Chapter 79: Together

Two days.

It’s the time the multicolored blessing around me lasted after our miraculous survival. This short period of time was just enough to treat my wounds and get some much-needed rest together with Jazor. It would take much more time for him to be able to use his earth movement magic again, but we didn’t have the leisure to wait for that.

There was already no safe place left for us inside the wilderness.

Agitated by the boiling mana on these savage, but usually calm lands, all the animals were desperately trying to find the cause for this disturbance. The presence of Humans was previously barely tolerated, but in a single day, all the efforts, money and blood paid for decades by the Human race to have a decent foothold on these lands was destroyed.

According to Jazor, it’s the second time something like that ever happened so there wasn’t any hope to have for the various camps and Advanced towns this far away from the Dorell kingdom.

Such was the wrath of the wilderness.

It erased everything and everyone that didn't truly belong to these lands.

It’s only thanks to the blessing of the mysterious intelligent beast that we were able to survive. None of the animals or deviants we crossed paths with attacked us during this time. I obviously wished for this kind of power to last longer, but it was still enough to get far away from the heart of the trouble.

After losing this miraculous protection, we all knew that there was only one way left for us to survive.

To stay on the move until we found a place safe enough for Jazor to rest. With this idea in mind, we stubbornly continued to head east as fast as possible to try to get closer to the Dorell kingdom.

Along our journey, none of us talked about what had happened on the cliff that day. However, neither Paul nor Jazor could truly dissimulate the way they looked at me when they thought themselves out of my sight.

I couldn’t blame them for that.

I released way more mana that day to hope for any kind of excuse to be sufficient. It was one thing to be considered as a genius and another for them to finally realize that there wasn’t anything natural with my power.

The truth was that, for a short time, they had a glimpse at my true nature that I inherited when I was reincarnated into this world.

The questions burning their lips behind their usual smiles and fears hidden by their silences made me realize that the words of the Ancestor of the Great forest of the west had probably more truth in them than I initially thought.

‘Your sin is your own existence.’

What an unpleasant memory...

Maybe this was what I truly was.

I didn’t know the truth about my reincarnation after all.

However, this question that haunted me the first years of this new life didn’t seem as important now. Someone without purpose was bound to fear the future. I stayed this way for a long time, but this wasn’t the case anymore.

I had a goal, important people to rejoin and protect.

Something I never had in my previous life.

If my power made them question or fear me, then I just had to prove to them where my heart truly belonged.

As if to confirm my resolve and soften my doubts, their strange faces only lasted a couple of days and neither of them asked me any question.

Or maybe it was simply because they didn’t have enough time to think about it while crossing the wilderness.

Although most of the animals and deviants of the region were probably still rampaging around the Advanced town, we still had to regularly hide from flocks of silver birds flying above our heads in a deafening racket and from groups of predators pacing in their territories.

Fortunately, my ability to sense them from far away was strong enough to avoid most of the confrontations. We had a few close calls at night when I was resting despite lending my ring of calamity, warning us about the presence of deviants around, to Jazor. From that point on, I realized that this artifact gifted by Hirillë that saved my life so many times had lost a part of its usefulness.

It couldn’t warn us about the presence of normal animals despite their bloodthirsty behaviour after all.

With the entire wilderness as our enemy, we continued our journey.

“How is she?”

Jazor’s question brought me back from my thoughts.

Nine days had already passed since we left the Advanced town, but Alianelle was still unconscious. Her wound was closed and no matter how much I looked at her, she seemed perfectly healthy.

For a reason I didn’t understand, the regeneration potion I used so many times to heal myself and force my way through the threats of the wilderness didn’t have the same effect on her.

Her body continued to stay desperately unresponsive.

She couldn’t eat anything but fortunately the reflex to swallow liquids was still present and allowed us to at least give her water. What was supposed to last only a couple of days continued without any ending in sight. The only good news and also the most baffling one was that even this deprivation of any kind of solid food didn’t seem to have any reel effect on her.

“Stable.” answered Paul after forcing his hurried breathing to calm down.

He was currently carrying Alianelle on his back while crossing a rocky hill. This sun-baked earth was full of cracks and unstable making the apparently easy climb tricky, especially for someone carrying an unconscious person.

“Let’s take a break.” I suddenly suggested after noticing that Paul stumbled when he turned his head to look at Jazor.

My other two comrades didn’t object and immediately stopped to sit down. I also sat down on a flat rock to catch my breath and resume my thinking while using my hand to protect my eyes from the burning sun.

No matter how I looked at our situation, we were in real trouble.

Jazor was still suffering from the overuse of his magic while Paul was definitely starting to tire physically after all this time spent carrying Alianelle on uneven and sometimes barely solid grounds. Even I was having some trouble maintaining an almost constant vigilance around us while fighting any enemy we couldn’t hide or run away from.

The time I spent blind on my own was far more difficult than our current situation, but just like Jazor, my body also had trouble recovering after our fight on the cliff. Although I wasn’t able to completely activate my magic, the release of my entire mana had taken its toll on my young body.

We also encountered more deviants today than ever before. Animals developed intelligence and even magical abilities after overcoming a frenzied period and completely forming their core. All this happened under the influence of the ambient mana making places like forests, naturally dense with mana, a favored birthplace for them.

So, what would happen to all these normal animals if they were suddenly exposed to an increased amount of denser and even wilder mana?

More deviants than ever before will awaken.

If my assumption was right then we were doomed to cross paths with more and more deviants and none of us was in the right disposition to face this new threat.

I wrinkled my brows and turned my head in annoyance from the overwhelming light of the sun at its zenith before giving up and simply standing up to find another spot with more shade.

My steps led me to Alianelle, lying on the ground, her head resting on Paul's muscular, and probably not so comfortable, legs. Her breathing was regular, unperturbed by my worries. Paul was gently stroking her long but messy blond hair with his large calloused hand, clearly unsuited for this kind of work.

I couldn’t see anything wrong about her, but from this close, I didn’t even need to close my eyes to sense that her mana rampaging inside her was the real problem. I tried dozens of time to calm or influence it with my own, but with almost no result.

My ability to sense mana this precisely was one of my most useful abilities and should give me an advantage to resolve her condition. However, nothing I did seemed to have any real impact.

I couldn’t make head or tail of this situation.

What I gave her was a potion I took too many times to remember. It shouldn’t have this kind of effect even if I only gave her half of the vial. At first, I simply thought that she needed a few more days to regain some strength but too much time had passed for this kind of thinking.

I was the only one able to see past her peaceful face, so I properly explained to Paul and Jazor what was really happening inside her. Jazor became just as confused and worried as I was but Paul was different. At first, I simply thought he was too shocked to understand and react properly.

However, even after sharing with us his bafflement and fears for his daughter’s well-being, something still felt off.

It was difficult to put into words and certainly didn’t make any sense.

Paul loved his daughter more than anything and deeply regretted not having fought for her when the Ryunno clan member took her away.

However, for some reason, I thought that his reaction felt a little forced.

I couldn’t get this idea out of my head, even if I was probably just overthinking it.

Unless there was really something I wasn’t aware of.

I narrowed my eyes and tried to discern the truth behind Paul’s face while he was looking at his only daughter.

“Sillath!”

Jazor’s hushed whispering put an end to my thought. Neither me nor Paul needed an explanation when we saw Jazor with his ear stuck to the ground. None of my companions had my ability to sense the nearby lifeforms or fly into the sky to observe our surroundings, but Jazor was still able to use his own magic to make a rough scouting.

The only problem with his method was that his magic only reacted when the vibrations of the earth were strong enough, meaning when the number of animals together was overwhelming.

Even without knowing that, it was already the third time since yesterday that we were confronted with the bitter smile plastered on his pale face. It was already impossible for us to misunderstand what was going on.

A horde was coming toward us.

Without another word, we quickly departed.

-------------------------------------

We avoided the horde without any trouble.

However, the two others we met a few days later were trickier. We were forced to patiently wait for one of them to bypass us while the second one forced us to make a huge detour. Constantly heading east was simple enough on the paper, but I wasn’t even sure we were really making any real progress.

There were just too many animals, and even with my sensory abilities, we couldn’t avoid a few nasty fights.

Finding a safe place to allow Jazor to rest and regain his ability to move under the earth was starting to feel like complete disillusion. In the same way, I was becoming doubtful whether it was really possible to cross the wilderness.

That’s probably why, when we were faced with the choice to do another detour or cross the inhospitable misty swamp in front of our eyes, I hesitated.

“You can’t be serious.” Paul exclaimed aghast.

“I agree with him, sissy. Even when I was on mission with other mercenaries, I usually avoided this kind of place.” added Jazor dully.

His usual playfulness was gone, replaced by a weariness difficult to hide with the dark bags under his eyes. Countless nights of tireless sleep regularly interrupted by incessant deviant’s or animals’ attacks followed by continuous walking and fighting throughout the day was starting to show on his face.

My own was probably not looking any better.

That’s precisely why I proposed to change our usual evasion strategy and cross the dark swamp currently in front of our eyes. I flew into the sky earlier, so I was able to confirm that not crossing it would make us do another massive detour.

Now that the mana was dense and chaotic all around us, places like forests, usually richer in mana, had lost part of their attractiveness for many of these animals. Consequently, walking through this not so welcoming area wasn’t as bad an idea as it was before the start of the wrath of the wilderness.

Probably.

Of course, expecting this somber-looking swamp to be devoid of any threat was like hoping for ice creams to fall from the sky.

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However, this was a risk I was ready to take if it finally meant making some progress on our journey.

No matter how unwilling Jazor and Paul both looked, they swiftly realized that my approach had some merit after some explanation.

“Just to be clear,” added Jazor bitingly just before putting his foot on the muddy ground, “I don’t like it one bit and this is your idea.”

“What difference would that make?” I inquired while rubbing the back of my neck.

“If we can’t cross this swamp then we’re all dead meat” I reminded him bluntly.

“I want to be able to yell at you ‘It’s your fault!’ when everything goes to shit.” simply added my dwarven friend without any shame.

I rolled my eyes at him and took the lead of our small group with Jazor tactfully closing the march to guarantee Paul and Alianelle’ safety.

The air was damp and way hotter than I initially thought, forcing me to wipe the sweat on my forehead regularly. I tried to ignore the surrounding vegetation along the way but it was difficult not to notice the obvious presence of species not existing in my old world. I wasn’t an expert, but except for a few healthy gnarled trees with a classic yet vibrant green luster, many others had much more intriguing shapes and colors. Whether it was the conspicuous thorny purple bushes, the withered blue trunks floating on the murky water near us or the improbable orange fruits hanging overhead from a towering slate-colored ancestral tree, I doubted that any had ever existed in my old world.

The wet soil, almost muddy in places, along with the many and mostly thorny shrubs made our progression slow and strenuous that the fog clouding our vision only amplified.

The thin mist at the entrance of the swamp was gradually becoming denser forcing Paul to put one hand on my shoulder to make sure we didn’t lose each other.

I had to give credit to Jazor. His reluctance to traverse this swamp even after my persuasion was starting to make more sense with our diminishing sight, robbed by this fog, thickening with each step we took on this damp and unstable soil.

Without my ability to sense mana and lifeforms all around us, crossing this swamp would have been a pure folly.

After ten minutes of walking, it was starting to become difficult to see more than a few feet ahead.

“Shouldn’t we use some kind of fire magic?” murmured Paul behind me.

“Sure,” Jazor grumbled crisply, “if you want all the animals of the region to notice our position and rush toward us.”

I agreed with Jazor. Our only chance to move across this territory without any trouble was to do it as quietly and discreetly as possible.

For several hours, we continued our slow but steady march. I already completely closed my eyes to totally focus on my mana sense. It was easier for me to lead us forward on solid ground without falling into the water or stumbling on various hurdles. It’s in this kind of situation that I finally realized just how terrifyingly good I became at this kind of stuff after losing my sight for what seemed like an eternity.

Of course, I wasn’t nostalgic of this time spent on my own in the most savage land of our continent with only the constant terror and anguish of the darkness as a companion. However, I couldn’t deny that without this ability, our trek would have been way more difficult.

It was probably due in large part to this ability that after three hours we haven’t been attacked even once.

What seemed like a terrible idea at first fueled by tiredness and desperation revealed itself as a genius move that would save us several days of travel. The dense oppressive fog was already starting to clear and allowed me to rely more on my sight to navigate our way forward.

“Hate to say this, but you were right. Never thought this would be so easy.” suddenly blurted out Jazor blithely.

“Easy?” I asked without hiding the displeasure in my voice.

Maintaining such a high level of concentration and alertness for three long hours to guide us to safety was certainly all except easy.

“Maybe you want to take the lead?” I asked sarcastically.

“Nope. Go on.”

I was ready to rebuke him to vent my tiredness once more when my senses picked up a surge of mana. I immediately focused on this sudden appearance, but it took me a few seconds to understand why I was feeling it so close to us.

“Alianelle?” I mumbled without thinking while stopping and turning my head to look at the young girl behind me carried on Paul’s wide and steady back.

Paul tilted his head to the side, not understanding why I would utter her name in this circumstance.

However, I didn’t have the leisure to explain before Alianelle did something she never did ever since we started our journey.

She started to move.

The smile of mixed surprise and relief froze on my face after only a few seconds when I realized that her movements were strange. I first thought she was waking up, but her movements became increasingly erratic while her mana continued to grow denser and more turbulent.

Grunts of pain escaped her lips as her entire body began to spasm, forcing Paul to tighten his grip before he had to set her down on the wet ground after realizing he couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t fall down.

“Wha-What’s happening!” faltered Paul with a voice far louder than it should be in our situation.

“Quiet!” spat out Jazor as softly as his hoarse voice allowed him to.

Paul immediately closed his mouth despite the increasing fear in his eyes. Unfortunately, I knew that the true problem wasn’t Paul's voice.

I put my hand on Alianelle’s quavering head to try to calm her growing and rampaging mana, but nothing I did had any effect. What was once a small disturbance became big and easily recognisable even for Jazor.

“Take her Paul and let’s go!” finally barked Jazor after realizing it was too late to attempt to stay hidden.

“We can’t. Look at her!” pleaded Paul, completely forgetting where we currently were.

“Take her, damnit!” berated Jazor explosively while taking his trusted axe from his back.

As if finally waking up, Paul took Alianelle in his arms and tried to secure and immobilize her as much as possible while we quickly made our way across the rest of the swamp.

For long minutes, we could only hear Alianelle’s moans while running as fast as the rough ground allowed us to. The damp and hot air of the swamp made it increasingly tiring to run.

“Why the hell is it so hot here?” protested Jazor.

His words laced by his ragged breathing made me finally realize that something wasn’t right.

I closed my eyes and extended my senses as far as possible without stopping my mad run. However, after a few seconds, my eyes shot open and I abruptly stopped in my tracks. I halted my course too abruptly without warning so Paul almost ran into me.

I expected Jazor or Paul to ask why I suddenly stopped, but when I opened my eyes, I realized that they both saw what I sensed first.

A pale blue light hovering above the ground among the fog was slowly moving toward us. It radiated a strong heat influencing its surroundings and increasing as it got closer.

“What is that, Jazor?” I cried out with my body tenser than I would like it to be.

“How the hell am I supposed to know? I told you that I usually avoid this kind of place!” he roared.

The fog, denser around this pale light, was probably dissimulating the rest of our unwanted guest. Usually, I would take my time to observe our unknown opponent to avoid making any fatal mistake.

However, Alianelle’s mana was continuously growing denser and wilder behind me marking our position for every animal, intelligent or not, inside this swamp. We had to get through as fast as possible.

“Move aside! We don’t want to fight” I shouted while raising my hand and gathering my mana threateningly.

For a few seconds, I wondered if the creature in front of us was simply unable to understand my words until the faint blue light started to pulsate and become denser. The small orb started to emit strange, thin, growing threads around it seeming to spread through the air itself.

This was the only answer I needed.

Without any other warning, I shot an earthbullet at this light.

I couldn’t help but let a small sound of confusion escape my lips when my trusted magic failed.

This attack was fast and letal against poorly armored enemies, but it wasn’t all that effective to pierce through my opponent’s defense. The blue light didn’t move, so even if I didn’t pierce its defense, I should have hit.

So why didn’t I hear any kind of impact?

I fired a few more bullets of condensed earth while the light continued to strangely grow into a deformed humanoid form, hidden behind the protective veil of the fog, but the result was the same.

Was it immune against earth magic or did my magic simply pass through?

The iceball I fired immediately after simply turned into steam before reaching its target and didn’t answer my question.

Unable to understand what was really happening, I fired a simple fireball and made it hover slightly above the mysterious pale blue light. This time, my magic accomplished its purpose and finally dissipated some of the fog around our opponent.

Contrary to what I initially thought, the blue light, becoming more tangible with each passing second, wasn’t the monster's entire body. It was probably around seven feet high with a brown greenish bark-like skin apparently dense and resistant enough to stop Jazor’s axe. Its humanoid shape was closer to that of a female with its defined chest and protruding hips while its long and thin branch-like arms ended with clawed fingers.

The blue light appeared to be at the center of its belly, while the thin blue lines growing and expanding from there continued to spread out all along its body giving it an eerie and menacing appearance.

The creature currently moving with water up to its knees wasn’t creating any waves or making any kind of noise as it slowly but surely approached us.

“Let me do it.” shouted Jazor from behind while running forward with his axe raised.

My dwarven friend was tired and still weakened but his sprinting speed was no joking matter. Before, I could react, he had almost reached the creature.

With a powerful propulsion from one of his earthen magic, he jumped to reach the creature's head.

I just had the time to notice the still water around the creature’s body suddenly bubbling up before I saw Jazor’s body in mid-air violently thrown back.

“Jazor!”

With a wave of my hand, I sent a powerful gust of wind to stop his clearly unwanted flight. With the help of my magic, Jazor was able to fix his posture and landed heavily on the damp ground just in front of me.

“What the hell happened?” I yelled alarmingly without turning my head away from the strange life form still moving unhindered.

The creature suddenly raised one of its ashy-brown arms and pointed a withered but menacing finger at us. The magic I was expecting to manifest didn’t come. Instead, the pointy finger extended and reached me faster than I thought possible.

Jazor’s axe intercepted the lethal attack and gave me enough time to get out of the way when another finger followed, bypassed Jazor and tried to reach my heart with surprising agility. Without any mana prior to its attacks, it was more difficult for me to predict and avoid. Four of its extended appendages were enough to chase and corner me before one of Jazor’s violent swings of axe forced them to retreat back to their owner. However, something was weird. The blow of Jazor’s sharp axe wasn’t enough to sever the branch-like limbs and simply deflected them.

I knew better than anyone just how destructive his attacks could be.

His weakened state deprived him of many of his abilities and especially made fighting from afar a challenge. However, if his axe made contact, then no matter the defense of its opponent, everything would crumble in front of his magic.

That’s what I thought but reality proved me wrong.

“As I thought,” snarled Jazor with an annoyed look “It’s fire magic.”

“Fire? What do you mean?” I asked puzzled before remembering the bubbles that appeared just before Jazor’s previous attack.

“It’s one of the aspects of this element. Far from the most destructive but probably among the most troublesome for someone like me who needs to directly touch my opponent. I suppose we can call it burning air.”

“G-Guys!”

The rest of Jazor’s explanation was cut short when Paul suddenly stammered.

More hovering blue lights were coming from behind and from our left beyond the murky water, barely visible beyond the dense curtain of fog.

A single glance was enough to count more than a dozen of them with probably more on the way.

We couldn’t fight something like that.

“This way!” I cried out to my distressed companions.

The only path forward on solid land was blocked. Breaking through against a monster with attacks so fast wasn’t an option especially with someone as defenseless as Paul. Instead, I ran to the side directly toward the edge of the only piece of solid ground in our immediate vicinity.

I couldn’t move in this muddy and turbid water unhindered like the creatures confronting us, but ever since I started mastering my magic, water was never a problem for me.

As soon as my foot touched the water and, before it could sink, a dense layer of brilliant ice formed under it and supported my weight.

“Hurry!” I cried out to my stunned friends, late to follow on the path of ice leading us away from the bloodthirsty creatures.

The first cautious steps on the apparently thin layer of ice were quickly replaced by a much faster pace when numerous roars of rage resonated behind us.

I made three fireballs hover around me to guide the others on this treacherous forged path among the fog. Their powerful lights guide the rest of my group and probably also my enemies. However, the violent burst of mana and the screams of pain escaping from Alianelle were already more than enough for them to track us.

After what seemed like an eternity, her heartbreaking gasps and wails ended. Shortly after, we also reached a solid ground probably at the edge of the swamp, if the almost negligible amount of fog was any indication.

“I told you, damnit!” complained Jazor with his hands on his knees.

I ignored grumpy, wiped the sweat from my forehead for the hundredth time and walked toward Paul sprawled on the ground with Alianelle’s upper body, now immobile, completely leaning against him.

I wanted to observe her mana more closely to understand what had happened to her, when I sensed another life form coming toward us.

“Give us a break!”

Fortunately, there wasn’t any blue light this time.

Instead, a massive quadripedic beast with indestructible looking scales all along its muscular body emerged from the edge of the trees. I stood with my eyes open wide and my mouth agape for long seconds before Paul also noticed our unwelcome visitor and cried out the name of the species we all immediately recognized.

“ A vrapy!”

One of the first tamed animals I encountered in this new world and one that left me an everlasting impression. Usually used to pull carriages, and indispensable to cross the wilderness safely and efficiently, this vrapy was fixing us with its reptilian eyes as if gauging our worth.

Vrapy were strong and certainly dangerous, but when I realized the potential inestimable help this wild vrapy could give us, this imposing monster didn’t appear as threatening as it was. Even its sharp fangs barely hidden in its mouth didn’t dampen my enthusiasm.

Until another life form followed.

One that we never encountered ever since leaving the Advanced town in catastrophe.

A Human.

He walked with long strides on the muddy ground, before stopping next to the apparently not so wild vrapy, while looking at us with his eyes just as dark as his shoulder-length hair. His austere face was still well defined and probably attractive with its chiseled lower jaw and high cheekbone, despite the bushy, unkept beard that covered half of it.

His towering bulk, with his straight back and broad-shoulders, loomed in front of us like a mountain and didn’t appear diminished by the presence of the threatening monster just next to him.

He held a silver one-handed-axe in his left hand and a blue shortsword in his right, each glowing with a strange complicated black circle near the base of the weapon. This obvious owner of the vrapy along with the two artifacts in his hands appeared to be in his mid-thirties, with an athletic body and bronzed skin visibly tempered by the elements.

The simple black leather garment he wore was armless and exposed a long, possibly festered cut along his muscular right arm. The dirty bandage, probably used to stop the bleeding several days ago, was just as red as the wide, unadorned cloth belt that held his travel worn pants. This impressive wound didn’t seem to hinder him in any way as he pointed his sword arm at us with a watchful expression on his face.

“Who the hell are you all?” he questioned with a firm but softer voice than I expected.

Before any of us had the time to answer, he suddenly pointed his sword to his right while letting out a few strange words out of his mouth. The vrapy, that was entirely focused on us, immediately turned its gaze away and leaped at something behind a grey bush. The unknown creature didn’t even have the time to react before it was torn apart in front of our stunned gazes.

“I guess we should get away from here first.” he said while indicating something behind us with his head.

Familiar and unwelcomed blue lights were closing on us stealthily and urged us to ignore the bloodthirsty scene his pet just created and to accept his offer.

For the next ten minutes, we followed his steps with a safe margin between us.

It was with an undisguised relief that we finally emerged from the foggy environment to arrive in a strangely arid and barren plain. Probably judging that we were finally safe enough for the time being, the man who had long since put away his weapons, turned around to face us.

With the light of the declining sun, he examined us in silence for long seconds.

I could almost see the gears turning in his head as his imagination probably worked harder than ever to figure out how our strange group composed of a dwarf, a non-combatant human, and of two children, including one unconscious, came to be.

However, his questions didn’t make it through his mouth before another vrapy approached us to rejoin its brethren.

The lone warrior with a tamed vrapy I pictured in my head instantly disappeared when I noticed the massive caravan with a big bellied man sitting on the coachman place. This imposing vehicule had a massive black cage secured on its back that didn't let us have any disillusion about the merchandise it was transporting.

In the middle of the wilderness, that’s where we encountered a slave caravan.