The Kind of Evil

‎Rasmus rode his horse in silence, his eyes never stopped looking around him. Ever since he reached halfway through his awakening, he had been smelling a lot of things that his nose couldn't perceive before. The smell of the soil and grass that he used to ignore, now he could distinguish from dried grass to healthy grass, dried soil to fertile soil.

‎Rasmus's eyes that could only see things in details that were a few meters away from him, now he could see things a dozen meters away in detail. He could see the ants on the ground a dozen meters away from him. He could see the legs, the hair, and the eyes of an ant that were around him. His eyes acted differently where he could zoom in and out like a camera as he pleased.

‎Rasmus's hearing got enhanced as well, to the point where he could listen to constant loud murmurs when he noticed there were people not far from him. He could hear sharply, knowing what they were talking about. It slightly bothered him until Aris taught him how to filter the sound out like valves. He imagined his ears like valves, where he could adjust his hearing sensitivity.

‎Rasmus learned that all those enhanced senses could be adjusted. He could stop hearing, seeing, and smelling things if he wanted to, to the point where he could lose all his senses like turning them off. He never thought that a body could be adjusted like a machine that way, and it made him think how far he could adjust and modify his body once he was fully awakened.

‎Rasmus and Aris rode their horses into the woods in the middle of the night. They didn't need to rest because Rasmus didn't feel fatigue anymore. They only stopped for enjoying the scenery and the foods, which what Aris wanted to do.

‎When they were enjoying the silence, an orange and white screech owl landed on Aris's shoulder. The owl looked so fluffy with its yellow eyes and wide black pupils, staring and tilting its head at the path in front of it.

‎"They're following us, Yur?" Rasmus asked, staring at the owl.

‎"Yes, they're still following us ever since we left the forest..." Yur answered, nodding its fluffy head. "They're not far from us, but they're not trying to catch up on us either. Also, it seems their number is increasing," Yur added.

‎"I over heard their conversation earlier, and it seems two of them noticed the changes in Mana capacity in the forest. It seems they're capable of sensing Mana, maybe experts?" Yur tilted its head like an owl, almost ninety degrees.

‎"They're demons, powerful ones," Aris answered with a stoic expression.

‎"Eek!" Yur immediately used its fluffy wings to cover its face. Its fluffy owl body was trembling in fear that Aris could feel it on her shoulder. "You should have told me that there are demons among them, Lady Aris..." Yur muttered in shaky voice.

‎"It's okay, they won't be able to detect you as a spirit since you're capable of erasing your presence as a great spirit," Aris said and grab Yur's fluffy body to the front so she could pat Yur's fluffy feathers.

‎Rasmus found out that Ure in the human language was Owl, and that made Yur the spirit of an owl. All the spirits from Ure were basically owls, hiding themselves from humans and other beings that used to civilized in Neva.

‎Based on Yur's explanation, there were five kinships of spirits that oversee Neva. Ure the owl, Lon the wolf, Trel the tiger, Ban the eagle, and lastly Mun the rabbit. Five spirit kinships in five continents, but there were more smaller spirit kinships that existed in all over Neva.

‎Ure and Mun were the architects of Neva, Lon and Trel were the punishers, and Ban the watcher and the actuator. The five of them worked together to make sure Neva was inhabitable for every living thing while at the same time to prevent living things from invading and killing each other.

‎However, humans were different, they were destroyers of nature. Spirits witnessed how humans dared to hunt Orthias, the ones who taught them about the world, how to survive. Not all humans were bad, not all spirits despise them, and so, the spirits chose to step away and let the humans do whatever they want while the spirits kept maintaining the world.

‎"How far are we from the Refenus Kingdom?" Aris asked as she looked at Rasmus while caressing Yur's fluffy back.

‎"Three weeks to a month," Rasmus answered as he looked at the moonlight as he pulled out a map. "Our destination is somewhere near the border of the Refenus Kingdom, the Trivula Forest..." he muttered as he looked at the map where there was a mountain not far from the forest which matched with the one he saw in his dream.

‎(At the same time in Gratlan)

‎Carrion and Erlina landed on the famous and the only floating island in Neva. They were both baffled and speechless when they saw how beautiful the island was. They never thought they would set their foot on the island where it oversee the peace and the future of humankind.

‎"Lord Carrion, Lady Erlina," an old butler said with a smile as he approached them. "My master, Marquess Garret has been waiting for your arrival," he bowed down to them.

‎"My brother is waiting for us? How did he know that we are coming?" Carrion furrowed his brows, staring at the butler with suspicion. They managed to enter Gratlan with Astrea's permission since she was a part of the Council of Neva, and nobody knew that they were coming yet.

The butler only smiled, and then pointed his hand at the carriage that was waiting for them.

Carrion reluctantly followed the butler with Erlina walking beside him. He still couldn't understand how Garret knew that he was coming to Gratlan.

"You need to relax, Carrion," Erlina placed her hand on Carrion's back. "In the end, if something happened and it was quite unfavorable to us, we could just report it to Rasmus," she added as she chuckled.

"Right, but I'm just curious about it, that's all," Carrion nodded in agreement.

"Then ask. It's as simple as it can be," Erlina caressed Carrion's back. "You don't care about him anyway, so put aside your pride," she continued.

"Ugh, I don't know. You sounded so different now, but still the same at the same time," Carrion glanced at Erlina, remembering that she was just a Madam of the brothel house. "I guess people grows when they're in a bigger pond," he muttered as he looked at the carriage.

"Of course. If you don't grow, you'll end up being eaten by the bigger fish," Erlina answered as she messed up Carrion's hair. "Enough of that, let's get into the carriage and see what your brother has to offer us," she smiled gently at Carrion. "There's nothing to worry about since we have Javi as our shadow," she glanced over her shoulder and couldn't sense Javi at all ever since they unboarded the blimp.

Carrion and Erlina could barely understand Javi since they boarded the blimp. They only had small talk with Javi throughout the whole journey, trying to find out how it was to live as an assassin, but they got nothing. Even for Erlina who could make any man open up to her, she failed miserably, just like how she failed to understand Rasmus.

They got into the carriage and let the coachman lead them to where Garret was waiting. They looked at the amazing architecture and the looming and towering Council of Neva palace that was located at the center of the floating island. They also looked at the Magic Tower that pierced through the clouds and could only see a shadow of the tip of it in the far distance. They were baffled by how different Gratlan was, compared to any place in the whole Neva.

"I wonder if they see only beauty from up here, do they even care anymore about what's going below this island?" Carrion asked as he crossed his arms, staring out the window with a serious and cold expression.

"If such people exist up here, then the future of humankind is doomed, Carrion. I'm not saying that they don't exist, but they might be easily erased from this place," Erlina answered, staring out the window from on the opposite side. "I'm not being positive, but the people that were involved in taking back South Neva were the people that came from this place, like Great Sage Lenin and her disciple, Novia. As long as those two exist in this place, evil won't dare to touch this place," she explained with a soft gaze pointed at the Magic Tower.

"It was all Rasmus's, Erlina. We both know that. These people, they only uphold righteousness, which isn't a good thing to have. Someone like Rasmus, who doesn't care about what's right or wrong, managed to save humankind," Carrion muttered.

"If that's the case, then I guess the world is doomed already," Erlina responded with a chuckle.