True Magician

Chapter 91

An unknown place.

My vision slowly returned to me, revealing the effects of the Noble Phantasm. Golden specks of light, like stars in the sky, shone softly in the surroundings, hovering and creating an ineffable fairytale-like appearance. And the newly risen moon lent the sky and the earth its calm, cold glow.

Down below, amidst the desolate craters of gigantic size, mountains turned to dust, and rivers and lakes that had evaporated, lay the body of a spirit. Wounded and exhausted.

The blood on the spirit's wounds had caked under the onslaught of the Noble Phantasm, its wings had almost completely turned to dust, its tail and two paws were gone, its mane was burned away, two of its three eyes had left the eye sockets, and gaping holes covered two-thirds of the spirit's body. A faint, barely perceptible, breath left the deformed mouth, and the chest grew and shrank uncertainly and heavily.

But, even with all this, its only remaining eye looked directly at me. There was no anger, hatred, or contempt in it - just a calm and acceptance that was, to put it mildly, at odds with his essence. He just looked at me and as if he was waiting for his fate... as if he had accepted his fate and resigned himself to everything.

In addition, I felt that the order to attack, which the spirit had given to the fauna of this world, had been canceled. And by him. That finally convinced me of his intention to just walk away as the final nail in the coffin.

- And... You're not going to say anything? - I asked with a raised eyebrow - No threats, no claims of injustice or anything like that?

- It's pointless," he said after a few seconds of silence, "Everyone has a purpose. We all have a purpose for being... And I haven't achieved mine.

- That's... a very pessimistic view of life, you know.

- But it doesn't stop being true. - said the spirit calmly.

- Well, maybe so," I shrugged, "Since you've accepted your fate, why don't we have one last talk? I'd like to hear something about you.

- A rather... strange wish..." he murmured measuredly and looked in the direction the still living local gods had been cast off to - "I was born out of my brother's thoughts, where nothing existed but them and us. Like a child, I absorbed what my parent gave me. All the hatred and anger for the gods that imprisoned us in darkness, and for the humans that gave them power. I became the embodiment of his desires, born for one single purpose. A goal I couldn't fulfill.

I chuckled.

Looking at his situation as a whole, you couldn't blame him. Like he said, he was like a child. He just couldn't "grow up" any other way, as he basically had no choice. When the only thing that surrounds you is negative emotion and its source, you want to not want to, but you will come out the way the spirit came out. Oh, and by the way.

- Hey, what's your name? I've never heard it the whole time I've been here. Not even from Anma.

- Name? I don't need that kind of nonsense. - said the spirit calmly, to which I frowned.

Okay... Now I feel sorry for him. A name is a very important detail in life. When you get it, you begin to identify yourself as a person, to distinguish yourself from the gray mass. And it also means that someone, no matter who, spent their time and minor, but still, effort to give it to you. That is, you are important or useful to someone, and your existence is neither unwanted nor pointless.

- Your look... I've seen it before... It reads pity and sympathy... - the spirit said without changing his tone - But I don't need either of them. They are the lot of pests, nothing more.