Chapter 12: The Arrival Of The "Empire" (1)
Sitting down on the floor, Liam rubbed his swollen cheek caused by a blunt force and glared at the culprit in front of him.
Her face remained emotionless, but he could tell from her shaking body that she was holding in her laugh.
'Now, I wonder if the lord thing is even true.'
He was trying to wake her up, though he might have shouted too near to her ear, which made her slap him under reflex… or at least that's what she's saying.
"My lord, we shouldn't be bothered about these small matters and focus on our mission."
"Fine, then."
'But I will remember this!'
We then discussed our plan to confront the chieftain's daughter, Lilina.
Liam decided to tell more about her from her name, her origin, her attainment ranking and her spirit, which shocked Jessie a lot.
"A Spirit Bearer wouldn't utter even a single word about their spirits, so how could you know all of this?"
"Let's say it's one of my abilities."
And also through this, Liam knew more about these spirit categories.
A Spirit Bearer could possess seven different spirits at the same time, and each spirit has seven different categories when they are in the physical world.
Fragmented Spirits: Spirits that are broken and only possess the strength of their physical form and don't possess any ability at all
Lesser Spirit: A spirit that is the essence of one specific thing. It could have two or three abilities at best and can be devoured manually by a human as long as they eat the spirit's physical heart.
Avatar Spirit: A spirit that was born from the influence of a spirit above. It can devour others' Avatars or Lesser Spirits to gain and evolve its ability and only be devoured when you're already a Spirit Bearer.
True Spirit: A spirit bore a true concept of things that dictated how it should go. A True Spirit could be formed from either a natural cause or by possessing a compatible Avatar Spirit that has grown strong enough. These beings are intelligent and are capable of making a contract where their consciousness remains within the Spirit Bearer's body when they are devoured.
Great Spirit: A spirit of a great concept that covered many other true concepts, like how lake and river spirits are born from the sea spirit and could appear and communicate in the same way as a True Spirit.
"Sadly, Grand Spirit and Pillar Spirit information is not something a normal person could have, but the lord could guess the pattern of a spirit."
"I see."
A spirit is capable of wielding a concept, and with each category and
the concept's importance to the world increased but also affected the mind and body of the person bearing it.
A Spirit Bearer in the end is from humans, and humans are little and frail compared to most of the things in this world, so trying to integrate the spirit of a true or great concept is like a mouse trying to pull an elephant.
But Spirit Bearers are no mice.
Many of them managed to overcome the mental toll and ruled over the Spirit within them, though there are certain cases where a Spirit Bearer loses their sanity, in which they become something much worse than a spirit calamity to humanity.
'Could it be that Astella's mind has crumbled from the mental toll?'
That's quite impossible for he possessed no spirit above Avatar Spirit and his attainment as a Pioneer means he should be much more resilient than Jessie, who is only a master but with three True Spirits…
'I have uncovered the source of the craziness of this woman!'
Quite a discovery he had made there, imagining two voices talking in your head.
It could drive a normal person to be like her!
"There's no need for your concern, my lord. I have gained a special technique to suppress the voice of these lingering consciences within my body."
"...I heavily doubt that, seeing how you acted."
As for Liam, maybe it's because he's a "Spirit Destroyer"; thus, he received no mental burden from the spirit within him, though he had no communication or unification between them aside from the Spirit Of Spark, which was useless.
'But I'm still confident in my mental capability; I did receive hell every week after all.'
Now that he thought about it, Liam grimaced, for the end of the week was drawing near; he would be unable to do anything when that happened, so he should solve these problems as quickly as possible.
Liam and Jessie continued to discuss more about their approach, along with other alternatives.
Jessie lost her communication methods to the empire when she was ambushed by Astella, and walking there wasn't feasible either.
But if there's one thing to note, it's that despite having gone missing for a month, no force from the empire seems to have investigated or sent people to arrive here at all.
What's worse is that Astella is bringing people to train the current Spirit Bearer inside this village, but if those people are not from the empire, then where else did they come from?
'The Executioner!'
Not only did they have to face Astella, a Pioneer, but they also had to battle others who should be around the same level as Jessie.
This time, Liam's face flared up in anger. He understood the true intention of bringing more people here!
Astella alone shouldn't be able to kill all of the people in the village, so he brought more to completely massacre all of us.
The situation is turning grave, so our only hope right now is to run away or try to probe some information about Lilina to find his purpose for coming here and his weakness.
Jessie proposed that if they couldn't draw out anything, then they would use his daughter as a hostage if he were to show care for her. This didn't really sit right with Liam, but for now, he couldn't be picky about it because it's at least better than the second option.
The second option was to use her as a way to weaken Astella, which included many unspeakable things that Liam was forced to dismiss halfway through Jessie talking.
Seriously, how could she think all of that and say it with a straight face?
And all of those were under the belief that the chieftain cared for his daughter, but if he doesn't, then we are all doomed.
'Well, there's another way.'
That's to complete the quest!
Since he had no clue about the Spirit Of Four Tusk, he could only try to finish a certain quest that has stayed in his quest list for quite a long time.
' [Find clues about yourself]... '
Liam's own origin has always been a mystery to him, but now, he may have found an answer from this crazy woman.
Liam decided to ask the big question.
"I wonder, who is this Lord Xyrus that you have been talking about?"
"You're asking a weird question, my lord, are you testing my passion for you?"
"Yeah, let's say I did."
The name Lord Xyrus has been stuck in his head since the moment he returned, a name that was supposed to be tied to his origin.
Is Lord Xyrus a relative of his? Liam did not know, but he knew that there's a person who was obsessed with this lord guy, and that's this crazy woman.
"Well, I have to disappoint you, my lord but I don't know much about your past."
"...Well, that's certainly a surprise, but you must know—"
"Sadly, I only had one chance of meeting you when I was two; at that time, my consciousness hadn't fully developed yet, so I only managed to remember the lord saying something about 'Flame Bearer.'"
"..."
'Then why was this woman so obsessed with this Xyrus guy? No, why did she keep on believing I'm the lord when she could barely remember the guy?'
So he had hoped for nothing in the end!
'Well, there's still that cave; I should be able to cover some clues there.'
After conversing for a while, he had decided that before we could take an extreme measure on the chieftain's daughter, we should try out other, less brutal methods, which is something a human should do.
Even though she accepted his idea, he could hear her quiet mumbling express her dissatisfaction.
Just when Liam was about to mention the cave, both he and Jessie stopped as they both looked in a certain direction.
"He's here."
Jessie said with a trembling voice and he could see for the first time that her expression changed into that of fear.
Sweat poured down on Liam, but he still forced out a smile and stood up.
It would be strange for him not to go see his little brother and seeing that Jessie has no courage in facing Astella, he has to be the one to go there.
'I hope Thomas will be fine.'
If things turn for the worse, then he won't know what he should do or what he is capable of doing…
'Simple, I will risk my life for my little brother even if it proves to be futile. That's what I should do'
His resolve has become clearer than before and he is now ready to face the chieftain.
"I'm going to see if I can approach Lilina and become close to her for information. If I were to succeed, then stop whatever sick fantasy you're brewing inside your head."
"I'll be waiting, my lord."