After that, he tried to look up at the sky sprinkled with stars. It was just that tonight there was no moon, of course because the previous moon had just gone out some time ago.
Now it was only a matter of waiting for the new moon to appear.
And that was Aelurnis.
As he kept watching the sky, Kaelen seemed to gain an epiphany within himself, "Wait! The Aelurnis Moon is the moon when inner whispers are heard continuously. The inner whispers which, for the first time, our Vey'zareth race experience the awakening of Vaerloch and obtain Velhara at the age of fifteen. Did they intentionally use that moment to take advantage? But what kind of advantage could they gain? They even saw that my Elarith had been forcibly taken and I no longer possessed it."
Vaerloch itself was a monster or a curse embedded within every body of the Vey'zareth race like Kaelen since birth. Usually, Vaerloch would sleep for 15 years inside the body.
And after 15 years, they would slowly begin to awaken. If they fully awakened, they would take over the body of the Vey'zareth and turn them into complete monsters. There would be no trace of Vey'zareth identity left in them.
Meanwhile, Velhara was the level of harmony between the Vey'zareth race and the Vaerloch they possessed. The higher the level, the greater the risk and power the Vey'zareth would gain.
However, when a Vey'zareth succeeded in reaching the entirety of Velhara, then at that moment their Vaerloch would merge with their body to create a new form. No longer Vey'zareth or Vaerloch.
But that was very difficult to accomplish. Kaelen had never even heard of anyone who succeeded in surpassing all Velhara and becoming a new form.
Speaking of Vaerloch, Kaelen felt déjà vu about it. If he wasn't mistaken, wasn't the reason he woke up tonight also because he heard that whisper?
"With my current condition, it's impossible for me to escape. Especially now when they give me no room to run."
Kaelen's head throbbed as he tried to think of something. Until a crazy idea crossed his mind just like that, "The only way may be for me to awaken the Vaerloch within me. Even though it's risky because I haven't reached the proper age yet, but I also have to do something."
If an ordinary human were faced with a situation like this, they might panic and give up. But this was Kaelen, a being who had been hunted by death since birth.
Kaelen wasn't fearless, he was just trying to stay calm and not panic. Because as far as he understood, panic never solved anything.
In that condition, Kaelen suddenly remembered his dream when he first woke up earlier. "If my status is already active, could it be that my Vaerloch has also awakened? Vaerloch is forced to awaken when the body it inhabits is in a life-and-death and desperate state. Perhaps it also felt the despair within me so that I accidentally awakened it forcibly."
"The problem is, I have absolutely no idea how to meet it."
For a moment Kaelen was silent, he appeared to be regulating his breath well and steadily. Feeling the energy in his body flowing chaotically because his Elarith had been taken, or perhaps destroyed.
"Before this, my magic core was light. I was a knight with a light element. It's just that after my Elarith was taken, I no longer have a magic core and am no longer a knight. So how am I supposed to know what kind of power I have and how to meet my Vaerloch?"
Briefly, Kaelen glanced at those locusts. How they stood on four thin spiny legs, how their abdomens had large serrated orbs, and how their three big eyes blinked very slowly in turns. He then took a deep breath, "If this keeps up, I really could die without doing anything."
"Help! Let me go! Please lower me down! Hey, please! Help me, please!" Kaelen seemed to have been frustrated to the point where he finally shouted loudly.
Even though he knew, in this terrifying place which was one of the Forbidden Regions, who would want to help him?
Until then one of the locusts that had been standing not far from them came and approached. It immediately slapped the other locust—the one using its root to hang Kaelen.
"What are you doing? Before the Aelurnis Moon appears, offerings must not be above the Kulthar Swamp. That violates Elyndor's rules!" shouted the newcomer, "Quickly release him!"
"But he tried to escape. How will we face the Elders later if the sacrifice disappears?"
"Then how will we face Vazyrath Mudrienne if the sacrifice's power weakens, just because you pulled him over the Kulthar Swamp before the time arrived?!"
Without waiting any longer, the figure immediately pulled Kaelen's body with its magic, bringing the man back to the barren gray earth surrounded by dense trees.
Throwing his body so that Kaelen fell again, then he rolled on the ground several meters from them.
"Ouch," muttered Kaelen as he felt his wounded body rub against the ground.
After saying that, one of the roots again crept to pull Kaelen's body back into the middle of them, with them as the guarding fence.
Kaelen sat back there, but this time he felt something odd. When he was thrown far earlier, for a few seconds, they didn't act at all. But when Kaelen groaned, only then did they pull his body back into the middle.
Even when he thought about it, when he screamed earlier someone only then approached. Whereas that creature had also been around them, under the large dense tree.
But why did he only pull Kaelen after he screamed? If that was a mistake, shouldn't he have scolded the other locust from the start when Kaelen was placed over the swamp they called the Kulthar Swamp?
From all this, Kaelen could only conclude one thing, "They cannot see, they can only hear."
To confirm his assumption which Kaelen was 98% sure was correct this time, he stood up again.
He waved his hand in front of their eyes, and they didn't react. Then he deliberately stepped on a broken branch beneath him, and Kaelen was surprised after seeing their expressions.
"Don't even think about escaping, Elyndor is not a place where you can get out alive. So you'd better accept your fate as our offering," said one of the creatures.
At that moment Kaelen felt that this time his analysis was correct. But as he was about to step slowly, the pain from his chest felt sharper and unbearable.
Kaelen tried not to scream, he only grimaced and showed an expression of pain. But the longer it went, the pain spread until his head felt like it would explode.
"ARGHHHH!!!"
Kaelen's scream startled the beasts and flying monsters in the uppermost layer of Xal'zarioth. The creatures guarding around him also crowded closer, "What's wrong? Are you frustrated?"
"My chest… Arghhh!! It hurts so much!! AAAA!!!"
Kaelen could barely withstand the pain wracking his body. Until when everything almost turned dark, his blurry vision caught a thin mist coalescing, then turning into a strange form he didn't recognize.
[Don't die!]
—
Gasping for breath, the man in ragged clothes kept running, ignoring the pain in his chest that had already spread through his whole body.
Every now and then he would glance back to make sure none of the creatures were following him.
Kaelen stumbled several times on rocks or just dry twigs, but he would always get up even though his body was already full of scratches and wounds.
After he felt it was safe enough, he stopped for a moment behind a large rock to steady his heavy breathing. Kaelen bent for a moment as the vapor of his spirit became more visible around his body.
"Looks like they're no longer chasing me," he muttered still panting.
For some reason suddenly a tight feeling welled up in his chest. This was no longer about the pain in his gaping chest. This was an emotion growing inside his heart.
In his mind, he thought of only one thing. "Of all the pain I've endured in Zyretheil, I'm still weak when it comes to this."
His memory returned to some time ago, when he woke up again tied to a large tree.
At that time, Kaelen didn't see a single creature guarding. So Kaelen took that as an opportunity to escape.
But of course nothing went that easily.
"With my power gone and without any talent, it's impossible for me to get out alive. Right now I'm relying entirely on my brain," muttered Kaelen as he looked around the completely empty surroundings.
"The whisper that shouted inside me yesterday, telling me not to die, that must be the voice of my Vaerloch," he added.
He stared at his chest which still had a hole with dried blood. Then his gaze shifted to the sky which was starting to show its light, "I only have two days and two nights left to get a new Elarith. If not, I'll surely die."
After some time racking his brain, the man finally thought of one thing that might be true, "They're going to make me an offering exactly at the Aelurnis Moon. The moon when inner whispers are continuously heard by the Vey'zareth race who have not awakened their Vaerloch and receive their first Velhara."
"If I'm not mistaken, they might only be targeting people whose curses haven't been awakened. That means I don't fit the criteria they're looking for."
"That means if I can prove my Vaerloch has already awakened, then there's a chance I can escape from here. And the only way I can think of right now is… to ask for help from my Vaerloch," he muttered with an increasingly sharp gaze.
"I've never heard people talk about this before, including the person who claimed to be my father." There was a heaviness in his heart when the man was about to say the word 'father.'
"But I have no choice. Even if I die, at least I've tried and not just sat around waiting for everything to end."
Kaelen didn't know how to communicate with Vaerloch. This was his first awakening— more precisely he had awakened it forcibly, and he was alone trapped here.
More precisely— intentionally dumped here.
Kaelen just focused. Trying to channel the chaotic inner energy because his Elarith had been removed. His talent before this was as a knight with a light element.
So he tried his best to gather sunlight in his mind, then let it all flow away.
[Are you stupid? If you continue, then everything will end. You will die!]
Kaelen didn't care about that warning whisper. He continued to do everything he wanted. Even though he realized that if Vaerloch's voice had been heard continuously, there was a possibility that his Vaerloch had truly been awakened.
But this time Kaelen not only had to awaken it, he needed to meet it directly.
Until a few moments later, Kaelen's body weakened completely. He felt his soul drifting and leaving his body.
Suddenly he was already in an empty place. Truly empty and there was nothing but himself walking in the middle of that empty space.
Kaelen swallowed hard, as even his footsteps sounded very echoing. But he braced himself to face his own fear.
"Vaerloch! I know you're in my consciousness, in my body. I need your help this time," he said half shouting.
There was no answer, only his voice echoing back at him.
But the man didn't give up. He kept walking slowly while looking around, "I'm not asking for your help for free. I know there will be a price to pay for everything I ask today. And I'm not someone who likes to break promises, not after what happened that forced me to end up in this Xal'zarioth."
Kaelen bowed his head, his memory returning to some time before he came to this place. The image of people who left him and dumped him on purpose, even destroying his Elarith just because he had the most sought-after talent.
And from all that, Kaelen learned that no good deed was ever given for free. There would always be a reward and a price to pay.
That shook Kaelen's feelings even more until without him realizing it, a silhouette of a figure with large wings and a long tail appeared before him.
It did not show its true form, what stood before Kaelen was only a shadow forming a figure flapping its huge wings.
So huge, even the wind from its wingbeats could pierce Kaelen's skin though the figure before him was only a silhouette.
[How dare you enter your own consciousness]
That voice sounded like thunder in the sky, deafening anyone who heard it including Kaelen.
The silhouette approached Kaelen who still stood frozen with his body slightly trembling.
[Do you know what risks you and I will bear for your recklessness today?]