What was he!?
Ash walking as a man!?
An Ash Walker?
These were the first thoughts that flooded Kael's head.
He was blank. Empty.
His body ached, his ribs throbbed, his arm felt like dead weight—but his mind… his mind was screaming. Because what he was seeing didn't fit in any story, any teaching, any old man's tale.
It was as if fire had worn skin.
As if silence had chosen to walk.
The man wasn't standing straight—his spine curled slightly forward, as if the weight of centuries had pressed him into a shape that time wouldn't let go.
That shape—it looked unnatural. But not broken.
No.
Held.
Like he was meant to stand that way.
He looked old—a century, at least.
But then Kael saw his eyes.
And the years collapsed.
There was no age in those eyes.
Only stillness.
Terrifying, endless stillness.
He wasn't even looking at Kael—he was looking at Liam. Straight ahead. Unmoving.
Liam's stance loosened just slightly, and Kael saw something he never thought he'd see on him: hesitation.
"Who are you?" Liam called out.
His voice was calm, clear—but strained at the edges, like a string pulled too tight.
Still... silence.
The man didn't answer.
Didn't move.
Didn't blink.
A hand came to Kael's side.
He flinched—ready to swing, until he saw the face.
"Easy," Terren muttered, half-breathless. He crouched beside Kael, blood still smeared across his forehead. "It's just me."
Terren helped him up—his arm under Kael's. Kael's legs barely worked, but Kael forced himself to stand. They both leaned against a broken tree trunk, watching.
"What is that man!?" Terren whispered beside him. "And how come that beast just disintegrated!?"
Kael couldn't answer.
There were no answers.
This wasn't something out of any adventurer's tale.
It was... something else.
A man—barefoot, unarmored, unarmed—walking through the jungle like it meant nothing to him. No protection. No fear.
Just the hum of silence following wherever he went.
Nobody would believe Kael. Not his parents. Not the University.
Hell, he wouldn't believe himself either if he hadn't seen it—right there, with his own eyes.
But the man was real.
He moved slowly toward the beast's still-smoking corpse.
And with every step, the silence slowly unraveled.
The man reached the drake.
Kneeling beside it, he placed a hand on its twisted mouth—gently, as if it hadn't just tried to devour them alive.
Oldman muttered something.
They couldn't hear it.
But Kael saw the man's eyes—
And they held compassion.
With a slow exhale, the beast's massive body collapsed inward.
Like a breath released after holding it for centuries.
It didn't burn.
It didn't rot.
It simply… returned.
Into the soil. Into the roots. Into the jungle.
Gone.
Just a pile of ash.
It felt like witnessing a myth.
Like seeing one of the Founding Fathers right in front of them.
A voice inside Kael stirred—something deeper than thought.
Like a whisper not of mind, but soul.
"He is the one we were looking for."
And just like that… Kael knew.
His eyes widened.
His lips trembled.
His knees shook as if he had found an ocean while looking for a droplet.
Then—
A voice. Familiar. From just beyond the cart.
"Are you the man… who lives in the cremation ground!?"
Miya.
Her tone was sharp, but shaken—like she was afraid the answer would be yes.
The man didn't even glance at her.
He kept his eyes fixed on the earth where the drake had disappeared.
Another voice followed—low, steady.
"Can you really bind souls?"
Liam.
No answer.
Still.
Then—
The man stepped forward.
Into the ash.
And stood there. Silent.
He knelt.
Scooped the ash into his palms.
And began rubbing it onto his palms.
His arms.
His face.
Slowly. With reverence.
Like a ritual.
Like a rite.
They watched—frozen.
Not from fear.
From something else.
From awe. From disbelief. From the sense that they were witnessing something they had never heard about.
Then Miya's voice cracked through it all—raw, pained, desperate.
"ANSWER ME, OLD MAN!
CAN YOU HEAL SOMEONE!?"
The sound tore through the stillness.
Kael looked at her—her face was red, streaked with sweat, blood and dirt.
She was crying.
But not for herself.
She was about to lose someone.
And this man—this Ash Walker—might be her only hope.
Terren and Kael moved forward, toward Liam.
Liam stood dead-center of the path, the bull cart behind him, swaying slightly from the chaos of moments ago.
To the left of the cart—they emerged, battered and stunned.
To the right—Miya stood, fists clenched, eyes wide with pain.
The jungle closed in on both sides.
And at the far end—
The man stood in the ashes.
Still rubbing them into his skin.
Silent.
Like a tombstone that had never learned to speak.
They reached Liam's side.
Just then,
The Ash Walker turned slowly.
And for the first time—
He looked at Miya.
And he finally spoke—
"Why should I?"
Everything collapsed.
All the hopes, urges, expectations… crumbled under the weight of a single word.
'Why'
It was strange, almost cruel, how that single word—why—could shape everything.
In one breath, it gave reason.
The strength to defy limits, to chase the impossible, to break free of the mind's own chains.
And in the next… it bound tighter than iron, stripping away liberty, voice, and meaning—
Reducing a soul to nothing more than a bird locked in a cage, staring through the bars at a sky it could never touch.
The bird wanted to fly.
It was born to fly.
But the owner leaned in and whispered—
"Why?"
Why leave? Why wander the wild world for nothing more than scattered crumbs and wind-burnt feathers?
The bird was fed in the cage.
It didn't starve.
So… wasn't that enough?
Wasn't that life?
Just live.
And die.
Like everyone else.
Because, in the end, everything that breathes… would perish.
The old man's eyes were still—unyielding.
There was something in them, a strange aura—cold, yet burning. So intense that Kael couldn't look into them for more than a second. One glance was enough to make his soul recoil.
Thud.
A sound beside him.
Kael turned his head—
It was Miya.
She had fallen to her knees.
"I beg of you… Please… Please… save him… You're our only hope…"
Her voice cracked with grief, anger, and something deeper—like the weight of an entire world crashing through her. Tears streamed down her cheeks, splashing onto the earth, catching the sunlight like broken shards of glass.
Her posture said it all.
She was begging.
Kael's heart clenched.
Beside him, Terren slowly lowered himself to the ground—kneeling without a word.
Further ahead, Liam was already down.
His forehead pressed into the dirt, hands trembling, his whole body curled in submission. He wasn't a warrior in that moment.
He was a brother, begging.
Kael couldn't stop himself.
He dropped to his knees too. His hands and ribs throbbed doing so… But for a life, it was a cheap deal.
Because he also wanted SegeFord to live.
Because something inside him believed that if anyone could save SegeFord… it was this man.
He lowered his head.
Just as he heard,
Footsteps.
Not coming toward them but leaving.
Kael's head jerked up.
The old man was walking away.
Back turned.
Silent.
Like none of this mattered.
something moved.
A blur. A flash of steel.
A sword—
At the old man's throat.
Dust swirled around his feet.
The sun carved Liam's silhouette like a statue of fury.
He stood tall.
Blade shimmering.
Face smeared with sweat and earth.
He had intervened.
And he wasn't bluffing.
Liam would kill for SegeFord.
He'd kill anyone.
So what was an old man with a crooked spine and no gear?
No armor. Not even a cloak to hide behind.
To Liam he was just one more obstacle.
"Listen, old man," Liam growled, voice sharp as his blade,
"I don't give a fuck who you are… or what you are…
So you can take that 'why' of yours and shove it up your ass.
So when i tell you to do something… You do that thing. "
Kael felt it.
Even from meters away—
Liam's fury. His desperation. His love for SegeFord.
But the old man didn't flinch. Didn't even blink.
"Everyone's supposed to die one day, child," he said calmly.
"Your friend is just getting that luxury early."
There was no cruelty in his voice.
No mockery.
Just… emptiness.
A hollow truth.
"You—" Liam's voice cracked with rage, "A life is at the take… Someone is dying. If you have the power…If you can save him… Why won't you!? Do you have no humanity in you!?"
"You talk about life as if you care about it," the old man said, his lips curling into a quiet, bitter smirk.
"You speak as if you know what a life's worth is…"
His tone shifted—like steel scraping bone.
"Is life only sacred when it belongs to you?
Is your friend's life worth more because he's human—while that beast's wasn't, just because it crawled on four legs?
What about the souls of this jungle you've crushed beneath your boots?
The creatures you hunted for glory?
The people… yes, people—you've killed in cold blood.
What about the burning head in that cart?"
His eyes glinted now—haunted.
"Are they all worthless… just because they weren't yours to care about?"
A silence dropped like Dead.
The forest fell quiet again—no wind, no birdsong, no insects.
Only breath.
Liam's sword wavered.
For the first time… it shook.
Then—
He dropped.
Right there.
Back to his knees.
At the old man's feet again.
But this time… he was broken.
Tears flowed freely.
He wasn't holding them back anymore.
His grief came raw and full of tremors.
His words spilled like water breaking a dam.
"I understand… I really do… But please… please, save him… He's all I have left."
He clutched at the Old man's feet.
Not as a warrior.
Not as a soldier.
As a child begging a god.
The old man stood still.
Looking down at Liam as he spoke,
"You must know, child…" he said softly,
"Nothing comes for free.", His voice had changed.
Less cold now.
Still distant—but carrying the weight of truth.
"There is a price to everything…"
"I'll give you all my money!" Liam blurted, desperate. "Everything I've gathered till now! Every singl—"
The old man raised a hand.
"Money is ash, boy. Just metal and rot."
Liam looked up, confused. Broken.
"Then what!?" he shouted, trembling. "What do you want!?"
The old man looked past Liam. Past them all.
His gaze stretched far into the trees, into some distant place only he could see.
As He spoke… voice deep, almost ancient:
"You want your brother to live… But are you willing to pay the price? A life for a life."