You'd Better Understand What He Means

You must keep walking right alongside the forest.

They really were inside the forest now.

Drenched, Nese followed behind the equally drenched Keir, his heart in his throat.

Unlike with Yicha, after spending time together, he had discovered that Keir could not give him the reassuring sense that things were moving in a better direction.

The angel chatted casually with the forest, making it giggle and squeak, while striding onward with an implausibly vigorous energy.

This was even a little unlike his usual self.

He did not pause at all. Occasionally, he led the way by leaping down from black rocks, stepping over dark crimson currents, or smoothly ducking beneath horizontal branches—each lined with shriveled heads whose necks were looped in vines, their bones warped and protruding, maggots crawling out of them.

Keir seemed to completely ignore everything around them.

"Could you tell us once more how the Isolated Island Era began?" Keir resumed the conversation the moment it stopped.

"I thought that was required coursework for you."

Alexander Hanging Ghost rustled, sounding rather pleased. "Besides, I've already told it three times."

"I just think your account is far more exquisite than what's in the books. Especially the part where you strangled all seven thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven invading angels at once," Keir said.

"Heh. Then I'll tell it again."

A teeth-grating laugh like sawing wood came from every direction. "Seven thousand years ago..."

How strange.

Nese had not known Keir could be this talkative.

He flipped the Truth Coin, and everything this man said was even true.

As the angel hurried onward, he kept changing the subject almost without pause. Sometimes he cleverly filled in a tiny gap in the forest's memories; sometimes he raised constructive questions, then gave precisely timed exclamations of amazement after Alexander Hanging Ghost answered.

Keir walked faster and faster, and Nese found it increasingly difficult to keep up— the ground was getting stickier, nearly gluing his feet in place. He was soaked through and unbearably heavy.

The sorcerer had no choice but to jog. Before long, he was gasping for breath.

Strangely, the badly wounded angel looked perfectly normal. He continued their lengthy conversation as he walked, even leaving Nese farther and farther behind.

Finally, after he stumbled over a hidden tree root strung with a long row of rat ears, Keir vanished from sight ahead of him.

The air fell into a terrifying silence.

Almost at the same moment,

the forest's rustling instantly became sinister.

Shadows quietly fermented in the corners. Slick vines swayed through the air, creeping toward him with ill intent like nooses seeking a life.

"Child. Why did you stop?"

Alexander Hanging Ghost asked with a giggle.

Those ubiquitous crying-faced flowers twisted in circles through the air, the corners of their eyes hanging in eerie arcs as insect eggs pattered onto him. "Child? Are you still moving?"

"You are not one of them yet... I can tell. You'd better understand what I mean."

Though Nese had already struggled free of the sticky ground and forced himself upright, pouring all his strength into running forward, a wet tentacle-vine calmly settled on his shoulder.

Nese could not reply. His lungs were about to burst.

Would elemental flame magic do anything to this thing...? he tried to think.

"Hehehe—" the forest laughed.

The space before him brightened slightly.

A faint white glow appeared before him.

Keir turned around.

There was little expression on his face. His once-golden eyes had faded until they were almost colorless.

"No need. No need, esteemed Alexander Hanging Ghost. Alexander Hanging Ghost, as great as hell itself."

The angel grabbed the sorcerer—his hand was frighteningly cold—and rapidly headed back in the direction they had first come from, firing off words like a barrage as he walked.

"Right, yes. What were we talking about just now? Look, I don't want to waste even a second of my time with you. Right, right. We were talking about the Chaos Child. You wouldn't happen to know where that little thing is now, would you?"

Nese's heart stirred—this was the greatest reaction he could manage right now.

"Heh. Are you testing me, little angel? Of course I know."

The Underforest, as ancient as hell itself, made a whooshing, whipping sound. Several filthy crying-faced flowers spun as they fell, resembling some abstract beheading ritual—it was amusing itself. "That thing is at the end of Kishino, the Man-Eating House."

That was not a direct place name.

Clearly, even the angel did not know exactly where it referred to. There could be many kinds of ends.

"Which end?" he asked.

"I really don't like him. You'd better understand what I mean."

Alexander Hanging Ghost seemed too disdainful to answer the question. It rustled to itself and began complaining.

"You know, this is actually quite tiring. I think I really am getting a little old. Once the Chaos Child appears, well, it's back to the battlefield. After all, at that time, there was nowhere that wasn't a battlefield. I don't always want to strangle seven thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven angels."

A dull howl passed through the sticky leaves. This time, it was hard to tell whether it was laughing or sighing.

"When a little angel is as obedient and sensible as you, I don't mind saying a few more words. You'd better understand what I mean. I mean, it's fine not to strangle you, or I can strangle you after I'm done talking."

"You're truly evil."

Keir said it without a ripple in his voice as he pushed the sorcerer over a smoldering stump as broad as a round table.

Nese was stunned by his answer, which seemed to ignore the threat entirely.

But he quickly understood: to Alexander Hanging Ghost, "evil" was actually praise.

"Of course. But it's difficult for me to stay in peak condition all the time. After all, I've lived for so long." As expected, the forest answered with satisfaction.

"Would you mind sharing your lofty opinion of that little thing? Right. I mean the Chaos Child," Keir quickly continued.

"What is there to say? He's nothing but a jar. What matters is the grease inside the jar. You'd better understand what I mean. If you wanted to make bread out of the whole world, flour, bones, and beetles would be the most important things, but you would still need grease."

"I understand. What dark provisions." The angel said. In hell, that was naturally another compliment.

A jar... grease... Was it saying that the Chaos Child was merely a container?

"May I ask who put the grease into the jar?"

The thought came naturally to Nese, so he asked.

This was the first time he had taken the initiative to speak to Alexander Hanging Ghost.

He should not have been so rash, so abrupt, but he was too tired.

The forest fell silent for a moment.

"Good question."

It suddenly erupted into a shrill laugh like a swarm of bees buzzing. "You've stumped me, little one. I truly don't know. Normally, I would remove your head as a reward. But today, I'm really not in the mood, so take this as your reward instead."

Something very light struck Nese's forehead.

The sorcerer reached up and caught it, discovering that it was a small branch that looked entirely ordinary.

I'll show it to Teacher when I get back... Without slowing, he tucked the branch into his robes.

He now understood that the key to "You must keep walking right alongside the forest" was not only "the forest," but also "keep walking." The angel's body had to be close to collapse as well; he was merely forcing himself to keep walking quickly and keep changing the subject.

...Perhaps he was not changing the subject at all.

Was he deliberately gathering information? Nese could hardly believe it.

"But no matter what, you must have noticed something was wrong."

On the other side, Keir had already begun a new topic within three seconds, as if he would suffocate if he stopped talking.

"Heh. Of course."

Alexander Hanging Ghost's attention was indeed drawn away, and it began speaking smugly. "Of course something is wrong. I watched them write the prophecy of the Apocalypse War. I also watched the Chaos Child be born into hell. Do you think that after so much time has passed, those two things would still be the same? You'd better understand what I mean."

Nese listened intently to their conversation.

"There's a difference?" Keir asked.

"A huge difference. For example, when they made the prophecy, they originally wanted to write, 'Dissolve him into the end, that the ultimate chaos may spread forth and strike.' Then not one of them knew how to write the characters for 'dissolve,' 'spread,' or 'ultimate.' So they changed it to, 'Let him burn to ashes, so he can burn away the entire world.'"

"You'd better understand what I mean," it added.

An eerie silence followed.

Nese considered the difference in meaning between the two expressions, aside from their literary quality.

This time, Keir did not respond.

Nese raised his head. A tree trunk like a wall stood before him.

The damp hem of the angel's robe vanished behind it.