Freedom Jumper-Chapter 180: Mystery of the Seed

Elijah and Niko both witnessed the conversation happen between two high level Protector's. Just from their looks and ornamental medals, they could tell they were high ranking Protector's who were strategically playing the game they were cornered to play.

As it turns out, this 'mistake' that Elijah and Niko had gotten themselves into revealed the truth of the entire world.

The Kingdom of Gion had always been struggling against the beasts for as long as they lived. It did not matter how many Adventurers they employed, the beasts would always come back to haunt them. Over thousands of years they continuously deployed new strategies and methods to increase in the search for becoming as efficient as possible.

First, it started with a wall built on the ruins of the previous kingdom who could not bear the weight the jungle held. Secondly, runic equipment was created specifically for dealing with the beasts they saw on a frequent basis. Lastly, strategies related to not provoking the beasts were created.

What Gion had learned is by increasing the incentives that come with being a Protector, they were able to lower the amount of Adventurers in the kingdom — thus lowering the amount of beast raids as one of the biggest reasons related to adventurers pissing off their eternal enemy.

Essentially, every living being with a willingness for good is trapped within the confines of a border. Whereas the beasts that roam the wildlands are free to do as they wish.

Elijah was only thinking about the reason for the 'infinite' number of beasts, but kept coming to the conclusion of how The Void was creating every single one.

These horrid beasts may not be coming directly from The Void itself, but maybe from something The Void had created.

"What a shitty way to live..." Elijah muttered words under his breath as his eyes were constantly drifting to different areas of the towering forest. Black figures were constantly moving across his line of sight, severing the thick branches of the trees, and even sometimes dive bombing the wall in an attempt to kill.

Soon, a spear of spiraling water materialized in his hands.

"Elijah? Do you really think you could kill one?" Niko asked while backing up towards the inner edge of the allure.

"All you have to do is wait for the right moment, Niko."

Elijah began intently staring into the forest. To his left and right, elemental bullets and sword slashes of different elements were constantly being thrown. From above — atop the tower, snipers were releasing condensed bullets of fire and lightning..

In the distance, a black-feathered bird with wide wings propelled itself forward — zipping through the trees at an astonishing speed. Its claws slowly extended into metal blades, and locked in onto its target.

Something strange about Nistor's were their origin. Elijah had never seen these beasts before besides the time he saw them in the newspaper. One thing was for certain, Nistor's had the ability to see through heat vision.

At least, it was a guess.

The Nistor flew speedily towards the allure in a straight line once a target had been set. However, it was brutally killed by Elijah's spear of water simply because of its trajectory.

Niko stood there astonished, as well as a few Protector's that had seen Elijah's feat.

"Hahaha! Keep doing that, kid!" Exclaimed a Protector who just had his life saved.

Very quickly, Niko joined in on the fun, but was heavily disappointed when he couldn't hit a single target the same way Elijah could.

"There is no doubt about it... These birds use heat to move around. It's no wonder you can't hit your shots." Elijah created another spear of water while massaging his shoulder. Only small amounts of mana were being used to throw the spear of water at a fast speed, but was still causing pain as he had done such a task over eight times now.

The surrounding area was beginning to feel less and less like a battlefield. Over the course of two hours, the nistor's and shadow panthers activity died down — realizing that the humans they desperately wanted to slaughter were playing a completely different game.

What sent Elijah walking towards the tower were the disappearance of the lights ane the exclamation of a proud character.

A beautiful blonde man with a dirty blonde beard broke through the small sounds of battle. This man was surely an important figure, perhaps a Captain or even a General of the Protector's. "Alright!! The raid has been cleared! All of you who are not scheduled may return to your home... or whatever you were doing..."

Still, Elijah saw Nistor's flying through the trees, but not a single one chose to attack. On the contrary, the shadow panther's had already dismissed themselves — returning to whatever dark corner of the jungle they came from.

As they were both walking through the door, they overheard a conversation while looking through the iron bar window overlofooking the jungle.

"... be an investigation about what caused the raid. Just like you said before, a human-like figure was seen flying through the air while being chased by a nistor... Are you still sure that happened?" Asked

"Yes! I know I saw it! That was the moment before I activated the raid alarm."

"I understand..."

The conversation suddenly stopped as the blonde-haired man with white fur cape turned his head towards the Adventurers who just happened to be exploring the curfew.

"You don't have to pretend to be oblivious, you know..."

Elijah and Niko stopped their leisure steps, almost slipping on the staircase.

"Oblivious?" Niko questioned as he turned around.

"You two are not the strongest kids I have seen in my lifetime, but the most daring to be avoiding the curfew... and to even have the gall to join in on the protection of the kingdom." The man paused, trying to find something in his pocket.

Before he was able to start speaking again, Elijah asked a question he had been dying to find the answer to. "Why over the past thirty thousand years has the situation with the beasts remained unchanged?"

"So... you are a curious little fellow are you?"

The man known as Anton Cenemiere handed Elijah his personal information card. In great detail and and a romantic font was his full name, rank, and guild building of occupation. As well as his time as a Protector.

"To answer your question, we don't know the exact reason. I'm not supposed to tell you this, but every single beast originates from what we call a seed. From these seeds that are spread across the beast lands, they spawn at a random rate. However, there are many places that spawn beasts far more than other places... Take the Divide of Lanc for example... there haven't been many expeditions into those places because each one was always fruitless... Or so I am told."

"Because of this fact, we only try to maintain what we have while attempting to nurture talent that transcends the limits of what we currently face. That's why education is regarded as something everyone must do, especially if you choose the path of a Paladin."

Elijah cut in with a second question. "I guess another reason for the lack of progress relating to the beasts is the war?"

"Yes, that too..." Anton rubbed his head and paused. "I can't talk for much longer, but I highly suggest you look into the history books regarding the kingdom before us. The reason why they fell is something that is not explained much, but there are of course theories spread amongst the people."

"How interesting... Thank you for the knowledge."

"You are welcome. I am sure you will learn it eventually as I suspect you will be strong one day..." Anton threw his white fur coat behind his back and proceeded to walk down the spiral stairs.

Elijah looked at the aged brown parchment card, flipped it in between his fingers, then looked at Niko. "I wonder why he gave us this card..."

Since the entire area near the wall had died down thanks to the help of the two of them, they casually walked down the steps, taking their time while watching a small number of beast cores be gradually floated down the runic elevator shaft.

The walk home was filled with speculation and connecting the dots.

Elijah and Niko knew very well that these so-called "seeds" were the creation of The Void.

However, while talking through the reasons why, they came to the conclusion of this fact being debatable.

What they knew so far was that The Void had a goal in mind. While they didn't know the reason, it was likely they caused some problems while escaping, which is why The Void sent the void beasts to kill Elijah and Niko.

The Void's goal required that no one knew about it from the outside.

Since Elijah knew of the 'integration of mana' into the natural world happened whenever The Void was created by the Gods, he also suspected that this integration also relates to the creation of these "seeds" Anton had mentioned.

Slowly, Elijah is coming closer to the truth.

But...

Even when the full truth is known — the reason for the war and The Void's goal, would Elijah even be able to do anything?

Would destroying The Void be possible?

And if it was...

Would it also destroy the world?