldn’t help but think that she was gone forever since they would never be able to find her amidst all the other Spirits. They all looked the same after all.

"Ha..." sighed the older Spirit before addressing them, "It’s the first time she ever felt the fear of being eaten. We Spirits cannot be harmed by any normal means, I am curious, what method did you use?"

"This?" Ozul produced a drop of Purity and presented it in front of the Spirit.

Immediately as he did that, the Spirit gave out a cry and retreated back!

"Put it away!"

Ozul did as he was told, quickly absorbing the Purity into his body. He at once realized that there was something in Purity that made them so afraid.

"What was that thing?!" The older Spirit questioned, afraid for her life.

"I call it Purity. It’s my ability." Ozul answered, unable to fathom why they had such extreme reactions to it.

"Do not take it out, it threatens to consume us!" The Spirit warned before approaching them again.

Ozul nodded, while the trio at last felt reassured that they were safe in the presence of these Spirits.

After that, they were escorted by the older Spirit and they sat on a comfortable bark. The other Spirits maintained their distance, minding their own business.

"What are Spirits exactly?" Ozul asked.

"It is hard to explain. Although humans call us Spirits, we are not beings of the soul. If anything, we lack soul... I think," the Spirit answered honestly.

They noticed how she was the only one who wasn’t taking long pauses amidst sentences either.

"You are their leader?" Raven asked. She didn’t see anyone else like this older Spirit.

But the older Spirit denied, "We Spirits do not have leaders. I have been alive longer, and so I know more than these young ones. They have only been alive for a few hundred years. There are others like me as well."

Zier deadpanned at her answer. ’A few hundred years is young?’ he scoffed in his heart.

"How were you born?" Ozul was more curious about their origin. Maybe that could give him some insight.

However, he was bound to be disappointed as the Spirit gave an unsatisfactory answer, "We are born in concentrated darkness. That is all I understand."

They chatted for a while longer; Ozul and the older Spirit were the only two speaking.

Neither the older Spirit nor Ozul learned the reason why his presence caused such an innate fear in them or why Purity threatened to consume them.

’I will ask Ember, she would know something,’ thought Ozul. He had almost forgotten about the Dark Druid. This encounter had at least reminded him of the Spirits.

He felt his own existence could be answered more easily if he knew the reason why these Spirits were afraid of him.