Nolan thought of how odd the word Hominy was. To his understanding, it was the act of removing the hull of a corn after bathing it in a liquid solution. But to them, it was an act of wounding the enemy until they are removed from the world. The bathing of wounds until they are sent back home.

The idea to Nolan was tempting. He could drove this two-handed blade into his stomach, thinking, that maybe this will send him back, but the principle that binds him refuses to listen to that temptation. He could never try to take his own life again, never, he swore.

Bach waited on his boat. He twirled a pipe around his fingers. He puffed a cloud of smoke that rose to the air. He saw Nolan and his eyes widened, followed with a grin, and a hop out of his boat. He opened his arms and gave a bear hug that Nolan received.

“You look well!” He patted him in the shoulder. Nolan noticed Bach’s gaze trail to the great sword he carried.

“Ah, you hunting monsters?”

“I need the money.”

“Hmm,” he looked at the giants on the ocean. “I can go to the Two-Rocks where the greens are.”

“Greens?”

“Goblins,” Bach said. “They’ve been ruling that land for a while now. No one comes there since then. Heard that they are going around making tribes now. We can head there if you live.”

“We can do that.”

“Then to that island.”

Nolan vaulted into the boat. Bach walked inside the cabin where his wheel was. He looked back. “Just shout when you see a titan underneath us!”

“You guys do endure living in this place.”

Bach said loudly. “Well, home is home, no matter how many dangerous things are there, it is home. Besides, we have Von protecting us, and the Lady as well!”

“A dragon that sits on top of a giant earthen golem. So is this why the island isn’t associated with the nations around it?” Nolan leaned on the railing.

“We don’t, because we are a free island. The nations respect the territories of the dragons. I do say that we are living fine — not once in the long history that anything had happened to the island. Besides, when you have someone like Von and the Lady protecting, I don’t think they would be brave enough. Or be cruel enough to harm the ancients who have lived their lives in peace.”

The ocean was beautiful in a way that it sparkles like crystals. Nolan feared the danger below this ocean which was filled with the giant creatures that were the size of small islands. Nolan saw a gigantic turtle with a strange kind of orange moss growing on it. He saw a humanoid-like creature swam like a frog underneath them. He saw giant fishes the size of cars and long sea serpents rest on rock spikes underneath the sea. It baffled him how unusually large the creatures here were.

“Isn’t it beautiful? The Elephantine Seas, the seas where there might be giants.”

“Might be is an understatement to what I am seeing.”

“None of the people in the mainland knows how to cross the seas without asking someone from Concordia. They had studied sea charts and maps and had tried expeditions to vanquish the Elephantine, but they rule these tides and no ship or magic could outmatch them. Even if you are the hero of elemental light. He’d be scratching his head on how to deal with these lovelies.”

“There’s a scary amount of them.”

“They say that the Elephantine Sea has great deep tunnels which have their world. This merely the outside look and beyond that is a place even I don’t want to think about.”

Nolan had lived incarnations upon incarnations, and have seen another world. But never had been in a world like this where everything was strange. He had been in that world repeatedly again and again and again that he had stopped himself to know the names of every location he had been to.

The memories inside his head hurt him. This was a strangely new experience for Nolan. He wondered if this was a reward for all the suffering he had gotten? A moment of silence for the fool who fought too long. Looking back, Nolan thought of his reasoning for fighting. He asked:

Why did he go to battle? What was the purpose he found? Why did he not lay down his arms?

The answer was simple. He had been so empty from the start that he found purpose. The kid that was lost in time and space found a reason to fight when it was dark and scary. Simply, he wanted to keep that light shining no matter what. It was a beautiful light that shone in the darkness. He was like a moth attracted to it. Without that light, and without that reason, he was a Wanderer lost in his thoughts.

He had only come this far because he thought of how he had no way to influence some of the things happening. It was the same thing as getting mad at the rain. What is the point of being mad at the rain? He didn’t have any control of it and therefore he thought to never act upon it. He allowed himself to become hard to the point that he didn’t notice how many cracks were on him. He was broken and without purpose. He had been wandering around for too long. He had lived long enough repeatedly that being thrown into this new peaceful world made him feel like he was lost. He had been fighting and fighting since eternity that he didn’t know what to do. He hated fighting. He didn’t enjoy it, but it made him feel like he was alive.

He decided to move against the island because he wanted to fight. He wanted to swing his arm. After all, what was the point of a Bleak Walker that does not fight? What was the point of a soldier who only knows how to kill monsters?

The peace was burning him. He didn’t hate it. He didn’t spite it. He was afraid of it.