User blog:Thrycius/Zheiro and The Moonlight Sculptor: Chapter 7

'''Disclaimer: This is a crossover fanfic between Brave Frontier and The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor. I don't own either of those; they belong to their respective owners, namely Gumi/Alim and Nam-Hi-Sung (남희성) respectively.'''

'''Disclaimer (extended): This crossover fanfic now also contains some elements from the Type-Moon universe, owned entirely by Kinoku Nasu. I don't own anything from there, either.'''

Is this your first time seeing this story? Go directly to chapter 1 here!

“So here we are! The Forest of Beasts! Long ago, this forest was…”

The moment he laid eyes upon the forest before him, Zheiro tuned everything out and simply stared in wonder at the wild, uncontrolled growth of foliage that lay beyond the snowfield they just left.

Although this wasn’t his first time seeing a forest, there was something about this place that made him want to draw near. It was place that just felt natural to him. Was this due to his nature as a being of ‘earth’? Zheiro didn’t know, but during his moment of getting lost in his thoughts at the wonders of this place, Thrycius apparently had been telling yet another story.

“...and so due to the sun being unable to reach through the thick canopy of trees, many beasts find this forest the perfect habitat for—”

“Wait, many beasts?” Zheiro interrupted, repeating the first word that caught his attention.

“What, weren’t you listening? This place is called the Forest of Beasts, after all.” Thrycius said. “Of course, I doubt they would pose too much trouble for you, since you’ve gained some experience fighting for many months now.”

“I see…” Zheiro trailed off, turning his focus back to the trees. “But why do I feel so attracted to this place?”

“Do you, now?” Thrycius asked. Despite the curious nature of his question, the smile he wore never left his face.”I myself feel no different from usual.”

“And surely you know why, right?” Zheiro asked, trying to see if his suspicions of being of ‘earth’ was right.

“Didn’t I tell you earlier? I don’t know everything, Zheiro. There are many reasons why you might be attracted to such a place. It could even be a subconscious thing, due to something you noticed without having fully registering it. Regardless, I doubt if we would be able to find out if we just stood around here, right?” Thrycius asked with a grin.

“Well, I suppose you’re right,” Zheiro admitted. “We don’t have that much time to waste. Let’s go!”

And so, they took their first steps into the dark, sunless forest.

It actually didn’t take Zheiro very long to find out what he liked about this place.

“Look, Thrycius! Look at all the suitable material there is for making sculptures! It’s perfect! This wood here is of a really nice consistency, and the texture is quite nice; that stone there would be perfect for a project I had in mind a while ago; and…”

As Zheiro continued to rant about all the different materials that he could use for different sculpting projects, Thrycius casually spoke up.

“It’s nice to see you enjoying yourself, my friend,” Thycius interrupted, “But do you really have the time to be doing all this?”

“Time? Do I have time? Even if there was no time, I’ll just have to make more!” Zheiro shouted out incomprehensibly in response. “There’s no way I can let this chance to improve my skills as a sculptor pass!”

“Well, good luck with that,” Thrycius said with a grin. “Just don’t take too long and forget about our original goal, or the fact that this forest is full of dangerous beasts. You should be careful”

“Of course I won’t forget about our original goal!” Zheiro raved, gathering the abundance of materials for sculpting. “Don’t worry, as soon as I’m done we can continue. And as for those beasts, let them come! I won’t let anything get in my w—”

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

“Wha—!” Zheiro yelped in response at the sudden scream that exploded into his face, dropping everything in surprise.

“Aah, you just had to go and pull out a mandragora by accident. I did tell you to be careful, but I guess it couldn’t be helped in your overly zealous excitement,” Thrycius said with a laugh. “Good luck with fighting it off, they’re pretty violent when you disturb them.”

Zheiro clicked his tongue as he wrapped his fingers around the handle of his sword, bringing it up into a guard stance. Even though he felt rather shaken up by the scream of the mandragora, he wouldn’t let such a thing get in his way of making his art.

Swinging his sword, he fought so furiously that he didn’t even notice Thrycius disappearing off somewhere.

It was a somewhat difficult battle, but Zheiro triumphed over the screaming plant, just as Thrycius returned.

“Where did you go, anyway?” Zheiro asked, sheathing his sword.

“Oh, since you were having so much fun fighting that plant I decided to go take a walk.” Thryicus flippantly said with a grin, waving it off like it wasn’t important.

“A walk?” Zheiro repeated in disbelief. “I was busy fighting off a dangerous plant and you decided to go take a walk?”

“How is that any different from when I was just watching you fight before?” Thrycius asked. “It’s not like I was really helping either way.”

“That may be so, but didn’t you promise that you would keep me alive?" Zheiro retorted. “You can’t do that if you’re not present, right?”

“Relax already. I have my reasons. Besides, I was confident that you were strong enough now to take on a mandragora, even if it wasn’t with ease. Or rather, if it was too easy for you then you wouldn’t be learning anything new.”

“Well, you better have a good reason for leaving me behind all of a sudden,” Zheiro declared.

“Or else what?” Thrycius asked, his grin getting wider.

“Or else… or else…” Zheiro trailed off. There really wasn’t anything he could to in retaliation, now that he thought about it. Not without sacrifice on his part, and he was not willing to sacrifice his efforts of eventually mastering moonlight sculpting.

“Exactly.” Thrycius laughed. “Well, I don’t mind telling you my reasons anyway. Just as you, as an artist, had the urge to create art after seeing and having all these perfect materials near by, there are many stories out there that I, as a storyteller, must go and see for myself.”

Zheiro felt his eye twitch. “Are you telling me,” he said slowly, “That in the timespan of a single fight I had with a mandragora, that you had enough time to go and see a new story in its entirety and return?”

“Hm? No, no, of course not,” Thrycius laughed. “But to see the whole story, one must observe and make note of everything, from all perspectives. That is why in the future, whenever you start fighting, I may go elsewhere to confirm something else. But don’t worry, I’ll always return. After all, I did promise to guide you all the way until you master the art of moonlight sculpting.”

Zheiro paused for a moment. While what he said was incredulous, it was not like he could disprove what his companion was saying, either.

Suddenly, realization struck him like a bolt of lightning.

“Wait a moment,” Zheiro thought aloud. “Is this why you taught me how to fight from the beginning? So that you didn’t have to keep your attention on me at all times?”

“Ha ha ha! Not a bad guess, but no,” Thrycius chortled. “Rather, that’s was a bonus side effect that I was fully going to take advantage of. Regardless, the need for you to learn how to fight is important, so keep up your training.”

“Of course.” Zheiro affirmed. Even if realization he came to was wrong, he was finally beginning to see the benefits of learning how to fight. “Anyway, what should we do now?”

“Well,” Thrycius said, looking off to the side. “I thought you would have wanted to start by messing around with that pile of stuff over there.” He said, pointing off to the side.

Zheiro turned to see the massive pile of carving materials that he had dropped in his panic when the mandragora surprised him. Wait, when did he gather so much? And how could he forget?

“Well, have fun.” Thrycius said in a strangely jovial manner, yet somehow fitting of him. “Tell me when you’re ready to leave, because we still have much ground to cover.”

“Of course,” Zheiro replied, already growing excited again.

It was time to further his carving skills.

It was only a few hours later when Thrycius suddenly began rambling.

If Zheiro had to describe it, it was certainly something in the form of a story, which was fitting for something coming out of his companion’s mouth; but for the first time, it wasn’t interesting.

That in itself was a very strange experience for Zheiro, seeing how before, every single time Thrycius had opened his mouth to speak Zheiro found himself wanting to listen all the way through—assuming he wasn’t already distracted. Yet here he was, endlessly talking, without a care in the world, as his only listener focused on carving away instead of listening.

The thing was, Thrycius just wouldn’t stop.

“Could you please stop for a minute?” Zheiro finally asked, starting to feel drowsy just listening to him. Falling asleep while carving with a sharp tool could be very dangerous, so Zheiro was starting to grow annoyed.

“...shall bear the costs relating to the purchase, introduction and maintenance of necessary information devices or such, communication fees such as packet communication fees and data usage fees, electricity charges and…” Thrycius continued spewing out nonsense, ignoring Zheiro.

“No seriously, what are you doing?” Zheiro tried again.

“...In regards to all third party websites that may be accessed by links from the Application, including the advertisements of the preceding section...”

“Aaah! I give up! How am I supposed to concentrate on carving when you keep rambling on about nonsense like that!” Zheiro yelled out in annoyance.

“...shall not assign to a third party, change the name holder, pledge, offer as collateral or otherwise dispose of all or part of the standing, rights or obligations held as a User... In regards to that, the affected party has finally fallen asleep; for which, at any time or reason, I may revise the…” Thrycius continued rambling, a slight smile on his face.

It took Zheiro a moment to catch something that Thrycius just slipped in the middle of his rambling.

“What did you just…?” Zheiro started, staring blankly at his companion. He didn’t hear wrong, right?

“Hmm?” Thrycius said, looking strangely satisfied as he finally stopped his rambling. “Is something wrong?”

Zheiro blinked a few times, wondering what to say. “What… exactly were you doing just now?”

“Oh, me? I was practicing. I am a storyteller, after all. Speaking nonstop for hours on end is an important skill for me.”

“Even if that may be so, whatever it was you were saying made no sense to me, not to mention how uninteresting it was to me, the listener. I don’t really see how it could be practice.” Zheiro pointed out.

“It’s precisely because it is boring that it makes good practice, you see.” Thrycius countered, giving a sly grin. “If I can fully memorize and recite something so long yet boring, I should have no trouble doing the same for a truly interesting tale— not to mention that it wouldn’t do for the bard who is telling the story to fall asleep because he himself found it boring!”

“Isn’t that kind of logic a bit twisted, though?” Zheiro asked. “Wouldn’t it be better to try and make any story interesting? I’m sure with your skill you could do so without effort. I’ve experienced your storytelling many times by now, so I’m confident you wouldn’t have much trouble doing so.”

“That’s certainly not a bad way to think about it,” Thrycius admitted, “But there are times when one should truthfully tell a story without exaggeration. And sometimes, only the unbiased rendition of a story will accurately tell you what actually happened. Really, there are many things one must consider when telling a story, Zheiro. But as a fellow artist, I’m sure you understand that, right? I don’t think I need to explain any further than I already have.”

Zheiro fell silent as he furrowed his brows in deep thought. Certainly, what Thrycius was saying wasn’t wrong; both of them had a lot of things to consider in their own areas of expertise. He himself knew the difficulties of sculpting, as well as the difficulties of convincing others that his effort was worth the price that he had set when he had tried to make a living selling his carvings many months ago.

But…

At the same time, Zheiro felt something was off. For some reason he couldn’t quite place, his companion’s explanation was strangely unsatisfying.

Was this due to how little he actually knew about storytelling? If that was the case, then for once he could sympathize a little with the customers’ annoyance with his prices, as low as they were—although even then, if he did return to selling figurines again after all this was over he still wouldn’t lower the prices.

If anything, all he had to do was to find a way to make potential customer appreciate the time and effort it took to make them instead. The other solution, of course, would have been to sell masterpieces—quality over quantity.

But despite all that reasoning, in the corner of Zheiro’s mind, another reason as to why he wasn’t satisfied with Thrycius’ answer had already formed.

“Are you trying to hide something from me?” Zheiro voiced out his suspicion.

“Oh my,” Thrycius laughed condescendingly, “Whatever made you think that I’m hiding something from you? The fact that I still haven’t told you the reason why I’ve been making you fight? That I never told you I was more than capable in combat? Or perhaps the time I bound you to our agreement with a contract without your knowledge before it was too late? Zheiro, I’ve always been hiding things from you. But don’t you worry—if it’s something you should know, I’ll definitely tell you when the time is right.”

Zheiro frowned. The fact that he obfuscatingly admitted it without hesitation annoyed him to no end. If he had frantically denied it or hesitated in his answer, that would have been grounds for suspicion, but to so freely admit that he really was hiding something from him, yet explain it in such a meaningless way?

Zheiro had no idea how to respond to that.

“I’ll have to hold you up to those words, then.” Zheiro finally conceded.

“I’m sure you will.”

Later that night, Zheiro woke up to the sound of… something screaming.

A scream that reminded him of the mandragora he fought earlier, yet not the same. It was inhuman yet human, as if someone or something was suffering an endless hell.

“Wh-what in the world is going on?” He shouted, leaping to his feet as he scrambled to find and grab his sword in the darkness.

“Relax,” his companion called out from the darkness. “It’s just the howl of a beast. Probably the most dangerous of beasts, but there’s nothing to fear from here. In a moment it’ll stop.”

And true to his word, the screams stopped just as Thrycius finished talking.

“Anyway, don’t worry about what happened,” Thrycius’ voice continued, “I’ll explain things in the morning, when you’re properly awake. I’ll take care of business and keep watch, so go back and sleep.”

“Is that so…?” Zheiro yawned, already feeling drowsy again. “In that case, I’ll leave the night watch to you like always…”

Just as Zheiro closed his eyes, he vaguely heard Thrycius saying something, but he was too tired to register it properly.

Before he could contemplate further on what his companion had said, he had already lost conscious.

A few hours earlier.

In another part of the Forest of Beasts was a small group of three men, armed with spears and bows. If anyone were to harbor a guess as to what their profession was based on their appearance, most would probably assume that they were hunters, seeking prey within the forest.

Their leader, Liam, was a solidly built man, with visible scars that spoke of many years of experience, most likely from hunting many beasts with sharp claws and fangs. Currently he was receiving a report from a fourth man who had just returned from scouting the area.

“We’ve located our prey,” the man said to Liam. “About 2 hundred paces to the northwest. Seems like they’ve settled down for a break at the moment.”

“Is that so?” Liam replied. “We’re closer than I expected. I was expecting that we would finally catch our prey and go home by nightfall, but maybe we’ll be able to finish the hunt a few hours earlier than expected. Are we all...”

Liam paused, tilting his head and scowling as if he heard something unpleasant. “Who’s talking?” He suddenly asked the rest of his men. “Whoever it is, shut up and pay attention. You’ll scare our prey away.”

The voice didn’t stop, so Liam whirled around to face his men, scowling in annoyance.

To his surprise, however, none of his men were speaking, as they all looked back at him in confusion.

“Tch.” He clicked his tongue. “Must be some stupid summoner out there, then.”

Liam never really liked summoners. They were always noisily tramping around in large numbers, making a ruckus as if they owned the place and scaring all the prey away. Even if the summoner themselves was the quiet type, more often than not the ones they summoned wouldn’t be.

But what annoyed him even more was how easy they had it. All they had to do was summon a bunch of strong people to fight for them, so they never actually had the experience of fighting for their lives themselves, never had to make quick decisions on the spot that could spell the difference between life or death, never learned how to actually survive.

Put simply, in his eyes, summoners, while powerful, were woefully inexperienced and ill-suited to having their power.

And it was thanks to that inexperience that there would be a chance their prey would be alerted of their presence and escape.

Liam knew he had to quickly come to a decision, but for some reason he now was starting to feel sluggish.

At this time of the day? Liam thought. It was unnatural. He shook his in attempt to shake the drowsiness off, but it was to no avail.

A quick glance at the rest of his men quickly confirmed that indeed, what he had been feeling was no imagination of his, for they too had collapsed onto the floor, fast asleep.

As Liam himself dropped to the floor, his conscious slipping away, he cursed his lack of awareness of the situation. The hunters have been turned into the hunted...but by who?

When Liam awoke, night had already fallen.

Liam quickly examined his situation in confusion. It appeared that he was unharmed, and he was still in the same place where he had fallen asleep.

Warily, he picked himself up. Liam knew that the situation they were in was bad. They had been unable to settle down and camp as preparation for the night, and it was now too dark to see. Even so, it appeared that his men were unharmed as they too began to rouse from their sleep, also in great confusion.

However, they too were experienced as he was, and quickly grew quiet to access the situation.

Liam's mind was racing. He knew that there existed both beasts and plants that could release a gas that could put any grown man to sleep, but since they were still unharmed and untouched that was quite unlikely.

In other words, it was mostly likely some idiot summoner who allowed the use of sleeping gas or magic with similar effects in one of their battles without warning anyone else in the area, and the effects of it blew over to where they were.

Inadvertently causing others to fall asleep in the middle of the forest full of dangerous beasts was a serious issue. If he ever found the person who caused this, he would be in for a world of pain. But more importantly…

He quietly snapped his fingers to get his men’s attention. It was too dark to properly use signals, after all.

“It’s me,” Liam whispered. “Sound off. Are we all still here?”

A quick check confirmed that yes, they were all here and accounted for.

“It’s about time you all woke up,” An unfamiliar suddenly rang out from the darkness, cutting in as his men finished confirming they were all here. “Took you all long enough. Honestly, I would have expected you all to have a bit more resistance to this kind of thing.”

Liam whirled around, trying to see where the voice came from. Although there wasn’t much light, his trained eyes which had quickly grown used to the dark could make out the form of another human leaning against a tree.

“Who are you?” Liam hissed.

“Before you go asking who I am, wouldn’t it be more polite to introduce yourselves first?” The man replied condescendingly, making no movement from where he leaned against the tree.

Liam clenched his teeth in annoyance, but complied. After all, the only reason they were still alive and unharmed by beasts was probably because of this man, but at the same time Liam knew that the stranger did not do so out of kindness.

“...We are simply mere hunters, hunting the prey we had been chasing for a while before some stupid summoner accidentally put us to sleep.” Liam replied in annoyance. “So? Who are you?”

“Mere hunters, is it?” The stranger asked. If Liam didn’t know better, he would have thought the man before him was grinning wickedly, his teeth glinting in the moonlight. “Either way, all of you are going to have to leave for now, since the prey you are hunting is mine.”

“What, you’re a hunter too?” Liam asked. “If that’s the case, there’s no reason for us to leave. This part of the forest belongs to no one. If you want to claim our prey,” Liam paused, picking up his spear threateningly, “You’ll just have to catch it before we do.”

“Me? A hunter?” The stranger asked in mock surprise. A moment passes before the stranger begins laughing like a madman. “Aha ha ha ha ha! This is just priceless! After all, we both know that neither of us are actually hunters!”

Liam scowled. The hell was this man talking about?

“Now then,” The stranger continued as he stopped leaning against the tree, “Allow me to start over. I am naught but a simple storyteller. However! I was not asking you to leave this area. I was commanding you to leave for now, or else.”

“Or else?”

“Or else I will tell you a grand nightmare of a story, the likes beyond any you have ever seen. You wouldn’t want to see that, would you, ‘hunters’? Or should I say... assassins?”

“You…” Liam tightened his grip on his spear. “Who the hell are you?” He finally grounded out. Calling them assassins out of the blue, just who was this man?

“Didn’t I already say?” The stranger said patronizingly. “I’m a naught but a simple storyteller. Now, will you heed my warning and leave, or will you try and test my patience?”

“Don’t make me laugh!” Liam roared, “What kind of threat would a storyteller be to us? There’s no way you are just a simple storyteller!”

“Would you like to try me out?” The stranger laughed. “It would be better for you all to leave, you know. You could always come back later. Now is not your time.”

“If we left, our prey would escape.” Liam countered. “There was, and is, no better time than now. We won’t let even you get in our way. Besides, what can you do alone? There’s 4 of us here, and one of you; we should be the ones asking you to get out of our way.”

“I see. So that’s your answer, is it? A pity, but if you’re that adamant about this, I guess it’s show time.”

At that, the stranger snapped his fingers— and suddenly, Liam found himself in a new, desolated world.

Where was he? How did he get to this desolated wasteland?What happened to everyone else?

Something tugged at his ankle. He quickly glanced down to find an arm sticking out of the ground had grasped him by the leg.

No—

What he thought was a desolated wasteland was actually terrain that was literally made up of corpses, and he was standing among them.

Liam involuntary took a step back with his free foot at the horrifying sight, but before he knew it he was being swallowed up by the land of corpses itself as he was dragged down.

Horrifying scenes flashed before his eyes as he was submerged under an endless stream of curses. There were corpses. Everywhere, there were corpses, yet none of them were dead. The scenes quickly flashed by faster than he could register them yet he experienced each and every one in their entirety.

It was pain like nothing he had ever felt before, as his eyes began to sear and his body began to burn, freeze, hurt all over.

It hurts it hurts it hurts ithurts painful painpainpainpain—!

Before he knew it he was screaming as his sense overwhelmed him.

Thrycius (for who else could it be?) sighed as he walked back to where Zheiro was sleeping, leaving behind the assassins as they experienced one nightmare of a story after another. He had actually expected the assassins to last longer as they experienced for themselves a few stories, each telling the tale of an atrocity that had actually been committed in this world, but apparently he had misjudged them.

“And I hadn’t even shown them more than a percent of it all too,” Thrycius complained as he arrived at his destination, just as the screams behind him began, which woke up the one man he had been traveling with.

“Wh-what the hell is going on?” Zheiro shouted, scrambling to his feet as he felt around for his sword.

Although it may have been night, Thrycius himself had no trouble seeing in the dark. If he were someone else, he might have found the sight of Zheiro scrambling around in a panic amusing, but there were other, more important things to deal with.

“Relax. It’s just the howl of a beast. Probably the most dangerous of beasts, but there’s nothing to fear from here.” he called out, the hidden meaning of his words obviously not lost to himself. The forest may be full of dangerous beasts, but of all beasts to have ever existed, one of the most dangerous had to be humans, Thrycius thought. “In a moment it’ll stop.”

With a small wave of his hand the stories being shown to the assassins were put to an abrupt end. Thrycius himself frowned, however. He never really like having to interrupt and stop his storytelling, but at the same time there was no point keeping it going since the assassins would lose conscious in their attempt to escape reality in the middle of it all either way, as they had done so now that it was over.

“Anyway, don’t worry about what happened,” Thrycius continued, “I’ll explain things in the morning, when you’re properly awake. I’ll take care of business and keep watch, so go back and sleep.”

“Is that so…?” Zheiro yawned, before sinking back towards the ground. “In that case, I’ll leave the night watch to you like always…”

As Zheiro fell asleep, Thrycius spoke one last time before he turned around to leave.

“Starting tomorrow, I’m going to have to push our schedule forward even more. So, Zheiro… sleep well for now. I have been a bit lax about this, so things will only get harder from here on out.”

''A/N: yeah, a double update. I suppose you could interpret it as my apology for not updating in so long? This chapter is longer than usual, too, but eh. Ended up cutting out the usual Sarui/Ixia scenes I've been throwing at the end of each chapter, replacing it with that extra tidbit with Liam and co.''

''Anyway, things got somewhat serious here. A few jokes at the beginning, then that scene. Thrycius calls them assassins, but Liam never referred to themselves as such. Is he just that professional, or was Thrycius mistken? Also, if they really were assassins, who in the world sent them?''

''Originally, I was going to make it obvious why they were in the forest, but then I decided against it. "Now is not [the] time," as Thrycius would say.''

''Also, I'm sure that any of you readers, that grandma down the street, me, and/or that random baby in some crib that never stops crying to annoy us to no end would all agree that they could write a much scarier scene for when Thrycius was showing them a scary story. However, I'm not trying to write a horror story here, and I thought that going to far would derail the story a bit from its intended genre. I think it's good enough to know that Liam saw something quite horrifying and I don't need to describe it any more than I did while trying to keep it pg-13.''

''Next chapter is a summoning scene, btw. Look forward to that.''

''Anyway, like usual, please leave a comment even if you didn't like it; constructive critism is always helpful. Thanks!''

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