Return of the Woodcutter
Chapter 174 - Soul Realm

Aito felt his consciousness spinning, whirling in the vacuum of an unknown space. He did not know for how long it lasted. A minute, an hour, or a day? The notion of time felt different, inexistent yet ever-present. 

As if the laws of the world he knew were twisted, broken into pieces, then reassembled to form new ones. 

An unknown amount of time passed when finally he woke up in a colorless boundless room, all black and white. 

'Where… is this?'

Blurry structures surrounded him. He couldn't make out their exact shapes, or it was more accurate to say they had none. 

Only his body was clearly visible and colorful, sticking out like a sore thumb amidst the grayness.

All he could see were pixel-like frames over grey ground spreading beyond the horizon that was… fissured, cracked. 

Like an unfinished puzzle, the sky was missing a lot of pieces. Through the blanks, Aito could only see the void, absolute blackness, nothingness.

'I've seen a lot of shit since my resurrection, but this…, this is weird,' he thought, confused. As he remembered his last memories before… coming to this place, Aito searched for his weapon, grabbing empty air. 

"There are no weapons in this place, human warrior," said a low-toned voice. 

Alerted, Aito cocked his head to the origin of the sound. There, amidst blurry rubbles, a giant grey figure looked up, staring at the sunless broken sky. 

A dark smoke covered three fourth of its body. Its face, one big hand, and half of its torso were visible, blank cracks covered them, glowing white. 

Aito tensed up, intuitively preparing for an attack. Constant fighting had turned him into a veteran warrior in just a few months. 

His mind screamed danger even more so when he recognized the creature's face. Tusks, square jaw, and long weaved hair with piercing eyes reflecting… melancholy, sadness, exhaustion.

"You said you had questions, human warrior," the Khül declared, gesturing for him to take a sit on rubbles next to him. 

Aito remained still, flexing his knees to better prepare for an escape or attack. He did not know where he was, or how he came here, but one thing was certain, trusting in the unknown was unwise. 

The Khül sighed and vanished into a black mist, reappearing in front of Aito. The creature flicked his forehead with its index finger. Too fast for Aito to react, he was propelled backward and crashed into blurry rubbles. 

He grunted. That flick had packed quite a punch. Mind in shambles, his forehead hurt like crazy. Aito jolted awake from his cloudy state when the Khül emerged next to him from nothingness, casually sitting on debris. 

"If I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead, human warrior," the Khül said, grabbing the confused Aito by his collar, helping him up. 

"And I'm supposed to believe you? A few moments ago, we were at each other's throat. You were literally grabbing mine," Aito replied, eyeing him warily. 

"True. The choice is yours," The Khül said in a monotonous voice. "We can continue our fight or talk. I'd much prefer the latter. You've earned the right by surviving my crazed self, anyway." 

The current Khül looked different, estranged from the one Aito had seen. Hunched back, it seemed older, and wiser maybe? Certainly more tired. He couldn't read craziness in the creature's eyes anymore but knew what that was. 

When Aito had been depressed, he had lost the motivation to do anything. Even talking was a pain. He could feel a sense of kinship in the way the orc reacted. He could relate to it, to its sadness. 

"Have you made your choice?" The Khül asked. 

Fighting him again would lead nowhere but bruises, death. And so Aito sat more comfortably, but in a way he could react to any possible attack from the Khül. Still wary and worried, he replied, "Where are we?" 

"My soul realm," The Khül said. "It was bound to happen the moment you grabbed my ax. Or what's left of it. This place is where I spend my time, alone. I am more powerful here than I am outside, yet I'm still trapped. Forever doomed to live in this broken place. To live in my fragmented soul. The result of your gods' work." 

"They are not my gods," he replied, gripping a blurry brick that felt solid yet lacked firmness. 

"True, so I saw in your memories," the Khül scoffed when he saw Aito's shocked face. "You're in my realm, human warrior. Nothing escapes me. Even your sins. Your past and present. I can see them all." 

Aito was baffled. That was the power of a... 

"A god, yes. Just like those despicable bastards keeping an eye on you. I can feel two divine energies accompanying you. One is strong, the other distant. They are closer to you than you care to admit, human warrior. But here, they should not enter. Not without forcing their way in. And finally giving what I desire the most." 

Aito already knew he was being monitored. After all, Valinar has been an ever-present parasite. And he had no doubt Belmand kept an eye on him. 

Staring a faraway void between fissures, The Khül chuckled. "Can you see the fissures on the horizon? The blank spots of my soul? They were the ones who tore me apart long ago. In its normal state, the soul mirrors one's state of mind. Like this place, I am broken. 

"Much like your fellow humans, I am forever a slave to the gods' whim. Trapped inside a piece of my own weapon, used by fakes. Copies of my own people. I cannot die, yet I cannot live. Every time they call me back to the physical realm I'm crazed, thirsty for blood, for a fight." 

The orc went on with a monologue of his own. Aito figured out fairly quickly the Khül just wanted to talk to someone, anyone. Loneliness had gnawed his sanity thin. It wanted to interact, to tell of his misery. 

Not that Aito couldn't relate. He had spent three months on a shitty island, far away from any civilization, isolated. Thankfully, a monkey had been there to save his mind, otherwise…. 

In a way, the Khül had selfishly invited him as a listener because he wanted to talk. But the more the creature told of its misery, the more Aito realized there were similarities between him, the orc, and the other challengers. 

They were all being used. The question was, to what purpose? He was still confused on that topic. He knew humans were only here to fight a war, but... why?

Was the Khül's imprisonment related to this war? Who was the Khül?

"Every time I try to remember how it happened, how all this happened," The Khül gestured to his surroundings. "When I'm about to recall it all, I am denied access. But you see, nothing is blocking me. Like blanks, there is just… nothing. No memories. Utter ignorance." 

The Khül could feel it, like phantom pain. There was something missing and yet there was only a void. How frustrating must that be? Aito could relate since he had known a similar experience with the Paineater. 

But unlike him, the orc had not found a way out of his misery. Even death was denied to him. When it'd die in the material plane, its soul would only be sucked back into the weapon, into this grim world. 

It… no, at this point, treating the Khül like a creature felt wrong to Aito. HE, the Khül, has lost everything. He was the perfect example of someone deprived of freedom.

"That's why," the Khül's gaze turned serious.. "I want you to kill me."