THE LAST KEEPER

Chapter 250: 250. UNFORGIVABLE

The illusions broke, and Sagiri fell forward, panting, trying to catch his breath. He stood in the newly formed depression. It was as if the escalation and his snapping had finally let go of the feelings that had been holding him down. All he felt now was a strange calmness and ice enveloping his heart. The illusion weavers had caught him under their web because of the agitation he was experiencing at the mass graves, the anger he felt for his clan, and the sadness. The illusion was by far the most treacherous secret art he had ever seen. The energies of the place must have been the reason it was stronger. The place was already riddled with agitation, anger, and sadness, and he had fallen into it headfirst.

That won’t happen again.

Now, where was everyone? That was the only question he had been asking himself. The place around was now deadly silent. There was no heartbeat for hundreds of vaara. Had he killed the two squads and buried them under the debris in his madness and forceful breaking of the illusion?

sagiri listened again for a long moment, and still nothing. His heart froze even deeper. If he had killed everyone, then what was the point? Suddenly, however, the archive stirred with additional weight, and Sagiri suddenly realized there was an addition in his archive. Just then, he remembered that he could move within the archive, and he could also hide it like when he hid from the fourth wing captain, Loku. The same place he had myama’s offspring hidden.

Sagiri was glad he had killed them.

The archive must hide them from his rampage, answering to his fear of not wanting to hurt them. Even so, Sagiri knew the place was not meant for anything living, and they had been in their place long enough. If they stayed any longer, they would die if they weren’t already.

”Pull them out!” he screamed as his wish to eject them merged with the archive, and in a second, the squads tumbled out of thin air. They all looked shocked, their eyes wide with fear. There were sharp intakes of breath as they breathed rapidly to take in as much air as possible. Coughing followed, and panting before everyone finally started to take in their surroundings.

”What was that?” Kaka was agitated as usual. Everyone got into defensive positions, looking for an invisible enemy.

”I was so scared. I could breathe. I thought I was going to die.” Ulekai wailed, still clutching his throat as if he couldn’t believe he was able to breathe again. His fear was valid, and even Sagiri could still remember the burning of his lungs when he was hiding from Captain Loku. They did not know what it was and where they were and whether it was an illusion, and Ulekai’s fear was valid this time. Even Kaka did not scold him about acting unmanly this time.

”Don’t tell me we are all under an illusion. What is this place?” Kiuga said, looking at all the damage that lay around them.

”It is not an illusion. I broke it.” Sagiri spoke, and everyone turned to him as if noticing him for the first time.

”Wait! Are you really back? Then where are we and what happened here?” Ulekai said frantically that he was still fully panicked. The Yoka squad was extremely silent, taking in the damage around them.

”This is not an illusion.” Vice Captain Tavora said.

”Perhaps this is the first time we are not under an illusion since we entered this place,” Yoka said, taking a deep breath.

”I broke the illusion forcefully,” Sagiri said, turning to face the squads who were still gathering themselves after being almost suffocated to death.

”You did this?” one of the squad yoka asked, the shock and fear heavy in his voice.

There was silence as everyone took in the damage even more clearly.

”How are we not dead?” Ulekai’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

”Because he protected us,” N’varu said with pride. At N’varu’s words, everyone gasped.

”Protected us? He almost killed us wherever that was he put us.” Kaka said angrily, ”Let me tell you, Sagiri, if you go on a rampage again and put me somewhere I can’t breathe for that long, I will kill you.”

Everyone could understand where Kaka was coming from, but they had to agree. If they remained in the archive pocket for much longer, they would have died. Even so, Sagiri could not help but find amusement in Kaka’s reaction. It was almost too predictable. Perhaps it was a good thing to know that everything out of the normal irritated him and made him angry.

”Would you rather have been buried and flattened like the trees and graves?” Kiuga sighed.

”Well, he was the one who lost his mind. We could not have needed protection from his own madness in the first place.” Kaka said, still pouting.

”I don’t plan to put you in there again. Well, unless I have to,” Sagiri said. He turned his head to look at squad Tavora on the last part.

”hypocrisy. You refuse us to walk over the graves, yet you flatten all of them now.” Tavora said under his breath, but he did not voice it out loud. Perhaps even he did not wish to go back in there.

Now that the shock on everyone was wearing off, Sagiri was beginning to realise that he was yet to see some faces and hear some voices.

”Where are the ladies?” Sagiri asked, and everyone grew silent.

”Can someone answer me?!” Sagiri’s voice rose an octave.

”Well, a lot happened while you were stuck in your own madness for an hour, and a lot happened in that time. To put it shortly, your friends were taken by the tatani while we were all trying to protect you while you were stuck in your illusion.” Yoka said his voice was steady.

An hour? He had been stuck in that illusion for an hour. Why did it feel like it had been a few minutes?

”I hear that only women manage to master high levels of illusion for some reason. Perhaps Tatani took them to teach them the art, which is highly unlikely because they are from Tagayia. Their tribal tattoos will give them away soon, even with the disguise...” Tavora started saying.

”To kill them?” Sagiri asked.

”If they wanted to kill them, they could have done it here. Why take them away? Perhaps they just want to...” Tavora stopped himself and sighed.

”What?” Kiuga asked with urgency.

”Breed them... to have girl offspring for them before they kill them.” Tavora finished, and the place fell into uncomfortable silence.

”How disgusting!” Kaka sneered. Bedding a woman without her consent? How dishonourable.” Kaka was beside himself.

”It might be the case. I am not sure, but why else could they take the women and leave us?” Tavora added, and more tension filled the place.

Sagiri could not believe his ears.

He had planned to use diplomacy on the Tatani, but now his mind had changed. He was going to flatten them. Either submit to his wishes or die. They were going to die under Safaya or Tagayia one day if they didn’t move somewhere else. If they defiled the honour of the women they had taken, then they were less than beasts. It didn’t matter if they were a tribe of war orphans, that was just something unforgivable.