The ash fell slowly, before rising like a cloud at the passage of the young man running with all his strength. Glenn's mind raced while he tried to find Sahro, his hand on the pommel of his axe, ready to take it out at any moment's notice. Why would the Thorn's Church be there?
'It can't be for me, the lady said they arrived a month ago... But that prophecy...!' The young man gritted his teeth, forcing the muscles of his legs to increase his speed.
'Run, Forrest, Run!!' Diamanes laughed, seemingly undisturbed by the urgency of the situation. Glenn traversed the ash plain without stopping before his gaze finally caught Sahro's silhouette. Each stride he took made his head ring with pain, but he kept on ignoring it, focusing on the important matter.
"Sahro! We need to get the..." Glenn grabbed the Black Heir's shoulder, forcing him to turn around, only to notice the people he was with staring at him with a strange gaze. There were mostly mercenaries and a few workers taking a short break from the construction. Sahro looked at him with a grim look before pushing his friend's hand off his shoulder.
"...Why are you all looking at me like that?" The young man asked, feeling a shiver run down his spine. One of the workers shook his head, while a mercenary spat on the ground with a disgusted expression. The Black Heir didn't answer and turned back around, pointing his chin coldly at a shape on the ground. Glenn stepped over to see a person lying down, her blood mixing with the ash in a dark mixture.
She was the mercenary leader's companion, the one who screamed and cried when the man disappeared into the forest to take a leak. Her face was frozen in fear and pain, while her clothes were ripped apart in a show of brutality and savagery. Her legs still spread open could only communicate one message, while a fist-sized hole traversed her chest, her heart missing from its location.
Glenn felt the blood in his face drain, his right hand crisping over the pommel of his axe while his left was tightly closed, shaking slightly. That wound was something he had seen very, very often, these past few months, but it had always been only on beasts and monsters. A lethal attack, ripping the heart out of its owner with brutality.
'This...This isn't good at all...' Diamanes mumbled worriedly. The entity kept silent, while his host kneeled beside the victim, his blood freezing increasingly as he studied the wound. The sides of the holes were covered in a slight layer of blue ice, the same one that he could summon by using Diamanes, the so-called Nitrogen Wave.
While the wound was the same as what could be found on his...victims that he fought during his three months of madness might have been faked somehow by some evil mastermind, that cold layer of ice...
Was something that only he, Glenn, could create.
The young man took a step back, gasping for air, while he stared at the blank, dead eyes of the victim, still open. She seemed to look at him in her death, blaming him like the criminal he was. Glenn's headache intensified, making him grab his head in pain.
'No, no, no, did...no, I can't have...' Glenn's thoughts were scrambled, and he struggled to think, images of black blood flowing freely under his sword flashing in his mind. Diamanes' voice was overwhelmed by the screams of the monsters he slayed in the past, while the gazes of the crowd suddenly made him feel like he bore the heaviest weight in the world.
There was one common point to all those fights he had with creatures more horrible than one another.
He couldn't remember any of them.
The bloodlust had always taken over, turning him into a monster-slaying monster. A true Demon that smiled madly as he tore and ripped flesh. Glenn's migraine only grew stronger, hammering him down and shaking his mind even further. Sahro stepped forward, his hand on the hilt of his curved sword. A dark but resigned light burned in his eyes, and he grabbed Glenn's shoulder. The sensation brought a temporary calm in the tempest roaring in the young man's mind, and he brutally pushed Sahro's back while moving backward further.
"I...No, no, I didn't do that... Shit!" Glenn swore, and infused Mana in his legs, successfully creating a powerful burst that propelled him through the air, quickly disappearing from the line of sight of the villagers as he flew into the forest. He kept on running and running, ignoring all and everything, only running with despair and pain.
After a period that could have been as long as a month or a minute, he finally stopped, gasping for air. His lungs weren't tired, but his mind was, requiring a well-deserved break. The young man's eyes flew around, verifying there were no dangers around, at least none that were immediate, and sighed deeply. He jumped into a tree, climbing to the top like an agile chimpanzee.
He grabbed a thick branch and hugged it, his body trembling like a leaf.
"I'm fine...Yes...I'm fine...everything is fine..." The young man muttered to himself, feeling his heart calming down slowly.
Glenn felt the cold breeze wash over his face, his hair blowing in the wind, and his mind finally cleared out of most of its unwelcome thoughts. The sound of a panicked and worried voice gradually came back into his mind, making him smile dejectedly. Some things never changed.
'...enn! Glenn, just say something, curse me!' The entity scolded, trying its best to gain its host's attention.
"Maybe I need to yell at you? Hey! Asshole! Stop being a wuss and answer me! Damn it!" Diamanes kept on yelling, his voice echoing far in the forest. Glenn sighed, before smiling sadly at his left palm, witnessing the mouth inside it freeze in time.
"I'm...I'm alright now, don't worry. I just..." Glenn's voice trailed off, and he looked at the horizon, the sun previously covering everything in golden light getting hidden behind dark ominous clouds. He leaned his head back, trying to alleviate a bit of pain from this accursed headache.
"I'd kill for some sleep, I swear..." He pulled down on his face, before looking down at the tree's base. He instinctively ran up there, feeling as if hiding here was his safest choice, but he couldn't say why. Perhaps there was a sense of familiarity from when he first truly escaped death, not that far from here. Who knew?
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
'I should probably go down...' Glenn hesitated, feeling somehow safe perched so high up, but the thunderous sound of thunder striking near forced him to decide. A second later, rain poured down on him, making him feel like this shitty day simply couldn't get any worse. After carefully going down the tree, slipping only three times, Glenn jumped on the ground, his feet sinking in the wet mud, splashing dirty water on his clothes.
"You should probably find somewhere to take shelter that is not near the village. Or you might get torched down, you know?" Diamanes commented with a sneer, half-mockingly and worriedly. Glenn silently agreed with a nod, before rushing through the forest, the sound of the rain covering his footsteps. He flicked his left hand's fingers, cursing his body with the Silent curse, rendering it entirely silent. Who said it was a bad idea to curse oneself?
He soon arrived at a tree much bigger than the others with roots so large they formed a small natural roof over the ground. Glenn was about to rush to hide under there when lightning smote down the tree, reducing it to a small pile of burning wood and ash.
"Of course..." Glenn pinched his lips and kept on running. After what felt like an eternity, and a few other encounters with Zeus, he finally found a small mound with an equally tiny cave. He crawled inside, arriving at a slightly larger area. It was big enough for him to stand, but he only needed to raise his hand to find the roof. With a sigh, he fell to the ground, leaning against the walls of the cave. The muffled sound of the rain falling outside his shelter made him feel at peace and gave him a sudden craving for a cup of hot chocolate milk.
"What would I pay for just a cup...Heh..." Glenn smiled dejectedly, before clapping his hands together, the moisture and mud on his clothes disappearing along the sound of the gesture. His body still felt cold, so he summoned a small flame burning with Mana to warm himself up. He couldn't afford to burn something, or the smoke would both drive him out and give away his position. That made him think about the light emitted by the flame and the entry he came from.
"Okay, dirt magic..." The young man mumbled, focusing his mind to try and move the dirt to block the hole partially to completely hide the light. His Mana flowed out like normal, but he only managed to blow a bit of dust and mud into the hole.
'Seems like I have no affinity for Ground-type spells...' Glenn thought, while Diamanes sneered loudly in the little cave.
"Hah! What a loss, you won't be able to build your dream dirt house! What a pity, right?" His sarcastic voice brought a smile to the young man's face, who then sank his head in his dimensional pouch, taking out a thick wool blanket and rolling himself in it. He stared at the small flame while yawning, his face freezing in place when he suddenly realized that his headache was entirely gone.
"Wait, a headache doesn't just disappear like that..." Glenn rubbed his temples, feeling something amiss. He had attributed the pain to the lack of sleep, but now that he was more tired than ever, it disappeared. That simply didn't make any sense, unless...
"...Unless you have a really strong constitution. Remember what you drank back in that Hole? You shouldn't even have headaches!" Diamanes exclaimed, making his host plunge into deeper thoughts.
'It's true that I never fell ill since then, nor ever felt anything like it... Is something creating this headache? But what? And why?' Glenn mind's fell into silence, his eyes reflecting the hue from the small, warm flame he summoned.
"...If it's magic, it's truly a shitty one..." He mumbled, his head instinctively dropping down. He didn't resist his lethargy and fell into a deep sleep, the magic fire he summoned disappearing with his consciousness.
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"Hihi hihi!!" A feminine voice woke Glenn from his stupor, and he opened his eyes to the verdant forest. He jumped to his feet, and the cave he fell asleep in was nowhere to be seen. The young man glanced around to see the back of a small girl disappearing behind a tree.
"...!" He tried to ask the girl to wait, but nothing came out of his throat. The Silence curse? But it was only supposed to muffle the noise he made while moving, not kill his voice... Glenn didn't have time to think as the girl increased the distance between her and him. He hurriedly ran in her direction, peeking through bushes to see if he could see her. He had recognized that haircut, but most importantly, this angelical voice.
"...!" He tried to scream a name, but no sound came out again. Cursing in his mind, he kept on looking, until arriving at a lush cascade, a tiny girl having fun dipping her feet in the water. Glenn walked slowly, his heart captured in the moment. Lina, his little sister, turned around and smiled widely without a hint of surprise on her face, before rushing to her older brother and pulling him into the small basin created by the cascade.
"Hahaha!!!" She laughed happily as she sprayed water on her dumbfounded brother. He was so taken aback that he didn't even know how to react, only smiling like an idiot. The scene soothed his mind and heart, and he felt tears flowing down his cheek. Without a word, he wiped them off, before playing with his sister by spraying a ridiculous amount of water on her, drenching her completely. She exploded in laughs, and they kept on playing.
At some point, Lina got out of the basin, gesturing at Glenn to follow her. Her tiny hand grabbed him, and she pulled him into the forest, their clothes drying at lightning speed while they walked. They arrived in front of a small cairn clumsily built right beside a thick root coming out of the ground. Milena pointed at the root excitedly, before pointing back at herself. Glenn watched on with confusion, unable to understand what his sister was trying to communicate to him. It was as if a cloud was obscuring his thoughts.
The tiny girl sighed, before shrugging and pulling Glenn deeper in the forest. The young man followed without any resistance, noticing a movement passing by them. His hand instinctively went down to his waist when he realized his axe was missing.
'I'm unarmed? Since when?' He barely thought when he saw a beautiful deer come out of some thick bushes. The animal had a majestic prestige to it, and his antlers seemed to be made of lustrous gold. Glenn took a step toward him when he felt held back by his sister's tiny hand. He looked back at her to find a sad expression on her face, a hint of tears in her eyes.
'What? But it's so beautiful...' He looked back at the dear, mesmerized, when the animal suddenly changed position, revealing the other side of his body. Where the beautiful, brown pelt should have been, there was rotting flesh, protruding bones, and traces of burns. Worms made their way through it while small clouds of flies flew around the opened meat.
Glenn took a step back, the smell of death suddenly taking hold of his nose. He channeled Mana, opting to get rid of this horror before getting once again stopped by his sister. He rolled his eyes, but she pulled harder, taking away his desire to get rid of the phenomenon.
The deer suddenly looked at him, and the young man was able to see that one of his eyes was completely alive, while missing this...flame of intellect that most living beings have. The other part of its face was...simply gone, the brain pulsing with white juices, and its eye hanging alongside its jaw. The creature could only be described as half-dead, half-alive. Not an undead, because half of its body seemed to work perfectly, while the other was completely dead.
Simply a strange, and terrifying creature... Luckily, it didn't seem to have any bad intentions. The creature turned back and fled through the forest, letting Glenn gasp in relief. To speak the truth, his whole body remained tensed up during this encounter, ready to lash out at the beast. Lina gently tugged at his hand, and he followed her thoughtlessly, trying to understand how such a creature could exist and not be an evil monster that deserved to be erased from this world's surface.
They suddenly exited the forest and arrived in a plain of ash. Glenn recognized the similar landscape and looked at Palancar's emptiness. The ash seemed strange, though. It looked like water, almost, pulled toward the center of the plains like waves receding. Milena pointed a trembling finger at the center of the ash stretches, making Glenn look closer. And in the distance, he managed to gaze upon something strange.
It looked...like a stone, maybe? A big, red stone. More like a giant, rough ruby, with a crimson, almost blood-like color.
At each wave of ashes, the ruby seemed to get slightly larger, and slightly larger.
It grew.