On The Other Side: I Quit Being Human

Forest Spirits are spiritual creatures that are born from the world, whose existence symbolizes the manifestation of the world\'s consciousness.

They are equivalent to the spokesperson of the world that tells whatever the creatures living in it have done wrong to it.

They live very far away from humans, and most of them tend to never interact with any other lifeforms regardless of their race—not even Elves that are closely tied to nature—when there is nothing happens to the world.

They are the only neutral race in this world—they don\'t side with any race, but they mostly find Demons repulsive. Unfortunately though, Demons are just repulsive in nature, so they are not the only one who find us repulsive.

With that said, looking at the Forest Spirit that looks no different from an ordinary female human except for her root like hair and her dress that is covered with vegetation in front of me, I can\'t help quirking my eyebrow.

She doesn\'t show any discomfort even though she is standing right in front of me, a Demon, and it makes me wonder if she is a special one.

"Don\'t you feel anything?"

"No, I\'m fine with you." Luxia waves her hand nonchalantly. "You lack the chaotic nature that Demons normally have."

"Is this your way of telling me I\'m a fake Demon?"

"Huh? No way!" Luxia shakes her head vigorously, making her somehow silky, root like hair wave from side to side. "Although I can sense some human presence, your presence clearly belongs to a Demon."

"Hoh? You already know what I am then?"

"Somewhat." Luxia nods her head lightly.

I lightly snort in amusement, then cross my hands as I stare at her. "So, what makes you want to meet me so badly?"

"Oh, about that... Why don\'t you follow me for a bit?"

It is not my first time of being told to follow her, so I slightly quirk my eyebrow at her request. She seems to notice that I am not very happy with her request, so she doesn\'t move from her spot until I nod my head in confirmation.

I follow right behind her this time not because I want to look out for traps—Forest Spirits never harm anyone unless they are harmed first—but because I want to take a good look at her.

Although she looks like a female human, she is not a human after all. There is something different about her, and I don\'t only mean the way she dresses herself, but also her overall appearance.

Upon observing her creamy white skin closer this time, I find that it is not the fleshy skin that a human or any other species normally have. Her skin looks like a Himalayan Birch\'s bark—it is fascinating.

I want to know if it\'s as soft as it looks, but I hold myself back from suddenly touching her. Although Forest Spirits are known to be a very gentle race, I don\'t want to try my luck on a random Forest Spirit who I have just met.

Moving my gaze to her dress, which is another thing about her I find interesting, I find that it is literally one with her skin upon closer inspection.

I have initially thought the dress she is wearing is covered with vegetation, but actually, it is the vegetation that makes her dress. The flowers, the leaves, the lichens, and the mushrooms covering her body are what make her dress.

I wonder if she ever feels itchy with that kind of clothes, but I never have any intention to ask her about that. She is, after all, a Forest Spirit—vegetation and anything related to earth should never bother her.

I mean, they are the same like the hair covering our body: both are generated by the body, and rarely bothersome.

"You can just ask me if you are wondering about something, Layland."

"Hoh? I am sorry if I was being rude," I say politely. "I have to decline your offer too, since I have already got what I want to know."

"Are you sure? You seem really curious about what is underneath these plants covering my body."

"... I think you have misunderstood my curiosity about you greatly." I lightly scoff in amusement. "I have seen naked female bodies directly often enough, I am not even curious about them anymore."

"Hoh... But, that\'s human female bodies you are talking about, right?" Luxia abruptly turns her body around and looks at me mischievously. "What about a Forest Spirit\'s?"

Putting my hand up, I neutrally say, "I don\'t lust for trees."

"... Pfft! Hahaha! You really are interesting, Layland." It takes Luxia a while, but she eventually busts out laughing. Shaking her head afterwards, she walks again. "Come on, the thing I want to show you is closeby."

Since I have figured out the things I want to know about her, I walk beside her this time. Focusing my gaze to the front, I wonder what produces the green light shining the hall we are walking through.

Whatever produces the light must be the thing Luxia wants to show me, so I am really curious about what it has to do with her.

I know, however, she is going to ask me to do her a favor, since she wouldn\'t even bother to show her face if she wasn\'t. Forest Spirits are reclusive after all—the reason why they seek others is because they need something from them.

"Luxia, before you ask me to do something for you, can you answer my question?"

"How did you—alright, just ask me." Luxia shakes her head in, what I can say is, helplessness.

"What are Earth Eaters actually?"

"Earth Eaters are another creatures born from the world. Like us, they are the manifestation of the world\'s consciousness, but unlike us that become the link between the creatures living in the world and the world itself, Earth Eaters eliminate them."

"I thought sucking things was just its hobby," I muse.

"They are born solely for that purpose—restructuring the world. They eat the land along with the creatures living in it, cleanse it off any lifeforms and civilization, before letting the neutralized land out afterwards."

"By letting out, where do they—"

"From their excretion hole."

"Shit!"

"Indeed."

"No—uh, I was... Huuh... Forget it."

I was actually just surprised at the fact that Earth Eater\'s reason for swallowing up land was just to restructure it, so I accidentally cursed because of that. Luxia took that wrongly unfortunately, making the situation more bewildering than it already is.

I know that whatever comes out of an Earth Eater\'s excretion hole is nothing pretty, and I don\'t need her to confirm that.

It is basically excreting a new, fresh land, but the way she accidentally confirmed what it was in another perspective really makes me can\'t see it the same anymore ... It is shit.

"We are here."

I still have something to ask her—why she is here in the very first place—but we have already arrived at the place that holds the thing she wants to show me. I decide to ask her the question later, and focus on the room we are about to enter.

The room is entirely illuminated in green light that is coming from a green stone embedded in a thin trunk in the center of the room. The green stone is roughly twice bigger than my fist, and I can see it faintly beating.

Looking at it from behind my mask allows me to see its Mana flow, and figure its Mana signature out. That brings me to a realization, and my gaze instantly moves to Luxia, who is standing in front of the stone forlornly.

"This is my heart ... The heart that I have lost."

"... No wonder you have the same Mana signature."

"Have you noticed the similarities between us, Forest Spirits and Earth Eaters?"

I nod my head lightly. "Both of you are born from the world and the manifestation of the world\'s consciousness."

"That is correct, however, the things is, we are not different from each other. In fact, we are the same existence all along."

"What does that mean?"

"This," Luxia gestures at the green stone, "is what I mean. This is my corrupted heart—the heart that I have lost due to my anger." She turns to me. "This is the thing that has turned me into an Earth Eater."

At the somehow surprising revelation, I ponder to myself before saying anything. \'So, she is basically saying angered Forest Spirits like her turn into Earth Eaters that purify lifeforms out of this world ... That\'s rather nasty.\'

I meet Luxia\'s eyes in the next moment, and calmly ask her, "What have angered you so much, you have to become such a vengeful spirit?"

"Humans," Luxia says spitefully. "They cut down my sister 100 years ago, because she refused to establish a contract with them."

I have honestly expected the troublemakers of this world, Demons, to be the one who caused her to turn into an Earth Eater, so I am pleasantly surprised when it is revealed that humans were the cause.

Unconsciously smirking to myself, I ask, "What do you want me to do?"

I expect something like a revenge quest in return for letting me go—I am pretty excited about it, but that turns out to be not the case. Still, it is something I can rejoice about.