Tale of Eldramir

Given that the Ruins had been destroyed, neither of the surviving Guild leaders thought it was worth it to remain in the Desolate Lands for the time being.

Thus, they continued as they were, with the Tier three Hunters carrying the Tier twos on the backs of their enlarged Spirits.

For the most part, any possible fights were either ignored, or in the few cases where there were Tier two or Tier three Umbral beasts, either Gerome or Trissy took care of it, recognizing that there was little point in providing additional training for the lower Tiers at this time.

The only true delay that they had was when they ran into a group of over a dozen Tier three Umbral beasts. This was somewhat of a concern, as the sheer numbers were enough to cause some problems, had Gerome and Trissy been fighting alone.

Fortunately, they weren’t, but there was still a chance that the Umbral beasts would call in reinforcements if the battle wasn’t finished quickly.

There was some additional concern on Gerome and Trissy’s part that they would be attacked, so the whole group stopped as a number of Tier threes helped the Tier four Hunters fight the group.

No time was spent harvesting parts, however, as there simply wasn’t enough time. This caused more than a few forlorn glances backwards as Guilds set off once again.

Ezekiel ignored all of this, shoulders tense, and a sense of pressure weighing on him.

Hanging his head down in guilt at the thought of the destruction of the Temple of the Void, as well as the Ruins of Senera.

A part of him wondered if the city truly needed to be destroyed as it had been.

He saw Gerome and Trissy take down a huge number of Umbral beasts as they continued running towards the edge of the Desolate Lands. Wasn’t it possible for them to take care of the Rot as well? Was the remnant Void Spirit right in what it did?

He didn’t know anymore. At the time he thought that it would be fine. He had already taken what he needed from the storage area and the library anyway, so it wasn’t like they hadn’t gotten any spoils.

From mana crystals alone, he knew that he’d found at least a few tens of thousands of gold worth, if not upwards of a hundred thousand gold worth.

Yet even so, he still felt guilty, like he was the reason something that was once beautiful was now gone from this world, never to be returned or appreciated, ever again.

These thoughts continued to haunt Ezekiel even as the Guilds finally stopped to rest. The pressure he felt continued building as he was sent to a medical tent.

They had made good time and had traveled far faster than they had previously.

Given that they had no carts, wagons, or carriages to take with them this was to be expected.

As they set up camp for the night, using what supplies the various Hunters with Void Pouches had with them, Gerome grabbed Ezekiel from the tents where the medics had set up to provide treatment to the still injured Hunters, only waiting for the medic to give Ezekiel the okay to leave, and dragged him to a larger tent than the rest.

Inside were Trissy, and several Tier three captains from both the Roaring Ruins, including Ishkel, and their supporting Guild, as well as Garrad and several captains from the Titans and the Feathers.

They were all situated around a table that had been hastily propped up and, from what Ezekiel could tell, partially grown from within the tent, if what he could see was any indication.

The idle chatter and discussion regarding what they needed to do next was instantly silenced as Gerome and Ezekiel entered. All eyes glanced over Gerome before moving to settle on Ezekiel.

He could feel the pressure on him increase again but continued to ignore it.

Nothing was said as Ezekiel and Gerome moved to take a seat at one side of the table, mixed with the captains from the Titans.

“Well then. Now that the guests of honor are here, perhaps we can begin, as well as get the full story regarding what the hell happened in the Ruins.”

Trissy’s voice was even toned as she spoke, but even Ezekiel, as low Tiered as he was compared to the rest of the tent’s occupants, could tell that she was internally seething.

“Not to worry, I would also like to get some answers regarding what exactly happened within the Ruins. Given what Ezekiel was telling us before we left, I’m sure he has the answers we seek.”

Gerome gave Ezekiel a pointed look, ignoring Trissy and the rest as he looked down and to the side at his temporary ward.

“One of which, I hope, will explain why you seem to have dropped an entire Step in your Tier.”

Ezekiel swallowed nervously as he looked around the tent. He had hoped that no one would notice that, but he guessed that the fact that he was leaking mana might’ve given a few things away.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself as best he could, he opened his mouth to speak.

“Well... I guess you could say that things started to go wrong when Aldor Alkena, the forsaken son of the Alkena family, managed to get trapped inside the Void Ruins with me after he and his team ambushed me and mine in the cavern underneath the Temple of the Void.”

Doing his best to keep his void steady, Ezekiel told the tale of what had happened underneath the Temple of the Void.

Not a single lie escaped his lips. But that didn’t stop him from telling half-truths here and there when it came to the later events.

Ezekiel only ended up being stopped three times during his explanation.

First; when he mentioned the spoils he had managed to acquire from the records room and storage room, as well as the potions and elixirs acquired from the old Grand Scholar’s quarters.

Placing the Void Pouch filled with Void Pouches on the table, Ezekiel unattuned to the various items and slid the bag over to Gerome, who proceeded to attune to it and look at the various items inside.

With a shocked look, as well as a heavy heart, Gerome begrudgingly handed the bag over to Trissy. She also adopted a look of shock after she attuned to the items.

“Well, given how much these should be worth, I think the destruction of the Ruins might actually be something I’m okay with. Continue your story.”

Trissy’s words surprised all the captains in the tent. They couldn’t believe that the items they’d received were really worth that much money, but they trusted their captain to keep their interests in mind.

The Titans and the Feathers felt regret but knew that they’d be dead without the deal to give their spoils to the Roaring Ruins in exchange for their help taking out the Spires and their supporters.

The second time that Ezekiel was interrupted was when he mentioned finding out about the Rot that still infested the Temple, and how he had decided to try to get past them to access the Void Core.

“You did what!?” Gerome yelled as Ezekiel explained his plan to stop the Void Locks from collapsing. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?!”

Everyone in the tent was looking at Ezekiel with horror and wonder as if they couldn’t believe that he was still alive, let alone talking to them right now.

“I know it was dangerous, but I survived, didn’t I?”

Ezekiel was confused as to why everyone was freaking out so much, as he had known that the Cruor were dangerous, but he was still alive, so it wasn’t like there were any problems, right?

“Surviving the Rot isn’t the most difficult part. If you hadn’t already been examined by the Life Mages, I would be dragging you there right now, as well as having everyone else in the camp checked over. I might just need to anyway!”

Gerome wasn’t shouting, but his voice was clearly filled with distress and frustration.

“But... why? I thought that the Rot only grew off the dead?”

“That’s only true for Rot in the wild. Those drones you fought, even though they spoke, were obviously starved and unwell, but the problem is that you entered into a Rot den. The spores released from the fungal Rot that remains stationary is somewhat infectious. It acts like a dust that fills the air, and can become a parasitic fungus with whoever breathes it.”

Ezekiel turned pale as Trissy spoke up before Gerome could reply. The tension in his body increased. He was horrified to realize how much worse things could’ve been for him.

“Only Life and Death Mages can sense the fungal spores and create the medicines that kill it off before they can begin growing. Otherwise, only Flame, Light, and Lightning Mages can directly fight it due to the purifying and destructive effects of their magic. Even Life and Death Mages have problems at times, regardless of the fact that they can sense such spores.”

Luckily, one of the Captains in the tent was a Life Mage, and was able to check everyone, confirming that Ezekiel hadn’t been infected.

“It might be because I’m a Void Mage. Ichor doesn’t do anything to me, so it might be the same for the spores released by the Rot den? That, or I was purified by the remnant Spirit left behind by the Ancient Void.”

After saying this, Ezekiel continued with his explanation, only to be interrupted the third time when they asked more questions about the remnant that spoke to him.

Luckily the questions were mainly about what the remnant spoke of. He managed to get through this by explaining that there were questions he’d tried to ask.

He told them that there hadn’t been enough time to get all the answers he was looking for, so the remnant told him what it could, including what it was, and then explained that it was going to blow up the Core, wither when they reached a safe distance, or if the Void Locks failed.

That was also why he’d been in such a hurry to get out. Unfortunately, even though he’d killed Aldor and opened the Void Lock before Gerome could break it open directly, the impact of his diverted punch had still destabilized the enchantments enough to break open the other Void Locks.

Luckily, they hadn’t exploded like the previous one had, but that was mostly due to the elements and Relics involved causing excess destruction. Not purely due to the Void Lock being broken.

“The fact that it was a full-on Rot den would explain why the Spirit would destroy its core and eliminate the Ruins like it did. It must’ve known that the Rot would be able to spread from the den’s spores. We’re lucky the initial rooms with the Rot didn’t have spores in them. Else far fewer would’ve survived that first expedition.”

Trissy’s words were solemn, and Ezekiel could see Ishkel clenching his hands as he thought about how things could’ve been so much worse compared to how they were.

“It’s unfortunate that the destruction of the core resulted in such an explosion, but at least we now know that Temples of the Void are to be much more carefully monitored. Especially if the remnant Spirits determine that things are a lost cause.”

No one had much to say about that. There was only one Temple of the Void still functioning in the lands of humanity. The one located in Quintessa.

The rest were in Ruins within the Desolate Lands, something that the Guilds were excited about, as they now knew that there might be more treasures to be found. If they could find the Ruins with the nine lost Temples of the Void within them.

After he finished his explanation, he was asked quite simply if there were any other items that he was holding onto that were owed to the Reaching Spires.

“No. The only things I have left on me are the items I came here with.”

Hearing the truth from Ezekiel’s lips, everyone in the tent calmed down, knowing that Ezekiel hadn’t been hiding any spoils from them.

He kept his sword a secret, but it was originally his, so it wasn’t a lie if he didn’t tell them it had changed. Let alone that it now housed a nascent Void Spirit.

However, regardless of how stressful things had been for him, the most surprising part was what happened when Gerome took Ezekiel back to the Titan’s camp and spoke to him with Garrad after entering Gerome’s personal tent.

“Alright, Ezekiel, first of all, thank you for telling us what happened. I can’t imagine what you must’ve felt when going through this. But at least for now, we can confidently say that you’re safe.”

As Gerome said this, a sense of security overcame Ezekiel’s mind. He felt his body relax from the tension he’d been feeling since he’d first entered the Ruins and split off from the rest of the Guild when the fighting with the Spires initially broke out.

But then, Ezekiel felt something inside him snap. Something that he didn’t realize he’d been holding back all this time.

It was as if there was a hole inside of him that had been gobbling up his emotions, dulling them for the past day or so as he experienced the horrible things he’d suffered from since entering the Ruins.

“Blaaarg!”

He immediately puked as the various emotions he hadn’t even known he’d been feeling suddenly hit him all at once. No longer contained within the hole that he hadn’t realized was there.

He started shaking as he fell to his knees. Tears began pouring from his eyes, and he felt like he could barely breathe as the edges of the tent seemed to press in on him.

“Ezekiel!”

Garrad and Gerome immediately started to panic. They had no idea what was happening. As far as they knew, Ezekiel was fine. Something that a part of them thought was strange, but now suddenly Ezekiel was having what they could only describe as a panic attack.

“Go get Tracy and Filia! Now!”

Gerome ordered Garrad to get the Life and Death Mages closest to Ezekiel as he knelt down, ignoring the vomit on the ground in his tent as he slowly reached out to Ezekiel, but didn’t touch him yet.

“Ezekiel.” Gerome’s voice was calm and steady as he slowly spoke to the crying boy in front of him. “Ezekiel, you need to breathe. I’m going to put my hand on your back. You need to breathe. Slowly.”

Ezekiel tried to do what Gerome was telling him to do. Forcing his short shaky breaths to become longer and slower. He flinched slightly as Gerome touched his back, but he barely managed to calm his breathing down again.

Through his tremor sensing, Gerome could tell that Garrad had retrieved Tracy and Filia, as well as the rest of their team, and were about to burst into the tent.

He looked at Westly, who dashed out of the tent, growing in size when he was out of Ezekiel’s line of sight, in order to stop them from scaring Ezekiel even more.

All the while Gerome was rubbing circles into Ezekiel’s back as he continued to cry.

Ezekiel himself found himself stuck in a loop. He didn’t know what was happening to him, and he didn’t know why he was feeling this way, or why he was so scared and suddenly crying.

“Guild Leader?” Tracy’s voice caused Ezekiel to turn his head, his breathing becoming erratic once again.

“Calmly, and quietly, ladies. Ezekiel is having a panic attack, and we need to keep him calm.”

Gerome’s voice drew Ezekiel’s attention back towards him as Ezekiel tried to steady his breathing once again.

“Ezekiel. I’m going to pick you up. I’m going to put you on the bed roll. Keep breathing. Long and slow.” Gerome continued to talk as he tried to keep Ezekiel calm.

He lifted Ezekiel gently, carrying him over to the other side of the tent as gently as he could.

Ezekiel, as he was being lifted, immediately grabbed Gerome’s shirt in a death grip as he was moved.

Tracy and Filia followed, both having worried looks on their faces. From what they knew of Ezekiel from the past several weeks of travel, he should not have been reacting like this.

He had never shown such extreme emotions before. He had always acted in ways that were more mature than some of their fellow Guild members.

“Ladies, please help me. I need you to check his mana and soul to ensure that nothing has happened to him.” Gerome muttered softly.

As he said this, Ezekiel’s grip somehow tightened even further, and his breath came out in raspy gasps and squeaks as he tried to speak.

Realizing he’d screwed up, Gerome immediately tried to placate Ezekiel once again.

“Ezekiel, you’re fine. You’re going to be fine. Tracy and Filia are going to help you. Okay. They are going to help you.”

Tracy and Filia got to work as they ran their hands over Ezekiel’s head and torso. Risty and Merry attempted to snuggle up to Ezekiel. Risty had to be careful of her thorns, but Merry’s feathers were soft, and Ezekiel started to calm down again as they snuggled into him.

As Tracy and Filia continued to examine Ezekiel, they saw nothing wrong with his mana, nor his body, but as they examined his brain and soul, they were somewhat shocked at what they were seeing.

They shared a look before Filia moved towards Ezekiel’s face. Holding her hand to his temples, she spoke one word.

“Sleep.”

Ezekiel tensed up momentarily, before his entire body relaxed and his eyes fell shut. His consciousness drifted away as he fell into a dreamless sleep.

Gerome didn’t say anything as he saw Filia put Ezekiel to sleep. He had been partially expecting such a thing to happen, but he would admit that he had assumed Tracy would be the one to do it.

“Given the situation, it was better to exhaust him into sleeping rather than simply turn his consciousness off like Tracy would do.” Filia answered the unasked question as she turned to Gerome.

“I’ll take your word for it. Now tell me what happened.”

Gerome’s question was blunt and to the point, but also appropriate given the circumstances.

“Elemental Emotional Instability.” Was the reply given by both Tracy and Filia.

Their response actually caused Gerome to pause for a moment. As he ran over their answer in his head, he failed to make any connections to what had happened to Ezekiel.

Seeing their Guild leader confused by what they had said, Tracy spoke up to explain.

“I don’t know if you’re aware, but there are very rare cases where a person’s personality can be affected by their elemental affinity. Specifically, if they grow too fast, too soon, or suffer experiences that can harm their soul or mind in some way or another.”

Tracy’s explanation helped Gerome realize a few things. In particular the attitude and behavior of many of the Church of Light followers, specifically the younger ones. As the knowledge of the Radiant element’s ability to alter minds at the higher Tiers came to mind.

“In this case,” Tracy continued, “it seems like Ezekiel has been suppressing his emotions for some time now. I can’t tell for how long, but it must’ve been at least a day or more.”

“For the most part, emotional instability brought about by one’s elemental affinity is difficult to notice unless it shows itself as a sudden shift in how a person behaves.”

“It usually shows up as extreme anger for Flame Mages, extreme stubbornness from Cavern Mages, sudden, temporary, violence for lightning mages, severe depression for Death Mages, a... desire for bedroom activities for Life mages, and other various effects for the different elements.”

Filia’s continued explanation provided more details for Gerome, as well as brought a blush to Tracy’s face when he gave her a glance as Filia finished speaking.

“If that’s true, then why didn’t we notice anything with regard to Ezekiel? I would’ve thought that, for a kid as well put together as he is, that someone would’ve noticed a shift in his behavior.”

Tracy and Filia shared another look before Filia spoke up, as Tracy looked down in guilt.

“I think that the fact that he hasn’t shown any shifts in his emotions is the problem.”

Gerome raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“How so?”

“Well, even if he’s incredibly mature for his age, and even if he’s really smart and knows lots of things, he’s never actually done any of these things, right? He’s never carved open a carcass before. He’s never been on an expedition before. He’s never been in a life and death battle before, not like the one’s he’s been in recently at least. He’s also never faced a real Cruor, until he had to face them alone in a Rot Den, if what the rumors that have been going around the camps have said are actually true.”

Gerome couldn’t help but rub his temples as he felt a headache coming along.

Now that it had been pointed out, he realized that the lack of fear and immaturity in Ezekiel was actually something of a concern.

He had thought like most others had, that Ezekiel was incredibly mature, and had received knowledge from the Void Relics, which explained his maturity and behavior.

Now he realized that this was wrong. Ezekiel, for all his knowledge, and all he maturity, was still a child of ten years old. Certainly, he was a child who had been through much for one who came from a relatively common background, but he was a child all the same.

How could a child go through what Ezekiel had in the past few days, and not have frozen up in fear and terror, if there wasn’t something affecting his emotions.

“By the Spirits. Even full-grown Hunters will sometimes freeze up when facing the horrors that he has, yet he just powered through all of it. How?”

“By suppressing his emotions.” Tracy muttered angrily.

Gerome shot her a look to demand an explanation.

“Void magic isn’t well known. As far as we could tell, when it comes to spells, it has the power to enhance any magical effects, as well as physical abilities. When we were checking his soul, we noticed that, not only are their hairline cracks running throughout it, but there was also evidence of extreme focus, and attention, as well as tension, stress, and pressure.”

“That was on top of the emotions that Ezekiel expressed whilst panicking.”

“From this, we currently assume that Ezekiel’s Void mana was suppressing his emotions of fear, anxiety, worry, guilt, anger, sorrow, and disgust, by empowering his determination, ambition, and focus on his goal.”

“Thus, when he finally relaxed, and his other emotions were not veins suppressed by the empowered emotions, it was like a dam breaking, and everything just flowed out all at once, rather than down in the Temple ruins where that fear and negativity was strongest.”

Gerome spent some time going over Tracy and Filia’s explanations in his head.

As much as he hated to admit it, that did make sense. He knew many people over the years who had learned to compartmentalize their emotions during a difficult situation.

Garrad, for instance, hated meetings and dealing with a large number of people from the other Guilds, and while he could put up a good front when needed, outside of such situations, he would let his frustrations go, usually breaking something in the process.

He could only assume the situation right now was similar, although the extent was obviously different.

“Will he be, okay?” Gerome asked as he looked down on Ezekiel with a pitying glance.

He was now feeling far more guilt regarding bringing Ezekiel in than he had before. He was ashamed to admit it, but he, and apparently everyone else, had allowed their own desires, and their own conceived images of Ezekiel’s maturity blind them to the fact that he was still just a child.

Even Ezekiel wasn’t aware of this, if Tracy and Filia’s words were to be trusted. So, he also couldn’t have known how scared and anxious he really was.

“He should be, but, for now we should do everything we can to keep him from stressing out any more than he already is. Keep him talking, and try not to get him involved with any of the gore and the fighting. He’s had enough of that for now, I think.”

Gerome nodded at Tracy’s suggestions.

“I’ll keep him with me the entire time. I’ll try to keep his mind on returning to the city, rather than anything that happened in the Ruins.”

Tracy and Filia nodded. The last thing Ezekiel needed right now was a reminder of the Ruins.

“But for now, I think you two need to head out. We’ll be trying to get out of the Desolate Lands by tomorrow evening. So, get ready, and be prepared for a hard day of riding.”

As the two ladies got up, the Spirits perching on their shoulders, they left the room with a quiet farewell, before going to explain what had happened to the rest of their party.

Needless to say, all of them were concerned about Ezekiel, and wanted to do everything they could to help the kid that had been so helpful to them.

All the while, Ezekiel continued to sleep. Dead to the world, as his first true adventure in this world was finally coming to a close.