บท 84: They Hide Just Out of Sight

In the distance lies a small city bathed in the soft glow of twilight, dwarfed by ancient redwood trees that tower above its scarlet ramparts. The walls made of marble are inlaid with beautiful golden artwork depicting famous events, figures, and other such symbolism. At four separate corners, watchtowers rise above the city with large floating red spheres above each while in the center, a large clocktower ticks. A thin membrane can be seen running between the ramparts and the tower, suggesting a barrier exists. Along the wall, there are statues and gargoyles placed generously every dozen feet or so. However, other than that, there doesn't appear to be any actual people patrolling or watching the ramparts.

"Come on, C! That's Methusal; we've got this race in the bag."

"Holly, if this is a military city, why is there no one on the ramparts?"

"Huh? Well, obviously, we live a very long time, so most Blood Race aren't interested in serving in the military and those that do only do so for a decade or two at the very most. That's why we're known for our defenses, golems and gargoyles, and such. This is all basic knowledge, C, have you perhaps been gone for a long time?"

"M-maybe, I'm not sure."

"Yeah. I think we should take you to a healer or apothecary when we get into the city."

A sinking feeling comes over me, "Let's… let's just stay here, Holly."

For some reason, the words feel wrong in my mouth, but I don't wish to continue towards the city. However, Holly looks at me strangely, and the world begins to shimmer and flicker.

"What are you talking about?"

Suddenly, I feel something brush my face, and in the corner of my eye, I notice a tall lanky creature. I jump away and swing at the air with my claws, but nothing is there. Someone grabs my shoulder, and I prepare to strike again only to find Holly looking at me with concern.

"Y'know what C… we can just wait here." She smiles rigidly, "I don't care about that deliciously expensive bottle of blood if it means I'd have to leave you here."

The world becomes even more unstable, and my breathing gets heavy as I begin to see the lanky gray figures with their palms extended. I can hear a cooing and squawking noise growing louder to the point it's almost deafening.

Then all at once, it stops, and all I hear is Holly's murmuring, "What's going on near the city?"

"Wha…?"

Glancing upward reactively, a bell tolls, and the thin membrane thickens — explosions and screaming can be heard from the city as smoke begins to rise. The gargoyles roar and begin to break away from their stone, taking flight, while the eyes of the golems begin to light up with a red glow. The orbs that seem to maintain the shields also begin to shoot bursts of red lightning into the city as if targeting something.

"I don't know what's happening, but we should get into the city immediately," Holly says to me anxiously.

I grab her arm and begin to shake my head furiously, "No. We shouldn't. I don't know why, but we shouldn't."

"B-but…"

Before she can finish her sentence, a loud cracking noise reverberates, and we look to see the terrible sights of massive fissures spreading throughout the watchtowers.

**Boom!**

Large explosions of golden light shine from the fissures as the watchtowers begin to collapse. The shield flashes and begins to fizzle away, exposing the city to the open air.

"T-this is bad! I'm sorry C, but I gotta get to the city."

"No!"

Holly begins to run toward the city at an incredible speed, and at the same time, a golden light shoots from the center of the city, piercing the clouds above. In the sky above the city, a complex and golden gate, similar to a wrought iron gate, appears facing downward toward the center of the city. With a loud creaking noise, the golden gate slowly opens, shining a blinding light down upon the city as sparks begin to shoot between the gaps of the bars of the gate. Suddenly, the world goes mute as the gate fully opens, and a gigantic beam of golden light descends in the silence.

The air is displaced and the surrounding vegetation sways while the light gradually descends until, finally, it makes contact with the top of the clocktower.

A blindingly powerful flash burns my eyes and **BOOM!**.

The clocktower explodes, and a sphere of golden light engulfs the surrounding city while continuing to expand rapidly. The light rips at the very earth sending debris, stone, and other material into the air, creating a mushroom cloud. Still, it maintains its growth, destroying all that stands in its path. Holly, having already made it halfway to the city, stares in abject horror as something appears in her hand, and the light engulfs her.

It stretches toward me as I watch in stunned silence as memories click and shift in my mind, 'I remember now, this is the day the war started. This has already happened though, I'm not supposed to be here. This has already happened.'

The earth groans and liquefies as the blinding light grows ever larger until it engulfs me.

A cooing sound reaches my ear as the world shimmers before reconstructing itself, the cooing fades replaced by a youthful voice, "My name is Klena!" the voice says.

My vision clears and I'm sitting at a table with a glass of red liquid. With a sweet, bloody smell wafting in the air, I believe it to be blood, but it actually seems the glass is full of red wine. As I try to remember what's going on, for some reason, my anxiety rises rapidly, and my hand shakes, causing the wine to nearly splash from the wine glass. I look around to find that I seem to be in some type of old tavern. There is nothing in the room except the table, the wine, a clock, some candles, and the chair I'm sitting in. I stare at the wine glass, and the racket of something cooing comes from outside the door.

"Are you okay? Actually, you seem familiar…"

Looking upward, I nearly jump out of my skin when there is a young girl staring at me curiously.

'She wasn't there a second ago!'

She has ethereal hair of purple that floats gently in the air with a blue hue that emanates from it before drifting off. Her eyes have a thin white cloth tied around them, but beneath it, you can still see the glow of blue that shines through. She smiles with sharp, dangerous teeth but has a look and atmosphere of innocence about her. Her long sharp ears bounce as she looks me up and down while inspecting me.

Finally, the girl points at me with sharp nails and light blue skin, "You're the weird lady who said she saved me from drowning! That was years ago! I didn't expect to see you again!"

"W-Weird lady?..." I take a deep breath to try to calm myself, "Are you a Banshee?"

"Waaait a minute…" She stares at me with disbelief before slapping the table with her palm, "Did you forget me!? How could you forget the future Hero Klena!?"

"Oh, so your name is Klena."

"You forgot that too! B-But I just told you that like…" Klena looks at a clock near the back of the room, "Four minutes ago!" she yells, swinging her head back toward me.

"O-Of course not," I reply with a gentle smile, "Klena, can you tell me, do you hear a cooing noise? Or perhaps, smell blood in the air?"

"Noise… no. As for the blood, I'm a Banshee, our sense of smell isn't that great."

"Well, then, I need to leave," I push the glass away and stand.

Klena looks at me oddly, "Huh? Did I say something wrong?"

"It's not that, I just need to leave." Seeing her looking strangely distressed, I continue, "I-I'll come back soon, though."

She perks up a little, "Oh, okay! Just don't forget what you promised last we met."

With no clue what she is referring to, I wave my hand dismissively, "Of course not. I'd never forget."

Rising, I quickly exit through a heavy wooden door, only to discover that I'm in a tavern that appears to be along a stone road in a forest that looks absolutely ancient. It's oddly quiet as no one else seems to be around, and the only light is from the candles of the tavern's bar and a lantern hanging near the door. Three small out of place songbirds sit on a ledge over the tavern door, singing a happy tune in contrast to the suffocating gloom of the forest.

'Why is that girl out here all alone? Who is she anyway? She seems so familiar, but... It doesn't matter right now; something is wrong. Something is really wrong! I shouldn't be like this, and this place is abnormal.'

I remove the lantern from the front of the tavern and begin to walk down the stone road rapidly.

'The only noise is that cooing, and the only smells are from the wine and blood. The blood and cooing are coming from the same direction, so that's where I'm going.'

Things start getting weird as, in my peripherals, gray creatures with disproportionate limbs appear with their palms extended toward me.

'Mind magic? Am I caught in mind magic!? Impossible… Is it impossible? I feel weak, so much weaker than I was. Why didn't I realize that earlier? Gehhh! Faster!'

Going from a rapid walk to a run, the world begins to shimmer and shake. Looking at the trees occasionally, I'll see a creature duck from view. The noise grows louder, and I become fixated on it. If my mind drifts from the sound for even a second, I find myself nearly forgetting what I was doing. Perceiving the noise moves away from the stone road and into the forest, I dash from the road and into the forest without hesitation.

The edges of my vision start resembling something more akin to a warehouse than a forest, the further I run.

'What have I gotten myself into? Did I fall into a trap? That's not something I'd normally do… is it?'

____________________________

--Eden POV--

Aponi and I sit next to a wall with our back against one another in the quiet concrete room outside the warehouse. The only noise that pierces the silence is the sound of our own breathing and the occasional echoing of something moving in the long, dark hallways.

"Aponi, how long do you think we've been waiting now?"

"I'd say it's been at least twelve hours. Did you end up getting any sleep?"

"Yeah, it certainly feels like it's been a long time, and no, I didn't sleep."

"That's no good; you were supposed to be sleeping while I watched."

"It was hopeless from the start. There's no way I could ever sleep here." I glance to my side, where a puff of brown fur rises and falls gently, "If it helps, the cubs seem to be getting some good rest, though."

"Yeah, I don't blame you. I never had any intention of going to sleep myself." She sighs in exasperation, "And those cubs could sleep through an earthquake, I think… They'll probably get hungry soon or maybe they already are, but just know this isn't the right place to be crying. Either way, I don't know what we'll do when they lose patience."

"Hey, Aponi."

"Hmm?"

I hesitate before asking, thinking I'm perhaps going crazy, "Have… have you seen them too?"

Aponi goes quiet, and with our back together, I can feel her heartbeat increase, "...Yeah, I have, but only ever in the corner of my vision."

"Do you think you could hit one with your rifle?"

"I-I don't know, Eden. I'm afraid of pissing them off, or attracting whatever it is bumping around deeper in the hallway."

"Oh, yeah. That's true… Maybe Eira will know what they are. To be honest, we've seen a lot of weird and scary things, but Eira always knew what they were."

"Mmm, yeah. Not knowing makes them a lot scarier." She nudges me and chuckles, "Don't be scared, though; we'll be fine."

"How do you know that?"

She taps her finger against her rifle as if pondering my question, "Well, first of all, it's because I know we can handle this." Glancing back, I notice her giving me a reassuring wink, "But also I'd say I just have a gut feeling."

With a small smirk, I nod, "I guess if you're going to put it that way, I'll just have to believe you. Still, how much longer should we wait for them before coming up with a new plan?"

"Well, Eira once mentioned that in our current condition, we could probably go a week without blood before we start feeling light-headed. She also mentioned that if we used blood magic, it would shorten the time."

"So, we probably shortened that time when we made the rope then?" As if on queue my stomach growls, and I let out a small cough to cover it before continuing awkwardly, "R-regardless, I'm not interested in sitting around that long."

Aponi shakes her head with a small laugh, "How about we go take a peek through the door; maybe, we'll see something."

"Okay, yeah. Let's do that… Maybe we should stand with our backs against each other? So those things can't sneak up on us."

Standing Aponi keeps her rifle at the ready, while I prepare my saber.

We put our backs together, and Aponi begins to speak, "Just do as I say, one step left."

As she says, we both take one step, "Four steps, my back your front," she continues.

I nod, and we take four steps. Out of the corners of my eyes, I keep catching glimpses of creatures with their palms spread wide, but when I focus on them, they disappear, or on occasion, retreat into the shadows.

"They keep hiding just out of sight." Aponi murmurs to herself.

'How do they know when we see them? Are they really so observant? Or is there some kind of mechanic or rule behind it?'

I feel Aponi bump my back with her elbow, "Eden, I know you can see them too, but please pay attention."

"Sorry. I was just trying to figure out how they operate," I reply apologetically.

"It's fine, now twelve steps to your left."

Our shoes click against the floor, echoing far too loudly for comfort. When we make it to the door, we peek in and are greeted by the sight of thrown around, destroyed, and damaged items.

"I didn't even hear this? How did they do so much damage without us hearing?"

I look around carefully, and a manila folder on the ground catches my attention. Next to it sits an all too familiar scythe.

"Aponi, look." I point, and Aponi's head turns cautiously, "It's Eira's scythe and some kind of document. We should try to grab them."

"But, it's through the door. It seems like it might be a risk."

"...We can't just stay out here waiting forever. That might have some information about what's going on."

"Well, it is next to Eira's scythe; maybe she was carrying it."

"Let's just grab it and then exit. It took them a while before they started forgetting, didn't it? At least from what you told me, it sounded like it wasn't instant."

"I don't know, to be honest, it just didn't seem like it."

"Let's just do it."

"Fine… Goddess, please say this can be over soon."