Moon's lie

Execution

Just as the two words popped into his mind, Alon felt his consciousness fading.

He opened his eyes the very next moment, but he was no longer in the forest.

He was atop an infinite stretch of water; just standing there he was creating ripples on the surface.

Though it was water, he was standing as though on land.

Alon touched the water with his hand, but his hand did not get wet. In fact, he could not even feel the touch of it; the water was like a hologram projected on land.

In this space nothing made sense; it felt like he was standing on land but when he tried to touch it, his hand just went through, but still, he was able to stand on top of it.

Alon looked around but could not see anything, other than the never-ending surface of whatever it was.

He took a step forward in the direction he was facing.

Before his foot could even land, he felt a dangerously sharp aura.

He retracted his foot and hurriedly moved back a few steps. He panted heavily and his back was soaked.

"What was that?" Alon let out, startled by the aura. Though the aura was weak at this distance, the source of it must be very dangerous.

He looked in the direction where the aura seemed to have come from, but he could not see a thing.

"Maybe I'll see something if I keep moving in that direction," Alon said as he gulped something nonexistent.

He resolutely began to walk in that direction and encountered the aura once again, but this time he wasn't startled by the aura. He could handle this much of aura by his physique alone.

He kept walking further and further and the aura got sharper and sharper.

After taking about a hundred steps, cuts began to appear on Alon's body and he stopped where he stood.

"I'm sure this is a sword aura," Alon stared straight with shaking eyes.

Cuts were continuously appearing on his body, though they were not deep.

Alon took a deep breath and began to channel energy and strengthened his body to the very limit.

"I might end up regretting it very much," Alon said to himself as he smiled nervously.

He stretched a bit and started to run at his top speed. He was determined to see what was at the origin of such a pure sword aura. He ran like his life depended on it.

Deep wounds began to appear on his body. But he did not stop, he felt that he was getting closer to the source.

He increased his speed even more.

*Puchi*

His left arm got severed.

"Aaargh." Alon let out a pained cry but still did not stop.

*s***h*

A deep cut appeared on his back; Alon gritted his teeth in pain but continued on.

He went on for a few more minutes, but by now his steps were very feeble. He had exhausted all of his energy reserves. His body was no longer protected by energy, deep cuts were appearing on his body as though he was in a shredder.

Alon suddenly came to a halt. His eyes were fixed on one spot in the distance. He finally saw the source.

*s***h*

His head was severed and his consciousness faded.

'I died?'

Everything became dark in his sight.

*****************

"Aaaaargh," Alon screamed on top of his lungs as he opened his eyes.

He fanatically groped his body to check if there was something missing. Thankfully he was in one piece.

"I did think that it was a space inside my consciousness, but it was still a humungous risk," Alon said with a heavy sigh of relief.

"Why was a child there?" Alon was confused, "And what kind of art was that even."

He tried to close his eyes to enter that space again but failed. He could not even sense the sword art anymore.

"Looks like there is a cool down time for entering that space, well that's fair, if I enter it wantonly I will eventually break my own mind," Alon said analytically.

He dusted his clothes and went to the nearby stream to wash off. He changed into the clothes his teacher had left behind.

"I can't wait in one place for a year practicing some art with a cool-down time. What should I do?" He thought hard about his next course of action.

"I should start by going to the town nearest from here; maybe I'll get some lead to what to do there."

Alon had decided on his next destination, he walked a bit further but came to a sudden halt with a hardened expression.

"I wonder since when have I started thinking out loud?"

***********************

"Hey! What do you think you are doing?" The girl shouted while standing in front of the injured man.

"You should stay out of this Helena." The man said gritting his teeth while he held onto his bleeding shoulder.

"No, this is wrong. They promised us two thousand coins if we joined them. But now that they have failed, they are going back on their words. My brother sacrificed himself to let all of us escape." The girl let out angrily.

"Well, he was the strongest of us all, it was his duty, isn't that right?" The man pointing his blade to the duo said while smiling.

"Yes, you're right." The group of men behind him chimed in.

"Well, if you are willing to have some fun, I might give you some coins then." The man said lasciviously while licking his lips.

"You vile snake, don't cross the line." The injured man glared at the 'snake' in front of him and tightened his grip on his halberd.

"Don't push yourself, Hans," Helena said worriedly while supporting Hans.

"I hate people who can't judge their situation." The 'snake' said as he pulled out his sword from its sheath as he dashed towards the duo.

"YOU DARE!"

The 'snake' came to an abrupt halt hearing that enraged voice; his eyes went round in surprise.

Accompanied by the shout, a figure appeared and stood protectively in front of Helena and Hans.

"Brother!" Helena called out in joy.

"Adam," Hans said in a relieved tone as he fell on the ground.

Adam was covered in blood but he still was far from being done. He stood before the 'snake' and pointed his sword at him.

"You can't kill me, I'm from the--"

"I, Adam Sylvester, from the Sylvester House declare your action unjust. You along with your men shall be executed."