Chapter 77: Spirit of the Wood(4)
Luke, break the stone and set me free.
Luke looked at the stone on his hands weirdly, he was hesitating at first but he then crushed the stone in the end. The stone crushed easily like wet sand and light came out from his hand and formed a green silhouette of a man in front of him.
After the light subsided, a tall handsome man with long, seemingly silky green hair and deep emerald green eyes looked at Luke with its imposing aura. This made Luke gulped, the man's aura in front of him was no joke, he feel like he could be killed in a flick of his finger right away.
But instead of being scared, Luke just looked at the man directly into the eyes, which made the man smirk and look amused.
"Ho, you are not scared of me?"
Luke didn't answer and kept on making eye contact. He then heard the man's jolly voice again.
"I like you; you are one of the few humans who managed not to faint after seeing me."
Luke then answered awkwardly.
"Uh.... Thanks?"
"I saw your good deeds while I am still in the stone and I got to admit that you caught my heart by your selfless decisions. And that's why; I decided to give you this."
The man then pulled out a light green stone and puts it on Luke's hand. Luke looked at this with surprise.
· Dad! It felt exactly like those stones that you are collecting!
Luke ignored Nash and looked at the stone in front of him. What he plans to do is get rid of the withered souls first and search the entire forest for the power of wood. Who knew that he'll get it so easily like this?
"I can feel other natural elements within your body and the only natural power you didn't have was that right?"
Luke slowly nodded. He then heard the man's chuckle.
"Boy, my name is Erdene, the Spirit of the Wood."
Luke looked at Erdene blankly.
"I know."
"Hmm? How did you know?"
"You just said 'I am home' earlier. No people lived here except for you, sir Erdene."
Of course that was partly the truth, Luke knew it since he read about him before.
"Ho, what a funny brat."
Erdene looked at Luke for a bit then turned his head towards the giants.
"I see that you're all safe."
The giants flinched and kneeled even deeper. The fairies then also bowed towards Erdene. Erdene just looked at them and spoke.
"I'm glad that you are all okay. Those Dark Eye bastards, they dare harm our home when we are in our most peaceful moment."
The tallest giant then spoke with his head still on the ground.
"I am very sorry. I let my guard down and let those evil bastards come in."
"It's not your fault."
Luke looked at this situation and asked Erdene who is standing beside him. He have a lot of questions.
"Wait, can I ask something?"
Erdene looked at Luke for a second before answering.
"Yes, you can."
"Great, first of all. Why are there giants in here? I thought they went extinct?"
Instead of Erdene answering, the tallest giant spoke.
"We aren't extinct, we just hid ourselves."
"Hid? Why?"
"As many years came by, Humans started to become more powerful with their new technologies and way of civilization. And since us, the giants were seen as evil because of our size and looks, our ancestors got attacked by humans and got labeled as an evil force that will make humanity extinct. That's why we just decided to run away and hide. But we luckily found the esteemed and kind sir Erdene and he decides to take us in and let us live in his forest."
Luke frowned and clicked his tongue. He then crossed his arms and frowned.
"Tch, whether it's here or back there, humans are always the same."
The 'back there' that Luke was referring to was his past world. People judge others too easily that it can sometimes cause riots and wars. He then heard Erdene agreeing with him while nodding.
"I agree, it is the same for witches or other species related to Death and Darkness. They judge them based on where they came from instead of their actions. Haa, this is why I just stayed here in my forest for hundreds of years. I don't want to deal with human greed."
The group, fairies and the giants looked at Luke and Erdene agreeing with each other. They look like neighborhood best friends base on how they act.
'As expected of brother! He just met a Spirit and he's already close to him!'
Liam looked at this with a proud face while Eleanor and the other were just plain shocked. Even for a million of years, no one dared to speak casually to Erdene like that. And yet a mere human can, and is now agreeing together with Erdene like they're equals.
While being in the middle of shock, they then heard Luke ask Erdene a question again.
"By the way, why are you inside a stone Sir Erdene?"
Erdene smiled at Luke, but his eyes seemed to be blazing in anger.
"Well, as you can see, even though I am powerful, I am no match against a huge amount of withered souls. Plus, I was busy pulling everyone away to safety. I was about to die but I managed to turn into a stone in time. It is a emergency mechanism of us Spirits, my... Older brother, the Spirit of the Rock, came up with that idea."
Luke stared at Erdene frowning deeply as if he's remembering a bad memory. Then after a while, Erdene continued speaking again.
"Anyways, when we are in stone form, we will automatically heal but it will take a lot of time for us to heal, and those evil bastards seem to not know why I suddenly turned into a stone and just threw me into a dam. By the way, the reason why I can only actively speak to you earlier is because I am back in my territory. The rest of the time was just me watching you do your good deeds to others while healing myself."
Luke was speechless for a moment. He didn't know that Spirits has those kinds of mechanisms. And what did he just said? He was watching him? He's been watched all this time and he didn't even knew about it? Luke frowned at that thought but sighed and just shot another question.
"Was the Dark Eye searching for this?"
Luke then showed the light green stone that Erdene gave to him. Erdene just nodded.
"Correct, I managed to found out their intentions and secretly hid it before they could even find it. Anyway, how did you know?"
Luke frowned while remembering how the Dark eye stole the power that could manipulate lightning from him in Flor kingdom.
"Before I met you, to be specific, before I picked you up, I planned to get a power in Flor kingdom but the Dark Eye got it first."
"Oh, you mean the power that those two bastards holding me were talking about? The one that their liege just got?"
"Yes...."
Luke just sighed and Erdene shakes his head as if he pities him. The others just looked at this with dumbfounded expressions. They then heard Luke ask Erdene a question again.
"By the way, did you happen to see their liege's face? If he was there before you got thrown into the dam you must've seen him."
Erdene shakes his head while frowning. He seems to be deeply disappointed.
"Unfortunately, no. I was severely injured and unconscious at that time. By the time I woke up. I just saw myself sealed in an orb while in front of a rushing water of a dam."
"That's too bad."
Erdene nodded in agreement.
"Yes, it is indeed a shame. If I just saw just a glimpse of their liege's face. I could've hunted him down and rip him to shreds by now."
Luke looked at Erdene's dark and murderous face with a dumb expression. He could feel Erdene's animosity the most since he is just right beside him.
'Such a scary old man.'
Luke thought that it is better to not get on Erdene's nerves. He felt like Erdene will obliterate him once he does that.
While Luke is looking at Erdene with caution, Erdene is looking at Luke's left shoulder with interest. He then smiled.
"You think that I won't notice you staring at me, hmm? Young child?"
The fairies and giants looked at Erdene with confusion. All they could see is Erdene looking at Luke's shoulder while calling him young child. Luke looked at his shoulder and heard Nash speaking energetically in his head.
· Dad! Can I show myself?! I want to play with this grandpa!
Luke peeked at the fairies and giants and even Yulia that are looking at him with confusion. Luke sighed and spoke.
"I think it's okay for you to show yourself, Nash."