After showing off my neat and very cool collection of magic tools to my girlfriend, I decided to take a break from my break and we made our way back to the others. The clearing I found was just a casual stroll of about ten minutes through light foliage away, so it would be quick and easy to move there eventually.
Stepping into our makeshift camp, we were greeted by Reurig, Hayla, Aelene, and Hati, sitting around the burned out fire. The only one who hadn’t gotten up yet was Riala. Her still being unconscious after nearly a full day was the one thing I was truly concerned about. Historically, it hadn’t taken that long for us to recover from mana overuse. Though we also had never used mana in this way before. During our fight with Arax she practically radiated it in such huge and frequent waves that I didn’t understand how she hadn’t collapsed sooner.
“Nothing from Ria yet?” I asked as we got closer.
“No,” Reurig said. He continued with a smile. “But she mumbled ‘fluffy’ when Hati got up earlier.”
“Sounds like she will be fine,” I said, smiling in turn.
Hearing that she was mumbling in her sleep put me at ease, since it meant that she wasn’t gone entirely anymore. This was very good to hear.
Berla and I joined the others, who looked at me with curiosity.
“So, what are you doing over there?” Hayla asked.
Not knowing whether anything I had in mind would actually work, I hadn’t told Aelene what I was up to earlier. And now that things were coming along, I wanted to make some more progress first. The further along I got, the nicer the surprise would hopefully be.
“It’s a secret for now,” I said. “I’d rather you see it once it’s finished.”
“Hm. Very well.” Hayla appeared a little miffed as she glanced at Berla, who saw my new project already. But she accepted my wish. “In that case, let me ask what we’re going to do now.”
Hayla had plans—big plans—but while I didn’t rule out going along with them yet, they did clash somewhat with the things on our list of problems to deal with. Though I couldn’t blame her for that, seeing how she had limited knowledge about them.
“Right... I should explain my plans to you guys.” I paused for a moment to gather my thoughts and then focused on Hayla and Aelene for the moment. “First of all, there’s a few things you should be aware of. As both of you know, I’ve been contacted by Gallas a few times now. You also know that more beasts are on their way here, who were tasked with killing awakened humans and Sourcerers. We heard this from Gallas, who warned us about them. Their numbers might come as a bit of a shock to you, however... He said this will be an all-out-attack with everything they have left. About sixty beasts in total.”
Their reactions weren’t quite as pronounced as I expected. Hayla only wore a contemplative expression, while Aelene seemed mildly surprised and concerned at worst.
“Sixty? That’s... a lot,” Aelene said. “You don’t seem worried though...”
“Well, I prefer not to worry about things until there’s a good reason for it. We beat twenty of them in the past, and we got better since then. I’m hoping that Riala will be able to contribute new things once she wakes, and I’m also working on a new kind of weapon that might prove effective against them. Their numbers are a bit ridiculous, but I feel pretty good about our chances.”
“That makes sense... But it still sounds like you should be at least a little worried.” Aelene said.
“Larger groups only really mean that the fight will take longer,” Hayla mused. She glanced at Aelene, sounding a bit like she was lecturing her. “An army can’t attack a small number of targets all at once. They essentially have to take turns. That’s how strong beasts are fought, the Fighters whittle them down little by little with their numbers. If the target survives long enough though, they can win.”
“I’ve fought the previous beasts, I have a rough idea of what it will look like,” Aelene said, a smidge of annoyance in her voice. “But if we barely held out long enough to beat twenty, three times that amount will be challenging. Especially with... decreased numbers on our side.”
“I understand your concern, and I don’t want to act as if this encounter isn’t going to be dangerous, but our chances really aren’t that terrible. Hati, what do you think?”
As a former moderator, he should have a pretty good idea whether we’ll be able to beat them.
“If Riala can do that fire thing again it’s going to be easy!” he said happily.
“Yea, that would be optimal,” I said, laughing lightly. “And if not?”
“Hm... I don’t know. But you can kill a lot of them at once with your water! It’s probably fine.”
“See?” I said, turning back to Aelene. “It’s probably going to be fine.”
“That’s...” She sighed in exasperation. “Okay... I’ll assume this is going to work out somehow for now. And if they attack with everything they have... It will at least be the end, right? We’re going to be safe afterwards.”
Put on the spot, I looked at her awkwardly. “Well... Kind of. Maybe. I hope so?” Groaning, I continued with my explanations. “The thing is, the beasts, or moderators, are controlled by someone who doesn’t want mana users to exist: The administrators. They use them to fix anything they see as problematic. I have to assume that they’re not going to be happy if the mods lose, and they’ll presumably still want us gone. Gallas has yet to tell us what we need to expect from them though.”
Aelene was noticeably disappointed. “So it’s not going to be over yet. Hm... Why does that name sound so familiar though?” She looked to the ground and thought for a moment before her eyes suddenly widened and her head snapped back in my direction. “Admins!” she yelled, before mumbling, “T-the g-gods...?”
My attempt at easing her into it had evidently failed. I wondered how she knew, until I remembered that “Who are the admins?” had been one of the questions I posed to Hati’s leader—in the presence of Aelene.
“You mean the gods want us dead?” she said in unbelieving despair. “The literal gods? Why!?”
This one did get a raise out of even Hayla, who looked between Aelene and me flabbergasted, waiting for us to carry on.
“Unfortunately I don’t have a definitive answer to that yet,” I said apologetically. “It seems like mana users caused problems in the past, and the gods decided to put a stop to that. Apparently Gallas had a hand in preventing the Sourcerer Calling from being given out, but awakened humans had to be taken care of manually. That’s about all I know. I’m hoping that Gallas will approach me again soon.”
“But then... we’re doomed!” Beside herself, Aelene shot up. “If the gods are after us, it doesn’t matter what we do! How can you possibly be so calm? This can’t be real...”
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I stood up as well and put a hand to Aelene’s shoulder, trying to calm her. “Hey. It might not be as bad as it sounds. Will you listen to me for a moment?”
Her mana flared up slightly, looking at me like I had lost it. “What? You can’t possibly have a plan for dealing with them!”
“Please,” I said, gesturing for her to take a seat in a relaxed manner.
Reluctantly, she did as asked and I proceeded after both of us sat once more.
“There are two reasons why I’m not overly perturbed by this. First, Gallas mentioned rules the gods have to follow—a protocol—which prevents them from acting freely. Think about how long we’ve already been like this. Or how Shae didn’t do anything to stop Tomar and Riala from leaving Alarna. I strongly believe they need the moderators, because they aren’t allowed to simply kill us. And if the mods are the best they can muster... Well, I don’t think it’s going to be enough. This somewhat leads into my second reason: I’m not sure how dangerous the gods really are in general.”
As I implied that the gods weren’t all that powerful, Aelene threw me a bewildered look. I might as well have claimed the sky to be purple. It seemed like she was about to say something, but decided to keep listening instead.
“The thing is, the gods were once mana users,” I said. “What separates them from us, by my understanding, is that they reached a point where they were able to advance to another level of existence. By Gallas’ own account though, they are still wary of beasts like Arax, who we know is definitely not invincible. Think about it like this: If the gods were scared of Arax, and we beat her, where does that put us in relation to the gods? Granted, Arax was tough, and we couldn’t have done it without Riala, but I think my point stands.”
Our newest members were quietly contemplating what I had just said, though before long, Hayla looked at me with an excited glint in her eyes.
“You might be as powerful as the gods?” she asked.
I could practically see the wheels turning in her head, as well as the new ideas this was giving her. Us potentially being on one level with the gods was very marketable.
“Before you get too excited, I primarily mean this in terms of raw combat strength. Scripts play a part as well, and we don’t know what kinds they have. They also had centuries to cultivate them. But, what I am saying is that they most likely aren’t as powerful as they seem. We could fall into despair, wondering every day whether this will be our last, but that would truly be the beginning of the end. Until we know more, I will work towards getting ready and being in the right state of mind. That’s really the only option anyway.”
Both of them became silent once more. Hayla was content with my conclusion, while Aelene seemingly had difficulty accepting it. All of us waited for her to react, but it took a little while until she spoke up again.
“Please tell me that’s it...” she said quietly. “Please tell me there’s nothing above the gods that’s threatening us.”
Every time I had a longer conversation with Aelene, I had bad news for her. Beasts wanted to attack Alarna, next they were after her, now even more of them would come for us, and they were backed by the gods. It was by no means unreasonable to wonder whether there was another threat tier above this. Unfortunately I couldn’t be sure about it, and in fact, I knew there were beings above the gods, but I felt like telling her as much might actually break her. And so I said...
“Yes, the gods are the last hurdle. And I want to remind you, we don’t know whether they will even be able to do anything.”
Aelene took a long and deep breath. I thought that she would feel much better if she didn’t always get so worked up about everything, but I understood this was easier said than done for some. Even Berla and Reurig looked at her in understanding. I probably was the weird one for being calm in this situation.
“Okay,” Aelene said eventually. “This is more troublesome than I expected... A lot more actually... But I will put my trust in you.”
“Thank you,” I said, giving her a slow and serious nod.
In truth, I didn’t think she had a lot of options but to trust me. She would be in a lot of danger on her own. I still appreciated her declaration though.
“But tell me,” she said, “if the gods were humans once... who created the world? They couldn’t have lived here, become gods, and then created everything, right?”
“I don’t know a lot about that aspect yet, unfortunately, but I’ll get back to you on it, alright?” I said, not being entirely honest.
“Please do,” Aelene said, irritated. “Gosh... I feel like we’ll end up with entire libraries of fantasy stories. If the gods didn’t create the world and everything in it, many of the tales in the temple’s books would fall apart.”
I chuckled lightly. She was routinely outraged when her world was turned on its head, but she also seemed curious to learn more and accepted new information easily enough.
It was also interesting to think back to life on Earth and the stories people came up with there about the world’s creation and the beings responsible for it. Even more fascinating was the consideration of whether the situation might have been similar there. Was Earth created by an architect? Did one or multiple “gods” actually exist? And if so, what was their contribution to life down on Earth?
Certainly interesting to think about... But I have more important things to do.
“Okay, now that we’ve established what we have to worry about in the immediate future, let me give you my thoughts on our path going forward. My main priorities are working towards making this area safe from beasts and for none of us to kick the bucket in the process. Ultimately... I just want people to be able to live the life they want. Including myself, of course. It’s not an entirely altruistic goal.” Even though I’m sure it was for Tomar... “We can’t do much until the moderators are dealt with though, who are supposed to arrive in about four days. Until then, I want us to stay here and prepare. I have a few ideas for how to proceed afterwards, but those depend on the outcome of the fight, so I’d like to leave it at that for now. Do you have any questions?”
For Berla, Reurig, and Hati, staying in the woods for a couple days wasn’t anything special at all. Hayla meanwhile looked a little uncertain, perhaps wondering what she was going to do out here for four days. Only Aelene frowned, but after a couple of seconds she finally shook her head as well, indicating that she had nothing to say either.
“Perfect,” I said. “Though it would be ideal if we could get some supplies of course. Maybe some cups... Blue stones for our non-mana-users... Towels... Writing utensils... Books...” Aelene’s eyes lit up at the last bit. “The usual stuff... Do you think we can still get into Alarna, Reurig?”
“Getting in should be possible,” he said, “but now that people know our faces, moving around might be tougher. Not to mention getting out with a bag of supplies. I will do my best though.”
“Thanks. You know the drill... No unnecessary risks. We’re able to survive without that stuff. Well, except for the writing utensils. Those are kind of crucial. But I’d rather go to Cerus if we can’t get them here.”
“Got it,” Reurig said.
I nodded in satisfaction. “Good. Everybody, let Reurig know if there’s something you can’t live without, and he’ll try to bring it.”
Thinking about things I might need, my eyes fell on Riala, still wrapped up in Berla’s jacket, because her clothes were partially burned. It’s not like they would fall off her the moment she moved, but they were essentially rags, and the jacket was naturally way too big for her.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” I said, “new clothes for Riala would be good. She—”
As I watched her, I suddenly noticed her aura behaving strangely and froze. Usually, it was very quiet, especially when we slept. It streamed out of us serenely. Hers was growing in size though and whipped around wildly. As if pushing more and more mana out, it kept growing in bursts, until a particularly large one, which expanded her aura from covering a small area around herself to accompassing our entire camp and the people within it.
My eyes widened as the pressure from her aura bore down on us. Not even the gods radiated this much force. Hayla appeared paralyzed, while Berla and Reurig immediately jumped up and armed themselves. Glancing around the clearing, their eyes shifted rapidly from side to side.
“What is that? Where is it coming from?” Berla asked in panic.
The gazes of those of us who could see mana were glued to the young girl in our midst. It was Hati who clarified the situation for the others.
“It’s Riala!” he said.
He wagged his tail happily, as everybody else felt like they were surrounded by murderous beasts. The sensation did most certainly not match what we saw: A little girl sitting herself up, rubbing her sleepy eyes.