“Here comes the package!”

With screeches and wings flapping something fell with a loud thud from the sky.

That thing that crashed was Han, he seemed to be pressing something lively under his body.

“Hon, he’s all yours!”

“Understood.”

I moved toward the source of the screeches and swung my newly acquired cleaver ax, which exuded a lightning buzzing, fiercely at the creature's head, putting an end to its misery.

“I think this is the last one “

What we killed is a monster known by the church as Chrackt, or whatever is it called, it was a bat-like beaked magical beast.

We spent the three past months, hunting down each one of these creatures in the area.

Four months have passed since our fight against’ that turtle-like creature, many things have happened during that period of time.

First, Thanks to that turtle-like creature carapace I was to acquire four ersatzes of shields, combining them with the mastery of my appendage, I can cluster them to create a four shield protecting me in each cardinal direction if needed. Also thanks to that monster carapace I was able to create myself a pretty decent cleaver-like ax.

Second, after that battle, Han and I found a creature Han deemed to be worthy to be his new vessels. It was a creature I’ve never heard of before but it was by his word a three meters tall edgy black quadripedal-scaled creature with on its head four long appendaging antennae. It took us a tough battle to take down that creature, for it was both adept at crawling into trees by using its weird claw structure, making it a very agile opponent from my point of view; and at using lightning and fire magic just as that turtle and our strategy of burning him from the inside couldn’t be applied to it. But still, in the end, we took it down and so Han acquired his second monster vessel.

The creature which forms he has usurped was capable of infusing his magic on the surface of objects like the ground or a tree, it could create fire or lightning which would exude fire or lightning magic on the ground for a short period of time, and Han who has acquired its form is also capable of doing so, which would explain the lightning from my cleaver ax earlier.

After that we continued our journey till four months ago we arrived at this place, back then when we killed that turtle-like monster it already started to snow but here there was no trace of such as snow, just like the Frozen Hell this place is completely unaffected by the climate change. Han described this part of the forest as a morbid yet still very verdant place, and I admit I also feel the same, how to describe it, in this forest I felt not a single ray of sunlight, yet by Han’s description tree here are for the most leaf-less straight up giving the impression that the entire forest was dead, yet the ground retained it green forest allure. The reason why not a single ray of sunlight penetrated this place was because from an outer perspective, this entire place was entirely wrapped in dense fog, but in it, though a little bit misty but apparently one could still clearly see through it.

Upon entering this area of the forest we soon found what kind of monstrosity was the principal inhabitant of this freaking place and most likely the reason behind the current state of this forest: Chrackts, that’s how these magical beasts are called, they usually live in a pack of hundreds or even thousands of individual.

These creatures were known to function like bees, if they are present on a certain territory, a queen must be lurking around somewhere, which is also why the one individual they consider their queen is called Chrackts Queen, and she is most likely the one who’s causing this forest to be enveloped in this strange foggy presence.

From what I know a Chrackts Queen is considered a pretty strong monster, capable of using a weird mist-like magic, she is considered by the church as a very threatening monster, so we unanimously decided that she would be Han’s third vessel, at the time, after acquiring his second vessel he needed more and more mana and aina to be able to sustain a third one, so we decided to take our time to thoroughly wipe all her subordinate first rushing to her, we already have a clue where she could be.

The one we just killed was the last one of her subordinates.

“Now we can finally proceed to her lair, I suppose.”

“Yes, but I’d rather do that after a good rest before going after her.”

“I guess you’re right.”

Later that day, at night.

During these past four months, we have elected for residence a small cave, just enough for me, Han’s DeathSeeker vessel, and enough room for and a bonfire.

I was seated against Han DeathSeeker form which was curled on the ground, not that he needed to sleep but rather just to give me a place to rest against, the wall wasn’t particularly welcoming due to his harsh, uneven, and tough properties.

Han’s body was way more comfortable than the wall or the ground, but there was something about him that was very strange, that I couldn’t help but ask.

“Hey,”

“Hum?”

“Your body it doesn’t have any warmth at all, right? And by “warmth”, I meant the one one naturally produces not like the one you produce right now.”

His body indeed produces some heat, but it didn’t possess things like a natural warmth, pulses, and even less heartbeat instead.

I knew he produced a warmth through magic.

Maybe to give me the impression of being alive.

“Well, yes, after all, I’m not really what one could simply describe as alive or dead. Is it uncomfortable?”

“Not at all, it’s just that instead of being comfortable, I feel it lean more on the reassuring side.”

“Reassuring, huh?”

“So how does it feel?”

“What?”

“To be like what you are, not being able to be described as fully alive?”

“... That’s a tough question you ask here.” He took a very long pause, then went. “I don’t have anything to compare it to, but I did once have times where I could describe myself as alive, but it wasn’t really very pleasant.”

“When were these?”

“... Don’t mind it. It was a very long time ago. If I had to describe it, in terms of physical sensation it was horrendous. I feel way better the way I am today.

“And on the spiritual side?”

“ … I'm not sure how to put it, but imagine feeling like a shard of something larger, a part that wasn't needed but couldn't stay afloat on its own. So, like a parasite, you clung desperately to the first opportunity that presented itself. You cling to it tightly for you know it is the only way for you to achieve and acquire a sense of self and stop being a mere shard of a greater and a larger whole. Hon, Can you imagine how it feels?”

“... I can’t. But I think I understand what it's like to be missing a piece of yourself that you can't remember or assume to have even truly existed. It's like losing a tooth; you may forget about it from time to time, but it still bothers you whenever your tongue passes over it. So you know it will continue to bother you, so you try to distract your mind with whatever you have to replace it with, but you also know that the gap it left remains and will remain gaping and empty.”

“Ironic, isn’t it?”

“What?”

“... Nothing, I was just talking to myself. Allez hop, it’s already the morning.” Before I could notice, the sun rose and with it, its first ray of sunlight came bathing the cave with its brilliance, by eliminating all the Chrackts of the area the fog fogging the area has at 90% disappeared. “We still have a Queen to kill, and a vessel to acquire, one that I might fit in the most as a broken shard.”

“I guess it can’t be helped then.” Grabbing onto my ax, I rose up and headed to the last part of the forest whose fog still hovers around. “Let’s get this 3-month long job done.”