Chapter 20: Easier

"Let's return to your house and rest," Sunrei took a transport bracelet from his pocket but before he could break it, someone from behind him had spoken.

"Prince Sunrei, you can rest at our house," a woman in her early forties had kindly offered. "We want to thank you for helping Sir Leon reinstate the southern barrier."

"Thank you," Sunrei pointed at Aries, Pieffer, and Leon. "I will also need help in moving them in your house."

"We will help!"

More people were coming out of their houses. Most of them were women and children. They were carrying blankets that could lift Pieffer and Leon.

Aries managed to get up on his feet, but his knees buckled when he tried to walk.

Sunrei caught his arm and offered a shoulder for him to lean on.

Aries accepted it for he was too weak to refuse.

^###########^

The house of the woman who offered them a temporary shelter had a second floor with two double decks on one of the three rooms. It was perfect for the four of them.

Pieffer and Leon were on the lower decks while Sunrei and Aries lay down on the upper beds.

"What is your name?" Sunrei sat up and asked the kind lady who offered them her house.

"Leana," she politely answered with a bow.

"Leana, thank you for letting us rest in your house," Sunrei gratefully bowed back, shocking the kind lady.

"Prince Sunrei, you have saved us. My house is not enough to thank you for that."

"This is more than enough," Sunrei assured the kind lady. "I will be more grateful if you let us sleep for four hours."

"Yes, Prince Sunrei. No one will disturb your sleep," the woman bowed before leaving the room.

"We finally made some progress," Sunrei yawned and rested his back on the bed. "Let's sleep first and talk later."

After saying those words, Sunrei had quickly fallen asleep.

Aries thought that he would be having difficulty sleeping since he was in a house of a stranger but as soon as he had closed his eyes, sleep had easily claimed him.

^############^

Aries opened his eyes and saw an enormous axe spiralling in his direction. He swiftly rolled on the ground and successfully dodged the axe. It stopped moving an inch away from a familiar tree and shifted direction. It was targeting Aries once again.

"Vermillion," Aries crossed his dual blades, deflected the blade, and hurled it away as far as he could.

The axe spun in midair then rolled around Aries before shooting past him.

"You're getting better," someone from behind him had spoken.

Aries turned and saw a man, probably the same age as him, catching the enormous axe.

He was wearing a silver breastplate, gauntlet, and greaves. His long black hair was neatly ponytailed. His blue eyes were staring at Aries with amusement. His face looked familiar but Aries could not remember where he had seen such face.

"Why do you look so shocked?" the axe wielder leaned the handle of his weapon in his broad shoulder. "Did my axe frighten you?"

"Who are you?"

"You don't know me?" the axe wielder raised an eyebrow.

"You are a corrupted soul," Aries tightened the grip on his dual blades. He was certain that the man in front of him was the corrupted soul that he had devoured. That one who possessed people wearing armors. The axe they were holding appeared identical. But Aries was certain he had seen that face somewhere else.

The axe wielder laughed, "Do you really see us as your enemies? How can you throw it all away and kill us?"

"Who are you?" Aries asked again as he finally remembered seeing the axe wielder in one of the memories that Master Kiel had shown him. He was one of the twenty-four people in the throne room.

"It will not make any difference even if I tell you my name," the axe-wielder turned his back on Aries. "You will still devour us. Over and over again. But remember that you can never make us disappear. We will keep on coming back the moment you are reborn. No matter what you do, this will never end."

"Who are you?!" Aries yelled but the axe wielder did not answer and everything around him had been enveloped with darkness then flashes of memories overwhelmed him again.

His mind throbbed with confusion from the memories that were unfamiliar to him. But in all those memories, he could see himself with those twenty-four knights. They were his friends.

But he had killed all of them. He had devoured their souls.

I am an assassin…

Not a hero…

He closed his eyes to block those unpleasant memories. His eyes remained tightly shut for a long time and when he opened them, he was back at the house of that kind lady named Leana.

"Get up and eat with us," Sunrei had said. He was sitting at a table for four with Pieffer and Leon.

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The table and chairs were not in the room before he had slept. The owner of the house must have lent that to them. She even cooked a lot of dishes for them.

"We need a lot of strength in reinstating the remaining barriers…"

"I know," he snapped at Leon and joined them for an early breakfast.

There was a few minutes of silence before Pieffer cleared her throat and asked, "Aries, is it okay if we ask you something?"

The anxiety in her eyes hinted at something that Aries already knew.

"I devoured their souls," he bluntly answered the question they were nervous to ask. "I thought you knew about it?"

The three of them shook their head.

"I did the same with the corrupted soul that wielded an axe and the one that possessed Miko," Aries gazed suspiciously at Pieffer, Sunrei, and Leon. "You truly had no idea that I can absorb souls?"

"We will not be this concerned if we know about it," Sunrei said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"You consumed a lot of corrupted souls. Are you okay?" Pieffer asked, always with a deep concern for him and Aries had to remind himself that she was not the Pieffer he loved. They only looked the same, but the princess was a different person.

"I'm fine," Aries answered. "You don't have to worry about me."

"What's wrong?" the princess blushed as Aries kept his curious gaze at her.

"You really don't know that I can absorb souls?"

Pieffer shook her head and asked back, "The previous Aries never showed that ability."

"How can there be two Aries in one body?" Leon curiously asked.

"I thought you knew things that I don't?" Aries glared at his comrades. "Master Kiel told me that we have a complicated fate, and we will always be reborn as we are. I thought that you can remember what I can't."

"The memories of our past lives… we can only remember them as we grow older," Pieffer answered. "Though we can see them in our dreams, it is still hard to tell if we owned them or we are only seeing random dreams. You have to feel that you are the one in your dream to know that it is yours. Your mind can show you a lot of things, but your feelings will tell you if that is truly your memory."

"I kept on dreaming about a lot of things," Aries emptied his plate. The owner of the house can cook well. It was nearly as delicious as the dishes prepared by Miko. "But I guess… I have yet to feel that they are truly mine."

"You can ask us if you remember something," Pieffer offered. "We can confirm that for you."

"We want to tell you a lot of things, but we don't want you to feel that we are forcing things on you," Sunrei also emptied his plate and glass of water.

"It is better if you are the one to remember," Pieffer added with a gentle smile.

"It's getting late," Leon said. "We can talk after we reinstate the barrier at the western border."

"Let's go," Aries, Pieffer, and Sunrei had chorused.

^################^

The eastern border also had a park where a lion statue was standing at the centermost area. It looked exactly like the one on the southern border. Aries and his comrades had difficulty reaching the area for there were plenty of enemies blocking their way.

Fortunately for them, Aries was slowly getting used to absorbing souls with his dual blades. They reached the area without getting exhausted.

Leon sat on the lion statue and Pieffer protected him with a shield. Sunrei distracted the possessed people while Aries shot arrows at the hovering corrupted souls.

It had been easier for them that day compared to yesterday. The casualty had been greatly reduced. Aries, Pieffer, and Sunrei were still standing by the time Leon was done reinstating the barrier. The lion house leader did not fall from the statue, but he was about to faint from exhaustion.

Aries jumped on the statue and offered his back to Leon.

"Thanks," the weary house leader crawled on his back and quickly fell into a deep slumber.

"People are coming out of their houses," Sunrei smiled with satisfaction.

"We've done it right this time," the eyes of Pieffer brimmed with tears as she saw people approaching.

Aries was also happy that he was able to save more lives.

^###########^

A lot of people offered them temporary shelter. They were able to rest and eat well before heading to the northern border.

They encountered lesser enemies on the way. There was also an identical park in that area. Leon started right away and reinstating the barrier became easier for them. The corrupted souls in that area were not as many as the enemies they encountered in the previous parks.

Though the time to reinstate the barriers remained the same and Leon were always exhausted by the time he was done, at least keeping him safe from the enemies were not that difficult anymore.

One more border to go and they could move on to the next house.

The four of them were hoping that it would be easier for them as they reinstate more barriers.

^##########^

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