Alp kept wriggling his tail, thinking and wincing his head toward Murai as if lost in thoughts or what to even tell.
“I? Me...” Alp was a bit hesitant, figuring it wasn't that easy to recall some thigns. Being chained for so long did this to him, among other things like having his soul strained ~ almost like having a mind below the abyssal waters. It was, as if he finally submerged from the trip from hell, and finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
His memories weren't the brightest, but he knew his name, but nothing purposeful or larger than that. At least partially, he was like a dog with a mind of an old man who underwent memory defragmentation or deterioration of some kind.
“I already see that you are an Alpha Coyote. Around level 30, or higher?” Murai asked again, noticing the confusion with the Soul Read.
Alp nodded, although unaware of his own prowess. As an Alhpa, it was about right, yet not so much because of his inner self?
Murai gradually sought out his purpose through his thoughts and the ability of his Soul Read. It read some tinges of emotions, yet glancing at him was like reading a mashed paper that had way too many words written over the others. It was confusing so he didn't see much sense out of Alp's soul.
“What about this soul of yours or those chains that wanted to wrap me to yourself, or vice-versa? That was tough... I didn't like it. Do you know something about it?” Murai asked again, yet it put some strain on Alp's mind as if unpleasant memories resurfaced inside. He wasn't willing to experience them yet, let alone thought of them.
His tail stopped wriggling, and even his ears went down his head.
“I... can wait. You helped. Me. You... survive. I will help. When ready... and... free. Soul.” Alp added, figuring that he needed time for himself, rather than doing something he could do, but shouldn't force.
Forcing himself onto others wasn't what he wanted. Being shackled for so long was one thing, gaining free will and this situation was also nothing he was ready for. Another was to have one's mind ready to be free, which he feared wasn't something he ever desired. Alp did realize that he wasn't ready, and he viewed freedom as a dream to have.
Now, it was suddenly before him and he couldn't see it as it was hard to feel it. A time of true freedom was yet to come and he wasn't ready to touch it.
Alp made a small bonded promise to himself, and it may shackle his heart but no soul as his soul was no longer cursed by those chains. It was much better than being a slave or being alone, facing the curse that put his soul towards eternal servitude or punishment.
Alp then bowed, as if in thanks before striding along the cliff, wiggling his tail at the sight of the freedom, leaving Murai alone without giving him other words.
Murai and Lisa looked at the running Alp in wonder, thinking about what in the seventh hell they'd just witnessed.
Alas, their time was cut short, when the first coyotes emerged in the range of Murai's Mana Detection. They were coming close, and there were a lot of them than one would assume. Whole packs of them, with brighter lights, indicating the other Alphas were coming to clutch his little neck.
Murai felt their threat.
Those normal Coyotes may not be as strong as messiahs, but their numbers and brutality may be as strong. Though, he was wrong. Alphas were already powerful enough to clutch Murai's with only 2 of them together. 1 on 1, it was also dangerous, but it was obvious to see the problem in the present situation.
There were dozens of incoming enemies, and it didn't even involve the additional packs that Beast Master prepared at further corners, outside of this particular cliff to clutch Murai's escape paths. Since they ran straight towards the edge of the cliff, instead of escaping this trap ~ which wasn't a trap for them ~ they didn't meet them.
Murai forgot Alp's strange case, remembering him, but focusing on what was important. Turning his face around, he glanced at the distance. His current circumstances weren't good so he hurried toward the finest edge of the cliff. Down below, it was an incredibly tall cliff that went quite a distance down. At least half a kilometer, or so he guessed. A gust of wind smacked his head when he glanced over the edge which almost caused him to fly away.
“W-what... Wouldn't it be damn bad if I fly in this sort of environment?” Murai hesitantly asked, finding some excuse to face Lisa.
“Yes, but are you a coward?” Lisa asked, smirking and almost laughing at his hesitant steps that tried to step away. “You have wings, so learn to use them rather than have them like trophies that make no sense.”
Hearing her words, Murai couldn't help but curse at her mockery aimed at his instability and doubts. He had all reason to doubt his wings, and anyone would. He didn't care for his wings. He never did. They were clumsy and hardly something handy and easy to figure out.
“Ugh... Fuck. Fuck.” He cursed, stepping back and forth before and out of the edge. Looking down, the surrounding kilometers of mountains, storms, and valleys, were at the bottom of this large desert-like region. It looked like the madness of a lot of things combined together. The weather down below was terrible, filled with sand storms, tornadoes, and quite some darkness in here.
Above it in the sky, Murai saw unkempt and dark storming clouds, forming a whirlwind above this region. To get down, he needed to glide, fall, or fly for at least 500 meters below ~ more if he will glide, furthering his traveling time. It was quite a larger number than the time when he flew for the first time in the Somalis dungeon.
Now, he was certainly scared, and he wasn't ashamed of it, even if he would never agree to himself that he was.
Lisa floated above him, and behind him, eyeing him with little interest, glancing at the sight below instead. This place was her 2-time visiting opportunity, and something she knew would save some time, and give Murai an interesting opportunity. Hopefully, that was. He may fail, dying miserably in the desert that was more dangerous than the Seventh Death Forest itself.
Smiling, she knew that this will prove some interesting results, if successful. It will give Murai an edge over this Encounter. It may also push some other rules behind, causing problems or whatnot for the gods, which was something she found fitting and hilarious to do. But she liked Chaos as Chaos liked her back.
Getting a little mischievous idea, Lisa got down his back and changed her hand to become corporeal.
A single little smack was enough to let Murai fall beyond the edge, causing him to cry in horror as if the worst enemy emerged in his dreams. Faceless, hiding in the abyss of the cosmos. It was unfathomable.
Lisa looked back, not flying down behind him. At this moment, a Beast Master emerged with the closest Alphas 4 meters away from her.
She smiled at the beasts, who stopped the moment Murai fell, afraid to fall to their deaths, but accepting their master's orders not fall to their deaths. They would jump without hesitation if it was their master's order.
“Too bad,” Lisa said, proudly looking as if she was victorious over some little ploy.
Beast Master furrowed his brows, following the steps of his beast with unnatural steps. A few meters before Lisa, he stopped. “What is this? A succubus? Are you the Life Companion of our target? A soul form... in this place... How peculiar.” he told with quite some killing intent.
“And you lost.” Lisa proclaimed in much higher arrogance.
Beast Master frowned, finding those words truthfully painful, as he didn't expect this cliff to be an opportunity for his enemy instead.
“I will follow this path until the end of this part of the Encounter. My beasts are more than capable to do that, and these aren't the only ones I have. In fact, I am only a small man. The true forces that are hiding behind me are wild, ready to slaughter the way to your little master. The forest is gone, but this Death Valley is still something I entered 4 times and others like me will soon follow. You will die in misery, let me tell you that.”
“4 times? You?” Lisa laughed as if she heard quite a good joke. “I doubt that you ever stepped close to the middle of the Valley. With your weak aura, I wonder what you even did there? Catching birds? Beast? That is about right since you would be dead in no time in normal circumstances of reaching the true place of this Valley, cripple.”
Her words put Beast Master in a bad mood because he knew she was right. Uncovering his long robe with a flick of his hands, he revealed prosthetic legs all the way down his crotch. It wasn't known if his manly part were fine, but that wasn't something Lisa needed to see, or know.
“This was the 4th part of my challenge to that place that you speak of. Do I take it as your desire to go there with your little master and your little choice? Centralis Kingdom won't live it down. They aren't afraid. Not at the eyes of our desires that can move mountains and rivers. This place is nothing to them.” he said, doubtfully claiming it to be as ridiculous as his own fate.
“Whatever you say, cripple. 5th visit will be your last, so enjoy the time that you are left with.” Lisa replied with a smile and waved to make a farewell before floating beyond the edge. She descended like an arrow, following Murai in a couple of seconds while ignoring the unhappy curses that followed behind her back.
Beast Master was furious, yet he could blame no one else but himself for the lack of his own tries and lack of strategies. He failed with his hunts and even failed to talk down a little toy of his target. It was no wonder he was furious. Since he lost his legs, his power steadily went to shit, turning him into a lackey with very little power in the Centralis Kingdom. His level was low, but if it wouldn't be for the last visit to this place, he would be much more powerful.
He knew it, and this little opportunity was key to getting back some of his lost vigor and power. Though this hunt and Encounter was an opportunity for him to regain some footing, he didn't hesitate even a little to go back to the place that was quite dangerous.
Looking below and eying Death Valley, the beast around him growled in displeasure or fear. It was unknown which was which, but perhaps it was both. Beast Master was the same as them. Fearful and crazed because of the failed hunt that should've ended differently. He clutched his fist, thinking that he should've gone all out regardless of anything else, yet he failed because of the rules of his own stakes. He failed and gaining a second chance in a failed Encoutner of this caliber was hard, if not impossible to follow.
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Seventh Death Forest
Region? Death Valley
Precise location? Above it, but around the side of one edge.
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Murai screamed wildly, quacking and cursing Lisa in his mind. Wincing his wings and neck around like a swirling mess of feathers, he was like a duckling trying to feel the wind for the first time. Turned his wings left and right, swinging them around like a mad duck, he was hoping to regain some balance. From the moment Lisa pushed him down, he was unable to get even a speck of balance to his core.
He was out of his mind until Lisa came back to calm his mind. Well... calming the storming chaos itself was a hard thing to do since Murai was quite furious at her.
“Alright, you swing them with more vigor than before. Your Strength and Dexterity are better, so it may be passable to actually fly, but your mind doesn't follow your wings. Do it like before, Murai Hisagi. You did it well enough in Acaman Grounds. Spread the wings wide and let them become sturdy at their base, but soft and firm at the rest. Clutch them tightly and use the core of your body to stabilize yourself. It's easy! Any Anatidae can do so since hatching...” Lisa talked to his soul, gesturing the same things as she did back then. Her empowered soul form of a Soul Render was much better, enabling her to move, fly and Shape her own body with more power and control.
Her wings spread, giving Murai an indication of how to fly yet for her, it was very different than having a living body. Lisa didn't mind this as much as she thought she would. She spread her wings wide, even though they weren't doing anything unless she wanted to. Making her whole body corporeal wasn't something she tried yet. Doing a body part one at a time was much better than trying something whole that would strain her soul to move to full unnatural physicality.
Looking at crying Murai, and hearing his curses aimed at herself, she found it as hilarious as the last time she saw him in such a position. His face was pale, albeit it had a duck's face. Murai tried his best to move his wings as he wanted, and almost succeed yet big strides of wind propelled him away a little, ending his success in vain.
Though, every time he tried it, his wings weren't able to keep up with the fast wind. This definitely wasn't a place one should be able to train flying at, but he had no choice.
“Come on... We are halfway down the Valley. This isn't as hard the clutching your core or figuring out walking. Use your goddamned head of yours, Murai Hisagi. You had it before in the Somalis Dungoen, and this is just a tad bit steadier wind.” Lisa cheered him again, giving him no advice this time since none would work. When it came to flying as a duck, she knew Murai had to figure it out himself since she had no idea how his physicality worked. Lisa only knew how to fly because of her own wings from her past life.
“Fuck OFF! There wasn't such a wind in that cave.” Murai barked at her, unhappily doing as she said. Pushing his wings while clutching every fiber of his muscle to stabilize his swirling body, he did his best. His vision was long confused along this swirling motion, but his mind wasn't.
Then Murai heard some grunts. Out of her sheer unwillingness to help, Lisa smacked Murai's beak, stopping his rotating body. Then, she grabbed his wings and positioned them to a proper angle along with his tail, neck, and beak. All she did was two motions with her palm, and that was it, but even that, caused her body to convulse, causing cracks to spread along her corporeal hands. This strained her because of the wind pushing against Murai, offsetting her own tries to help him, but she managed it in the end.
“Now! Keep this up. You don't have to fly, but gliding to the ground so you won't die like a miserable speck of dust is something you can do. Unless you want to die, that is.” She reasoned, and Murai surprisingly kept his posture firm when it was calm. His wings weren't hurting, and his core wasn't spinning like a damned wheel.
Instead of that, the clarity of the movement enabled him to get some hang of his wings, allowing him to get going with his gliding.
As Lisa said, he clutched them at their base, pushing them firm so they wouldn't move like some piece of cloth. He glided and traveled through the air beside the edge of the cliff that moved straight to the bottom of Death Valley. All it took was well over 300 meters of a free fall before he reached some understanding.
A couple of dozen seconds more, and he would smack to the ground, which may be fatal, or not.
Not like it mattered since Murai managed to use the gust of wind, propelling himself against the air so he no longer fall like a rock.
“Oh... Flying again is such a nice feeling...” he sighed in melancholy, looking far and wide in a vast difference in mentality. He was no longer cursing and rather viewed the deadly sights below as if it was a walk in a park. It wasn't, and he wasn't even sure what was below him. Lisa did, which was yet something she explained to him.
What was below wasn't good news, nor something he should be happy about.
This Death Valley wasn't an easy place to travel through, yet Lisa decided to put Murai through this place with her unknown intentions and hope to stir some troubles. Against what? Murai, Encounter, and unsurprisingly ~ Gods.
In fact, there were other parts from the cherry section of the Seventh Death Forest that she recognized, but she chose this one instead. Some may be easier to travel through, and getting out of the forest would then work too. Though, it was questionable since she discovered Centralis Kingdom forces in Izik's mind.
There were hundreds of them trying to catch Murai alive, if possible, which was strange. She thought this was a deadly hunt, but it wasn't the case. So, thanks to figuring out her location, she realized that Death Valley was the closest, yet was the most dangerous one. But it wasn't that bad since it may be dangerous, but it worked both ways. For them and the Centralis Kingdom.
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Back on the cliff that Murai "jumped" from.
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Beast Master kept looking down, fearful of Death Valley underneath the cliff.
“Fuck... I... I don't want to get there for the 5th time, but... Others would do so for sure. Maybe even Razmund would initiate a direct confrontation since this is his doing from the very beginning. Right... Right.” he nodded in affirmation, ignoring the scowling beast around him that feared what was beyond the horizon.
Thinking of some options, Beast Master pulled a talisman underneath his robe.
It had complex runes engraved on it, indicating it was some sort of magical item. It was a square metallic talisman around 8 centimeters wide. The material was metallic in nature but also resembled a bit of wood. Beast Master pushed the worldly mana towards this object, which ended up blowing the runes into the light. Soon, a voice emerged from the talisman.
“What is it, Ultrek? Too fearful of this forest?” a woman's voice said in a mocking tone.
“Shut up, Tikka. I am in a nasty situation, but I am willing to share a certain kind of information that may be quite significant for the rest. Care to hear it?”
“Oh, you do have something? How surprising. I wonder if it's good or not.” Tikka said, doubting his words.
“Think what you want. Not like you are known to keep secrets... I met our target, but it escaped.”
“Target escaped? You went to the Cherry section, right?” Tikka asked, surprised.
“Right.”
“Squad of messiah went missing there a while ago, so I suppose your words have some truth to them.”
“Of course, I wouldn't lie.”
“Well, you failed in your retrieval... if you speak into this talisman, and ask for permission to share the information, then I take it for the truth. How troublesome. Is the enemy alone?”
“It has a bothersome life companion, but the strength is unknown. The target destroyed the team of 3 messiahs, and also killed a few of my Coyotes.” Ultrek revealed, not hiding much from his own superior that had a much better position than him in the Cetralis Kingdom.
“Well... I don't care about your unsuccessful mission. What do you want for the information?” Tikka asked, obvious that Ultrek wanted to use this chance to obtain some sort of advantage.
Giving him some treasures in return, or some monetary rewards was always a case for providing information in the Centralis Kingdom. They weren't Helpers, so no matter this Encounter, the topic of human greed was always prone to benefits. It was always like this and Centralis Kingdom was the epitome of this issue.