28 Chapter 25: The Morning After

The trail he followed back to the clearing, danced in nauseous patterns of two as he walked. Dex walked with a makeshift staff from a broken bamboo stalk he saw on the way out. He's unable to walk unaided because of a sprained knee he had after falling into a rocky slope being chased by a dark-winged, bat-like creature.

His memory didn't help him too. His recollection of that night's event is in disarray. No matter how many times he tries to recall the events, they only end up in jumbled, messy images that blurred the lines of a dream and reality.

All he remembers were glowing lights skipping over the dark water reflecting the moon and the dark starless sky. Anything else before and during that is completely murky for him to recollect.

The cold breeze contrasts the warm welcoming beams of the morning sun that kissed his bare skin. He suspires the fresh air in relief at the end of his ordeal. His efforted walk finally pays off as he saw the head of the stone anito in the distance.

He pushed himself to walk faster, dragging his limping knee for one final distance to the clearing where he was yesterday. The more he inched nearer the more the vision of the stone idol became bigger and visible. His knee was hurting worst but he pushed through it and conquered the limits of his body.

" That took you long enough." greeted Pantas while sitting adjacent to a mountain of bat-like corpses.

"W-what happened here?" a flabbergasted Dex asked.

" I was bored, they kept me in company," he pointed at the heaps of carcasses he piled.

Pantas stood up revealing his strong stature. The sun slightly kissed his skin revealing his glistening chiseled body that created shades underneath his well-defined muscles. Dex stared at him dumbfounded of what he just saw.

He can only think of how a beast of a man he was when he was younger. He saw Pantas' body unscathed even after an encounter of those winged monsters. Dex had one chasing him in the dark forest and he almost died fighting it, but the blind old man took a flock of them and piled their bodies like sacks of rice on top of each other.

" Quit, staring at me you're making me blush, UwU!" Pantas jokingly tried to cover his body like those poses in a lewd anime show that Dex secretly enjoys.

" W-what are you saying?!" he jabbed at Pantas for flustering him, " UwU?! Really, now? Come on. You're too old for that!" he chastised the old man.

Pantas guffawed at his remarks, " Why you no fun?"

" Why do you sound like a meme?" a baffled Dex said.

" I thought, that's the new language people use these days," he replied.

"H-how would you even know-" Dex can't wrap his mind around it, " Nevermind." He just conceded to the surprising things he saw from Pantas.

" Ahem." Pantas clears his throat," How's ah...uhmm your knee? Looks nasty." he pointed at Dex's injured knee.

The pain surged back to his injured knee as Dex remembered about it. His amazement at Pantas temporarily dulled the pain. But now that it has subsided, a surge of unbearable pain assaulted his knees that made him lose his footing and made him curl to the ground in pain. The old man tried to approach him but before he could, a light drizzle of morning poured on them.

" Oh! How convenient!" Pantas exclaims as he opened his mouth towards the sky, greedily drinking the fresh pouring water from the heavens.

"Aren't you gonna help me?!" Dex shouts in agony.

" Oh! You'll be fine. The rain will heal you." the old man answers.

Dex suddenly felt a warm sensation on his injured knee. He saw a sudden movement from the damaged area. Bones, muscles, and sinews began to move on their own, fixing itself back to where it was. The process should've at least garnered a few screams and winces from Dex but he got entranced at how his own body healed itself that he felt less pain.

Pantas reaches out his arm and helps him stand. Surprisingly, there was not a hint of pain or discomfort on the affected knee. He stomped his foot to the ground as hard as he can and jumped a couple of times to check some more, but there was no pain at all.

" I see your fascination with your knee," Pantas interrupts his moment of astonishment, " But you can do it later after breakfast," he adds.

" We have breakfast?" Dex bafflingly asks.

" Of course, we do!" Pantas claims, " Come, let's go to where it is, " he invites Dex to join him on another long walk to the wooden maze.

" What about the pile of monsters you just b--" Dex looks back at the pile when the pile of corpses began to set ablaze. " It's burning! It's burning!"

" Looks like we have ourselves one angry anito." Pantas declares.

The corpses burned like paper even in the drizzle of rain. Smoke rose from the burnt bodies and it began to form a cloud that suddenly moved towards the Far East corner of the horizon. It started creeping slow towards that direction but began to accelerate as the last embers dwindled along with the rain.

The cloud poofed out of existence and the next thing Dex saw rattled him to the core. Pantas pointed out the location of the cloud. They saw how the sky went dark on the Far East part of the horizon. Red-colored bolts of lightning flashed violently to the ground as if it was purposefully hitting something.

The ground shudders with each strike and they felt it from where they stood. Blood-curdling shrieks echoed from the distance, Dex knew it wasn't thunder. It sounded more like cries of someone or something burning in agony. A sense of dread befell on Dex, as the barrage continues, only echoes of cries and shrieks can be heard from where the cloud unleashed its wrath.

" Let's go." Pantas tugs him by the arm asking him to follow.

"What was that?" Dex asks.

" That was an Anitun showing its displeasure," the old man answers, " Come now, we have to keep going."

He followed Pantas back to the labyrinth of roots and trees. He has better footing now, and was able to keep up with his guide. In his mind, Dex still cannot shake the dreadful feeling of what he saw earlier. He is no longer able to contain the questions he had about what he saw and so he asked Pantas.

" What were those you killed?" Dex inquires.

" Those?" Pantas pauses trying to think as to how to present it to him, " Alan. Those bat-like things are known as Alan."

" Alan?"

"Yes, Alan. They look like bats but have facial features of a human being with a long snout and their feet are backward." Pantas explains.

" Why were they attacking you?" He pries further.

" They weren't attacking me. I was protecting you from them." Pantas revealed to Dex the reason for the Alans attacking them last night, " I was worried that you won't make it, especially after that one Alan that got through. But I was confident you can handle it, well, at least I hoped," he added.

" Yeah, I did manage to take that one down, but I'm not sure how I did it." he replies.

Pantas looked at him with an astonished look, " Well, it seems like you're luckier than your previous incarnations."

"W-what?" Dex asks, " What do you mean by that?"

" I am not the person to answer that, " he says, " But she definitely will."

Pantas moved some of the leaves covering their view and saw the Baylan waiting for them at the edge of the clearing.

" Well, this is a surprise," Pantas exclaims.

" Indeed it is," she replies as she walks towards Dex, " Indeed it is," she whispers.