Dallen narrowly escaped the clutches of Ega alongside the rest of his comrades. If he had known that the person they were going to attack was so powerful, they would have never thought about it in the first place.


    Maybe desperation was beginning to take too tight of a hold on them with how little supplies they had left. He had recognized Ega too late, and for that, he paid the lives of four of his men.


    “Dammit, I knew I shouldn’t have accepted this request.” Cursing under his breath, Dallen continued forward through the forest.


    After a few hours of running through the eaves and brushes he had finally returned back to camp only to be greeted by a very unpleasant sound.


    “You ran away from one man!” Illia, the person who had hired them, was screaming her head off. “You can’t even take down a single person?”


    The bandits could only stand in silence as they were getting yelled out, however, once Dallen showed his face, all of her anger was directed at him.


    “Dallen! Just what the hell are you doing showing your face around here? You are your men couldn’t even—”


    “Shut it will you! You don’t understand what kind of monster we were fighting there. Were you even aware of who that was when you sensed his soul? You sent us out to take supplies from the Blood Hunter of all people!”


    “Well maybe you should have just died fighting him. Seeing as only four of you are dead, it doesn’t seem you tried all that hard.”


    “Oh you goddamned bi—” A sudden power gripped his chest, or rather, his soul, stopping him from speaking any further.


    “Let another word slip from that mouth of yours and I will tear your soul apart.” Illia extended her soul realm to grab a hold of Dallen’s soul.


    He could only stand there, gritting his teeth as his very being was being held in her hands. Once she was satisfied with his suffering, she finally let go of his soul.


    Dallen fell to his knees gasping for air as he held his chest tightly. Soul manipulators. He always hated them and the way they played around with people’s souls so carefreely. It really was unfortunate that he was hired by one of them.


    “Useless bunch. If only I didn’t have to be so secretive about my movements then I wouldn’t be stuck with you lot.” With that final remark, she walked away.


    The weight on his chest had finally lifted, leaving him coughing and wheezing for air. A few of his men ran to his side, trying to help him back up on his feet.


    “I knew I shouldn’t have…” The words had slipped from Dallen’s mouth, but thankfully, Illia hadn’t heard them.


    He was beginning to regret taking on this request. Of course there was going to be some caveat to such a high ranking person hiring them.


    Glancing over at the wagons that they were bringing along with them, he could see the shine of metal in those opened boxes. They had hundreds of well forged weapons but very few rations left. They could only spread out the rations so thinly, hunt down so many wild animals before there would be nothing left.


    Once Dallen was back to his feet, he brushed his men away, ordering them back to their posts. Looking at their faces, it was obvious that they were beginning to grow irritated by Illia as well.


    Not only had she failed in planning this mission out properly, but the divisions of rations weren’t affecting her. She could eat all that she wanted, and they could do nothing about it but watch with empty stomachs.


    Letting out a sigh, Dallen looked up at the sky. All he could do now was wait for the comfort of night and sleep. Hopefully that would get his mind off of things, but knowing that all they were going to have for dinner was a small piece of bread and jerky, he doubted it.


    Still, night had eventually fallen on them and all he could do was try and find comfort in sleeping in his tent. But even sleep wouldn’t take him, because just as he was about to push through the pain in his stomach and fall asleep, a commotion suddenly echoed across the camp.


    He would have fallen asleep after the commotion had subsided, but after a few hours, another wave of it swept through all of his men even louder than last time. Irritated, Dallen lay in his sleeping bag until someone entered his tent.


    “Dallen, wake up.”


    Hearing Illia’s cold voice, he begrudgingly picked himself up. “What?”


    “We’re ransacking a village just ahead.” Having a map and lantern ready, she placed it in front of Dallen.


    “Have you gone mad? Do you understand—”


    “Outers.” That one word had silenced Dallen. “You heard the commotion didn’t you? Outers have landed close by. All we need to do is make it seem like those monsters had raided the village, not us.”


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    “This is…” Just as he was about to call the plan crazy, the pain in the pit of his stomach was stopping him. He was already too deep into this mission to back away now.


    “Don’t worry so much, I won’t let a single soul escape to tell the tale.” A sly grin began to form on Illia’s face. “I just need a bit of manpower to take all that we need.”


    With that, the plan was set, “Fine. We can strike in the afternoon. Most of them will probably be in the village for lunch.”


    “Don’t screw it up this time around, well, not that you’ll be able to since I’m joining all of you for this mission.” Picking up the map and lantern Illia began to head out. “Don’t forget to brief your men on the plan.”


    Seeing her disappear into the night, Dallen couldn’t help but wear a scowl. Outers. Just their name sent shivers down his spine, and for the first time in his life, he was going to take advantage of their existence.


    “I just hope they don’t get to us.” He muttered as he laid back down. Tomorrow was going to be an eventful day, and hopefully the first day in a while where his stomach would be full for bed.


    …


    The sun had finally veered its head over the horizon as Ega continued forward. Pulling out a worn out map from his bag, he took notice of a small village ahead of them. At the pace that they were traveling at, they’d arrive sometime in the evening.


    As he was examining the rest of the way toward Purgo, Ella had woken up. Since they were on the move, he could only feed her some jerky and bread. Without any complaints, she bit down on the meager meal and turned back to her training.


    Waiting for the leaves to start falling, Ega finally told her the leaves she needed to grab. “One red, two orange, three yellow.”


    There was a different air around her that time. Her eyes were incredibly sharp, her small hands ready to catch even a moving fly. The moment his words made it to her ears and the leaves began to drift down to them, she swiped her hands.


    The movement was delicate, taking a hold of only the leaves that she wanted. The little adjustments in the middle of her strike, the precision of capturing each leaf, and her eyes which could read them and the path at which they were falling, it was perfect.


    With the five leaves in the palm on her hand, Ella paused for a second, excited to show off her accomplishment to Ega.


    “Ega, loo—” Just as she opened her hand, however, a sudden gust of wind blew the leaves away, scattering them back into the forest. “Oh…”


    Looking at where the leaves went, he looked back at Ella “One red, two orange, three yellow. You did it.” As if those leaves could escape from his eyes.


    With a small, but proud smile, be patted Ella on the head a few times. He couldn’t stop his smile from growing even larger as her face began to radiate joy from finally being able to catch the right five leaves. What had taken nearly a year for Ega to accomplish was done by this child in about a month.


    “Can’t you teach me how to be a soul bearer?” After completing one goal, it seems that she had already set her eyes on the next one.


    “A soul bearer? Don’t you think you''re moving a bit too fast?”


    “Can’t I?” Ella tried to use the moment of accomplishment and puppy eyes to try and convince Ega.


    “No.” But her actions were ineffective. “You’re still too young to be a soul bearer. Give it a few more years.”


    “But—”


    “No. That’s my final answer.” Ega had to set a clear boundary here.


    People’s souls needed time to develop before they could create their soul realm. If a person rushed the process too early on in their lives and failed to create their own realm, either they’d live life as a cripple or just die then and there.


    The stories were all too common. Sometimes it happens by accident, other times it''s out of desperation, and a lot of the times, it''s forced upon them. Ega hoped it would never happen to Ella, that she would never feel the need to try and create her soul realm so early on in life.


    Putting on a sulking expression, Ella turned back toward the leaves. If she couldn’t go that far yet, then at least she could work on this.


    “Just give it two or three years, I can teach it to you then.”


    There was a moment of silence before Ella said anything back, just enough time for a breeze to brush past them. “Will you even let me stick around for that long?”


    She looked straight into his eyes before turning back toward the forest. That question froze Ega for a second, and for some strange reason, he couldn’t find the words to respond to her.


    Two to three years from now, Ega had never thought that far ahead. He was too focused on gathering the Mithril Blood, on reviving the Old God Yolu that he hadn’t thought about what he would do after.


    Looking at Ella, he noticed she was wearing a strange expression, one that he couldn’t quite decipher. Turning his gaze toward the map in his hands and then at the road ahead of him, he wondered about two to three years from now.


    Why couldn’t he give her an answer? Just what did he…


    Both of them sat in silence, listening to the swaying of autumn leaves, the rolling of wooden wheels, and the steps of the horses against the road. They were stuck in their own thoughts as they were carried down this road, uncertain of what lay ahead of them.


    They were not just uncertain of what life had planned for them, but of each other and themselves. Right now they were “father and daughter,” at least, that was the front that they were putting up, but when would that all come to an end? Ega didn’t know.


    He had always been living one day at a time, one more step toward his goal, one more day to survive, but, just where was he headed? He let his thoughts travel with the autumn breeze, still unsure.


    As much as he wanted to think about it even further, Ega noticed something far in the distance. Smoke was billowing out from somewhere in the forest. Looking at his map, he instantly figured out where that was.


    ‘Are they burning something? Just what in the world could they…’ Outers. A possible answer instantly came to Ega.


    They didn’t land too far from the village, and given their endless stamina it was possible that they had started attacking it. That would explain the fire, since the only way to bring an end to Outers was by burning them into nothingness. If the fire had been misused or spread out too much, then that would explain the large amount of smoke.


    “Shit…” Despite Ella being right beside him, he instinctively cursed.


    Unless there was some sort of capable soul bearer in that village, there was no way that they could take on Outers on their own. Ordering the horses to move faster with the reins, Ega began to charge into a possible hellscape.