‘What kind of bull crap is this supposed to be?’ Astolfo thought to himself.

The two explorers had crossed the sugar cane fields and had come up north to the edge of a cliff about three feet above the ground. Below the cliff was a sea of burning coal. The air sizzled and swayed as the heat of the coal rose to the skies.

Cutting through the center of the wide path of coal was a single wooden bridge. Swollen blobs of moisture stuck of from the ragged flooring while embers and sparks drilled holes through the railings. Astolfo could not fathom how such a bridge could be made, let alone hold on.

Morris faked a cough to get his attention and swayed his hands in gestures of all kinds.

“Um, so. This bridge will not fall, but fire spirits have… gathered around. Ah... I don’t know.”

And he gave up. There was just so much he could convey with his hands before running out of ways to say things. Astolfo internally offered a prayer for the demise of their great charades streak and clenched his fists.

‘If this thug has brought me here, it shouldn’t be much of a problem. I just need to be careful.’

Astolfo’s feelings of gratitude towards Morris had blossomed and increased throughout their journey. Not only was he helping him stand on his feet, but he was also actively teaching and challenging him with new things, laying a great base for further growth. He had learned from observing Vincent that great thought went towards doing something like this for someone else and Astolfo surely did not want to be unappreciative nor did he want to be someone who takes things for granted.

The suspicion and fear he held towards the man alongside his wariness had subsided greatly in the past few hours. Actions were truly more convincing than words.

Astolfo closed his eyes and felt his condition again. His shallow mana reserves which had depleted from the use of basic spells had filled up in a short time. His previously glass-like body had also gotten sturdy after receiving Teleios’ curse. There was nothing to worry about until he was hit by a mana-originating attack or pushed himself too hard.

With a nod, Astolfo took the lead again and stepped up to the head of the bridge. He carefully tapped the first plank on the path with the tip of his feet, the sensation of the hot wood passed through his leather boots and tickled his toes.

Next, he carefully shifted his weight to the plank. A light creak rang out as the frame of the bridge bent to an almost unnoticeable degree. Though he wasn’t entirely sure about the hunk of muscles behind him, the bridge would be able to handle their weight as long as they kept a fair bit of distance.

“Hmph,” Astolfo hummed and got on the bridge. Immediately, the heated air hit his face and the temperature around him rose.

‘Maybe this is just a huge grill? These ancient people must have loved their barbecue.’

With silly thoughts in his head, Astolfo briefly pushed his hand out at Morris and continued onward. After he had crossed over seven planks, he turned to the man and gestured at him to come along. Morris twisted his face in an unnerving smile and followed behind the boy.

He roughly stepped ahead and nodded as a cue for the two to start on the next phase of their exploration. They maintained the same distance as they tread over the squeaky wooden bridge. The heat rising from the burning coal down below brushed past their skin as sweat streaked down their faces and off their chins.

“Hm?“ A prickling sensation hit Astolfo’s leg. The boy looked down and saw a tiny mark near his shin.

‘Stray sparks. What a strange place.’ Astolfo looked at the path of coal with amusement. The chunks of coal burned with no end in sight, never faltering nor weakening. It was a surreal sight even for Astolfo. The coals’ flames danced and crackled below the bridge. Some sparks even burnt into balls of fire and floated around.

‘HAH?! Floating fire??’ Astolfo’s neck snapped towards Morris who had already noticed it and had a criminal frown on his face.

“Damn it, the spirits are here.” Morris clicked his tongue. “Hey, we better run ahead!”

Astolfo furrowed his brows, unable to understand. Another blob of fire appeared in the air, and then another.

“Run! Run!” Morris waved his hands.

With an understanding nod, Astolfo lowered himself and jumped towards Morris.

‘Mission abort! Got it!’

“No! Why are you coming here?!” Morris stepped back at Astolfo’s sudden movement. As Astolfo got closer to him, wondering why the man won’t move, a wave of heat hit his back and he stopped in his tracks.

‘Abort the mission abortion?’

The wooden planks had melted away in the spot he was standing just moments ago. Dozens of wisps of fire floated around in the spot as the sound of grunts and laughter reached his ears.

His eyes froze and his ever-moving thoughts came to a lull. The sweltering heat, the trickling sweat, the raging breaths, and the urgency of his situation, everything dazed away as only the dancing flames and their joyous sounds filled his mind.

“Heyheyhey! Play with us!”

“Fight! Fight! F.I.G.H.T Fight!”

“Wanna brawl bro? Come on bro!”

“Weeee show us a boom! BOoooOOm!”

“We won’t hurt you”

“”“Just play with us”“”

“Play? I… want to play too…” As if it had a mind of its own, his hand lifted and reached out to the spirits—

—And his mind zapped into clearance. The red lights stopping his thoughts turned green as the unmoving swamp of thoughts in his head formed a river and blasted away. While he was confused, he jumped ahead without waiting a second.

With a nimble gait, he rushed over the distance he had just covered and dived right towards the floating blobs of fire. A heavy gale blew from the tips of his hands and plunged into the wisps of fire, blowing them away.

The bridge shook from the wind as Astolfo leaped over the melted plank and rolled on the other side. He sent a fleeting glance towards his back and saw Morris rushing over in the same manner. No words were needed between the two.

‘This shit is crazy! What even happened just then?’

Whatever it was, Astolfo wasn’t going to stick around to find out. Curiosity can go kill cats, this redhead had a long life ahead of him. He ran as fast as he could through the creaking wooden bridge, soon enough though, the sounds of laughter echoed again as those caught up. Astolfo covered his ears with his hands and continued ahead.

He would have used wind magic to block off the sounds, but refrained from doing so and chose to save his mana instead. Unfortunately for him, their numbers increased two-fold and the sounds grew much more louder and enticing.

Astolfo pressed on his ears even harder, resisting the voices as best as he could. His sides started hurting from all the running, but the end was finally in sight. He could see the end of the bridge. On a wider area, facing those things or even running away would be much easier.

“Why, are you running? Why are you running?”

“Come plaaaay!!”

“We’ll play with our punches! A heart-to-heart!”

“Great idea! Give us your heart, please? Pretty please?”

-Crack!

A sound echoed and Astolfo lost his footing. The part of the bridge he had just jumped on broke off. With superhuman speed, the boy activated five psychokinesis spells at once and somehow managed to make the broken wood stop in the air and serve as footing. The six months he had spent fighting for his life had made his survival instincts fly off the roof in their effectiveness.

He grabbed his ears again within seconds and took off again, but the sounds had gotten louder. The boy clicked his tongue as he felt his muscles numbing, making him slow again.

“Shit shit shit! Why? Move!“ The boy grunted with a distressed face. His thoughts were clouding up again when a hand fell on his shoulders.

“ARE YOU HURT?!?”

Fear incarnate had appeared to his back! The shouting Morris’ spine-chilling face coupled with his unexpected touch cleared Astolfo’s mind just like before and he rushed ahead again.

“Don’t worry! My magic will protect you from the fire spirits. We just have to get off the path of coal.”

Morris shouted some incomprehensible things, but to Astolfo’s ears, they were no better than death threats. After one last rush, he had finally reached the end of the bridge.

The boy immediately jumped ahead and rolled away from the bridge as the rough sensation of grass and dirt his back. Morris too jumped off the bridge and took as wide a distance as he could. At the very ends of the bridge, the numerous fire spirits came to a stop.

“Aww, they ran away.”

“Sucks.”

“Come back, don’t you wanna play??”

“Whee, let’s go find someone elseeee”

Astolfo collected his breaths on the ground as realization hit him that he could clearly understand their words. Morris walked over and giggled at Astolfo’s surprised face as if he knew what he was thinking.

“Is it strange to hear?” He pointed at his ears. “Spirits speak to your heart, not to your head. That is why you can understand when they want you to understand them.”

Astolfo could roughly figure out what he was saying.

“Isn’t it wonderful? The world?” Morris spread his arms wide with a wistful gaze. “There is just so much to see and know out there. The life of an explorer is filled with mystery and intrigue. I am sure you would love it.”

The boy nodded and smiled at him. He still couldn’t understand, but the emotions in Morris’ voice flowed out like water from a damn and resonated with his heart. Then Astolfo pointed at him and the bridge while tilting his head to the side.

“Oh, yeah.” Morris gathered his mana around his fist as a turqouise glow surrounded it. “That was my magic back there.”

Astolfo nodded again and bowed his head in gratitude. He had really saved the boy back there.

“Well um, we are pretty much at our destination,” Morris said, looking around. It was hard to believe that just meters away from the coal-filled grounds was a wide range of pasture-like dunes where the soft glow of the suns kissed the grass and where you could almost see dozens of sheep and cow grazing about as a shepherd lays under a tree.

The ruins were truly a mystical place. Morris could not fathom how many beautiful pieces of timeless literature would have been made with this place as an inspiration and how many more were lost in the maze of time.

At his words, Astolfo remembered the map he had seen earlier, there surely was a cross on the map around this area.

“We’ll have to wait a while.” Morris tapped his wrist. “Why don’t we rest here? No need to make a camp, let’s just spread the sheets and relax.” He pointed at his duffel bag and moved his palms in a spreading gesture.

Astolfo give him a thumbs up and got up with his hand at his chest.

‘He did save me, so I should take care of these mundane things.’

The boy pulled out the wide blue sheets from the bag and spread them over the grass. It had a few creases on the right, so he went to fix it but pulled a little too hard and misaligned it from the left. He then fixed it from the left but could see a single bulge rise near the top.

Morris could only watch as the boy laid the sheets to perfection for ten minutes straight. Astolfo proudly rubbed his nose and gestured at Morris to take a seat before lying down himself.

The boy sighed and closed his eyes. He was feeling strangely happy for the first time after being separated from his family.

‘Everything is so… new.’

He was liking it. This new place, the new experiences. It felt hopeless at first, a different continent where didn’t know a word. But seeing everything that had happened in the ruins, it was such an enlightening feeling.

Maybe if he knew the language or had someone he could trust here, it all wouldn’t have felt so special.

He wouldn’t be exploring a new world.

Astolfo could feel his heart pound in anticipation of what was to come next. He couldn’t wait to see more.

After six whole months, Astolfo felt alive.

Then, the feelings of guilt surfaced.

He was here, feeling joy while his family was probably worrying themselves sick over him.

He was happy to be alive… after taking someone’s life. This life was not his, but still, he was…

‘How long will I keep doing this? How long will I feel happy and then trash myself for feeling so… I want to stop, but I can’t. I can’t let it go.’

Astolfo covered his face with his hands and kept his eyes shut. He wanted it to be dark, like in the cave. He didn’t want to show his thoughts to anyone in the world. He didn’t want anyone to see.

Soon, the boy’s breathing calmed into a rhythm and he fell asleep.

There was a faint smile on his face.