Maël was running at a decent pace.
It's not that she couldn't go faster, more that Mori's body couldn't handle too much more.
The previous fight had quite the impact on his body, despite his ability to get rid of most of the pain.
It was either a slower pace, or risking breaking his body.
"Good boy," she said to herself.
Mori wasn't around anymore.
He had done as she said, not that he had a choice. He retreated and was most likely combing through what he knew.
She gradually slowed her pace down. A giant rock was a few meters away.
She approached it, jumping on top of it.
There was someone lying on their back, hands behind their head.
They looked young, but so did Maël and she wasn't exactly young.
"Oooh", said the man in an extremely slow manner.
"If... it isn't... Maël."
"Sloth," she replied.
"Ehhh...hehehe..."
He sat upright, setting his droopy eyes on Maël who stood in Mori's body.
"Ehh... Nice body."
He looked up and down. "That the... uh... sovereign?"
She nodded.
"Ehhehe, good. This body should last you a while."
"He's still around."
"Ohh.... really?" he said, frowning.
"Yeah. He actually kept me out for a long time, before letting me in. I doubt I'll be able to stay on top forever."
.net
"Ehh... well, that sucks. Not that it matters much."
Sloth lied back down, staring at the eclipse.
"It matters."
"Why's that," he replied.
"He's not like Jax. One of the strongest sovereign this realm has ever seen. He's the cursed sovereign."
"Ohh... Well... there's always going to be a stronger one... such is life."
Maël sighed.
She started walking, going toward the mountains again.
If there's one thing that barely changed in there, it was the scenery.
This red gradient landscape was so normal to her that she barely paid attention to it.
The amount of cursed beings just kept increasing as she got close to the mountain, they usually just stood around.
She understood them, really. Slowly becoming husks, the mind slowly turning numb and absent.
She went through the same process.
Sloth was probably one of the only ones truly enjoying himself, staying sane despite everything.
The amount of time that they spent there was... tens of thousands of years? Hundreds of thousands?
The first few thousand years aren't the worst. But eventually everything is numbing.
The first thing everyone does is usually get out as fast as possible, crawling through the lands between, hoping to make it out there in the common realm.
It never lasts, however.
How many thousands of times had they all made it out, only to end up here?
Sure, they had opportunities here and there to cause a little chaos, but nothing ever significant. The main outcome was usually the same.
For them it was an extremely long amount of time, in the common realm barely any time had passed.
But, while a lot of them turned to husks, not everyone did.
There's always those who find infinite joy inflicting pain and toying with others, and in a realm like this one, it meant always having people to toy with.
Staying out of those people's way was a lesson new arrivals learned the hard way.
Jax was one of those who most would want to stay away from.
Yet, most still slowly made their way toward the mountain.
It doesn't feel like much. It certainly isn't much.
But.
Just catching a glimpse of that light made torment worth it.
Ascending it ever so slightly just to see the light.
Light in a world taken by darkness, everywhere one would go.
The strongest beings lived on those mountains, closely defending their treasure in a world that had no money or gold.
A world that had no water or food, a world with no goals.
All there was was a tiny bit of light.
And most fought for it.
But, for Maël, after so much time, even light brought little to nothing.
For the first time in a long time, however, something new could maybe bring movement into a still life.
It all depended on Mor.