They tried everything they could think of. They seated themselves on the heads of the statues, scratched them with knives and swords, poured blood on them, and scratched them with a medallion, nothing they did help. Anxiety was becoming more and more evident on absolutely everyone's faces for different reasons.

  Zeni, who had been recovering for some time, initially expressed his opinion about the brainless worms but was "knocked out" this time by Mia.

  Everyone gathered was so desperate that they were already doing anything to keep themselves busy, from the side it looked like a group of thugs were loitering around the monument and aiming to rob a non-local carriage, trying to appear unsuspecting.

  "What else? What haven't we done yet? Why are they standing here? Why are they different?" Kiyeri racked his brains as best he could, unable to think of anything suitable. He pced his palm on one of them for the hundredth time, simply staring down.

  As he looked at the feet of the statue, he remembered that time in the temple when he had watched the magically spinning threads and a root from those threads under the stone. When he tried to concentrate, he quickly realized that he was nervous and that the banging and scratching around him was too distracting. Losing patience, he raised his hand and shouted under his breath, "Shut up."

  Everyone around him suddenly fell silent.

  Sitting down, crossing his legs, and not pulling his hand away, he took a few calming breaths and concentrated, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not see those threads. Refusing to give up and knowing that sometimes in very extreme conditions people exceed their limits, he tried to send mana out of his body, like he did when beared the Sigil, hoping that it might bounce off the threads and return like an echo.

  Although the mana couldn't pass through his body's barrier, a small amount of it penetrated through his palm and traveled directly to the statue, immediately followed by a loud crack.

  Hearing that sound, Kiyeri jumped up and joined the others who were already retreating from that sound. Ashiya grabbed his elbow to pull him out of there fast, "What did you do?"

  "I wanted to feel their structure and I think I accidentally poured mana into it," Kiyeri expined.

  The group, who had retreated to a reasonable distance, tensely waited to see what would happen, but no more crackling was heard and there was no movement. Ruki noticed and pointed out several more cracks to the others, someone else mentioned the open eyes when another brought up the fact that the mana was too low.

  Kiyeri did not hear them clearly, he felt like a starving dog that had finally gotten a bite of meat and was going to swallow it in one go.

  He jumped up and rushed back, still having time to think that the statue, having recovered, might kick him off and he needed to get higher this time. Having jumped a few steps onto the creature's shoulder, he still had time to see how those eyes followed him, but without hesitation, he spped his palm on its head and sent mana again.

  Everything began to rumble. The statue threw down a stone shell piece by piece, which immediately crumbled into dust and disappeared as soon as it touched the ground. Quickly, the white stone turned into something resembling twisted white skin and the gigantic creature began to move. Someone from below shouted, "Cover his eyes," Kiyeri immediately did, wrapping his arms around that head and covering all sixteen or so dots.

  His colleagues on the ground reacted just as quickly, spreading out to the sides and sshing at the creature's legs. It wasn’t a stone anymore, so they cut without difficulty. When Voidborne stumbled, Kiyeri jumped off, and the group began to chop at the creature's arms. Before finishing it, Kiyeri barely managed to shout the command "STOP. DON'T KILL". Everyone retreated as one.

  "And really, what a beautiful teamwork," he mentally praised everyone involved before expining. While Kiyeri spoke, the creature, howled, and rolled on the ground, unable to do anything. Its legs and arms were severed, and someone had cut out its eyes, the sight was truly pitiful and at the same time terrifying.

  "Now we have more options. Ashi and Dali, make sure he doesn't get up, I don't know if he has any regeneration." After Kiyeri gave the instructions, the guys immediately moved without waiting. “We'll think about how we can use him. Maybe he can be sacrificed to the medallion? He was half a stone, maybe we can sacrifice something for him?" - having said that, he gnced at Zeni.

  "I'll be calmer if there are more of us Moons, so let's start with the medallion," Ruki replied.

  "How to do that? Deliver a finishing blow with the medallion? It's too complicated, the creature’s too big, and the medallion is not a knife." Sonanta pondered.

  While they were talking, Voidborne began to heal and get on its feet, but Dali and Ashi immediately id it down again.

  "We'll do this," said Mia, "we'll rip open his rib cage and if he has a heart," she turned to Sonanta, "you'll pierce it with the medallion, that should be enough."

  Me? Why not you? " Sonanta asked confused, but before Mia could answer, Kiyeri interrupted to make everything clear to everyone.

  "Because you are too weak to stay. If there is a rebellion for survival, only Mia can resist." Although Dali and Ashiya were a little further away, Kiyeri made sure everyone could hear. He handed the medallion to Sonanta and ordered those holding the Voidborne, “Roll him over!"

  While this order was being carried out, Mia leaned in quickly to whisper what to do if she made it out. As the creature turned over, Mia and Kiyeri nodded to each other, ran up, jumped on the chest, and began to cut, Sonanta followed them and was already waiting behind their backs to strike.

  The force split the Voidborne’s sternum, inside there was something that looked like a heart, Sonanta jumped in one leap using all her weight and stuck the medallion holding her fist into it. The creature, who was already screaming, began to roar even louder, Kiyeri thought his eardrums would burst, but after a few moments, it fell silent and gradually began to fade, until finally the mass that had been under everyone's feet disappeared and they found themselves on the ground.

  Everyone looked at Sonanta and waited hopefully.

  They waited, waited, but nothing happened. Kiyeri remembered, "Sonanta, pay in blood, you have to give him blood.” So she pulled out her knife and started to drip. Still nothing.

  It so happened that they stood in two rows facing each other as if they were on either side of the Voidborne. Ashiya who restrained the punisher’s hands, next to him Mia who had split one side of the ribcage, and Sonanta who held the medallion. In the opposite row, counting from the same corner, stood Dali who restrained the hands, Kiyeri who took care of the sternum and Ruki who was responsible for the legs.

  While everyone was waiting, they formed a circle. Mia stood in the middle of the circle facing Sonanta, leaning slightly towards the medallion in her hands. Kiyeri couldn’t see her face, he was already thinking about the next step. Maybe all three statues were needed for one traveler? Maybe killing wasn’t right? Some other way to sacrifice that creature?

  His thoughts were fully occupied when he heard Mia’s words.

  “Kiyeri, bring Zeni here.”

  Before he could think why Zeni's presence was necessary, Kiyeri's head was already instinctively turning, and his eyes were already searching for the pce where Zeni had st been left. Ashiya was probably doing the same. As Kiyeri's noticed Zeni, he heard a strange sound right next to his ear, like a hunk of meat hitting stone, wet and cracking all at once. Kiyeri turned his head back in that direction and his eyes met the source of the sound, he felt his body float.

  It all sted only a short moment. In front of him was a young man falling sideways, his eyes wide open, as if in slow motion his bck hair fluttered following the fall. A fair elegant face and a hole of dark red blood in his temple. Kiyeri’s hands rose as if to catch him, but they didn't make it, the young man hit the floor, rolled over, and didn't move anymore.

  Kiyeri’s legs gave out, and he colpsed next to that man, hands covering the wound.

  He spped that face gently and shook it, trying to wake him up. The echo carried the word with which all the air left his lungs, "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO".

  A voice behind him said:

  “Problem solved”

  When Kiyeri finally took a breath and truly understood what had happened, he pulled the young man closer and then froze. "He's breathing. He's breathing, he's not gone yet!" But what good was that? Without consciousness, he wouldn't heal, and Kiyeri couldn't help.

  He simply held Ashiya in his arms, thinking about what to do, but also not thinking at all. "Think, think, think, think, think."

  No one dared to come closer.

  Somewhere behind him, Sonanta stammered out excuses — that she didn’t want this, that she hadn’t had time to stop Mia — but what good were excuses?

  Ashiya would either be sacrificed to the medallion or lose his memories. Kiyeri closed his eyes helplessly, pressing their foreheads together. His voice broke as he whispered, "I wasn't with you then, I had all the power, but I wasn't there, now I am here, but I can't do anything... I don't want you to die, please, do something, wake up, try, live... I want you to live!!"

  The next moment everything was white, then the picture became clear again. Kiyeri as child was sitting in a small room by the stove, weaving a straw basket. Small, scratched and pricked hands, sore and tired, but fully devoted to the work. Before his eyes was a firepce made of broken red bricks, and a few logs were burning inside it. To his left, a woman in a red casual dress and a white apron was weaving a much rger basket. Her face was rosy from the firelight, and her loving eyes were shining in the darkness. It was a memory from his distant childhood.

  A kind, gentle, bone-familiar voice spoke to him.

  “Kiye, darling, you don't need to feel responsible, you don't need to worry about me so much. I am you mother and it is my job to take care of you.”

  “But I want us to live better, I want you to eat better. The army is the only way, but I can't control my mana at all. I don't understand...”

  “Oh, child... Mana doesn't need to be understood, it needs to be felt, it's the energy of life all around us, it's in the grass, the trees, that wool right there, it’s in you and me, everywhere. That energy comes from here, deep inside, and if you long for something for a very long time and very passionately, it starts to change, twist, and intertwine until your desire takes shape, but that energy is very delicate and if you are too rough or too weak, it will either disappear or swallow you alive.”

  “So you don't want more? You don't want to have everything?”

  “Once upon a time, ten years ago, I had to run somewhere very, very far and I ran with you. At first, I carried you in my belly, wading through deep snow protecting you, ter I carried you in my arms, curled up into a small ball, only your nose was visible. At that time, more than anything in the world, I wanted you to survive and the life energy responded to my wish. Now I have everything I wanted, so what more could I ask? In fact, I would be happy weaving baskets here with you every day, for the rest of my life. Maybe ter my daughter-in-w, grandchildren, and if we are very lucky, great-grandchildren would join me. Kiye, it's not what you eat, not where you are, but who you share it with.”

  “But is it always better to have more”

  “If you really feel that you want more, I will do everything I can to help you. I know that you will weave the right path for yourself. Mom is simply afraid that in such a world you would get lost on the way, searching for a false goal, that you would become a hostage to someone else's rules imposed on you, that you would not judge yourself by other people's standards, even if those standards were mine.”

  White again.

  Kiyeri opened his eyes. He knelt on the ground, looking at the bloody face in his arms, and saw colors. He actually saw all the colors of everything. The floor under his feet, Ashiya's body, Zeni in the distance, his own hands, everything radiated energy, and everything had colored threads.

  When he was reborn, he could see the road because of his powers, but now he finally felt what mana was, his head was clear, and he was no longer distracted, so in half a second he absorbed all the surrounding information. Ashiya was still alive, his breathing shallow, Mia and Sonanta behind him, one angry and impatient, the other frightened and trembling. Dali and Ruki had retreated, both felt afraid. Zeni was just content. Kiyeri could feel their emotions. With a light wave of one hand, he knocked away the two behind him into the distance, then began to mend.

  Kiyeri’s threads twisted around the wound and penetrated inside, Ashiya's energy joined them by itself - he wanted to live. The bones fell into pce, the blood stopped flowing, Ashiya's face regained color and he took a deeper breath, but still didn't wake up, after a few minutes of careful work, everything was done, and Ashiya was safe.

  While Kiyeri waited, he held him in his hands and stroked his face with a smile. With relief, all the colors dissipated, but this time he knew that he could summon them again if necessary, and that there was no need for sacrifices or other vulgar methods - they all had mana from birth, they just didn't fully understand it, and those stones only brought corruption and death, they distorted the whole understanding of life. Somewhere at that moment, Dali and Ruki came up, both of them knelt waiting, but said nothing. Mia and Sonanta kept their distance.

  Ashiya opened his eyes. He looked at Kiyeri, then around, confused – Kiyeri's palm still on his cheek. Ashiya gently took that hand and pulled it away from his face, then looked Kiyeri straight in the eyes and said, "I am fttered by the attention from such an attractive person, but... Maybe we should get to know each other first?"

  Kiyeri froze. The ground disappeared from under his feet again, his heart was pounding, and his limbs were numb. Did he do something wrong? Was he too te? What the hell happened?! Kiyeri didn't know what to do, he stammered, "I... I..."

  But then he saw that Ashiya was smiling, or maybe not smiling, but barely holding back his ughter, his cheeks were swelling. Kiyeri felt a throbbing in his temples, "It's not funny..."

  "I'm sorry... I couldn't help myself” Ashiya apologized. Still lying in Kiyeri's arms, he looked at their intertwined hands and asked in a quiet voice, “You won't run this time?"

  That image seemed so precious to Kiyeri, that it was hard to breathe. His heart was already filled with joy, but it kept filling with many other emotions, the most pronounced of which was longing - an incredibly strong longing. If not now, then when? If not this moment is the most important, then which? Returning home, status, rules, everything worth nothing compared to this one moment, compared to that untamed longing.

  "Run where?" he asked softly, pulling Ashiya closer, “I have everything I wanted”, then kissed him like he didn’t have a pn past this moment.