ANOTHER DAY - CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Killing the upper echelon of a major city during a time of war may not have been the smartest decision on my part. Thinking over the events of the past few days, I've been extraordinarily lucky. Many important people had come to the city by caravans, and the city leaders had prepared a "feast" just before the war to "strengthen" their ties. And by "strengthening" their ties with the corrupted rituals they bind everyone together. And if you've been invited, and if you don't take part you disappear.

And even if your guilty conscience does starts to eat at you, what can you do? Tell the people that their leaders, idols, and heroes are evil? That they sacrifice children and slaves to Lucifer? They'll laugh at you, ridicule you, and turn a deaf ear to you. And those in power have many ears, so in the end you will disappear quietly.

But I still don't understand how I survived against dozens of wizards, they cast their spells, but they were really weak. It's strange, the wizards I know are gods among men, creatures of mana that bend the world to their will through mere thought. Are my standards of wizards to high? No, there must be a reasonable explanation for it.

But an empty bubble of power did more damage than I could imagine. The whole city is in chaos, the moment their masters disappeared, factions started to crawl out of their holes. Bandits, assassins, mercenaries, and guards with ambitions. They were all controlled in some form, money, blackmail, or fear. Politicians have polished their skills for manipulation and control for eons.

The city is closer to hell than it ever was before. Someone poisoned the already limited supply of clean water, during the past several days of battle about a tenth of the city burned down. People are hungry, scared, and desperate. The gates and walls are guarded like never before, no one can exit, well nearly no one. There are always exceptions, if you have gold of course. And even if you leave, what are you going to do in the middle of the desert in a state of war?

The thing is, every city has an Emir, something close to a mayor. The Emir answers to the Dead Desert Consul. The Consul is a group of the most powerful merchants in the desert, and they think only in terms of profit. They communicate with each city through a special enchanted communication walls. And those walls require a small group of skilled mages to operate, which are held in high respect. There's an incredibly high chance the mages were in on the "feast", so I ended up in a city with nearly no communication with the outside world.

This city is an important point in the desert, so it will be "taken under control" one way or another. Sending and capturing the city will take resources, but if the city if left to rot and starve, in its half-dead state it'll be much cheaper. The lives don't matter, they never did.

...

I survived, somehow. But with only one lung it's hard to do anything. With my basic knowledge of biology I just "tell" my body where to send the nutrition, so if something can be healed on a normal person, it can be healed with mana but it's faster. But it's a totally different story if that part doesn't heal normally. In those cases I have to manually control my body. Regenerating lost rib bones is difficult, I have to extract bone essence from the other bones and direct it to the correct area. Regenerating bones is difficult, but restoring limbs and internal organs is a FUCKING pain in the ass. I still don't understand how saying a few fancy words can magically recreate body parts, I've seen how it happens with my own eyes, and it's still bullshit.

FUCKING MAGES.

Powerful earth Wizards are by no means rare, but that fucking Earth Javelin did "quite some damage" to my lung, and by that I mean it fucking disintegrated it. The javelin pierced at least five people before it got to me, they exploded into chunks of flesh and gore instantaneously, the only thing that kept me from following in their footsteps was weaving mana into my flesh in an attempt to hold my body together. Surprisingly the mana worked, so instead of exploding into little bits of flesh I was thrown into the air, surprising no one, the landing was not gentle. I had to take "manual" control of my body's systems just to hold myself together. In retrospect it's a good thing that the javelin had such a high velocity, if it didn't rip that chunk of flesh out then my body would've had to absorb the kinetic energy, and that would've been a bad ending.

...

The nightmares don't stop. But at least I no one visited me there.

...

I need to leave the city, but with my body, it's an achievement to take a shit and not fall apart.

Back when I was in the north everything was looking easy and planned out, but the further south I went the more problems arose. Stumbling upon Caliphate assassins, nearly missing the caravan because bandits had a burst of creativity and blew up the ship I was on. And even though I somehow arrived before the caravan departed, the situation with the cultists happened. But it all pales before the fact that a war started when I was in the center of the country, the Dead Desert, which resulted in heightened security especially around the cities. Oh, and not to forget that a really "smart person" decided that it was the best time to clean the city of cultists, which resulted in utter chaos, and a full stop on travel.

Great,.... isn't it?

I'm not really sure what to do next, all possible plans of traveling through the Dead Desert fell apart. But before I can get across the desert, I need to think about how the hell do I get out of this damned city. But problems are never alone, the wind Wizard with who I traveled with in the caravan is circling above the city, searching for someone.

Me, most likely.

It looks like she has been following me from the moment I entered the city, but because of the event in the adventure guild she lost me. I can feel it in my guts that whatever she wants will cause more problems than it's worth. I don't know why she's looking for me or what she wants, and I don't really care. With her I could easily travel over the walls, but I still don't want to.

Don't want. Definitely don't want.

[No one is asking your opinion. We have a problem, and need a solution. Time is more important. Get. To. Work.]

She has a predictable pattern, flying around for about twenty minutes, landing to rest until she can fly again. Its been a few days since she started. Her stubbornness is commendable, but why is it always directed in the wrong direction.

I'm not hiding, or at least that's what I would like to think. If a fight started, or lets say, she would want to "enforce" her opinions or demands, I'm not sure if I would be able to politely decline in my current state.

I need to continue what I was doing before, cleaning slave-houses.

Because of the internal strife, no one will spare the effort to care about them, they're just a food burden. But when they'll need a meat shield for battle, the situation will turn around. I need to take advantage of the situation while I can.

"People", huh. I still have doubts after what happened yesterday.

...

A woman in a blue dress is held down by four others. One of them is tired of her struggling, and punches her, drawing a yelp of pain and sobbing. They proceed to rip her clothes off, and remove their pants. They stop at the last moment when they finally take note of me. They look at me, the area barely illuminated by the setting sun, after exchanging brief glances and sneers with each other, one of them stands up and lunges at me with a knife.

I may look more like a hobo than I ever have, covered in blood head to toe, with rags barely covering my body. Constantly limping, coughing when I try to take a breath. But even in my state there's still strength in my hands. The attacker falls down onto the floor screaming, after I ripped the arm, wielding the knife, out of his shoulder socket. They finally react to me as if I'm a threat and as they turn I can finally see their faces. After several seconds I recognise them, they're the ones I freed last night. A group of demihumans, barely sixteen.

"Why?" I squeeze out. "I freed you from slavery, and the first thing you do with that freedom is rape?"

They squint their eyes and they widen as they recognise me, but their eyes still show hate.

"ANSWER ME!"

"They do not deserve to live. What they've done to use can't be forgiven!" The youngest one on the right says, his cat ears laying flat against his head. "They tortured us, they starved us! We were less than animals! They...They all...my...my mom.....they didn't....they never stopped....I begged, I promised I would do anything.....but they....my mom..." He finishes though the tears that streamed from his dark brown eyes. "They killed her, fed her body to the dogs. I will kill them. All of them. Humans are evil. You're all the same. You all deserve to die. Men, women, and children. You-" He proclaims while pointing his dagger at me.

A moment later his neck splits apart, the others followed his fate soon after, while the half-naked woman on the ground looks at me in horror. She screams and starts crawling away from me. The head of the boy comes to a stop on the ground, his dead eyes looking to the sky with tears still streaming out of them, his face frozen in an enraged expression.

[Do not dare to look away. This is the result of your actions. You did it.]

There are things that can not be forgiven. His mother....I'm not sure I would. There's nothing I could say to them, nothing to heal or help them. They were just wounded animals, and they sought destruction.

I am responsible for that.

[Don't make a scene out of it, it's not the first time you've killed children, certainly not the last either. They didn't ask for your help, they never needed your help. But still, you're not so different from that boy. You have never created anything, never nurtured anything. Destruction is the only thing you know, the only think you are able to do, and nothing will change that.]

[But..you are not alone. Those you hate and despise, those that use and manipulate, those that have power and authority are the same as you in that respect. Aren't you happy that there are people similar to you?]

There is no righteousness in this world. And there never will be, and we made it that way.

...

Innocents may have died because I freed slaves, and many will die. Their deaths are on my conscience. Should I really free more? The situation from yesterday may repeat.

[May?]

They are not bound by fate, they have free will. I should not judge them by the actions of their kin.

[Oh? What of Dark Elves? So humans and demihumans should bot be judged, but Dark Elves are one big evil group, all the same? Fucking hypocrite. If you have rules at least stick to them, even HE follows his.]

...

Glancing at the wind Wizard I see that she's finally out of mana and starts descending. I have some tome before she returns to the search. I need to move. As I start in the opposite direction and start thinking about my next action I hear a wind spell explosion followed by a scream in the area where the Wizard should've landed.

Not my problem. Not mine.

That's what people always say, "Someone else will help."

[And what they always will say. People are able to convince themselves quite easily if it ensures that they will sleep better. We will sleep better knowing that she wasn't OUT problem, won't we?]

Shit, life would be so much easier if I was different. How different life could be, but it won't.

Limping towards the direction of the sound I find a rather ugly situation. There are at least twenty bandits, one with an enchanted crossbow standing in the rear. The Wizard is pinned to the wall by a large bolt in her shoulder. Daggers embedded into her palms hold her immobile to the wall. There's a gag in her mouth, and she's unconscious and bleeding from her temple.

"Come on. No one will notice. She's not a virgin for sure, so no one will even know if we have a go."

"No, that's the final answer. Do not damage the goods."

As they were grumbling and arguing I was gathering as much air as I could. My body won't be able to take on a long battle with one lung, I need to end it fast. I throw a short dagger into the head of the one with the crossbow, while swinging the sword in a wide arc to kill as many as I can. The first swing took six in an explosion of flesh and gore with the sound of bone crunching and flesh ripping apart, the second swing followed shortly after.

One of them in the rear of the group suddenly took out another enchanted crossbow from his cloak. I should've expected them to have more than one crossbow, the distance between us is too small to dodge and too large to reach him.

FUCK.

The fired arrow disappeared and an enormous force pinned me to the wall as my sword falls out of my hand. It went through the left lung, FUCK. The wound only started to heal. With a roar I rip myself out of the wall and attack with everything I have.

...

I finally finished coughing out the pieces of my lung that only started regenerating, great now I have to restart the regeneration already. God damn it.

A few ran away, crushed a few of their skulls with my hands, few had their throats ripped out. Their blood is still flowing from my mouth, teeth are a really good weapon, and they're always with you. It may look and sound barbaric, but when your life is on the line you tend to use everything you have and philosophical preferences don't matter too much. The ones who ran away will return with backup. I need to get out of here but the retarded dart board is still pinned to the wall.

So much mana and power, but it's all useless if you don't know who to use it correctly. Should I help her? She'll cause problems.

[Always finish what you started.]

I sigh and remove the daggers pinning her to the wall. The daggers fall to the ground with a clang, after I rip the bolt out she falls down like a sack of potatoes. Oh come on. Slapping her face several times doesn't wake her.

[Finish what you started.]

With a groan I throw her over my shoulder and start limping back towards the direction I came from. The burning sun and heat of noon isn't helping in the least.

[Who are you going to blame? Our life, our decisions.]

Stolen novel; please report.

...

I used a few pieces of cloth to bandage her wounds. I don't have any potions, and even if I did I wouldn't give them to her. Closing my bleeding took a bit more energy than it would've usually. I wasn't allowed to fully heal from the last hunt, nor the one before that. Wyvern not taken into account.

The night came but she still hadn't woken up, and I'm too tired to wait any longer, and I'm not falling asleep with her near me. Slapping her a few times finally gave a result, she slowly opens her eyes with a groan as her eyes meet mine. Green eyes, green clothes, and wind magic. I really hope this is just a random combination and not a personal aesthetic preference. The eccentric ones with visual preferences are the biggest pain in the ass. She continues to stare at me in half a daze for at least a minute until her eyes start to close. I really don't have time for this.

"Why were you searching for me?"

"What?" She replied with a weak voice as she jerks awake with pain visible on her face. I really, really don't have time for this.

"Some idiot was uselessly wasting energy to fly around in seach of something or someone. Bandits waited until that idiot wasted most of her mana and ambushed her."

As if remembering, her eyes widen in realisation. "You saved me?"

"You survived. Most of them didn't."

"Thank you." She says quietly.

"You didn't answer the question."

After looking at me for a few more seconds she continues "I need your help."

"I already helped you."

She continues to stare at me, as if waiting for something. I'm really tired of her shit, as soon as I try to get more information out of her she closes her eyes and falls asleep. The cloth on her shoulder is turning red. She has lost too much blood and won't be able to cause issues for sometime. I re-bandage her shoulder with what I had available, a piece of her cloak, she should survive, at least for now. I can leave her here, but she's the easiest ticket over the wall.

[She will cause more problems.]

I start to calculate my other options for crossing the wall, whatever I do it will take longer, and less likely to succeed than using her. Maybe I can ask her to get me over the wall for saving her, but whatever she wants should have been worth several days of search and she will bring it up.

Fuck.

The decision brings on a deep sigh.

[You will regret it one way or another.]

...

In the morning I wake with a groan, this body won't hold for much longer if I continue like this. But who cares? It doesn't need to. I look in the direction of my ticket and find her awake, standing and staring at me. Great, she awoke earlier than she should've, and looks much healthier than I am, and to top it all off, she could've killed me if she wanted to.

[Your decision. You allowed that.]

She continues to stare at me with expectation. I need to take control before she does. I stand up.

"I saved you yesterday. Repay me with getting over the city walls."

"Promise to help me first."

"What?"

"Promise to help me."

Did she hit her head to hard? "Why should I?"

She continues to stare at me, minutes pass in absolute silence while we stare at each other. This clearly isn't getting us anywhere. Sigh.

"What exactly do you want?"

"I need you to go somewhere with me."

"Why?"

"Because I asked for your help." She says with a somehow questioning and authorative look. As if the fact that I am asking it is ridiculous.

What the actual fuck. Because she asked for help? No, no, no, no. This is an overkill, this isn't worth it. I had enough problems so far, a mentally ill idiot will not become another one. As I walk away, she speaks quickly.

"If you don't I'll tell Uncle Yorgan."

"Haa?"

"Someone attacked the Emir's palace. The Emir's family's dismembered remains were found in the palace dungeon which as rumor says was used in dark rituals. Bodies of A class adventurers were found there too." She pauses for a few seconds, looking directly into my eyes and continues "Not many can do that." She takes a deep breath and continues.

"You're a Blood Brother, I saw the mark. You came to the city and the next day the dark cult was found. That's no coincidence." Still looking into my eyes as if she expects a change in my expression or a reaction.

"You must be from the Heretic Hunter group. My uncle, Lord Yorgan Kilfaros, is one of your captains. If you don't help me I will send a letter to him and you will be punished."

There is so much I want to say, but it's as if you're trying to squeeze something enormous through a small hole, everything gets stuck.

"Help me, please." She finishes with desperation.

This desperate stuck-up idiot with mental issues tries her best to seem like she's in control, but I can smell her fear. A strong headache pushes me too close to making a rash decision.

"We will talk after you get me over the wall." I squeeze out.

"No. Promise me that you will go together with me to Mozzarel. Promise me. Blood Brothers never break a promise."

It seems like I'm going to travel through it one way or another.

"I promise that I will travel to Mozzarel."

"Thank you." She says with a bright childish smile. "We will travel over the wall tomorrow night. I need to rest a bit more and get a few things in the city. The trip will be long and hard."

So my wrecked condition isn't taken into account.

[People will always think only about themselves.]

The fact that she knows, that the Emir family was part of the cult, means the information is public. It was made public on purpose, a tool to sway the masses to a new ruler more than likely. The city is going to hell faster than it should. I don't know what worries me more, the fact that an inexperienced, but powerful Wizard has the mental capabilities of a child and threatens me with "You bad. I tell mommy.", adding to that the absolute belief in "Blood Brother pinky promise" bullshit, or the fact that she doesn't know that Yorgan has been dead for at least the past five years.

...

Yorgan. He saved my life, several times in fact.

[Oh? Do you think helping her will repay the debt you owe him? Don't lie to yourself. He's dead, rotting in his grave, and there's nothing you can do to help him. Nothing.]

[Focus on your goals. There are still slavehouses in the city. Isn't this what you wanted to do? Who knows maybe the nightmares wont return. Right?]

...

I cleaned as much of the city as I could. I can't delay any longer, there isn't enough time left. Olana, the wind Wizard, helped me get the food and travel supplies. It was harder than one would expect. Buying anything is no longer possible, lack of clean water, groups fighting for power, desperation and utter chaos changed the city within a few days. Shops are closed, food is so scarce that people started killing each other for a few pieces of bread, and it's not just a few instances, the whole city is in such a state. Gold is worthless if you can't exchange it for goods.

Incredible what a small piece of information, a war, a few poisoned wells, and several dead people, rulers mostly, can do. It took one and a half days to gather all of the resources needed for travel. And a single night to free slaves. Funny thing was, freeing the slaves was the easier task.

The "acquired" horses, clean water, and food were quickly transported to the other side of the wall. We had to drug the horses as they don't take to flight too well, and any sound could be the end of the operation.

The guards with enchanted crossbows are serious problems. In close quarters I can "disable" them quickly, at a distance I can evade them, but at mid range they're deadly, especially if there are several of them. There's a guard with a crossbow every four meters on the wall, and you can't guess which one of them has the enchanted crossbow.

...

Olana cast a wind spell which took us all together and transported us as far as possible from the city walls. All-in-all she was able to hold on for a few minutes, but it was enough as we were roughly half a kilometer from the city. She said she was tired and that she isn't used to carrying so much weight with her spells.

Tired, huh.

Still trying to hold onto the status of a "powerful Wizard", but I don't care. I've seen many trying to pose as something they were not, and even those that represented something always tried to cast a bigger shadow, as if it would change what they really are.

We quickly woke the horses and started to travel. While I'm on horseback it's much easier to heal. Still, it doesn't change the fact that there's just too much to heal, my body is basically just one big wound.

...

Taking priority I healed my lungs first, with more oxygen moving through my body, it'll function better. In about a week we will get to Samolesh, the southern-most city of the Dead Desert. From then on it'll be a near straight shot. It's only spring, but the heat is already unbearable. I don't understand how people live in this region and don't lose their mind. Several "locals" thought a pair of traveling adventurers were easy prey. They were quickly proven wrong. The good thing is that you only need to prove them wrong once, the bad thing is that there are many that you need to prove it to.

[But who's counting the number of dead bodies we're leaving behind. Right? They're not people, or at least it's easier to think that way. How many fates we crushed, how many lives we destroyed.]

...

I didn't speak much with my "traveling companion", but her constant glances for the past few days have become quite tiring. Still, I will not start the conversation.

[You're doing your best to not address her by name. Still trying to think of her as nothing more than a temporary shadow? Just like we've done to everyone we met. By her behavior it's clear that she's a noble. But the fact that a noble wizard is traveling alone raises too many questions, and getting to Mozzarel definitely isn't the goal. Therefore, the question, what is it?]

Olana, as if finally gathering the courage and determination to speak, opens her mouth a few times before saying "Listen, I know that you're not allowed to discuss this stuff, but, my Uncle, do you know how..." She trails off.

I know exactly where this is going, and anything I say will only cause more questions, problems, and issues. I continue to look forward as if I never heard the question. After a few seconds of silence she continues.

"...Nevermind. I shouldn't have asked."

Sometimes, the best answer is silence.

...

Life is a strange thing. We meet people we never expect to meet.

It looks like the group of the ogre, dwarf, and the elf somehow left the city too.They didn't do it alone, but that's normal, higher numbers increase the chance of survival. We all somehow found a small oasis in the middle of nowhere. They're extremely rare, and if people find them, they always try to rest there and replenish water supplies. It should've been a "happy" moment, where two traveling groups meet, a moment where we clap each other on the backs, congratulating each other that we survived and left the city somehow.

But it isn't.

When we arrived at the oasis everything was already finished, the desert centipede pack attack was repelled. Repelled, with a price. Out of fifteen people in the group that arrived, four lay dead. One of the dead was the dwarf, whose name I don't even remember. He lays on his back with a big bloody wound in the center of his chest, while the sand under him turns red. The ogre stands over the body of his comrade, while the elf is on his knees, weeping and laying over the body of the dwarf.

Not comrade, friends. Whatever they said or did, they were still together.

Till the end.

"Silo, we need to go." Said the ogre.

"Go?" Whispered the elf turning to the ogre. "Go where Metas? Liam died and you want to go?!"

"There's nothing we can do for him now."

"Nothing we can do? Is that all you can say?! You can't grieve him at all? Did you ever think of him as a friend!?"

The ogres eye shot open as he punched the elf in the face, sending him to the ground.

"He was as much your friend as he was mine!! You think I am not im pain, you think I..." He stops as tears stream down his face.

Life goes on.

People die every second.

[That's just a statistic. Every single one of them has a name, a family, friends and enemies, dreams and hopes, a story never told. But together they are just a statistic.]

I continue to stand and look as everyone around keeps moving, checking their gear and prepping, except for the duo crying with their dead friend on the ground.

Memories of me in a bloody uniform standing on a battlefield riddled with craters filled with fire, with pieces of my teammates laying around while legions march towards me. We were left to die, reinforcements weren't just late, they didn't exist in the first place. We were meant to die, to disappear, burying our secrets with us.

Returning from my memories, I see the ogre pick up the dwarf's body, and put it on a horse.

[Nice, isn't it? You're not the only one suffering, they're also in the hurricane of chaos and death we call life. They're as much alive as you are. You always tried to evade looking into people, as the more you look, the more you take it personally. You will try to understand them, help them, put yourself in their place. But don't look too deep, or we will lose the edge which we need to do what is required.]

[Do. Not. Forget. We are not allowed to die, the moment we die, HE will take control over this body. We need to make sure that not a single piece of this body remains. HE will spend every single fraction of his power to bend fate to get this body. And THEY ALL know this, and they are waiting for our death with glee.]

I can't die.

Not yet, not here, not now.

I don't want to see another day, there is nothing good waiting for me there.

I want to end it all now.

But I can't.

Death is easy, living is hard.

A new day shall come, and maybe, just maybe it will be different.

Hope is not much, but it's all we have.