Step. Step.
Slowly their legs slowed down as they approached the center of the woods.
They’d been especially skeptical about entering due to its history of abducting humans.
Their leader, however, a gaunt man with dark brown dreadlocked tresses, had acted as the morale booster of the group and led them into the heart of this disaster.
He, after all, was one of the distinguished men of Afkon,
And was strong enough to have earned himself such a position.
He stood in front of everyone and was the first one to stop in his tracks as he laid eyes on the numerous craters that bit into the ground,
And the one at the center that served as a great mother to the ones surrounding it.
Bodies of people lay sprawled around the area.
And at the center of the cataclysmic destruction was a withered body, one as large as a house.
The man, Shade, stared at this war-torn environment with a pained frown on his face.
His voice shook as words managed to escape his mouth.
“How? Who? Who could have done something of this magnitude? Helena?”
He paused for a moment and shook his head.
“No, Helena is strong, but she can’t defeat the Kirithon; she has tried too many times, and it has all been futile.”
He turned his small eyes to look at the lifeless bodies lying around. His eyes widened as a light of recognition ignited in their black depths.
His legs hurried forward, and he fell beside the first fallen.
His hands paused and trembled as he attempted to touch the fallen lady.
Brows furrowed tightly, his face contorting with sorrow.
The eyes of the feminine body were open and glassy, black veins visible beneath her pale skin.
Every part of her insinuated that she had undergone a drastic change before being cut down.
But this man didn’t look like he was willing to accept the fact,
Because this woman was someone they had fought side by side with, someone who was their comrade, his comrade.
No one, especially not Helena, should have cut her down under any circumstance.
She could have been captured and brought back to the main city,
Or better still, knocked out.
Different thoughts ran helter-skelter through Shade’s mind.
He was slowly heaving and fuming; the air around him was tethered with heaviness such that his subordinates were slowly taking steps backward.
But suddenly, a man appeared, making everything disappear in a blink.
The air was free to roam; the pressure disappeared, and the entire place seemed even freer than before.
The man had blonde hair and blue eyes; his hair was wavy and shoulder-length, his skin was light brown with a warm golden undertone.
He had an accommodating and heroic ambiance to his presence, and even his chain mail armor was radiating a holy presence despite its commonplace.
Shade raised his eyes and calmed down, then he stood up. With a slight frown, he asked:
“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be beside Afkon?”
The man shook his head, causing his blonde hair to move gently.
“No, Afkon himself asked me to come here and check things out…”
He looked at the corpses, the craters, the disintegrated trees, and the body of the monster lying in the middle.
The man was silent for a couple of seconds before commenting.
He said:
“Whoever did this…” he was definitely taking his time speaking, “…in fact, it doesn’t even look like a fight between a drifter and a monster. It looks like a battle between two monsters.”
He looked down at the corpses.
“However, these are sword marks.”
Then he went silent again, his eyes staying on the monster’s enormous form for a little while longer.
Shade’s voice rang out.
“What if it’s really a Drifter?” He turned his eyes to the blonde-
haired man.
The man was silent for a while more. After which he sighed and opened his mouth slightly.
“Shade. If it is a Drifter… then there will be a lot of problems. Especially should Afkon find out… it would be wise to get rid of the person silently.”
He paused and heaved another sigh.
“But then, someone who caused a disaster of this level, I doubt it will be possible to get rid of him silently… how about we involve the Empire in this matter?”
Shade nodded.
“That seems like the best course of action. We don’t want Afkon running rampant; the White Knight Order, at the very least, would be able to handle this without any problem.”
“Yes,” the man responded, “You should compile a report to send to the Empire. Leave Afkon to me.”
With that, the man tapped Shade’s shoulders and walked away… taking three to four steps before vanishing into the wind.
Shade let out a deep breath, touched his soothing chest, and looked at the afterimage of the man, questioning silently.
“How does he even do that?”
Silence ensued for the next few minutes, then he turned around to look at the monster’s corpse.
“What are you wusses doing?! Get moving already; we are moving the monster’s corpse! This is a huge pile of meat, remember!!”
The faces of other Drifters became pale with terror.
“Damn, how are we supposed to move something so enormous?”
They murmured amongst themselves.
—
“Whew, I think we are far enough…” Helena commented as she glanced back.
Northern, narrowing his eyes, asked,
“What exactly were we running from?”
While they were on their way out of the stronghold, heading towards the dark tunnel, Helena suddenly froze; the next moment, she urged them to hastily move and get as far away as they could.
This caused them to begin running, even Terence the tender oracle had to run her ass off.
Eventually, after getting close to the cave tunnel, they stopped. With Helena panting heavily.
Northern was sure running a couple of meters couldn’t have possibly worn her out like that.
He was still steadily breathing, and she was a Sage.
More was expected from her,
Which meant that there was probably something she was seriously trying to get away from.
Helena looked at him and managed to steady her breath.
“Ah, there’s another flower boy, one that is a serious pain in the ass. I felt his presence… I’m not sure if he felt ours; even if he did, he won’t be willing to come this far since he has to be closer to Afkon than he is farther from him.”
Raven frowned.
“Zephyr?”
Helena turned her eyes to Raven.
“Yes. Now, let’s keep going.” She paused and turned to Northern and extended her hand. “Before that, hand me the map… there’s no way.”
“Sure,” Northern put his hands into his armor to retrieve the map.
But suddenly, his eyes widened; all his body trembled with cold fear.
His face became pale, and his voice stuttered as words came out, shakily.
“It’s… gone.”
Lo and behold, Northern had lost the map.