The monster's core grinded into nothing long before I reached the end of the tunnel. And when it was gone I sent a wave of fire to get rid of anything left behind just in case.
My hand was red and bloody as I looked at it in the end. The skin was shredded and peeled back in some places. The muscles of my shoulders, biceps and forearms felt like they were burning. Shoulder blades and back muscles hurt a bit too.
I put my mind out of the pain in my limbs right now, as I was focusing on something else.
Looking at my hands, my body, there was a grey smoky fire enveloping me. A cold physical aura. It was the remnant of the Einsam's mana I absorbed and filtered.
Yes, none of the Einsam's self was within this mana, just information.
But that information was, well, the phantoms it had used against me.
Does this count as me hosting ghosts? I wondered.
The first thought in my head was what to do about this mana. It's origin was the Einsam sure, but it had nothing of its will or anything resembling that. There was this feel to the mana of nostalgia, regret and now, relief.
I started to let it go, let it evaporate form my body.
For a moment I had the thought to hold onto it. I won it by conquest and I think eventually I could assimilate this mana completely and with it the knowledge and skills I originally absorbed it for.
I shook my head. No, that sounds like a process and a half. The work of a lifetime and I will just be chained to this self-forced quest for who knows how much of my life till I master this power.
I'm not putting anymore chains on myself. I began this life free and I will continue to live it as I wish, not by what's forced upon me to deal with, if I don't want to.
I could almost feel gratitude that wasn't my own, but it felt too much like an imagination of my mind. Like something I told myself to feel good about myself.
"Now how to go about this?" I muttered.
I let go of Rein, letting go of thousands of adventurers' skill, knowledge and instincts should be much easier.
But what's the proper way? Doing it like how I used Jilwer to refill my mana levels with Minus' mana feels... disrespectful. Like this mana is something sacred that should be treated with a bit more reverence.
Speaking of Minus I can't feel the mana link curse to her anymore. Yes, the hook she has in my soul due to the bargain of me doing something for her, in return for her help is still there.
But, the mana link curse, that would send her mana to me that would turn me to only be able to use her mana should I exhaust mine (making my body reject my own mana)? That was gone.
Weird but not something to focus on for now.
"How to do this?" I thought out loud.
Well, the goddess should give them passage to the afterlife, so a holy spell?
I only know one healing spell though...
"Praying is about faith, isn't it?" I said to myself.
Standing here outside the tunnel, on the edge of a cliff, facing the sea crashing on the walls below. There was a path to the side that lead down to the beach. They sky was brightening with the light of the morning. The sun rose maybe an hour or so ago. The sky was cloudy.
Did that fucker's illusion messed with my perception of time as well? That shitty Einsam seemed to have human-level intelligence enact cruelty and reveled in it, so probably.
I clicked my tongue, then shook my head. Not important for now. I still have time.
Hands open flat, brought my hands and pressed them together.
The universal gesture of prayer.
I called upon the mana within me. Mine, intertwined with the ghostly mana, guiding it to the spell structure of the Healing Spell.
Hey, Goddess? Can you accept them into the afterlife? Help them? If they are... something that can be helped?
I didn't have Certainty that this would work. I was really waving in the dark here.
Once the Healing Spell was finished I didn't cast it on myself. There was just this ball of energy in front of me, since I created the spell structure outside. I didn't know what else to do.
I just had a vague idea and Faith.
The clouds parted. I felt a smile caress my cheek, which was a warm and odd feeling because it wasn't me smiling.
There was a beam of sunlight engulfing me. Not focused but just clouds oddly parting. Viewing it from far away, the whole scene might be a natural coincidence.
The apparitions that appeared around me dispelled that notion. The ghostly vestige of all kinds filled my view. Adventurers, warriors, mages, priests, archers, lancers, rogues, normal people, people of all kinds.
Victims of a thousand years slain before their time by one monster. Looking at all these ghosts, it felt unfair that the Einsam managed to live and survive for so long.
Yet at the head of this ghostly parade were the three strongest phantoms I faced, summoned by the monster. They looked content. The Ghost Warrior grunted and nodded. I think he grunted, they didn't make a sound. The Ghost Swordsman brought his hands together as I did and bowed. And the Ghost Mage tipped his wizard hat at me. Huh, he didn't have that before.
"Good job, Boyo."
I startled at the sudden voice, and looked behind me.
"Flamme!" My eyes widened, as I felt a smile grow on my face.
"You did it good." She walked forward, ghostly hand patted my head, as she passed by me to join the other ghosts. "I marked the plants you wanted back in the tunnel." She said with her back to me.
"Huh?" Not the most eloquent reply, but I was mentally tired. Sue me.
"You still have stuff to do, don't you?" She turned back smiling, as golden light flared around and within every ghost. "Live a long life, Trenn. With as little regrets as you can manage." Flamme grinned cheekily. "And if you can, do help my dense student get to Ende once she starts her journey."
"Y-Yeah," I said back, finally found my voice. I felt a calming warmth in my chest from everything, this meeting, this goodbye and all. Then I realized what she just asked me. "Hey, wait and minute—!" One by one, very quickly like smoke going out in a wave, the ghost vanished in small flash and shine of gold.
The sunbeam was the only thing left and slowly it dimmed as the clouds closed once more.
I stood in silence for a while, only the sound of waves soothing me in the background.
"She knows? Did she read my memories?" I said to myself. I suppose it shouldn't be surprising given everything.
I went back into the tunnel, flying at high speed. The place was big so I needed to search it quickly, and...
I found a literally neon yellow glowing rock. It was very obvious in the relatively dark tunnel.
Also the giant neon yellow arrow was pointing at it with a caption 'SHINEGLOW MOSS BEHIND THIS ROCK!'.
"Thanks, Flamme. Really couldn't have figured that out." I deadpanned.
The rock glowing and arrows were clearly magic spells of some sort, but I didn't have time to sit down and study or memorize them.
I moved the rock to see a massive amount of the moss. Enough that even if I fill my bag and carried some I couldn't take them all.
On the back of the rock that, now lost its glow, I found the formula for a spell titled 'Flora Lifeforce Detection Spell'.
"I don't have paper and pen on me." I said mostly to myself as I clicked my mouth.
The giant arrow changed to another caption: 'MEMORIZE IT, NUMBNUTS!'
"...That was a timed trigger." I realized after a moment by observing the spell array. "She literally expected me for complain about not being able to write this down, and actively wrote that message." I blink in disbelief as this. "What the fuck—She's sassing me from beyond the grave."
There was no audio spell. There were no other spells cast or happening, just the neon messages left. I could have sworn I heard mocking laughter.
Frieren, your master is mean.
I went to gather the Shineglow Moss and fly out of the Death Tunnel.
It's only when I was about to cast Schnellwurf to fast travel back to Ackerheim that I realized my mana reserves were back to a 100%.
The Goddess gave me a refill. ...Holy shit. I was frozen, just floating in the air, at that realization. Okay processing that and everything else later on.
I cast Schnellwurf and went on my way.
Minus, The Witch POV:
Minus was in silent contemplation. What she was feeling right now...
How many years? She wondered. How many centuries has it been since I've experienced genuine, unadulterated fear?
The fact that she was having this thought was in its own way hilarious to Minus. That as soon as she attained the Divine Gift of Precognition, she had been experiencing one surprising and, or shocking experience after another.
Upon gaining the Divine Gift she had almost died. Critically injured with a cursed wound. The irony of her, a mage specializing in curses, being cursed was not lost on her.
Then immediately afterwards she met the man fated to kill her. Except he was still a boy.
The boy meant to kill her healed her.
Naturally she observed him, followed his actions with a scholar's curiosity.
But then...
Battle awakened him. The more pressure placed upon him, the more he grow. In mere hours he reached heights that would take other mages years to reach.
And as she watched his battles, only giving him enough help to be able to continue, she discovered things that left her puzzled.
Above everything was his mana levels. The boy, Trenn, was nine years old according to those who knew him. According to a spell she knew that told how long someone's been alive.
And yet... Trenn had the mana level of a mage who lived and practiced magic for a nearly century. The mana levels of a human who should be an elder toward the end of their life.
That's what allowed him to cast that large-scale spell fire spell, even before she offered him her curse. What allowed him to cast the travel spell for so long. To constantly practice mana techniques all hours of the day.
How does a simply human boy have that amount of mana? How was he never discovered before by mages of the Elves Shield?
"Minus," Trenn spoke from his chair next to the old archer's, Schroff's bed. "Thanks. For coming here ahead of time. Having you around really helped in case Mr. Alarich couldn't manage things."
They were at Gerwin's inn in Ackerheim. Minus stood at the window looking like she was staring at the ongoings of the town and people. In truth she was sending her vision to something else far away.
"The town's herbalist had things well in hand." Minus waved the boy off, dismissing him with a wave of her hand. She hardly expended any effort. "I trusted that you'd succeed so I came ahead of time. I figured I might as well halt the progression of the poison, lest unexpected complications arise and erase your hard work."
"...So there's a spell that can do that too." Trenn said in a low tone, yet she heard him all the same. As soon as Schroff's health was confirmed, Trenn collapsed on the first chair he could find. His eyes were downcast staring at the floor in contemplation all the while. "If I had been thinking straight I'd have thought to heal him with Goddess Magic." He said, bitterness directed at himself.
"It's a good thing you did not." Minus spoke. She felt Trenn slowly look up at her. She didn't turn to him. Her sight was upon a piece of land between the town they were in and Schwanz. Along the direct path between the habitats there is now a chasm. Not a large one, but significant that travelers will have to go around it, make a small bridge over it, or higher a mage to fill that dug out patch of earth again.
It was caused by Trenn. Minus is sure he doesn't know this. It occurred when he was asleep and falling from the sky.
He used it then when he lost consciousness, didn't he? That 'Reelseiden' spell he spoke of. Minus dismissed the spell as a unique but simple attack spell. Part of the reason why she kept an eye on the boy was to see him use that spell and pick up its components, to see how it worked.
But what if it wasn't a spell? But some kind of Divine Gift as well. He didn't cast a spell or call its name. He just automatically unleashed it before he woke up. Yet Minus couldn't sense a Divine Gift within Trenn.
Was that due to her already having one, stolen as it might be. Or was it something else?
Maybe that 'Reelseiden' spell is some instinctive magic Trenn holds even if he never used it. Maybe didn't even know it or its name, but the seer girl, Rein told him.
"Magical poisons tend to exacerbate when the wrong spell is used upon them. May tend to absorb the user's mana to propagate or quicken their effect." Minus explained. "That's why it is better to use the correct antidote potion, or be a skilled Priest with the correct healing or general cleansing spell."
Rein. That was a whole other jug of scorpions.
"I see," Trenn let out a sigh, a small smile gracing his face. "I guess it was lucky then however thing worked out." The frown returned. "Well, lucky this time, but I can't afford to rely on luck like this next time. I was too hotheaded, so many better, calmer options that I should have considered first. Next time, if ever there is a situation like this again, I'll do better."
"Yes." Minus finally moved, turning her head a bit to give Trenn a side-eye, before looking back out the window. "Lucky indeed."
Lucky. That truly was the definitive thing wasn't it.
Trenn was lucky.
Lucky to have been born in a place at the far end of the continent, were no one could find his talent and shape him from a young age.
Lucky to be in a city where either side of this silly civil war had the resources nor competence to discover his magical talents.
Lucky to have focused first and foremost on mana suppression as his main magical training.
More than that, when did Trenn start sensing mana? A year ago? Two? When he was four or five? ...Even younger?
When did his magical gift show itself? And more than that, what inspired him to train like he did, to have that discipline.
No. Remember their first conversation, his love for magic was just that strong. No wonder he threw himself into using it as much as possible, as he did.
Above all though... Trenn was lucky to be living in the same orphanage as a girl with the Divine Gift of Precognition.
Here's a question Minus didn't consider before: How old was Rein?
She was a six year old girl when Minus met her.
But how old is someone who can see the future actually?
While Minus only had the Divine Gift for a few days, she could spend hours staring at the possibilities of the future. She also noticed a minute efficiency in using the gift, the more she used it. Such as 1 minute looking into the future, equated to 59.998 seconds in real time.
Odds are with enough practice she would be able to look at hours of future sight, with only seconds passing in real time.
So what of the girl born with such ability?
How far into the future did Rein see? How far, how long did she live in her visions, while only being six years old in her physical body?
Surely all of Rein's visions ended with her meeting Minus, didn't they? She couldn't have planned for anything beyond that, didn't she?
And yet... that battle with the aged Einsam.
A monster that, if nothing else, proved the theory that all monster eventually can evolve into demons with enough time and mana. All of them simply never lived that long to succeed. Dragons as a race having reached an intermediary state, and were simply one evolution away from demonhood.
The Einsam facing it was a terrifying experience for Trenn.
But also one for Minus.
The Great Mage knew there were things in this world that could be a threat to it, if she wasn't careful.
She knew that.
But even knowing that didn't prepare her for a monster, that managed to block her attempts of subtly freeing Trenn from the illusions he saw in battle, or outright blocking her from interfering in the illusionary world, only act as an observer. The Einsam had the gall to actually reach into Minus' mind to learn how to copy her mannerisms so that when the Illusion Minus left Trenn behind, he wouldn't suspect a thing.
But the Einsam's actions were only momentarily frightening, and simply frustrating and annoying afterwards.
The truly scary thing was... Rein had left a portion of her mana within her Divine Gift. A portion of mana so well hidden, Minus, a Great Mage didn't detect it, until it activated to leave her through the mana link curse, once the illusionary world for Trenn was made.
Did Rein also train as a mage? Could Rein have trained in secret with Trenn? Minus didn't sense that from Rein when she met her.
What if... Rein simply taught herself through her Divine Gift? What if Rein could act out what future she desires through her gift, even if she didn't have the skill herself?
Like someone picking up a lyre for the first time in their life, and hitting all the right notes on the first try out of sheer luck.
What would you call suck luck, such series of coincidences?
A miracle.
For some reason Minus instinctively knew she couldn't replicate such a feat. Might not ever be able to.
That such a feat of knowing exactly what actions were needed to bring about the future of Trenn, not only surviving, winning, as well as overcoming the guilt of not saving his hometown, Rein could do that alone due to her skill with her Divine Gift.
Minus acknowledge the girl, the Seer of Anfang as worthy opponent, even if she will likely never see her again.
But then there was her second opponent. The boy sitting just a few feet away from her.
In an act that stupefied Minus, in the depth of his illusionary world, after everything he was confronted with, took control of the Fremdfluss curse.
Minus isn't sure that Trenn realized what he did was impossible.
The caster of the curse has complete control of it. Control of how much mana is passed through, and even control over the recipient's mana to some degree. After all, this particular curse needs a willing recipient to be cast, and by accepting the recipient is seeding that control to the caster.
Yet Trenn did what Minus couldn't imagine. Overriding her will and taking her own mana from her.
She was stunned for a moment, which is what allowed Trenn to use her mana, funneling it through his body into his magic spells immediately. Weirdly enough in less than a day, his body already adapted to hosting her mana somewhat, so channeling all that mass quantity of foreign mana didn't cripple this body.
Minus' intense curiosity was the only reason she saw that battle through to the end.
And immediately afterwards she cut off the connection, dispelling the curse herself. Her heart had been thundering in her chest afterwards.
It shouldn't have been possible for Trenn to hurt Minus, with that act of taking some of her mana through the link. Her mana levels dwarf anything Trenn could hold.
And yet, because Trenn did the impossible, because he override how her curse was meant to work, a seed of doubt entered Minus' mind.
What if.
What if he actually managed to absorb all of her mana from the get go? What if somehow he reversed how the curse worked?
What if. What if. What if.
All due to the machinations of Rein.
"When T-Train gets strong enough and gets slicey-slice, h-he'll beat you! A-And then you'll never hurt anyone ever again!"
Minus remember the last words of her interaction with the seer. She had dismissed it as childish bravado. A 'scary' last word hurled at the 'mean witch'.
But what if the words were prophetic? What if they were an ominous threat?
But Trenn already knows Reelseiden. Minus thought.
He already cast it, not once but twice.
Yet in both times it wasn't in the 'real' world. Once in a dream, and once in an illusion within his mind.
Minus wasn't an expert in Mind Magics. She hadn't seen the spell structure for Reelseiden because it wasn't cast in the real physical world, the two times it was cast.
It felt like she was being baited like a fish. Again and again Minus saw hints of the instrument of her death, yet never how it was implemented. Only the aftereffects.
The ever present question of 'had Rein planned all this' chained Minus' train of thought.
Trenn almost, might have killed her. Accidently, without even realizing it. If the threat of him absorbing all her mana in one go was real.
Again, Minus was back to 'what if'.
She huffed in amusement and shook her head, realizing she was likely doing the same thing as a boy, ruminating on actions taken, if for different reasons.
No. Minus ultimately decided. It matters not how long Rein used her future sight, how skilled she was with her gift. I am a mage that lived over one thousand, eight hundred years. The machinations of a six year old seer, no matter how gifted won't overcome me.
No matter how intricate Rein's plans were, the girl no longer had her Divine Gift. If she was still alive, she's have to act and live without depending on it.
As for Trenn... Minus looked at him with her senses, rather than her eyes. It's like tasting the most skillfully made wine perfect over a life time. It can all so easily be addicting and wine can easily become poison. I need to distance myself.
And like that Minus turned around, headed to the door.
"You're leaving?" Trenn asked, as he blinked and noticed where she was going.
"I believe I've stayed here long enough. I do have my own research to venture into." Minus smiled at the boy. "I have aided you as I said I would. I will see you again once you're ready for my tutelage, and don't forget I still have one more favor you owe me."
"Ah," Trenn blinked as he remember the deal connected to his soul between them. "That. I hope it's something I can actually do." He chuckled.
"Based on everything I've seen of you, I do believe you will be able to slay Plus in due time." Minus nodded.
"'Plus'?" Trenn blinked, scrunching up his expression in cute confusion. "Wait, are you serious, that's actually her name?!"
"Yes," Minus nodded again, ever maintaining her amused smile. "She's a Warrior, an elf of near peerless might who..." She paused, tilting her head with a sly smile. "Well, its not important right now. When we meet again, I might tell you about her then."
Minus moved to leave once more.
"You're not gonna leave a mark on me this time?" Trenn asked with some amusement.
Minus paused and turned her head to him with equal amusement on her face.
"Not this time." She did leave a mana mark. More hidden this time. On his mentor, Schroff. It was meant to alert her to his passing. She wasn't being morbid. He was old for a human and likely had less than a decade to live. Basically a blink of an eye for her. "The anchor from the contract magic is enough. I'll come find you later." That magic contract also tells her Trenn's location at all times, so she didn't need anything beyond that.
When he moves away from Anfang or lives away from Frost Mountain, she'll know it was time to take him under her wing, and that was if she didn't scry him with other means.
Or return after ten years to check on him if nothing changes.
"Later, Minus." Trenn smiled and waved at her.
After she left, the other occupant in the room spoke.
"Trenn, did you just call her 'Minus'?" Schroff coughed and sat up.
"Oh! Hey old man, you're awake!" Trenn smiled widely.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, thanks to you, brat." Schroff waved him off. "More importantly, was that the Great Mage, Minus? And where you just casually talking to her?"
"...Great Mage? What's that?"
???????, the Wandering Old Warrior POV:
A year after the surprise attack by the Anti-Elf Coalition, where its army was slaughter down to the man, that saw an old dwarf make his way through Anfang on the orders of his superior.
Both the Anti-Elf Coalition and the Elves Shield had sent spies to find out what happened. There were conflicting accounts, and a lot of folks just outright refused to speak of that night.
However after a lot of times, the piece of information that the spies managed to get back to their camps was one none believed. A child supposedly suffered the loss of his family due to the Coalition's passing and pillaging of their hometown that he used his magic to destroy the army.
This information was dismissed, or logically recategorized to being that the army had run into a demon, that just happened to be small and look like a child. That was a more understanding explanation.
Thus a stronger segment of the Elves Shield was dispatched to Anfang to secure it from any demons present, while the Anti-Elf Coalition left the region alone so as not to lose any more forces to said demons.
That was the official story of both sides. Odds are the Shields are looking for the mage responsible to recruit him, while the Coalition would send rogue to find this army killer mage, if he exists, and assassinate him.
The old dwarf however knew the truth.
It wasn't a demon. It was a mage. And it was a child.
As he came up on a large cabin in his mountain hick, the old dwarf knew he reached his destination.
His quarry was even here to greet him, having sensed him long before he arrived.
"Hello there, are you lost?" The boy, the army slayer mage, Trenn asked.
"What makes you think I'm lost?" Came the gruff voice, softened with age.
"This place isn't exactly easy for visitors to reach. Either you know the path from one of the town's folk, or you stumbled here, and well..." Trenn tilted his head with a childish sly smile. "I'm trying to be polite here."
"Yeah, I am looking for this place." The old dwarf nodded, causing Trenn to gain a calmer more serious expression.
"My name is Wehrlos," said the old dwarf. "Your old friend, Löwenjunges, sent me." He gave a sardonic grin. "Said you needed a combat teacher, cause he saw you fight like shit."
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CHILDHOOD ARC END
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AN: Aaaaaand that's a wrap. Next chapter will take place three years from now when Trenn is 13 years old.
Also to everyone that wants to read ahead, please do not join Patreon yet.
There are currently no extra chapters for Fear Not the Elf. Just wait a week for me to fill it up again, so you'd have something worth your money. The only thing on Patreon now I think is a PJO SI - Son of Koalemos chapter, but I don't think it's meaty enough to warrant joining patreon for. The main character's POV isn't even shown yet.