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This is an INSTANT UPDATE GOAL. This is optional. Even if you guys have trouble reaching this goal and in case you fail, I will still upload the next chapter. This really helped put fire on my heels though, lol. Hopefully, you guys take longer this time (I'm crossing my fingers for it).

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I glared Kaliya's statue. I couldn't believe that gods—or something even higher than that—had to take a vacation. Well, with the amount of work they would usually have, it would make sense. But the world wouldn't run itself, now would it?

Maybe it technically did, but some things clearly needed some supervision every now and then. Besides, why would they even take vacations when they knew that crap could happen? Wouldn't that result to more work for them to do? It wasn't practical! Vacations weren't practical! Especially for gods!

My indignation resounded back and forth in my head. I was tempted to rant continuously for an hour or so. I knew I was capable of doing it. However, in the end, Amber was still some lowly "temporary hire" who was stuck in this untimely position as I did. He was barely coping up with all the stresses happening around him already. So, while I was tempted to run my mouth, it still wouldn't do anything in the end.

He was ill-tempered, probably for a reason. Somehow, I could see this guy as a sort of an overworked employee. Still, that didn't mean he could take it out on me. The next time this guy would dare misplace his anger, I would bat it right back at his face. I was not a punching bag.

I sighed. At least coming here had been fruitful. Now that I knew I could at least talk with him this way, the communication bit wouldn't be a lot of issue.

"How come you replied this time?" I asked.

Silence.

"Like...hello." I jutted my head forward, wondering where he went now.

Probably ran out of battery?

This guy really liked ghosting people. Literally.

Oh, well. Whatever. I got to learn a bit more about the things that I should.

"Who you talking to?" someone inquired.

I jumped from where I was sitting and turned to see Elion emerging from nowhere. Frightened, I couldn't help but shout a little. I whipped around to face the person who suddenly spoke, my shock very apparent on my face.

"Sorry! Sorry! I no want...uhhh..." he trailed off, not knowing the right word. He started firing away in his native language, trying to translate his words into the other one. "Shock, shock. Startle. How do I say that in Lovardi?" After wracking his brain for a long time, he finally said, "S-sock you?"

I shook my head and laughed at the word 'sock you.' Though I got the intent, the image was a little funny.

It made me feel a little bad having to pretend that I couldn't understand him, though.

"It's okay," I told him in his language. I couldn't help but give in a little out of pity. He was obviously trying his best.

Shock lit up his face. "You understand? Do you know Simar?"

I purposely looked confused and lightly shook my head. "Little. Only little. I hear. I learn."

"Yah....okeh. Okeh." Elion held up a thumb and nodded understandingly.

"What are you doing here though?" I asked.

"I want ask that. Here...I lock. Look," he stammered. "I want talk...you..." He paused, a little frustrated.

I watched him speechlessly trying to explain himself.

"Okay. Let's start easy." Elion cleared his throat. "Who are you talking to? You. Who...talk you?" he awkwardly inquired. After seeing me stare at him, face heavy with confusion, he began muttering under his breath. "Then again, I probably won't be able to understand anything she says if she answers that question." He smiled deprecatingly.

Knowing the trouble of language barrier, I continued staring at him awkwardly—not knowing a way to resolve the situation at all. I had very limited options myself.

"Uh...if there was only an easier way to do this." He put both hands on his waist, looking at me, far beyond frustrated.

Instead of pursuing the attempt of talking with me, Elion simply stepped forward and joined me in 'admiring' the statue of Kaliya. He put his hands on his waist and took a deep breath. A loud exhale scaped him as he gazed me, not knowing where to begin. Though he approached, he maintained a respectful distance and lowered his head a little as he regarded me—partly because he was a good head or two taller than I was.

"You...why you talk? No talk you this one," he said, throwing a hand over to the statue we were now standing in front of.

"No...that's not it. I lost someone recently," I told him. This was the only way I could explain why I was in front of Kaliya, dragon of death. I couldn't say the truth, so while I didn't like using my mother's death as an excuse, it wasn't like I had much choice in the matter. People would probably think I was crazy if I told the truth anyway. Not to mention my ability wasn't something I could divulge to just anyone.

"Oh. Where they go?"

I looked at him and found him to be serious. Like, dude. "No, no. I mean, I lost someone."

"You lost...lost? What—ohhhh." He then pointed to his neck and made motions, even the sound, of slitting his throat. "You mean kkkkkkkkk. This lost? Kaduki."

At this point, I didn't know whether to try and continue being serious or laugh.

"Kaduki," I echoed. "Dun. Yes. I guess."

It meant 'dead'. He translated it back to his native language. Seemed he got it, at least. Though I wasn't sure about how necessary the 'kkkkkkkkk' part was. I'd probably have understood anyway. Then again, he didn't know that.

I was starting to feel very embarrassed for this guy. Had it been someone else, they probably would be very insulted.

"I'm sorry. This, I not know. Sorry." He looked very apologetic and cleared his throat. Though he wasn't able to express himself very well, his emotions were very clear on his face. I caught him look over to Kaliya; the young, joyful face from a while ago turning to one of anger and regret. "Kaliya take many from me too. Mother...little brother. Kaduki."

"What happened?"

He sighed, put both hands on his waist, and hang his head.

To be honest, he was looking more troubled over explaining himself rather than talking about his family's death.

"Bad thing. En-dier. We call En-dier. Cannot see."

En-dier. The Unseen.

"They give sleep. Dreams. You'll never wake up from them. No..." He mimed himself sleeping and waking up.

"Wake up."

"Dun. Dun. Yes. Ilerta. Wake up. Dun." Encouraged that I could understand him, he continued. "At first, only plants. They started with farms. An ever-rotten field we can't even grow. Rice, potatoes. Food. All kaduki. Dead," he explained. "Like it's death. Life cannot exist. We not know what happen first. We didn't know how to deal with them. After a year, it got bad...more. Worse. Then, animals. In forest. All gone. Kaduki. Whatever we try to hunt, the Unseen gets to them first. We came to the Warrior Kings for help and they tried many things. We think disease. We think a sickness has spread across the land that we could prevent. But...no cure. We couldn't find any."

"What happened next?"

"The people. Us." He fisted a hand and banged it against his chest. "We got sick. This time, something different happened. The En-dier change. They changed. All the souls, the dead, they come back to haunt and devour others—souls cannot leave. When they're killed by the Unseen, their souls are trapped somehow. They're not set free. They are...devoured. En-diers eat soul. The soul, it become..." He sighed.

"Become what?"

"En-dier," he said. "But not really. They can be seen. They become shadows. We escape. We leave. We have nothing left. But people...here, in Erindal. They not know. They not care. In just a few more years, the Unseen will cross the sea. The horrors, the death, that me and people have tried to escape...it follow us here. No one listen. No one hear."

I looked at him helplessly.

All I could do right now was offer my sympathies. At this state, I could barely even manage controlling a bunch of these things. What more with the might and number of the creatures that his story entailed?

It seemed to me that they were calling the Veils the Unseen—or En-dier as they called it. I could not think of other creatures that could bring death to the land in their wake as these things do. The Veils were creatures of death. From what Amber told me before, they were normally bearers of the soul. They were the ones that lift the souls away once someone is dead.

For ordinary people, this was indeed something to be expected. Veils weren't beings of the physical dimension. They were of the soul. Unless people had ways to tune into the dimension as I did or Amber did, then they wouldn't be able to see them at all.

However, this errant behavior...they were taking away souls of even those who did not die. What had become of them? Why in the world were they doing it?

"We believe..." Elion spoke once more. "That it is Kaliya. His wrath. Being brought down into this world. He is angry. The energy of death has now outweighed the others by a significant margin. The dragons...the serpent. They are silent. They do nothing. Maybe they approve. We may be approaching the end of our world. This may be their punishment for us. Our world...is dying."

Yeah, they are quiet because they were on vacation. No one there, no matter how much you guys knock on their doors, would answer.

And 'our world is dying'? Dude, please don't make me laugh.

God, what an utter comedy. This whole thing is turning into a freaking joke.

Oh, dragons above.

Now I understood just where Amber was coming from.

If I told Elion that everything was happening because the people from the upper management left all their responsibilities to a clueless 'temporary hire' like Amber and that the Veils, or the Unseen as these people preferred on calling them, were basically...like employees who had gotten out of control due to insufficient and inefficient administration, he probably might not believe me. In fact, he might even say that I was the joke. I mean, they had obviously already interpreted this whole thing differently now.

For all it mattered to everyone in this world, they were being punished for some sins. Like, they were being tried for being the faulty and imperfect creatures that they were made to be.

When Elion told me the story, it sounded so serious—and, don't get me wrong, it was. From the point-of-view of us ordinary mortals, having suddenly been attacked by creatures we couldn't see, unable to till the land to eat, or hunt animals for food...basically all the basic necessities needed to make living even possible, it was a big thing. It would seem as though the universe was now conspiring to rid everyone from the land they were living off on.

Then again, that was a very small part of the picture.

The most amusing part was how these people would blame others and themselves but not the guys who were supposed to be responsible for them. Turns out, humans were selfish, not only towards the benefits in life, but also towards these things.

If the gods knew about it, they would probably say, 'I did an oopsie.' They would play god, set things to where they were like righteous beings, and then move on.

That's what I think would be happening, at the very least.

I looked at Elion seriously. "What are you planning to do now?"

"Me." He pointed to himself. "I will...go back. When I can go back. I will fight."

I patted his shoulder, nodding. "Good. Good. Then, I help." I switched to his language. "I help you. Vertvalden is...also a part of me. We'll fight. We take it back. How does that sound?"

Elion nodded. A spark of valiance flashed in his eyes when he heard me say what I said. "Dun. Of course. Yes."

A firm yes.