Chương 47: The Oathrunner and His Weakness

"Mother...?"

"Stop." Lamb reached for Enel immediately, grabbing his sleeve before he could take another step. Enel stopped, but his eyes did not move away from the axe. It was Mira's axe—there was absolutely no mistaking it. Even half buried beneath the vines, even with mud and black sap crawling across the blade, Enel knew the shape of it. He knew the worn leather around the handle, and the small chip near the upper edge of the blade where he had once bitten it. And right now, holding that axe, was a severed hand.

Enel stared at it, hearing very little else. Not the roots moving around them, not the voices from the trees, not even Lamb's breathing beside him.

"Enel," Lamb whispered, but Enel did not answer. Lamb looked at the hand again, a frown creeping onto her face. Her grip tightened around his sleeve, and this time, she pulled hard enough to make him look at her.

"That is not Lady Mira's hand." Enel's eyes slowly moved to her.

"It is not," Lamb said, more firmly now.

"Look at it." Enel swallowed, then forced himself to look again. At first, all he saw was the blood and the fingers curled around Mira's axe. But after a few moments, he noticed what Lamb had seen. The hand... was too small. Mira's hands were not small, and they were not delicate, either. They were scarred, strong, and rough, but the hand gripping the axe was pale, thin, and almost smooth... like Guinevere's hand. But most importantly, the nails.

His mother always cut hers short because long nails annoyed her when she fought.

"It is not hers," Lamb repeated. Enel breathed out, and it trembled more than he wanted it to.

"Then... whose is it?"

"Does it matter?"

"Do you think it could be the boy's—" Before Enel could finish, the fingers moved. The severed hand tightened around Mira's axe, and the vines beneath it suddenly writhed.

"Enel!" Lamb tried to pull him back, but she could not budge him at all. The vines snapped upward, revealing that the hand was not severed after all. It was attached to something beneath the pile, a long arm seemingly made of roots. And then, the axe swung toward Enel's chest. It struck him hard enough that the sound rang through the forest, but the blade only bounced off his tunic. Enel still did not move. He only looked at the axe, then reached for the handle.

The arm tried to pull away, but Enel's fingers wrapped around the weapon, and the vines only strained for a moment before he pulled it completely apart from the pile. The hand clinging to it stretched, twisted, then finally ripped apart, turning into threads of vine that withered before they even hit the wet ground.

"This..." Enel looked at the axe in his hand, brushing some of the black sap away with his thumb.

"It is Mother's."

"Then give it here," Lamb said.

"Huh?"

"What?" Lamb raised her brows.

"You can't use an axe."

"I can."

"Please. You have never held an axe once in your life."

"Of course, I have."

"Enel. You can swing an axe. That is not the same thing." Enel hesitated, then handed it to her. Lamb grabbed it with one hand and immediately found herself tilting to the side.

"Kh—why is this thing so heavy?!"

"It is."

"There is something wrong with your family, M'lord. Have I told you that?" Lamb adjusted her grip, using both hands now as she lifted the axe properly. Even then, the weight made her shoulders tense.

"How does she swing this thing like it is a stick?"

"She has reached the Fourth Depth."

"I still have no idea what the numbers mean. I am supposed to be at the First Depth, but I can kick Axe's arse even though he is at the Second Depth."

"... Axe is at the Second Depth? And even if he is, he is old, Lamb."

"He is still at the—why am I even explaining this to you? The Depth of our Breaths do not matter to you, any—" The vines in front of them moved again, interrupting their conversation. Enel stepped beside Lamb, and both of them watched as the pile rose from the mud. It did not stand at first, and only dragged itself upward, roots wrapping around one another, black sap dripping down like blood. Then... red hair began to grow from the top of it.

"That..." Enel froze for a moment. The thing shaped itself slowly, but he knew exactly who it was trying to be. Its shoulders soon formed, then arms, all twisting the other way at first before locking in place. Then its face started to form last. It looked twisted at first, but slowly changed. The mouth, the nose, the eyes all soon became familiar to him. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. And soon, Mira Blackwood stood before them.

There were still differences here and there, but it was close enough that Enel's hand loosened from the hilt of his sword. And then...

"My boy," the thing said in Mira's voice, its fingers shifting into claws.

"Huh...?" Enel blinked, but Lamb did not. She stepped forward and swung Mira's axe with both hands. The blade tore through the false Mira from shoulder to hip, and like the hand, it came apart and dropped into the mud along with the blade of the heavy axe. Enel flinched at the sight of his mother being killed. Lamb noticed, but she did not say anything. She only pulled the axe free, breathing hard from the weight of it.

"More," she whispered, nodding forward as the vines around them began to rise. One from the roots above, another from the mud, then another from beneath a patch of white flowers. Red strands of hair spilled from each of them, then heads carrying Mira's face emerged from the ground—this time, several of them.

"Enel," one called.

"My boy," said another. Enel took a step back, then turned to Lamb.

"Lamb... I can't."

"I know." One false Mira rushed toward them, swinging an arm that had hardened into an axe blade. Lamb moved to meet it, but another came from the side. Lamb noticed this, but she did not care at all since Enel stepped between them. The green, pale axe struck his shoulder and bounced. He caught the false Mira by the face, not hard enough to crush it, but enough to stop it from reaching Lamb. Then he flung it into a tree, looking away before it hit the trunk.

The tree bent backward from the impact, and the false Mira burst into vines. Lamb swung again, cutting through the first one's neck. And like it clearly knew what would make Enel feel uncomfortable, the head whispered his name even as it fell and melted into the mud. Enel gritted his teeth, but he stayed where he was, trying his best to look away from the melting head. And as if taking this chance, another came from above.

Enel only lifted one hand, caught its wrist before it could strike Lamb's head, and held it there while Lamb turned. Mira's axe rose with a grunt from her, then cleaved down through the thing's head. Enel released the wrist only when the body split apart.

"Behind," he said.

"I know." Lamb ducked as another attacked them. Enel stepped over her and took the strike meant for her back. The axe hit his chest, and for a moment, the fake Mira looked almost confused when nothing happened. Lamb drove the axe into its side, but not with enough strength, as it got stuck in the middle. The thing screamed with Mira's voice, and Enel's shoulders tensed. He almost reached for it. Almost. But Lamb twisted the axe and tore the thing open. And more came after that.

They came from the roots, from the flowers, from the mud beneath their feet.

"Enel, stop."

"You are hurting me."

"Come here, my boy."

"Do not let Lamb do this." Enel breathed harder with each one, but he kept moving beside Lamb. Letting her be the one to strike them down, protecting her so she could fight without any worries at all. Lamb cut through them all. This continued on, and on—the number of them seemed endless, until...... One of them fell in front of Enel. And this one, its face looked more like Mira than the others. Everything was right, and even the scar near her chin was there.

"Enel," it whispered, and for one terrible breath, he actually heard a sort of... warmth from it. He turned to Lamb, but Lamb was busy fending off another, and he could hear her breath getting heavier by the second. And so, Enel closed his eyes for a moment as he reached for his sword... and slowly unsheathed it.

"My son..." The false Mira reached for his ankle, then smiled at him.

"Come here, my so—" Before the creature could finish, Enel stabbed his sword straight down through the top of its head. But the sword did not stop with just its head, no—it went deep into the ground. Fast. The vines, the mud, and the flowers all burst in every direction. Lamb, who had been fighting a monster of her own, crouched down while swinging the axe up, killing the monster and evading all the dirt blowing her way. She then glanced at Enel, and grinned at him with blood on her teeth.

"Good." Enel nodded again, then slowly stepped beside her. The remaining Miras only watched them, slightly backing away as they saw Enel with his sword drawn. But then, their mouths opened all at once, wider and wider until the faces split. Enel's face twitched at the sight, but he no longer looked away. He and Lamb watched as they vomited vines out from their throats, vines that wriggled and then flew, not toward them, but between the trees behind the creatures.

"What now?" Lamb whispered. And then, all the Miras parted into pieces as their forms were pulled away. The vines dragged them across the mud, across the roots, then between the trees... and they had the gall to scream in Mira's voice still. Then... something snorted from beyond the trees. Lamb lifted Mira's axe, nearly dropping it before forcing the blade back up.

"That... does not sound like your mother."

"No." The trees ahead of them bent apart as something pushed through. At first, Enel thought it was a mound of mud. Then it... moved.

"Uh..." Lamb blinked. They saw bristles along its back, each one thick as a spear and dripping with black sap. Its tusks curved from its mouth, with roots wrapped around them so tightly that they had grown into the bone. Mushrooms covered one side of its face, pulsing softly with pale light. It was a boar, perhaps. Or it had been one. It was taller than any horse Enel had ever seen, and wider than the road leading to Widow's Wall.

Its belly dragged against the mud, swollen and twitching, while vines hung from its mouth like it had been eating the forest itself. Maybe it had. Axe once explained to them that boars would eat anything... and this one had eaten the Dark Forest for far too long. The vines pulled the remains of the false Miras into its mouth. The boar chewed them slowly, staring at Enel and Lamb with small, murky eyes. Then the boar swallowed, its body shuddering to the point the bristles around its body hissed.

Lamb took one step back at the sight.

"I hate this place." The mushrooms along the boar's face split open. More vines erupted from its mouth, crawling upward over its snout and between its tusks. They twisted together, forming a spine, then shoulders, then arms... and red hair spilled from the roots again. Another Mira rose from the top of the boar's head, fused to it from the waist down. And this one was similar to the one Enel had killed, clearer than the others. Her face was almost indistinguishable from the real one.

Both of her arms, however, were two axes made of bone and bark. The Mira tilted her head, and the boar beneath her snorted.

"Enel," the false Mira said. Lamb spat into the mud.

"This again. Are you still listening to this pile of shit?" Enel looked at the false Mira, then at the axe in Lamb's hands. His breathing was still heavy, but his eyes were no longer shaking.

"Yes," he said. The boar lowered its head... and then the trees behind it moved. Another boar stepped out from the left, its body dragging half a tree behind it. The vines on its back twisted upward, forming the shape of a man with narrow shoulders, tired eyes, and a face that seemed slightly unfinished, as if the forest was trying to make a person that was not there—and he wasn't. It was trying to imitate Robert, but Robert was out there defending Widow's Wall.

"Why... are they doing this?" Enel's fingers tightened, but then another boar stepped from the right. The vines on this one's back formed a girl with a sword for one arm, a bandana on top of its head.

"Ah..." Lamb spat to the side as she saw herself on top of the boar's head.

"Ew." And before either of them could move, the forest around them screamed.

"So..." Lamb breathed out, writing words in the air as she glanced at Enel.

"I'll take Lady Mira, and you take Papa and that beautiful girl?"

"... Which beautiful girl?"

"Fuck you." And while Enel and Lamb were fighting vemons closer to spirits than animals, outside the Dark Forest, Widow's Wall shook. The vemon wave had returned worse than before— well, not really. The wave was lighter now, much calmer. But that was what made Robert even more worried... because beyond the battlefield, through the fog, were so many shadows. Hundreds more, no... thousands.

"Ha..." Robert stared at the fog, realizing that if all of those went out at the same time... Widow's Wall was done for. Robert tightened his grip around the spear.

"Whatever you are doing, son...... do it fast."