"Kirim, I'm going to head out now. I'll be at the demon tree."

Kirim stood up and stretched. She had been sitting for several hours while Kirii slept. She had been observing him and it was astonishing to her just how much was different between them. He slept like the humans, his favourite food was fresh soft bread and he was very neutral about everything. He didn't really have any passion.

Kirim on the other hand was almost the complete opposite. She barely needed sleep at all, she was incompatible with bread, and she was passionate about learning and improving herself.

"I guess I'll head out too. No point in wallowing..."

She was still depressed. She couldn't help it. She felt the weight of her situation at every moment. The possibility she may never return home. She didn't even get to say goodbye to her parents in person.

She pulled herself together momentarily, enough to focus on the fact that she had some purpose in where she currently was. She didn't have access to her parents, but with a purpose and Kirii's appearance a reminder of her family, she might be able to handle it with time. Just focus on the things she had around her...

"Is anyone home?"

Alice's voice came from the door to the house, and Kirim went to answer her.

"Kirii went to the demon tree already. I'm just about to head out as well."

Alice pouted.

"Kirii is always out faster than I can give him his breakfast. He hasn't had my breakfasts once. Only having lunch is..."

Alice was pouting.

"I don't know how it is with Kirii since he gives the impression he's different than me on some fundamental levels, but typically blood elves only need to eat once a week and we don't consume much. It's rough for us to digest anything other than what we're genetically meant to. Anything other than what we're meant to can be poison to us. Even what I ate yesterday is poison to me. I can use magic to neutralize it and push it through my body, but that's expending more energy than the food would give me. It would honestly be a waste of food for me to keep consuming the food you give me, though I honestly appreciate the sentiment. I just need to hunt for something I can eat and preserve what I don't eat until I need more. I'm fine for a while because I have a bit of my food stored away for a while. I didn't bring much though so it'll only last me a month and a half."

Alice's gaze lowered and she moved the basket of food she was holding to one hand while crouching down.

"I...didn't know...maybe that's why..."

Kirim gave Alice a confused expression.

"Kirii refuses all food besides lunch."

Kirim was curious.

"What all is usually in the lunches?"

Alice shrugged.

"Not like it matters much, but it's just water with stuffed bread. In the stuffed bread, there's always an egg sauce aunty Kirito taught me how to make, some juicy meat and then whatever we have lots of as far as wet vegetables. He sometimes eats the berries I pack in too, but it's not often."

"Meat."

Kirim's response caught Alice off guard.

"What?"

"That's what blood elves survive off of. Meat. Well, technically it's the blood in meat, but if it's juicy it might be fooling his senses. For the last hundred years, we've avoided consuming only blood, consuming some of the meat at the same time. Maybe it's become a natural reaction for Kirii because of his mother living here his whole life. She was working on making it possible for him to survive here..."

Realizing that Kirito had been that thorough with raising Kirii how she could according to the land they were in, made her realize she needed to put in effort to adapt to her surroundings too. She just realized that she didn't even know what trapped Kirito in the light lands.

"Did miss Kirito have a sacred task that bound her to this land?"

Alice's expression darkened.

"Her sacred task is...was unique too. Only one other person has the same task, the administrator of the Axiom church. The sacred task of sacred arts researcher is two of a kind from a generation when sacred tasks were just given out to people through the decisions of the local church."

Kirim was confused.

"And how long ago did the administrator of the Axiom church live?"

Alice frowned. She was a little disappointed she had to explain so much.

"Administrator is an immortal being who was sent to our world from the realm of Gods and writes as well as researches the language of the gods to create new sacred arts for us in the church to use. Maybe aunty Kirito existed since when Administrator came to us."

Kirim pondered what that meant. Administrator was branded immortal, came from the heavens. Were they on the level of emperor Vector? Or were they just a representative of the gods? Or were they something else? Kirim wondered what kind of existence administrator was. Maybe they were a human who stumbled on power beyond understanding and promoted themselves to a position just below the gods.

She was confused. Why would sacred arts research bind Kirito to the light lands which were so inhospitable to her? Or was it simply that her life in the light lands allowed her to stay there her whole life, that she was able to find some way to manage living there as long as she did.

"Well, I'm going to meet up with Kirii and Eugeo. Hopefully the breakfast you made doesn't go to waste."

Alice grimaced.

"I guess father gets a second breakfast again...but it's okay, I don't need to make Kirii's anymore after today."

The two parted ways and Kirim found Kirii waiting for Eugeo at the tree, holding onto the ax they had been using the day before to chop at the tree. She glanced at the tree and saw the indent where she chunked out of it with her demonstration. It was truly remarkable that humans had made so little of an impact on it, and she easily chunked away more than several generations worth of effort in seconds worth of effort.

"Can you remove the ax blade and come here for a moment?"

Kirim's question was made without facing Kirii. She wondered what kind of emotion she would have seen on his face had she been facing him. She wanted to give him the chance to understand her.

"Is...this what you asked for?"

Kirii was about three steps away from her, holding the handle for the ax in his hands toward her. She smiled and conjured her own pole arm. She had made an imprint of it on herself so she could summon her equipment at any time by using a little of the ambient energy around her.

"Right, now I can teach you some of the skills you need to learn with long handle weapons. It'll help you with your posture, balance and follow through with the ax if you intend to keep the ax as your preferred long arm type of weapon. It'll help you with delivering more powerful blows to the tree."

Kirii gave her a confused expression.

"Posture? Balance? Follow through?"

Kirim nodded and noticed Eugeo had just arrived as well. She smiled.

"Alright, both of you are here now so I guess I won't need to repeat myself."

Eugeo smiled.

"More useful skills?"

Kirim nodded and began showing them several postures to take while adjusting their balance and teaching them the follow through. It ended up being about six hours straight training like that with barely touching the tree. By the time they finished the six hours, Kirim was satisfied with their progress.

"You'll want to keep up with that every day. You don't need to commit so long, but don't forget your progress and the feeling right now when you get it just right. You can extend this so long as you maintain the sense you have right now. Now, I'll enhance your pole arms, just swing as you learned at the opening in the tree and find out how much you have grown."

Alice was just arriving when Eugeo delivered the first full powered swing he had in him at the tree. The slice drew an arc in the sky which left a trail of light, and the colliding sound with the tree resounded so strongly, Alice thought that it might surely knock the tree down. Eugeo's expression as the magicked blade of the pole exited the other end of the cut was absolute astonishment. The new cut into the tree reached a full tenth into the tree. It was a significant addition to the distance they made through it. Alice gasped and her mouth hung open while staring at the result of the swing. A clean section of the tree was sliced out in that one motion. It was terrifying what one morning of training under Kirim was able to do to just Eugeo's ability. She anticipated what kind of impact a blood elf like Kirim could do when not holding back.

Kirii approached from the other side of the tree, aiming for a mark Kirim made. As he began his swing at the tree, everyone watching noticed the moment of hesitation which made the impact less powerful. Kirii's swing stopped barely into the slice, having lost the momentum entirely. The pole melded into the tree, the bark of the demon tree living up to its name.

"Hmm...so that's what it does to a fresh cut that isn't deep enough...don't worry about your pole arm. I'll get it out for you."

Kirim placed a hand on the bark of the tree and a hand on the butt of the pole arm, pushing on the bark of the tree while both pushing energy into extracting the pole arm cleanly and pulling on it physically with her body weight. It didn't take much effort, but she felt suddenly exhausted. She understood then exactly why it was called a demon tree. Whatever it made contact with, it pulled the energy out of like a ravenous beast. No wonder other trees wouldn't grow close to it. Because they couldn't.

Kirim slumped on the ground, dropping Kirii's pole arm on the ground beside her. She huffed, and gasped for air desperately while her body grasped at any energy in the area around her.

"Are you okay?! What happened?!"

Kirim laid back on the ground and kept gasping for air.

"I touched the bark of the tree...and it pulled more than 90% of my energy out...it's...a miracle I got away with enough energy to...barely live it."

Alice, Kirii and Eugeo were in a state of shock and gathered closely around her.

"...give...me...space..."

They were worried and barely heard Kirim's voice as she said those words.

Give me space! I will die if I can't extract energy from my surroundings and you're too close! I could kill you by extracting energy around me with you being so close! Back off a distance would you?!

Those words were deafeningly loud in their heads. They scrambled backward away from Kirim when they realized she wasn't safe yet.

"...Kirim is terrifying when she's so serious..."

Eugeo's words echoed Kirii and Alice's thoughts. Alice pulled herself together and grabbed up the lunch basket full of everyone's food. There was even a portion for Kirim. The bread was soft because of the ice in the lower level of the basket separated by cloth, and the sandwiches were filled with the usual toppings she went with. Kirii stared at Kirim while they ate, too concerned to focus on the food. In the end he put the food down and folded his arms around his knees, keeping his gaze locked on her.

"Are my kind usually like that? So forceful and loud?"

Alice put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sure it's just because her life is in danger. She's been so nice so far. Maybe she can be a bit of a loud and violent person, but she's fighting for her life right now and it's only right that we support her through that. As her friends."

"Friends..."

Eugeo echoed Alice's last word and stared at Kirim as she clung to her life desperately. The demon tree's bark and the gouges where the tree was being cut down were discolouring, going gray in colour as the energy was being drained. It was frightening just how strong Kirim was. To be draining so much energy from the tree, it was intense. It was like witnessing a demon consume another demon. She was voracious. It took her long past them eating lunch to regain her energy. Eugeo and Kirii were about to pass out from the penalty of not committing to their sacred task for so long, while Alice had to return to the church for her sacred task.

Sacred tasks were horribly binding. If they weren't performed for a length of time, they would negatively effect the person to the point of exhaustion. Sleep was the only exception. Even after sleeping, people with sacred tasks would feel the drain of needing to perform their sacred task. As long as Kirim was doing something that equated to work, she would be fine since her sacred task was as a freelancer. Anything she considered work would work for her. Eugeo and Kirito didn't know if that applied when she was just clinging on to life. It might be that she was currently fighting both the sacred task and against having been drained. She just might shrivel up the demon tree at the rate she was going at absorbing the energy in range of her.

Kirii decided he needed to at least check on her progress because Eugeo had just passed out from not doing his sacred task for too long. Kirii was able to hold on a little longer because he was a little naturally stronger, but it wasn't enough to make him sleep just yet. While he had gotten used to sleeping, he functionally didn't need it like his human friends he grew up with. A little exhaustion couldn't leave him debilitated for long before his nature let him adapt. It was strange getting used to the extended difficulties of refusing the sacred task, so he preferred to keep doing his sacred task instead of bothering with the task of getting used to refusing it. The true problem with the sacred task for him, was that he couldn't defy the taboo index. He hadn't had a reason to defy it, but he imagined there might be a need to in the future.

"Kirim, would you be able to move a bit away from the demon tree, at least enough that Eugeo and I can hit it? We're being hit really hard by the backlash of not fulfilling our sacred tasks. If you don't think you can move yourself, could you stop absorbing energy for a few seconds so I could move you away from the tree?"

Kirim took a few seconds to respond.

"You can...move me. I'm still only at about...20% of my required energy. I think...I might be experiencing two backlashes at once...normally taking in so much energy would balance out...I would be able to move my body by now...but perhaps I'm experiencing...the sacred task backlash as well...just move me...about three steps from the tree...I could still take from the tree from a fair distance...but the further away I am...the more difficult to extract accurately..."

Kirii hurried about it and got up beside her, lifting her gently in his arms and moving three steps from the tree on the freshly touched side of the tree. He set her back down gently and looked at the tree. They weren't that far, but hopefully it was far enough that him and Eugeo could hit it a few times safely and reduce the penalty of their sacred tasks.

"Will this be enough? And how about...teaching me some things. To lessen the burden of your sacred task. You just need to tell me things about the dark lands. About our traditions."

Kirim smiled and began extracting energy directly from the demon tree while reaching her thoughts to him about their traditions.

Our traditions start from the belief that we always take care of ourselves first as priority. We learn from a young age things which we practice every day as we grow. At the age of fifteen, we stop taking on more and more things to learn. Typically, we start with learning how to make our own equipment and prepare our own food. Then we move on to learning how to use short swords and the bow, then dual wielding daggers, then we learn magic and hone on it several times. With learning magic, every time we learn something new, it's a new element, or a new way to control the element. At the age of fifteen, when our direct lessons stop, we're tasked with honing ourselves and learning on our own, but I skipped a lot of the steps personally. At the age of twenty, we stop growing aside from our potential with magic. Eventually, and it's not set in stone, our capacity stops growing. We learn to hunt, to take care of ourselves, to forage, to make what we need from whatever is around us and make use of everything we touch. If we must kill an animal, we show respect to it by making use of every part of it so that there's no waste from that lost life. We offer our thanks to it. Even if it's just to plants. We learn to change our surroundings as needed and live only on essentials, never taking more than we need.

Kirii listened the whole time, and he wondered how it worked, that Kirim could speak directly into his mind.

This technique is called mind path. It's a magic which connects two or more nearby minds for communication. It also works over distances, but requires more energy the further away the communicating are. This is easier for me than moving my mouth at the moment, which is because I expend less energy communicating through the controlled method of magic instead of the unreliable method of speaking physically. It does take a fair amount of concentration so a time like this is one of the more stressful times for me to use such a method, but I'm desperate.

Kirii was worried. He had hit the demon tree a few times to relieve himself of the burden of the sacred task, and the sound was enough to wake Eugeo. Eugeo didn't have the energy to get up, so Kirii helped him to his feet and hit the tree a few times. Even if they were hitting the tree after gaining their new strength, they were unable to muster their newfound strength. Just hitting the tree with their pole arms was enough to lessen the burden of the sacred task.

"I'm...feeling the weight...of my sacred task lessen as well. You both...feel as if you're regaining yourselves after hitting the tree a few times...I'm glad. Could you...bring me a little closer to the tree again?"

After another few minutes close to the tree with Kirii and Eugeo away from her so she could go all out in extracting its energy, she was able to stand up and get away from it. She did some light pugilist exercises and other training stretches to get herself feeling decent again. She was pulling in energy all the while because although she had regained enough energy to move again, she was only at 40% of her usual energy level. She needed to spend more time absorbing the energy of the tree, but she was thinking of doing it when the village was asleep. Kirii and Eugeo were confused at all the motions Kirim made as she recovered herself.

"Is there a reason for moving like that?"

Eugeo's question wasn't heard by Kirim because of the level of focus she was putting into stretching herself and pulling in energy from the tree. He repeated what he said and she barely noticed it, facing him and stopping her stretches long enough to hear him ask the question finally.

"I move like this because it's a stretching routine for pugilists in the dark lands. Pugilism is essentially a martial art, or physical fighting method, which uses hands and feet as weapons. We also typically strengthen our bodies so that we are versatile enough to repel most physical and magic damages. At my age I'm not capable of repelling much with my bare skin but an adult pugilist could easily repel any blade not enhanced by magic. But really the reason I'm doing my pugilist stretches right now is because my body hasn't been moving for a bit and was severely drained of energy. I'm getting my body moving to get my energy balanced and loosen my joints because my body gets stiff if I don't move for a length of time."

Eugeo nodded in understanding.

"That pugilism sounds like it would be incredibly useful to us. Mind teaching us that too?"

Kirim smiled.

"Certainly. We'll substitute that in as the next thing you learn instead of the bow. I need to keep regaining myself because I'm barely on my feet right now. You can keep hacking at the tree to relieve yourselves further from the burden of your sacred tasks. If you think of anything I could quickly answer, ask me while I continue recovering. It would help me with relieving my sacred task's weight."

Kirii and Eugeo stared at her as she got into a sitting position on the opposite side of the tree and eventually they got back to work on hacking at the tree. They put some effort into it, but not enough to get them much nearer to felling it. They realized that just swinging their pole arms at the tree with magicked blades, basically like sharpened sticks, they were able to make more progress than they had before Kirim had shown up. The durability of the tree, the resistance it had to their physical exertions, had immensely fallen. If they had the energy to put in their full efforts, they could easily imagine downing it the very next day.

"What should we do next if we cut down the demon tree soon...? We don't know yet what happens after we complete our sacred tasks. What if we can choose our next sacred task? What if we get our next sacred tasks like you and our next task is based on our abilities?"

Kirim was smiling as she realized Eugeo shared her curiosity. Being incredibly curious by nature was something which made her able to become as adept as she had as quickly as she did.

"Let's hope that you can choose your next sacred task, but just in case it is that you get your next job based on your current abilities, it would be helpful if we can get you as caught up to my capabilities as I currently am. Putter away at hacking down the tree so it doesn't fall soon."

They smiled back to her and got to work at their held back hacking at the tree.

Before, hacking at the tree took a fair build up because of the size of it and the resistance it had. Usually they would take turns, and they would need to take a good breath between. They knew of the risks of touching the tree, but they didn't expect Kirim to actually touch it. They always had to be careful. When they did use all their strength swinging at the tree, they always had so much resistance they were fighting against that their arms would be throbbing in pain and vibrating from just one swing. It took a lot of effort to steel themselves for such a thing, but now they could hold back. They could chip away at it slowly, they didn't need to hurt their arms.

The excitement in them which built on knowing that they wouldn't need to hurt their arms anymore showed as they swung at the tree some more. Relieving themselves of the weight of the sacred task, they were feeling more and more awake. The turns they took swinging at it were getting closer and closer to each other as the hesitation left them and eventually they were feeling as if they were totally free from their sacred task. They recalled some of the motions Kirim was making before and tried imitating, but they spectacularly failed, both falling on their butts.

"Are you trying some pugilist stances? I'm doing a fair bit better, so let's take a bit of time to actually learn. I'll get the rest of my energy tonight when everyone is in bed."

Kirim stopped putting in the effort to pull in energy, and stretched herself out a little more.

"Copy my movements for these stretches. I'll repeat them until you get them right."

She did just that, feeling more and more loosened up until she felt ready to do anything from her experience as a pugilist. Kirii and Eugeo were having a difficult time getting the stretches down right.

"There we go, that took a while...now on to the first balance pose."

Kirim shifted herself to a point, where she was balancing on her heels while leaning her body weight behind her and holding her hands in front of her. She barely kept herself balanced. If she moved a little from that position, she would fall over. Kirii and Eugeo did their best to copy, but kept falling over. Kirim got out of the position neatly and moved to help steady them, teaching them how to balance themselves in the first stance. She moved them physically and when they both were able to hold it, she nodded.

"There we go, commit how this feels to your memory. Then we'll move on to the next pose."

Several balancing poses were taught and learned. Pugilism was one of the martial arts which she would take longest to teach, so part of her was glad it came up so early. It wasn't something normally taught to blood elves, but if someone was willing to learn, then they might as well be taught to the fullest extent they could learn.

Kirim doubted their ability to be prodigies since they took several more tries to get used to something than her, and she had to directly help them by touch with some of the poses. Finally they were able to catch onto something quickly when it was something a little more mobile instead of holding a pose. They were always doing something physical for their sacred tasks after all. Keeping still and focusing on their balance might not have been something they had on their minds much until she came along.

When the twilight sky made them aware of how late it had gotten, Kirim stopped the lessons.

"We'll stop here for tonight. Practice this whenever you think to, because balance is essential in a lot of the martial arts I will be teaching, such as archery. The bow gets its greatest strength when you are able to maintain your balance perfectly and control your concentration as much as possible. Pugilism greatly helps because balance and concentration are vital in pugilism as well and are taught as the foundations before proceeding to the direct use of pugilism. I will give a demonstration of the direct use of pugilism and the end result of the training."

She pulled some more energy from the demon tree and formed the energy into a clay-based soft ground type of striking dummy. She then set herself a few steps from the striking dummy, took a deep breath to balance herself and bring her concentration to focus on it. She took a pose and sharpened her feet and hands with magic energy in a coating. It were as if she were wearing weapons on her hands and feet. She exhaled the breath she had taken in while unleashing a flurry of punches, kicks and she did it all with a dance-like rhythm. It was baffling how quickly the striking dummy went from something smooth and rather boring in structure, to something that didn't resemble anything. She had been punching and kicking and dancing around it so quickly that the clay had hardened, and the form it ended up having greatly diminished the size it had when she first formed it. When she collided with the striking dummy, part of it vanished. The real case was that she chunked away at the very energy which it was made of. In such a way, she reduced the striking dummy to barely a tenth of what she had made it to be in that short time. Her collisions with the striking dummy were akin to witnessing shock waves at close proximity. It was difficult to watch her without the pressure blowing back from the impacts and making them feel the need to close their eyes. The dust and dirt on the ground made it all the more difficult.

"There's an example of where you can be after a few years of training every day for at least an hour a day. The pugilist who taught me said I still have a long way to go if I want to be a true pugilist, but I'm not of the mind to become physically as sturdy as magisteel with my physical strength alone. Like any girl, I prefer feeling soft and cozy."

Eugeo and Kirii stared with baffled expressions. They were so impressed, they wanted to get where she was immediately, but hearing that it took her a few years as a prodigy to get as skilled as she was, they were suddenly unsure of their ability to hold back that long on felling the tree.

"Let's worry about your pace for felling the tree after we've gotten you your basic skills learned. Don't worry about being as trained as me in everything for a fair length of time. I learned over the last six years, but we'll condense the lessons a fair amount. It won't be to make you experts just yet, but to have skill developing in several areas so you could be judged by the sacred task system as having several skills developing and in the front of your skill set. We will need to make you strong in these points significantly, to overtake any shred of possibility that you get anything else. We can skew your potential in a way you get a sacred task you prefer. Something in hunting or combat would be preferred if you don't want freelancer."

Eugeo and Kirii had thoughtful expressions at the mention of choosing a sacred task through manipulating the system if they didn't have a choice in the end. It was like they were preparing themselves for a choice of their preferences.

"I would kind of like...to be a knight. To go to Centoria and become a traveling knight would be something almost unbelievably perfect. To become someone who goes to the rescue of people in need...so much better than being stuck swinging a big old ax at a thousands of years old tree."

Eugeo's earnest desire was met with a smile.

"You certainly have a good and honest desire for your sacred task of choice. What kind of training do you think you would need to obtain such a task?"

Kirim's question got Eugeo and Kirii both thinking deeply on their answers, even though Kirii hadn't yet revealed his answer.

"I think knights are mostly just good with some type of sword, but also had some small ability in sacred arts and archery. As if they were expert swordsmen but also having a bit of ability in other things. Oh! And knights also ride on the backs of beasts like horses and dragons."

Kirim gave it some thought. It sounded like knights were just being set up like her tribe were. Skillful in several things but primarily in melee combat, and able to ride into combat on the back of a reliable steed. It also sounded like preparing...but she was certain the integrity knights were beyond human abilities. Was there something the administrator of the Axiom church did to people, by chance? Those were her thoughts as she contemplated Eugeo's vocalized thoughts.

"Well, if you want to be knights, it gives me a chance to escort you to Centoria and I could learn more about this land there. Potentially, I could find a way to rid myself of my sacred task and return home. I'll do what I can to help you become perfect for being delegated to the sacred task of knight. How about you Kirii? Have you come up with anything for your sacred task?"

Kirii scratched his cheek and looked down while sighing.

"I...kind of want to have the same sacred task as mom, but...I'm not sure that sacred task can be taught."

Kirim thought about it a moment. She didn't know most of Kirito's skills, but what she did know was that she was extremely knowledgeable because of her age within the light lands, and she was likely one of the most skilled light landers despite her blood lineage being of the dark lands.

"What were some things she was good at? Did you learn much of what she was good at when she was our age?"

Kirii nodded.

"She was good at everything, even better than most of the adults around her."

Kirim sighed. She understood that to mean that Kirito in fact retained at least muscle memory of being extremely skilled at everything she was taught in the dark lands. Other than that, she might have been a prodigy from an earlier generation.

"Good, I think I can work with that. She quite possibly just had a lot of good muscle memory from her time in the dark lands so teaching you everything I know would benefit you. Was there anything that stood out better for your mother? A stronger trait?"

Kirii gave it some thought, apparently having forgotten. It took him a minute to recall the detail.

"She was better at sacred arts than anyone. She didn't need to use incantation. I guess that was actually magic though, huh..."

Kirim understood the situation finally. Kirito was the same, just trapped from a long time before she arrived.