293 New Targets
The more Luke’s soul fragmented due to the curse, the stronger the bond between him and the spirit of the Scales harbored within his body became.
And what was previously only possible when Luke was unconscious, was now possible when he was awake. Communication between the two became faster and easier, which certainly helped Scales when she needed to pass on directions, but it fatigued Luke even more.
Several times a day, Luke would cough up blood and stay up nights because of a lacerating headache. He tried to hide this from Meredith, but she was smart and could tell.
Even though she noticed everything that was happening to her best friend, Meredith didn’t stop him from continuing his journey, deciding for a while to just stay by his side. However, when they arrived in Stahurt, Luke’s coughs became even more frequent and she decided that she couldn’t keep quiet any longer.
At this point, Meredith put Luke up against the wall, questioning him about why they never went back to Oukiwa, even after getting everything Luke needed.
As usual, Luke tried to lie, but in the end gave in to the woman’s insistence. He told her that he still needed to find a person in the Melki Empire.
The half-fox didn’t understand how Luke started overnight knowing exactly where to go and what to do. Still, she felt fearful and didn’t ask about it.
Deep down, Meredith still felt a lot of guilt for abandoning the half-wolf with the Strogueher and running away so far away.
However, even if she asked Luke how he knew what to do, he would duck the question. The truth was that he was receiving instructions from the Scales to get the best possible ending to this war.
Scales’ plan was minimally calculated, which meant that they had no time for mistrust. Should Luke tell about the voice, people would not believe him at first and say it was the curse that was messing with his head.
Thanks to the trust that the half-wolf put in Scales over the past 6 months, he got a lot of information not only about the plan, but also about many other things. The spirit infiltrating Luke’s soul was not only very old, but also very wise.
Thus, the Scales informed Luke that there were many regions that oozed corruption in the lands of Melki, and it was up to him to decide whether he would try to find a way to nullify this corruption or not. Before he could make a decision on this, Scales warned him that the first option might be time consuming, just not impossible.
Luke left it to decide when he entered a corrupted region. When he finally entered, he saw many different things. Dead trees, dry grass, whole villages abandoned, places that once should have been beautiful now had a soil that black particles. They were dead and hopeless places.
According to Scales, the corrupted regions held valuable information about the demons and that they were possibly the ones who released it.
This made Luke come to the conclusion that the corruption was not a plague, but a kind of hostile energy, just that. Wanney was shocked when Luke revealed this theory.
“So, if we need to find a way to get through the corrupted lands without our lungs inhaling the particles, I will test something.” That’s what Wanney said, looking into the eyes of the half-wolf and half-fox with determination.
Well, it took Wanney a few days to learn how to teach the corruption inside him to disperse the corruption wherever he went, like two magnets with opposite poles.
In this way, Luke managed to get into some corrupted regions of the Melki Empire, and found the three specific types of items that Scales asked him to look for. When Luke finished gathering the items, Scales once again gave Luke two options, one stupid in his eyes and the other more strategic: Luke could head to Orkenby, a city at the southern end of the Melki Empire and face the demons head-on with the help of the items he stole from their vaults, or he could go to Stahurt, seek answers about Scales’ past and thus perhaps find a way for her to regain the strength she once had.
Should Luke choose to go to Stahurt, there was still a remote chance that he would survive at the end of it all. However, there was also the possibility that his soul would complete fragmentation.
For him it was not a difficult choice, after all, going to Orkenby, the forgotten city between endless mountains, was a true suicide.
“Right, right. So Luke finally decided to open his beak and tell us what we came to do in Stahurt.” Wanney said, nodding his head repeatedly with his eyes closed as he kept his arms crossed. “But can we at least know who you are? You are full of your own mysteries~”
With tired eyes across the table, Luke looked at the man to answer him. “It’s only fair you tell me that…. Yes I can tell you who we are looking for, however, try not to draw too much attention while looking for him.”
“Right, right. I would never do that.” Wanney kept nodding.
Meredith just stood still, sipping her mead with a thoughtful expression.
“His name is Hazor.” Luke announced.
“THE COMANDAN—!?” The scaly-furred man wearing a hood suddenly exclaimed, however, he couldn’t finish the sentence because Luke put a hand over his mouth.
Still, Luke couldn’t be quick enough to avoid drawing the attention of half the people in the tavern they were in.
The half-wolf smiled bitterly at them and said, “This is my cousin. He has tourette’s, so don’t bother with us, please.”
Since no one present even knew what tourette’s was, the people just grumbled a little and went back to eating, drinking and talking.
“Why the hell did you talk so loud?” Luke inquired, looking Wanney in the eye.
“Sorry, I was just surprised that you also knew Commander Hazor.”
“Commander? He’s a commander?”
“Are you kidding? He’s a legend in Melki, there isn’t a living being who hasn’t heard of him. They say he was the one who trained the former Emperor, who only earned that title by single-handedly clearing the Diamond Mountains.”