"Julian, could we take a little break?"

  "Are you tired already?"

  "No," Maria answered hesitantly. Taking a deep breath, she continued, "But my legs are hurting..."

  "Let's walk a little more."

  The sky above had finally changed. Ever since they left their village, the sky that accompanied them had always been a smoky gray one. It appeared unchanged and seemed to have no intention of changing.

  However, in just a split second, the sky turned pitch black.

  They were stripped out of their sight. Their eyes recognized not what lay before them, and any sense of direction became void. That was the evening of Garwasi. It was the start of the black hours.

  "Julian..."

  "I am here."

  Maria's voice was shaken. Sure, she had already gotten used to the four shades of the sky. She could not even count how many days she had gazed upon the ever-stretching darkness out of her window.

  It was just that doing so while being out in the wild, and tight shut in her house was completely different. If not for the small hand grasping her wrist, she may have considered herself swallowed by the abyss.

  There were no stars, and surely, there was no reflected light of the moon. It was just darkness. That had always been the afternoon of

  "Just a bit more, then we may rest."

  "Alright..."

  "Tch."

  "I am sorry..."

  He knew Maria was exhausted. He knew that they had been walking for far too long already. However, they cannot afford to stop. At least, not where there was only a grass plain that surrounded them.

  'They are not giving up.'

  He turned his head, looking at the path behind him. In that total darkness where everything seemed to be bound into the night, Julian could 'see' the few people that had been trailing them.

  Worse, he could tell they were capable, as his senses alone failed to pick up on their presences.

  'They are not from before. Bandits...? But trained so well.'

  He was certain those people behind him were not with the group of men he met earlier that day. At least, that was what Arcana told him.

  'Their base is still too far... There is no other choice.'

  He wanted to take care of them right then and there. However, he was not confident in his immature body. The open plain, coupled with the need to protect Maria were also not helping.

  Rustle.

  Rustle.

  "J-Julian, are we walking in the right direction?" Maria asked worriedly, feeling the sudden embrace of sharp grass.

  "We are, and try not to speak from this point onward."

  "A-all right."

  Maria kept silent, just like her son asked her to. Even when the tightening grasp on her wrist heavies her heart, she remained silent.

  Slowly, she could feel the grass around her thickening, and before she knew it, solid and rough pillars kept blocking and obstructing her path.

  Though her son told her not to touch those things, she could tell from the rough textures what those things were. It was something that she used to see all the time in her youth, yet had become rarer than diamonds.

  "Julian... a-are we in a forest?"

  "Shh."

  They were trees. Still standing trees. That could only mean one thing, and that thing frightened Maria to no end.

  'Crazy bastards.'

  He had hoped that coming to the Tainted Land would deter the pursuers.

  Ktak.

  Swish.

  Ktak.

  "Juli-"

  "Silence."

  Ktak.

  The whistling sound around them made Julian hasten his steps. His 'eyes' and 'ears' kept scanning the surroundings, searching for anything that could cover them from the loose arrows.

  '...cave...guardian...hunt...'

  "Don't slow down."

  Finally hearing something good from his new set of ears, he rushed through the forest, ignoring the arrows that were finding their way closer and closer to them. Following each and every whisper closely, he eventually found the cave.

  "Maria, sit tight here for a moment," Julian said hurriedly as he stuffed Maria between rocks.

  "W-wait, are you going somewhere?"

  Maria began to panic. If there was anything that kept her calm, it was undoubtedly the tiny hand that had been holding her. However, that tiny had let her go for the first time.

  Other than the hard surface embracing her and the echoing sound of water from distant, there was nothing else that she could perceive.

  "I won't be long."

  The calm voice of Julian called out, and at the same time, a heavy and rough object fell into her hands. Even without being able to see it, she recognized what it was right away. It was one of the few things her husband had left.

  It was a sword.

  "Julian, p-please do not leave me here," Maria urged in a voice close to a shriek.

  "No, no, I will return in a bit... Just stay here until I come back, you can do that, right?" Julian spoke hastily.

  'Th...t...ki...re..born...'

  '...hy...d.es..ther...?'

  '..ow..s.ould I know?'

  Julian had no time to give her other instructions, nor the patience to wait for her reply. The Arcana had been warning him constantly that those people were getting close to the cave.

  "I will be back."

  Covering Maria with the knapsack and his satchel, Julian immediately stepped out of the cave.

  He pulled out an arrow from his quiver, bow drawn hastily. His eyes were looking at where Arcana was telling him to. He did not see or hear anything there, but he trusted Arcana more than his senses at that moment.

  Since his pursuers managed to pinpoint their location accurately, he knew it would be useless to keep themselves hidden or even running away. It would just tire them out.

  He did not know if it was something related to Gift or if tracking was just one of those bandits' specialties. But it did not matter to him.

  It would not change what he needed to do there.

  Krtt.

  His knee bent his, feet scraped and clawed the earth.His body leaned forward as if he was about to take off.

  'Fold.'

  Rustle!

  There stood three men, a step away from where he blinked.

  'I knew it.'

  Though something in one of the man's neck caught his attention, his move was not interrupted. He immediately let his arrow loose.

  Twang.

  "On guard!"

  Swift.

  "Argh!"

  His arrow hit one of them, piercing at least a fist deep into his shoulder.

  'Fold.'

  Not even redrawing his bow, Julian blinked before the man who stood in the middle. His hand flew to the man's neck, while the man's sword flew to his head.

  From a finger away, quickly to a grain away, the sword seemed ready to split Julian's head open at any moment. Yet, it stopped. It was as if there was an invincible wall between the tip of the sword and Julian's forehead.

  As if he could not see the sword, Julian did not retreat. His hand grasped the man's necklace before yanking and snapping the necklace away. At the corner of his eyes, he saw a similar symbol tattooed on the necks of each man.

  Swish.

  "I will be taking this, bandits."

  The boy, the one who stood before them, had reappeared a distance away to their east. He was waving the necklace like it was a trophy.