Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 44. Vision… or a Nightmare.
“If you want to enter the Sarkcente Kingdom within a month you should probably hurry up on the way,” Laien mentioned to the fourteen-year-old, who as he had finally learned was called Ulric. A rather uncommon name, but not all that surprising given the old roots of his family.
“We won’t dilly-dally,” Ulric assured with a smile. “That masked Great Chieftain promised us thirty days, but who knows how long those bandits will be able to hold themselves back? We will keep going with as little rest as possible; our horses are strong too, so we should be able to travel six or seven hundred kilometers per day. Crossing those twelve, thirteen thousand kilometers should take us three weeks at most,” he said with a degree of confidence. As long as nothing unexpected happened they would be able to arrive safely; although there was the problem of whether or not they trusted the masked man’s words. Laien and Yin appeared to weirdly enough trust that man though, so since those weren’t worried the masked man could have lied to them he wouldn’t worry about it either.
“Should we send you a letter when we arrive?” a girl riding at Ulric’s side proposed, guessing that Laien would like to know if everything went well for them.
“If there is a way for the letter to find its way to me,” Laien replied and laughed to himself. It would be more or less manageable if they decided early in which city he would look for the letter, but how else was a bird supposed to find him? The specially trained magical beasts that carried messages were simply too few in numbers and were way too precious, while the normal birds would find it impossible to track him. The option with the city… truth to be told, it was a bit too annoying.
“We will just send them to every major city along your way through the Eulean Union,” the girl said with a smile, unable to mistake the expression on Laien’s face. It was exactly the kind of look her younger brother showed when he thought something was too bothersome or annoying to do. “Sending a few lines will be cheap too. We don’t need any long messages,” she added, showing that despite having lived in seclusion she knew some things about how the outside world operated.
“Fine then,” Laien agreed with a smile. They would surely stop at least in one major city along the way through the lands of Eulene, so picking up one letter that didn’t contain any kind of confidential information should be simple enough.
“So…” Ulric scratched his head and chuckled quietly. Saying farewells like that really was somewhat awkward. “Once again thank you for everything. I hope we will be able to see each other again when you return to the Sarkcente Kingdom,” he said and bowed his head, this time not as deeply as in the beginning though. After chatting leisurely for around an hour with Laien he came to know him a bit better and no longer felt as stiff around him. Despite that monstrous aura of his, Laien was a fairly normal twelve-year-old when it came to talking with him. Surely Laien was more mature than his peers, but in the end, he was still just a youngster.
“Yeah, see you in a few years,” Laien said with a wry smile. Ulric didn’t know he was prohibited from returning to the Sarkcente Kingdom before the period of ten years passed, so he probably wouldn’t understand what he was thinking about at the moment… but it didn’t matter much either way.
“Are you done with saying your goodbyes too?” Laien directed his horse to the other side of the road and asked Yin, Alen and Marie.
“Pretty much,” Yin replied and gave Laien a meaningful glance. Didn’t he also want to say a few words to Alen before they left at the very least?
“Mhm,” Laien smiled a little, finding it surprisingly hard to find right words to say. “See you one day in a few years. Until then, do well,” he said simply.
“I will,” Alen said with a bright smile, truth to be told surprising Laien with his positive attitude. There would be no more crying by the looks of it. “You do well too big brother Laien,” the youth added cheerfully, then exchanged one more look with Yin before all of them parted.
As for Marie, she nodded gratefully first towards Laien, then towards Yin and rode ahead with Alen. The whole caravan began moving once again, riding straight down the main road learning through the entirely of the Anarchic Lands. They headed eastwards, while Laien and Yin rode in the opposite direction; to the north-west, to the borders of the Eulean Union!
“You think we will be able to find Ruan and the rest of them?” Yin asked, only now realizing that after that huge mass of bandits had passed through the area, their guards were like to have had found themselves in some trouble.
“As long as they are alive they are probably waiting for us near the grassland,” Laien assumed automatically and exchanged a half-troubled and half-wry smile with Yin. Neither of them had given their guards much thought; but how could they be blamed given the events of the past days? If those guys managed to keep themselves alive, then good! If not, then it was their poor luck.
“Anyway, let’s hurry up and see,” Laien said with a smile. “It will be easier to look for them while the sun is still up,” he added, then along with Yin made his horse go into the full gallop, soon reaching speeds far surpassing three hundred kilometers per hour.
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“I hope those two are fine…” Ruan said for the hundredth time, nervously fiddling the handle of the broadsword in his hand. Yesterday all the bandits had for some reason retreated. He had been worried that they achieved their goal and were now returning back to their territories and even wanted to ride into that hidden village as soon as possible, but that black-cloaked man from the Cail family insisted against the idea very strongly and in the end, they set up a camp near the grassland where they had promised to meet the boys.
“I swear if you repeat that one more time…” the black-cloaked man groaned. At first, it didn’t annoy him, but now that he had received the news of the boys having passed the Trial of Strength he was forced to listen to repeated questions and worries of Ruan’s. After the seventieth time, it started getting on his nerves quite badly. If Ruan didn’t stop, he worried he would blurt out the answer just to have some peace… or he could stuff his ears with some plugs to be able to take a nap.
“You really think those two monsters would die so easily?” Liza asked with a snort, admittedly also somewhat annoyed with Ruan’s constant nagging. Those kids were stronger than her or him for heaven’s sake! If they died, they died. No one could blame them for failing to protect those two from an assault of an army of tens of thousands with an elite unit of a Great Chieftain at the lead. And even if someone did blame them, she wasn’t planning to go back to collect the rest of her payment.
“Hrm?” the black-cloaked man’s eyes snapped open and his whole body twitched slightly when he heard an unnatural sound; a sound of clothes fluttering in the wind ever so slightly. Alarmed, he pushed onto the ground with his hand and leaped onto the branches of the nearby three, mid-way turning into a cluster of shadows and changing directions mid-air to avoid a potential attack.
It wasn’t a damn joke! The black-cloaked man for the first time in ages felt cold sweat pouring down his back. He was an ex-Shadow, he had been one of the three strongest subordinates of one of the Guild’s Shades! Yet, the sound just now came from merely twenty meters away! The only ones who could sneak so close to the old him without being detected were Shades and other unimaginable monsters of the continent!
Obviously, with the black-cloaked man suddenly acting in this almost paranoid way the rest of the guards became highly alarmed and all of them quickly drew their weapons. This black-cloaked man had been perfectly calm even when the army of bandits appeared! Now, on the other hand, he acted like a scared cat, retreating in haste the moment he sensed that… yes, what exactly did he sense?
“Did we startle you so bad?” Laien asked wryly, his lips curving into a very amused smile. “I hoped to get a little closer before anyone noticed us though. What gave us away?” he inquired, his gaze shifting onto the black-cloaked man who was crouching on a thick branch of a nearby tree.
“Laien! Yin!” Ruan called out with shock and relief. “You two are fine! I was worried you died there! What happened? Did they let you go? What did that Great Chieftain want from you?”
“What are you, a kid?” Laien asked with a smirk. He didn’t expect Ruan to have been so worried that he would barrage them with questions the moment they returned. Ruan always struck him as more of a level-headed person.
Somewhat embarrassed to be told that by a twelve-year-old, Ruan coughed awkwardly and put his broadsword into his interspatial ring. “Despite everything, we are responsible for guarding you. Having you die on us would be problematic, you know!” he pointed out
“I told you they would be fine,” Liza said with a laugh, appearing to be the most relaxed one out of the bunch, maybe with the exception of Jin who didn’t care if the boys returned or not at all.
“It’s great that you are all right,” Dinne said with a sigh of relief. Unlike Ruan, he, Rishe and Ethane didn’t care what was the truth behind the events of the past few days; they were simply glad the boys came out alive out of the peril. As for learning what had happened and meddling in it, they saw that as something much beyond their current capabilities.
“So, what gave us away?” Laien repeated the question, then smirked a little and exchanged a look with Yin.
“!” the black-cloaked man swallowed nervously. He had just released his aura and attempted to probe those two; even Ruan, a martial master of the second rank failed to notice his aura, and similarly had those two failed to notice anything in the beginning of their journey… but now… now he couldn’t do as much as sense their presence! To his aura, it was like there was no one standing there! Only because he could actually see them could he just barely make out slight aura fluctuations in those two spots!
Those two… no surprise that the Shade the Guild hailed as a genius and the most likely candidate for the position of the future Guildmaster gave them preferential treatment! They were abnormalities on his level! Even if those two hadn’t improved their battle prowess at all, what he refused to believe, the potential as assassins they had gained placed then on a whole another level of prowess!
Seeing Laien raise an eyebrow in question, the black-cloaked man collected himself and got down from the tree. Then, very much to the surprise of the other six guards, he approached the boys, took off his good, bowed slightly and said. “Your approach was absolutely perfect, alas, you both wear rather loose clothing. The moment wind blew I was able to hear the slight fluttering sound which alarmed me.”
“Oh.” Laien nodded and laughed rather ruefully. He didn’t expect this black-cloaked man to have such sharp senses! If he could hear the sound of their clothes fluttering in the light wind, then his hearing absolutely rivaled that of Yin’s; and that was quite an achievement for a normal human.
As for the sudden change in the attitude of that black-cloaked man, Laien and Yin came to have their own guesses about the matter and they weren’t too worried about it. Ruan and the others, however, were flabbergasted. This strange old man had been acting pretty much as if he was mute from the very beginning of their journey; he didn’t even lift a finger to help in any of the fights either! He had first spoken to them when they had seen that army of bandits flooding the grassland, but now not only did he reply to Laien’s question, he did it in such a polite way too!
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Ruan, Liza and Jin weren’t stupid. One of them had been a courier, while the other two were mercenaries! The three guards of the Valius family similarly weren’t slow on the uptake. The six of them immediately came to suspect that the strange shift in the behavior of the black-cloaked man’s had something to do with whatever business the Great Chieftain had had with Laien and Yin.
Enjoying the expressions on the faces of their companions, the two boys once again smiled at each other. It was indeed good to return to the daily routine for the time being after going through so much stress! They both through about recalling their horses around the same time; and thanks to the spiritual bond, they both knew the other one had thought about it. Smiling, they put their fingers to their lips and whistled loudly.
Soon thereafter the two war horses arrived by the road, then entered the camp in the forest and obediently stopped by Laien and Yin’s side.
“We already slept not too long ago, so how about setting out now?” Laien suggested leisurely, directing his question to Ruan.
Judging by the smile Laien had on his face, it was easy for Ruan to tell that Laien had no intentions of explaining what had happened in that hidden village. With things being like that, Ruan could only sigh inwardly and suppress his unsated curiosity. “It’s not a problem. I think the bandits won’t be causing us any trouble anymore too… traveling the remaining half of the Anarchic Lands should take us from three to ten days, depending how much you want to hurry,” he asked plainly, already having gotten perfectly used to the decisions being made by the boys. He had been a bit averse in his heart to the idea in the very beginning, but after learning of Laien’s and Yin’s strength he could only bow his head and accept the matters as they were.
Laien and Yin exchanged a glance, after what Laien answered. “Let’s take it easy, we still have a lot of time. Ten days it is,” he concluded briefly, planning to use the time camping to do a few important things. He had only made his breakthrough so he needed some time to get used to his new abilities and to properly establish his new techniques. He also wanted to meditate on his insights; he would now be able to train much faster in the Aspect of Awareness, but that was a secondary matter. Most importantly he needed to broaden his insights into the Aspect of Tranquility as his Aspect of Wrath had grown disproportionately powerful, what would affect the balance of his techniques.
There was the matter of infusing the Profound Mystery of Inferno into a magic or technique of his too and most importantly, he wanted to have some time to spar with Yin!
Yin himself was in a very similar set of circumstances. With his newly gained Heavenly Lightning Martial Realm he required time to reestablish and enhance his basic set of abilities. He also needed to finish absorbing the remnant Essence into his bones and flesh; and just like Laien, he wanted to spar too!
“Leisure peace then,” Ruan agreed easily. “Let’s go!” he said energetically and went to mount his horse. He let the beast rest without trying it up and was extremely experienced in putting on the equipment directly from his interspatial ring onto the mount’s body, so he finished a fair bit earlier than the other six. However, after just about thirty seconds more they were all ready to go, and ride out they did.
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After riding for the whole night their group had safely passed nearly three thousand kilometers. Ruan’s prediction proved to be accurate as not one bandit appeared on their way, and the few that had been noticed by Laien and Yin had all but instantly turned to flee in fear.
Without any interactions with the bandits, the group couldn’t yet know of it, but Yin had established quite a reputation for himself in the Anarchic Lands. The simple nickname ‘Monster’ had been assigned to him by the thugs, and his reputation as the one who had single-handedly killed multiple major bandit bosses and slaughtered their elite subordinates spread wide and far.
The thousand bandits that Altair had allowed to flee from the temple spread the news of the battle with the bandits who were keeping the village surrounded, so after they had all been disbanded the news of Yin’s strength spread like a wildfire, and with each telling of the story they were getting more and more overexaggerated. By this point Yin was believed to be a monster born from a streak of lightning who had assumed a human form; he could apparently slash with his sword once and kill someone standing hundreds of meters away. Just meeting his glance would be enough to turn people into retards, as their brains would be instantly fried up!
The degree of fame Yin had gained for himself was at a level above of some of the Great Chieftains. Perhaps only Lion King and Shade were still considered to be more dreadful by the bandits of the Anarchic lands, but with the exception of those two, Yin was the very next existence no one would dare to offend!
In this moment, however, Yin was unaware of all of that, just like Laien and the rest of their group. The adults were all preparing a light supper for themselves, while the boys decided to nap for a few hours and then spar after waking up. With their perception enhanced by the Aspect of Awareness, they had been able to shift most of their focus onto meditating while riding their war horses, so they had both made some progress in their own respective areas. The fact that they had been going straight by the main road helped their training too; after all, if there were no turns and no obstacles, the horses would basically be riding on their own.
The two youths were sleeping next to each other. Yin’s expression was calm, but a slight frown could be seen on Laien’s face.
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“Huh? I’m awake?” Laien asked himself since he saw a typical highland scenery unfolding before his eyes and could tell that he was walking ahead at high pace. “No, I’m still asleep,” he realized, this not being the first time he had landed in one of those dreams, or visions rather.
“My body feels a bit strange and everything is a bit smaller,” Laien mused quietly. Compared to the previous times, he was less in sync with ‘his’ emotions and more with ‘his’ physical form. He could tell that ‘he’ was taller than the current him by a fair bit; he didn’t know why, but when the question of ‘his’ age popped up in his mind the answer came by itself - sixteen years old.
“He is still so young, this should be a vision from much earlier in his life compared to the previous ones,” Laien deduced the obvious piece of information, then began wondering where was ‘he’ headed to. Although ‘his’ emotions weren’t too clear this time around, he could still feel stern conviction and a slight amount of excitement coming from ‘him’.
The world blurred for a second, after what the scenery changed. Now, ‘he’ was standing atop of a large mountain and was gazing upon a valley where around ten thousand people were gathered. Those people weren’t organized into any proper ranks, but with ‘his’ acute senses Laien could tell how strong they were even from a few kilometers away.
Those ten thousand… the weakest of them had auras at the level of martial masters of the first rank, the bulk of their forces consisted of people comparable to marital masters of the second and third ranks, and scarily enough there existed an elite three hundred who were all at the fourth and fifth Realms of Heroes! And not only that; this army appeared to consist of a mix of martial and spiritual masters! Such a formidable force… on the Starlight Continent, only truly numerous and powerful countries would be able to put forth an army of this size and power.
“His aura is only around the level of a dual practitioner at the second Realm of Heroes… he can’t intend to…” Laien thought to himself, trying to convince himself that ‘he’ only came here to scout those enemies out. ‘He’ needed to have some kind of reinforcements, else taking on this army of ten thousand alone would be nothing short of suicide!
Suddenly, Laien felt his thoughts dim slightly and more of his spiritual consciousness was integrated into ‘his’ body. He could now tell that ‘he’ fully intended to fight those ten thousand soldiers, and he intended to do it by himself! What was more freakishly scary, what that ‘he’ was absolutely confident in his ability to handle those numbers without getting wounded in the process!
Before Laien had time to ponder on the almost irrational confidence of this person, ‘he’ withdrew a glaive from ‘his’ interspatial ring and fearlessly rushed down the mountainside!
When the gathered army noticed a person running towards them they didn’t react immediately. All of them had at first thought it might be some kind of a messenger. After all, the person that was coming didn’t have too high of a cultivation base; who in their right senses would suspect that the lone glaive-wielder wanted to attack them by his lone self?
Yet, when ‘he’ reached the first roughly organized lines of the army and ignored the shouts and questions thrown at ‘him’, the gathered warriors began growing restless. Could it be that some kind of major power decided to alter his appearance and hide his cultivation base and wanted to wipe them out? But that didn’t make sense; if someone powerful wanted them dead, he could simply attack! There would be no need for this kind of trickery. Then, was this glaive-wielder deaf or something?
Smirking to himself, ‘he’ brandished ‘his’ glaive and released his fire-element energy, engulfing the spear in it. The warriors who sensed the terrifying ripple of energy accompanying the appearance of the flames all put their guards up, but with how close ‘he’ already was there was no time for their first line to do anything! With a light swipe of the glaive, six experts perished at once, their bodies swallowed by flames and burnt into dust! Five existences comparable to marital masters of the first rank and one man that was a level higher were killed by a casual sweep of ‘his’ glaive!
Before the warriors of the army could suppress their shock, ‘he’ already rushed deep into their ranks, sweeping with his glaive in a seemingly wild manner, but in truth controlling his strength and aim to the utmost! When Laien understood how precise ‘his’ movements and attack were, he couldn’t help but be filled with admiration! ‘He’ used only the very amount of strength and power necessary to kill ‘his’ opponents; moreover, ‘he’ would always slaughter at least three people with one attack! ‘He’ wouldn’t stop for a split-second and would continue killing, the ease with which ‘he’ was doing so causing Laien to think of a dance.
The dance about which Laien thought about wasn’t a normal one, however. Instead of a human dancing and his feet moving, what danced were the flames released by ‘him’ and what moved was ‘his’ glaive! This kind of flowing movement was extremely similar to Laien’s own Elemental Spear Art; Water Flow! The biggest difference was that ‘his’ technique was being simultaneously used for offense and defense. This was only an addition of one more aspect, but in an actual battle achieving that goal with this degree of perfection was impossibly hard!
Laien’s own Elemental Spear of Water Flow was an embodiment of all his experience in spear wielding and a fruit of his deep insights into the Aspect of Tranquility and the Profound Mystery of Tranquil Sea. He could possibly create a similar offensive version of his Elemental Spear with the aid of the Aspect of Wrath and the Profound Mystery of the Storm, but fusing the two of them perfectly into his spear arts and actually displaying them in battle? Hard! Too hard!
Still, even if it was impossible for him to immediately achieve the end goal, Laien continued gaining new insights and inspirations from the battle he was experiencing first-hand from ‘his’ body. As the minutes passed, Laien had engrossed himself so deeply in the experience that he didn’t notice when ‘he’ had slaughtered over a thousand of those warriors! And the massacre only continued. Be it weaker soldiers or the stronger ones who came forward with the intention of suppressing it, ‘he’ would without fail take three lives with every one of the attacks of ‘his’ glaive!
To those soldiers ‘he’ was like an ancient demon; a calamity that fell onto them from the heavens, or perhaps had risen from the depths of hell! Their army didn’t yet establish any chain of command, so the vagabond type of assault of ‘his’ proved to be extremely effective as in the chaos, no one was able to decisively take command and deal with the situation in an organized way.
For example, if a general ordered all his men to retreat from ‘him’, then no matter how fast ‘he’ was, arrows and spells would block his advance and in the end, a powerful barrage of magic from a unit of spiritual masters would maybe not kill ‘him’, but surely cause ‘him’ to suffer heavy wounds.
‘He’ however truly was an embodiment of a demon on the field of battle. Not only did ‘he’ pay perfect attention to his immediate surrounding and took care to preserve ‘his’ strength, ‘he’ would also recognize the places where a capable person would attempt to take control of the battle and would hurriedly shift ‘his’ attacks into that direction, then slay that person!
With more and more of their comrades dying, the elites of the army finally couldn’t hold back anymore and decided to engage ‘him’ personally. Alas, with ‘him’ constantly charging into units of weaker warriors, the elites had a hard time coordinating their attacks. One by one, their numbers were cut down until not even half was left of their original three hundred strong unit.
By this point, the remaining six thousand soldiers had managed to establish a chain of command and get everyone to more or less act together. Alas, it was too late! With how scattered their army became, ‘he’ simply chose to assault and kill off the currently most threatening groups of spiritual masters and every time ‘he’ found ‘himself’ to be in danger, ‘he’ would charge into a crowd and use the warriors as meat shields to disincentivize the area of effect attacks from continuing.
Had there been someone in the army who could make the necessary choice and abandon the lives of a few hundred of their comrades to deliver a proper attack at ‘him’, ‘he’ might have suffered some injuries. However, no such person appeared and after ten more minutes of the utter massacre, the remaining three thousand warriors fled in all directions, their army completely scattered.
‘He’ hit the ground with the glaive in ‘his’ hand and withdrew ‘his’ energy. Everything went according to ‘his’ plan, but ‘he’ still used up a lot of stamina and just about seventy percent of ‘his’ Qi and spiritual energy. In the end, however, the plan had been a huge success! ‘He’ smiled contentedly, after what the vision blurred once again.
“Is that it?” Laien wondered, but when he once again found himself standing on top of the mountain with the ten thousand strong army standing its ground in the valley, he got a very bad feeling about what was most likely about to come.
‘He’ had once again charged the army just like before… but just as Laien feared, just before attacking the first of the warriors, ‘his’ body disappeared and instead, Laien found himself to be about to attack that ten thousand strong army.