Chapter 177 Aethion's Soul

Reign and the others slowly make their way towards the sounds of battle, the sounds of steel colliding against one another echo through the silent forest as they could hear shouts from multiple sources coming from the same direction.

After a minute of walking, they finally arrived at the place of the battle. Two groups of human-like beings were fighting. On one side there were about 10 gray-skinned people that had ferocious expressions on their faces. Their heads were completely bald as two pointy ears could be seen on each side, their faces looked similar to humans except for the lack of eyebrows and their incredibly small pupils.

They wore a black suit of leather armor that covered their torso and waist, going down all the way to their knees. Their arms were mostly uncovered, only some of them had some leather wraps around their forearms while a chain was wrapped around them. On the end of the chain, a sickle could be found, it seemed the only reason why they had the wraps was to protect their skin from the chains as they fought by using the sickle on the end of it. They were able to simply hold the sickle with one hand or throw it and spin it around by using their chains, another way of fighting was using the chain to strangle the opponent before cutting their throats open with the sickle.

They had gray shoes on, well one could debate if they could be even called shoes. They were made from some kind of leather and they were quite thin, the leather was able to cushion their footsteps a bit and provide minimal protection. Others used bone swords and two of them had a bow as well.

On the other side, there was a group of 6 that was fighting against them, they were actually quite familiar to Reign and the others as they had seen them before at the lake. Their long hair swayed on the wind with every step they took and their beautiful faces were solemn as blood decorated their beautiful green armor. Their weapons were beautiful as well, one would they were simply made for decorative purposes as their stylish, slightly curved swords were inlaid with runes that glowed slightly with every swing.

Their bows were made from wood and had a beautiful color to them, of course, runes could be found on them as well as they lit up with every arrow they released. They were panting as they stared at the ten opponents in front of them with hatred in their eyes, 6 of the gray-skinned corpses were on the ground while two of their own were dead as well. They were of course elves, even though they were a specie that disliked killing, they were incredibly good at it.

"Elves and the Tainted, this should be interesting." A voice was suddenly heard in Reign's head, he quickly draws a breath as he looks around them with his sword ready to be swung. The others look at him with surprise as they didn't understand what had happened.

"Reign?"

"You guys didn't hear that?"

"Hear what bro?" Shadow looks at his friend with a weird expression as he shakes his head.

"They can't hear me, boy, I'm in you, in your consciousness to be more exact, only you can hear me."

"That voice, Aethion?" Reign suddenly whispers as the others look at him with a concerned gaze, they remember what happened at the end of their battle with the necromancer, they saw his soul being sucked in as Reign uttered his words in an alien voice completely unknown to them. They were afraid something bad had happened but stayed quiet as Reign put his hand in front of him to motion them to stop.

"How-"

"You don't remember boy, I figured that much, you took my soul at the end of our battle, I gotta hand it to you, never did I expect that you would be able to do something like that." Aethion's voice continues before stopping slightly, "Anyway, you used that damned ability of yours, and now I'm stuck here with you."

"What do you mean you're stuck here with me?"

"Exactly that, you bastard, you actually bound my soul to you, that means that until you die I have to be here."

"It doesn't matter right now however, you might wanna help the green weirdos, me and their kind used to be quite hostile back in the day, but I doubt they will be hostile to you guys."

"Umm, alright?" Reign mutters as he scratches the back of his head in confusion, suddenly being told that there was a soul of an old enemy that is bound to you and that he is in your head was incredibly weird and definitely not normal, but since a battle was happening Reign decided to simply fight first before continuing his conversation with the old man.

"You know you don't have to talk out loud to talk with me right, I am in your consciousness, you can simply talk to me by thoughts."

"Oh yeah, that's also completely not weird, I have an old guy in my head and he can also read my thoughts, that's definitely a good thing to hear before going in battle."

"Ahh shut up, I'm not excited for this neither boy."

"You called them Tainted."

"Huh?"

"The gray ones, you called them the Tainted."

"Uh, I guess you don't know about them, well yes, they have a different name but the elves call them that way, I guess after a couple of millennia the name simply stayed and everyone calls them like that nowadays."

"They're elves as well, well they used to be elves but as their name suggests, they got tainted, tainted by chaos itself thanks to one annoyed god that decided to play around a bit."

Reign quickly told the others what Aethion told him and explained everything briefly, confusion was plastered on all of their faces as they stared at Reign without moving.

"Come on, we'll figure this shit out later, let's help the elves out first." Reign moves first as a trail of lightning was left behind him, the others quickly snap out of it and join the battle as well. With the seven of them joining the fight it was pretty much a done deal, the tired elves looked at them with a cautious gaze but decided to fight alongside them for now, they were, after all, fighting against the same enemy right now.

Only about a minute passed before the Tainted were turned into a bunch of corpses, they were nothing special in terms of strength, their fighting abilities were on the other hand quite well, contrary to the satyrs that knew only how to charge, punch and kick.

As the Tainted ley dead on the ground of the forest the elves were suddenly all turned to them, their weapons still out and their eyes sharp as they looked at the seven of them. Reign and the others put their weapons away as they raise their hands in the air to show the elves that they mean no harm. The elves carefully look at them before glancing at each other, slowly they relax and sheath their weapons as well before approaching them.

"Humans, it seems we are in your debt." The strongest amongst them speaks, compared to the other elves his armor seemed to be a bit bulkier and he used two swords instead of one, there was also no bow on his back. He looks at Reign before extending his hand towards him

"I'm sure you would have been able to deal with these guys by yourselves in the end." Reign smiles at the elf before shaking the elf's hand.

"Perhaps, but more of us would have been slain by the Tainted, I am Elajeon, a lieutenant of the elven troops stationed here." Elajeon bows slightly as he tells his name, Reign quickly does the same before responding in kind.

"We need to hurry back to our territory humans, please do visit us if you can, I will make sure to let the others know what you have done today," Elajeon says before quickly turning back, Reign and the others look at him and the other elves that were quickly leaving the forest before going back to their previous spot to rest a bit more.

"So, that was weird." Shadow suddenly says as he eats a sandwich they brought from a player back in the territory.

"It's just how the elves are, they don't like beating around the bush, if they like you and feel no hostility they will be polite, if you do anything good to them they will treat you like a friend, if you do anything bad, however, they will not forget it in a thousand years to come." Aethion's voice suddenly echoes through Reign's head again as he suddenly twitches, he was definitely not used to someone talking from inside his head.

"You know boy, now that I think about it, if you focus some mana I think you can let my soul out for a short period of time, I guess it will be easier if I simply talked to you and your friends that way."