Chapter 94: Zeno Departs
After running for a good while we make it to the edge of the city with an opening in the wall. Lucky us.
There doesn’t seem to be any zierel on a trail either which is a good sign that we lost whatever was stomping towards us. But the city itself is full of zierel so we can’t stay here much longer anyway.
I look at the others, just barely able to see how exhausted they are from running for so long.
All this running away... Why couldn’t we just kill the thing? It is because we aren’t strong enough to fight all these zierel, at least that’s what the most logical answer is.
Fighting all of them at our current strength while everyone is exhausted would be dumb.
Maybe I’m just tired of running away from everything lately and want to just push back again. Fighting reminds me that I can kill these things, it tells me that I have to keep going, it tells me that I can save others.
I don’t want to run away from them if I can avoid it.
"I’m leaving," Zeno speaks up, interrupting the silence.
"You don’t want to stick with us and help?" Airi questions with some confusion.
"I have my own priorities to worry about so I can’t help you guys," Zeno answers bluntly.
"Then don’t let us hold you back," Airi responds with frustration slightly in her voice.
She doesn’t sound happy to have to deal with this on her own, but she has the two of us to help still. I don’t think it’ll be that bad with one light bearer by our side.
Amelia technically should count as one for the most part too so we aren’t even down if you think about it.
"Good luck Zeno," I say with a calm tone.
He glances over at me.
"Yeah. Good luck to you as well Liam," Zeno replies before walking away.
He’s gone within a couple of moments but I still feel like he’s lingering around out there somewhere. His presence is hard to ignore, yet I know I’ll have to fight him one day.
Amelia doesn’t seem to have much of a reaction to him leaving, almost like she doesn’t care whatsoever.
"We shouldn’t stand around here either. Let’s get going," Airi says with a serious tone.
I completely agree with her since this place is bound to lead to chaos eventually. If I was stronger I’d face them all by myself but I know that’s not the case yet.
Still... This running away pisses me off.
I follow behind Airi and Amelia as we finally leave Amadon behind. Nothing else follows us that I’m aware of, but I still have a strange feeling.
The hybrid from before could still be finding ways to tail us... Even though it would be a waste of time.
"Where are we even going?" Amelia asks with curiosity.
"We’ll figure that out when we are away from Amadon," Airi answers without hesitation.
I just continue to follow her without questioning it since she already gave an answer to Amelia.
The walk goes on for what feels like hours until we finally reach a small gas station, one that veered off of the highway. It looks like of peaceful with no bodies left behind or anything.
"We’ll crash here for the time being since it is a decent spot," Airi says while opening up the door.
No rotten smells, no bodies, no food left over from the chaos that happened, and the place is kind of clean.
Regardless of all that I helped setup some spots for us to rest.
It is still impossible to tell what time of day it is since the sun used to be good for that but even the moon is hidden. That’s something I didn’t think much about when everything started.
No sun, no moon. How crazy is that? Yet we are still alive after everything scientists said in the past. Not that I discredit them or anything, but it is weird that nothing astronomical has occurred.
Oceans aren’t going crazy, weather isn’t destroying the world, no... Instead we are up against monsters that continue to evolve.
That’s the outcome that we never thought of once.
"Zierel have always been here," Celeste speaks up.
I guess that is true since I remember a conversation about this at some point in time.
"It just gave us a better opportunity when the sun went out," Celeste responds.
A better opportunity to kill humans... A better opportunity to take over our world and to kill everyone we love. Truly is a sad thing for us.
"Taking over isn’t the end goal. We have our own people to look out for and the light bearers are the enemy," Celeste says with a serious tone in her voice.
Yet I don’t understand what’s so bad about them... Other than Zeno who betrayed a few of his own. I don’t think they are the bad guys in this situation like you think.
You’ve all been fighting each other for your own reasons which happens. That is why humans went to war against one another in the past.
Greed.
"Our kind needed more land, we tried to be peaceful in the past... But it never worked," Celeste explains.
After everything I’ve been through... You guys tried to be peaceful? Zierel that don’t typically speak tried to be peaceful....
"Hard concept, I know. There’s a lot more to it than I care to explain right now. You’ve slowly been seeing memories from that light bearer who gave you the sword, right? Let him explain some stuff to you better," Celeste says with a soft tone.
She disappears after that and I’m stuck sitting here with the lingering thoughts of trust. My sword isn’t out right now but I know that I need help from him again.
"I’ll take first watch, you two get some sleep," Airi says with a slight smile on her face.
I just give her a nod before closing my eyes.