บท 91: Separation

The rest of their journey ended up going smoothly with no interruptions. Most of the bandits who even attempted to attack were weak. Greyson's continuous flute playing actually turned all of them away after the calming spell affected them, as well. However, the calming music was starting to wane in effect for Greyson's own problems. His bloodlines continued creating internal injuries as they fought for supremacy in his body. At this point, Greyson finally understood why he almost died in the womb. Both the dragon's bloodline and elf's bloodline were high level, his mother must have been either part of the royal family or a close branch since he already knew how powerful the Snow Dragons were. Trying to use both instead conflicted in his body since there was no dominant choice. Normally one bloodline was stronger than the other, so mixed blood people would take the appearance of the stronger bloodline while the weaker one faded to the back. Some moments, white scales covered his body and he looked the part of a part-dragon Beastman; some moments, his hair turned the same platinum silver and his eyes the same light grey.

Inching closer and closer to the Beast Empire, Greyson could only give up playing the flute as it no longer had any effect on his condition. He started to worry since occasionally he would lash out and kill any bandits who tried to approach and he could no longer control his emotions. Everything made him angry or want to lash out, his mana was flowing out without any effort on his part. In the end, Greyson decided to put himself in deep sleep. One of the light spells that he learned put people in a suspended state that was originally for healing. It gave people more time to find some way to help the injured or sick person by inducing a state where the body almost shuts down other than basic functions. His body would keep absorbing mana to keep him alive, but that was it. This was not the best option, since he would be pretty much defenseless in such a state. However, Greyson could not help but start to worry that he would cause problems otherwise for Halcrem. There was the saying that a weak teammate does you more harm than a strong enemy. If he could not control himself, what would happen if he randomly attacked members of a beast tribe creating enemies for no reason? Halcrem was doing him and Lucius a favor by bringing them to his tribe and explaining the situation inside the Empire, Greyson did not want to cause unnecessary trouble for him. Already some of the bandits were trying to chase after their group for revenge because he kept brutally killing them. Albeit weak, they were still an annoying presence.

After sealing himself, Greyson was placed inside Al's shell while Al, Lucius, and Halcrem all arrived at the border. Once they arrived, the group realized that Greyson's decision to hide away in Al's shell had other advantages they did not think of before. After they arrived at the border, they were quickly let through without many hoops to jump through. Halcrem was a Beastman with identification while Lucius and Alexus were both magic beasts. This group fit right in and most would not be too suspicious of their goals.

"Wow, it was pretty anti-climactic how easily we arrived inside the Beast Empire. It has been this whole long journey, but we were let through in just a couple of minutes." Lucius remarked while sighing. Thinking of all the troubles that he and Greyson went through to only get to the border and come in smoothly, he couldn't really adjust to things being so easy.

"Well, yes, I was also expecting it to be much harder if benefactor were to still be trying to get in with us. Magic beasts are completely welcome without the need for any checking. Although this seems like a foreign and rather reckless practice to humans, magic beasts are rather simplistic with a strong sense of loyalty and belonging to their tribe so they were not overly worried of letting magic beasts into the Empire. Elves, dwarves, and Beastmen also have their uses so they were let in fairly easily, as well, just humans were not. Magic beasts always thought that humans were up to no good and wished to take advantage of the Beastmen and magic beasts who are easy to trick."

"Hmmm... well they aren't completely wrong in their assumptions. Only humans try to enslave magic beasts with contracts and the like. There is a justifiable reason behind their hostility." Lucius did not find such a situation odd. Even in his case, he does not really like to interact with humans other than Greyson and some of Greyson's friends. However, a large amount of the time, he tells Greyson to leave them and travel on his own because he finds them weak and stupid.

"Yes, well, we should quickly leave towards the Sun Lion tribe. We should try to wake up the benefactor up as quickly as possible." Halcrem could not help but feel anxious. Thinking of the bad condition Greyson was in before inducing the coma, he felt the need to rush to his tribe and try to find a Calming Fruit. All large tribes had them, so he was not worried that they would not have any in stock. His Sun Lion tribe was one of the largest lion tribes and they housed almost all fire-element lion species.

Lucius nodded in agreement before both of them headed off. Alexus quietly rode on top of Halcrem's shoulders as the lion man led the way. The part of the Beast Empire they were in was called the Northern Savanna. The heat of the outer parts of the Savanna was unforgiving. Most of this area was desert until one moved further in and reached the real savanna. There, although at times dry, the climate was not too bad and there was more plant-life. Lucius had to expend his mana just to use his water element to keep him cool. This type of solution was not sustainable, though, since the Savanna was the complete opposite of Snow Country. The presence of water element here was scarce and Halcrem mentioned that there was almost no water-element mana in the outer parts. Thankfully, the temperature cooled considerably at night so Lucius did not need to suffer for too long. Since he was born in the Snow Country, Lucius had no issues with the cold. Since Halcrem did not spend much time in the desert area of the Savanna, he also was suffering through the intense heat.

Cat and lion both tried to move as quickly as possible through the desert. Once he was back in the Beast Empire, Halcrem decided to stay in his lion form as he usually stayed in this form at home, as well. Some beasts could not even tell the difference between him and a real Sun Lion, so he did not get as much bad treatment compared to other Beastmen. He only switched to his Beastman form in the human country for ease of communication.

On the way, they ran into some nomadic tribes which Halcrem explained were usually weaker and smaller tribes. They had no choice but to move around looking for temporary food and water sources before moving once again after they emptied these sources. Only stronger tribes could defend large and permanent resources. Halcrem's Sun Lion tribe was one of the five strongest tribes inside the Northern Savanna. The other four were the Black Scorpion tribe, Titan Serpent tribe, Gold Elephant tribe, and Devil Lizard Tribe. There were other smaller tribes all around, but they were under the top five in terms of strength and size. Most of these nomadic tribes completely ignored Halcrem and Lucius and let them pass right by, a few decided to try attacking due to desperation. Both Lucius and Halcrem did not particularly suffer from a lack of food and water since Greyson stocked up on supplies before leaving Greenwolf Country after Halcrem advised him to do so since they would be passing through the desert. All their food and water were kept within Al's shell. These starving nomadic tribes saw how healthy Lucius and Halcrem were and knew that it must be because they had food and water supplies which spurred the attacks. These few tribes were too weak to really cause any trouble and the group quickly passed through all these situations.

Barely stopping for rest, Lucius and Halcrem made it to around halfway till their destination after 4 days of travel.

"We have to be extremely careful at this point. Lots of sandstorms occur around this area. They are not so simple as just losing visibility. The winds are so violent and strong that they could pick us up and send us flying in different directions almost like a vortex. There are many instances of people getting lost or dying in these storms, so we must be careful. Hopefully our luck is not that bad." Halcrem could not help but turn grim. Although he was advising caution, he knew that there was really nothing they could do in prevention. If a sandstorm really came, then they could only do their best to find shelter and not get torn apart, especially with Greyson in his current vulnerable condition.

"Al, if we get hit with a storm, just transform into your largest form so that we can use you as shelter." Lucius did not seem as apprehensive as he looked towards the small turtle on Halcrem's shoulder. He witnessed how large Alexus could become, so he did not think that anything bad would happen even if they were stuck in a sandstorm. The situation was akin to carrying around a portable mountain. Visibly relaxing, Halcrem realized he overlooked the small magic beast on his shoulder. He became so accustomed to this small size that he forgot how large Terra Beasts originally are.

...

"Grandfather, are you sure you sensed a new member?! It has been so long since another one of our species has been born. Where is he or she? Should I go pick them up now?" A young voice started questioning in excitement.

"Patience. I am trying to locate the one now. You know these spells take time. I can only sense when they have stepped foot into the Beast Empire, to actually pinpoint their exact location is tricky." The voice that replied showed age and wisdom. Gracefully sitting atop a cushion in the center of a garden was an ancient looking old man with his eyes gently shut. Although he could not see the person in front of him, he accurately turned his head to the young voice's owner.

A small toddler was walking into the garden with obvious elation. He was adorable with big eyes, red lips, and white teeth. Looking closely, one could spot cat ears poking out of his fluffy hair and a tail trailing behind him. Hearing the old man's answer, the young boy shut his mouth staying quiet to let the older man continue, however, his anxious foot tapping gave away his obvious impatience.

"Just leave if you are going to continue disturbing my concentration with such noise." Letting out a slow sigh, the old man spoke once again to the young man feeling annoyed by the constant tapping.

"No! I'll stop, I'll stop!" Swiftly sitting on the grass, the youngster crossed his legs and began to inhale deeply. Trying to focus his attention on meditation, he did not allow himself to cause any further distraction, being the picture of obedience. As if witnessing this scene without opening his eyes, the old man chuckled feeling amused by the child's antics. Seconds turned to minutes which turned to hours as time continued to tick on without any noise. The quiet garden resumed its tranquility as both the young boy and old man sat silently. In next to no time, they already sat in this state for four days. Finally, on the morning of the fifth day, the old man spoke out once more.

"Oh? I have found him! He is in the Northern Savanna. No wonder it took so long, he was actually so far away."

"Northern Savanna? Okay! I'll go get my brothers and sisters and we'll go and pick this new one up!" The little boy suddenly stood and looked to leave.

"Wait, wait! I'll just summon him here! Why the need for anything complicated and long?"

"Hmph! Grandpa, you are no fun! You should definitely realize I just want to stretch my legs for once. Staying here all the time is so stuffy."

"No more of your nonsense. You know why we cannot leave." Losing his earlier peaceful tone, the old man turned serious and scolded. Looking wronged, the little boy's ears fell back against his head as he kicked at the dirt.

"I know, I know. You say this every time we talk about me leaving."

The old man no longer spoke and just gently sighed, his expression tinged with helplessness. The next moment, he bit into his finger and allowed the blood to drip onto the floor. Ancient symbols lit up around the old man and a doorway began to form next to him. After the mana gathered reached a peak, the old man finally opened his eyes. One green and the other blue, while on his forehead another slit slowly opened to reveal a blinding light.

...

The entire time that the group was traveling, Lucius felt really apprehensive as if something terrible was about to occur. As a Destiny Cat, he took his premonitions very seriously. For most of the morning, his nerves stayed on edge and he continued to stay prepared for anything. Halcrem did not understand Lucius' change in attitude since he was used to this cat companion's laziness and inattentive behavior. No matter how close Greyson and Lucius might feel towards Halcrem, they still could not bring themselves to trust him with such a large secret. They did not know each other long enough or gone through enough together to have that sort of trust. Without asking any questions, Halcrem decided to just let it go and keep moving along. However, Lucius continued feeling worse as they kept moving. He felt like a pair of eyes were following him, but he could not see anything around him. Even he was starting to doubt whether he was getting paranoid. His third eye began aching and burning.

"Halcrem, move away from me!" Holding his forehead in pain, Lucius shouted for Halcrem to leave. He could feel his third eye was starting to open, but he was not in control of it. Some sort of spell was activating without his awareness. His warning came too late unfortunately as the slit on his forehead opened up. A beam of light shot through and three doorways opened around them.

"Grey!" Lucius panicked as he was pulled into one of them. Halcrem tried his best to grab onto Alexus, but the pull was too strong. Both Alexus and Halcrem could only allow themselves to get pulled through separate doorways.

...

Tumbling out of the doorway, Lucius quickly got up and looked around in a panic. Confused, he only saw an ancient looking old man smiling at him and a cute-looking toddler standing next to the old man.

"Who are you?"

...

Halcrem fell straight from the sky and slammed into the ground. Spitting out the sand from his mouth, he tries to orient himself. However, the spatial transport got to him and he ended up puking from the overwhelming nausea. After he got up, he was shocked to see that he was right in front of a familiar gateway. This was the front gate to his Sun Lion tribe!

...

"Hm? What game is that Old Man Destiny playing by sending me this weak beast?" In a dark cave, one large purple eye opened as a bright doorway opened up and sent the confused Alexus flying in. A large white claw moved and tapped onto the Terra Beast.

"Well? Isn't this that boy Brevre's bloodline?" Sending another tap onto Alexus, Greyson appeared in front still locked in sleep.

"Oh, an elf bloodline as well. Seems like royalty... How interesting! He looks like my little Rose, is he another one of Elbianth's children?"