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Leo's head hurt--no, it went beyond the hurt, into the realm of wanting death. Even if he experienced this level of pain before, he only did so in passing flickers--fleeting moments that lasted less than a second, yet were enough to nearly turn him comatose.

Soon after he asked the question, he felt an overwhelming sensation wash over him; he couldn't find the right words to describe it, as it was unlike anything he ever felt before. Alongside it came the headache--it forced him to his knees immediately, and despite wanting to scream out until his lungs burned, he simply couldn't. He couldn't even muster up enough strength to blink, let alone to roar.

All along, there was a frenzy of 'information' being churned into his brain. No, not information--it was even more abstract than when he 'communicated' with Blackie or Milky or others. If theirs form was closer to intent and concept, then this was... Leo didn't even know. It was closer to metaphysical joining, an existential marriage of the ethereal--less than an idea, less than a feeling, Leo found himself eerily harmonizing with the structure of everything. It was as though his spirit was dragged to beyond the visible membrane, tossed and warped around the machinations of all things, but it wasn't quite like that either.

He loathed the pain, but he also loathed being unable to understand it; how was he functioning, much less all things around him? The push and pull of forces beyond his ken, the separation of himself into folds as though he were a distorted object in a mathematical equation, the coming together of all senses into one--Leo experienced the reality not as individual aspects, but as one thing, whole and untouched. Everything and anything converged and there was no means for him to tell which was what--colors, sounds, shapes, ideas, energy, mass, all things, known and otherwise, undulated with his pain, and he with them.

He didn't know how long he was in that state, but by the time he woke up, he saw Shui'er ripping her eyes with tears atop his chest while Lu Yang loomed over him with a dark expression.

"Uncle!!" the young girl exclaimed joyfully when she saw him open his eyes, prompting Leo to gently hug her.

Blinking, he couldn't recall--not what happened, not why it happened. The last thing he remembered was asking a question... and now this, waking up on the ground, headache fleeting. No, there was one more difference--he knew where to go. Northwest, along the ridges of the Chilly's 'territory', and well past it. Something awoke, he felt at least, deep inside the forest, something that had been slumbering for eons.

Sitting up, he finally felt like himself again. His eyes darted toward the fogged spaces between the trees, searching the feathered crow... but he was not there.

"Hey, you alright?" Lu Yang asked.

"Sorry. Was just out of sorts," Leo replied, standing up. "What, uh, happened?"

"What happened?" Lu Yang looked at him oddly. "You dragged us here to deliver the sweet, and then suddenly collapsed. Your... your heart, it stopped."

"... for how long?"

"A few minutes, perhaps. Seriously, what happened?"

"I don't know," Leo spoke with a faint trace of frustration, but he quickly buried it. Whatever it was, it had something to do with the crow--and he felt nothing good would come out of cursing that little thing, even inwardly.

His instincts were right--Chilly was far more dangerous than all other things he'd seen and experienced so far in this world... combined.

"Let's go back." he said.

"What about the candy?"

"What candy?" Leo responded, already moving back toward the longhouse.

"What candy? The one the girl--hey, wait..."

On their way back, Shui'er wouldn't leave his arms, seemingly afraid that if she let go, he'd die 'again'. Lu Yang, on the other hand, kept throwing stealthy glances at him, but never asked a question. He was old enough, and had experienced enough of the world, it seemed, to know that whatever transpired... was not for him to know or understand. Thus, he stayed his lips.

It wasn't before night fell that Shui'er finally let him go, and that was only so because she was unable to stay awake any longer. Setting her into bed gently, he went outside where Lu Yang was waiting for him, two bottles of booze opened. Leo chuckled and sat down by the roaring flames, staring at them.

"... I have to go somewhere tomorrow," Leo said, taking a sip.

"Need me to come with?"

"No. Stay here with Shui'er."

"Sure." the two fell silent for a little while before Leo looked toward him and spoke.

"I might not come back." Lu Yang winced, but quickly froze his expression, not speaking. "If that happens... could I ask you for a favor?"

"What?" though the glean in the old man's eyes told Leo that he already knew, some things, in the end, ought to be said.

"You can stay here if you can, or you can leave. Just... don't tell anyone, please, about this place. And the animals living here. And take Shui'er with you."

"Favor or no favor, I would have done all those things regardless."

"I know."

"... when I was younger and before the Clan's politics took up most of my life," Lu Yang spoke. "I used to go hunting. Well, we called it hunting but, really, it was closer to dancing with death. A small group, four of us, were equally strong, or thereabout. Anyway, we'd try to find a Demonic Beast, or a Demonic Cultivator that was at least one full realm above us in strength, and try to kill them. Over the course of ten years, from four... only I was left. We killed our fill, just shy of a hundred, but every 'hunt' was... somber. At a point, I had to stop because my death would mean the death of my Clan. Do you know how I was the only one to stay alive?"

"Because you ran away each time you were about to die?"

"Well, yes, a few times, perhaps," the two men shared a laugh for a moment before Lu Yang continued. "The actual reason was that all three ended up dying to save me."

"... wow. They must have loved you dearly."

"I can go," he said, suddenly. "And try to resolve whatever it is that ails your mind, and you can stay here. Live on your life as you did before me. And if I fail and die, you can simply dig out an empty grave and offer final farewells. For once, perhaps I can be the tall wall staving off death."

"... as noble as your want of sacrifice is," Leo chuckled. "I'd have to live knowing I am the reason you've died. In some ways, if not most, that is worse than death." Leo, though fearful of death as much as every other person, had already died once--and, by all accounts, it wasn't that scary. Even if he was never reborn, he would have simply faded--become part of the abyssal continuation of life. There was only darkness, and eternity he would not be aware of.

Leo departed before breakfast, though he did prepare a few meals for Lu Yang, Shui'er, and some of the animals. He armed himself with the one sword he had, tossing on some skin-layer armor that Yu Minge gave him in the spatial ring, and started walking toward his destination. It wasn't long before he got bored and started using Simple Step Art, darting between the trees as a blurry phantom.

He had a 'feeling' more so than a clear direction in mind; it was even vaguer than when he had Milky tell him where to go. If he started straying, for instance, a 'feeling' would jolt him from within and course-correct. In some ways, it felt like rethreading a path trodden--like a person who'd lost their memories sitting in front of a piano and perfectly playing Moonlight Sonata.

There was no other animals--none that started the journey with him, none that joined him partway through, and none that even inhabited these corners of the woods. It was deathly silent save for his footsteps and occasional crunching of the leaves, and before long, the canopy above grew so thick that there was no more light, either. He had to infuse Qi into his eyes just to see.

Onward and onward for what felt like hours (though it was difficult to tell, what with the darkness and the rather repetitive forest that, for the first time, didn't seem to change no matter how far he ran in one direction), he finally came to a halt. A 'feeling', once again, spoke to him from within. Muffling his footsteps, he proceeded onward and past the hanging branches that had tangled themselves with overgrown shrubbery.

On the other end, he saw a carved-out valley spanning nearly a mile, and within it he saw pitched rooftops and trails of smoke from the flames, and he saw hooded figures stalking between the buildings made out of strange, black stone.

Toward the center of the valley, the buildings parted into a circular area, at whose heart was a strange alter staying suspended some twenty feet from the ground.

Leo's eyes widened and his heart beat with anger as he looked further up from the alter--there, rolling around in a transparent bubble of energy just above the alter was a familiar figure--Howly.

Despite having not seen him for a few days, Leo wasn't that worried as the wolf had the tendency to just wander off from time to time. Seeing him now, however, caused Leo to curse himself; there were gashes still bleeding all across his body, his white fur torn in patches, all four of his legs broken.

He clutched the sword between his fingers, standing still.

What could he do? He was weak--so, so, so weak. If these were ordinary people in the hoods, he might stand a chance. But they probably weren't. Just like him, they were living in a forest, and Leo had already pulled together enough information to know that this place housed some true monsters. Howly, likely, was precisely one of those monsters. If they were able to capture him and beat him an inch away from death, what could Leo do?

And yet, try as he may, his feet and body would not twist and turn so that he could walk away. They remained rooted, like frozen statues, unbending no matter the circumstances. Was he strong enough? He didn't know. Would he even be able take a life if need be? He knew even less. And yet, catching a glimpse of Howly's pained expression, and the countless wounds scattered across his body, was enough for his conviction to form: he'd save him, no matter what.