Chapter 25: Bandits{2}

[Third POV]

"Fair world? What are you talking about? The world is fair." Solon said calmly while supressing his annoyance.

"Fair? You call this fair? The world is practically ruled by the spirits while we have to hide on the lion-turtles. We are not equal in this world." said the young man as he started using the power of the earth to attack Solon.

Solon impressed with the passion the young man had made an exception and looked at the record to find his name.

"Equal? Equal. Yes, that's right let's all become equal. I agree with you Leni." said Solon with enthusiasm as he dogded all the attacks heading his way.

Leni ignored the fact that the on in front of him said his name, was dumbfounded after listening to Solon's passion.

"You agree?" he asked without lowering his guard, knowing full well that a moment of carelessness would be enough to forfeit his life.

"Of course I agree. Why wouldn't I? That sounds perfect. Spirits -From the weakest to the strongest-, humans -from the richest to the poorest- and animals -From the smallest to the largest- living together in harmony." Continued Solon with the same enthusiasm.

Leni, hearing Solon's words tried to interrupt him but was unable to.

"Of course that would mean that humans will stop eating meat from animals and spirits, they will stop hunting and hurting the nature since it houses them and they will stop killing. I am sure that after we achieve this we will make the spirits agree to create a world where everyone is equal and no one will have to kill in order to survive."

Leni just stood there looking at Solon like he was an idiot.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Don't you like the idea?" asked Solon with a smile.

"I mean, it does sound good but it's not possible. Animals cannot live with us, we can't communicate with them after all." Leni answered.

"What do you mean? Since you want for every one to be equal you will find a way. Am I wrong?"

After Solon said that silence followed, but Solon turned serious and continued to talk

"Do you understand now? The 'fair' world you say you want is not really fair, in this world there is no equality. You are not equal to the ant you kill as you walk. In the same way a spirit is not equal to you. This world isn't fair, the only fair thing is power."

Leni was about to answer to Solon but a boulder shot towards him in high speed.

Solon without panicking moved his leg slightly to the right. In responce to that the rock that was heading his way changed it's direction passed by Solon and crashed into a tree behind him.

"I will assume you disagree with what I said." Solon said as he turned towards the buffed man that attacked him.

"You know nothing about what we seek. We were born in poverty fighting inside the first settlements of the earth kingdom, we were constantly attacked by spirits and we had to fight to the death in order to survive." The man said as he tried to throw a bunch of compressed rocks.

Solon immediately used his power to freeze everyone in place by making the air around their body pressure their body from all sides without killing them.

"I know about everyone's lives. You are not the only ones suffering. You are just the only ones doing nothing to stop said suffering." Solon said as he started to walk towards the settlement.

"Take your time and think about what you really want. Once you find your dream work towards it. If it's something you can't achieve then prepare someone to pick up the mantle once you die trying. Farewell." He said as he walked away.

[Leni POV]

I was born at the first settlement of the earth kingdom in a poor family. My father was part of a hunting group while my mother used the power of the earth to help the village expand.

I was what you would call an accident. My parents didn't actually want a child, however a mistake resulted in my birth, and no one cared enough to hide that fact from me. My parents were never home, always working and when they came home they just slept. It was frustrating. Why was my family different from the other children around?

After I became 10 years old my parents took me to the lion-turtle to be given the power of the earth. I was one of the kids eligible to obtain it artificialy since I was the son of a hunter. Once I obtained it I found out I had a lot of talent with this ability. I showed that talent and suddenly my family came together.

From that moment on I kept training nonstop to keep what I considered a normal family. What I didn't know at that time was that this kind of life is not normal. My father trained me to become a powerful hunter and as I grew up my powers continued to strengthen.

After I grew up I started hunting with the rest of the hunters. It was merciless, people died every single day in order to obtain the nessessary food to feed their families. Inside me I knew that even if I starved to death my parents wouldn't care but I still had that little hope inside me.

It took one bad day to prove that the life I built with my effort was as brittle as the life of a hunter.

A close friend of mine died during the expedition. The news devastated me. I stopped going hunting for a while, I had to deal with the loss.

My parents on the other hand didn't seem to care that much. They tried to pressure me into hunting again in order to 'preserve' my talent. After a while I snapped and killed them both with my own hands.

When I comprehended what I did, I started running. I ran until I could no more. After days of running I stopped and camped inside a forest. I hunted to obtain food and I got water from a clean lake close by. From that point onwards I created a group of people that suffered outside the core cities of the kingdom. We named ourselves as freedom fighters. We were common bandits that robbed merchants and killed spirits in this forest.

Until one day we found ourselves face-to-face with our greatest adversary. It was a spirit whose likes we had never seen before. He had extremely big muscles that somehow didn't decrease his agility and could predict anything we threw at him.

He started mocking the dream we had for a peaceful world. Only he didn't mock the dream itself but us who had power yet did nothing to achieve it. His words hurt way more than any injury I had gotten during my life. After he immobilized us and left I started pondering about the things he told us.

And I made a decision.

~~~~{chapter end}~~~~