After a long ride, Warren finally came close to the bandit camp. After hitching his wagon to a nearby tree, he crept closer to the camp. He stood on a hill about two kilometres away, hidden by the cover of the trees. He would have preferred going in under the cover of darkness, but he didn’t know how long the woman’s sister had. That meant he would have to go immediately. The sun still had a few hours before it would set, so he would just have to hope that he could sneak in undetected.
From the information he gained, he knew that it was a relatively small camp, with scarcely more than seventy or eighty bandits in total. That was still a fairly high number compared to just him on his own. He would die a fool’s death if he just charged in there without a plan, but the first thing he needed was more information.
To do that, there was only one thing for him to do. He would have to see how effective his implants were. He had wanted to take some more time to explore them in detail, but that wasn’t an option anymore.
He already knew that a few abilities had already activated and functioned automatically. What he needed to do now was to see what other abilities he had, and see if he could activate them as well. To do this, he sat cross-legged on the ground and closed his eyes.
He visualized himself swimming in a deep black pool with a bright white light shining from the bottom, and slowly let himself sink towards it. He sank deeper and deeper into it, past his conscious mind and past his subconscious, to get to that light.
It was a meditative technique he had picked up back in his old world. It was quite useful for relaxing his mind. Of course it didn’t work immediately. Nothing in life’s ever that easy. He had to repeat it over and over again, until he let go off all his stray thoughts, and focused on the power that lay deep inside him.
He lost track of how many minutes had gone by, but eventually his hard work bore fruit. His mind came to life as awareness flooded into him. He could feel his mind start to rearrange itself, as dormant parts of it awakened and activated. Knowledge came flooding in about his new abilities, and was compiled and quantified.
It was as if there was a report in the back of his mind, which would constantly be updated. The problem lay in the fact that he didn’t have a great deal of control over this part of him. Like the extrasensory perception, the new part of his mind that gathered, stored and analyzed data was entirely automatic, with him only able to receive the fruit of their labour. He was utterly unable to reach in and see what that part of his mind was looking at, or into its stored data, and he couldn’t change that process either.
The best analogy was a movie in a theatre. All he could see was the final product on the screen, completely unaware and separate from the process used to create that movie. Worse still was the fact that his mental implant wasn’t one that could really think for itself and build off of previous data. Warren was the one that would have to acquire information for the implant to use.
Unfortunately this also meant that he didn’t really know what he had gained from the goddesses. All he knew was that there was a dark power deep inside him, waiting for the moment it would erupt forth. Although he didn’t know the full extent of the abilities he had, he would be alright for the time being.
Having gotten the information he was looking for, he opened his eyes. The sun had gone down a bit, and he judged he had meditated for about an hour. Using his telescopic vision, he surveyed the bandit’s camp. It lay at the very edge of his vision’s range, but he was able to make out key details in the placement of the tents and the movement of the bandits.
He noted that the living space was bunched together on the left side of camp. He could see what looked like the leader’s tent beside another large tent that housed the camp’s women. It was well in the centre of the camp, so it wouldn’t be easy to get to.
Fortunately, it was a pretty basic camp, lacking a wall and proper shelters. They didn’t even have patrols or proper watchmen. All he could see was a bored looking man sitting at the main entrance to the camp, and a single watchman in a wooden tower on either side of camp. Although it wasn’t well-guarded, they were fortunate in the lay of the land. The camp was located in the middle of a large, flat plain with no trees for at least two kilometres around. The grass was very short as well, so it would be difficult to sneak up on them.
Well then, if he couldn’t sneak inside or get in inconspicuously, then he would just have to take the camp by storm. However with so many enemies, it would only be a matter of time before he was overrun. He couldn’t just take them all on with just a sword. He needed a better plan, and fortunately he had just the thing to pull it off.
He went back down the hill and walked back to his wagon. He rummaged through the items and pulled out a small clay pot of oil, a thin sheet of cloth, and a small metal bowl. He then took out a bow and a quiver of arrows. He smiled grimly, thinking of how he would take them down.
He had learned several crafting skills in Royal Road, and was reasonably proficient with most of them. It was thanks to this that he knew how to modify the arrows, swapping out the arrowheads and putting on a roll of oil-soaked cloth. He made seven such arrows. He then unhitched one of the horses and strapped the metal bowl onto it. He filled it with wood chips and angled it so that the wind wouldn’t blow out the fire.
With a sword at his side, a bow in his hand and a quiver on his back, he was ready for battle. The seven fire arrows was on a second smaller quiver that was hung on the horse’s back. Warren took a deep breath, calming his nerves and focusing on the target before him. Archery was very different as compared to sword-fighting. Rage and adrenaline were less than useless. What he needed was cold, unwavering precision.
Once he was ready, he swung himself up onto the horse and rode around to the left side of the camp. Since there wasn’t a saddle, he had to ride bareback on the horse. Fortunately he had gotten some practice in Royal Road. They kept to the treeline so they wouldn’t be spotted by the watchman.
Once they got in position, Warren once again used his telescopic sight to keep an eye on the watchman. He watched and waited for the man to be distracted. The moment finally came when the watchman closed his eyes and nodded off.
Not wanting to miss his chance, Warren spurred his horse on, till they were galloping down the plains. They flew over the flat ground, desperately trying to get as close as possible before the watchman woke up. The second they were within range, Warren pulled back on the bridle and slowed the horse down.
He then immediately drew a normal arrow and nocked it on the bow. Once he had the watchman in sight, he let it fly. The arrow soared through the air, and found its mark. It pierced the watchman through his throat. He came awake for only a few seconds, gasping and desperately clawing at his throat before he died.
With that issue taken care of, Warren drew the fire arrow and lit it in the small metal bowl. He let it fly into the tents and spurred on his horse to come around to the front. He shot the remaining fire arrows on the way to the main entrance, setting the tents alight, and hearing the bandits scream. There was a certain grim satisfaction in watching the enemy burn to death.
Because of the way the camp was set up, there was only one way in and out, and that was through the main entrance. All he had to do was pick off the bandits that came through there. He wasn’t worried about the women burning to death, since their tent was a safe distance away from the living space.
When Warren finally came to the front, he first took out the main watchman. He let the bandits come forward and then started firing. Draw, nock, pull, release. Over and over, he performed these four actions, timing them with his breath. With the bandits all bunched up together, every single arrow, all thirty-four of them, found their mark. With another dozen or so bandits caught in the fire, which amounted to well over half the camp being destroyed.
There were only about thirty bandits remaining, and since he had run out of arrows, Warren tossed aside his bow and drew his sword. With one hand on his horse, he guided the horse to gallop towards the bandits. Several of them were unarmed, having forgotten to pick up their weapons in the panic and confusion. It was these men that Warren went for first.
He rode his horse past them, and used its momentum to slash across and decapitate the enemy. At the same time, he used the horse to round them up so that they couldn’t escape. Slowly but surely he whittled away at the enemy’s numbers, until there were only about twenty of them left.
He was about to make another run at them, when warning bells went off in his head. Heeding his instincts, he jumped off the horse mid-run and ducked and rolled to safety. When he looked back up, he saw that he was right to do so. Where his horse used to be, was a charred, misshapen lump of meat with flames dancing around it. That attack could have been fatal if it had hit.
He turned back to the group of bandits, and saw that a new one had come from the burning remains of the camp. He had his hand out, and held a small fireball in his palms. Damn, a mage. I wasn’t expecting that. He wasn’t prepared to deal with magic just yet. His eyes seemed to prickle as he took in the sight of magic.
The mage was dressed much better than the other bandits, in what looked to be a silk robe. Yet he looked like a typical bandit leader, with a thick coarse beard, and a large heavy frame. His face was twisted up in fury, as he looked at Warren. “You bastard! How dare you try to attack my camp?!”
So this was the bandit leader. Defeating him wouldn’t be easy, even with his sword skills and enhanced body. Yet something bothered him about this mage being in a small bandit camp. “So you’re the leader? That’s funny, I wouldn’t have thought that a mage would be a bandit. Unless…he wasn’t strong enough to make a living as a mage.”
“Shut your mouth boy, I’ll show you just how strong I am!”
Warren smiled slowly. So this wasn’t a trained and capable magic-user that he was up against, but rather a person with a modicum of talent in one area. Someone like him could probably only use a fireball or fire-related magic, and he probably had a limit on those uses as well. If he didn’t, he would have peppered Warren with a barrage of fireballs.
They circled each other, Warren looking to close the distance, and the bandit looking to end it all with a single shot. Warren slowed his pace, hoping to lure an attack. The bandit complied by shooting out a fireball the size of Warren’s head. Warren quickly dodged and rolled away, clearing the initial shot and the resulting explosion. Once again, Warren felt something inside him react to the magical power he just dodged.
However while he did get out in time, he didn’t stand up afterwards. Instead he clutched his foot, as if it was in pain. With a look of unholy glee on his face, the bandit immediately took the opportunity and blasted him with three fireballs.
Unfortunately for him, this was all part of Warren’s plan. He jumped out of the way just in time, and smirked as the fireballs went past him, and got the other bandits instead. This time around, the feeling behind his eyes grew to an intense pressure. It pushed out inside him and wanted to be used. Realizing what it was, Warren tamped it down for the moment and faced the leader. “You really are quite stupid, not even bothering to look where your attacks might hit. I actually didn’t expect that you would fall for such a simple, childish trick as faking an injury.” Warren laughed at him mockingly, seeking to further upset him.
The bandit’s face contorted as the humiliation from killing his own men turned into rage. “Fine brat,” he spat out, “you think you’re so much better than me? Then take my strongest attack!”
He closed both his eyes and concentrated. From his hands emerged four small fireballs. They floated up to the sky and moved in a circle, spinning faster and faster until they formed a ring of fire that stood up vertically in the sky. The spinning ring gathered the fire from the bandit camp and took it for its own.
While Warren was confident in his abilities, he wasn’t by any means arrogant or overconfident. There was a method to his madness. Whereas most people would shy away from danger, Warren ran towards it, bringing himself to the very edge of life and death, because it’s only there where you can transcend your abilities.
This was an opportunity to witness the very basics of magical warfare, and Warren took full advantage of it. His eyes had shifted into another spectrum, and he could see the way energy flowed and twisted around the mage. His mental construct took that information, broke it down and analysed it. He could feel the information start to flow into his mind, as he began to understand the nature of magic in this world.
While one part of his mind worked on that, the rest of him provoked the bandit, sending him off-balance and buying more time. “Really? You’re going to use an attack that takes a few minutes to get ready, and while you’re doing it you’re completely defenseless? Now that’s just asking to get killed. In fact while I was talking, I could have gone over and killed you five times over. The only reason why I’m still waiting for you to attack is because I’m that confident that I can kill someone as monumentally idiotic as you. A word of advice, you prep for such a long attack at the beginning of battle, before your enemy has a chance to close the distance, or near the end when he’s incapacitated or can’t get to you in time. You don’t so it when the enemy still has the strength to take you down. And if you do, you better have some back-up to run interference and keep the enemy occupied.” Warren laughed suddenly and shook his head in amusement. “Look at me, now I’m just as stupid as you are. I’m giving advice to a dead man.”
Eventually the bandit finished his spell. The ring of fire had grown ten times larger after having absorbed all the flames in the area. The bandit had a smirk of satisfaction and he beheld his greatest spell. “Not so cocky now, are you? Even you can’t dodge this in time.” He gestured with his hands and turned the ring into a giant ball of flames. He then threw the ball right at him.
By the time the bandit loosed his attack, Warren had already understood the very basics of magic, and could replicate the bandit’s attack. Ready to take it on headfirst, Warren lifted his sword and drew it over his head. He found the wellspring of energy that was buried deep inside him and pulled it out. The tricks and secrets that mages used to cast spells came easily to him, as he molded the energy into a fireball of his own.
But while he started with the same attack as the bandit, he altered it a bit, focusing his energy into a single point at the tip of his blade. He charged forward, sword high in the air, still condensing the energy into a small orb of white-hot fire. His muscles contracted explosively, propelling him faster than any human could hope to achieve.
Then, when the space between him and the bandit’s fireball was little more than a swords-length away, he bunched his muscles and furiously swung his sword down, releasing the fireball as he did. The added power and motion of the swing affected his spell, making it rip through the enormous fireball and rendering it harmless. The bandit could only look on, mouth agape in shock and horror, as Warren bounded over to where he was, and cut him across the chest, severing his body in two.
There were only a few bandits remaining, and so he finished the rest of them off. They barely put up any resistance as he chased them down and cut them down, taking off their heads, and limbs, and opening up wounds that couldn’t be healed. When he was done, he had a light sheen of sweat on his skin, but that was all he had to show for such vigorous exertion.
As he looked at all the dead bodies that lay at his feet, he felt neither guilt nor sorrow, but merely pity. Many of them were strong, young men. They had so much potential, but they wasted it all, only to end up as a stain across his blade. He left the bodies there as food for the carrion. Perhaps in death they may accomplish something meaningful.
He then went to free the trapped women. He saw that much of the camp was undamaged by the fire. Although he knew in his head that the women would be safe from the flames, he was still relieved to see it for himself. While in the heat of battle, he hadn’t had the time to worry about them to any great degree.
He trudged through the remains of the bandit camp, walking over burnt corpses and through soot and ashes. When he entered the area where the women were kept, he was horrified at what he saw. A dozen or so women were chained to the ground by their legs. The few pieces of clothing they did have on were torn, weathered and filthy. Many of them were bruised and beaten, and had dull, weary eyes that have suffered too much abuse.
When they caught sight of Warren, many of them just looked at him blankly, thinking he was just another bandit who was there to abuse them. The image of those broken souls looking at him without the smallest shred of hope was burned into his memory. His hands and teeth clenched with an indescribable rage and a new hatred for the bandits that did this to them.
Warren drew his sword and stormed forward. Now the women looked at him with fear and flinched when he held his sword up in the air. Warren swung it down and severed the chains on one of the women. The meaning of his actions didn’t get through to them, until he had severed the chains of half the women there.
Realization struck that he wasn’t there to hurt them but to free them instead. Yet while they knew this, some of them didn’t know what to do. Freedom had been a long-denied right for them, and now that they had it, it scared them.
Warren finally came to the last woman in the tent. She was the reason he came, the sister to the woman he encountered back at the forest. He knew it was here by the faint resemblance in the face and the clothing. Unlike everyone else, she was fairly clean and her clothes seemed new.
Warren gave a low bitter laugh at the sight of her. She certainly was beautiful, with fair skin and golden hair. She should have grown up happily, married to a good man and have a few kids. Instead she ended up being kidnapped by a group of bandits. Her family was slaughtered and she was taken away from her sister.
She was a smart woman, she knew what would eventually happen to her, how her soul would slowly die over the course of several months, until she looked just like the women who surrounded her. Before that happened, she likely tried to escape, but found she could only remove one bolt from her chain.
Warren saw by her bloodied wrists and fingertips how hard she tried to get herself free. By the marks on the manacle on her ankle, she tried to get it open with the bolt but found herself unable to. Instead she did the only thing she could do. She took the long bolt, pointed on one end, and drove it into her heart.
That’s just the way things work out sometimes. In the real world, even if you do everything right, things can still end up horribly wrong.
Kiyalah’s words were wise, but they brought him no comfort. Is that supposed to cheer me up? Because if you are, you’re not doing such a good job.
If you remember, I’m not the goddess of sweet words, but of wrath and vengeance. In my eyes, you did your job and appeased the souls that have been wronged by them. And just like that, she was gone again.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
She’s right, at least I managed to do something good. Now’s not the time to wallow in self-pity. He broke the chain on the young woman’s foot and then turned to the rest of the women. “There are still horses and wagons left in the camp. You can take them and any loot you find back to your homes.”
The women looked at each other and murmured amongst themselves. Then one of them stepped forward and spoke up. Her voice was quiet and threaded with fear. “W-we have no homes to go to, and we can’t defend ourselves…” She trailed off, but he knew what they were getting at.
“Alright, I’ll accompany you while you find a safe place to live in.” After saving them from those brutes, he couldn’t just leave them alone in the world. “Gather up anything useful or valuable and load them into the wagons.”
As the women scrambled around the camp, Warren headed to a tent on the far side of the camp. He sensed a presence there so he needed to check it out. It was a tiny tent, which would only be suitable for storage of some sort. Expecting a bandit to be hidden inside, Warren drew his sword and burst through the tent flaps.
Instead of a bandit, what he found was a largely empty space. Inside of it was a stunningly beautiful woman, with long auburn hair, bright green eyes…and pointed ears. If he was right, then she was an elf.
For her part, she didn’t seem as shocked as he was. “A Halfling,” she said pensively. “I didn’t expect to see someone like you, little cousin.” When she used the term little cousin, Warren didn’t thing she literally meant in the familial way. By what she said, he surmised that his current appearance looked at least a little elfin.
He had to stop himself from reaching up and feeling his ears. What he wouldn’t give for a mirror to see himself in. The thing that bothered him about this situation was the slightest bit of mistrust he felt towards her. His instincts told him not to get close to her, but he put that down to him never meeting an actual flesh and blood elf before. “I didn’t expect to see someone like you here either. Why didn’t you use your magic to fight back or escape?”
The elf grimaced. “I couldn’t. When my guards saw them approaching, I tried to use my magic, but found myself unable to. Someone must have slipped me a unique type of potion before I set off on my travels. As for escaping, these chains prevent magic use for most beings.”
“And your guards? What happened to them?”
“They fought well, but they were overrun. That magic-user overwhelmed them. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to get out of these manacles.”
Warren looked at them and tried to figure out a way to get them off. He couldn’t think of a way to get them off without hurting her by accident. “You’ll have to keep them on for a bit longer, at least until we find a key.”
“Fine, then let’s find one.” She strode out of the tent regally with her head held high. From her demeanor, no one would have thought that she had been a prisoner just a few moments ago. When she got outside, she stopped and looked around confusedly. “Where are all the men you came with?”
“Soldiers? I’m afraid you’re mistaken, I came here on my own.”
For the first time, the elf’s mask of elegance and calm shattered, and she stared at him mouth agape. “You did all this yourself?” She was surprised, and the slightest bit afraid, and rightly so, seeing as how Warren single-handedly killed about eighty bandits.
“It’s nothing too extraordinary; I got lucky and took them by surprise.” Warren then went on to explain what had happened. He purposefully downplayed what he did, and left out the parts where he used his abilities. He didn’t want to expose his secrets just yet. It would be better for her to think of him as just an extraordinary swordsman.
The elf didn’t quite look convinced, but she still reluctantly accepted his answer. They then went to the leader’s tent to rummage around for a key. Unlike the other places, it was much better kept, with a thick embroidered rug, a large bed and wooden furniture and a giant chest. There was also a fairly good mirror that was mounted on a sturdy wooden frame.
Warren took the opportunity to surreptitiously take a look at his body, while the elf looked around by herself. He could see that the body he had in this world was markedly different from his old one. He was a few inches taller now, perhaps standing at six foot two or three. His muscles had thickened somewhat and he lost whatever fat he had before. His hair was thick and lustrous, reaching his shoulder. It was now a deep, rich black colour, with the faintest trace of blue.
His features had also changed, becoming sharper and finer. He was certainly more attractive now, with large violet eyes, speckled with flecks of silver. When he looked closely at his eye, he noted that the iris was larger than normal, almost like a bird’s. His ears had also changed slightly, the tops of them coming to a point. Unlike the elf’s ears, his weren’t quite as long or as pointed at the end, but there was a definite resemblance. He understood now why she called him a Halfling.
Before the elf turned back around and he was forced to explain why he was looking at himself like he had never seen it before, he turned from the mirror and went back to looking for the key. He checked the desk first, but only found a few papers there.
When they opened the chest, they found what they were looking for, lying on top of everything else. Warren immediately used it to unlock the manacles. The second they fell off, the elf seemed to blaze with an inner light. Warren could tell that she was quite powerful, and under normal circumstances she would have destroyed the bandits that attacked her.
The rest of the chest was filled with treasures, coins and a few magical texts and weapons. Warren picked up the chest with his enhanced strength, and carried it out. He saw that the women he freed had already hitched up the wagons with horses and loaded them up with everything they could find in the camp. After loading the chest onto a free wagon, Warren went around to check if everything was set.
That was when he noticed that there were three women missing. He frowned and asked the others, “where are the others?” The woman who spoke for them earlier stepped forward once again.
“They aren’t coming.” From the tone of her voice, Warren understood that she didn’t mean they were staying behind.
“They chose this out of their own free will?” The woman nodded. Warren closed his eyes in sorrow. Even though he saved their bodies, he couldn’t save their souls. They decided that this life wasn’t worth living. “Where are they?”
They led him to a patch of grass. The missing women lay there, their wrist slashed and the life drained from their bodies. Regardless of the fact that they chose this way out, Warren couldn’t just leave their bodies here. He went back to the tent to get the sister he couldn’t save, and picked up a shovel as well.
The elf saw what he was doing and asked, “What are you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m burying them. They deserve that dignity at least.”
“You’re right, but doing it that way will take too long.” She outstretched her palms and lifted them up and to the sides. The ground, as if answering her, opened up as well, to form a giant pit. It was an impressive show of magic, made more so by the fact that she didn’t seem winded by the exertion at all.
After carefully lowering the bodies, she covered them up with soil. “Thanks for helping out,” Warren said to her. “So where are you going from here?”
“I’m expected in Torvale. It should only take about a day’s worth of travel.”
“It looks like we’re heading in the same direction. I need to accompany these women to a safe place.”
The elf crossed her brows as if in thought and then nodded. “Very well, I will guide you there, and then you can accompany me where I need to go.”
Warren started. “Me? Accompany you? Why would you want that from me? You seem more than capable of handling yourself, and you can always hire professionals in town.”
“I may have some degree of strength, but that doesn’t make me invulnerable, especially to physical attacks. You however, seem well-equipped to close-combat fights, which makes you suitable to protect me. As for hiring professionals, I wouldn’t feel nearly as safe with them as I would with you. I’ve seen what you can do, or at least the aftermath of it, and more importantly, I trust you. Of course you’ll be well-rewarded for your efforts.”
So, this was the real reason why Kiyalah pushed at him to pay the bandits back. Might as well, since I have nothing else to lose. “Alright then, you have yourself a deal.”
“Excellent. I, Camilla, expect great things from you.” She smiled broadly and held out a slim, delicate hand.
Warren grasped and shook it with his own hand to agree to the deal. “Well Camilla, I, Warren, hope to be of service to you.”
With the contract made, they mounted the wagons and rode them out of the remains of the bandit camp. Warren took the lead wagon and guided the others out. Kiyalah rode with him, showing him the way to go. Many of the women had experience guiding horses, so they followed him without trouble.
When they reached the wagon Warren left behind, Warren took the items from the back of that wagon and loaded it in to the others. He then untied the horse and let it go free. It was only a short stop, and by then they were on the road again.
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They traveled for about three hours, until the sun went down. Since everyone was tired and night had fallen, they set up camp off the side of the road. Warren made a fire and had a few of the women help him cook some food, while Camilla nd the others set up temporary shelters. Fortunately, it wasn’t a chilly night, and there was no risk of rain.
The food was quite basic, with hard, travel biscuits and cheese that was just as hard. They softened it up with a stew made from dried meat and vegetables. It wasn’t the best meal he had ever had, but it was warm and filling. Once they had polished off their meals, they went to sleep for the night.
The following morning, they got up at the crack of dawn. After a quick breakfast of oats and berries, they got back on the road. Nothing noteworthy happened along the rest of the trip. It was just a constant, monotonous ride. Nobody said anything either. Most of the women were traumatized by their captivity, and Camilla seemed to enjoy the silence. This left Warren alone with his thoughts.
He considered the abilities he had gained. The ability to see the flow of magic seemed to be a part of his eye construct. That coupled with his mental construct would prove incredibly useful in the future. He would not only be able to replicate spells he saw, but with the understanding that came with it, he could eventually build off of them and alter them as he pleased.
The mental construct was a purely passive power that greatly reduced the time it took to learn something, and it absorbed information like a sponge. Thanks to that, Warren already had a mental map of the places he had just been in, and knew the basics for using magic. The downside to this power was that it didn’t retain any information that related to people, events, or anything else that didn’t involve him in some way.
Like Jacob had told him, it could only be used for mapping purposes, language acquisition, and learning skills that he could use. Unlike before he arrived in this world, it wasn’t purely a separate processing unit. There was a certain degree of separation, but here it worked with his mind in perfect harmony.
His strength was growing quickly, but he needed more. He couldn’t stay as just a swordsman if he was to survive. Magic was something he could pick up with ease and use it to complement his sword skills. To that end, he went over what he had picked up from watching the bandit. Where the mental construct could only analyse what it saw before it, the human mind could extrapolate and infer a hypothesis from any given data.
Warren used it to explore other possibilities from that basic spell. He did this for several hours, until it was early in the afternoon and they needed to stop.
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Camilla helped make the meal this time around, which was more of the same thing they had the night before. It was hard to believe that just a day before, he arrived in this new world lost and confused. Now he was sitting with people he helped out, with a clear direction of where to go. He also had a warm meal before him, which made everything all that much better.
The first mouthful of stew he took was hot and relatively flavourful. He was about to take another when warning bells went off in his head. Something was very wrong here. He immediately dropped the bowl of stew and made to get up, when an unnaturally powerful gale of wind lifted him up and threw him almost twenty-five metres away.
As he tried to get up, he found his body to be sluggish and not responding properly. Camilla soon stepped into view, and looked down at him. She waved a hand, and thick vines and roots erupted from the ground and wrapped around his wrists, ankles and throat.
They pulled and held him against the ground, completely exposed and vulnerable. Camilla stepped closer to him, until she stood right above him. “It’s actually quite impressive that you detected the poison and are still trying to resist. I knew of your special abilities, but I didn’t think they were that good. Still, one mouthful is all it takes to begin working on your system. No need to look so alarmed, it’s merely a paralytic agent.”
Warren worked his mouth and forced out the questions that bubbled up inside him. “Why are you doing this, and how do you know about me?”
Camilla laughed softly. “Don’t play the fool boy. You already have an inkling as to who led me to you.”
She was right, he knew exactly who it was. He suspected that she would have been capable of this, but he still felt betrayed. How could he have been so stupid?
Don’t be too hard on yourself, even Yana doesn’t know that I’m doing this. Kiyalah’s voice sounded in his head, and then he saw her appear opposite to Camilla. It seemed Camilla didn’t notice her arrival.
“Hang on, I thought Kiyalah couldn’t communicate with anyone else.”
Camilla laughed condescendingly at him. “Did you really think there weren’t ways around that? How else would I have known where to teleport to, and how to make it look like I was a prisoner so I could gain your trust? I may not have heard her voice, but I do receive messages from her.”
Warren was certainly pissed off, but more than that, he was baffled at Kiyalah’s actions. He was already serving her, so there didn’t seem to be a reason to do all this. It was such a convoluted plan, having Camilla enter his life as a prisoner to get his guard down and then take him down when he least expected it.
Kiyalah looked as if she had heard his thoughts, but didn’t answer them, instead she merely put her hand over the marking on his chest. Warren looked into her eyes, remembering how he first saw them as strong, fearless, and the slightest bit mischievous. Now when he looked at them, he saw a hard ruthlessness to them, pitiless and callous.
“It may have been for only a day, but I truly do appreciate your service to me. Before you, I had a much different plan in motion, and it would take significantly longer to carry out. I’m more grateful than you will ever know. I know you want to know why I am doing all this, but sadly I cannot reveal everything just yet. I will however, tell you what I am doing right now. I gave you great strength, and in the twenty-four hours since I gave it to you, it has stabilised in your body, but hasn’t quite yet bound to it permanently. It is now just ripe for the picking.”
She used her hand to draw her power from everywhere in his body. He felt it as she pulled it out from within him, a tearing, ripping sensation that went all the way down to his very soul. She was unmaking what she had created, and it was agony. A pain similar to what he felt when he was given her power washed through him, but where that pain was physical, this tore his spirit as well, as her power had already started to bind to his very being.
Black veins formed on his body, as power welled up and concentrated into a liquid form. It rose up his body to gather around his heart, a black mass of strength and power. It pulsed within him like a second heartbeat. His body fought to get it back, but compared to a goddess’s might, it was the feeble attempts of a newborn. Her part done, Kiyalah stepped away from him.
“Finally, everything I’ve longed for is right there before me.” Camilla’s eyes gleamed with hunger and avarice, as she stepped forward to take Kiyalah’s place. From the folds of her dress, she took out a large crystal vial. She held it in her left hand, as she drew a dagger into her right. She placed the tip of the dagger right above his heart, where Kiyalah’s power had gathered itself.
She slowly pushed down on the dagger, breaking the skin and cutting through the muscle. Warren gasped as she drove it home, piercing his heart. Camilla immediately pulled out the dagger and pushed her hand through the hole she had made.
Warren’s body was made to be stronger than most, so he didn’t die immediately from having his heart pierced. He was awake to feel her fingers digging inside his chest cavity, as she grasped the black liquid that was Kiyalah’s power, and drew it out of him. She quickly dropped it into the vial, and sealed it shut. It swirled inside the vial, black like tar, and red from his blood.
Her hand still held a trace of that liquid, and she put her fingers in her mouth and licked it off. Her back arched and she gasped as it mingled with her body. Her green eyes flared once, before turning a bright, scarlet red. She looked around, and Warren saw her start with surprise as she laid eyes on Kiyalah.
Her face immediately changed, to one of pure abject devotion. She knelt before her and pressed her forehead to the ground. “Mistress, I have done as you asked.”
“Well done, now there only remain a few steps left. You know what to do. But before you go, you should test out your new power.”
Camilla smiled cruelly, and turned to look at the other women. None of them had tried to run, since they were frozen in fear by what they had seen. Warren panicked and tried to warn them, but found that no words would come out.
All he could do was watch on in horror, powerless to do anything, as Camilla raised a hand, and black lightning erupted from it. It perced every single one of the women he had saved, and turned them to ash. They died in less than a second, most unaware of what had happened. Warren silently screamed in anger and sorrow. He hated Camilla for what she had done, he hated Kiyalah for making it happen, but most of all, he hated himself and his lack of power.
Kiyalah smiled in satisfaction and turned to Camilla. “Good, now hone those gifts and do what I asked.”
“Yes mistress, I will not fail you.” Camilla gave one more last gesture of fealty and disappeared in a flash of light.
Kiyalah stayed behind a moment longer. She looked at Warren, his eyes falling shut and blood oozing from the hole in his heart. “Goodbye Warren, I hope you find life a bit easier in your next life.” She then disappeared in a swirl of black smoke.
Bitch… It was the last thing Warren thought, before his eyes closed, and darkness overtook him, dragging him into the cold embrace of death.