“Oris is an expendable resource to us,” I said once again. “We will keep him for as long as we can. Or rather, as long as we need to.”
Everyone looked at me, and I could see nervousness in their eyes, just like before. They still didn’t seem comfortable with talking about the ‘expendability’ about a person, but I didn’t really have any issues with it, especially when it was about a man from the Dark Alliance. Whether it was Dark Alliance or the Alliance of Light, I had killed enough people to fill multiple cities. For me to suddenly start treating the enemy as human was not psychologically possible.
If I felt compassion and pity for this one man, I would have to do so for every single one that I had murdered and cut up over the last few months.
I don’t have time to go through trauma right now, I thought.
Either way, everyone seemed to be fine with my plan, and so we set out, with Viola and Raffyr on one bear, and with everyone else on their own ones. I made Oris ride in the middle of us all, with the four other bears forming a square around him. Acnologia walked quietly behind the formation, acting as a silent guardian of sorts.
Freya rode alongside me at the front as we headed down the forest routes. The morning warmth was seeping into this forest, stifling the strong breezes. I heard a lone insect buzz and then quickly cut off. That was the sole sound I had heard from the forest life in a while.
“So, what did the two Diablos both talk about?” Freya asked.
“It wasn’t anything either you or I had questioned,” I said. “In fact, it was basically just him asking me questions. All of which I couldn’t answer.”
“Ah,” she said. “So you found nothing about your powers?’
“Nope. Nothing about what kind of a person I was either.”
“I would argue against that,” she smiled. “From what I saw, I could tell there was a huge contradiction between who your past self is and what the scriptures of old times said you were like.”
“That’s true,” I nodded. “They said I was a person killed everyone on sight.”
“Yeah,” she said. “From what I saw, your old self seems nothing like that.”
“Then again, he did summon a cohort of shadow men before he even figured out who we were.”
“I doubt that justifies the image of him being an Evil Overlord.”
A Villain is formed not because of his actions but because of what people think of him, I thought, recalling his words.
“Maybe this is what he meant,” Nyx said. “He knows people call him an Evil Overlord, but he wasn’t really a man who wanted to be that way.”
I’m too confused to actually think this through, I thought.
“How are you doing though?” Freya asked. “It must not be easy to see your past self like this and not get any answers from him.”
“It definitely is disappointing,” I chuckled. “But I’ll live.”
She smiled. “We have time. We’ll find something about your past soon.”
“I could always just stay here and see what goes on.”
“You wouldn’t last a week in the war,” she laughed. “There’d be mere minions stronger than you were.”
“Hey, that’s just being mean,” I pouted.
“You know, I haven’t seen you this relaxed in a while.”
“Well, it’s just that kind of situation.”
“It’s always that kind of situation.”
“True.”
I looked up at the trees and saw a dull patch of red make its way into the sky. Rays of light flowed between the leaves, carrying the shade with them.
Dawn had come.
Usually, dawn in a forest like this would imply that the danger time had passed, but I doubted whether that was actually the case here. In fact, it was precisely in the middle of daylight that we’d faced off against the horde of Volcanic Forest Bears, so statistically speaking, daytime was the more dangerous period.
What a wonderful thought, I sighed.
A quick burst of stray wind blew past us. Freya's long dark hair flowed behind her, and the streak of silver in it glistened in the forest’s dull light. I stared at her, mesmerized by her presence.
She suddenly turned to me, and her moon-silver eyes caught my gaze. “How long is the mountain from here?” she asked.
“A day and a half by walk I think,” I quickly replied. “However, these beasts are faster. We should get there a little past nightfall.”
“It’s funny,” the elf said. “While we were up on the cliff we were hesitant to move through the forest at night, and now we’ve already walked through the place from dusk to dawn.”
“Circumstances change,” I smiled.
A lone flower of white slowly descended the air. I hastened my steed a bit, and made it take an extra step as I reached out for the object.
DING!
A screen popped up.
Name
Pixie Petalia
Rarity
Very Rare
Condition
Damaged
Special effect
Temporarily increases Mana Regeneration rate by 30%.
Damaged? I tilted the flower and noticed the bruises on the petals. Nevertheless, the mana regeneration rate boost was always a good thing to have. Especially with the kind of mana-draining equipment I have.
“Do you want me to place this within your item inventory?” Nyx asked.
Yeah, I said. The flower immediately glowed a dull white and dissolved into a stream of lights, disappearing as they moved through the air.
DING!
You have continuously used your Night Vision skill for more than 6 hours. Due to this, you have been granted a two-level increase in said skill.
DING!
Congratulations! You have advanced a skill.
Night Vision Level 15!
The darkness covers half of your life, and now you can see better through it. Colors are more discernable now.
Effect 1
Can see everything in dark within 50 yards
Effect 2
+2% chance of critical hit
“That’s pretty neat,” Nyx said.
I nodded. It’s about time too, I grinned. I was beginning to wonder how much longer I’d have to use the skill in order to level it up.
“The boost is pretty useful too.”
Yeah, I said. It certainly is a lot more helpful to have extended range for my Night Vision. Although an extra 10 yards isn’t much.
“Do you think this man is going to be a formidable foe?” Freya opened the topic out of nowhere.
She’s probably nervous about this, I realized. She’d done this with me once or twice before — talk about a villain so she could get rid of her own anxiety.
“I’m not really sure,” I said. “Considering what time period it is I’m going to say yes, because it just sounds like everyone here is much stronger than I am right now.”
She nodded.
“It would have probably been nice if I’d found another of my Spectral Spirits before we came here.”
“Yeah,” she sighed.
Spectral Spirits were basically ‘keys’ that helped me unlock parts of my Seal of the Eternal. The Seal barred me from attaining my true strength. Honestly, most of my adventures had stemmed from me trying to find a Spectral Spirit to unlock a part of my seal.
In fact, when Freya and I had visited the island Irmeia was on, it was to see if the odd presence we’d sensed there was connected to a Spectral Spirit.
Of course, that hadn’t been the case, and now — as it had happened before — I was on a crazy adventure yet again.
Never fails, I chuckled.
“I’m honestly a little worried,” Freya said, and I could tell this was her ‘I’m going to be honest with you’ tone. “Something about this whole thing feels very off.”
I frowned. “It does?”
“Doesn’t it bother you that there could be someone who brought us back to this time on purpose? Brought all of us back at
that. Why would anyone need to do something of the sort?”
“Well, with things like this, we usually ponder for answers for a good few hours, and then have the right one handed to us when we meet the person who orchestrated the whole thing.”
“That would work wonderfully if we knew we had a chance of beating the enemy,” she said. “However, it is like you said. We’re hopelessly outmatched for power here.”
Those were harsh words, but they were also one hundred percent true. We were outmatched quite a bit, and there wasn’t really anything we could do about it. With Acnologia’s help, I could temporarily increase my powers a hundred levels or more, but that was the extent to which I could strengthen myself. If this man we were pursuing was along the strength scale of a regular eternal, then his strength should be…
…well then, his strength would be untraceable, so I don’t have an actual quote of numbers that I could mention.
“I guess we’ll just have to see what happens when we get there,” I said. “That’s how we’ve done a lot of things.”
“Maybe.” She didn’t sound convinced.
“Diablo,” Oris called from behind. “How much longer do we have left?”
I chuckled as I turned to him. “A long, long way.”
“Tch.” He went back to staring at the ground as we headed through the forest. The sunlight had now turned a morning yellow, but the underside of the canopy was still very dull, as expected.
We walked in relative silence for the rest of the way. My mind was active the whole time, thinking about all the problems that had been presented to me. I thought about my past self, and wondered how such a person had to be subdued by every Eternal in existence and forced under the powers of a seal.
My mind delved to the piece of information that I had not shared with anyone — that Polaris’ Analyze skill was unable to bring anything up for the mystery man. That was definitely a very worrying thing.
“And that’s why you’re not telling anyone?” Nyx asked.
It’s not easy, I said. I can’t just go and say ‘Oh hey, remember that guy we’re about to go face? It’s possible the Analyze skill doesn’t work on him’.
“Well you don’t have to say it in THAT specific way.”
“Diablo is right, Nyx,” Acnologia said. “I agree with his decision to keep this quiet. It is possible we may find more information on this man as we move closer to his palace. In that case it would be better to not reveal anything now, and prevent frightening people with incomplete information.”
“Fine.” He didn’t sound convinced, but he didn’t protest either so we dropped the topic.
We’d travelled about three hours or so when we all collectively decided it’d be best to take a break. Raffyr and Viola had small canisters of water to share, but Irmeia and I forewent them anyway. Neither of us dehydrated that easily. Maybe it has something to do with us being Eternals, I thought.
“Do you guys not get hungry either then?” Oris asked, taking a sip of the can, and handing it back to Raffyr.
A growl rang through the air.
“A simple ‘yes’ would have sufficed,” the Knight chuckled.
The growl sounded again, and this was when Oris realized the first growl had not been my stomach, but a beast.
All of us immediately bunched up, eyeing the forest around us. I glanced at the Volcanic Bears, trying to see if they had a bearing of where exactly the noise was coming from, but the lot of them seemed just as confused as we were.
Rustling came from above us, and I immediately pushed everyone else out of the way. A large wolf dropped down, with its fangs bearing as it descended toward me.
I threw my palm into the air. “Iglacier!’ I jumped up and tapped the beast on the snout. The creature's mouth froze over and it dropped to the floor, in pain, but unable to growl out. I unsheathed Dawnbreaker as I touched down onto the ground and I slashed the blade into the beast's back. A deep gash opened right below its neck.
The wolf thrashed about, trying to sink its fangs into us. Your snout’s frozen you idiot, I chuckled. However, I could see cracks on the ice, no doubt from the wolf’s attempts to get out of the icy sculpture.
Iglacier was supposed to freeze the whole creature, I sighed.
“You’re not strong enough to do yet,” Nyx said.
Not strong enough, I chuckled. I quickly leaped forward, propping myself onto the beast's back. Before it could even do anything, I pressed one hand into its open wound, and its fresh blood stained my fingers.
“Oskis!” I yelled. A blast of flames surged into the beast and it thrashed about wildly.
For a second.
It collapsed to the floor, and smoke seeped from the wound I had attacked. I pulled my hand out, and rubbed it against the ground, getting rid of the blood it was coated with. Everyone looked at me, and not a word sounded from their lips.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Freya shook her head. “It’s…nothing.”
DING!
Congratulations! You have defeated:
: Climbing Forest Wolf (Lv 793).
That level is…worrisome. How much higher will these levels go? What other things in this forest are stronger than you are? Reward: Hide of the Climbing Forest Wolf. Reward: Tooth of the Climbing Forest Wolf. Reward: 1600000 Sol. Reward: 170000 XP.
Wow, that thing was higher leveled than I was, I said. But I managed to take it out pretty fast. Huh.
“Well, you tore into its flesh and sent a spell directly at its organs,” Nyx said. “I don’t think there’s any way that would NOT constitute a critical hit.”
Ah, I realized. That’s probably what happened.
Soon, all of us made way toward the mountain once again. I felt an air of tension in the group, however I wasn’t sure what was going on. I’ll talk to Freya later, I thought.
Seconds turned to minutes, and minutes to hours, but we passed through the forest in silence. I turned to the others a few times, wondering if they had anything to say, but their eyes all looked straight ahead, focused just on the path. Oris was silent the entire time as well, and no snarky, unnecessary comments came from him either.
Speaking of snarky comments, Nyx was surprisingly quiet, and I wasn’t sure what was going on there.
Did I do something wrong? I asked. Nyx?
“Do not worry over this, Eternal,” Acnologia said.
I frowned. Easy for you to say.
Either way, worried or not worried, we traveled the next few hours silently. We didn’t stop anywhere, and kept moving, from when morning turned to noon, and noon turned to night.
It was only when the sound of rushing water came along that I heard another voice speak out.
“Is that the Tsuyong river?” Irmeia asked.
“I believe so,” Freya had her Map menu open before her, and had an old scroll in her hands. Her eyes cross-checked between the two, and she nodded. “Yeah, this is the place.”
The trees around us abruptly ended, like someone had physically cut them to create a boundary. Past the boundary stood a small ten-yard strip of grassy land, and then a wide river beyond it. Water roared through the channels, spraying mist into the cold midnight air. All of us got down from our steeds, taking a long drink from the river and filling up any bottles and canteens we had.
Which was honestly just Raffyr and Viola.
I guess the Alliance of Light prepares you for a lot of things, I noticed.
“Sure,” Nyx said. “This has nothing to do with the fact that all of us are astonishingly ill-prepared.”
I smiled, and my chest loosened on hearing the spirit’s voice once again. Yup, I said.
I glanced up from the river, at the dark silhouettes of the Itamori mountain range. The peaks rose high off the ground, sinking into the clouds and hiding from my sight. These things went up many a mile — that much I could tell.
Past me was right. I looked at the peaks. There’s no way we could have gone over these mountains in time.
“Even if I were flying,” Acnologia said. “The air up there is quite turbulent.”
We’ll find the tunnel, I said. It’ll be fine.
“And if I don’t fit in it?”
I’ll just store you in my familiar storage system, I said. It’s the only option we have if you can’t fit into the tunnel.
We soon packed up from the spot, and travelled a mile or so further down the direction the river flowed. I quickly picked out a line of large boulders placed across the river, each one large enough for maybe two or even three bears to stand on at once.
“Is this where your past-self directed us to?” Freya asked as we stopped before the makeshift stone bridge.
I nodded. “He said if we head straight along the direction of the bridge, we’ll reach the underground pass that he was talking about.”
“Got it,” she nodded.
We slowly made our way across the river, forming a single line and crossing the stones laid out between the flowing water. One of the Volcanic bears — Oris’ — was particularly edgy around the water.
That’s probably the one I rode to Polaris’ island, I grinned.
Soon we were on the other side of the river and heading toward the mountain range. The journey now was but mere minutes compared to the hours we had spent travelling through the Alpinian forest.
We kept walking, and the mountain before us looked larger and larger the closer we went to it.
“Yes, that’s how vision works, Zoran,” Nyx chuckled.
I ignored him and focused on the landscape, trying to pick out anything odd. And then I found it.
Smack in the middle of the mountain was an opening — an arch of darkness that clearly signaled a tunnel.
“There,” I said, leading everyone else up to it.
“Is this the place?” Freya asked as we neared it, and the holed-out structure was now clearer in our visions.
The Eternal: A Boxed Set (World of Ga'em Book 6) Page 65
