Capítulo 16: Eye
Roland was one of the commanders, so everyone followed him to the largest tent, where the most important members of the upcoming mission to clear Chaos Hearth were gathered. In the center was a massive wooden table with a wide map completely covering it.
"Is this it?" Roland pointed to the red cross as he looked at Rina.
"Yes!" The girl responded with a nod, "I'm sure in a few minutes Chaos Hearth will be there, then it will be activated."
Roland was silent for a while, holding his chin with a thoughtful look until he said, "It's a forest, a good place for a battlefield, but what about the type?"
Rina shook her head, "Unfortunately we don't know anything about it. It all happened too suddenly, so I'm the only Oracle here, also I don't have any special artifacts, so place and time are all I can tell you."
"No threat level, no type, no possible hidden dangers... Well, I think if it was something serious, we would have been informed by the center." Roland uttered before clapping his palms together drawing everyone's attention to himself, "Tell all squads to get ready for battle! I'll go with Rina and my group to get a closer look at Chaos Hearth, then return to camp!"
"Yes!" The three knights standing in front of him exclaimed simultaneously, grabbed their sword handles, and left the tent.
"Fine. Rina, Elin, Zayne, and Harald, you will come with me." Roland said heading forward, after a few steps he stopped and looked at Aron, "Elder, will you stay here?"
"Yeah." Aron nodded calmly, holding his hands behind his back with a confident look, "I've seen Chaos Hearth many times before, so I'm not likely to be surprised. I'll be more useful here, after all, I used to be a commander too."
Roland didn't answer he just smiled and waved his arms opening the way.
Zayne glanced at Aron and Amelia who remained in the chamber before following Roland.
"Mr. Roland, how many times have you encountered Chaos Hearth?" Zayne asked trailing behind him, heading for the hill next to the camp.
"Quite a few. The first time I was a simple soldier, then a knight, and now as you can see I'm a commander. Chaos Hearth is always different, but I don't think today will be anything dangerous." Roland shrugged as his gaze grew darker for a moment.
Zayne seemingly noticed this slight change and immediately said, "Which Chaos Hearth was the hardest?"
Step.
Roland paused with a pale look that slowly became more serious. At the same time, Elin's gaze became sharp as she with a strong step headed toward Zayne.
'What...? Damn, I guess I shouldn't have said that...' Zayne inwardly muttered intending to apologize, but suddenly Roland's hand fell on Elin's shoulder, preventing her from going any further.
"As is usually the case, the hardest part is the first time. I was a simple soldier then and it was my first big mission. Everything was going well, but in the end, more than half the squad died, however, it wasn't because of the Chaos Hearth danger, it was just that our commander was a fucking coward!" Roland's eyes filled with anger as he slammed his fist violently into the tree beside him.
Slivers flew off to the sides as a few leaves fell from the tree branches. Even though it was a bare fist punch, it seemed that the tree could fall at any moment.
"Agh, I'm sorry, I can get a little emotional sometimes. Let's keep moving forward, we don't have much time left." Roland shook his head.
"Yes...!" Rina said excitedly before following forward.
Harald walked past the tree, glanced at the impact sites, and smirked. Elin, quickly ran up to Roland, before showing Zayne, a contemptuous look.
'Damn, some people are too vulnerable... I was just asking a question!' Zayne exclaimed inwardly, but then he remembered the horror that Rubia's joking shooting had inflicted on him, 'Well... I guess I'm not the right person to talk about it.'
After a minute, they stopped at the top of a hill, from which the entire forest was visible as well as the massive mountains in the distance.
"If I understand correctly then Chaos Hearth should appear there, right?" Roland asked pointing to the center of the forest as he looked at Rina.
"Yes. By my calculations, it should happen in a minute." Rina replied with a worried expression.
Roland just nodded, he waited like everyone else.
'Chaos Hearth...? I wonder if this place is more dangerous than those ruins Gael mentioned? When I'm done with this quest, I'll have to get busy getting ready to go there.' Zayne muttered inwardly, looking intently forward.
Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.
Suddenly a flash of red flame appeared in the center of the forest, but the fire seemed fake as it had absolutely no effect on the trees nearby.
"Here we go." Roland uttered with a serious stare.
The next moment the sphere of flame shrank violently and turned into something like a spatial gap, just a dark hole in space or the amber eye of some magical creature.
"Well, well, it doesn't seem very big, it looks like we'll be able to do without casualties today." Harald smiled broadly as his eyes lit up with fire.
"Fine, we have about ten minutes to prepare. Let's get back to camp." Roland said as he walked over to Rina and abruptly lifted her into his arms, making her eyes go wide with surprise.
"Commander... What are you doing?" Rina muttered in confusion as her cheeks flushed.
"Rina, you are definitely very clever, but right now we need to get back to camp as soon as possible, which will be difficult for you to do, so... hold on to me as tightly as you can." Roland said calmly, and without letting her answer, he rushed forward.
The ground beneath him cracked as he ran with great speed toward the camp, jumping over rocks in his path and stepping aside to avoid crashing into trees. Elin followed him quickly catching up with him.
"Holy shit... His armor must weigh a hell of a lot, how can he move so fast!" Zayne exclaimed in disbelief.
"Hahaha, you still have a lot to learn." Harald laughed, patting him on the shoulder, "Well, we should hurry up too. Let's go!"
Harald ran as Zayne stayed on the hill last. He quickly followed him trying to run as fast as he could. Zayne had never been seriously into sports, so obviously he was seriously behind them, even Harald who started later than the others, not to mention Roland.
'Damn... I'm going to be exhausted so soon!' Zayne inwardly exclaimed running forward.
"Hey, what happened?" Suddenly Harald appeared beside him with a slight smile, "When you fought yesterday, you looked more vigor than you do now. I'm sure you have the spirit to run even faster than Elin."
Zayne's eyes went wide as he didn't understand how Harald could be so relaxed although his legs were moving at tremendous speed.
"I just can't be that fast..." Zayne said with difficulty, greedily breathing in air, "My legs are about to go numb..."
"I see... Hey, you fulfilled the requirement of Fate, you won the battle, so surely you should have been rewarded. Just use that power to become stronger, that's what everyone in the world does. Even though you're a Traveler, I'm sure you're no exception." Harald said calmly, maintaining the same speed as Zayne.
'Hmm...? What the hell is he talking about?' Zayne was puzzled until he remembered the nine Status Points he hadn't used yet. Then his gaze went to Elin's retreating back, 'Fine, I'll show you how fast I can be!'
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