He was split in half.
One of the Traveler's parts contained half of his face and the upper right side of his torso. It was lying next to the rest of his body, which was still standing. The rest of the scenery that was also cut along with him had slid back to what it was before.
"Traveler!" Elise shouted out of surprise. She drew her sword as a reaction and quickly put some distance between her and the old man. He had his sickle in his right hand. Did he do that with just a sickle?
"You... you killed him!" She tried to keep her composure, but she was shaking to the bones. Her defensive stance quickly crumbled before she could even do anything.
"Killed him? Hah, I wish," the old man answered. He was still looking at the standing half of the Traveler. "You don't even know... who you are following, girl."
She opened her mouth to object, but what could she even do even if she opposed him? She had to do something. The Traveler was her Master after all. It was obvious that she had no way to defeat him with her current progress. She at least wanted to say something to him. But when she gathered her courage to do it, she got interrupted.
"Well, this is a nice way to welcome someone."
Elise looked at the source of the voice, just to make sure she was not hearing things out of shock. But no, the half of the Traveler that had fallen was reaching out with its arm toward the main body, which held that arm with its remaining one.
He pulled his cut half up and put it back where it should have been. The cut was quickly stitched back, as were the other injuries he had.
"You are as sharp as ever, my friend." His weird clothing was hanging from his waist. It started to cover his upper body strip by strip and formed his usual white clothing that looked like loose layers of rags.
"Friend my ass," the old man grunted.
"Come on! Don't be like that! You know I like you...
"Fuck you!"
"... I even brought my apprentice to you to have you teach her."
Elise stood there, trying to understand what was going on. So, they were not actually friends, as the Traveler declared before. The old sword master was clearly hostile toward him. She decided not to interfere and just let the Traveler handle this situation. The last time she let him take control resulted in a duel with the best swordsman of the Kingdom, but it had ended well, after all.
"It's not happening. Leave! I know you are under a Bind, and you know I can drive you off in that state of yours." He was weighing his sickle in his hand like he was ready to swing it if necessary.
"Don't worry about that. I extracted the information on these guys' master's whereabouts. I need to go settle this," he pointed out the unstable orb," and learn who they are and what I did to them."
He started walking back to the colorful orb. "I left this open just in case. I don't want to deal with the God of this place once more..."
"Don't you dare." The old man was surprisingly displeased by what he said. Wasn't this what he wanted, Elise thought? Why was he annoyed now? She started to move to the orb, following the Traveler, but she didn't expect what had to come.
"... You two get along, I'll be back in a short while."
"Wha..."
He jumped up. "Say hi to Kaith for me." Then he vanished along with the orb, leaving Elise with the old sword master who was as red as a turnip.
They looked at each other for a moment. From his expression, she thought he might kill her at any moment. The old man turned into the forest and started to walk away from Elise. She could only stay there and look at his back while he was widening the distance. Her brain had stopped, and she didn't know what to do.
But then, the old man stopped and lowered his head to look down. He was still playing with the sickle in his hand, aggressively tightening and releasing his grip on it. Then he suddenly put the sickle back on his belt and turned toward her. He stared at her for a while, making Elise even more nervous.
"An outsider will cause more problems if left alone." He said before he turned back and kept walking.
She hesitated. Was that an invitation to follow him or something else? She looked around like a scared doe, just to gather her thoughts together.
"You coming or what!?" He shouted, without looking back.
-- The end of season one --
Huge thanks to everyone who shared this journey with me. I will revise this story in a week (I hope), especially the first chapters. Then I will send it to a script consultant friend of mine (special thanks to Barkın Bıçakçı) and an editor to do a final revision.
The story will be back with the new season in winter 2026. Until then, I wish all the best to my readers on their journeys.