The Kind of Evil

‎Rasmus and Aris traveled quite far, and it had been more than two hours by walking. They seemed to be in an area in the forest that was untouched by humans. It was a complete silence except for their footsteps and the crunch of the grass they stepped on.

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‎"The horses stop following us," Rasmus looked over his shoulder where the horses stayed still and began to eat the grass.

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‎"Because we are here," Aris answered as she looked at the naturally placed boulders in the distance. "Those boulders," she pointed at the boulders leaning against each other.

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‎"The great spirit is there?" Rasmus asked as he stood behind Aris and looked at the boulders that felt mystical and sacred.

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‎"You'll see..." Aris answered as she began to approach the boulders.

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‎Rasmus followed Aris as he looked around, and somehow he felt like being watched. He didn't know why, but he could feel the gazes on the trees around him. He then watched Aris standing in front of the boulders, staring up at them with her hand on one of the boulders.

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‎"Come out..." Aris muttered under her breath. "Show yourself to us... all of you..." she continued as she kept staring at the stone.

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‎After a few seconds of silence, a gust of wind blew the dried leaves onto the ground, pushing them up into the air. The leaves flew around, creating a circular motion. They moved unnaturally slow, and they seemed to be unaffected by the chilling wind around them. Rasmus found the situation to be quite fascinating and put him in awe as he looked up at the leaves above and around him.

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‎"That man is dead!"

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‎"Dead?"

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‎"Dead!"

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‎"Dead?!"

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‎"Dead..."

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‎"It was funny!"

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‎"Funny?"

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‎"Funny?!"

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‎"Funny..."

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‎Rasmus listened to the squeaky voices of children, like one year old children. Their voices were high-pitched, and yet it didn't hurt the ears who listened to them. He looked around and their voices kept repeating the same words over and over.

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‎"Ehem! Be quiet!" A clear squeaky voice coming from behind Rasmus.

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‎Rasmus turned around and looked down, finding a small child that looked so adorable with pale skin. The child looked adorably pretty with long curly red hair, and handsome at the same time, making it hard for him to think if the child was a boy or a girl. He furrowed his brows, wondering who that child was, and how the child crossed their arms and behaved like an adult.

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‎Aris was standing beside that child and stared at the floating leaves in the air. She didn't say a word since she had been seeing spirits since she was personified, and it wasn't that surprising for her anymore.

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‎"Shush! Be quiet! The great spirit is talking!"

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‎"Be quiet!"

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‎"Quiet?"

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‎"Quiet?!"

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‎"Quiet..."

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‎Rasmus listened to the voices, and he couldn't help but chuckle because they were being noisy while telling others to be quiet. He found it to be oddly funny, and he never thought he would let out a chuckle from something so silly like that.

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‎"He laughed?"

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‎"He laughed!"

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‎"Laugh?"

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‎"Laugh!"

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‎The squeaky voices began to giggle adorably, the same giggles of a baby. It was both warming and eerie at the same time, but Rasmus put them aside and tried to understand what kind of being the spirits of nature were.

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‎"I said... be quiet!" The great spirit said loudly.

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‎The spirits suddenly went quiet for the first time because they were afraid of the great spirit.

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‎"Whew... finally—" Before the great spirit could finish the sentence, Aris picked the great spirit up, holding the great spirit in her arms. "W-wait! Put me down!" The great spirit frowned, staring into Aris's eyes.

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‎"No," Aris answered coldly as she stared back at the great spirit with a cold gaze.

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‎"Oh... okay..." The great spirit was sulking, lowering the head and feeling defeated.

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‎Rasmus narrowed his eyes, finding the whole situation to be hard to process. He realized a few things about the nature spirits, they were innocence without empathy, wisdom without morality, and power without responsibility.

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‎"(They seem to be unbound by law of nature as if they stand above it...)" Rasmus thought as he stared at the child. "(This is more disturbing that I thought)" he sighed quietly.

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‎"Now tell me your name, and from which origin you came from?" Aris asked as she held the great spirit like a doll.

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‎The great spirit slowly looked up at Aris, staring at her for a few seconds. The great spirit seemed to be observing Aris's power and her origin based on what the great spirit saw.

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‎"Yur, from Ure, Lady Aristoria..." The great spirit answered. "All of you! Listen! Don't play with Lady Aristoria or you will be eaten by her!" The great spirit warned, staring at the floating leaves.

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‎"Eaten?"

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‎"Eaten?!"

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‎"Eaten!"

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‎"Eaten..."

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‎All the spirits finally materialized and showed their physical bodies. They were either as big as a fly or a grasshopper, nothing bigger than that. They were like miniature babies hanging on the floating leaves.

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‎Rasmus found it hard to believe, and it disturbed him more than it should have. They looked so fragile, but somehow he felt danger from them. He then looked at the great spirit, and realized the big gap between the spirits and great spirits.

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‎"Ure? You're far from home," Aris looked at Yur with her brows raised.

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‎"I could ask you the same thing. You're far from home..." Yur answered as she looked down at Aris's arms that wrapped around Yur's body. "I have been here for a few decades now, I found this place and took it as my new home..."

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‎"What happens to your home?" Aris asked.

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‎Yur mumbled something unrecognizable to the ears as Yur lowered its head and played with its fingers. There was sadness and fear written in Yur's face that even Rasmus could see.

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‎"Demonic beasts hunted all of us and ate most of us..." Yur answered. "We couldn't stop them because those disgusting creatures multiplied in numbers in a short span of time in the past decades," Yur continued, trying to find comfort in Aris's arms.

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‎Rasmus had no idea what those two were talking about. However, when he looked at all the spirits, they all shared the same feelings as Yur. They all looked terrified and sad, making the exact expression as Yur.

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‎"Aris?" Rasmus raised his brows as he stared at Aris.

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‎"Yur of Ure, this little spirit is from West Neva. Ure is a domain, or a kingdom in human terms. Ure is known for their speciality of shaping terrains, they're one of the few spirits that shaped how the whole Neva looked right now," Aris answered as she looked down at Ure. "You can say that this little child and all Ures can move a mountain and even turn it upside down. But it would take decades or even a century," she added.

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‎Rasmus slowly grasped the role of nature spirits in Neva. Based on what Aris said, those spirits were like the architects of this world. They shaped the world while Orthias protected it, making themselves a team that ruled over the world. He realized that those spirits weren't bound by nature because they were the law of nature.

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‎"West Neva? Was it the Efiva mountain?" Rasmus asked as he looked at Yur.

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‎"Yes..." Yur nodded, keeping its head lowered, still with a saddened expression. "How did you know?" Yur slowly lifted its head and stared at Rasmus.

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‎Rasmus remembered that mountain because it was his plan to go there with Aurelia and the other students when he was still teaching at the academy. He remembered that the Efiva mountain was the nest of the demonic beasts. Agnesia also mentioned the issue with demonic beasts since she was the sorceress that dealt with them to protect West Neva.

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‎"From a book. So your domain was near that mountain?" Rasmus asked as he slowly approached Aris.

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‎"Near? It was our homeland, but demonic beasts appeared and devoured most of us. We had no choice but to scatter..." Yur answered, and Yur sounded a bit offended by Rasmus's lack of knowledge. "And who are you, lowly human" Yur narrowed its eyes, observing Rasmus's body.

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‎"He's not a mortal..." Aris narrowed her pupils like a serpent at Yur. "He's an Orthias, so watch your mouth, Yur of Ure..."

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‎"Eek!"

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‎All the spirits ran away when Aris showed her draconic eyes to them. They were afraid of dragons, and Aris could be called a dragon that was still in a human-like body.

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‎Yur panicked, and since Aris was holding Yur in her arms, all Yur could do was hide its face by covering it with its hands. Yur was trembling in fear, and even though Yur didn't see Aris's eyes, Yur could feel the sharp and painful gaze on its nape.

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‎"I'm sorry..." Yur's voice was muffled by the small hands that covered the face.

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‎"Behave or you'll be the one that I'm going to eat..." Aris said as kept holding Yur like a doll.

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‎Yur was trembling in fear as Yur nodded its head repeatedly. However, Aris was smirking, being mischievous toward the spirit in her arms. Rasmus on the other hand, shaking his head, found it surprising that Aris knew how to be mischievous when she had been a cold and collected being.