Chương 393: Deep Within the Forest

"Zellion?!" Vale dropped the wood in his arms and looked down at his metal arm. His face tightened as he shook it hard.

"Come on, Zellion. Talk to me. Hey!" Nothing happened. The arm stayed still.

"Goddammit..." Vale clenched his metal fist.

'I've spent all this time trying to figure out what you wanted us to do, and now, when you finally get through to me, you tell me to run?' He shook the arm again. Still nothing. With a frustrated growl, Vale slammed his fist into the ground. The soil cracked beneath him, sending small stones across the forest floor. He didn't want Zellion's voice to vanish again. He had already spent too long trapped inside the Tower of Ruin with no idea how to escape.

If Zellion had somehow broken through the barrier just to warn him, then he had to know something important. That was why Vale couldn't just accept two broken words and move on. Run. That was all he'd heard. And now there was nothing. Vale let out a long sigh and glanced at Shade. The shadow stood nearby, watching him through the dark mist around his body.

"Don't mention it," Vale muttered. He pushed himself back onto his knees and looked toward the forest.

'What could Zellion want me to run from?' Vale took a step before stopping. He looked down at his metal arm again.

'Should I really listen to him?' Zellion had clearly known something. The question was what. If he'd gone through all that trouble just to warn Vale, then whatever was ahead had to be bad. Vale thought about it for a few seconds. Then he smiled.

"Well... now I'm curious." He looked over his shoulder at Shade and pointed toward the forest.

"Come on. Let's see what he's so worried about." Shade stared at him with his bright red eyes. The look on his face seemed to say, Have you finally lost your mind? Honestly, Vale wasn't sure he hadn't. No sane person would walk toward something an Eidolon had just told them to run from. But curiosity had always been one of Vale's worst habits. Danger caught his attention. So did power. After everything he'd been through, he'd stopped pretending that he was good at making smart choices.

Shade eventually sighed beneath the dark mist and followed. If his master was going to do something stupid, he might as well be there when it happened. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"Good." The two moved deeper into the forest. Even so, Vale kept looking at his metal arm.

"Why now?" he muttered. Zellion had never been able to speak to him before. So why now? Vale thought back over everything that had happened since they entered the forest. The deer. Its glowing antlers. The healing. The strange feeling of Harmonic Atum moving through his body. His eyes widened.

"It was the Akashic deer..." The answer suddenly seemed clear. The deer's antlers had pierced his body before turning into pure light. That healing had sent a small wave of Harmonic Atum through him. Maybe it had weakened whatever was keeping Zellion from reaching him. Vale gave a sheepish smile.

'If Zellion could see me right now, he'd probably call me an idiot.'

"Well, that's embarrassing." The thought reminded him of something else. Zellion had never been gentle. He was the same being who had summoned Dagon when the Mors Auctoris attacked—or tried to attack, at least. Zellion had called Dagon to deal with them, along with an eight-stage Spawn. If Dagon hadn't arrived when he did, that Spawn could have destroyed the entire world. Vale's expression darkened. He knew Dagon wasn't evil. Not in the way most people thought.

He also knew Dagon had been controlled when he killed half of humanity during his rampage. But one thing still bothered him. Why had Dagon saved them? Dagon had been hunting angels. That much was clear. But there hadn't been any angels near them. At least, none Vale had seen.

'Or had there?' He couldn't know.

"Ugh! This sucks!" His shout echoed through the trees. Shade slowly rolled his eyes. Vale kept grumbling as they walked until they reached a group of large rocks near the clearing they had left behind. He dropped onto one with a tired grunt and looked around. Nothing seemed wrong. No monsters. No strange sights. No sign that anything dangerous was nearby.

"Well, I guess Zellion was just saying stuff." Vale looked around again, almost hoping something would prove him wrong.

"We're this deep in, and there's still nothing. I really hoped we'd find something strong." His eyes moved toward Shade.

"Like Dagon." Shade stared at him without a hint of interest.

"Oh, right." Vale tilted his head.

"You don't know who Dagon is, do you?" Shade raised an eyebrow. After a moment, he picked up a small branch and crouched down. He wrote something in the dirt. Drago = Dagon? Vale stared at the words before laughing.

"No. I doubt the old man is Dagon. He hates Dagon more than anyone I've ever met. There's no way he'd hate him that much if he was actually him." Vale leaned back against the rock, still smiling.

"Though... it would be pretty funny if I turned out to be the adopted child of the infamous Dagon Dreadrose, wouldn't it?" The thought was so stupid that it made him laugh again. Vale felt relaxed. His body felt better than it had in a long time. His breathing was steady, his muscles no longer hurt, and the pain from his near-death experience was gone. Even his armor had started to repair itself from the small amount of Harmonic Atum still left in his body. The new dagger pouches had been fixed too.

Vale looked down at them.

"Well, that's convenient." He reached inside and pulled out a dagger. With nothing else to do, he looked around the forest until he spotted an apple tree near the edge of the clearing. A pale rock sat beside its trunk. A grin slowly appeared on his face. Without saying anything, Vale flicked his arm forward. The dagger shot through the air and knocked an apple from the branch. Vale whistled.

"Not bad." He walked over, picked up the dagger and apple, and took a large bite without bothering to clean the fruit first. Juice filled his mouth.

"Damn. I forgot how good apples taste." He looked at Shade. The shadow stared back at him and slowly rolled his eyes. Vale chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah. I know." Then Shade changed. It happened so fast that Vale almost missed it. The shadow's whole body went stiff, and his weapon appeared in his hand before Vale could even react. Vale's smile faded.

"Shade?" He slowly stood and watched his companion. There was no killing intent. That was what bothered him. Whatever Shade had sensed wasn't trying to kill them. At least, not yet.

"Shade, what's—" Vale turned around. The words stopped in his throat. The apple slipped from his hand. His dagger lowered at his side. The pale rock was gone. There was nothing left that Vale recognized. An enormous, milky-white iris filled his entire view. It didn't move. It simply watched him. Vale couldn't understand what he was seeing. There was no face around the eye. No body. No shape he could make out. He couldn't even tell where the creature began or ended. There was only that massive eye.

And somehow, that was worse. His fingers slowly loosened around the dagger. Vale had no idea what was standing in front of him. Every instinct in his body told him that he was looking at something he should never have seen. Yet he couldn't look away.

"... wrong?"