章節 50: Chapter 50: Guilt of the Past

"She's a stubborn one," Cainne said. I saw his face having the same reaction as the enemy in front like they were just having a staring competition on who could give the most intimidation points to the other.

While they were busy doing anything, I grabbed the cracked magic orb from my pockets that I picked up earlier, ready to execute my plan. I waited for a while until we'll reach the said mountain.

All I need right now was perfect timing. I couldn't help but admit that I wasn't confident about what I'll be doing, thus my heart was now beating faster than before. But if it is the only way for them to stop chasing us, then I would surely at least put a risk just once.

It didn't last for a minute and we already made it through the mountain. The orb was in my hand. And finally, Dino jumped above the hot oozing lava below, as high as he can to keep us from touching it or letting the flame reached the wooden vehicle.

At the same time, I used it as an advantage. While we were still in the air, everything went into slow-motion and I was too fast in executing what I have to do. It feels like I just stopped the time with just my own feelings.

"Apollus!"

I threw the orb using the full force I could ever release and aimed it towards the tip of the mountain, hoping that the explosion magic could break the thin rocks that formed the tip.

The orb indeed flew, but not until I felt unfamiliar energy flowing surrounding me. It was like my body wasn't mine at all, but a different one. My senses became too much as I could hear different alien sounds from everywhere. I don't know where it came from, but I was sure I haven't heard it before.

Then, the orb all of a sudden got pushed with an inhumane force, as no one could ever do it using their hands. It was stronger than I expected, much stronger. And it wasn't coming from anything, anywhere, it was coming from me, from inside of my body.

After that, Dino dropped in the air and ran to safety.

Finally, it reached the summit and exploded at the same time. It was big enough to make an open for the lava to be poured more down into the path that we were in, and it was faster than before.

A huge amount of hot liquid started flowing down to the ground, shining like a river of gold. Soon it started to spread out, forming small and thick deltas in the path.

It was blocking the path between us and the persistent Regina, but this time, she didn't attempt to do the risk and stopped in her tracks. The width of the lava river was too much and she knew it.

All she could do was to stare at us, as she slowly disappeared in our sight, never to be seen again, at least for a while. Her army was defeated, and she couldn't be able to chase after us using just a horse and her lance.

But at least for us, we were just glad that was over. We already got into an ambush, which involved fighting against powerful evil entities, and now, we ended up getting a sneak attack from a kingdom's army.

I realized that without my friends, I shouldn't be alive and still running by now. With our combined power and effort, we could be able to pass through any obstacle that will come in our way.

All I could hear inside the wagon was pants and short fast breaths, tired of the things that we just did earlier. Among all of us, Dalary was the one that was most exhausted since she talked to the elemental spirits.

Come to think of it, she didn't complain much of her undiscovered talent, unlike me who just took too much time to accept it. I wonder what she was thinking after knowing about it.

"That was close."

She couldn't help but to lie down on the floor, as sitting with her back leaning into the wooden frames wasn't enough for her. Both her and Pholly's saplings were dried as the heat affected it too much.

"M-Meria…" Cainne called for my name, so I turned around to see his face with a raised eyebrow, full of confusion. He was completely calm during the whole chase since he was experienced, but it seemed like he was bewildered. "…what just happened back there?"

"I-I… I don't know…"

That was only the answer that I could give him since I too, don't have any idea what just happened. I mean I know what I just did when I threw the orb to the summit, but after that, I'm not sure. There was a force, a different force, came out from my body and pushed the orb without even me letting it flow through my hands.

After that, Cainne never gave me any more questions as he was sure that I wouldn't be able to answer it. I was also confused right now. But I decided to think about it later once I've had a clue, but for now, I must focus on the present.

We finally moved out of the deadly mountains and into the plain fields of grass and flowers. There weren't many trees, thus the sun was open to giving more heat for us. But no matter how flat the land is, one couldn't be able to see anything in a far distance.

There was also a glimpse of the Undead Woods far behind, which means that we were going on the right track. I checked the map and we were now passing through the small village of Sarisse. The tendrins prepared too much for us, so we didn't need to stop by, and if we will, then the army might catch upon us.

During the rest, Dalary managed to remember the argument she started earlier about Kandani's backstory. As she said before, she couldn't be able to trust anyone who wouldn't say any secret to her when they also found out her secret. But this time, she was using mine as an excuse. Kandani refused to talk at first, but because of her threat, he gave up.

"Eldon… was massacred…" He started. Even though it hurts for him to say it out from his mouth, he still decided to do it. I couldn't help but widen my eyes at what I heard, as well as my companions.

"W-What?!" It was the only thing that came out from our mouth at the same time, as we didn't know how to process it. I couldn't believe that I was hearing this and just wanted to accept that this wasn't true.

Eldon was a village of scarnets, one of the two remaining villages of their race. Thus in order to protect themselves, they must stay hidden. They were supposed to be. Even I don't know where they were since the map didn't provide it, like how they treat Ritensore.

But unfortunately, the protection wasn't perfect, since barrier and seal magic was as rare as one human being cursed like me.

And not to mention that the scarnet named Tasan, who was actually Kandani's friend, had the fire relic and used it for evil deeds, thus becoming a daminon himself.

"Tasan killed them using the fire relic." He explained further. I noticed his hands that formed into fists as those rested on his lap. "He sought help from me on how to get it at the village altar."

Each village of the scarnets has one of the two ancient relics. Those are the powerful weapons among the entire world of Arcania, thus everyone had the desire to obtain them. No one knew about the true forms, except those who kept it safe.

"But… I didn't know that it was for evil purposes." He added. Then, he lowered his head, as his whole body started to shiver. It couldn't be seen but I could feel that he was crying.

Scarnets didn't have the ability to cry, but they will let the people around them feel his sadness. It's like you can feel him getting depressed without even seeing his face.

"If I didn't help him, then…" He continued, even though his voice started to crack. "everyone…"

I couldn't help but to feel sorry for him. He was just being betrayed by the only friend that he had and not just that, he made him feel that he was also part of his kind's death. Since he helped him, it made him feel guilty without even him knowing before.

But there was something that made me raised my eyebrow. I don't know if I was dumb but to me, the story didn't have any sense. From the time that he told me that story, up to my first meeting with them at Zentra.

"But why would he want to kill you so badly?" I asked Kandani directly. He raised his head and looked at me, surprised by my question. The others also did the same, curious as to what I was talking about.

"I'm sure that he wasn't a psychopath…" I added. Then, flashes of Kairos' face came into my mind, referring to him as an example. I averted my eyes away from them as I remembered that time. "…like the other one…"

I couldn't help but be ridiculed. I'm pretty weak at these kinds of things. I'm no detective like anyone else in the group. I could be the dictionary, sure.

"Of course, he wanted to," Dalary answered with her chin, once again, rested at her palm. "If he just let him escape, he might report them."

As I heard her say that, I couldn't help but open my mouth, welcoming a fly. I finally confirmed myself to be unskilful in these kinds of things. Of course, he was a witness to the massacre, so they had to kill them.

But would it be better if they just invited him to fall on the dark side?

"It might be," Kandani said. But then, put his fingers on his chin to think. "Or there's something else…"

"Do you know where their next stop will be?" This time, it was Pholly who asked the question. It seemed like she was interested in the topic too.

I turned my head to the scarnet to wait for his answer. If they gave up on ambushing Zentra and capturing me, then where should their next location be?

"I-I don't have any idea." He shrugged as he too didn't know the answer to the question.

After what he said, everyone stopped staring at whoever was speaking and just looked at the wooden floor, going through deep thoughts.

If we knew where they were heading, then this could be a huge advantage to us since we'll just decide to stay away from that place at all times, but the problem is, we don't know where it will be.

As I was thinking too deeply, reviewing every knowledge that I collected right now, every book that I read, a lit bulb came into my mind.

創作者的想法
TheALONEMan

Hi, everyone! My illness is still there, but I'm getting better. I'm sorry for these slow updates. The school is starting and I couldn't be able to write three books at the same time as writing for my school.

And I have a contest coming up today so I have to update this as soon as possible.

By the way, since this is the 50th chapter of this book. I would like to announce that I'll be locking chapters at volume 2 of this book.

I don't know what chapter will it be but I decided to estimate it to 60th - 70th chapter with the first five chapters being free. I hope you're okay with it, but if not, you can suggest something on the comments that would satisfy both readers and the writer.

And also, you can comment down what you think of this chapter. :)

Thank you!

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