Dawn- An age of Darkness Chapter 355 - Not Again

Climbing down was much easier than climbing up.

Though in my case, I was climbing down less, and falling more and more.

"AhHHH!"

The little thing scread as it grabbed my neck tight.

I didn't care how but I was going to get down before the afternoon, whether this mountain liked it or not.

Sliding- jumping off, sotis even just trying to glide- and failing miserably, yeah, I tried everything.

I did still retain my sense of pain and a bit of fear. But both were dulled to such an extent that I could just ignore them. And even if I chipped off a finger or two, assuming I had enough fresh blood and at, I could regrow them.

Probably.

'Is this why undead are constantly searching for living food?'

It was a fair concern but- I couldn't be too sure. After all, there was still a possibility of being a vampire as I was bitten or scratched by Viola's father. I couldn't quite rember what had happened though.

"No more." The thing scread and scread and then started crying. "NO more!"

This went on.

Eventually, it'd given up.

Sniff!

It did sniff pretty often and leaked snot everywhere though.

Sigh.

***

After roughly another hour or two, we found ourselves at the base of the mountain and took a break.

Early!

It wasn't even afternoon yet and I could go on regardless of the minor cuts and bruises. The thing with though, couldn't. It had lied down on the ground, panting, looking up at the blue sky and the white clouds.

I guess the sky was blue no matter where we went. Too bad most of it was covered by the black leaves above our heads.

"What could be-such a reason that you'd want-to keep going even -if you die?" It stuttered about four tis, trying to say that.

I didn't quite understand why it was tired. After all, all it did was just sit tight on my back while I did most of the climbing- or rather falling.

"It has nothing to do with you."

It didn't try to get up, rather it reached for the sky. "You're such a handful." Was it trying to grab the clouds in its imagination or sothing?

"Yeah, you're the last thing I want to hear that from."

It snorted. "Gry-o-le. Or are you incapable of rembering nas?"

That almost struck a nerve. I clicked my tongue. I guess it was about ti I acknowledged it as a living being, rather than 'it.'

But this thing was a goblin!

'But a living thing regardless.'

"That bastard killed my friends, innocent people, toyed with my life- sent-" I paused.

Now that I thought about it, the emperor always had a reason to lie to : there was always a reason behind his acts. He wanted to get stronger, he wanted to co fight him. For that, he was willing to even let go back then but I persisted and-

Was there more of a aning to it?

Perhaps-

Or, maybe he was just too bored and-

I snorted. No matter how I tried, I could never understand sothing like that monster.

It could have been that he just wanted to kill ti and that was just a prank he thought of, it was certainly possible.

"So, you want revenge?"

"Sothing like that, you can say. I'll get rid of the emperor and-"

Gryole sighed. "And then deal with the demons? Humans outnumber demons by three to one. And demons outrank goblins by four to one. In the end, everyone is just trying to survive. By killing their emperor, do you think you'd be able to maintain the balance? What if humans get greedy and decide to just eradicate the demons and then conquer the world?"

I thought for a second. "Aren't you like a baby compared to others? And you're a goblin, why are you saying these things? Or to be more precise, how'd you know?"

She didn't look at , rather just stared at the sky. "I told you, I'm special. Maybe-" She paused. "Maybe you'll kill soon, so I'll tell you while there's ti. I'm a special goblin who's born every ten centuries to guide my people to salvation. This knowledge is imprinted in my brain. These thoughts- these mories- these feelings, are not of my own. Perhaps- I don't even exist."

For soone who didn't exist, she certainly knew how to complain.

"And that salvation is?"

"I do not know."

She didn't seem to be lying but I couldn't just trust the words of a goblin, even I wasn't that naïve.

"Anyway, that's enough dillydallying. Let's get to the ruin."

We were almost there. If we kept pace, we could reach the ruins in maybe half an hour. I didn't see any goblin settlents around. Maybe they were hiding, or maybe they were a bit to the west of here.

I did see the remnants of old walls, buildings, houses here and there. Just rocks, bricks, one or two pavents.

'To think once this place was full of life.'

There were still undead everywhere and the ones here were mostly just half breeds. Demons.

I guess where there was life, there was always going to be death.

Gryole stood up and instead of clinging to my robe, walked ahead. "It'll be best for you if I were to walk in front." That way she'd be able to prevent any unwanted attacks from goblins- or so her reasoning went.

I was wary. I didn't trust her, not one bit.

"Sure." But I didn't let it show- at least not too much.

***

Sotis, out of nowhere, people could get sick.

Out of nowhere, you could contract a terminal illness.

Out of nowhere, your parents could die in an accident.

And sotis, even if you tried your best, even if you stay as careful as you could, even if you pray as hard as you could-

You could die. And so could the people right next to you.

My friends died- they died right in front of . They were killed. I failed to protect them, but they didn't fail: after all, I was still here. I was the one who let them die- it was my fault.

My fault.

I wanted to bury those feelings- I never wanted to rember those- and that's why I was keeping myself busy with revenge and that's why I was running away.

But-

It was almost as though those very feelings were being played right before my eyes.. Soone I knew, soone I swore to protect was about to die.