Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 177. Reckless Trust.
Somewhere in the forest to the south, thirty spiritual masters fell to their knees and another six swayed and just barely remained standing. Those who had fallen down soon started hyperventilating as the weakness their souls felt started affecting their bodies to a degree they could no longer bear. The weaker ones amongst them felt so dizzy and nauseous that they couldn’t help puking despite the presence of their teachers and elders from their families. They had all been quite confident considering how each and every one of them was branded a genius since young, but only now did they understand that the warnings of their seniors weren’t exaggerated in the slightest.
“As tough to handle as ever,” one of the six standing elders, an old man with long grey hair, said with a wry smile and just as he did, the golden lines of the runic formation below his feet shattered into pieces. Unlike his juniors, however, he and his five old friends weren’t startled. They knew that Flora had pulled out one of her special treasured runic formations, through which she had not only amplified the power of the Great Magic but also changed its form and heavily reduced its cast time. This couldn’t have been achieved with normal runic magic and no standard runic formation would have been able to bear the overload of the spiritual energy for long enough. Still, even though one of those treasured formations of Flora’s could allow this extreme amplification to take place, it was bound to collapse in the end.
“Up it goes in flames,” one of the four old women said and shook her head. Although the runic formation Flora decided to employ wasn’t one of the two priceless disaster-type formations she had created in her golden age, the pure materials it was made of were worth over one hundred thousand platinum coins. “Such a waste,” the old woman complained half-heartedly. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand why this old friend of hers wanted to save those two boys at all cost, but seeing something worth so much break into a pile of useless rubble pained her heart a lot.
“Pathetic,” another of the four women on their feet commented with a snort. Her voice was soft, but it carried surprisingly far and reached the ears of her two granddaughters who had just finished puking. As a result, the pale cheeks of the two young women regained some color due to the shame they felt. They remembered well how they had confidently told their grandmother they would easily handle the burden that came with supplying fire-element spiritual energy to the formation, so the state they were currently in was all that more humiliating and damaging to their self-confidence.
“Teacher!”
Right after some of the six elders made their comments, Flora staggered and fell to one knee in the middle of the now broken runic formation. She smiled weakly when she saw Claire run up to her with a worried expression. “I guess I’m a little out of shape,” she said with a laugh once Claire crouched beside her. She revealed a smile that wasn’t a smile and raised her arm slightly, then stood up with the help of Claire, who had quickly caught on to her intentions. She couldn’t help but spare one glance at the shattered pieces of the formation below her feet, but apart from some nostalgia, she didn’t feel any regret. She waved her hand and collected the countless pieces into her interspatial ring before moving her gaze towards the thirty collapsed youngsters.
“Hurry and get up! We’re leaving!” she ordered in a calm tone. They undoubtedly caused quite some mayhem with their intervention, so some of Yimar Maar’s men were bound to come and chase them. Thinking of that, she looked at a black-robed old man who was standing outside of the formation with his hands joined behind his back. She snorted when she noticed that the usual, ever-calm look didn’t disappear from the eyes of this damned childhood friend of hers. The man appeared to notice her displeasure and as if simply to aggravate her further, he smiled at her in that very annoying manner. For a second, she felt as if they had reverted to being teenagers and was about to scream at him, but then five of the black-robed man’s disciples arrived one after another.
“They don’t seem to be pursuing us, teacher,” the middle-aged man stepped forward and delivered the news with a smile. “All of them are moving east to cut those guys off,” he added, knowing that they had enough time to exchange a few more sentences. He had been a bit worried when they were beginning this crazy operation as he had never participated in a battle of this scale, but it looked like Flora and his teacher, August, were right. This Yimar Maar was obsessed with capturing the young master of Makarash, so despite the potential threat their group posed to his plans, his army didn’t move to attack them. It was likely they had been told to capture Arslan at all cost, so they weren’t willing to spare the manpower to chase anyone else regardless of what happened.
“So,” August nodded towards his disciple, then looked at Flora. “What do you want us to do now?” he asked, the corner of his lips curving upwards. He couldn’t help but wonder how far she would be willing to go for the sake of those boys who had saved her and Claire’s little guys. He had already been startled when she asked those willing to help to come here when his disciples reported the events between Yimar Maar’s and Mustafa’s armies. For her to act on the mere presumption that those two boys she owed a favor to would appear here, he almost couldn’t believe it was still this old woman that used to be willing to sacrifice a few people for the greater good of the country.
“Hah.” Thinking along those lines, he could only chuckle quietly. Unlike Flora, he had always been satisfied with protecting his small circle of family, dear friends, and disciples. He guessed that Flora didn’t understand why he agreed to help her when she reached out to him one month ago or when she asked for help two days ago, but seeing how it flustered her to not end, he wasn’t about to explain. He was happy to once again have an opportunity to tease this haughty girl from back then and if anything, he was happy that she had found people she was willing to fight for and take great risks for. Be it her family and friends or those she owed gratitude to, he was very much willing to lend her his strength in order to aid people of this kind.
Had she merely asked him to help restore the old Faren Republic, he would have refused without hesitation. He couldn’t care less about that country which never did anything for him or any of its people, so even though he and Flora were childhood friends, he wouldn’t have lifted a finger. However, she had asked him to help find and in many cases rescue the dear ones of the people from her little organization, so he agreed and picked out twenty of his strongest and most competent disciples alongside many of his own talented descendants and came to the Faren Yimarate.
Naturally, in most cases during the past month of work, they found nothing or discovered that those people had died, but they did save some of them. They had been taking advantage of Mustafa suppressing the local powers and used various means to find and either secretly kidnap or straight-out buy-off those they were looking for. Still, quite a few leads were pointing towards Arkaria itself, so they would later need to move there to find the remaining ones.
Still, as much as he enjoyed musing about all those thoughts, he also very much liked looking at Flora’s expression, as she likely didn’t understand why he had chuckled just a second ago.
“Attacking here is too risky,” Flora said with a heavy frown on her face. “We will scatter the rest of their reinforcements. There will be no need to use first-class formations against a crowd of cattle in the mortal realm,” she said and soon removed her eyes from August, unable to bear looking at this annoying old friend of hers without losing her mind. “Moreover, those weaklings couldn’t possibly handle powering another first-class formation any time soon,” she added with a snort. Nine of those young ones were yet to get up despite her reminder, so the strain of converting massive amounts of natural energy in the air to fire-element spiritual energy must have overdrawn the limits of their souls.
“Help them up would you?” she said sourly and glanced at August’s present twelve disciples and members of his family. Much to her annoyance, the bunch of black-cloaked martial masters glanced at August first and only moved once the old man nodded. However, despite those little annoying things she was grateful to August and his people for coming to her aid and she was thankful to those thirty younger spiritual masters for powering the runic formation all the way until the spell ended.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said and revealed a slight smile. “I did what I could for you two brats. The rest is up to you and your allies. It won’t be without a cost, but you should be able to break through the southern lines and flee to the Ruishi Federation,” she mused to herself. She wasn’t perfectly satisfied, but she thought it was good enough. Had more of her old friends and allies responded to her call then maybe she would have been able to do more for those two, but alas, there was little meaning in pondering about ‘what ifs’. As long as those two boys she owed a great debt of gratitude to survived, she didn’t care if a few hundred people from the Holy Union died to save them.
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“We’re out!” Casimir said out loud once their group rode out of the burning wasteland left by Flora’s Great Magic. Once again, he looked towards the north-west and then to the south and the south-west, then revealed a smile that wasn’t happy nor sad. “We’re riding east at full speed! Once I say so, we turn south and break through towards the Ruishi Federation!” he informed everyone. Since Yimar Maar had chosen to ride around the wasteland and cut them off from the north, the forces to the south shouldn’t be too much for them to handle. Moreover, they would be able to stretch out those who were in the south by riding eastwards at full speed, so the price for getting out of this place shouldn’t be too big. If everything went perfectly, then they would lose only a few men, not even in dozens.
“Hoah!” The hundreds of experts answered Casimir’s words energetically. Moments ago all of them had been ready to sacrifice themselves just to allow Casimir and a few others a chance at survival. Compared to that, a mere risky charge was nothing. Rather than being nervous, they were thrilled by the perspective of facing a challenge that no longer appeared outright suicidal.
Towards the back of their somewhat stretched formation, Arslan, Johan and everyone else were similarly glad that the greatest danger seemed to have passed. However, there were two people in their entire group who weren’t affected by the same joy and relief. Instead of feeling relief, the two of them were perturbed. They had overcome many dangers since they came to Eulene, but it was only at this point that they no longer felt that everything would turn out well once they prevailed.
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“Is it fine like that?” Laien asked himself, his thoughts resonating with Yin’s the entire time. “Will we really be able to save ourselves if we ride to the Ruishi Federation?” he wondered, his thoughts moving about in a very chaotic manner. Perhaps he was overthinking it, but ever since they learned that some ultimate expert had openly intervened in this war, he has had this unclear hunch. He had only briefly considered it when Jasmine had informed them about the mysterious deaths of one hundred White Guards right before the battle with Yimar Furi’s forces, but now he couldn’t do the same thing he had done at that time. He couldn’t simply push this thought away for some time later since ‘he couldn’t do anything about it anyway’ and ‘it would somehow work out, as always’.
“Shadow Trials,” he murmured inaudibly. “Is everything getting more dangerous because the two of us are still in the middle of those Shadow Trials? The encounter with Altair was dangerous, sure, and he told us we would be killed if we failed the remaining two Trials… but he didn’t make them out to be a big thing,” he pondered, still somewhat unwilling to accept that much of what had happened in the last month and a half was his and Yin’s fault, at least in part. Did they already commit a mistake by making new friends and sticking close to them while the Shadow Trials were ongoing? Were they putting Arslan, Mustafa, and many others in greater danger just by getting involved with them? He wished it wasn’t like that, but the more he pondered, the more it seemed like it.
“If it wasn’t, then why would that expert have intervened in this war for no apparent reason?”
“If it wasn’t because of us, then who could have secretly killed those one hundred Royal Guards?”
“And if it was because of us… then was the Guild also behind the ambush on us and Jasmine, or was that unrelated to the Trials?”
He had many questions, to some of which he would rather not know an answer. However, at the same time, he was no longer prone to allowing emotions to control him so easily. He was able to calm down and look at the entire matter from a wider perspective instead of getting caught up in the perpetual cycle of guilt and helplessness. Thus, he asked himself, were they putting their companions and friends in danger just by being with them? He thought it was highly probable. However, who was there to say that their overseers, given the power they wielded, wouldn’t have pulled anyone and everyone around them into a ridiculous chain of events just to see what they would do under extreme circumstances? Just like Altair tested their strength and potential, weren’t the Trials of Heart and Will supposed to test other traits of their characters? So, to test those traits, weren’t dangerous situations where they needed to make hard choices an absolute necessity?
“What should we do?” Yin asked loudly in their thoughts. The precious time they had to think was passing quickly and although Casimir hadn’t said when they would be taking the turn south, he could tell it wouldn’t be long before they did. After all, it would likely be around the time Julien and Reian caught up with them and started blocking Abdain. “Should we first return to the Ruishi Federation and then leave? Or split up along the way? What do we need to do to complete those damned Trials?” he questioned, not too sure what path they should take. Personally, he would rather opt for doing whatever guaranteed Laien and him a greater chance of survival, but at the same time, he wasn’t willing to use the people around them to do that. There were a few ideas he had come up with during the past twenty, thirty seconds, but none of them fulfilled both of those conditions.
“Those trials are crazy,” Laien replied in his mind and sighed quietly. “Compared to sending an entire army of martial and spiritual masters after us, Altair’s exam was very level-headed. It obvious that whoever is in charge, be it that expert there or the second examiner, they want to throw us into great danger. They want to see if we can overcome the odds and do something amazing… if we have the Heart and Will to follow through with our feelings and ambitions,” he said silently, failing to realize that a smile appeared on his face. Talking with someone else and pondering something on one’s own, it truly made a great difference to the clarity of the picture one was able to see.
“If we back down,” Laien mused, his black eyes having regained their usual clarity. “If we go for the easy way out and go to the Ruishi Federation, then those overseers might intervene again. Even if they don’t, the Trials won’t end and everything will become unpredictable once again. Rather than that, won’t it be better to try and put it to end once and for all? I’m sure they are watching us from afar, hiding in their shadows… so let’s show them the heart and the will like they had never seen before!” he suggested with a devilish grin on his face and then, shivered purely from the surging wave of emotions he and Yin were constantly exchanging.
They had fought against death time and time again, so why couldn’t they do it once more? They had achieved what seemed impossible more than once or twice, so now that they were in an infinitely better situation, why couldn’t they show those detestable examiners what they were made of? They would gamble and they would take a great risk upon themselves just like those examiners wanted them to! Instead of cowering in defensive, they would make a great miracle happen!
“Casimir,” Laien spoke up, his voice filled with the newly made resolution. “Arslan,” he said and once again used his spiritual energy to carry his voice throughout their entire column of over five hundred riders and over seven hundred people. “If you trust me, let us turn straight north. I will explain as we ride,” he said in a few words, seeing as the time to turn south was approaching rapidly. He realized he was being unfair, that he was planning to use everyone here for his own purposes, and he was remorseful about it, but not to a degree that would interfere with his decision-making.
“Huh?” In contrast to Laien’s calmness, Casimir could only frown when he heard the unreasonable demand from the almost-thirteen-year-old youth that was riding to his left side. Unlike with the situation before, when Yimar Maar’s army was said to have encircled them, he had nothing to work with. He had no additional information that he could think through and make a rational decision based on them. As far as he was concerned, the best choice at the moment was to ride into the Ruishi Federation, reorganize, and then safely ride back to Holy Union alongside reinforcements. To choose the sub-optimal path purely on the basis of trusting Laien… he couldn’t do it just like that, without any explanation on Laien’s part. He needed to at least hear the basics behind Laien’s reasoning and then consider if the request was sensible and worth it.
“I agree!” Much to Casimir’s, and pretty much everyone but Sirius’s and Kasha’s, surprise, Arslan shouted his answer after a mere split-second of thought. If the question was whether he trusted Laien or not, then he didn’t need to think twice to know that he did trust him! “We ride north!” he shouted again, all the while giving his best to control his immature Qi to spread his voice out. Such a feat wouldn’t have been possible under normal circumstances, but he since had gained insights into Aspects of Desire and Awareness at the young age of five, he could just barely accomplish that.
Hearing Arslan’s unwavering reply, Casimir was rendered speechless, much like most of his riders. Wasn’t Arslan the heir to Makarash, the most powerful city-state of the entire Arkaria? For him to have such absolute trust in another boy, one not that much older than him, just what must have happened between them to make it so? Casimir himself had a hard time imagining it, much less his subordinates. “It will be far riskier and it will undoubtedly cost us more deaths, but it’s not like this move is without advantages,” the thought crossed Casimir’s mind before he nodded to himself.
“Fine, we turn north!” he said confidently and raised his spear, motioning the change in directions. Half a second later he started turning his mount to the left and as it was to be expected, the elite riders of their group effortlessly followed this smooth change in directions. “Hurry up and explain, we will clash with Yimar Maar in under four minutes at this rate,” he urged, revealing a sliver of impatience. If the reason Laien provided them with proved unsatisfactory, it wouldn’t be too late to turn east and ride at full speed either. That is if they made this choice early enough.
“You must have heard of the Guild of Shadows,” Laien began saying without delay. He briefly noted how Reian joined their ranks while Julien kept fending Abdain off from a distance of a few hundred meters, then kept going. “I’m pretty sure that the ultimate expert that intervened in this war did it because I and Yin are in the middle of Shadow Trials. It’s very likely that many other things in the past month and a half happened because of that, too,” he stated outright. He wasn’t planning to make excuses and explain himself as that would be simply too shameful. It was their responsibility and they had done what they had, so he saw no reason to try and shrink away from accepting the said responsibility.
Yet, contrary to his expectations, the atmosphere didn’t immediately grow apprehensive. Rather, it could be said that those who knew of the Shadow Trials cautiously put their guards up and waited to hear more. Even the men under Julien didn’t turn apprehensive despite losing dozens of their companions in the mission to protect Arslan. They knew, after all, that their trouble came mainly from Abdain’s unforeseen breakthrough and not from Laien and Yin’s Shadow Trials.
“If we rode south,” Laien continued, a smile returning to his face. “I fear that the Guild of Shadows would have done something again, if not immediately then later. So, even though what I wish to do will be more dangerous, I want all of you to help us,” he said straightforwardly. He had a rough idea in mind the moment he and Yin decided to try and go north, but as he was speaking right now he was working out the fine details of his plan. Moreover, he needed to admit that for once planning how to get into the most trouble and survive instead of desperately seeking a way to survive was amusing in a weird, and probably a bit unreasonable of a way.
“And,” Casimir brought up, his tone sounding very much neutral. “What is it exactly that you want us to do?” he asked without beating around the bush.
“One of the largest forests in this country is north of here, isn’t it?” Laien said with a dark smile. “We will break through Yimar Maar’s forces, then hide Arslan and split up into many groups before scattering into the forest. They will have no choice but to split up and chase us in smaller groups, so as long as Julien can hold Abdain back, Yin and I will be able to stay in the rear and keep fighting. We will need some help though, no way we can do it alone,” he explained in a concise manner.
“There will be many casualties,” Casimir pointed out. The idea of Laien’s wasn’t the worst nor the best for their group, but it would surely allow Laien and Yin to face a bloody battle if the two of them so wished. Naturally, he could also see what goal they ultimately had in mind, but in his opinion, they were still too careless. They were overlooking one crucial point in the middle of that plan.
“I know,” Laien replied soon thereafter. He was asking those people to risk their lives for him and Yin, he knew that. He wasn’t going to sugarcoat his words to make them sound better. Whatever points about their group facing potential dangers in other places he could make, he trusted those people would be able to figure them out too.
“Very well,” Casimir said with a strange glint in his eyes. “I’ve got one condition though. Once I blow the horn, everyone disengages and rides to me at full speed. The sound of the horn is deep, two shorter blows going into the third long blow. I will call three times, the second one after three minutes and the third one after six. Those who can’t join the main group by then will need to fend for themselves,” he laid out in as much detail as he considered appropriate. He had already accepted that Laien and Yin were going through the Shadow Trials and he decided not to abandon them. Considering those two points, he wanted them to pass as soon as possible for everyone’s sake.