บท 25: Mindless Beasts

Looking down from the sky I could see they haven't given up yet. The group of statues divided into several groups and began chasing them, before eventually stopping near the wall separating the outer and middle district.

'We had finally escaped.' Letting go of the connection, I let out a sigh of relief. The entire ordeal had been too taxing; even though I hadn't been the one getting hurt, I could still feel the pain coursing through my soul.

It didn't take a lot of time for the storm raven to return with the duskwraith. As it came closer to my location, I asked it to enter the house from a hole on the side and ordered the stormraven to gently put the duskwraith down on the floor.

"The poor thing," I muttered, looking at the duskwraith's condition. Its entire body was covered in cuts and bruises, the long nose had been completely shattered, and this was without mentioning the two missing limbs.

"At least it's not bleeding," I called back the duskwraith and watched it dissolve into a cloud of smoke before taking its place on my arm, turning into a slightly worn-out tattoo.

At the same time, I dove inside my soul to check on it. Only to see the duskwraith lying inside an onyx black cocoon of sorts, releasing the same black miasma.

'It was healing,' I could instinctively feel its wounds being caressed and fixed in the cacoon.

Taking my attention away from the duskwraith, I looked at the storm raven sitting quietly in front of me, eventually stealing glances in my direction.

If this was any other day, I would have simply ignored it, simply deeming it to be some crazy behavior of a stupid monster, but not today. I gently stretched my hand and began lightly patting over the stormraven's head.

The bird, feeling the warm embrace, initially acted a bit taken aback before finally leaning in onto my palm and making a light trilling sound. Sneaking glances at me like that. I may not have been able to tell before, but I could now. The little thing had been hoping for praise all this time, waiting for me to tell him he did a good job.

All this time, I had been thinking of the revenants as mindless beasts… simple tools for me to use as I pleased, like robots incapable of anything but following orders.

But after descending so deep into our connection, witnessing the world through their eyes, feeling the emotions they were feeling, feeling their pain, and sensing their undying loyalty, not to mention their willingness to die over disobeying my orders.

I couldn't treat them as mindless robots, not anymore.

"You guys need new names, and I need to stop addressing you as it is." I took the stormraven in my arms, stood up from my seat, and walked outside the stone room.

I was immediately assaulted by a cold chill the moment I took my first step outside. The sun had already set behind the horizon, revealing the figure of a half-moon in the enchanting night sky.

It wasn't safe to roam outside in the night, I might be inside the city, but that didn't mean that there weren't no danger out in the Wastes.

Taking one last look at the direction of the building with the stone statues, I turned around and began hurrying towards the camp.

"Where were you? You think it's okay to disappear for hours on end without telling us where you were going." Aria stood up from her seat and bombarded me with questions the second I entered the hideout.

"We searched around everywhere when you didn't return after a while; we almost thought something ate you." Tess chimed in from the side, sitting beside Aria.

Both of them had set up a tiny secure base for us to safely spend the night in. Currently they were sitting besides a makeshift campfire, cooking what I was presuming was our dinner.

"Everything's fine; I just had to run because there was an emergency." I raised both of my hands in defense before sitting down beside the fire.

"I know I should have told you where I was going, but there was no time. The duskwraith encountered some danger while investigating the city. If I hadn't left when I did, it would have most likely died."

That's right; there was no reason for me to tell them about the temple or that I had run out because there was a limit to how far I could stay away from a revenant while still controlling them.

"What kind of enemy?" Tess questioned. For some reason, she looked a lot better than she had in the afternoon; even her complexion looked great under the fire.

"Stone statues, similar to the ones on the ghost ship. They roam around the city patrolling, largely staying in the middle district. The ones duskwraith fought, it was at least as strong as that thing back in the fort."

Hearing what I had said, both Tess and Aria snuck in a deep breath.

"The entire fight duskwraith couldn't even land a single blow, those things… we need to stay clear of them if we want to survive. That means no going out to explore the city, searching for landmarks."

"Those things, do they come patrolling in our general area?" Aria asked in a low voice.

"I don't think they come so far out in the outskirts; why?"

"Because I don't think it's possible for us to leave this city for a while."