Eline was previously in possession of four artifacts, but she had given Alwyn two, the ones she had no use for.
She now remained with her most powerful weapon: the Thunderburst, a scythe that created explosions with an energy proportional to the speed of the swing. But that only worked if someone was wielding it. That was why, although Eline was currently running faster than any human in history, the scythe tied to his back had not killed them yet.
The only thought of that possibility made Alwyn shiver.
The battle of the previous day was still impressed in his eyes. The rapid swing, the sudden surge of flames, the discharge, the massacre. It was a formidable weapon.
But apparently, Eline had been hiding something else. Or at least, she hadn't mentioned it to Alwyn, for some reason.
"Eye of the Overseer… That's how the Church calls it."
The girl took a red, translucent sphere out of her pocket. As she was running, the item between her fingers moved up and down, making it impossible for him to catch all of its details.
"When a Revenant is five meters from me, the Eye emits a jarring sound. Just like a knife scraping against glass."
"That's so convenient! But, wait… I didn't hear any strange sounds when you fought against the wolf yesterday."
"That's because I had left the Eye inside the carriage. I didn't want to expose myself to an unknown enemy that could have turned out to be a Revenant."
"Unknown? If I was a Revenant I would have already sensed your soul, hearing a noise wouldn't have changed much. Unless…"
"That's right. I was also wearing the Bond to hide my soul."
"Your treachery truly knows no bounds!"
"S-Sorry…"
"Don't worry about it, I'm more than happy to know that I'm partnering with someone so dependable."
Eline steadily continued her sprint. She was supposed to cover more than twentythree kilometers of distance in just twenty minutes.
When she arrived at the twelve kilometers mark, she decreased her speed by a substantial amount and carefully assessed her surroundings. As a direct consequence, her heartbeat slowed down.
"Look for a dagger lodged into the logs on the left."
"You left it there to remember the location of the stream of water?"
The girl nodded.
And so, the two started to pay attention to the most minute details of the trees around them, slowing down even more, until their pace resembled that of a steady walk.
After a couple more minutes, their search was finally over.
Alwyn pointed his hand forward.
"Found it."
"Good. If we go left for five more minutes we will run into it. Since the stream goes in the direction where we came from, we'll try to reach the lake in the afternoon, on the way back."
"If It even exists…"
"It does."
"Then I'll make sure it doesn't."
"How are you going to demolish a whole lake? That's not something you can achieve with ordinary means."
"Hmm, maybe you are right, I won't be able to destroy a lake for the time being... Wait. I'll just shatter the dishes then! Thank you for the advice~"
"You hate washing the dishes that much?"
"Who said I hate it?"
"..."
The playful banter eventually died down, and the two quietly continued on their journey, delving deeper into the forest with every step of the girl.
At the twentythree kilometer mark, the vegetation progressively opened up, creating a wide, empty space.
The two finally saw light and immediately went to bathe in it, feeling on their own skin the little warmth that the weak sun could offer.
The sky was still as grey as he remembered.
Further up, right into the middle of that clearing, the trail that they were following suddenly ended, as if the puppet had completely ceased to exist.
Even his footprints stopped abruptly. The reason for that was still unclear.
At the scene of the disappearance, a couple medium-sized puddles of blood decorated the dark soil.
"I don't think he continued in this direction. Something must have happened."
Exclaimed Alwyn.
"That much is obvious."
Retorted Eline, before explaining her suspicions.
"You're not taking into account the target of our search."
"Aren't we pursuing a person?"
"Correct, but not entirely true."
"…A Revenant then?"
"I don't think he was dead yet when he stopped walking. The answer is a puppet. A puppet of the siren. And the clue lies in that last word. Although he still remains human, he is acting on behalf of a completely different creature, meaning we should not limit our way of thinking to only what a human is capable of. Haven't you noticed where the trail stops?"
"Right in the middle of the clearing… So does that mean that this is the place where he got abducted by the siren? That he had been guided here for that purpose?"
"Exactly. It descended from the sky, and snatched him without even landing."
"...But that doesn't make sense. Where is the heavy cargo that he had dragged all this way? If a Reaper wasn't able to easily lift it, it's highly unlikely that a beast could do so. It doesn't add up, it should still be around here."
"That's what I want to solve."
"Better said than done, there's literally no clue…"
"But it's still worth giving a shot. Otherwise we die, remember?"