章 23: Lost Children
We traversed the forest way slower than before. This time, I was the one at blame due to my wariness of the situation. If Nila was indeed correct, then we would be entering the territory of a monster while being lured by the image of the lost girl. It just made logical sense to regroup once we found out the reason for the villagers' disappearance, yet Nila decided to be stubborn here and now.
As we walked past the trees and bushes, I heard a noise further away from us. It could be easily mistaken for natural noise in the forest, however, Nila's ears twitched, and she halted, "So it is capable of speech, huh."
"What do you mean? Who is capable of speech?"
I was at a loss for words and my poor perception of sound did not make it any better. The monster was ahead of us, yet I could not hear nor see it, a total opposite of how darewolfs hunt. Suddenly, another kid bumped into us, an older one, nearly my age. She was dressed in rags, her eyes filled with tears, but as soon as she noticed us, the kid ran away in panic. Nila grabbed my hand yet again, summoned the wand out of thin air and cast another cluster of stars, saying but one word, "Sham."
A beam of light was released from the tip of her staff, and it travelled towards the girl nearly instantaneously, piercing her chest. I witnessed in awe how she had fallen dead to the ground and her body turned to ash afterwards. Magic was indeed a powerful tool that could turn even someone as flimsy as Nila into a fearful opponent. I was sure happy that we were allies, despite the cold air between us.
After I was done observing the corpse of the girl dissipating, I turned to Nila and our gazes met. However, she immediately turned away to face the deeper parts of the forest. I followed after her, feeling more at ease after I witnessed the power of her magic. We traversed the wilderness for a few minutes before she slowed down to line up with me and began talking, "You did not look all that worried after I struck that girl."
"She was dead anyway, so I do not see a problem here."
"Is that so?" she whispered, and her pace increased once again, a little too much, I had to actually try in order to catch up to her. I wondered for a moment what was up with her reaction, but then brushed it aside, instead turning my attention to one peculiar detail. The deeper we went into the forest, the less wildlife I heard. It was the similar feeling of total void that I experienced back in Nila's camp. It was rather peculiar why these situations were so similar. Just a coincidence? Or did Nila's magic as well as the nature of the monster play their roles in this? I presented this question directly, however, Nila did not answer, nor her ears twitched at my curiosity.
Only after we reached the cave that buried deep into the hill in the middle of the forest. It was not nearly as large as the cliff I fell from, but still with quite impressive size that blended naturally into the wavy structure of the forest. At the entrance, we saw yet another kid who waved at us and yelled, "Over here! Come here!"
Its voice was monotonous and barely resembled that of a human, a mere imitation at that, but the ones who were not familiar with its true nature would certainly fall for this trick. Fortunately, neither Nila nor myself were one of such fools, she immediately pointed her staff at the kid and summoned yet another beam of light, pulverising its head. Afterwards she turned to me and said with listless expression, "2 more to go, the monster we are dealing with is inside that cave. Make sure to stay behind my back and remember, whatever you will see inside, do not run."
I huffed at her demand, and I was ready to take a step inside the cavern first, however, Nila put her hand on my shoulder and gently pulled me back, overtaking the lead. I sighed in annoyance, but in the end, allowed her to lead us inside.
The cave was dark and rather dump, which was to be expected, considering the heavy rain poured down these places on the day before yesterday. Even though the moisture was tolerable, the pitchblack canvas did not make further travel easier, quite the opposite. Fortunately, Nila cast yet another "Polaris" inside that illuminated the stone walls of the place. This time the blue ball of light was significantly slower than the one she cast yesterday. Could she be getting weaker with each use of magic?
"Hey, is there any limit to how many times you can cast spells?"
Her head slightly turned to me, before returning to the road ahead, she hummed quietly before parrying my question with her own, "Are you referring to human magic or natural magic?"
I raised my brow at her words, what could it possibly mean? After a minute of consideration, I decided to be more vague in order to hide my lack of knowledge, "Is not it obvious? Your mana pool or whatever, do you have a limit?"
"I suppose it should have been obvious what you were referencing, but I am just uncertain why you would ask me about natural magic when all I did was casting "Sham" and "Polaris"."
Then it must have meant that these two spells were so-called human magic? Then what would be the natural magic in this world? I struggled to find the right words in order to wonder about it without sounding like a complete moron, but before I had this opportunity, Nila stopped and pointed her staff at something in the darkness. It was pulsing and vaguely resembled a plant. Nila attacked this thing immediately, which took me by surprise. More importantly, the plant took this attack head on and remained standing, although now two thick vines emerged from the darkness and swiftly flung to our direction.
"Tureis." whispered Nila and a transparent barrier appeared out of nowhere shielding us from the vines. I took a step back with a cold sweat running down my cheek. As Polaris was getting closer to the plant, I saw more and more details within it. The monster resembled the carnivorous plant, however, its size was enormous. The stem was wide and wobbly, indicating a vast volume of liquid inside. The white petals were thick and directed at us, the core contained a hole which contracted a little as if gasping for air. The plant was not as large as the darewolf, but its bizarre appearance made up for that. My instincts told me to run, despite the fact that this monster's vines could not get past Nila's defences.
"Corrimorpha and quite old one, how did it even get here?" whispered Nila while pointing her staff at the flower, although she did not fire off her attack for some reason.
"What are you waiting for? Kill it already!"
"I would if I could, but older Corrimorphas have exceptional defence against magic attacks. Do you happen to have a weapon on you?" She wondered, to which I nodded and involuntarily took out her own pocket knife. She scoffed in disbelief and turned away from the flower to face those who came from behind. There stood a man with an axe as well as the remaining child and some animals like a bear and a few wolves. They all were glaring at us, devoid of emotions, even animals.
"I will give you an earful later for stealing it, but for now, take on that flower. I will support you."
After her words processed in my head, a shiver ran down my spine and I exclaimed, "Are you serious right now!?"
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