As soon as Vaar left, Orou turned to glare at Grizz who was nonchalantly sitting on his bed, seemingly completely oblivious to what just happened. Seeing that Grizz was simply ignoring him, Orou slithered closer to him and bared his fangs, letting out a menacing hiss in the process. That seemed to do the trick as he turned his head only to see Oros fangs a few centimetres off his face. He visibly recoiled and withdrew his head to get some distance between the two of them.

“Look, you can’t blame me for this. Vaar said that I could leave in a few days if I found a snake with a collar on his neck.” Grizz shrugged as he nervously looked at Orou, awaiting any immediate action from him. The only thing he got from Orou was a cold stare.

“He promised you that he wouldn’t return you back to your master or kill you, I don’t see what the problem here is, everyone benefits here.” The staredown continued for a few seconds before Grizz broke the eye contact and started speaking again. Orou determined a hint of hesitation in his words as he continued staring at Grizz. He wasn’t satisfied with the answer Grizz had given him, but he didn’t know what he wanted to hear from him.

After Grizz had made it clear that he wouldn’t speak anymore, Orou started to slowly back down. He had to use all of his willpower to keep the urge of eating Grizz down and still he couldn’t bear the sight of him. After that, he started to seriously consider Vaar’s offer. He could easily stop Orou’s spell and the sense of danger Orou got from him was overwhelming, but that’s exactly what scared Orou. The offer was reasonable as long as Orou stood a chance to escape, but if Vaar decided that he wanted Orou gone after he had done his task, he could most likely do just that.

He had a single night to think over the pros and cons of this deal, and if he decided to bolt, he had to do it while the sun was still down. Although Orou knew that this deal was potentially very dangerous, it was hard to rationalise turning it down. The possibility of him killing Orou or capturing and bringing him to Dawn was reasonably high, but if Orou had figured it out correctly, he would have an opportunity to observe the barrier and how to break such a thing. He also wanted to observe the black lines that destroyed his spell and devoured the spirits and how he could obtain the ability to conjure these lines.

Orou’s mind was undecided, but it didn’t take long for morning to come as Orou was lost in his own thoughts. His greed for knowledge got the better of him and in the end, he decided that he would comply to Vaar’s request, fleeing if anything goes terribly wrong. Grizz still hadn’t woken up and Orou was simply staring at the ceiling, returning back to practicing the red ribbon spell when the door to the outside burst open. Grizz jumped out of his bed in surprise and once he saw who it was at the door, he meekly sat down on the bed and decided to keep silent.

Vaar had come early morning for Orou, and Orou had not disappointed him. Vaar seemed to be in a jovial mood, his footsteps faster than the night before, the rhythm of his cane tapping the ground resembled a cheery song as he stepped into the house.

“I’m glad you’ve decided to stay here. Let us waste no time and head straight to the barrier, the sooner you complete your task the better it will be for everyone,” Vaar’s voice was as imposing as before, but Orou could sense that he bore no ill will towards him. That didn’t make Orou less scared of him, but it made him refrain from fleeing through the window the first chance he got. Very hesitantly, Orou started to follow Vaar who didn’t even look at Grizz and had started to walk out of the village and towards the eastern gate. Everywhere he went the beastmen would greet him with respect in their eyes and only after he left would they return to their tasks.

While Orou was overshadowed by Vaar’s imposing grace, some of the beastmen had noticed him following Vaar. They didn’t have any fear in their eyes as they looked at Orou, perhaps only sympathy as they saw the collar around his neck. At least from looking at their eyes, Orou could tell that they didn’t think of him as anything unusual. It was a breath of fresh air compared to the reaction of humans, who had tried to avoid him like he was the plague whenever they could.

They made their way through the village and finally arrived at the gate. Vaar stopped himself right next to the gate and opened it, revealing the way deeper into the beastmen kingdom. He slowly moved his hand until it was right next to the gate, the next moment his finger was touching a gray barrier. It surrounded the entirety of the village, most likely catching a few beastmen by surprise. Orou had already prepared his spirit vision and he was intently observing the surroundings, waiting to see how the barrier formed.

Surprisingly, the barrier formed from the point Vaar touched, his finger being intercepted by a spirit. In no time at all, a sort of spider web formed out of spirits surrounded the entirety of the village. The spirits were all connected by a blue thread that resembled the spirits themselves, the village resembled a gigantic cocoon wrapped by an even larger spider.

Orou had a burst of inspiration, what if you could mold the spirits into various shapes, what could you accomplish then? Deciding to give it a try, he located a nearby spirit and called it to himself. After willing it to stop, he imagined the spirit elongating until it turned into a string floating in the air. For the first time, Orou felt the spirit resisting his will. Orou struggled and pushed against the spirit with all his might, but it simply wouldn’t budge. He imagined every possible way for the spirit to be deformed, but each time it stubbornly resisted Orou’s will, unwilling to change into anything else.

Bummed out about his failure, he returned back to the strings connecting the spirits, hoping to glean anything more from them. The string was blue and thin, but the longer Orou observed the string the more it seemed like it was a single string wrapping around all of the spirits and holding them together. Orou’s eyes glimmered in fascination as he continued to observe the string.

“This is the part where you come in. I need you to find the weak spots in the barrier, whether it is some flaw in the barrier or simply a place where the spirits are less dense.” As Orou continued inspecting the strings, Vaar’s voice cut off his train of thought and pointed out the task in front of him. Orou still wasn’t sure how this barrier was obstructing Vaar, the string seemed like it might snap at any time. Deciding to give it a shot, Orou used his tail to simply slam against the barrier and observe what happened. As soon as his tail slammed into the barrier, Orou saw the string vibrate slightly before dispersing all the impact on it.

Simply marvelling at the barrier in front of him, Orou started to walk around the barrier, hoping to spot any flaws in the barrier. He circled the entire village multiple times with Vaar following behind him, closely inspecting the distance between the spirits and for any spots where the string didn’t connect two spirits. It was like searching for a needle in a haystack and he had to circle it three times in order to find a spot where a spirit was missing. The thread was still there, but with enough force, you might be able to snap it seeing that it didn’t have the support of a spirit.

Although Orou was a bit hesitant about how Vaar would do this, he used his tail to tap a spot near the northern wall, a bit up in the air. Apparently, Vaar got the message he was trying to convey because as soon as he did that, Vaar tapped his cane against the ground and soon after, a whirlwind of spirits came rushing in. The ones that were secured by the string weren’t affected, though he could see the whole barrier shaking a bit as the cane’s magic started taking effect.

Now that Orou was much closer to Vaar, he saw a hint of a formation inside of the cane, along with something else entirely different. He wasn’t sure what it was, but soon after, the lines began spreading across the cane, slowly crawling up his arm, his shoulder and soon after, it covered the entirety of his body. Vaar was writhing in pain and could barely lift his cane up in the air, but when it touched the barrier, the lines that were crawling on his body started to dissipate into the barrier, like an ink dripped onto a blank canvas.

In spirit sight, Orou saw the lines gnawing at the thread and devouring the spirits around, but while they could remove the support of the thread, they couldn’t completely destroy it. The barrier soon began to restore itself, the thread drew in more spirits and trapped them, only for them to be devoured by the lines fighting the strings.

While the stalemate continued, Vaar finally took action. Orou saw a faint glow surrounding his fist, but looking at it with his spirit sight, there was no formation there. A single punch was all that it took for the barrier to collapse, like a glass dome shattering piece by piece. He saw the string holding together the entire barrier snap in two, the spirits that were once held by the string were desperately fleeing the lines which were now feasting on the spirits mid-air.

“Finally, I am free.” Vaar’s shout reverberated through the entire village, a chorus of howls joined his shout.

“Just you wait, I’ll get my revenge,” Vaar whispered to himself, his face twisted in an unusual grin, smiling and cackling to himself.