Repeating Pathway

Soul placed his hands on the cold skin of Oki, checking his pulse through his neck. There was a faint pulse pushing blood throughout Oki's body which Soul was glad of, although he didn't expect a heartbeat to still be present. Soul didn't look into Oki's chest, simply to be a decent person. It would be like looking at someone's intestines as they were walking.

Soul lifted Oki onto his back, keeping track of his condition every thirty seconds to make sure the Corruption wasn't doing anything that it wasn't meant to. Soul was still somewhat worried about what Misted had done to Oki. After all, when he was hit by Misted, he reacted negatively to whatever had happened. Maybe it was like a single-time attack just designed to startle people, or it could have been a skill to accelerate Corruption. Soul didn't know, but he wasn't going to be taking any unnecessary risks with this anymore.

Oki was now his only priority. He couldn't let the child get any more injured than he already had been, and if that meant taking an attack that could have been avoided at the cost of Oki getting injured, he'd take the attack. It was just how Soul rolled. After all, even though Aaron had given him every single ability in his possession, there was one rule that Aaron followed. One that Soul had decided he would follow as well.

That rule was to not use Boundless Telekinesis: Telekinetic Psychobreak unless there were NO other options. It was just one of the things that Aaron had developed early on in his life and decided not to use again. It was one of those things that were too powerful for their own good. It wouldn't make sense to just be able to snap your fingers and kill a guy. Or, it would, but it would weigh heavily on Soul's mind, so it was just simpler to not use the skill.

Soul continued to walk along the path of trodden dirt, watching as it occasionally swapped between gravel, coarse dirt and sand. It wasn't in any particular pattern, at least the way Soul saw it. He may have just been missing something, but he doubted it. After all, there was no apparent pattern that the materials followed.

Soul continued to walk along, trying to find out where those Beastpeople lived. After all, if a Beastwoman was here, there have to be others. After all, it wouldn't make sense for that one to talk about listening to woodland spirits. Soul contemplated what the Beastwoman had meant by that as he walked. He had been walking for quite a while now. It felt like he should be at the centre of, or even far beyond, the forest. Soul decided to place a marking down on the ground to see where Oki would be. Soul placed a peculiar stone he had found into the sand and sat Oki next to it. He then broke into a full sprint, trying to see if he could make the pathway loop itself, as he suspected.

Soul ran as fast as he could without shattering the sound barrier, and correct with his suspicions, he arrived back at the same place. "I'm sick of this shit. First Oki nearly dies, then that ghosty thing, and now this infinitely looping space? This is just too much for me to deal with right now. I'm taking a shortcut through this bullshit." Soul said to himself, picking up Oki as he floated into the air. He was just going to fly over this annoying passage.

As he flew through the sky, keeping Oki safe by holding him princess-style, Soul finally saw something. He saw that the space he had been in wasn't just targeted at him. There was a layer of seemingly-cursed symbols floating around. It was a way to stop him from moving to any specific location. In this instance, it was the Beastpeople city, or at least what he presumed it was. They didn't expect people to fly over the curses, so Soul deemed this a perfectly valid strategy.

"Honestly, I may not speak, but I still know what's going on. Being carried Princess-style certainly isn't helping me get any style points." Oki joked, causing Soul to chuckle slightly."Yeah, but you need to heal. Crystet would kill me, again, if I came home and you were brutally injured." Soul responded, trying to imagine Crystet's exact words. He quickly gave up. After all, Soul would never be able to predict what that guy would do next.

Soul flew over the seemingly-cursed barrier, essentially just floating. He personally didn't like the wings that Aaron had been given, so he just made them invisible. Soul was much more a fan of menacingly floating over to a person. It was much funnier to him, and it definitely made him seem much eviler than he intended, but if it got the job done, it got the job done.

Soul watched as a city finally appeared in the distance. It was somewhat underwhelming, considering the elaborate traps set up. Soul also understood why it wouldn't be expected to be like this. It was a city in the middle of a forest that nobody could enter. The traps, the monsters, and even the natural wildlife seem to want to kill you, and nobody really wants to lose their life.

Soul continued floating along, reaching the city at his own pace. After all, if he flew too fast, he might injure Oki due to the high speeds. He was pretty sure that Oki would be fine, but he didn't want to take that chance. They were here to recruit a new civilisation to their ranks, so Soul would try everything before returning to Aaron's city.

People inside the city stared into the sky, squinting to see a humanoid figure floating towards them. Floating was certainly unnatural, so they were somewhat afraid of whatever that thing was. Soul just smiled, his eyes calm as he landed inside the city borders, holding Oki in his arms. People stared at his Corrupted hand with both awe and disgust, although that much is to be expected. Soul took a deep breath before saying something to all the witnesses there.

"Hello there, Beastpeople. My name is Soul, and I come in peace."