"The girl is safe and alive, and I am as well. You see, Yaga I told you everything would be fine." Ikky said as he pushed himself up to sit.
Turning to the person standing just beside him, Ikky held out his hand and pointed the handle of Ivan's dagger back at him.
"I believe this is yours."
Standing bewildered for a few seconds, Ivans eyelids fluttered with surprise as he took back the dagger.
"I'm sorry if I scared you back there. I was only trying to help." The Sullivan began to explain, "These daggers specifically are for healing wounds and easing pain. You should use it on a less lethal part of your body if you still have doubt, but I promise it works.
Ikky looked at the silver red stained dagger, lingering in thought before refusing. "Will it hurt if I stab myself?"
Ivan chuckled, "Well, yes."
"... Really?"
"Um, why don't I get you to someplace you can rest? There are others like you back at the camp, so I promise you'll be fine." Ivan Stretched out his hand.
Ikky took it. This man seemed genuinely kind. He felt like this stranger would be a fitting leader.
"Do not indulge too deep into the lies his essence feeds you. Even that woman left you for dead when she assumed you could not move. No one here is to be trusted." Yaga warned.
'You truly are wise, Yaga. But I sense that I am not so different. My spiritual essence is something I cannot stop from seeping out into the environment. Why don't we give him a chance?'
Ikky took Ivan's hand and pulled himself up. "I am Equinox Summers, but you can call me Ikky."
Ivan showed a look of surprise, but not for the reason Ikky was thinking. "Greetings, Ikky. I'm Ivanhoe. You can call me Ivan."
They both nodded at each other, Ikky leaving Ivan to do something on his own.
Ivan turned around and took out a small blue bird from his pocket, speaking into the bird before releasing it. Looking back at Ikky, he asked him to stand aside before walking up to a tree and summoning a black spear covered in red fluid from his Totem. However, before he could slice the tree in half, it suddenly exploded.
Ivan was surprised. He also could have sworn he'd seen a person just now behind the tree.
"What are you doing?" The man now standing beside him asked.
"...I was trying to make us a seat." Ivan explained while Ikky pointed to a shrivelled coal-like tree.
"Use one of those." He said. "I am very curious about these people you say are... like me. But, I have a more urgent task to attend to."
He looked down at his stomach and pulled out a ghostly white thread, continuing, "To add, my soul is nearly depleted from as it is right now."
It was quite understandable. He'd after all given more than half of his actual life to Astrid, and his uncontrollable Totem was now draining his soul to function after his spiritual essence had been depleted completely.
To be honest, the fact that his life essence was being used as a substitute to his spiritual essence— a trait of Sins— to power his Totem was a disadvantage. If he was a simple human, his Totem might have been relinquished already, reducing his stress load.
"But at least now we know it is possible to use your Totem for extended periods..." Yaga added. "Still, brace for relapse when your Totem eventually shuts down."
Watching the man sigh before vanishing, Ivan's eyes widened. "What the— where'd he go?"
A small creature suddenly appeared out of thin air, landing on the ground. This tiny troll coloured like the night's sky spread out it's limbs, squeaking as it soon began to ascend to the sky, leaving farts of dust behind.
Reading the trail of dust the weird creature had left, Ivan found a message. And as that dust clustered, deep black threads fell from the sky and landed in front of him.
His face folded in as he raised his hands and shoulders in the air, utterly lost for words. Nevertheless, he kept the threads for the next time he meets the amber eyed man.
Ivan had to stay behind and wait for the people he had called for. And when they arrived, they were unfortunately sent back with nothing to show for their efforts.
"Is this kid playing pranks now?" A woman whispered as she and the others in the group walked away disappointedly.
"Shh! He— he's a great figure. Why would he tell lies?"
"Tsk! Great figure my ass. Speaking of ass anyway, I bet my own butt would be prettier to look at than that ugly face. Hahaha! We really walked all the way here just to see it? Eww! Haha!"
The rest looked at themselves, some chuckling along and others looking with uncertainty.
Ivan watched as they all walked off, his lips curved in a helpless smile. His Augur spirit was doing all sorts of dances and yelling over the heads of the group, obviously without any of them being able to see her.
"Aos-sia, please stop." Ivan asked.
"What?" The human sized Augur spirit exclaimed in disbelief.
"Did you not hear all the things they were saying about you? If you had you'd... you wouldn't have done anything." Her bare silver shoulders dropped.
"Oh, Ivanhoe!" She suddenly appeared beside him and fell dramatically into his arms. "Comfort me, Ivanhoe." She pleaded.
"Uh, aren't I the one who should be comforted?" Ivan took his eyes away her form."
Aos-sia gasped, grasping hold of his cheeks and making him look into her eyes. "That's right! How inconsiderate of me. It's just... I got so exhausted from how angry those idiots made me."
She fell back heavily into his arms.
"Carry me, Ivanhoe. I am so tired from all the yelling and crying those people caused me to go through."
"I— I can't do that, Aos-sia. It's improper."
Aos-sia gasped again as if unaware of Ivan's behaviour after so much time spent with him. She continued to bother the man, and all Ivanhoe could do was walk slowly with his legs pressed against each other.
———
The forest was becoming denser, the black trees fewer and the red ones increasing. Ivan could swear in his heart that he was being followed. But whether by human, or spirit was what would decide what course of action he would take.
"Did people cut down trees with spears Aos-sia?" He asked.
A voice replied half-heartedly, " You humans do a lot of strange things, I can hardly tell."
She remained silent for a while before eventually adding, "The Totem does not make mistakes. So it is either spears really were used to cut things, or that tree had done something deserving of being slain by that weapon."
"These trees are dangerous." Ivanhoe and Aos-sia came to a quick conclusion.
Ivanhoe's and Ikky's goals were not too far from being the same, neither was their destination. Equinox, following the strong urge and responsibility that his Totem had placed on him wanted to so badly free these suffering souls in the forest. But he was also afraid that should his curse be lifted, he would return back to his normal self and would be unwilling to help them.
Yaga surely was not the kind of person who would even attempt to persuade him to waste so much effort on something providing very little benefit.
Still, he could not just sit still and not lend a hand to whoever needs it, just because he wanted to remain Līfwin. It would defeat his primary purpose after all. Regardless, Līfwin does not need any such reasoning. Either by relieving the entities of creation from their problems, or peeling open their heavy flesh,
"You'll be fine." Ikky reassured the man panting tiredly as he sat on the ground.
In front of the two was another person with their back turned— naked with grey skin and black veins crawling all over their body. This strange person, or rather spirit seemed to be fidgeting out of fear, rubbing their arms and whimpering.
"I... I did... come here to die... to die. I..." They heard the spirit say.
"Call help... run from..."
Equinox stepped forward. He could see a huge mist of night surrounding the spirit. So was it wounded? Was it really so afraid? Ikky's senses were a bit dull from the exhaustion.
"What are you saying? Who is there to call?" He asked.
The spirit turned its head around, Ikky and the man catching sight of a small arm flailing to the side before being covered again by the spirit's large body. The spirit itself had a face covered in red human blood.
Its mouth was not moving, yet they could still hear cries.
Ikky's eyes widened. That person is still alive!