บท 126: The Lesser Earth Monument

"That's quite a random thing to ask me to remember for you, Aaron. What's the sudden request for?" Alec asked Aaron, curious as to what the request was about. "Well, I just remembered what Spiritwalkers are, and I really don't want to be around them. It wouldn't be pleasant having to roam around as a spirit." Aaron admitted, lying about the part of remembering the information. Memica told him about it, and it wouldn't be the best idea to let anyone other than Monument know about the hugely overpowered abilities he used because of Memica.

"Wait, so you know what happens to people once they make deals with a Spiritwalker?! What happens?!" Alec asked in excitement, as no one else had such information. "Woah! Calm yourself! Once someone takes the deal of a Spiritwalker, they turn into Spiritwalkers, while the deal-maker gets access to the new empty body. All they want to do is replicate the life of the person they make a deal with. They wish for life again. I have no idea how they were created, though." Aaron explained to Alec, who looked to Aaron like an over-excited child with a thirst for information. That's not a bad thing, so Aaron let him get all the information he needed.

"Wait, so you're telling me any of us could be Spiritwalkers, and we wouldn't know, right?" Alec yelled out in worry, touching his face as if he felt something on it. "No, not the case. If I were a Spiritwalker, I'd know and have memories of taking this body over. If I was taken over BY a Spiritwalker, I'd be fully conscious of my existence, and I'd be in immense pain." Aaron further explained, putting ease to Alec's worried mind. Alec eased up, knowing that he was still Alec and not a Spiritwalker.

After a few more hours of walking, the sun had begun to set. Alec was exhausted, and Aaron was about to suggest that they set up camp for the night when Monument alerted them to something. "Hey, that's the place up there!" Monument exclaimed, pointing them towards a large cave-like structure. It looked almost like it would be home to Monument if it was bigger. "So, should we run up there, or should we rest and get to it in the morning?" Aaron asked, looking towards Monument for advice.

"In all honesty, it'd be better for us to fight him now, as he'd be off guard. He wouldn't expect anyone to come in this late." Monument stated before taking off on what appeared to be a fast jog. To him, it was but a snail's pace. Aaron bent down, indicating for Alec to jump onto Aarons's back. "We're going to beat Monument there, and we're going to do it in 𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦," Aaron explained, as Alec jumped onto his back. Aaron stood up and said two words before running like the wind.

"Get ready."

Aaron caught up to Monument in under a second, holding onto Alec, ensuring he didn't fall off. "Have fun trying to catch up!" Aaron yelled before speeding off into the distance. Monument took this as a challenge like he was meant to, and the pair began rushing up towards the ever-nearing cave entrance. The two were neck and neck as Aaron slowed himself down by a load. He didn't want to run too much of a risk of Alec falling off and dying due to friction burns.

The group got closer and closer towards the cave, reaching their hands out. Aaron stopped his momentum instantly by using Boundless Telekinesis to hold himself in place around half a second before hit the wall. Monument couldn't stop himself in time, so he slammed into the side of the cave, injuring himself, although not too much. Monument looked somewhat dazed from his posture, sitting up while leaning on his hands. His head was spinning slightly, but he was fine.

"You really should have stopped yourself a tad bit earlier, Monument!" Aaron called out, making a joke of his collision. "Well, if I had known how close the cave actually was, I would have been able to stop earlier so that this didn't happen," Monument responded, getting up while shaking himself off. "After all, we were both going so fast."

Alec jumped off of Aaron's back, his hair a mess. He also looked dizzy, but that's simply because of the speed they were going at. "Honestly, you probably should have warned me, Aaron," Alec commented, almost falling over. "It would have been great to know how fast you two were going beforehand."

"Sorry about that, Alec. It's just that I didn't want him to wi-" Aaron apologised before getting cut off by a loud, booming voice. Almost like Monument, but quieter. "𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒂𝒗𝒆?! 𝑺𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒍𝒚, 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔? 𝑾𝒉𝒚?!" The voice yelled as a stone monster around a quarter the size of the original Monument began walking forward, out of the cave.

"Oh, look! It's exactly who we're looking for! Hello, Lesser Earth Guardian! We've, or I've, come to battle you as part of the league challenge! We haven't fought any of the human leaders, as we want to skip over them." Aaron enthusiastically stated as the mini-Monument looked at him in curiosity. "𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒉. 𝑰 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒂 𝑬𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒏𝒐 𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔. 𝑨 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒅𝒖𝒎𝒃 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒇𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒂 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒉. 𝑮𝒐 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆! 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏'𝒕 𝒏𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒚 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉!"

This caused a little memory to resurface. It reminded Aaron of Jacob, the Savant. The one he murdered in that one school's infirmary. Huh. That really wasn't the best of times. It made him angry, thinking about what he had done. He had come to terms with the fact that he had done it, but it made him angry nonetheless. He was mad at himself for doing that. After about five seconds, Aaron grasped onto his calmness, but only barely. He almost leaked some of his power. Aaron placed his hand on the side of the cave and crushed part of the wall by closing his hand. "You never know. I might surprise you."