Right before Ashar's eyes, outside his understanding, the aged figure of Shenric rose up, cross-legged in the darkness, while mocking Ashar with a smile.
"What is this?" Ashar screamed and braced his jaw. "Is this some kind of mental attack?"
"Hey, hey, take a deep breath inwards," Shenric said lightly. "I haven't returned from the dead to haunt you, more or less. You may call this something like my spirit, if that helps relax a bit more."
"You're dead, and you've got no business coming back to life, so why are you here bothering me?"
"So you kill me, and now I don't even get a chance to visit my good, old friend from the battlefield?" Shenric chuckled. "You truly are a horrible demon, and quite rude as well. But perhaps that was always the point of it all."
Ashar stood. "I'll ask again before I start destroying things. Why are you here?"
"We're bound together now, you fool" Shenric replied. "The Eye I gave you, it connects us forever So no matter how irritating you find me, you're gonna be stuck with me for a very, very long time."
"So you're here to mock me?"
"Of course not. I'm here to help."
"I don't need your help."
Shenric's smile faded. He leaned closer.
"I've been watching you this entire time. And from what I can see… you desperately do."
Ashar's energy flared violently. "That's a lie. You're trying to provoke me."
"Of course I am," Shenric said calmly. "But that doesn't make it false. You won't admit it aloud, not even to yourself. But you're already giving up."
"That's enough!"
Energy lashed out from Ashar, cracking the stone beneath them. Shenric did not move.
"I fought for years against this broken world," Shenric continued. "It devoured my brothers and cast us aside like refuse. You were my final answer. I wanted to create something majestic. Something terrifying. A being that saw the truth of existence and, in madness, struck back at it."
He looked Ashar over slowly.
"And yet here you are. In your current state, tell me, what are you?"
Ashar's jaw tightened. "I am Ashar of the Noctis Mountains. I will purify this filthy world. I will slaughter its Lords, tear down their thrones, and erase their lies."
Shenric sighed. "At this rate, you won't even leave this forest. They're coming."
"I know."
"And when the Faceless Soldiers kill you here," Shenric said quietly, "everything will have been for nothing. I refuse to see that end."
"I won't lose again."
"This isn't a game," Shenric snapped. "You can't win by hiding in caves and memorizing techniques. Perhaps you'll kill that boar one day, but what of bears? Of monsters? Of Leaders?"
"Then what am I missing?" Ashar asked.
"A warrior," Shenric said, "is a union of mind, body, and spirit. You possess none of these."
Ashar fell silent.
"Find that union," Shenric continued. "Only then will you glimpse the true path."
The spirit faded.
For the rest of the night, Ashar sat beneath the empty sky, unable to grasp Shenric's words. Union? In this world, strength was all that mattered.
And yet—
Tears fell, unseen.
"Tomorrow," he whispered, "I will face the boar again. There will be pain. There may be death. I accept it."
At midday, Ashar returned. The boar was already waiting.
"Why can't I defeat you?" Ashar asked softly. "Why am I so weak?"
The boar charged.
Then stopped.
Its body tensed. Its instincts screamed. Without warning, it turned and fled.
Ashar frowned.
Slowly, a presence rose behind him.
"Clever creature," a hooded man said. "Didn't see me, but it felt me."
Ashar turned slowly, eyes focused, to make sure he did not suffer a sneak attack. "Are you going to tell me who you are? "
"Nah," the man replied. "Are you going to tell me who you are?"
Ashar did not continue a conversation he felt to be nonsensical, and instead started measuring the man's Axiom energy.
"Hey, hey, buddy," the stranger warned. "I'll kill you if you play these little games with me."
Ashar smiled a mysterious smile, and he saw that this made the man.
"Are you lost?" the man asked. "Traveling with some stupid group who got lost?"
"I'm heading straight for the Golden City in front of us."
The man laughed with three forceful sounds. "Then you're an idiot, because you've chosen the worst possible route."
"An idiot is a person who makes assumptions without knowing anything, like you. As for me, I know exactly what I'm doing."
"Oh, do you really?" The man's eyes sharpened with concentration that Ashar could feel between his eyes. "All the local boys and girls are talking. They're saying that Faceless Soldiers are searching these woods for someone."
They stared at each other.
"Yeah, yeah, I see what's going on here." the man said slowly. "So you're the mysterious bastard that they're looking for."
"You seem like a nice kid, and I don't have the time to waste on killing you, so you should get out of here." Ashar said.
"I wonder what a pretty head like yours is worth."
"You don't mean that, now turn around and go back."
"Or what?" the man mocked. "You'll kill me?"
"To be honest with you, I don't know what's gonna happen. But this will be harder for you than you think."
"Why's that?"
"Because you're not ready to leave this world, are you?"
As the man's eyes sharpened, the air between them started to tremble.
Then—
Bang.
Ashar collapsed.
"What just—"
"Took you long enough," the man said. "At that rate, I might've had to actually fight him."
"Don't be lazy," a woman replied. "Help me lift him."
As they searched his belongings, Ashar drifted in and out of consciousness. A non-lethal Axiom strike. Perfectly timed. They had outsmarted him.
I'm too weak, he thought as they carried him away.
Still far too weak.