Road to Valhalla

Chapter 9: All Falls Down

I remember looking up the mountain as we traversed down the valley. I had an ominous feeling about something that I couldn't exactly explain. Chopper was way ahead of me, he didn't consider my condition to be worth worrying about. I was trying to be careful but the lack of pain which I had been thinking a blessing earlier, now only served as a numbing feeling and that was not very reassuring.

It took us two hours to get down and then we waited to see the Colonel. It took surprisingly long before we got to do that. And somehow Chopper, as if foreseeing this predicament, had gone to sleep. He was woken up by the knock on the door. Col. Erele would now see us.

Erele's room was vacant unlike the first time we walked in here but the amount of mugs on the table told that some people had been attending there.

Soon as we walked in and the wooden door behind us clicked it's closing sound, I could see a flying Erele thrown across the room amidst a tiny storm of papers from his table. He had not yet had the time to take a breath to greet us.

"Chopper-san!", I shouted, perhaps a little too loud as he busied himself in locking the door just barely. I was expecting attention from outside, surprisingly enough, it never came.

Erele was now being dragged to a chair in his half delirious state.

"Chopper-san, what are you doing?"

"Seraph, this time you just stay and keep watching."

Something about the way he said it made me cease from all questions and interruptions.

"Well, soldier boy, I am here to offer you help. What do you say to that?"

At times like these, I really had to wonder if Chopper wasn't mentally unstable though I seldom questioned anything at such times.

"You...", Erele was concious enough to talk, "You damned bastard. So that whore really did manage to find you."

"Isn't that the truth?", Chopper grinned, "Then again, you knew she would, didn't you? You wanted someone to use as a shield wall and you knew that she would lure someone in. Too bad, you are too dumb to accomplish something like that even in the next million years."

"You are going to regret this. You've destroyed so much. If only you'd let that useless lad of yours die..."

"Oh don't give me credit for that. I wasn't the one that saved his life", Chopper looked my way briefly, "I'm here to put an end to you. If this plunges Ildia into another war, then so be it. That's what's good for it in that case. It should have happened sooner. You've enjoyed peace for far too long. That's all you get, tough luck, isn't it?"

"What would you know?!", Erele exploded, "We built this place from ash! We picked up the bones and built our homes. You've no right...no right whatsoever! You don't know about Ildia! This land is what we lost everything for. They died..."

He was under the spell of hysteria as he continued, "They all died and I...I went from one to the next and then...to the next and I...and then I tripped...I fell and I...I saw it. Down there...everyone was..."

"You fell", Chopper said, "You've been falling since then. This dream isn't over yet."

"Chopper-san", at this point I couldn't hold myself from speaking up, "what is he talking about?"

"Seraph, do you know that Halen means salt?"

What a random thing to say! I thought, and was about to speak up when I remembered.

"I can see their reason though. It's all the gold in this mountain. I can't just let these people be stripped away of their rightful fortune, can I?"

That's exactly what Erele told us. And old man Emir was a salt merchant.

"Then...but what does that prove?", I was still unsure.

"There is neither salt nor gold here. There's rocks and more rocks and more rocks...layers of rocks on top of each other. You asked me about that old merchant you went to the capital with. I left him halfway to Halen. Do you know why?"

The old merchant? Emir!

"You left him? What does that mean?!"

"Seraph, the people of Halen don't care about Ildia or the capital or anything at all. Haven't you been able to tell? They only care about their own miserable lives. They are no better than some foolish insects and that's the kind of fate that suits them anyway."

"Why...what's wrong with caring about their own lives? Don't people deserve to live?", I was a bit lost.

"The capital provides for Halen and the people smuggle arms to the enemies. Because if they weren't miserable enough, the capital would stop caring about them. And this barracks...they haven't lifted a gun in so long, they've basically forgotten how to use it. Seraph, there is nothing but deceit in this land. These people are giving the enemies access to those parts of Ildia where they couldn't reach otherwise. Who do you think prevents them? Do you think someone stands between them?"

Wolfe! That was the first thought that came to mind.

"Regardless of how pure everything looks, that old man for example, expected to get robbed or should I say, make his delivery. The one thing that stood between him was the forest bandits. If he had taken longer to get home, he couldn't make the deadline. And thus he needed someone to act as bait, buy him time to make his run. But when he turned in without the delivery, well, who knows what happened to him? And what happens afterwards, that's all you need to see."

"Wait, Chopper-san, what about Eso?"

"I managed to confirm the fact she wasn't a pure maiden. Wonder how I did it, who knows", Chopper smirked suggestively, "Maybe this guy would know, wouldn't you Colonel?"

"Go to hell!", Erele tried to spit on Seraph but it ended up falling on his belly, "You don't know what Ildia did. It's not a land of pure souls. But we just want to survive. You are just too haughty to see that."

"Oh believe me, old man. I do know what Ildia did. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a man to look for", he shoved the picture in Erele's face, "Tell me what you know about him."

Erele tried being stubborn but perhaps realized there was nothing to be gained from that. He spoke shortly.

"Fennerick. That's him. General Fennerick. He...he's the devil", Erele took a pause, "His village is south of here. He destroyed it completely. Some say, he ate the flesh of all it's residents. One night, they just all turned to bones and nothing more. Not one of them was left. And then he...he left. He's not...he's..."

"That's enough", Chopper stepped closer, unsheathing and then pointing his strange looking blade at Erele's head, "You've done a great service, Colonel. Do you have anything to say before we part ways?"

"I just...I...tried. I want to see Halen but I can only look from afar because I couldn't protect it. My home...mother...and everyone else...and now, it's all going to..."

Chopper opened a window of Erele's room which presented a full view of the mountain path and Halen.

My eyes were open wide in shock as I looked at the spectacle.

"It's burning...", Erele's last words left his mouth.

I turned my head to look at him but all I saw was shreds of human flesh, nothing salvageable. And I also saw Chopper's blade, covered in blood and his face, beaming, his eyes glistening and a pure white descending upon him.