Clash of the Elements Part 0: The Winds of Days Past

by mewmaster93

2000 years ago, there was a hero of renown called the Elemental Overlord. Many have spoken of his daring feats and accomplishments, but his past has remained unknown...Until now. Hidden within three journals left behind by his wife are the details of his journey from young boy to the hero of legend. Venture to Genestasia, to uncover the many truths hidden in the distant past...

15. Chapter -148

Chapter -148: Limited View

Johnathan Gaia leads his two guests further into the ravine of Oreore. Along the way he needed no prompt to pridefully talk up his village and the hard work of his people.

"'Ere in Oreore we mine to our hearts' content every single day! Not a day goes by where these walls ain't echoing with the clanging of metal upon metal!"

"...So we've heard." Justek bemoaned behind him.

"Do you guys have a currency here? Is that why everyone's mining so much metal?" Sarajin then asked.

"'Currency'?" Ezekiel remarked curiously, "Pop, what's that word mean?"

"Don't know son." Johnathan replied with a soft, curious tone of his own.

He then continued marching straight ahead as he explained, "Nah, we mine in preparation for the future...And for the thrill of it, mostly."

Johnathan made a slight detour to the right where a pair of miners were picking away at the wall with those curved metal tools.

Johnathan rattled his knuckles against it and it made a slight metallic sound, "See this wall 'ere, lads? There are steel deposits buried inside."

"Steel is our most commonly used metal, as it's durable and dense enough to mine other materials with," Johnathan then kneeled down and rubbed his hand along the ground, "But if ya somehow make it further down, there's tougher metals like diamond and tungsten to dig up."

"Is that why there's long holes in the walls?" Sarajin inquired, leading Johnathan to rise up with a smile.

"Ah ya picked up on that quickly didn't ya lad? Ye, I reckon about three or more miners at a time will tunnel into the walls to try and get further down."

He then crossed his arms, closed his eyes and sighed, "Or ya got upstarts like my son here tryin' to dig tunnels solo."

Ezekiel stared up at his dad with embarrassment, only for him to reach his big hand out to ruffle his hair, "He can't 'elp himself, he's got my blood boiling in 'im after all! Ha ha ha!"

"You betcha pop! Har har har!" The two laughed it up for a bit until Sarajin could muster up the nerve to ask them something else.

"So you use the metal you dig up to make more of these tools?"

"And weapons, and armor, and all sorts of other things." Johnathan replied.

"With all the noise you make I'm surprised you haven't emptied this ravine by now." Justek brought up.

"HA! Fat chance of that ever happenin'! Our Titan and I see eye-to-eye, so we'll never run out of stuff to mine!"

"Is that why we felt tremors coming from Aquamoria a couple days ago? Cause your Titan was filling up the ravine again?" Sarajin thought his idea was sound but that's not what put some surprise on Johnathan's face.

"Ye came from Aquamoria?" He remarked, raising his brows.

"Oh, no sir!" Sarajin hustled to explain, "We were just visiting there to fish!"

"I was gonna say, yer a little too white to be one of those wet-eared wimps." Johnathan had a solid laugh at that exchange and then continued to lead them towards his home. But now, his own curiosity had been piqued.

"So we ain't the first Tribe you've been to eh, lad?"

"No, sir. We've been to Tanglefae and Aquamoria so far!" Sarajin's enthusiasm led to Johnathan matching it with an equally bombastic boast.

"And then ya finally decided to come to someplace fun and excitin' instead! Ha ha ha!"

"I've had a lot of fun in the other places though," Sarajin replied in his simple-minded way, "The leader of Aquamoria even taught me how to enjoy fishing!"

"Hmph," Johnathan suddenly got grumbly in tone, "Guess that lass' got to have some talent beyond being loud."

"You've met her before?"

"Oh she rolls around 'ere every now and then gettin' in my face about all the tremors," Johnathan crossed his arms and shook his head, looking tired, "Such a horribly unpleasant woman..."

Justek smirked as he mentioned, "That does sound like her alright."

"But she's not that unpleasant once you get to know her." Sarajin followed on up with.

"I ain't got any intention of makin' friendly with people who've got no respect for our way of livin'." Johnathan said softly with a firm tone.

"Oh..." Sarajin felt sad hearing that.

Johnathan perked right back up and proclaimed, "But enough about that woman! If ya came here wantin' to learn to mine like the rest of us, lad, I'll do my darndest to toughen those muscles into minin' shape!"

"And the first step to that, is a hefty helpin' of mum's meat!" Ezekiel added, rubbing his belly and licking his lips.

Johnathan patted him on the back and hollered, "That's my boy!"

A few moments later Johnathan craned his head back and remarked, "And there we are...Home!"

Part of the wall had a stairway built into it leading up a hole big enough to let such a massive man like him through. It had a couple of those windows carved into it on top of having two floors. The only other feature it had was some semi-see through orange rocks around the doorway.

Johnathan took the lead up the steps and put two of his fingers inside his mouth to whistle.

"C'mere boy! C'mere!"

A whimper came from a four-legged saggy beast at the top of the steps. Standing knee-high with Johnathan, it wobbled over to him with its ears so big and droopy they were dragging along the ground. It was brown-skinned and had a small wet nose, and an even smaller, wagging tail.

Johnathan stood beside it and patted it on the head, causing it to pant with its tongue hanging out, "Ya miss me, Geo?"

"Woof, woof!" Went the beast excitedly.

It then rubbed its nose up against Ezekiel's abdomen as he bent forward and embraced it in a hug, "Love ya too, boy!"

Sarajin approached it next cautiously. With a smile he extended his hand towards the beast, "Awwww, you're so cute!"

The beast sniffed the air and then its ears rose up, revealing that it didn't have any eyes underneath. Sarajin was spooked, but not as much as when the beast suddenly reared its head back and started barking.

"Woof woof! Woof woof!"

It was going at it a lot and Johnathan had to turn around and question it, "Whoa, boy, settle down!"

"Woof woof! Woof woof!" The beast did this a couple more times and then nudged its nose towards Sarajin's pocketed poncho.

Johnathan however pinched the beast by the neck and gently pulled it back, reprimanding it with a firm, "Noooo! No!"

He wagged his finger at it and told him, "We don't treat guests like that, boy. Remember that."

"Mmmm...!" The beast whimpered.

Johnathan then pulled back and gestured at the beast's head, "He's all yours, lad."

Sarajin slowly reached out, the beast still growling up until the point his hand touched. Then, feeling the beast's cold and wrinkly skin, Sarajin continued to pet its head for a bit and the growling subsided.

And he even began to pant a little, which made Sarajin smile.

"See, he ain't a threat, Geo." Johnathan remarked.

"Geo?" Sarajin remarked, tilting his head.

"A Rockweiler, miner's best friend," Johnathan said fondly as he scratched the beast on the back of his ear, "Ain't no better sniffer alive than his. Could identify gold just from a grain if ya tried to."

"Yep...been my loyal friend ever since I was a lad yer age." Johnathan sighed and then with one pat to his pet's head he turned and headed for the door.

"Honey! Yer two favorite men are home!" He shouted.

"Oh quit yer bellowin' Johnny, I heard ya comin' from a mile away!" Shouted a woman with a thick, meaty tone of voice.

From around the gray stone pillar came a woman unlike anything Sarajin had seen before. She had broad shoulders and a big, barreled chest, complete with defined biceps and legs. She showed some age on her face but retained some femininity to her. Her hands were presently covered by gloves made of thick animal hide while her body was covered by a combination of black overalls, a leather strap bra, and rocky shoes.

Her hair was scraggy and all over the place but full of lush brown color. She gazed their way with piercing, warm green eyes and a smile.

She dusted her gloves off before her chest and then marched forward with arms outstretched, as Johnathan met her with an equally powerful gesture.

The two smushed their dirty, dusty bodies together and groaned as they held each other tight enough to crack the bones.

It was the kind of gesture of good-will between husband and wife that Sarajin wished his own parents showed around him more often.

After Johnathan pulled away Ezekiel was the next to run up to her, leaping into her chest with his arms wrapped tight around her frame.

"Missed ya mum!" He shouted.

"Oh silly child, ya need to stop being so clingy." She said in a humored tone as she let him down gently, following a short hug.

She then rubbed some of the dirt off his face and murmured, "What's this now? Ya got a couple'a bruises on yer skin, child."

Johnathan crossed his arms and sighed, "Caused another cave-in, nearly crushed a couple of outsiders too."

The mother's eyes narrowed and as quick as a whip she bonked Ezekiel atop the head with her fist, "How many times do we hafta tell ya, child?! No causing cave-ins! Ya gonna someday put good men in danger!"

Ezekiel rubbed the top of his head and moaned, "But muuuum, I've been tryin' ta tell ya and pop, I didn't do it this time!"

He got bonked on the head again with his mother firmly reprimanding him more, "Dontcha be lyin' either, I didn't raise no miscreant!"

She then peered up at her two guests sort of just standing awkwardly at the door watching this scene unfold. She then breathed quietly and stood to greet them apologetically.

"Sorry for the trouble me boy has caused," She then put her hands square on her hips, gesturing one out with a domineering stance, "Outsiders, ey? And just what're yer names?"

"My name is Sarajin, ma'am!" Sarajin quickly bowed, quivering at the knees.

"Don't be feelin' nervous boy, I ain't gonna bite." The lady laughed.

Justek then nudged his glasses into place and smirked, "And I am Justek. Apparently, we are now your son's new friends."

The lady patted Ezekiel on the back and almost made him topple over, "Ya, he be like that!"

"It be a pleasure to meet ya both tho," She smiled and pressed a thumb against her chest, "The name's Lianne. Ye've already met me hubby and my boy, so just feel free to make yerselves at home now."

Sarajin entered properly now and saw that there were a couple of those Luminode stones wedged into the walls to keep the house lit.

Any furniture and household necessities had been built from the ground up, literally. The seats and tables were part of the floor, barely resembling the round and square shapes Sarajin had come to expect from there.

The kitchen was where Lianne had come from, with there being an arrangement of stone boxes that served various functions.

The box on the right went up to the top of Johnathan's chest and was filled with these glowing orange rocks that crackled and radiated heat, searing a positively massive slab of meat above it.

Sarajin had to restrain his drool before he made a fool of himself in front of his hosts. Lianne headed off to the kitchen and remarked, "Dinner'll be done in fifteen minutes, lads."

Johnathan and Ezekiel rubbed their bellies and licked their lips in bliss, "Mmmm, thigh steak...!"

Sarajin took a whiff of the meat and it DID smell really good. Not as strong as fish did. It was smoky, but in a good way. It felt like a smell he wanted to eat, not avoid.

Sarajin and Justek passed by the two and made their way to the table, where they found there were only three seats.

"Oh!" Ezekiel chimed in, with a raise of his hand causing two extra stone seats to rise out of the ground, "There ya go, friends!"

"Thanks, Ezekiel!" Sarajin then sat down on the right side of the table while Justek took a seat next to him. Johnathan went to the head of the table, while Ezekiel was on the other side of his new friends.

"So, lad, I actually don't think I've asked ye yet..." Johnathan leaned over the table at Sarajin, "Where ya from exactly?"

Sarajin smiled and shrugged, "Ah, I don't think you'd care. It's not really that interesting of a place compared to here."

"Ha! And ye'd be right!" Johnathan laughed, "Its just...I don't know, there's somethin' about ya that strikes me as familiar."

"Familiar? Me?" Sarajin replied, pointing at himself.

"Haaaa..." Johnathan sighed, "Nah, maybe I'm just imaginin' things."

He then held his hands together atop the table and asked, "So...what else ya want to know about minin'?"

"As a matter of fact," Justek interjected, "I'd like to confirm some information I read about in a book."

"...A what now?" Johnathan fluttered his eyelashes.

"Never mind that," Justek smugly smirked, "I heard that Oreore is unique in that despite being Earth focused, your mines hold stones that contain the elemental energies unique to other Tribes."

"Really?!" Sarajin proclaimed.

"Well...yes and no," Johnathan replied with a wry grin and then gestured his thumb towards, "Take our cooker for example. Honey?"

Lianne pulled away from using a metal implement to grind a rock to finely grained pieces over the meat, "Yes dear?"

"Ya mind tellin' the lads about the gem, bein' yer area of expertise and all?"

"Oh well certainly," Lianne clapped the black dust off her gloves and then thrust one right into the stone box, pulling out one of those hot glowing rocks, "See this 'ere? This is a topaz. But as you can see, it's hotter than a hot iron at the moment."

"Ya see, gems like this 'ere are able to contain and amplify all manner of elemental energy."

Johnathan remarked, "Say you grind a couple of coals together to make a fire. You then put the topaz near the fire and it'll swallow it up to make a hotter fire."

Lianne took the topaz in her hand and pressed it against the wall behind her for one second. But that was more than enough time for a head-sized black mark to form around it.

"Whooooa!" Sarajin remarked, his eyes glistening brighter than diamonds.

Lianne gently flicked the topaz back into the cooker and then blew the smoke sizzling off her glove. Johnathan then turned to Justek and said, "So ya see, the gems don't hold elemental energy right off the bat."

"...Huh," Justek nudged his glasses up on one finger and said, "I suppose when so many books are written one detail or two tends to slip."

"Well if ya need to know more about gems, I'm yer man." Lianne boasted proudly.

"So each gem is connected to a different element?" Sarajin pondered.

"You bet!"

"What's the one for the Wind?"

"HA!" Johnathan suddenly burst out in laughter, scornful in its nature, "Like those sky high cowards would-"

"Johnny!" Lianne shouted, "Ye'll not be bringing that up in front of the guests!"

Johnny gestured his hand up and scoffed, "Oh lay off, Lianne, its best the lads know their enemy while they're still young."

Lianne then narrowed her eyes and reached into the nearby stone box. In the blink of an eye she took a sharp knife out and stabbed it atop the cooker, causing everyone at the table to flinch.

"Then I guess ye'll be goin' without dinner."

Johnathan pouted and thrust his arms against his chest, "Gah, fine. Ya win this round."

Lianne smiled and slowly pulled the knife free.

Sarajin then leaned over to Justek and whispered, "...He wasn't talking about my people, was he?"

"What do you think?" Justek said nonchalantly.

"I don't know..." Sarajin peeled away and wondered to himself, "I guess there could be another flying city out there somewhere."

Justek quietly raised his brows at him.

A few minutes later Lianea was hoisting the cooked slab of meat over using a black stone plate and one arm. She slammed it down atop the table and rattled the house, making Sarajin hop up in his seat.

She then provided sharp knives and massive forks, but no plates. Immediately after taking a seat opposite her husband, she along with her men plunged their forks into the meat and red juices gushed out all over.

"DIG IN!" The Gaia family shouted.

With the fork as support they shaved off layers of meat and stuffed them into their mouths without pause. Chewing and chewing until it could be swallowed.

Sarajin tried to mimic their enthusiasm but when he plunged with all his might, the fork just barely penetrated the spiced outer layer. He then had to run the knife back and forth quite a bit just to get a sizable piece off.

But he could feel his muscles aching all the while, pulsing and pounding against the struggle of earning his dinner.

Johnathan, mouth half-full, still managed to bellow in laughter, "That's the spirit, lad! Ye'll build bulk in no time like that!"

"H-Heh heh...!" Sarajin grit his teeth in a half-happy, half-struggling grin, "There sure is a lot of muscle work required to eat down here!"

He then glanced over his shoulder to see Justek easily cutting a piece of meat off for himself. Though he took his time chewing his.

"Maybe someday I'll get to be as strong as you, Justek!" Sarajin's sudden blurting of that caused Justek to almost choke on his meat.

He coughed a bit then rattled his chest, glaring aside at Sarajin to tell him, "W-Watch what you say, idiot."

He then nudged his head to the left, "You're lucky they're too busy pigging out...Lord almighty, reminds me of home."

He then slowly returned to his meat as Sarajin finally cut off a piece to enjoy himself, but at this rate he'd be lucky to enjoy a second piece.

The meat was tougher than any other but it just made releasing the flavor into his mouth all the more rewarding. The juices were smoky and lean with a hint of pepper.

"DE-LICIOUS!" He gave his compliments to the cook.

"Thank ya, lad." Lianne reciprocated.

They continued to eat this way for a while, leaving little to no room for conversation. The Gaia family consumed the bulk of the meat but Sarajin did manage to get a couple of pieces in, his belly feeling as bloated as a Saltpuffer's.

He had juices all over his face too, which looked relatively clean compared to the table which had juice splattered all over it, or the Gaia family who had practically replaced all the dirt on them with it.

Johnathan patted his belly and burped, followed by Lianne, then Ezekiel. Lianne then winked and burped twice in rapid succession, causing Johnathan to laugh, then burp again.

"Oh honey..." Johnathan leaned in and with a fondness in his voice that only they could share he said, "Ya always know how to worm yer way into my heart time and time again."

Justek closed his eyes and sighed, "Love comes in many forms, I suppose..."

Sarajin grinned and enjoyed seeing the happy couple playfully wiggle their fingers at one another. But the juice on his face was getting distracting.

"Oh, how am I going to clean this off?" It felt like the juices would melt into his skin if left unattended for so long.

He glanced down at his pocket and thought, "Well...mom's going to have to clean this when I get home anyways."

He then pulled out the corner of his poncho and started rubbing the juice off his face.

It got quiet all of a sudden, and as he looked forward he saw Johnathan staring at him. There was something off about his face. Not only was he confused but his pupils were shrinking.

"Lad..." He tried starting off delicately, "What's that ya got there?"

"This?" Sarajin was eager to show it off but, recalling Justek's advice, tried to stuff it back into his pocket, "I-It's nothing, sir!"

But the guilt of lying wouldn't feel as bad as when Johnathan suddenly reached out and pulled his poncho out from his pocket, spreading it atop his arms.

"H-Hey!" Sarajin tried to reach out, but Johnathan stood and held it out of reach.

His eyes began to tremble, his fingers curling inward. With a cold and narrow gaze towards Sarajin he asked, "...This is a poncho."

"Y-Yeah, my mom made it," Sarajin's eyes widened and he asked, "Wait...h-how would you know what-"

"Lad," Johnathan's fingers curled over the top of the poncho and he leaned in to whisper, "What did ye say yer name was again?"

"Sarajin, sir..."

"Full name, lad." Johnathan was getting tenser over time and it made Sarajin feel uncomfortable looking at him.

"Sarajin...Stratos."

Johnathan's hands dug deep into the poncho and with a forceful gesture he threw it into Sarajin's chest, where he pressed it up against himself.

He watched as Johnathan's gaze trembled, his teeth bit down like a beast's.

"Get out." He said in a raspy tone.

"Wha-"

"I said GET OUT!" He raised his voice and shook Sarajin to the core.

"B-But...!" Before Sarajin knew it Johnathan had him and Justek by their shirts and marched out the front door, dropping them off the edge of the porch.

It was a hard fall but one that Sarajin got right up from, scrambling to climb back up to the front door where Johnathan awaited him.

"Why are you doing this?!" He shouted.

Johnathan's nostrils flared and he reared his head back, his hospitable demeanor long gone, "I don't have to answer to a rotten 'Buzzard' spawn. Now git out of my village, boy!"

"Please!" Sarajin pleaded with all his heart, "If this is about birds taking your stuff-!"

Johnathan's eyes widened so much in that moment it revealed parts of the body Sarajin didn't know existed, freezing him in fear as the man then slammed his hand against the side of the door frame, and caused a chunk of rock to rise up and seal Sarajin off from his home.

"And stay out!" Johnathan screamed one last time, his loud footsteps heard behind the door.

"..." Sarajin stared straight at the door, his heart having sank to his gut.

"Why?" Was all he could think of.

Just a moment ago he was enjoying a friendly meal with some nice people, but then it was stolen from him in the blink of an eye.

Many thoughts swirled in his head, a maelstrom of negativity and confusion culminating in his chest tightening, and his teeth grit bitterly in hate.

He didn't let it overwhelm him, and made his way down the steps with his feet as heavy as stone.

There Justek awaited him, his arms crossed and looking none too bothered by being thrown out.

Sarajin slowly put his poncho back on and muttered wearily, "I...I don't understand, Justek. Everything was going fine until I pulled my poncho out."

"I warned you." Justek told him, briefly flirting with a feeling of superiority over it.

"B-But it doesn't make any sense!" Sarajin blurted out, looking his friend right in the eyes and pleading with him to make some sense out of the mess inside his head, "The only person I know besides me who has come down to the surface is my friend Nimus! And he's such a nice guy, I-I don't know why anyone would have bad things to say about our home because of him!"

"...Sarajin-" Justek tried to speak but Sarajin was full on ranting out of distress for the severity of hate Johnathan had shown him.

"A-And its like...its like...These people are so friendly until another Tribe comes up, then they turn into a bunch of jerks for no reason!"

"Sarajin, calm down and-"

"Johnathan looked at me like I had hurt him, Justek!" Sarajin screamed, tears rolling down his cheeks, "I would never hurt anyone, ever!"

Justek forced his hands onto Sarajin's shoulders and he went motionless. Then, with a long and ragged sigh, Justek reached up and slowly took his glasses off.

"Sarajin, I want you to be completely and utterly quiet right now," He then stared at him dead on, "Now, I want you to look me straight in the eyes and listen to what I have to say. Understood?"

Sarajin nodded slowly.

"Ok," He took a deep breath and then remarked, "Do you know what a 'War' is?"

Sarajin's eyes widened and he slowly shook his head, his lips curled in a puzzled way.

"...I had suspected all along." And though he was right, there was no pride but rather pity he had to show for it.

He pulled away, put his glasses back on, and watched as Sarajin furrowed his brows and murmured, "Why? What...what is a 'War'?"

Justek turned the opposite way and with a dull look on his face remarked, "Come. We're going to take a long walk."

He started to make his way out of the ravine with Sarajin in tow. With the miners still working tirelessly Sarajin had to wait to hear his friend speak, and that left all the tension of the moment unable to find a release.

Finally they were out of Oreore, leaving the clamor of the mining folk in their wake.

Justek then turned South and continued walking, gesturing his hand out from his hip, "Remember all that horrifying violence you experienced yesterday?"

"H-How could I forget?" Sarajin said, barely keeping pace.

"Well instead of mankind fighting monsters...Imagine man fighting their fellow man."

Sarajin's pupils shrank and he hung his head, trembling at the thought. Justek frowned and then whispered in a monotone voice, "That, Sarajin, is War."

"People...hurting people?" Sarajin's mind forced him to repeat the events of the day before, only replacing the images of the beasts with that of other people, complete with blood spilling from their bodies.

It stopped appearing before he could feel the urge to throw up. He held his churning stomach in discontent, and grit his teeth, "But...why would people hurt each other?"

"...I can't claim to be an expert on everything regarding the past, but from what I understand, the Rot Walkers are partially to blame for it."

"Those beasts...? How?"

"Something happened a long, long time ago to this planet that caused its abundant lands to shrivel away into the barren nothingness you see before you," Justek said, gesturing his arm out to the West, "Just imagine it, Sarajin...If from here, we could see the tops of Tanglefae's trees."

Sarajin stared out and tried to do so, and it made him feel a little more happy for the moment.

"But now, all the Tribes have been reduced to what? A mere fraction of their former glory," Justek then dully put his arm back down and the glory of the past had to be cast aside, replaced with the bitter truth of the present, "And with a reduction of space comes the difficulty of maintaining resources, especially if the populations haven't dwindled."

"Now, I can't speak for the ancestors. Perhaps back then they had tried to coordinate their efforts to make such limited space work."

"But history makes one thing clear: It doesn't matter whether out of desperation or justified self-defense, someone drew first blood. And from there no amount of cooperation could stop violence from breaking out between the Tribes."

"It was a mad dash for the once peaceful Tribes to take up arms and either fight or die protecting their territories from the others who wanted to claim them for themselves."

"Imagine the life you've lived so far Sarajin. Now multiply that number by a 100. Then a 100 again, and a 100 once more...Now fill all those lives with hatred. It starts small but having been allowed to fester, it grows and grows until eventually, the people carrying that hatred have forgotten the reason why they started fighting in the first place."

"It's...horrible," Sarajin couldn't even begin to imagine that much hatred, when he's never even known what it's like to feel it that strongly in the first place, "B-But, the Tribes can't hate each other that much, can they? I mean...I was able to be friendly with Tanglefae and Aquamoria."

"That only speaks volumes of the absurd degree of luck you've had so far," Justek paused for a second to look back and asked, "So just so we're clear, Arc Hurricanos IS an isolated society, correct?"

"..." Sarajin was silent, which ironically spoke more than words.

"So it's more than likely your people never got involved in the war, but that wouldn't absolve them of other's hatred. The other Tribes no doubt have looked to the sky at that unreachable city, and thought of them as enemies regardless. Not because of any crime they have committed, but because of a lack thereof."

Justek steeled his body, nudging his glasses up at the bridge as he remarked, "I don't think Johnathan was necessarily wrong to call Arc Hurricanos cowardly-"

Sarajin's eyes flared wide open but Justek dared to face his ire and tell him, "-From HIS perspective. Because he doesn't know any better. That's what I mean when I described how devastatingly powerful hatred can be."

"But I didn't do anything wrong." Sarajin continued to cling to that innocent way of thinking.

"And I'm telling you it doesn't matter if you or anyone in Arc Hurricanos did anything wrong," Justek had no enthusiasm in his smile as he muttered bluntly, "That's the truth of this world, Sarajin. It's a broken world, barely held together by the hatred people have for one another."

He could almost feel pity as he shook his head at the dour state Sarajin's demeanor was taking, "You wanted to explore the world, but it was never one worth exploring."

"Y-You're wrong!" Sarajin swung his hand out and shouted, "We-We haven't seen any fighting between the Tribes! So something must have caused them to stop hating each other!"

"..." Justek turned and continued to walk, only pausing when he had to glance over his shoulder and say, "I knew you would mention that. And that's why we're walking this way."

Sarajin's heart was pounding with terrible unease as they were getting closer to something. Justek was starting to tremble, like even he could stay composed around this vile sensation brewing in the air.

"...You're still following me? I guess I should've expected as much. But you're not going to like what you see, I can guarantee it."

They looked on ahead and some objects were coming up over the horizon, along with a rancid stench. The kind of stench that makes stomachs turn and kills the innocence in young children's hearts.

Sarajin clenched his fists and held his head high, his bottom lip trembling.

The objects were caked in dark red...Emerging from a still damp puddle of blood. No, to call it a puddle was laughable. It was a pond, maybe even a lake.

And from this lake of blood grew protrusions extending towards the sky. There were spears impaled upside-down through large, stiffened lumps. There was something with five-fingers clawing out towards the sky.

"N-No...!" Sarajin gasped, as seeing that put it all into perspective.

These lumps were once people, and now they are corpses, swallowed up by land and blood alike, reduced to bone. In their hands or impaled into the ground were rusted metal tools with sharp edges.

The jaws were slacked, and some of their rib cages were crushed.

Sarajin couldn't bear this sight for long. He fell to his knees feeling weightless and dead in his own right. His skin paled, and a cold, ominous wind blew over him.

Justek crossed his arms and his whole body trembled, though his face remained stern.

Sarajin looked up at him and wondered, "T-This is what...War looks like?"

"This isn't war, Sarajin...This is a massacre," Justek's glasses fogged up as he craned his head back and sighed, "Something did this. With a force more powerful than hundreds of thousands of years of hatred, it slaughtered hundreds in a single minute, and left a permanent stain on the world."

"And with that blood, they wrote a message to the world...'Cease your violent ways, or your blood will join theirs.'"

"And ever since, there's been no war."

"Aah, aaaah...!" Sarajin suddenly scrambled to his feet and turned away running. Getting a few yards away from this lake of blood, he bent over and grabbed his knees, gasping for air.

Justek approached him and Sarajin turned around yelling, "W-Why did you show me this?!"

Justek stood there completely still and told him the brutal truth, "YOU didn't want to be ignorant. Sometimes that means learning unsavory truths."

"I-I wish I hadn't learned any of this...!" Sarajin clutched his hands against his chest and shook his head around, "The war, people full of hatred for one another, this blood staining the planet...! It shouldn't be this way! It's wrong! It's wrong!"

Sarajin shivered and mumbled aloud, "What made the world like this, Justek?"

"That's something only the people long before our time can answer," Justek said reluctantly, "And even long after we're gone, that same question will be asked again and again."

"So then..." Sarajin cracked his head to the left and grit his teeth in a frown, "Violence will just keep happening unless the problem is solved?"

Justek raised a brow curiously and then nodded, "That is about the gist of it."

"T-There has to be something we can do to fix this!" Sarajin proclaimed.

"We?" Justek sputtered in surprise, "What do you possibly think two people alone can hope to do against all the hatred in the world?"

He swung his arm out towards the pool of blood and raised his voice, "It took a monster of unfathomable force to make the fighting cease and look what it cost to do so!"

He then crossed his arms and scowled, "Even ignoring the hatred of the world, what about the Rot? Nobody can stop it."

"How can I just stand by and do nothing?!" Sarajin screamed with incredible force that rocked Justek to his bones.

His face red and breaths ragged, Sarajin looked like he was on the verge of crying, "I-I can't do that. I...I just can't, Justek."

Justek's eyes sagged and he huffed out a quick sigh.

"..." Sarajin bit his lower lip and looked away, "I-I need to go home and think. Sorry."

"If you believe it'll help." He replied, shaking his hand up beside his face.

Sarajin then turned around and used the wind to propel himself skyward, where glided across the sunset skies back home.

Justek was left to return home by himself, but as he turned away from the stain he gripped his trembling right arm tightly. Still, it refused to stop.

His gritted teeth clattered, and a cold sweat dripped down his face, "I-I heard the stories of it, but to think it could instill this much fear in me..."

And so ended this long and terrible day for them both, leaving them much to think about...

Next Time: To Defy Hatred