Chapter 28 - A Walk Back Home

The scorching sun burned Loki's skin; the only sound he could hear was his heartbeat and heavy breathing.

"It wasn't this hot when I traveled here last time."

His perspective changed as he saw the wasteland as something unlivable and nothing but death. When he was still living in his hometown, barren land was something he saw every day; thus, he was used to it. However, now that he had experienced living in a place like Vestia, he found it unbearable. It was unthinkable that he lived in a place like this for almost his whole life.

Regardless of his complaints, Loki never stopped walking, as his heart encouraged him to hurry up and reach his destination as soon as possible.

After walking for a few hours, Loki saw a solitary tree and decided to rest under it. He sat beneath the shade of the lonely tree, giving him a much-needed respite from the glaring heat of the sun. Beads of sweat dripped on his back as he leaned against the tree. He took out a water skin and began engulfing a mouthful of water.

Fortunately, he had a lot of supplies from Pandora and Leo. It probably could last him a week even if he didn't ration it properly.

Now that he wasn't occupied with enduring the harsh march, his head thought of all sorts of things that could possibly happen to Father Laryatt. His mood declined dramatically as none of these thoughts were any good, especially the idea of finding the lifeless body of Father.

Loki rested his head on the tree, closed his eyes, and stopped himself from thinking in an attempt to calm his raging heart. As he breathed in, the smell of dirt and his own sweat entered his nostrils; yet, these distractions failed to break his focus. Then, when his lungs expanded to their full extent, he breathed it all out together with the negativity in his mind.

Soon, tranquility occupied his mind, centering solely on his goal.

"I have no time sitting around." He stood up and resumed his journey across the wasteland.

The scenery was hard to discern; if not for the trees that he occasionally passed by, he would have thought that he was walking around a circle. Then he froze.

Wait, what if I'm walking around a circle like what happened to me yesterday?

Loki intensely shook his head. "No, that's not possible. I got lost in Vestia because of the excessive number of roads there. I'm sure I will be okay because all I need to do is walk straight."

After convincing himself, Loki took a step forward with confidence.

His trip in the barren land remained uneventful even after several hours, and the sky turned dark. The heat from the sun was replaced by the freezing wind of the night, giving Loki no choice but to set up camp and build his tent to hide from the unrelenting breath of nature.

Soon, Loki sat in front of his tent, a campfire burning before him. He had no skill in cooking, so he resorted to skewering the dry meat with a stick and cooking it in a fire. At first, he found it tedious and a waste of time, as bread was good enough to satisfy his needs. But when he recalled Leo's words, he felt like he had no choice but to do it.

A moment later, Loki held a stick with a black abomination skewered on it.

"Is this even edible?" Loki said as he looked at the burnt meat with hesitation.

Nonetheless, he brought it closer to his mouth and took a small bite.

Bitterness spread inside his tongue as the disgusting texture entered his mouth. He didn't even get to chew the food as he spat it on the dry ground with a twisted face.

"That was horrible! Ahh, I miss Leo's cooking already!"

He set aside the skewer and took out the bread from his bag. Looking up, he wondered what his two party members were doing.

Upon finishing his dinner, Loki extinguished the fire and prepared himself to sleep.

Loki woke up in the middle of the night. Something was outside his tent; he could hear light footsteps and growling.

Nervously, he sat up and silently took a glimpse of what it was. Just outside his tent, a four-legged animal with the skin and bones of a body was eating something from the ground. He immediately remembered the abominable skewered meat he cooked.

"Wow, that thing could stomach that?" He whispered.

However, that whisper garnered the attention of the animal. It turned in his direction and showed sharp canines in anger.

Damn, that's a wild dog!

Wild Dog was the worst nightmare back in his hometown. The number of people he buried because of wild dog attacks was too numerous to count. He could even say that one of the biggest deaths in a barren land was because of the beast, second only to starvation.

Yet, for some reason, Loki didn't feel any fear. Perhaps his short time inside a Dungeon showed him what a true beast looked like. And the wild dog was nothing compared to what he encountered in Kobold's Forest.

With calmness, he grabbed one of his daggers and exited his tent.

His whole body wasn't even out yet, and the wild dog launched itself at Loki in an attempt to bite his neck.

Loki didn't even flinch at the sight; he watched the approaching dog with unbothered eyes, and when the beast was close enough, he grabbed it by the neck.

The wild dog was hairless, some of its teeth were missing, and its eyes were red with madness. This was his first time seeing a wild dog this close, and he must admit, it wasn't pleasant to the eyes.

With no sympathy, Loki stabbed the wild dog. The dagger entered beneath its maw and emerged on top of its head, putting an end to the dog's struggle for survival.

"Oh damn, I should have killed it far from my tent; now I have to clean up all this blood!"

Early in the morning.

Loki woke up dripping in sweat and with huge dark circles under his eyes.

"I hate hot weather!"

With an unwilling attitude, Loki sat up and began packing his things, wanting to continue his journey. A moment later, Loki's campsite was deprived of his camping tools, leaving nothing but the carcass of the wild dog and remnants of his campfire.

Without gazing back, he resumed his trip across the wasteland, hoping to reach his destination within the day.

After grueling hours of walking, he was nervous about losing his way and not finding his hometown. But all his worries disappeared when he saw a familiar scene in the distance. Excitement bubbled inside him, causing his footsteps to hurry on their own.

However, as he got closer, the image in his mind didn't quite fit what was in front of him.

The houses, which even looked dilapidated the last time he saw them, were now burned to ashes, destroyed, and abandoned.

Loki's heart beats rapidly. When he heard the news, he didn't truly believe it, but now that the proof was before him, he couldn't stop himself from becoming anxious.

Hesitantly moving forward, his heart sank upon entering the small village. Corpses were still scattered around the ground, some already decomposing while others were preserved as their whole body was burned to crisp.

Loki's eyes stung as tears started to form with them. Even though he didn't know most of the people living in the village, they were people whom he had lived with nonetheless.

However, he had no time for crying! He had to check whether Father Laryatt was okay or not.

With a heavy heart, Loki ran and ignored the lifeless body he passed, focusing solely on reaching the church he used to live in. He wanted to hold the thought that Father Laryatt wasn't harmed and was living peacefully in the church because, after all, who would dare hurt someone from the church?

But the more corpses he passes, the more his confidence shrunk. If the people responsible could massacre an entire village without sparing even the children and elderly, why would they be scared by the church?

Upon arriving in front of the familiar and also unfamiliar church, Loki's heart stopped beating for a moment. The old house of the Goddess was destroyed without any resemblance to its previous state. However, that wasn't why Loki was so shocked.

Before this old rubble of the church was a wooden cross. And on this wooden cross, someone was tied up. The unknown people who attacked the village tied someone to the cross and burned him or her until he or she became unrecognizable.

Yet Loki's tears finally fell from his eyes. He didn't want to believe it, but somehow he knew that the person on the cross was the same person who taught him everything. Falling to his knees, Loki began bawling his eyes with tears and cried his lungs out, as the pain in his heart was too unbearable to endure.