Niko walked ahead, treading through the rocky path with his gaze lowered.
He knew that Yuko wasn't okay, and that the boy was hiding his sadness, although he wasn't sure why.
Maybe Yuko didn't want to seem weak, or maybe he had wanted to act more like his brother.
Niko shook his head. Whatever the reason may have been, Niko had to respect Yuko's decision. Besides, he shouldn't meddle in the affairs of the living too much.
But that still didn't make him feel any better about it.
Hana walked beside him, glancing at him with concern.
"Don't worry too much about it," Leta patted Hana's head with her wing, "He'll be fine in a bit. Just watch."
And indeed, soon, something changed.
Niko quickened his pace a bit, creating some distance between himself and Hana.
Then, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, clearing his mind and focusing on his surroundings, listening for the slight disturbances all around him
They were dead bodies, buried under the ground or hidden above it.
And within some of those bodies, there were souls, trapped and restless, unable to move on.
Niko exhaled slowly, letting his power flow. A green glow enveloped his body, flowing on to the ground all around him to form a pool of ethereal light.
He took a step, and a ripple appeared in the pool of light, and from that ripple, a glowing sphere emerged.
It morphed and changed, taking a green, glowing form similar to its original body.
A deer.
It slowly walked up to him, and Niko opened his eyes, slowly bringing his hand towards the deer's head.
He patted it gently, feeling the deer's thoughts and memories flowing into his head as it told him its story.
It was killed by poachers, who were now after the rest of its family too.
Niko nodded, and the deer's form glowed brightly, before becoming tangible. Lowering its head in a grateful bow, the deer leapt away to save its family.
Another ripple spread through the light, and a little fox appeared, hopping timidly towards the boy.
Then came a sparrow that landed on his shoulder, followed by a dog, a rabbit, a snake.
Souls of all shapes and sizes rose from the ground as Niko continued walking, moving towards him as they sought his help.
He listened to their cries, hearing their stories, before granting them the chance to fulfill their dying wish.
Most were rather simple—a mother wanting to feed her hungry children, a pet wanting to see its master one last time, a baby worried about its saddened mother.
So, he didn't need to intervene directly, letting them go on their own instead.
Other times, he followed after them, helping them as best as he could.
More and more souls came up to him as he walked forward.
But he wasn't bothered by them, and listened to each with care and compassion.
In fact, he was strangely at peace this way, helping these trapped souls find peace.
He could almost lose himself in hearing their stories when he revived them, and their joy when they had achieved their goal, forgetting all about his own thoughts.
And his own memories...
He shook his head, turning all his attention back to the souls of the dead.
"See, I told you he'd be fine in a moment," Leta smiled before hopping off to fly onto Niko's head.
Hana watched her go and then quietly observed Niko as he went about helping the dead, surrounded by countless souls.
Some were those that had just been revived, coming up to him to seek his help.
Others were those whose wishes had been fulfilled, joyously thanking him before disappearing into ethereal sparks as they prepared to move on to their next lives.
It was quite a beautiful sight—seeing the boy enveloped in a gentle green light, surrounded by ethereal souls and shimmering sparks that danced around him at every step.
The boy gazed at them all with gentle eyes, and more than once, she saw those eyes well up with tears.
It was strange.
The boy in front of her was kind and gentle, not at all like the rumors, which portrayed the Child of Death as some walking calamity.
Niko's powers didn't even have anything to do with granting wishes. If anything, his fearsome might was much better suited for taking lives.
And yet here he was, using that power to grant life instead, and then going out of his way to help those he revived however he could.
Her lips curved in a small smile as she quietly watched him.
Soon, a golden light appeared on the horizon, spreading into the dark sky as the sun began to rise.
A pleasant breeze blew through the air, celebrating the beginning of a new day.
But Leta's mood was grim.
She had summoned a map on the ground again, pointing at it with her wing.
"We're nearing a No-Man's Land," she pointed out, "I can probably find a path that doesn't cross through its central regions, but we'll still be passing through its borders."
Niko frowned. The borders of the No-Man's Lands were a lot safer than the inner regions, but they were still filled with all kinds of horrors.
He wouldn't be worried about crossing them if he were by himself, but with Hana coming along, he was hesitant to take the risk.
Sadly, there wasn't much of a choice, since the region ahead was all but filled with No-Man's Lands.
He shook his head dejectedly and got up, gesturing for Hana to start moving again.
***
A vast expanse of barren land stretched as far as the eye could see, full of hideous creatures of all shapes and sizes.
Large rocks rose haphazardly from the ground, looking strangely like huge, jagged teeth.
A harsh, dry wind blew across the land, while a raging sun burned in the cloudless sky.
Niko stood atop a small hill, staring grimly at the No-Man's Land lying right ahead of them, a sigh escaping from his lips.
The bleak view in front of him was so different from the vibrant lands within the kingdoms of the living, which were much more peaceful and full of life.
So much so that it was easy to forget that this was what filled most of their world—harsh regions filled with the Abyss's influence, hiding untold horrors within their merciless expanse.
He jumped down, landing on the lifeless ground with a thud. Leta landed softly on his head a moment later.
Hana followed suit, lowering herself down using her vines.
The girl winced under the scorching sun, but kept walking nonetheless.
Niko pulled his hood over his head, and the unnatural darkness of his tunic moved to embrace his body.
Hana felt a visible change as soon as that happened, as Niko's fearsome presence seemed to diminish, soon becoming hardly noticeable.
As she walked up to him, he looked at her and narrowed his eyes slightly, before pointing a finger towards her with a slightly annoyed expression.
She tilted her head and looked down at her body, her eyes widening when she realized that she was still glowing like a candle.
With a sheepish smile, she forced the light suffusing her skin to dim as much as she could.
Niko shook his head before walking ahead. They couldn't afford to stand out too much here.
The three of them stealthily moved forward, trying their best to remain unseen.
Hana couldn't help but feel uneasy in that place.
The harsh weather aside, there were innumerable monsters stalking all around, hungrily searching for their next meal.
They were Abyss Spawns—mad, corrupted creatures similar to the strange Ogre that they had seen back in the Erethean kingdom.
She looked around warily, watching their hideous forms pass by.
There were packs of hyenas, with huge tusks growing out from their lower jaws.
They held their mouths wide open, since they only had one eye that was located on their tongues.
They were fighting against a deer with three, skeletal heads. Each head carried a pair of spear-like horns, which it used to impale the hyenas before biting into their flesh with its sharp fangs.
A loud shriek made Hana flinch, and she turned to see a humongous lizard with spikes covering its back.
Its mouth spewed a corrosive liquid all around it as it flailed about madly. It fell onto its back, writhing in pain as thousands of flesh eating insects shredded its body like paper.
Niko suddenly stopped, grabbing Hana and hiding behind a large rock.
Confused, Hana peeked out from behind the rock and saw a large leopard with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth, and a second mouth on its tail.
Long, forked tongues stuck out from both its mouths, licking the air to find any traces of prey.
It suddenly jerked its head in the direction of the three Spirits, perhaps having noticed their scent, and slowly started to move towards them.
But it had hardly taken a step when a blur passed by, ripping off half of its body.
It was a monstrous bird with six wings, its beak snapping wildly as it chewed on the leopard's meat.
While the bird was distracted, the three Spirits made a run for it, quickly moving far away.
They soon reached a wide chasm, and Niko made a bridge of bone for them to move across it.
As the three of them were crossing the bridge, a large roar came from behind, and they saw two colossal creatures fighting each other, crashing onto the bridge as they fell down.
Niko grabbed Hana's hand and dashed forward at full speed, barely making it across before the bridge collapsed entirely.
They stood at the other side of the chasm, and Hana looked back at the large beasts still fighting each other.
But then, she noticed something else too.
The ground started to shake violently below the massive creatures.
And then, it moved.
Hana rubbed her eyes in disbelief.
The ground actually started to move, quickly rising up.
The rocks from before hadn't simply seemed like they were teeth.
A large cloud of sand erupted from the ground as a gigantic creature rose from below, its gaping mouth encompassing almost the entirety of the region that the Spirits had just passed through.
Hana fell to the ground, watching in horror as the massive mouth snapped shut with a deafening thud, swallowing the dozens of horrifying monsters as they screeched helplessly.
And then, she saw it, the large, hazy eye of the massive creature, which stared right at her, sending shivers down her spine.
Niko moved in, covering Hana's eyes with his hand, his own eyes glowing violently as he stared back at the monster.
The creature shuddered, closing its eyes and hiding under the barren sand once again.
Once the monster was gone, Niko removed his hand from Hana's eyes, offering it to her instead.
Hana looked at Niko, fear still lingering in her eyes, but she quickly shook her head.
She gave him a shaky smile, before grabbing onto his hand and standing back up.
They still had some way to go.