The dream of leaving the purgatory was beautiful, but Morana knew that it wasn't an easy feat. For the first time, she struggled with making decisions.
Shio was still too young to understand everything and if they did all the work then his trauma wouldn't disappear, moreover, he was currently living with werewolves and had no familiarity with them.
So, a short-term plan wouldn't work this time like with the others before, she needed to plan everything slowly and take it step by step.
In the first place, they didn't yet know what resulted in Shio having trauma. Yes, this place was purgatory, but the wolves protected him like their own and they were quite strong around here.
So far, he hasn't met anything life-threatening.
The weirdest part of the story was the fact that Shio looked like he had grown up here, but Zoel clearly said that they grew up together since they were 2 years old so how was that even possible.
Year after year passed as Morana started laying out her plans.
After Shio turned 5 the wolves were ambushed by the cooperated attack from other monsters and Shio and one other young wolf were the only survivors.
At the age of 12, Shio saw as his only trusted friend and brother and the last wolf left alive was killed as he was ripped to shreds by one of the gatekeepers.
The wolf managed to hide the barely alive Shio and drew the keeper's attention to himself, leaving the young boy in despair at losing the last member of the only family he ever knew.
At the age of 15, Shio had his first battle with the keeper after the wolf's death. Naturally, he was utterly and completely defeated, managing to only barely survive.
This encounter led to him falling into even worse depression.
His daily routine only consisted of hunting and fighting monsters. He barely slept and only ate the bare minimum to survive.
He didn't care about the state of his mind or body, he completely fell into the animalistic need to hunt.
His sole motivation became revenge and the thought of having the keeper's blood cover his hands as he ripped through its flesh.
And like that 3 more years passed and the baby was now 18 years old.
All these years Morana did nothing but watch him from afar. She also didn't allow others to make any moves. This was hardest on Zoel as he couldn't help feeling heartache looking at Shio's miserable state and masochistic antics.
Finally, as the group observed another day of Shio's slaughter of the monsters Morana stood up and said the words they've all been waiting for.
"It's time." She didn't specify anything, but still, everyone's blood boiled at picturing the future.
Sure enough, the next morning Shio didn't go hunting monsters per usual, instead, he left towards the place everyone recognized as the gatekeepers' post, in other words, it was their territory.
"How did you know that he was going to come after the keeper today?" Asked Anna.
But Morana didn't even look at her, much less give any definitive answers. She was fully immersed in observing Shio's every move.
Anna didn't feel anything wrong with Morana's attitude as they were already used to it.
Soon the group saw the giant creature with light blue skin and a weird wooden weapon.
They immediately recognized it as one of the keepers.
After spending 18 years in purgatory the group was very familiar with the creature. The natives of the place called him the golem king.
They say it used to be a golem under the witch but later due to unknown reasons it mutated and became the second keeper of the purgatory.
"Do you think he'll win this time?" Asked Emir.
While others weren't sure, Morana confidently shook his head.
"Why?"
"Because we are here."
"What now?" Asked Zoel as he couldn't help but worry for his friend.
"Don't worry the golem won't be able to kill him." Said Morana.
"What do you mean?"
This time Morana couldn't help looking at the group like she was looking at trash, as if her eyes were saying 'Are you stupid?'
The group couldn't help feeling awkward about it.
Morana could only sigh as she patiently explained everything.
"The keepers are not just guardians of the door and its keys. They are also guardians of the purgatory. they make sure that the balance is not broken otherwise this dimension could be destroyed and everything in it.
So, Shio who is alive compared to everyone else here is not supposed to be here much less die here. If the golem king kills Shio within purgatory he risks upsetting the balance which he has to protect.
So, he can't kill Shio and since Shio managed to come back to the upper realm I'm guessing he will be sending Shio out of here, while Shio who never got his revenge will be obsessed with this part of his life, never overcoming his trauma.
While we can help him kill the golem it won't help as Shio wasn't able to finish his revenge by himself."
"What about the age difference?" Asked Emir.
"I'm not sure but my guess is some kind of time-flow difference due to which he went back to what he would look like if he didn't come in purgatory."
"So, what are we going to do?" Asked Anna.
"The current Shio isn't able to defeat the golem king but that doesn't mean the Shio we know also isn't able to do it. We need to wake him up so he can find his real power and kill the golem, thus overcoming his trauma."
"But, even we aren't sure we can defeat the golem, will he be able to do it himself?" Asked Leonard that was quiet all this time.
"Because this place is made using Shio's subconsciousness the golem is undefeated, but that doesn't mean it's true. The golem is undefeated only from Shio's perception so, all we need is to break that illusion and make Shio believe in his power and he will be able to defeat the golem."