Chapter 53: Wreckage I

Leo squinted up at the sky. It was a cloudless day, and the beaming sun was so bright that it washed out the colors of the landscape. If they’d chosen to travel along the lake, he imagined it would be blinding, but they’d elected for a different path. He didn’t really want to see the Glass Lake if he didn’t have to.

Leo lowered his hand and adjusted his posture. It still felt weird to have one arm in a sling, but he was supposed to keep it on for at least another day, if not more.

“—sounds like a battlefield,” Allan was saying as the group continued south. “Or the remains of one. He said the lightning killed them?”

“That’s what it sounded like.”

The [Healer] furrowed his brows. “I don’t suppose he could tell how far into the future it was.”

Leo snorted. “I wish.” He sighed and rolled his uninjured shoulder, though his eyes never stopped scanning their surroundings for movement.

They hadn’t encountered anyone on the road yet, and while normally he’d consider that lucky, it was starting to become worrying. The further south they went, the more populated Avel was, so the lack of people was a little disconcerting.

It did, however, allow them to travel more freely without fear of someone recognizing them or overhearing them.

Allan frowned. “That’s not very helpful then.”

Leo mentally agreed. He’d told Allan and Spade about Ivan’s vision, and none of them could make full sense of it.

There wasn’t a soul on the continent who didn’t know who the Stormcaller was. The younger brother of the Solomere Empire’s High General, he’d been the youngest person to reach Tier 3 and on track to be the youngest to reach Tier 4—the highest class tier—as well. It would’ve been easy to get lost in the High General’s shadow, but he’d been a feared, capable general in his own right.

It was precisely because of this reputation that his capture four years ago had come as such a shock. Everyone had expected the Empire to easily take over Valendell, but following his capture, the war had ground to a stalemate. Since then, no one really knew what had happened to him, but that didn’t stop people from speculating.

The official answer was that it was a hostage situation, but many argued that Valendell didn’t have the resources to keep someone of his power level at bay.

Others suggested that he’d actually died all those four years ago and Valendell was only pretending to have captured him in order to stave off the High General’s fury.

Another popular theory involved some sort of mind magic on Valendell’s part. Others took it a step further and claimed the former general had turned traitor on his country.

Leo huffed and rubbed his head. Truthfully he’d always leaned on the traitor theory, even if a part of him also doubted that someone so close to the High General and Emperor would ever betray his country, but it had made the most logical sense to him. Ivan’s vision hadn’t specified whose bodies were on that field; they could’ve belonged to the Empire or Valendell.

Leo glanced over at Spade, who walked a few feet ahead of them. He hesitated for a moment, but finally spoke.

“You said you’re from the Empire, right?”

The [Executioner] glanced back, grey eyes betraying nothing. “I did,” she confirmed.

Allan’s eyebrows rose, and Leo remembered that he’d been asleep when Spade had first mentioned it. He pressed on.

“Do you know anything about the Stormcaller? I mean, stuff the rest of the world wouldn’t know.”

“Nothing that would be particularly relevant here.” She continued walking at a steady pace, eyes watching the bright horizon. “His reputation was mostly the same, only in the Empire it had more positive connotations.”

“Great,” Leo muttered. Spade chuckled.

“If it helps, he was actually very well liked. It might be hard to believe, but he was considered one of the most honorable generals.”

Huh. That was interesting to know.

Leo exchanged looks with Allan. If that was true, maybe the traitor idea wasn’t so far fetched after all. In an ideal world, the field of dead bodies Ivan had seen would be on the Empire’s side.

He cleared his throat. “Well, whatever it means, it’s a good thing we’re staying away from the Empire,” he muttered.

If the war between them and Valendell really did break out of its current stalemate, Leo would be happy to stay as far away as possible.

—

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By the time they stopped for food, they still hadn’t seen anyone else on the road.

Leo glared down at his slice of stale bread. They were running low on rations and would need to restock, but thankfully they should reach Alnwick in about a day’s time, if his memory of the map was correct.

Allan raised an eyebrow from where he sat on the grass beside him.

Spade had gone ahead for a stroll despite the fact that they’d been walking all day, but Leo supposed the [Executioner] was probably used to traveling even further distances than this.

“What’s wrong? Bread taste bad?”

“Well yeah, but you know I don’t care about that.” He took another bite and wrapped the rest for later.

They’d moved to the side of the road to eat, and it was noticeably drier here than it was in Sindrey. Stray pebbles sat in piles on the edge of the grass. Leo carefully gathered a handful near him.

“It’s just, don’t you think we should’ve seen someone by now? This’s a pretty big road, right?”

Squinting down at the pebble in his hand, Leo located a spot of yellowed grass up ahead, aimed, then threw the rock with all his strength.

He watched it soar with sharp eyes. When it looked like it was about 10 feet away, he quickly used [Teleport Object] and focused on the spot he wanted it to reach.

Leo felt his mana reserves deplete, and he blinked as the pebble abruptly teleported away. In a flash, it vanished and reappeared elsewhere, landing a few feet to the right of his intended target.

He sighed. He should’ve known it wouldn’t be so easy. [Visual Illusion] had barely taken any practice at all, but it looked like this spell was much harder to control. Considering how powerful spatial magic was, he supposed it made sense.

“It might just be an off day,” Allan suggested.

Leo picked up another rock to throw. This time he tried to shift his eyes as he activated the spell to see if his line of sight was what determined the teleport’s final position. It was closer than before, but still not nearly accurate enough.

He felt Allan’s gaze on him as the [Healer] studied his movements. Leo tried again with a third pebble.

“Maybe.”

This time he used purely his thoughts to project the final position, and it ended up being the least accurate so far. It really was tied to the eyeline, then.

One more try, Leo thought. He didn’t want to use up too much mana right now in case they ran into trouble on the road. Inhaling, he picked up another stone and rolled it around in his palm.

Narrowing his eyes, he flung the rock. At the last second, he activated [Teleport Object] and flicked his eyes sharply to his desired position. Due to the speed of the movement, his gaze didn’t land perfectly on the patch of yellowed grass.

The rock reappeared exactly where he was looking.

The former [Thief] grinned triumphantly. It looked like the spell was indeed tied to the movement of the eyes. To use it properly, he’d have to practice shifting his gaze quickly and precisely.

His satisfaction at solving the issue, however, soon waned the more he thought about it. Unless he got another skill or spell to increase his reflexes, there would probably always be a margin of error with the spell given how tight the timeframe was.

Furthermore, if someone figured out how the teleport was aimed, it would be easier to predict. This could be somewhat mitigated by attacking from further away, where it was harder to see the eyeline, but it was something to keep in mind.

Leo rose to his feet and activated [Mana Recovery]. He’d need more practice to figure out the best way to use the spell, he decided, but this was a start at least.

Allan stood as well, having finished his own piece of bread while Leo messed with [Teleport Object]. Spade was still nowhere to be seen. Leo pulled up the party map and found her blinking dot up ahead.

“Ready to go?”

Allan nodded, and they continued on their way.

As they walked, Leo opened the [Fragmentholder Database]. The map, from what he could tell, looked the same as before: a gradient of gold draped across the continent.

He furrowed his brows. It might just be his imagination, but he swore the golden light seemed more concentrated around the Empire and Zelyra’s capitals than before. Earlier it was more evenly spread across the two countries.

[Current number of Fragmentholders: 996,835]

The number would hit one million soon. Honestly Leo was surprised it hadn’t already. Compared to when he’d first gotten access to the database, the increase in fragmentholders seemed to be slowing down.

He would’ve thought it’d have done the opposite after the wall of light went up, but maybe most of the fragments had scattered straight to people and the number of “loose” ones like the one on the Glass Lake were rarer.

Just as Leo was about to close the database, a flash of movement made him pause. The number ticked down to 996,834.

He stopped walking. Allan shot him a confused look.

“It went down,” Leo said. “The number of fragmentholders.”

Understanding washed over the [Healer]’s face, and his shoulders tensed. Dark eyes scanned their surroundings, but they remained alone on the road. Leo silently closed the database.

“I guess now we know for sure I’m not the only one with more than one fragment,” he attempted to joke. Allan snorted, but nodded.

Of course, he’d already known that he couldn’t be the only one, and it was clear from the start that fragmentholders would end up hunting each other once all the scattered fragments were found.

Still, there was something disconcerting about actually seeing that number go down. Leo wondered if the counter’s pace had actually slowed, or if the number of fragmentholders being killed had simply made it look like that.

“Hey.”

Leo’s head snapped around, uninjured hand flying to his dagger.

Hazel eyes landed on Spade’s familiar form. Before he had a chance to relax, however, the [Executioner] jerked her head backwards, gesturing further ahead on the road.

“I thought you two might want to see this.”

Leo and Allan exchanged looks, then turned and hurried forward.