It took him no time to spot the three silhouettes navigating through the forest, attempting to find the already faded tracks.

‘Hmm. So they tracked me down. From what point, I wonder. Probably from the place I collected the herbs. It wouldn’t be surprising if they checked up on them once in a while since they are essential for their clans. Well, it doesn’t really matter, I guess.’

With that, he quietly climbed the tree in front of them and waited for them to pass beneath.

“Those tracks are recent. The heretic is close!” One of them said in a low voice as the other two bared their teeth in ferocious smiles.

“He will pay! Before giving him to our loving Lord’s hands, we will show him what it means to disrespect our Lord.”

They spoke in low voices, trying to be sneaky in hopes of catching the perpetrator unprepared.

Illyan didn’t understand much of their language, but he felt the enmity they radiated, so he didn’t hesitate at all.

As they approached, he stretched his hand and with a swift and strong fling, he threw the bone spear like a javelin at the one he deemed the weakest of the bunch. Then he lunged down and swung himself on the branches to get closer to the other two.

Before they realized what happened, one of them was already impaled. The other two were alarmed and tried to prepare themselves for another attack, but were too late as Illyan swung himself at them while kicking both in their chests with each of his legs.

The attack alone didn’t hurt them, but it stunned them as they retreated under the force of the kick.

Once Illyan hit the ground with his legs, he swiped his long nails at the eyes of one of the aborigines.

Slash

“Ahhh!?”

Cries of agony resounded in the quiet forest as Illyan turned to the last one. That one had already taken out his femur club intending to attack him, but Illyan’s quick kick to the side of his thigh slowed him for a second.

After this, Illyan retreated and waited for him to attack first, looking at the man with a cold expression.

“Bastard!” The leader of this group was extremely angry and threw insults in his native language as he sprinted towards Illyan. But to his surprise, after a few steps, his leg missed a beat, and he started falling forward. It was at that moment when Illyan lunged at him once again.

The leader panicked and wanted to swing his club, but his wrist was caught and twisted by Illyan, who subsequently hit the leader’s chin, making him lose consciousness.

But the fight still didn’t end as Illyan had to dodge the frenzied attacks of the blinded aborigine who was yelling in pain and rage. Unfortunately for him, his attacks didn’t reach Illyan, and instead, it was the leader who Illyan used as a shield who was pummeled.

“Eh?!”

That pain obviously woke him up, but he was immediately knocked out by his own femur club that Illyan took away from him. Then he threw it at an unsuspecting aborigine.

However, the aborigine also had some experience in fighting, and when he heard the movement of air, he blocked the femur. But the moment he did, he was attacked from the other side by Illyan, who moved like a ghost and put his hand on the aborigine’s neck, and with one quick squeeze, he broke his neck.

“Phew…”

It had been some time since he last fought against humans like this. He even missed it a little.

After checking whether the person in his hand was really dead, he threw the body away as he went to check on the one who was impaled. That one was already lying in his own blood as the spear impaled his chest throughout, coming out of his back.

Because of the bone being hollow, the bone spear didn’t slow down the bleeding, and the man bled out within a minute. Seeing him like this made Illyan realize that while their technique makes them stronger than regular men, it also makes their bodies much more fragile and defenseless. If the man had some muscles on his chest, then he would have had a chance to survive the attack, which wasn’t that strong.

Of course, even then, he would die during the battle with Illyan.

Checking the two weaker ones are as dead as they can be, Illyan turned his attention to the strongest one who just lost consciousness. Illyan needed him alive to surrogate him. He wanted to find out where the Thearas Clan was or whether it still existed.

He knew that Thearas Clan had a main village in the northern part of the forest, but after the Bakur Tribe wrecked that place, they ran away into deeper parts of the forest.

He didn’t know how much time passed and in which state the clan currently was in. Or whether the people who almost burned him alive were still living. Time was the enemy of all.

If Illyan wanted to find them, he couldn’t just go in one direction hoping for them to be in his way.

And so, he got closer to the leader and crouched in front of him. Illyan didn’t have any ropes or something to tie the aborigine down, so he had to ensure he wouldn’t move in a different way.

He could just smash his limbs, but he didn’t want to put up with the noise the man would cause.

With slow movement, he took hold of his shoulder, channeled the little of spiritual energy he could muster up in his state and…

Clack!

Dislocated it.

In this way, he dislocated all four limbs so that the guy couldn't move even if he was awake.

Usually, dislocation hurts extremely, but for someone like Illyan who was adept in the anatomy of the human body, doing it with minimal pain and discomfort was quite easy. Not to mention, this guy was hit quite violently. Dislocation was his smallest problem. Fortunately, it didn’t seem that the wound on his head was so bad that he wouldn’t wake up.

Knowing that the guy was immobile now, he ran towards his hideout where he had all his things.

While the rest he had was shorter than he expected, it was still enough for him. In no time, he collected everything before leaving the place. Once he got back he saw that the man was still unconscious which made his mood better since his job would be easier.

He took out several herbs out of his bag. Once he measured how much he would need of each, he forcibly opened the aborigine’s mouth. While it wouldn’t be as effective as if he properly boiled it in hot water, it didn’t matter since the target was no one other than an aborigine who didn’t know how to think for himself and was weak-minded.

Once the aborigine’s mouth was opened, he stuffed all those herbs in and then closed the mouth. After he made sure that the aborigine swallowed it all, he waited.

The mix of herbs Illyan fed him was the simplified recipe for befuddlement of the mind. Several of those herbs were poisonous and with the right proportion made the mind and nerves weaker, which made it easier to interrogate the person. Only those , he couldn’t just go in one direction hoping for them to be in his way.

And so, he got closer to the leader and crouched in front of him. Illyan didn’t have any ropes or something to tie the aborigine down, so he had to ensure he wouldn’t move in a different way.

He could just smash his limbs, but he didn’t want to put up with the noise the man would cause.

With slow movement, he took hold of his shoulder, channeled the little of spiritual energy he could muster up in his state and…

Clack!

Dislocated it.

In this way, he dislocated all four limbs so that the guy couldn't move even if he was awake.

Usually, dislocation hurts extremely, but for someone like Illyan who was adept in the anatomy of the human body, doing it with minimal pain and discomfort was quite easy. Not to mention, this guy was hit quite violently. Dislocation was his smallest problem. Fortunately, it didn’t seem that the wound on his head was so bad that he wouldn’t wake up.

Knowing that the guy was immobile now, he ran towards his hideout where he had all his things.

While the rest he had was shorter than he expected, it was still enough for him. In no time, he collected everything before leaving the place. Once he got back he saw that the man was still unconscious which made his mood better since his job would be easier.

He took out several herbs out of his bag. Once he measured how much he would need of each, he forcibly opened the aborigine’s mouth. While it wouldn’t be as effective as if he properly boiled it in hot water, it didn’t matter since the target was no one other than an aborigine who didn’t know how to think for himself and was weak-minded.

Once the aborigine’s mouth was opened, he stuffed all those herbs in and then closed the mouth. After he made sure that the aborigine swallowed it all, he waited.

The mix of herbs Illyan fed him was the simplified recipe for befuddlement of the mind. Several of those herbs were poisonous and with the right proportion made the mind and nerves weaker, which made it easier to interrogate the person. Only those with strong wills and a healthy body would be able to avoid the muddled and confused state.

And those aspects were exactly ones that these maniacal aborigines were lacking in. Their technique made them strong, but their bodies were weak and easily susceptible to poisons and diseases. On the other hand, they were brainwashed from their young ages to worship their Lord and even sacrifice their lives for him. They were not taught how to think for themselves or use their mind for something creative.

Their minds were weak and immature.

It was actually quite pitiful when Illyan thought about it like that.

But the die was already thrown. He couldn’t change their mindset. He didn’t know how, and he didn’t have the desire to do so either.

Illyan waited another few minutes before the leader started to twitch a little, showing he will wake up soon…

……..

When he groggily opened his eyes, they were full of confusion. When he wanted to move, he found out that piercing pain was coursing throughout all of his limbs.

“What is this?” He muttered to himself as he stared in a daze.

“Hey, do you understand me?” Suddenly, he heard a voice from above. He lifted his head and made contact with blood-red eyes with hints of golden. Those eyes completely captivated him. The coldness swirling in them felt as if he wasn’t looking at human, let alone that young. It felt as if he was staring at an unfeeling creature that sought to bring cruelty to the mortal world. They weren't as vibrant as those of normal youths. Instead, they were dim as if the owner lived through countless vicissitudes. All of this made the leader more attentive to the words that were being said. Unfortunately, he didn’t understand.

But at that moment…

“You. Where. Is. Thearas. Clan?” Suddenly, the voice of the being resounded. This time with the language that he knew. But its accent was heavy, and its speech was broken, which made it all the more scary.

What is Thearas? And why does he need to know? Such questions didn’t pass through his mind as he didn’t have the capacity for that. Instead, he mustered as much mind power as he could to remember from his memories where this ‘Thearas Clan’ could be.

“Ah, ah, ah~?!” Then he remembered something. The leader who thought he would devote his life only to his Lord yielded to the man in front of him and tried to explain where Thearas Clan was. The moment he stopped talking, he wanted to look back at the eyes of the being, but only eternal darkness enveloped him as the sharp pain on his head reappeared…

……..

‘Fortunately, I learned a few words of their language. Else it would be difficult to do this. But…’

Illyan was quite displeased. While the guy gave him a rough idea of where the clan was, it was just that. Rough. There were many clans, and not even members of the alliance remembered them all, let alone their locations.

The only reason why this guy remembered them was that years ago, they had to move an entire village deeper into the forest because of the heavy attack of the Bakur Tribe. That was the time when Illyan met Kaoran and Degres for the first time. Unfortunately, he didn’t know how many years ago it was.

‘It was so long ago… Yet time flies really quickly at the same time.’ Thinking about it like this made Illyan realize how time was deceitful. Perception of time was mysterious, as the passage of time that you lived through could be so long yet it could feel as just one winter. Or, on the other hand, it could be as short as one day, yet it could feel as if the time didn’t flow at all.

Right at this moment, it felt as if Illyan had an epiphany about how the mind and time worked.

Once he came to himself, he threw away the femur club that he used to kill the leader and went to retrieve his bone spear. He pondered whether he should make a more elaborate weapon for the attack he planned but deemed it as a waste of time.

Instead, he looked at those three bodies and groaned in annoyance. He couldn’t just let those bodies rot here. There was a chance they would turn undead because of that. If they did and other aborigines found them, they would turn even crazier to find him. Making the bodies rest after killing someone was a courtesy that went beyond language barriers. However, he couldn’t make a pyre for them either.

Firstly, making a fire big enough to burn bodies in the forest was a very bad idea.

And secondly, it would still bring attention.

He could also purify them as it was part of the shaman doctrine, but that was too time-consuming considering they were not someone he should respect.

Of course, if he wanted, he could just tear their limbs and throw them to the bottom of the lake, but he didn’t feel that was something he wanted to do. After going through starvation almost his entire life, he never felt comfortable wasting anything that was edible or spoiling the source of water that tens or even hundreds of animals depended on.

“Even after death, they are unbearable…”

……..

Grrrr

“Don’t whine. Here you have something to feed your cubs!”

Thud

Because he found the lake, he believed there would be at least one den full of starved carnivorous beasts that would gladly take the ‘meat’ in the vicinity. The water source was as important for the animals as it was for humans.

And he was right. Soon, he found one den of some kind of animal he didn’t recognize. It reminded him a little of the snowstorm sabretooth tiger, but it was definitely a local animal of this forest. There were two adults and at least a dozen cubs. All of them had visible ribs showing how they were devoid of food.

However, even though they were starving and tired, they were still ferocious when they saw the intruder.

Illyan didn’t waste time and threw those three bodies at them and left immediately after. The beasts were at first confused and still waited for some kind of danger, but when they realized he wouldn't be returning, they smelled the blood that was coming out of the bodies.

Soon, the sounds of tearing flesh and the happy grunts of cubs were heard within the den…