The dream of destruction that blazed in Ashar's eyes was still too far away to be anything but the fantasy of a lunatic.
What had happened to him over the past few days? Why had he been beaten so completely, again and again?
"Hey. He's waking up."
"Vaelor! Get over here and figure this out for us."
Ashar stirred with pains and wounds. Heat crawled onto his skin like an old familiar blanket. The crackle of a campfire filled his ears, and relaxed him, to the point where he almost forgot himself. He opened his eyes, and as the first moment of peace faded, he awoke to the reality that he was surrounded on all sides.
At least four figures stood nearby that he would need to eliminate, all radiating dense, disciplined energy that was of a higher level than him. He lay bound, not by rope, but by something that he had not yet managed to figure out. All he knew was that an invisible pressure made sure that his limbs stayed in place.
"Have you got him under your ability, Telyn?" Vaelor asked.
"Yeah," came the reply. "I can keep him locked down for a few hours. Easy."
"Look at his clothes," another voice said, the man from the forest. "You know whose robes those are?"
Vaelor nodded, with the nod being a signal.
Telyn's focus sharpened and his pupils disappeared.
Ashar suddenly sat upright, not by choice. His body moved as if pulled by invisible strings. He couldn't move a finger.
"Why are you wearing Soldier robes?" Vaelor asked calmly.
Ashar said nothing.
"Are you a Faceless Soldier?" Vaelor continued. "Answer carefully. If you are, we'll kill you."
"I'm a wanderer," Ashar said. "I found them and kept them."
"Telyn?"
"Naaah," Telyn said flatly. "He's a lying piece of scum."
Ashar felt it now, something brushing against his thoughts and controlling the muscles of his body. Something was grazing his mind but not with force. It was pressure, yes, that was the key. Some kind of energy was causing his intentions to be read, stripped bare.
"I don't think he's one of them," Issen said. "Didn't feel like it when I talked to him."
"That doesn't explain the robes."
"You can stab me, explode me, do anything you want," Ashar said. "Look into my eyes and you'll see that I'm beyond all that.."
"Really?" Vaelor asked.
A blade of condensed Axiom formed in his hand and pressed lightly against Ashar's throat.
"How close do you feel to death now? Do you enjoy as it approaches you?"
And so, at last, Vaelor could take a good look at the eyes of Ashar and what he saw, straight away, made him want to turn away.
"You can act like a tough guy, but you're make yourself into a joke," a woman said.
Ashar turned his eyes. It was the woman who had struck him down in the forest.
"This act is stupid," she continued. "We could've talked. You forced our hand."
"I'll tell you something," Ashar said quietly. "Keeping me is dangerous. People are looking for me."
"We know," Issen said.
"You think they'll pay you?" Ashar said. "They'll kill you all once they arrive."
"Who are you," Vaelor asked, "that Faceless Soldiers would hunt you?"
"He's a criminal," Issen said. "Did something dumb in a village. Happens all the time. Right, Telyn?"
Telyn focused again.
"No. That's not it."
Issen cursed.
"Then why are you worth this trouble?" Vaelor asked.
"He said he was heading for the Golden City," Issen added.
"And where did he come from?" Vaelor asked.
"A clan?"
"No."
"Underground dwellings?"
"No."
"The Noctis Mountains?"
Telyn flinched.
"Yes."
Silence fell.
"Then he came from the battle we keep hearing of," Vaelor said slowly. "A straggler from that damn Shadow Clan, right?"
It was as fast and as subtle as the first drop of rain in a storm.
Ashar's eyes changed.
The blue vanished, replaced by something vast and endless, like an ocean staring back at them.
The pressure shattered.
"What the hell—!" Issen leapt back.
Ashar screamed.
Axiom erupted from his body, wild and unrestrained. The fire snapped and bent outward, forcing the group into defensive positions.
He had never felt power like this.
In his despair, he had sunk deeper, far deeper, into what Shenric had left behind.
But he didn't see the charge coming.
Bang.
A massive impact, identical to the boar's attack, slammed into him.
Ashar responded instinctively.
Flame exploded from his hand.
Both bodies were hurled backward.
"Rovik!" Issen shouted. "You insane bastard!"
Issen retaliated, shooting his energy out so that he launched a blade attack from a distance.
Ashar barely registered the wound.
He surged forward, Water technique igniting beneath his feet, slashing toward Issen's head—
Too slow.
"Crazy bastard!" Issen shouted again.
Vaelor's eyes narrowed.
"Telyn," he said. "Control him."
"I can't," Telyn replied. "His mind, it doesn't feel human."
Ashar felt invincible. Every blow only fueled him. Every wound became permission. Fear vanished. Pain became clarity. And then—
Nothing.
His energy collapsed.
Ashar dropped, body hitting the earth.
"Maereth! Telyn!" Vaelor barked. "Lock him down. We're taking him to the boss."
When Ashar woke again, there was only darkness. The pressure was heavier now. Whatever that Telyn did to him now was more than absolute. There would be no escape now, for at least a few days. In that silence, clarity came.
The boar.
It was only now, in this darkness, that he could start to look back on the fight that he had with the boar. He understood now that from the very beginning the boar had won because it had taken control of the centre while Ashar remained on the outside. He saw now that the boar had entered into the fight with the will to endure several strikes, while Ashar did not. And now he realised that he had truly hurt the boar from the beginning, but it maintained its composure and acted as if nothing had happened to place psychological pressure on its opponent.
A true warrior.
"Wake up, you piece of shit," Issen growled, striking him.
Ashar opened his eyes. He was on a stone filled beach by a stream, surrounded, twenty bandits now.
"You're going to kill me?" Ashar asked.
A bald, one-eyed bearded man knelt in front of him.
"That all depends on what you're about to tell me," he said. "Back there, did you use the Eye of Sophia?"