Lustre of Echo

6.0 - Village from the past

"This stone comes from Ephzental."He said, looking at it closely."So where did you get it, how is it from Ephzental?" I asked nervously.

Ethen turned his head towards me, still holding the stone in the same position. He watched me like that for a moment.

"So maybe you can tell me where you got this sword?" He said very seriously.

I deduced what he meant.

I touched my forehead with my hand.

"Okay, let's get this over with quickly and go back."

"Steady, following the side where the stone shines the brightest, we'll reach the border of Ephzental with Limervan."

"Well, you don't intend to go there, do you?" I asked staring at him.

"Hmph..."

"Are you kidding me..?!"I don't feel like going there. I want to go back already!

"You've already been to that forest."Hm? This is the forest where I first woke up?

"It's huge and wolf beasts live in this part. They are called Hardy. They are all black, only their eyes glow red. If you meet one, then..."I quickly stood in front of Ethen and swung my sword.

I beheaded one of the Hardy who suddenly ran at him from above.

He was twice as big as me."...You'll know it's them and you'll kill them..." He finished.

"You're pretty good, haha..." He got excited.

I turned to him, still holding my sword.

"Damn, focus more! If I wasn't here right now, you would have died! Do you understand what I'm talking about?!" I yelled at him.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" He grabbed his head with all his might and arched back.

His head was perpendicular to the sky.

I was scared by that scream, that's why I grimaced.

He must have something wrong with his brain. Some kind of psychopath.

"HAHAHA..." He tilted his head back to its normal position and wiped the bottom of his nose with his index finger.

"What's so funny to you?!"

I don't understand anything about his personality.

"Ha... Ha... something like that would kill me. You must be joking." He replied, laughing slightly under his breath.

"Shut up. I don't care how strong you are. There is no being that is immortal!"

When I declared that, he suddenly became serious.

I smiled slightly. I guess I hit a sensitive spot.

Another 2 hours of walking towards the border of the continents passed.

The stone shone so brightly that I couldn't look at it. Ethen has that stupid headband on, so he doesn't care.

"It's here." He announced.

The place we reached looked exactly the same as any other during the journey. There are only trees everywhere.... and trees.

"There's nothing in this place. Are you sure it's definitely here?"

"We're still in Limervan. Despite that, I'm sure we've arrived."

"I didn't mention it before, but this stone is an artifact. An item imbued with power with a specific function."

"So what function does this artifact have?"

"I'm not sure. It's some kind of key. I just don't know what for... Hmph..." He mumbled.

Ethen stared closely at the stone. I started yawning from boredom.

Suddenly I heard the sound of breaking glass. I noticed that Ethen crushed the stone in his hand with all his might, which completely destroyed it.

"What are you doing..." I wanted to ask, but I saw that he threw the stone into the ground.

He moved away a few steps after throwing it into the ground. A large, thick cloud of purple smoke appeared at the place where it had been smashed.

"This gate could be opened anywhere. We did not have to go who knows where."

"However, it was not a completely bad idea. It is better to open this gate far away in the forest than close to people. In this place, at least no one will find us."

Ethen takes a step forward and sticks his hand out towards the portal.

I noticed that he suddenly disappeared. I did not have time to think.

I saw that the smoke, after someone entered it, disappears little by little, with every moment.

I quickly grabbed the sword tightly in my hand and ran into the smoke. The mysterious gate closed after us.

After running into the smoke, I fell onto the white ground. I quickly stood up and held my sword to be ready to attack.

I looked around and noticed that everything was white. The walls, the ceiling, the floor... Where am I?

While looking around, I saw Ethen standing a few meters away. I quickly ran up to him.

"What is this?! Where are we and how will we get back?!" I shouted worriedly.

I didn't know what was happening. I should have thoughtlessly not run into that portal."We're going back in time now." He said.

"Hmph? How?" The moment I said that, the white nothingness turned into the scenery of the village.

The white floor I was standing on turned into cubes, and around me there were a lot of houses and people.

"Wow, where are we..."

Ethen took a step forward to stand beside with me.

"In the place where we were in the forest a moment ago, a few hundred years ago there was a village. It is a stone that carries this memory within itself."

"Impossible... This is incredible."

When I was standing still, the man holding a basket full of food in his hand, passed through me. I am invisible to him.

When he did this, I suddenly turned back to see him for a moment, and then I looked at my hands.

I think I understand why he doesn't see me.

You can't change the past. What's done is done. It's impossible for someone from the future to come and change the sequence of events. It's logical.

"Wherever we go here, no one will even notice us. The man passed through your body because we have no influence on this past." He explained to me.

"At least that's the law." He added, mumbling under his breath.

I smiled slightly.

Damn, I'm not that stupid.

We walked around the village together for a while and looked around the area.Really, no one sees us.

It's amazing that such a stone carries such a pleasant memory. I wonder what happened to this village. It's gone now. I felt sad at the fact.

A few men with weapons in their hands ran to the crowd of people. They had amateur weapons. They were covered in blood, and one of them had no hand.

"There are not enough people to defend the village! The Hardy and other beasts are getting into our area!" One of them shouted.

"So that's why this village is no longer in this place." I explained it to myself.

Ethen crouched and touched the ground with his hand.

I wondered for a moment what he was doing.

"We've traveled to the times 400 years ago." He announced.

"That's quite a lot. Now, what are we supposed to do here? Are we just going to watch the Hardy get rid of the people from the village?" I said, bored.

"I don't know what we can do here. Let's wait and watch."We continued walking along the village street.

We noticed a group of people who, despite the Hard attack, seemed happy.

We took advantage of the fact that we were invisible to others and penetrated the crowd to see why they were so happy.

I followed Ethen straight through the entire association.

Ethen suddenly stopped and froze, because of what he saw.

"What's going on?" I asked, not waiting for an answer, I checked myself what it could be about.

"This can't be..." He muttered under his breath.

A tall man stood in the middle of the crowd.

"I defeated all the Hardy around, now the village will remain in peace for some time." The person in the middle said it.

"Savior! He saved us!" People from the crowd shouted with tears in their eyes.

I looked back at Ethen. He stood like a stone, and sweat was pouring from his face.

Something was definitely wrong here.

I quickly looked at the point that made him react so unusually.

I noticed that the man standing in the middle of the crowd made eye contact with Ethen. I think I had a heart attack. After all, we are in the past!