Goblin rose his hands, "False! The truth has been twisted!"
He stomped the ground, and it trembled under his feet, making the villagers step back. His shirt ripped apart, revealing the massive muscles on his body. He caught the arrows with his hands and crushed them.
The sky turned dark, lightning flashing above the village, followed by the loud boom of thunder.
"A giant..."
"I thought they had gone extinct."
The Varia villagers whispered among themselves as they halted their attacks.
"If you want to hurt my boss, you will have to get through me first!" Goblin roared.
The Varia people's eyes were wide, seeing the large form of Goblin shrink back before the lightning could strike him. The spirits around them returned to their owners, their astral forms fading back into spheres.
Goblin picked up his cloak and put it back on, covering his body. "Why would a Corrupted Immortal leave someone, who can see through bad intentions, alive? I chose to follow Boss, and not the other way around."
"Who is the Corrupted Immortal?" Lucian asked, his voice echoing in the sudden quiet as he reappeared from behind the rock.
"From the northern lands, he came," a Varia villager stepped forward, spheres orbiting around him like a belt, "His tongue was as silver as his heart, his promises as sweet as poison. He gained the Queen's trust and stole her powers. His greed knew no bounds."
Another villager pointed at Lucian's head, "The color of betrayal, the mark of a deceiver. All who bear it, carry the Queen's curse. Your fate is sealed. The abyss awaits you."
Goblin was about to defend Lucian, but stopped when Lucian grabbed his shoulder and squeezed it. "Betrayal I hate the most, I will not sit idly by while being accused of one. I have no wish to die for someone else's crimes."
"Sweet words will not save you from the abyss, deceiver." Their eyes fell on Goblin, "Leave this land, giant. We do not wish to shed the blood of innocents. The enemy is not you."
"Is there a way to prove my innocence?" Lucian asked, keeping his tone civil, despite the way they were talking to him.
Krystal spoke up again, silencing everyone, "If you pass through Queen's tears, your sins will be washed away. If not, you will burn."
The Varia villagers deliberated among themselves, before coming to an agreement. The army of spirit beasts remained on standby, ready to attack if Lucian tried to escape.
They separated his group from each other, and escorted them to different locations.
Krystal walked beside Lucian, leading him through the village, the army following them.
Lucian took in his surroundings, wondering what kind of society this was.
The children acted no differently from adults. They had the same blank expressions, and walked with the same confident steps. Everyone seemed to be made out of the same mold, with little to no individuality. Except for a few who seemed to have too much of it.
A young man barked and ran on all fours to the adults, the adults' faces not changing despite the weird behavior.
Varia people who decided not to pass down their ancestry to the next generation, gave birth to normal children.
Those children were raised by the whole village, learning and taking knowledge from many different sources. They would have to train from scratch to reach the same level as their parents, if not more.
The same way they could use spirits to fight, the spirits could use them as vessels if the people were not strong enough.
The barking young man tried to bite his caretaker's leg, making the spirit beast appear from the caretaker's sphere and pin him down.
"Can you tell me more about the queen?" Lucian asked, avoiding a child who skipped past him.
"No," Krystal answered, without looking at him, "She is not a topic for outsiders."
Lucian sighed. After she successfully lured him here, now she was getting difficult. "Did she have a lover?"
"..." Krystal stopped, and so did the army behind them. The silence grew as she turned to look at him, "A lover? She was the Queen, she belonged to her people."
Lucian's stomach twisted at her answer. Despite zero proof, he was beginning to think that Celine was the queen, who reincarnated after death, similar to Goblin's case.
'Do you have any relationship with past Celine, Voice?' Lucian asked in his head, but received no response. If Voice cared about Goblin knowing about invaders, it would have dealt with it by now.
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A volcano which used to be a giant tree, rose in the distance. Its top had been blown off, leaving a large crater. Inside it, a lake of blue fire burned, so bright the particles of light reached the sky before falling down like molted rain. The Queen's tears.
It took a whole day to reach the base by foot. The Varia army and Krystal stayed behind, letting Lucian walk to his possible death on his own.
Lucian took his first step on the rock, and an indescribable feeling of death ran through his veins. It was strangely comforting, beckoning him to let go and be one with it. A few skeletons lay above him, serving as a warning.
He took another step, and a single tear of fire fell on him, landing on his shoulder. A searing pain burned his skin, making him grit his teeth. The tear sizzled as it tried to enter his body, and his astral plane rejected it, pushing it away.
With each step he took, more tears fell on him, his clothes catching fire. He pulled them off, continuing up the path.
It was odd how his body was not suffering from the extreme heat, yet his mind and spirit were feeling immense pressure. As if each tear weighed tons, trying to crush him, and they were only growing bigger as he got closer.
Lucian fell to his knees. One tear landed on his face, and his third eye flared open. A vision hit him like a tidal wave, his head throbbing from it.
A woman's cry echoed in his ears, her wailing louder than thunder.
"CORRUPTED IMMORTAL! RETURN WHAT YOU'VE STOLEN! RETURN IT TO ME!"
"CORRUPTED IMMORTAL! CURSE YOUR EXISTENCE! CURSE YOUR BLOODLINE! MAY YOUR DESCENDANTS NEVER KNOW PEACE!"
The echoes of her voice repeated in his mind, making him clutch his head. A familiar weakness overwhelmed him, a feeling he hadn't experienced in a long time. The hay head sickness, which killed both his parents, was taking over his body.
"CEASE TO EXIST! CEASE TO EXIST! CEASE TO EXIST!"