Chapter-14

"You know, its such a shame for humans to die, for all those accumulated knowledge to be wasted." said he, though it was not knowledge that he cared about.

The world started enshrouding in miasma

"Really? I think its a necessity, humans live while accumulating knowledge, using it to survive, always comparing new things to the ones they have learnt. Hence if the world was filled with old people with power, it would stagnate." said she

The fog of darkness became the bane of that small light.

"But is it not sad, to just fade away, to be lost into oblivion. Does it not make life feel... vain ?"

Still ever-darkening.

"I don't think that life is vain just because you will be forgotten. After all, the reason that you and I exist, the very fact we are conversing, is it not the product of the movement of each and every atom in the universe since the beginning of time?!"

Then it stopped.

He wanted to argue the point of the conversation itself but he didn't, after all he enjoyed it.

'Maybe, having fun is more than enough. Maybe living to live, is enough.'

The world started brightening. Until...

'Then, why did you kill me...' whispered a voice.

The world took a hue of blood red.

'Just, why did it have to be you!?!' screamed another voice accompanied by thunder.

Then the world start weeping, tears of red stained the ground.

Dripping on his face.

Ethan Greenwood woke up with a jolt, he had the same dream again. In them he would always hear voices, he would hear conversations, he would feel them, it always made him feel like he was missing something; forgetting something; like he had lost something, something very important.

Something cold dripped on his nape, breaking him out of his stupor, it was raining outside and the ceiling was leaking.

***

Ten months had come to pass.

Ethan had trained his control; he finally understood what his 'will' was missing.

In an experiment on another poor tree, he 'willed' it to get destroyed, covering his finger with nen and flicked it, the finger left a mark on the tree, as if struck by an arrow, enduring the slight pain he now thought of the tree as his worst nemesis, one that had tormented him for years and more. And while feeling that hate and anger, he now 'willed' nen to cover his hand with the intent to destroy, powered with hate and anger the nen was stained in a deeper red. Upon striking the tree his finger completely passed through and the contacted part of the tree was girded to dust.

Ethan felt chills down his spine, not because such a simple change had such a deep effect, but because it had a clear weakness, he was actually feeling hate towards the tree. His feeling were being affected as well. He could understand what would happen if he overused this power or if he used it while he was actually angry. Hate and anger would consume him and it would be his downfall.

He knew, he would need to find a way to fully control his emotions or stop them for the bare minimum.

It seems he had not completely understood his power after all, he needed feelings to properly control his 'will' with nen, yet now these feelings themselves were controlling him.

***

Far east of where Ethan resided.

A girl sang.

"First you lean on the olden stands.

Then you weave a tale of forgotten lands~

You speak of, heroes and demons the same

now too old~, but once you were the same" her sweet yet childish voice seeped into the valleys.

"Of how you, bold and young

fought~ for the beaten and strung

The tale you speak

will one day bleak" her downward gaze, melancholic.

"but I~" she stopped as if she had forgotten the lyrics. "will, remember." her gaze no longer the same, for she had decided.

'I have to find out, these memories, these dreams, I must...'

So with a motive so vague, the young girl felt as if she had found her calling. But still she was ever lost. In here, where both her body and the world felt strange, they felt out of place.

Something inside her urged, it urged her 'learn, for it was in the action you would find peace'

***

George's quest for the journalist was fruitless, with no leads for quite a while.

"He is quite the personality, this Darwin that is" said James. One of the information broker and an 'acquaintance' or so would George define him.

George just stayed silent, an act that meant 'continue' or so James thought.

"He devoted his all to his research, has no home or family to talk of and even hardly has friends, he was last sighted in the Luita a small city in Rousta which is a small country east of Saherta."

Again he was replied with silence.

"And he likes noodles"

This time the beep of the phone replied him.

George had cut the phone.

James just shrugged the treatment 'he never changes, does he. At least he pays.' Thought he, while checking his phone.

Staring at the stretching desert. 'This is gonna be a longer journey than i thought' George thought while he checked the map. He was at Gordeau desert, so now he would have to go north-east. So a step that way he took, the sand crunched beneath his feet as the heat assaulted him.

Upon reaching Gointa, the city among sands. He went into a hotel, where he was given water without being asked. He lodged there for a day, took a bath and then roamed the city, looking for a good place to eat.

'A place with something cold and something juicy.' he let his eyes wander.

Then he came across a place with the bold writing 'Noodle Foodle', not really a place he would visit.

But the words 'He likes noodles' ringed in his mind.

He entered through a little worn out entrance into an equally worn out interior with wooden chairs and benches that have seen better days.

Behind the counter was a little frail man drying noodles, George took a seat and said "Anything that you recommend" to which the man nodded.

George looked around, just two people besides him in the humble restaurant, a burly, hairy man with clothes equally beaten and a thin scrawny man with clean brown attire, thin glasses and an expedition hat. Both enjoying their noodles.

'I'll be dammed, it seems I found him' Thought George as he eyed the man who had made him travel across half the known world in search of him.