Chapter 33

Eva Lemuria

I look over the dead thugs and the few that managed to stay alive from my counter attack. They can't blame anyone, but themselves for being so persistent in they're attacks. If anyone comes to find trouble for me because of these thugs I only have to say it was self-defense. I am sure some of these thugs had friend and family or maybe even some children back home, but I will not show mercy at this point. The gambling den should already know that I have already killed some of their men. They either concealed that information or believed that me sparring the other thugs in the past was anything but me being in a good mood.

I start going through the intact bodies and taking any valuables they have on them because they won't be needing them anymore. I get half way through the bodies when I remember Munin is still in the nearby tree so I start making my way towards her. All of a sudden I feel myself being pulled to my right side and I fly through the air. I look to my side and see nothing actually touching me and I suddenly stop midair over some clean ground and feel my body slam into the ground. It feels like a mountain is pressing on top of me and I see a circle is starting to indent around me. I can barely move my fingers under this pressure so I use my flame armor to try and decrease the pressure on me. I do feel the pressure lighten up, but I feel a constant strain on my armor. I slowly push myself up and look around for whatever is causing this. I see a figure hidden underneath a cloak slowly approaching me while holding his hand towards me. I push myself all the way to my feet only for the figure to move his hand slightly down and I feel the pressure on me increase. I am pushed down to my knees and can barely move my arms up. I feel my armor start to crack under the pressure so I push more mana into my armor.

“Princess Eva I wish that you would have accepted my invitation to come and stay with me. If you had obediently come I would have been able to do this so much easier instead of having to use force like this.” The figure removes the hood on their cloak revealing Lucas Sylvari the city Lord.

“You bastard! What the hell are you doing? How are you doing this? Release me!”

“Princess Eva I didn't want to have to use force against you like this. I originally had several plans to knock you out so I could do this when you aren't conscious, but you are very stubborn and untrusting. Now I have to hold you down while I use this." He pulls out a familiar white nail and I get a sense of dread and my body tumbles a little. “Have you seen this somewhere before? That really shouldn't be possible unless you've seen one of the experimental ones. Hmm, tell me where'd you see this.” He holds the nail towards me and I notice that this one has some weird engravings on it instead of just a pure white like the one that was in Saras.

“Get away from me!” I release a wave of destruction around me hoping to push him back, but he has a powerful mana shield. “Release me now!” I keep pushing against the force holding me down, but I feel like I am just hurting myself. I refuse to give up because I know from Saras that those nails are hell. I get off my knees and take a step towards Lucas Sylvari.

“Now Princess you're only hurting yourself here. The pressure holding you down is called gravity. I won't go into details about it, but what you need to know is you can't fight it. It's not like how a flame can be extinguished or lightning that can be diverted. In a couple of minutes, you will be telling me anything I need to know anyway so I guess I can just go straight to hammering in the nail.” Lucas Sylvari holds his hand up and my body instantly flies up. Instead of feeling pressure, I now feel weightless as I float around. He then throws his hand down and I feel the pressure become even greater as I crash into the ground. I land on my back and my armor shatters as I feel all the air escape my lungs. I feel the pressure on my completely holding me down. I feel my blood is even being pushed down with my organs.

Lucas Sylvari walks over me and then pulls out a white hammer and I try to summon as much strength as I can to move, but it’s no good. He holds the nail over my chest and he swings the hammer upwards. I try to keep moving, but I can only feel tears forming in my eyes as fear takes over from that nail on my chest. I can only watch as Lucas Sylvari brings the hammer down and slams the nail into my chest and the next thing I feel is a pain I've never experienced. I feel myself enter my body. It feels like when I am meditating and I slowly enter my own body. I look around and see the tip of the white nail slowly approaching the black flame that has always been in me. It seems everything around me is slowed down and I can't even move within this space. I watch as the second the tip of the nail touches the flame the red symbol on the flame glows a bright red as the black flame flares up and then the nail starts to slowly shatter and then crumbles away.

I feel myself rush back into my body as I watch the nail still connected to the hammer explodes in a white light. I watch as an explosion of energy bursts out from my chest. The nail and hammer completely disappear in the explosion and then Lucas Sylvari arms that were holding them are caught in the explosion as he's thrown back.

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“Aaaaahhhhhhhh!” Lucas Sylvari screams in pain and rolls on the ground. “Ahh, what the hell happened? My arms! My arms! What was that?!”

While Lucas Sylvari starts panicking about the sudden turn of events I notice that the pressure that was holding me down is now gone so I get up on my feet. I feel a little wobbly and I feel like all my strength has been sucked out of me. I start to make my way towards Lucas Sylvari as I reach over and unbind my right arm. I stand over Lucas Sylvari and look at his completely charred arms. It looks like they can be blown away as ash at any second. He looks up at me with fear and then focuses on my arm.

“What the hell are you? What was that? I thought you didn't have that arm and why does it have scales on it?!” I just look down at him and feel anger burst forth. I stomp on his left arm and watch it crumble away. Lucas Sylvari stops his screaming and looks at his arm in shock. “You bitch! I’ll kill you and your whole family!” I immediately stomp on his other arm before I bend over and stab my dagger in his leg. “AAAhhhhhhh. It wasn't supposed to be like this. They told me there was no chance for the nail to fail. It worked on the others.” After he screams he starts whimpering and talking with a low voice.

“Who are they? Who gave you this? What others? What were you planning on doing to me?” I twist the dagger in his leg before I pull it out and do the same to his other leg.

“AAAHHHH! I was going to order you to tell me everything about your secrets and then send you back to your kingdom. I was told to have you be a spy and I would have you work on moving your kingdom how we wanted. We haven't been able to get anyone close to the Lemuria royal family. We had someone close, but he was banished. We have spies all over the world now.” His breathing is really ragged, but I won't give him a break.

I pull my dagger out of his leg and stab it into his gut. I make sure to miss any vital because I still need answers. As he's about to open his mouth to say more the ground begins to shake. I look around for the cause then look down because I am far too used to this situation now. I jump straight back and several tree roots burst from the ground and wrap around Lucas Sylvari. He starts screaming while saying "stop I haven't revealed anything important," but the roots completely enclose him and then squeeze tightly as blood seeps out of the roots. The roots burrow back into the ground and a young tree rises up.

“Well, that's no good. I came here expecting another follower, but all I see is another failure. I guess we will have to make more adjustments. This is the second time the nails haven't worked right. First was that dragon and now you a young woman. Tell me, what are you?” A female that's completely covered in a cloak approaches me from within the forest. It seems like she had just arrived when I was questioning Lucas Sylvari. I can't tell anything about her, but she seems to also have weird abilities similar Lucas Sylvari. I have never heard of gravity or the ability to grow trees, but these abilities are strong enough to hold a dragon so I must be careful. “I really am not sure if I can win against you in a fight. Look around I can tell that you have some fire magic with is a bad matchup for me. I'm really not sure what to do in this situation since it would be bad to leave a wild card like you running around. Well, for now, I guess I should just retreat.” As she says that more trees begin to sprout our and I grab my halberd and slash a flame edge towards her, but the trees grew too fast and I miss her. I keep throwing flame edges at the trees until their ash, but it's too late. The cloaked woman is gone without a trace and Lucas Sylvari is now buried under a tree.

“Damn it!” I swing a destruction edge randomly at the forest and watch as a large scar cuts through the trees. I am pissed that this has happened. I don't know who Lucas Sylvari and that woman were or why they were after me, but I know that the woman will have others come after me. They also seem to be aiming for the Lemuria Kingdom and the other kingdoms as well. I didn't even know who they are. They could be the elven kingdom or someone else entirely, but Lucas Sylvari didn't seem like he worked for the elven kingdom but instead was a spy himself. I can't help, but to start shivering when I think of what would happen if that nail worked. Would I have been a mindless puppet that would have to watch as my own body harmed my kingdom or would I end up like Saras rampaging in random direction killing anything and anyone I come across? The idea scares me more than being imprisoned in the dragon tribes cell for all my life.

I now have only one thought with is to leave from this place as soon as I can and hopefully avoid who ever will be coming after me. I grab all my things and hide my arm. As I am about to leave the area I remember Munin. I turn around and run towards the tree I left her in. I luckily found her and am incredibly glad that this tree had remained untouched. I pick her up out of the abandoned nest and look her over. She is perfectly fine and surprisingly still asleep. She had slept through this entire event easily. I know she's young and needs lots of sleep, but I basically blew up a part of the forest a little while ago. I poke her head with my thumb but she just nuzzles in my hand getting comfortable. I decide to leave her as is and rush back to the city. I speed past everyone and rush straight into my room at the Inn. I look at my table and see that the letters are gone and curse a little because this means that shadow guard 17 already collected my letters so I won't have a way to report whats happened to father. I don't even know how to find 17 because he would always find me.

I quickly pack up all my things including my supplies I have gathered and all the outfits I had ordered a long time ago. I had planned on staying in the town for another day or two, but it seems like it a bad idea at this point. Once all my things are packed up I leave through my window instead of the door and I jump from roof to roof as quickly as I can. Instead of going towards the gate I keep running towards the closest wall and jump to the top of it. The guards are all walking back and forth while talking. I spot a flask on the wall and grab it. Before I am noticed by any guards I jump to the other side. It was easier because all the city guards are looking out instead of in. As I am over I look around to get a better sense of my bearings and then head in the direction of my original destination a couple of years ago. I head towards the dwarven kingdom.