Chapter 8
A cloud of iron sand danced in the air, the bright rays of sunlight reflected in it making a rare spectacle due to seemingly random symmetries the light produced.
It was hot, drops of sweat were sliding down my face and my hair was plastered into my skin.
I took a deep breath and with a flex of will, I commanded the iron sand to converge into the form of a familiar scythe. Using earth to magnetize and maintain the construct together, I shifted my lightning formulas to electrically charge each grain making the weapon start vibrating, sparks started to appear along the shaft and the blade.
Adding water movement formulas into the mix, the stationary iron sands into currents inside the weapon while still maintaining its form. The construct shrieked as the different grains ground into each other.
Slowly and very carefully, I started running air formulas. A minuscule amount of air slowly entered the weapon running between the different iron particles smoothing the movements and thus silencing the sound.
Finally, I ignited the mixture with fire. All the charged particles in the scythe lighted up and plasma was created for a split second before the spell turned into a sinister dark purple mass.
I quickly swung the scythe through a tree that was split in half by the impact. The area where the blade went through disappeared as if it never existed. I didn't know exactly where the matter went, but I had my suspicions. I thought that what was happening was that any order inside the matter simply ceased to exist and thus the matter dissolved into energy.
The energy that my construct automatically absorbed, which was why a second later my scythe started destabilizing—the energy inside being far larger than what I could safely contain with my current skill.
After a moment of panic, I hastily put together the strongest wave of electromagnetic force I could to repel the unstable mass away. Throwing myself to the ground with my hands over my ears just to feel the earth-shattering shock wave of a piece of unstable chaos making contact with the normal world.
Another failure.
With a sigh, I got up and checked myself for any damage. Luckily it seemed that today's failure was a painless one at least.
I couldn't help but shiver a little. I didn't want to go through the housewife's scolding again even if she had a point about safety measures.
Looking over the little clearing I took from the forest for my little tests. I thought she might even have some very good points.
There were craters all over the place, more than a dozen trees had been cut in my experimentation and elemental damage was everywhere. I wasn't kidding when I said I took this clearing from the forest. It will certainly take a while for nature to heal the damage I did.
"You sure are going at it today aren't you, Regis? I thought you said you would wait until you were better at using your ability before you would try that again." I heard the admonishing voice from the hunter high in the trees.
A second later I sensed him jumping from tree to tree until he landed next to me.
I did say that. It had been a while since I'd tried to combine all my elements into a chaos spell.
From what I've observed, to use my ability safely, I need to dedicate at least ten percent of my calculations and will to each element. Meaning that as long as I used only one element I would only be able to exercise around sixty percent of my power at most.
This was also part of the reason I practically ripped off the third-ranked technique of iron sand manipulation. Not only did I already know the math needed from my snooping back in my original world, but it was a technique that could stably use up to eighty percent of my power due to earth and lightning being used to manipulate the sand and air being used to sharpen my strikes and reinforce the overall spell.
Of course, ideally, I would use chaos spells, but considering how it had gone for me in the past…
Let's just say that I spent a couple of weeks in bed a few months ago.
So, that brought up the question about why I was experimenting with such a dangerous technique.
A hand on my shoulder knocked me out of my thoughts.
"Regis, are you alright? You don't seem hurt from what I can see."
Oh right, the hunter was here… I really was out of it, wasn't I?
But what could I even say?
"There is something wrong. I don't know what it is, but something is coming. I can feel it in my guts." I ended up saying.
After all this time in the village and the forest, I'd taken to observing my surroundings with my esp perception whenever I was doing boring tasks or simply patrolling. After doing so for a while I concluded that there was something in the village that was for lack of a better word numbing the mana in the air.
It wasn't like the wisps of different colors were behaving differently, but they were weaker. Less assertive in their existence was probably a better way to say it. It would neatly explain why it was easier to use my ability inside the village than in the forest.
Well, a couple of days ago something changed. A hostile wave of something I couldn't quite articulate came to the village. The weakened wisps were revitalized for a moment and then returned to how they were a couple of minutes later. A few hours later another wave came and then a few hours after another.
The interval between each wave had been getting smaller.
And as I explained it to the hunter I could see his face slowly losing color.
"You know what this is, don't you?" I accused him, somehow knowing that this was what they had been hiding from me this whole time.
"How far away do you think it is, Regis?" He asked, his dead serious eyes looking at mine.
"I don't know, the decreasing time between waves hasn't been exactly linear. But when I do the averages…, if this thing maintains a constant speed it could be from tomorrow around noon to the day after in the afternoon." I said. "Can't you tell me what it is?"
I'd been getting sick worrying about it, so much so that I started training my chaos formulas expecting the worst even if I knew it was a horrible idea.
Looking at the hunter for answers I could tell that he wouldn't explain anything. He was murmuring something about it being too soon. That according to the projections we should still have a month at least.
I had no idea what he was taking into consideration in his calculations, but I knew what I felt.
I was about to insist when he said. "Don't worry about it, Regis. This has nothing to do with you. But if I were you, when we get back to the village, you should pack everything. Chances are high that the mayor is going to kick you out soon. But never mind that, are you ready to eat some more dirt today?" He taunted me as if he hadn't just dropped a bomb on me and everything was as usual.
But I knew, didn't I? That I would eventually be kicked out of the village.
All this… It pissed me off.
Not knowing what was going on. The lies, the misdirection, the pitying glances from some of the villagers, the taunting grin on the hunter's face.
As if I couldn't see that internally he was scared shitless by whatever was coming.
I was about to say something when the hunter launched himself at me with his sword already in motion.
More on reflex than anything else, I willed the iron sand to intercept. Attacking the hunter in the head who parried with his sword and jumped back to avoid the icicles that were about to impale him from above.
The frustration inside me was too much, all the worrying and the seeming futility of gaining any agency about the future of the village was too much.
Despite all my power, I was powerless to do anything.
Again.
By this point, I only wanted an outlet to let it all out.
"Fine, if you wanted to piss me off, congratulations you managed. Today, you're the one going down!" I shouted as I charged forward, surprising him momentarily.
Usually, he was the one chasing me while I tried to tag him with a spell. But not today, there was something that I had wanted to try for a while but didn't because I didn't know what would happen.
I was beyond caring.
As I closed in, iron sand swirled around me and started lashing out at the hunter in a series of fast attacks. I didn't put too much force into them, just the necessary to make the hunter bleed if they made contact which forced the hunter to dodge and parry.
Eventually, he saw a gap through my attacks and went for it, just to have to backpedal as a curtain of fire filled the gap I had left open on purpose. A couple of icicles launched themselves from above and I dashed in at him again to continue my onslaught.
Despite what it might have seemed, in all these months I still hadn't won a single match against this madman. He always seemed to have an ace that I couldn't see through. From weapons made of different types of wood to bone weapons to goddamned bees.
I'll never forget the day that he started running away at the beginning of the spar and after a couple of minutes of chasing, he cut a branch with a bee nest on it. Then he picked the branch and proceeded to beat me with it. His Level Two toughness made him virtually impervious to the stings. Unfortunately, my unblessed ass wasn't as tough.
The bastard grrr…
By the time I exploded myself to push the bees away, I had already been stung a few times so I had lost.
Anyway, as I continued my onslaught of strikes, I started to add feints to the mix. An extra iron sand tendril here and there, an icicle that was more mirage than matter. And suspicions I'd long since had started to make more sense.
He didn't fall for any of the feints, he didn't even react to them. On a whim, I created a shuriken made of iron sand behind my head and between attacks, I ducked shooting the projectile forward just to make it curve downwards making it go between his legs at the last moment.
The hunter didn't even flinch, to my precognition it seemed like he didn't even register it as a threat. Dashing backward to avoid the retaliatory strike for my wasted attack, I swiftly went back in.
Dodging a bone dagger precisely aimed at the end of my dash by the skin of my teeth, I continued my onslaught with renewed intensity pushing the hunter to step back. The hunter suddenly tilted his head sideways avoiding the returning attack of my shuriken with a mocking smile on his face.
This confirmed it, there was something more than experience going on here. The hunter was fast, far faster than me. But my iron sand was still faster than him.
I should have been able to tag him at least once. He just didn't commit any wasted or erroneous movements even when I still hadn't decided what I was going to do. As if he could…
I was an idiot.
'Adventurers were basically built like espers, Regis! Of course, some of them were going to develop precognition.' I couldn't help but yell at myself inside my head.
But in the end, whether he possessed precognition or not, it wouldn't change the outcome of this match, because my analysis was complete.
Knowing that he possessed precognition made what I was going to do easier even. A torrent of ice went for his left flank while a gust of fire went for his right in an arc. Predictably, he charged forward to the space just before me where there was neither ice nor fire and slashed, exactly as I predicted. I blocked with my iron sand sword and when our weapons made contact, I unleashed the air formula I had been refining since the beginning of the spar.
Instead of the muted clank of our swords colliding, a sonic blast exploded out of the hunter.
A sonic explosion so strong it cracked the soil we were fighting on.
After half a second, I let go of my formulas, just to see the hunter on the ground passed out with his ears bleeding.
This… This didn't feel good. I should be feeling proud of this win, I should be celebrating, but I wasn't in the mood for it.
Instead, I could feel my body tensing and felt even more frustrated.
This wasn't a victory decided by me being better, it hadn't been a battle of wits that we had been enjoying these past few months.
It had just been me figuring out how his Skill worked and ruthlessly taking advantage of it.
From what I sensed, the hunter's Skill worked by sending his sound waves to nullify the sound waves of his surroundings.
Now that I thought about it, his precognition probably came from here too. He would need to know what frequency to emit in advance for the basic usage of the Skill. Thus, even if he couldn't control his Skill since it was automatic, developing a precognitive instinct due to that quirk of his ability wouldn't be that far-fetched.
Waves had a particular characteristic of being able to be nullified by their inverted counterpart but if I inverted the original wave before his inverted wave reached it then the sound would be amplified.
So the only thing I had to do was learn how often he emitted his nullifying sound waves and then forcefully invert the sound waves from our clash before he nullified it. Once the wave had been amplified, he would send another to match to try to nullify. In half a second, by my calculations, this exchange happened forty-three times.
For a man that for around 80 years hadn't heard a sound louder than an indoor voice, I might as well have flashbanged the shit out of him.
On one hand, I felt that he totally deserved it for all the times he beat me into the dirt, on the other I didn't feel like I had defeated him.
I just defeated the shoddy programming his skill used.
Note to self, the gods probably couldn't code for shit.
With a sigh at my conflicted emotions. I poured a potion down the hunter's throat.
Well, what was done was done.
So, with the smuggest smile I could muster, I waited for the hunter to wake up. Even if my victory was bittersweet, I was still going to milk this for all it was worth.
"Urg, did someone see the minotaur that hit me?" he said, disoriented.
"I didn't see any minotaur, I did see an old man eating dirt though," I said with glee in my tone.
Despite my mixed feelings, the face he made after my reply was one that I would treasure for the rest of my days.
/////////////////
Hunter P.O.V
I was getting old.
The bitterness of the ale I was drinking just confirmed what the aches in my body had been telling me for a while.
Looking at the starry dark sky, I couldn't help but be reminded of younger times. When my body responded better to my commands and my god's Falna wasn't the only thing holding me together.
When the love of my life was still alive…
"10 Valis for your thoughts?" I heard the voice of Roger, the leader of the village and once the chief officer of logistics of the Ganesha Familia. He might have been stuck at Level One all his life, but if you were to ask me, he had made a far larger impact in the world than I ever did.
"I'm not sure I should. Wouldn't want to ruin the mood. It's not something we can talk about right now." I said while nodding towards where a grumpy Regis was drinking something next to the table.
His eyes widened in understanding. We couldn't talk about the contents of a private magical contract where young ears were listening after all. And by now, I knew by experience that his senses were sharp to the point of absurd.
Everyone was celebrating Regis' first win against me. It appeared that bets were going around if the sounds of coins registering through my Skill were any indication.
Old people and their little games… There was far too little to do around these parts sometimes.
To be honest, I still wasn't sure what to think about today's spar. I thought I still had a couple of weeks until he would overcome me.
Well, these things happened from time to time.
You couldn't always win.
But still, it rankled the way I lost.
I had a lot of pride in the mastery I reached in my Skill. While there were a lot of people stronger than me, no one I knew developed their Skills to the point I did.
After countless hours of meditation searching for insights and practice, I took a skill made for stealth to the point where I had practical omniscience in my immediate surroundings and a future sight that allowed me to sense danger up to three seconds into the future.
And I still lost, against an unblessed brat at that.
The voice of said brat knocked me out of my thoughts. "That's isht! You wansht dick jokes, here's my ereshctil dysfuncshton, old man!" And then proceeded to thrust his hips forward from where a rather anemic torrent of water nailed Josep, the farmer, in the face.
Pfffffffffffff.
There was a chorus of laughs from everyone, which stopped the moment Regis started chasing Josep around while shooting beams of water from his hips. The problem wasn't the water blasting the farmer around, it was the fire and lightning flying around chaotically setting things on fire.
What was happening? Regis had long since gained better control than this.
"This was his glass? This is alcohol, the kid is drunk!" the tailor said while sniffing the glass.
"Aaaah! Help me! He's going to kill me!" The farmer dramatically said while running circles around the table.
"Come shere! You shity farmer!" Regis shouted.
With a sigh, I was going to put an end to the madness when Elisabet, Roger's wife suddenly hugged Regis from behind with a handkerchief in her hand and after a second of struggle the kid fell asleep against her bosom.
Alchemists and their poisons…
She picked him up and started to come towards us where she sat down next to her husband while holding a sleeping Regis against her body.
"Josep, can you put down the fires? Thank you." said the mayor to the clown of the village.
"What!? But I'm the victim here…" But no one was paying attention to him anymore. Everyone knew that he lacked sensitivity and social awareness sometimes, and even drunk Regis wouldn't have gone after him if he hadn't been needling him for a while.
The mayor sighed. "Honey? Please remind me to make Regis swear to never touch alcohol again when he wakes up."
"Of course, dear." She replied with a motherly smile while petting the sleeping kid's head like she would a cat. Regis might almost be fourteen years old, but he was still tiny.
"Well, can you tell me what have you this worried about?" The mayor asked me.
With a sigh and another swing of my mug, I answered. "Regis told me that something big was coming. He still has no idea what it is, but he thinks it will get here between tomorrow at noon and the day after. We should have Regis leave first thing tomorrow morning." I said, which silenced the entire village.
"That's impossible!" The mayor said. "According to the number of monster cores you and Regis brought from your patrols the concentration of the monster should still get a little bit higher before it arrives. My calculations said that we should still have around a month. Is this why you let yourself lose on purpose? To give him a sense of achievement before he leaves?"
Lose on purpose? What was he talking about? Oh…
"Roger!" I said while making eye contact trying to convey that I was dead serious."I didn't let myself lose. He beat me, he ruptured my eardrums." I pointed to the sleeping boy and my ears for emphasis. He knew what a supposed impossibility that statement was with my Skill.
"And then, when I asked, he explained in excruciating detail how he did it while looking grumpy because he felt that he only won because he thought that our God did shoddy work when he gifted it to me."
The nerve…
To think that he thought I would ever let myself lose in battle. But I guessed it wasn't that strange that he couldn't believe that Regis could ever win a spar against me. Regis, for all that he helped freely with his power around the village, had never truly shown how skilled and deadly he was with it.
"I've long since known that Regis' senses were extraordinary, but after he told me what he discovered about my Skill…" I shook my head at the inability to voice what I felt at that moment and forced myself to continue. "He is something else, he explained things that I had no idea about a Skill that I've spent more than half my life exploring. At this point, I have no choice but to believe him. If he said that it's coming these following days, then it is." I took a deep breath and continued, "This isn't like you Roger, why are you so panicked? We all knew what we signed up here to do."
The mayor took a deep breath to calm himself down and said."It's not about us, the situation in Orario right now is the worst it's ever been." And looked at Regis. "Are you sure you can't go with him? If you go fast, you should still be able to Level up and live a few more years."
Oh, it's the old discussion again.
So with an exasperated smile, I said, "I…, my friend, I've lived a full life. I'm satisfied, but I'm also tired. While all of you came here to live a few extra years in tranquility, I came here to die in peace. You don't have to worry about Regis, he'll be able to return the relic safely. He's going to be alright. I guarantee it."
"Oh? Why is everyone so serious? Are we going to die tomorrow? I thought this was supposed to be a party." The farmer said, having doused the fires with a blanquet.
The silence that followed was loud enough to give the jokester a hint.
"Oh shit! Seriously? Oh well, it was a good life, " he said with a shrug and a relaxed smile.
We could only chuckle at his words.
After a few seconds, the housewife said, "By the way, in the end? Did anyone discover what Regis was? I thought the poll was evenly matched between him being a hero skill inheritor, a half-spirit, or a legendary incarnation."
Ah, I remember that conversation… When Regis unlocked his ability, there was a frenzy of gossip and research to see if we could figure out what he was to help him get stronger.
Not that he followed any advice we gave him, he mostly just seemed to follow his instincts and ignored anything else.
"I get the skill inheritor and half-spirit, both are a possibility." The mayor said, "But incarnations are beyond rare and only happen when someone resonates with the falna of their god in a really specific matter. I remember checking him when he first arrived and he didn't possess it. So we can safely discount that possibility."
"I don't know, I still think that he is one." The old tailor said, despite being told about how impossible it was a second ago.
"Why would you say that? I thought that was the more farfetched one." The alchemist said while repositioning Regis in her arms to a more comfortable position.
"To begin with, I think we can cross half-spirit from the list. All spirits I have heard of are thematic in some way, and that means that innately, they can only control one element. If there was a spirit capable of controlling five, wouldn't you think it would be famous?" The tailor argued, to which we could only nod. "We can also cross him being a hero skill inheritor from the list, while running my shop, I've met and talked to a lot of the strongest adventurers of Orario and more specifically to the goddess Hera. I remember hearing her ranting about the clans and how the Far Eastern deities went against her in her efforts to recruit some people from the clans. I asked what powers she was seeking them for, and she never told me anything like what Regis can do."
I mean what she said made sense, but that still doesn't explain why… "That still doesn't explain why you think he is an incarnation." The housewife voiced my thoughts while struggling to keep a steady hold of Regis?
He was sparkling lightly and a cold feeling emanated from him.
Oh, Regis was a restless sleeper.
We were lucky to have a village, didn't we? if he activated his powers in his sleep…. I shudder to feel what would have happened if he cast that purple monstrosity of his without his control.
That thing just felt wrong to my senses.
"It's his behavior when he's at my home that makes me suspicious. Did you know that he has problems acknowledging his appeal? Every time I tried to bring it up he became nervous. And when I used him as a doll '*ahem*' I mean model for my new outfits, he never looked himself in the eyes in the mirror. He was always averting his eyes, as if afraid of what he would see. That's why- wha" What she was going to say was interrupted as a flake of snow landed on her nose.
Looking upwards, I saw a curtain of snowflakes beginning to fall on the village.
"Regis, what's happening? Relax, you're safe, you're safe." I heard the housewife say. "Nyo more water puns. They're horrible. Stupid Freija, die already. Nwoo…" Regis mumbled in his sleep while trashing atop the housewife. The cold presence emanated from him intensifying.
That's the presence of a Level 3 he's giving off and it's getting stronger…
He never went past Level 2 in our spars…
"Hahahaha" An incredulous laugh of disbelief came out of my lips as a few things made themselves obvious in my head.
The housewife eventually managed to calm Regis down and moments later what seemed to be a pretty serious blizzard slowly petered out to a beautiful snow flurry.
"Are we sure he isn't a newborn deity that somehow lost himself in the lower world?" I couldn't help but say.
My question silenced the rest before the mayor started laughing which prompted the rest of us to start laughing with him.
It was a laugh of catharsis and more than a little vindictiveness.
We all signed up to be part of Drait 87 for different reasons. But that didn't change the fact that the gods had chosen us to be the eighty-seventh group to be dragon bait.
We were going to die tomorrow.
That was a fact.
But, the discovery that the crazy weather of the last year had been due to Regis having nightmares, made us all giggle like teenage girls.
We weren't even mad.
It was a fact of life that the gods played with us for their amusement.
Getting a little payback in the form of a boy with way too much power to derail whatever schemes they've got running was just the right kind of schadenfreude we needed right now.
It was also reassuring to see that we had only seen the tip of the iceberg of his potential. But beyond all else, all of us were happy and relieved. Because no matter how bad the situation was in Orario, this last feat of strength proved to us that we had nothing to worry about.
He was going to be alright.
//////////////////////
I woke up in my bed with a killing headache.
Ugh, what happened last night? I remember being at the party when I drank from my glass.
Oh right.
I sighed, I needed to write lightweight to my list of weak points when I had the time.
With a sigh and some effort, I reached for my water bottle and took a sip, just to spit it out as I sensed the weight of something massive go right through first my senses and then me.
A minute later, another wave of undistilled hostile power broke me out of my state of shock and I got out of bed, robbed myself, picked up my backpack with everything important I owned, and ran out to the village's center.
Getting there, I saw all the villagers sans the hunter sitting on chairs and looking at the sky, their faces tired and more wrinkled than I'd ever seen them.
"What are you doing sitting there doing nothing?! We have to move!" Something was coming, it was near, I couldn't tell exactly where even with my senses, but my instincts were screaming at me.
My shout caught their attention though their response to me was feeble. "Oh Regis, good, you're awake." The mayor said. "I'm sorry you had to see us like this, I should have sent you away a few days ago. Please forgive me." And the mayor minutely bowed his head. The simple action seemingly caused him severe strain.
A cursory glance at the rest confirmed that they were as lethargic as the mayor. A quick deeper examination of their aura easily revealed the reason why.
"You're all dying, aren't you?" I said, my voice quiet but still heard by everyone. My scan told me that their bodies were failing them. Their usual aura was slowly being broken down and overcome by the strengthening of the mana in the environment.
"Yes, we are." Said the hunter who was coming from behind with a sad smile and carrying a small box in his hands.
"Don't be sad, Regis. We've lived a full life. We all agreed to this." The housewife said while with monumental effort standing up and wiping a tear of my face with her finger.
I just hugged her, letting her put her weight on me. After a few seconds, I helped her sit back down on the chair as delicately as I could.
A moment of silence passed as I laid eyes on all the villagers and burned them in memory.
I was about to say something when the loudest roar I had heard in my life echoed around the village.
Hastily turning my head in the direction of the fields I saw it. A dot in the sky, still too far away to make out any details. A quick water formula creating lenses like a telescope solved the issue.
"That's a big dragon," I said understating it severely.
"Yes, it is. That is the one-eyed black dragon. The strongest monster in the world. And if you can see it, it means that you have to leave now." The mayor said with urgency.
"Regis, I see that you have your backpack with you, I assume you have packed everything you needed as I advised you yesterday." The hunter said to which I nodded. "Perfect, then please take this box and letter with you and bring them to the guild in Orario. You mustn't open any of them." A small ornamented box was deposited on my hands with a thick envelope filled to the brim on top. "I've also packed some rations for your long journey ahead. You'll eventually have to hunt but I've taught you everything you'll need to make the journey." He said with a relieved smile as if a burden had fallen off him when I accepted the package. "Be careful on the way out, the forest is going to be infested with monsters. I recommend going to the lake and then following the river until you reach the sea."
After I nodded in understanding I turned to the rest and bowed my head. "Thank you for everything." I was about to turn back when I forced myself to stop.
Were they really happy going out like this? I was a bit of an expert in dying and maybe it was just me, but dying this way, like cattle waiting to be slaughtered just left a bad taste in my mouth so with great effort I said.
"If you could go down fighting, would you?" The mostly blank eyes of the majority of the villagers suddenly sharpened. To which I could only smile.
Of course they would, they were adventurers after all.
"Regis, you have to leave now, before it's too late. You promised to obey me when I let you stay in the village, remember?" The mayor said when he saw that I wasn't leaving yet.
"Yes, yes it will just take a moment and I'll sleep better tonight if I do this." I said as I rummaged through my backpack for my last project.
Here it was. A brick made of chaos crystal came out of my bag. It was supposed to be an intent to copy the mechanisms I used back in Lanove to absorb the overflowing mana and store it, to later unleash a devastating signature Arcana.
Of course, this was a failure, it ended up just being a battery that could only absorb energy and not release it. But it was kind of perfect for what I wanted it to do.
With a flex of will, I quickly divided the brick into twenty pills, one for each villager. And quickly modified the elemental affinities inside them to the closest I could match to each villager. It wasn't going to be perfect, but they were going to die anyway. They may as well go out with a bang.
Finally, I etched a rune that translated to dissolve and put the condition to activate when they came in contact with something acidic.
With a final formula, I floated each villager a pill and said. "If you take this, It will kill you in five minutes. But in those five minutes, you'll be at your peak. Do with that what you will." Their eyes looked at their pill a little confused, but the intensifying light in their eyes showed that they had heard me.
With that, I looked away and started running trying to stop the bile from coming out of my mouth at what I just did.
That I used the research that was created by sacrificing some of my fellow orphans sickened me to my core. But not doing it would have been worse.
"Regis!" I heard and turned one last time. What I saw shocked me to my core.
All of the villagers were on their feet looking twenty years younger with slowly decomposing translucent wings of different colors coming off their backs.
"Make sure to eat and rest as you should!" The housewife with poisonous green wings said.
"Continue working hard and be diligent!" The mayor with sky-blue wings said.
"Don't look away from yourself and overcome your fears, Regis!" The seamstress with fire-red wings said.
"Don't stop making things!" The grumpy smith with brown-red wings said.
"Make sure to laugh once in a while! And make sure to look for a good lass for yourself. I have faith in you!" The farmer with his grown yellow wings said.
"Live a life without regrets, Regis!" The hunter, the only one with a seemingly solid set of wings said.
The rest of the villagers also shouted a few last encouragements and they turned away in the direction of the now perfectly visible black dragon.
Tears streaming out of my eyes I turned away in the direction of the forest.
Not two minutes into it, I detected the first monsters. A few goblins, ghouls, and kobolds, but I didn't care to slow down.
I started shooting Icicles at everything that moved and when anything got close it was quickly impaled by a tendril of iron sand.
Slowly despite the massacre behind me, the monsters ahead started to overwhelm what I could deal with my current methods, so I shifted gears. I selected a certain combination of spells and started to spin.
A tearing whirlwind, a blazing lariat, and various whips of iron sand started to rotate around me destroying everything that tried to get in my path.
The aftermath of my attack gave me a second of respite which I used to take to the tree, where arrows shot by goblins were waiting for me, not that they did much but stroke the fires of my rage even further.
At this point, I couldn't see much of anything from my normal senses, and I wasn't even coherent with my formulas, I just wanted everything to get out of my way, so I selected everything but my footing with my math and made it spin.
A whirlwind of colors was the last thing I saw before I lost myself in the frenzy of battle.
/////////////////////
The absence of screams and gore was what eventually shook me out of my trance. The pitch-black whirlwind that roared around me slowly calmed down causing water, ice, iron sand, wood, leaves, and soil to fall to the ground.
My mind was burning and my body now that I had snapped out of whatever that was, was like lead. It hurt just to move.
I had never pushed myself like this.
Luckily, the weird lake was in front of me, the area apart from my surroundings which were full of debris, was clean and free of enemies. As If the horde I had been facing was a mere illusion.
But it wasn't an illusion, looking the way I came from, I could only see a path of devastation.
Sighing, I walked over to the little island in the middle of the lake using my still tender mind to walk on water, not bothering with suppressing the other elements as they lashed out. I didn't have the stamina to control them too as I was now.
Finally, I set foot on the island and I just let myself fall to the ground.
Why did this happen? Why was I alone again? Why were they smiling as they were walking towards their deaths? Didn't they know how horrible it was?
Tears were falling from my eyes and I just screamed.
"Stupid mayor, stupid wife, stupid farmer, stupid hunter, stupid smith, stupid seamstress, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!!!"
Why didn't they tell me the truth? If I had known I might have been able to plan or make something. I would have trained harder…
I could still feel the aura from the dragon. Even miles away, I could tell I was being unfair to myself.
That thing wasn't something I could have ever defeated with just a couple of years of training.
Eventually, I stopped crying. I just felt empty. In the end, there was no use asking why's or if's.
All I knew was that I was alone.
Again.
With my spirit incoherent from my grief, and my body and mind spent from going through that horde of monsters, I could feel myself shutting down.
Before I lost consciousness, a deep blue light flashed from behind but I was too out of it to care.
Chapter 9
The sun was high in the sky with only a few high clouds for company. The hill I was walking on was green without too much forestry, the slightly cold breeze signaled the end of summer.
Road music was playing from the pulsing wisps of wind around me. Overall, it was a beautiful and easy walk enhanced by the accommodating weather and the music.
The perfect place and time to get some more work done while journeying towards the so-called center of the world. So I took my Tome and continued inputting my writing where I left off yesterday, noting new insights about the world and any ideas that came to me.
Now, if only the trollish sprite in the form of a tiny blue orb wasn't doing its best impression of 'hey, listen!' trying to get my attention.
It had been the third time in the last twenty minutes. It was getting annoying.
"You've already finished Frey?" I asked him. It was more of an it, to tell the truth, but he decided to identify as male a while ago.
The orb bobbed up and down to signal his affirmation.
So with a sigh, I turned my gaze to the ice construct I had floating beside me and focused a little.
The tenth layered box of icy labyrinth shifted due to my will and the different walls inside started to move into another configuration. After a moment of consideration, I decided to add a little something extra this time.
"There you have it," I said to the little spirit that moved around excitedly swaying at the rhythm of the music, and entered my construct from the gate at the top.
"Be careful with the traps this time though" I said in my most monotonous tone.
The impression of his feelings saying 'Traps? what do you mean traps?!' And then 'Waaaah' was hilarious, as it went from puzzled to panicking when a tiny sphere of ice started to chase him around the little floating labyrinth. Hopefully, that would teach him to explore and solve puzzles with consideration instead of charging recklessly ahead like an idiot.
This tiny blob of not-so-innocent enthusiasm was what I found myself with when I woke up the day after that dreaded day on the island in the donut lake. I woke up to the little shit rummaging inside my pants trying to freeze my little bits off.
Yeah, great way to wake up, wasn't it?
After a little bit of panicking about what was going on and liberating him from inside my pants, I remembered the ritual that I had left on the island where in the center of the magic circle rested a dark blue gem the size of a pearl. The light inside shined with the rhythm of the movement of the floating orb.
After securing his gem with a bit of string around my neck, I started asking questions like what was he doing inside my pants to which he answered with a feeling that said 'I was curious'. Which surprised me, because the ritual was one to create a freezing sprite that operated more like an artificial intelligence.
It was supposed to simply guard me or freeze any enemies while having the minimum intelligence needed to understand friend from foe and not get in the way. Instead, I got a chaotic orb with way too much enthusiasm and gremlin energy following me around.
Not that I didn't want him. I was as sane as I was right now because of him. I still teared up a little every time I remembered when I asked why he decided to wake up right at that moment and not before even when I could tell that his core hadn't changed for a while. To which he responded 'Because you needed me'.
I knew he said that factually, that it was probably the exposure to my emotionally charged AIM field at the time that gave the ritual the kick needed for him to be born.
But at the time, it showed me that I wasn't completely alone.
For that, I'll be eternally grateful.
Now if only this little miracle wasn't a pain in the ass to keep distracted…
One could dream I guessed.
Thankfully I discovered fairly early that he was an extremely curious being who loves puzzles and labyrinths. So, constructing ice labyrinths has been a fairly constant practice these past few months.
Not that I minded since it seemed to make him happy and doubled as practice for both of us.
I still hadn't told him we were going to the city that housed the biggest labyrinth in the world…
He was going to be insufferable, wasn't he?
Anyway, apart from dealing with Frey's quirks and a few other annoyances in this journey I didn't feel like thinking about… Stupid amazons, stupid gods, stupid slavers. 'Ahem,' I spent these last few months fruitfully with a few projects and a lot of thinking.
The thing that had occupied around half of my time was the box currently attached to my hip. It was the box that the hunter told me to bring to Orario.
What was so special about this box, was that I couldn't sense anything inside of it. I could sense the box as it was, but when I tried to pry inside it with my esp perception I got nothing, zero, nada.
When I shook it, I could tell there was something inside rattling though. That incited me to put most of my attention on improving my fine sensing to figure out what was going on. But I didn't get anywhere close to figuring out what was inside the box.
That didn't mean that I didn't get anything out of it, the data point that even with my perception I couldn't sense anything was an interesting one and allowed me to extrapolate a lot of other information about what had been going on with the village and the dragon.
Why had the dragon come to the village? How did everyone know it was going to happen? Why was everyone about to die by the dragon's mere presence?
I thought I had puzzled out the answer to most of these questions.
One thing that jumped to my mind when I first felt the waves of power from the dragon, was that while they felt hostile, they didn't feel evil or malicious. If anything, they felt like nature, like the reality we live in.
That's when I had an epiphany. If everyone had a personal reality, then whose reality was the one we were all living in?
To which I could only conclude it was the world's will, or Mother Earth's or whatever you wanted to call it. To have such a powerful reality, it could only be the World's. To contemplate any other possibility was too terrifying.
So my theory was that whatever was inside the box, had somehow weakened the grasp of reality the world's will had over that region. If my theory was right, that would mean that the dragon was an agent from the world itself who had gone to correct an itchy spot it had.
What added support to my theory was what I had been sensing since I've been training my senses more intensely. I could tell that the mana in the air and the mana in the earth weren't in harmony. There was a subtle but constant battle for dominion going on there.
What I could only guess was a stupidly powerful god, was suppressing the earth from committing certain actions. It was incredibly subtle, but from time to time, hostile concentrations of energy would try to come out but they would be quickly dispelled by the air-aspected mana.
With this information, I could put together what happened in the village. More or less at the time I arrived there, they had to have received the box I was carrying. Whatever was inside then started to weaken the grasp of reality from outside entities around the village. That explained why it was so much easier to use my ability inside the village than outside, and it would also explain the constantly increasing number of monsters.
If what I suspected was true, then the artifact inside the box not only weakened the world's grasp over that region but also this mysterious god's. Meaning, that with the artifact in play, the Earth's will had home advantage in this weird game of whack a mole they've got going on. Ergo, more monsters were born on the edges of the artifacts range.
That all the villagers knew what was going to happen, meant that their sacrifice was planned by whoever sent them the box. And they agreed to the sacrifice too.
I thought I knew why they accepted too. They were probably reaching the end of their lifespan. That everyone but the hunter was in that deplorable condition with the mere presence of the dragon still miles away added support to my suspicions. With the world's grasp over reality weakened, then their falna probably had an easier time keeping them alive and healthy.
That made accepting their deaths a little easier.
I might have answered some of the questions I had, but these answers just opened up even more questions like who was this mystery god. Why were they fighting in such a subtle way? And why was such a sacrifice necessary in the first place?
At the moment, I had no way of answering any of these, but well, being in the pursuit of the truth was always entertaining.
I still had no idea what was going on with the crazy weather though. If the earth's will was weakened then shouldn't the weather be milder if anything? Maybe it was throwing the storms as tantrums from afar?
My musings were interrupted by an ice-cold sensation in my nape making me jump and shiver uncontrollably for a second.
"Chaos dammit Frey!" The little troll was laughing at me, moving around erratically. While he couldn't speak per se, he could somehow emit emotions and impressions through my AIM field so we could understand each other fairly well.
"Very well, if you want to play it like this…" As I said that, the little bugger started flying away. "Come here, you little bastard."
What followed was me trying to catch him while he avoided me like a swaying leaf in the air.
It was an oddly fun workout.
//////////////////////
The sun was about to disappear when we reached the top of the hill we'd been hiking for the last couple of hours.
At the horizon, we saw an enormous perfectly circular metropolis with a huge stick-like tower planted in the middle being illuminated by the slowly banishing sun.
Orario, the center of the world. The city of the dungeon, and the destination of my three-month journey.
Frey swayed around excitedly, and I couldn't fault him. This view… It was beautiful.
"Well, time to camp. We're not going to make it there before they close the doors for the day, so we'll have to wait until tomorrow to enter," I said as I began to set up camp by manipulating the earth. I cleared a spot of its shrubbery at the side of the road and arranged some enchanted items I had crafted during the journey for convenience. This included a runed crystal that created a field to zap any mosquito that dared to come near while I slept, and another that regulated humidity.
Frey in the meantime started looking around for any critters. When I was about done, a burst of excitement came from him. Looking over there, I saw him. He was moving around excitedly in place as if saying 'Praise me, praise me', running a couple sensing formulas to see what he did, I saw a frozen solid rabbit lying on the ground.
"Oh, good job Frey! We'll eat fresh tonight." Well, I say 'we', but I'll be the only one eating. From what I've seen Frey didn't eat anything. As an ice sprite, he was powered directly from the mana and heat in the air.
Quickly putting the bunny out of his misery, I started to butcher and prepare it just like the hunter had once taught me.
Having an ability as versatile as mine certainly sped up the process, so in almost no time I was already cooking the rabbit over my conjured fire.
I was about to take the spit-roasting rabbit out of the fire when my senses picked up something alarming.
"Frey, home!" I murmured harshly. The little spirit seeing the forcefulness of my voice returned to the gem in my necklace underneath my shirt. Putting the hood over my head and lowering the intensity of my fire to stop the cooking process but keep the rabbit warm I waited. Tense, I began running all my other sensing formulas to make sure that the unyielding figure that was approaching was truly alone and that this wasn't a trap.
Hopefully, this won't be like last time.
Thankfully, it wasn't. A couple of minutes later, a robed figure appeared. Based on the void I sensed from my ability as it entered my view, I could only conclude it was a non elemental deity.
"Excuse me, may I share the warmth of your fire for the night?" I heard the feminine figure say.
I was about to refuse when Frey got out of his gem and went to inspect the goddess. "A spirit?!" she exclaimed in surprise and curiosity. ""Frey!" I whispered alarmed, to which he sent me a feeling telling me that she wasn't a danger.
Knowing that when Frey got like this there wasn't anything I could do that would sway him, I sighed. Thankfully he was always correct when he disobeyed my orders. So, with that knowledge, I calmed down a little.
With a wave of my arm, I invited her to sit next to me.
"Thank you, kind sir," she said with a small nod and she sat in the place I had indicated.
Frey started to play around her trying to put himself in her blind spots and poking her around, giving me time to inspect this goddess.
I spied long walnut brown hair and indigo eyes that looked like the starry sky along with a beautiful face as one would expect from a goddess, but I could see that her eyes were a little bloodshot and there were also tiny bags under her eyes.
That combined with Frey's painfully familiar way of trying to distract and troll someone, led me to a few conclusions to this unexpected visitor.
"Frey! Enough! I'm sorry about him, my Lady. He doesn't mean any harm, he just likes messing around." I said to the goddess who was trying to catch the spirit making its best impression of an annoying fly.
At my voice, my partner returned to my side and landed on my left shoulder sending me a warning.
'I know, my friend. I know' I sent back in our quiet way of communicating.
"I'm Regis, and the mischievous little one is Frey. Could you tell us your name?" I said to the goddess in the form of a hooded young woman.
"I'm Astraea, goddess of justice. It's nice to meet you Regis, Frey," she said with a kind and tired smile.
"It's nice to meet you too, Lady Astraea," I said with a neutral tone, while something was gnawing at me.
Wait, wasn't the Astraea Familia the one who brought me to Drait 87? What was she doing here?
She was also alone…
"That's not a type of spirit I have ever seen before." The goddess said, looking curiously at Frey on my shoulder.
"Ah, yeah Frey here is fairly unique as far as I know," I said telling the truth but keeping things vague. "My lady, I was about to eat dinner. Do you want some?" Offering her a piece of the rabbit on the fire.
She took my obvious change of conversation in stride while covering with her hand a slight smile and said. "Oh, such a polite boy, but no thank you, I already ate on the road."
As I took the rabbit from the fire, I paused. This was kind of awkward… I usually just used a tiny air blade to act as a knife but with the goddess observing me so attentively…
With a mental sigh, I decided to bite the bullet. If what I suspected was true, then it wouldn't matter if she knew some of what I could do.
With a long practiced formula, wind blades were formed around the rabbit and half the rabbit ended up nicely cut into pieces on the plate I conjured beneath.
I could feel her jump a little at the sudden display of magic, and she suddenly looked at the fire as well as the little knick-knacks I have around the camp, her eyes widening as if connecting a few dots.
"Not only the spirit, you're an interesting one as well aren't you, Regis?" She said with a little wonder in her voice that slowly turned to confusion. "Are you sure showing off like this in front of a deity is wise?"
"I know it's not. But, it was more convenient for me like this." I replied and after a second of hesitation, I continued. "And It's not like you're a threat to me. I also have a life debt I promised to pay toward your Familia, though I don't know if I'll be able to pay it back."
"A life debt?" She asked to which I showed the box that was under my cloak. If the widening of her eyes was any indication she certainly knew what it was. "You're the boy Alise and Ryuu rescued on the way to Drait a couple of years ago." She said in realization before slightly bowing her head and saying. "I'm really sorry! They shouldn't have left you there. And I'm really sorry for your loss."
She really was as kind-hearted as the villagers had told me, wasn't she?.
"Please, don't bow your head," I said a little flustered at having a literal goddess bowing her head to me. "I don't regret having lived there. The people of Drait took care of me and taught me a lot. And while I've felt the loss of their passing, I'm still grateful to them and your familia for bringing me there. Also, I'm sorry for the loss of your famila." I said, surprising her again.
"How did you-?!" She exclaimed, for the first time breaking her facade and showing the grief beneath.
"There were a few physical cues, like the redness in your eyes. Also, the villagers talked about your familia and your deeds, and considering the current state in Orario according to the rumors, you being alone on your way out with the minimum of supplies necessary to reach the next town made me suspicious. But what truly clued me in, was Frey's behavior towards you. His actions were painfully similar to what he did for me when we first met in order to distract me from my grief." I said, gently cupping the water spirit within my palms.
"I see… Don't worry about me, all the deities know that their children will die eventually. This time just happened… rather unexpectedly." She said, her eyes were sad and melancholic.
Deciding that I didn't like the current mood and feeling a little guilty about causing it, I nudged Frey towards the goddess.
If there was anything Frey was good at, it was at making a nuisance of himself… And alright, he also was great at taking your mind off troublesome things.
My faith in him was instantly validated as moments later Lady Astraea started squirming and squealing in place as Frey started poking her around with his characteristic cold touch. "Ah, no, stop it. Hahaha, noo, haha."
Eventually, as I was eating my rabbit while watching the spectacle, lady Astraea said "Got you!" as she finally managed to trap the spirits within her palms. Frey, if he wanted, could turn intangible, but he didn't as he understood that this was a game.
"Caught you! You naughty little spirit." She said with a small smile back on her face.
Heh, good job Frey.
"By the way Regis, I imagine you're going to Orario to return the box. But, what do you intend to do afterward?" She said while poking at the struggling Frey back and squinting at him.
"I… I think I'll stay in Orario and look for a familia to join. There are a few things I want to investigate and I want to get stronger. Orario is the best place to do that, I think. What about you?" I said between bites of my meal.
"I see… that's unfortunate. I'm going back to what I did all those years ago. I'm going to start traveling around again. Eventually, if I see someone that would benefit from my patronage I will start rebuilding my familia." She said while looking for something.
"Wouldn't it be dangerous for you to travel alone?"
"Not particularly. I'm not going to travel alone for long, either. When I get to Melen, I'm going to look around for a merchant caravan to join. They are always glad to escort deities because we can tell if they are being lied to, and our mere presence stops most indiscriminate bandit attacks," she said, raising Frey between us and squinting her eyes at us.
"Is there something bothering you?" I asked, she had been behaving weirdly for a while.
"Regis, you're not a spirit contractor, are you? You're something much rarer." She said. "You're a natural ability user, aren't you?." her voice baffled at the realization.
What could I say to that? It wasn't like I could lie to her.
"Why does that matter? And was that why you were squinting so hard at us?" I asked genuinely curious.
"Could you let me see your face, please?" She asked ignoring my questions while biting her lips and almost afraid of what she would see.
Since she was going away and she seemed like she wanted to help me I didn't see the harm in it. So I pulled back the hood of my cloak that's been obscuring my face this whole time.
"Oh, you're so screwed." She said, her expression was half fascinated and half horrified at what she was seeing.
What could I possibly say to that!!
"Why?" I managed to utter.
"I was hoping your face would have Eastern features. If you had, then I would have pegged you from someone of the clans. Despite their rumored mysticism, they aren't true natural ability users, but they possess items that allow them to wield a fraction of the might of their ancestors and sometimes when they receive the falna, they can develop a Skill that imitates their ancestor's abilities. That's why if you had had eastern features you could have passed as one of them and would have been more or less fine. But instead, you have a handsome face that can't be called Eastern at all. This means a new true natural ability user that's incredibly beautiful walks the land again. And you also have a one-of-a-kind spirit with you." She said while hiding her face with her hands.
Oi! Goddess! Stop looking at me like you would a train wreck. Stop looking so entertained goddammit. I can see your mouth twitching.
Of course, I didn't say that aloud. "Is it really that bad?" I already knew it was going to be bad from my conversations with the seamstress. But it didn't truly sink in until now that a genuine goddess face was twitching in amusement and worry and a million other emotions.
Eventually, she managed to keep her emotions in check and with a serious expression said. "You're almost one of a kind. In the millennia, we gods have spent in the lower world, less than twenty natural ability users have been registered if we don't count the heroes of old. Most of them had abilities with little use or were very specific, very few of them had something truly useful. I can tell from what little I have seen that yours is incredibly versatile. Fire, wind, earth manipulation, and item enchantment at least. With just this, most gods would start a war trying to recruit you in their familia. Never mind the greedy people who would try to enslave you to use you as a stud to start a new clan. But that's not the worst thing."
My world fell silent for a moment, my Aim usually chaotically poking at everything curiously stilled. I could feel the clothes starting to stick to my skin due to my cold sweat.
"What is it?" I asked, even almost too afraid to ask. Frey, seeing my pale face, came to me and started to nudge me trying to comfort me.
"It isn't well known, but the falna doesn't interact the same with your kind compared to normal people. To normal people, the falna strengthens them and little else. There are no secondary effects and if there are, they are usually so minor that they are not worth mentioning. But for you, it will be different. Even we gods don't truly understand the falna in its entirety, but from the reading I've done because of a member of my familia that was from the clans, I realized something. When someone like you receives the falna, if you don't possess a very good affinity with the deity, it will warp you. Your values, your ability, and even your very being."
I wanted to be surprised, I wanted to rage and cry.
But I wasn't, so I didn't.
The truth was that I already suspected something like this. If I had spent half the time searching for answers about what happened to the village, then I had spent the other half researching the power system of this world. That meant researching the falna and our biology.
In my research, I noticed that the major difference between me and adventurers and the normal people I encountered in my journey was the position of the nodes in our astral body. I discovered ten nodes in total, each distributed to different parts of the body. The largest was the one in the head which was why when I first sensed it, I thought my mana pool was in my brain.
In the end, I concluded that we didn't possess a mana pool at all. Instead, we had a system of nodes interconnected to each other that allows us to experience reality and life.
The difference between us was the symmetry. All of us possessed the same number of nodes, maybe some had them more developed than others, but for all of us, the nodes were distributed more or less the same. But only I had them in perfect symmetry. Adventurers were weird in that what I suspected was the falna, was correcting the positioning of their nodes when they moved or used a Skill.
Oddly enough in one of my more bothersome encounters of the journey, I noted that when they used magic, the falna moved their nodes so that they weren't symmetric during the duration of the magic.
Well I said that they changed their positioning, but that wasn't exactly what happened. What the falna did, was change the mana frequency so that all of the nodes together harmonized as a whole.
I was the only one I found whose nodes were already in harmonizing without the falna.
That was probably what made me a gemstone.
The distribution of nodes had been bothering me for a while because they remind me of something but I still haven't been able to figure out what.
But, what I figured out was that the symmetry was important. I theorized that in order to access your personal reality, the symmetry of these nodes needed to be perfect for some reason. And with what the goddess in front of me just told me, something just clicked in me.
These nodes were probably what connected my body to my personal reality and my soul. And due to my perfect symmetry, I always have perfect reception for lack of a better word. Meaning that for normal adventurers due to their imperfections, the falna couldn't influence them the same way someone who had a perfect connection like me.
I would basically be giving my deity a direct connection to my soul. And between the essence of my soul against the arcanum of a deity, I wasn't arrogant enough to believe that I wouldn't be affected.
I already knew that coming to the city full of gods was going to be risky. But still... did it have to be like this?
Goddammit, my luck was like always, just utter rubbish.
"What could I do then? If I don't join a familia, I'm going to be hunted. I like to think I'm pretty strong, but without a patron deity to represent and defend me, any action or battle I end up with could easily be twisted to make me the villain." I said.
Such conflict was inevitable if I was going to be harassed into joining a familia. From there it wouldn't be strange to receive a bounty. I didn't want to have to fight the entirety of Orario. It would be the exact opposite of what I wanted to accomplish.
"Tell me, Lady Astraea, what could I possibly do?" I ended up asking.
With a solemn expression and a weight in her voice that screamed divinity, she said.
"You have two options, go to Orario and after returning the box to the guild, flee the city immediately with me or on your own. While I have a feeling that my falna would not be ideal for you, traveling with me would be mutually beneficial since I could shield you from other greedy deities while you could take care of the monsters and other threats. The other option would be to find the right deity for you."
Flee…
I wanted to, I really wanted to flee. But I couldn't. Not anymore. I fled from Lanova, I fled from the Dragon, but I couldn't keep fleeing forever. Last I looked, the dragon was sleeping in the ruins of the village restoring the fabric of the world that had been damaged by the artifact with its mere presence.
For all I knew he could wake up tomorrow and decide to hunt me for his own amusement.
I also wasn't convinced that even a world away I had completely escaped Master Sura. Mere dimensional travel wouldn't stop the legendary wizard's will from being done, whatever it was.
I couldn't continue fleeing. I had to get stronger, there was no other option. Bad odds be damned.
With a determined look, I faced the goddess. "How do I determine what deity would be right for me."
She smiled at that as if she had just seen something precious. I blushed a little at that smile.
"I'm Astraea, Goddess of Justice. I may not be able to use my arcanum but if you answer a question of mine, I'll be able to determine which deity would do you justice."
At my nod, she asked. "Regis, what is it that you desire? What do you need to be happy? I'm not asking superficially, at the core of your being, what's the reality that you desire to live in?"
I thought that the question she would ask me would be one that I needed to ponder and think seriously to find the answer. Instead, I just laughed.
It was an empty laugh. Something in my eyes must have changed because the goddess's face looked shocked for a second.
This question, I had already agonized thinking about it, back in Lanova when I was deciding what to input into my word-hopping artifact. So, the answer swiftly rolled from my tongue.
"I've always just wanted three things. I want a home to call mine so that I'll never be alone again and always have somewhere safe to return. I want Truth because a home or anything built on lies will inevitably fall apart. And I want magic because without wonder and constant learning, is life even worth living?" I said, my voice reverberating oddly in the surroundings.
I wonder what that was about?
Turning to look at the goddess, I saw her with a gobsmacked expression on her face. Was it something I said? I didn't think that what I said was that unusual.
"Oi, Goddess, you there?" I waved a hand in front of her unfocused eyes. Suddenly, she started to giggle, covering her lips with her hand. The giggles slowly turned to tears, which then became a full-blown guffaw.
"Well, do you know which deity is the most compatible with me?" I asked a little annoyed, suddenly feeling like the butt of an inside joke I wasn't aware of.
Wiping the tears from her eyes, she slowly brought his laughter under control. "I'm sorry for that, and yes. I have good news and bad news. I know exactly the perfect deity for you, the bad news is that she still hasn't descended and isn't scheduled to descend for a little while."
"Well, then what am I supposed to do?" I said definitely not half pouting while crossing my arms.
"I suppose I could just send her a message, but dealing with Hermes is annoying… And such a move would attract too much attention to you which wouldn't be wise either… "
She put on a thoughtful expression and turned to look at the fire I was powering with my ability.
"I have an idea, but there's some risk for me… So I'll let you choose, Regis. I think I have a way to contact the goddess I thought of. But I would need to use a tiny amount of Arcanum. There's a possibility that it goes over the tiny amount we have available to manage the falna. So you have two choices. The first is I contact Hermes and we sent the letter through him. This would be slow and put a fair amount of attention on you straight away. The second is that, I send the message, it will be instantaneous, and knowing her she will come as soon as she can. But I can't afford to do it for free, I can't risk it even if the risk of me returning to heaven is small."
"What would I have to do?" I asked, alarms ringing in my head.
"My familia was indeed killed a couple of days ago, but there was one who survived. A talented elf called Ryuu Lion." She said with a bitter smile on her face.
"If you still have a familia member, then why are you leaving he-"" She begged me to leave." She cut me mid-sentence.
"My familia was all about doing the right thing, about justice. The headspace she's in right now will lead her to do things she thinks will spit on everything our familia valued. She doesn't want me to see it.
Silly girl…
As if eye for eye and tooth for tooth wasn't also a way of justice." She said while shaking her face and a helpless expression.
Bible quotes aside…
"You want me to watch over her and help her if she gets over her head?" I asked to clarify the task.
She nodded. "I know it's a lot, but I would also like it if you could offer a helping hand when she inevitably collapses."
"She's on a warpath, isn't she?" To which she nodded. "She is also as stubborn as a mule, ain't she?" To which she nodded with a small smirk on her face.
Helping a rage elf who's on a warpath and won't stop at anything for the equivalent of a dimensional phone call. Yeah, I guessed it was a fair deal.
With a sigh, I said. "I'll do it."
"Great, if I'm forced to return to heaven make sure to sprint to the city because she'll be defenseless until she finds another god. She promised me that she would at least wait a night before starting her crusade in case I was ambushed on my way out. But I'd still be worried." She added to which I nodded.
"Alright, then, I'm going to need that half rabbit you offered before and I need you to put everything you have in your fire. Make it as warm and gentle as you can."
She said as she rummaged in her bag for something, after a moment, she took a small needle and accepted the rabbit I was handing her.
"Alright, prepare the fire!" With a nod, I closed my eyes and put the math needed in order. After a split second of hesitation, I decided to go all out.
Usually, to create a fire, I would simply use a simple fire formula, but in the end, everything was connected. Earth would act as a base, water/ ice to regulate the temperature, fire to add the heat, air for the oxygen, and lightning to induce and smoothen the chemical reactions. Every ounce of calculation ability I cultivated over the last two years was poured into an incredibly detailed formula that accounted for everything I could think of.
Opening my eyes, a great hearth two times taller than I was illuminated previously dark the clearing. Despite its great size, it wasn't burning us. If anything, it was just warm enough to make us toasty and lull us into sleep. To my surprise, I could see tiny violet wisps in the fire despite the math I was using clearly describing it using its natural colors.
Turning to the goddess, I could feel a little smugness creep in at her gobsmacked expression. "Is this good enough?" I asked.
She looked at me as if seeing me for the first time again and said."Yes, it's perfect. With this amount of power, there's no way anyone is going to notice my arcanum."
Then, she pricked her finger with the needle and flicked a single drop of her ichor into the fire.
Instantaneously, I could feel something weird was happening to the fire, I didn't have time to pay attention to it, so I simply ran a few sensing formulas and inputted the results into Tome for later review and continued to observe the goddess.
Then she closed her eyes and focused, a moment later she dropped a minuscule amount of ichor into the rabbit which disappeared into golden wisps of light before touching its toasted skin. Then she adopted a baseball pitcher position with the rabbit in her hand and her tongue comically poking out of her soft lips. A breath later she threw the rabbit into the fire with all her strength just like a baseball pitcher would.
The rabbit flew through the air and entered the fire that to my bafflement disappeared out of nowhere seemingly teleporting somewhere else. I could feel that the data will be really interesting.
Lady Astraea squinted at the flames and exclaimed, "Yes! Bullseye!" while pumping her fist in the air.
"I take it that the message was sent?" To which she nodded with a little sadistic smirk on her face that sent shivers down my spine.
"Was it really necessary to throw it that hard?" I asked with a deadpan voice.
For the first time in the night, I saw a little blush on her face. "I'm also a little frustrated, you know. I have my values but having what amounts to one of the most talented mortals to ever walk the land and having to point them toward another goddess… It's really frustrating." She said in a low voice.
"So make sure to support my last remaining child alright!" She said while pointing her finger directly at me. "You certainly have the strength, that fire, if turned hostile would have been able to grievously burn a Level 4 at least."
"Yes, my lady," I said in a hurry while trying to keep the blush of my face.
"Very well, then let's sleep. It's getting late." She said while crossing her arms under her chest and nodding to herself.
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"3rd Pov"
Very very far away in a certain domain, a marble room stretched endlessly in every direction, its smooth, cold surfaces reflecting the brilliance of the fire at its center. The flame, which seemed almost alive, flickered with a mesmerizing dance. Despite its intensity, the flame exuded a sense of tranquility, its gentle crackling the only sound in the vast, serene space. This timeless place was a sanctuary where everyone could breathe and rest without judgment under the flame's eternal embrace.
At the foot of the gigantic hearth, a certain youthful-looking goddess lay upside down in a sinfully comfortable-looking armchair, her dark hair falling like water softly on the spotless white floor.
A tiny manga telling the stories of a certain knucklehead blonde ninja was on her hands also upside down for her ease of reading, when with a sigh she dropped it to the ground. "I'm bored. I'm bored. I'm bored." Where she started to complain in a chant-like way. "There's only so many ways you can read the same stories until they turn boring."
Still upside down she looked around the room and sighed again. "When was the last time someone came to visit me?" After thinking it for a second she realized with some despair that it had been so long she didn't remember the exact day.
"Can't something interesting happen, please?" In her desperation, she begged to the empty room, but no one answered. With a sigh, she was about to conjure the next volume of the story when the hearth in front of her started to flicker chaotically.
So shocked she was that she ended up falling headfirst into the ground. "Oww. What is this? It's been millennia since I received an offering. The system shouldn't even be working. And what's with the chaotic disturbances?" As she inspected her flame, the goddess approached it, squinting, when suddenly half a rabbit smacked her in the face. "Wha-! Who did this?! How?! Loki! If this is one of your pranks, I swear!" She yelled at the empty air, waving her arms in anger and disbelief. Picking the meal from the floor, she quickly returned to see if she could spot who dared to clock her with an offering.
"Astraea, you bitch! I thought we were friends!" She pouted as she saw the familiar sadistic smile of a certain goddess of justice through the flame before it dissolved, and the flame returned to its usual divine appearance.
Alone and with half a cooked rabbit in her hands, the goddess, having nothing else to do, decided to eat it. As she took the first bite, her eyes widened. The rabbit was indeed well-cooked and adequately seasoned, but that wasn't the reason for her surprise.
Memories that weren't hers started playing through her mind.
In front of her, a handsome silver blond-haired boy with striking dark green looked determined in her direction and said "How do I determine what deity would be right for me."
She felt the goddess she was experiencing the illusion from smiling and responding.
"I'm Astraea, Goddess of Justice. I may not be able to use my arcanum but if you answer a question of mine, I'll be able to determine which deity would do you justice.
Regis, what is it that you desire? What do you need to be happy? I'm not asking superficially, at the core of your being, what's the reality that you desire to live in?"
The young boy laughed at the question, but the goddess of the hearth didn't, she was too busy watching as the eyes of the boy changed to eyes she was all too familiar with. They were eyes that she had spent millennia healing and meditating to avoid possessing when she looked in the mirror. Even now, on her worst days, she still feared seeing those eyes reflected back at her.
That's when the boy answered.
"I've always just wanted three things. I want a home to call mine so that I'll never be alone again and always have somewhere safe to return. I want truth because a home or anything built on lies would inevitably fall apart. And I want magic because without wonder and constant learning, is life even worth living?"
The illusion ended just as the boy finished his answer
"Home, Truth and Magic". The goddess felt herself say. She looked at what had been her home for the last few millennia, the beautiful marble room and the hearth she was so proud of. It was beautiful, but it was empty.
Truth, the goddess had been told that as long as she protected their home, her family would always be with her and she would always be accompanied. But it had been millennia since even her closest friends had visited. The most she got from them were a few letters carried by Hermes's familiars. Thus hasn't she been lied to too?
And Magic, the goddess looked at the storybook that rested on the floor and wondered, if she learned magic, would she be entertained forevermore?
The goddess felt something in her heart shatter, and from its fragments, a new fire erupted, influencing her essence and causing the room to tremble as the hearth roared in excitement at its master's transformation.
The memory of the silver silver-haired boy with empty green eyes remained in her mind, as tears started to fall from her eyes.
"Astraea, you beautiful bitch. Thank you." She said from the bottom of her heart
"Now what do I need to do to go to Orario? I still need to wait a few years for my turn. Those miscreants didn't bother to tell me that it was possible to descend until the queue to go was almost millennia years long." She muttered while tapping her lips with her finger.
After thinking about it for a couple of minutes her gaze rested once again on the book on the floor and her pondering expression turned into a smirk.
"I bet they would never expect this goddess of the hearth to turn into a ninja. Heh, I'll show them."
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AN: The timeline in this story will begin around the time of the Astraea Familia's demise in Danmachi. I've taken some liberties with the ages of various characters for narrative purposes.
Anyway, thank you for reading, and please leave a comment with your feedback. If my amateurish writing wasn't obvious enough, I'm new at this, so any constructive criticism is appreciated.