The team didnât wind up doing as Mari had suggestedâthat being âwalk and talkâ. Instead, they ran for miles in relative silence, the pervasive darkness around them only growing more stifling with every step. Leon could feel it pressing against his mind, now more obvious and more powerful than it had just outside the Black Veil separating them from the Mandian Lands.
So, he called the group to a halt. Staying on the move was smart, but they all needed to regroup, mentally and physically. They stopped on a hill, upon which Leon began carving the runes that would keep the darkness at bay. He moved quick as lightning, setting up the enchantment in mere moments.
âOur enchantments arenât as effective as they were further from the Mandian Lands,â Leon said to Tiraeses. âWe might need something a little stronger.â He glanced up at Mari. âHow are you doing in there?â
âFine,â Mari replied, her voice sounding a little strained. âIt ainât the darkness thatâll get me in here. Just the stress and the caring for potential traitors.â Leon blinked in surprise while Mari turned to Tiraeses. âWhat the fuck was all that, old man? Ya know that culty fucker?â
Tiraeses was quiet for a long moment, his eyes narrowed in thought. âNo,â he eventually said and gave no further comment.
â⊠Thatâs it?â Mari said in disbelief. âYa got nothing more than that?â
âI have lived in a cave on the edge of the plane for centuries!â Tiraeses growled back. âBefore that, I knew many people, and was known by many more. Mulitan, Lord of Memory, may not have been courteous enough to erase me from history.â
âYa should think it over, then, old man,â Mari snarled.
âEnough,â Leon interjected, a small part of his mind wondering if this was going to become his catchphrase when dealing with these two. To Mari, he said, âLetâs keep a cool head and not tear ourselves to pieces. Keep in mind the possibility that that cultist was lying to try and sow division amongst us. Keep in mind that weâre not going to get far if weâre constantly at each otherâs throats.â
Mari turned away and didnât respond, but Leon took her silence as agreement.
To Tiraeses, he said, âThink harder on this. If this cultist did know you, then you mightâve known him, too. Wrack your brain until you find the answer.â
Tiraeses scowled and said, âI was already praying to Mulitan, Lord of Memory, for that very information.â
âMaybe you could do something else than pray?â Mari asked, still turned away from both Leon and Tiraeses.
âThe gods are our salvation,â Tiraeses softly insisted.
âThe gods, if they were ever real, abandoned us a long time ago,â Mari said, directly stating the idea sheâd been toying with the whole time sheâd been with them. âTo rely on them is to accept death. There ainât no point in praying to them anymore.â
âThere is no better time for prayer than when the world is darkest,â Tiraeses countered. âBut I shouldnât expect much else from a girl of your age.â
âFuck you, old man,â Mari retorted.
Tiraeses didnât answer, instead choosing to close his eyes, fall to his knees, and quietly meditate. Leon hoped he was contemplating what had just happened, but after taking a moment to make sure Mari and Tiraeses werenât going to come to blows, he turned his attention to what he felt had to be done before anything else.
He filled the enchantment to banish the darkness with power. It had worked splendidly in Yu Nok Tor, but this time, while the runes glowed with his power, the relief they provided was significantly less than before, reinforcing Leonâs belief that the protective enchantments heâd inscribed for himself and Tiraeses werenât sufficient.
And that meant the enchantments had to be revised. He considered asking the Thunderbird or Xaphan for help, but while they were fairly knowledgeable about most things, neither were trained enchanters.
The enchantments heâd made had worked far better than heâd expected them so far, standing up better than heâd expected when in combat. Now that that unexpectedly good performance seemed to be over, he thought he might implement some of the improvements that had occurred to him in the idle hours spent running through the blasted hellscape of Arkhnavi.
So, once the darkness was pushed back about as much as it was going to be from the enchantment heâd carved upon the hill, he brought out his enchanting tools and began the first draft of the new enchantment. It largely kept the structure of the first enchantment, but whereas that one had the ancient rune doing most of the heavy lifting, augmented by amplification and power-regulation runes and glyphs, the new one was more complex, incorporating some of the antimagic Leon had learned from the Ravens, as well as what heâd used in creating his armor. His antimagic was much less effective than heâd hoped for, but that didnât mean the underlying concepts heâd used werenât effective if used more efficientlyâand besides, heâd created his antimagic weapons before he was even acquainted with the Ravens, and his skills and knowledge had improved quite a bit since then.
It didnât take him long to finish his first draft, the creation process drawing a mad grin out of him. However, as soon as the draft was done, he began work on a second draft, as he could much more easily the flaws and mistakes heâd made now that the draft was complete. Over the course of several silent hours, he ran through nine drafts, some with more tweaking and some with less, until he landed upon an enchantment that he felt would work.
He quickly inscribed it upon a piece of high-quality spellpaper, pulled the resulting spell into his soul realm, and then conjured it behind his cuirass. It was a simple matter at that point to power it, and as soon as he did, the effect on their environment was dramaticâthe omnipresent darkness was driven away, bringing all three some measure of relief from the constant mental pressure placed upon their minds by the Devilish magic, even though Mari at least didnât need it.
Leonâs response was to grin in triumph, leaving Mari to speak first.
âFuckinâ well done, Lele!â she exclaimed. âThatâll come in handy, wonât it?â
âIt will,â Tiraeses said as he pushed himself back to his feet, a look of sorrow, resignation, and relief intermingling upon his features. âAnd as with this darkness, Mulitan, Lord of Memory, has seen fit to answer my prayers by banishing some of the fog from my mind.â
Leonâs eyes immediately locked upon the old monk. âYou think you know who that cultist was?â
âAs I said before, I canât know for certain, not unless I see his face,â Tiraeses replied. âBy the gods, I donât even know if that devil spawn is even a man or not!â
âThen give us your thoughts, whatever they may be,â Leon said as Mari turned toward them both to more intently listen.
âIn the interest of not drawing the ire of the gods with dishonesty, I shall preface this by reminding you both that I have been in exile for long enough that even the most virtuous people I know could have changed.â
âBut not ArdâKhil, the fatass, I guess,â Mari growled.
Tiraeses glared at her and opened his mouth to argue, but closed it a moment later and seemed to rethink his response. To Leonâs muted relief, Tiraeses decided to simply not acknowledge the comment.
âOut of everyone that I would suspect turning from the light of the gods to the shadow of the devils, there are a few, though the one I would suspect the most is LaeâRil, the Whispering Lord.â
âLaeâRilâs dead,â Mari countered. âFucker bit it when the Blue Sky was first dealing with the cultists. Happened in a big battle my father told me about. LaeâRil was like, ânoooo, I donât wanna die cuz Iâm a big bitch with a stupid face so Iâm just gonna ruuuun.â Fucker got real close to the Red-Eyed Bitch real quick after that.â
Tiraeses frowned deeply. âBy Valiant Ashatar, I wish I was surprised. LaeâRil was never blessed by the brothers of war, Valiant Ashatar and Strong Ashagon. But he was a man utterly devoid of virtue.â
âDid you know him well?â Leon pointedly asked.
Tiraeses gave him a long, steady stare that eventually slipped into one of profound regret. âI did,â he confirmed.
âFrom what my father told me, knowing that bag of rotten dicks isnât a good thing,â Mari pointed out. âYouâre not lookinâ good, Fake Name. Is that why youâre using a fake name, Fake Name? Cuz youâre secretly a fuckinâ degenerate? Exiled, too, apparently. Too much of an ass for the fat fuck polishing the throne with his fat ass while everyone else starved. I wonder if I actually know you. Have I heard of you and I just donât know it?â
Tiraeses recoiled as if physically struck, but he stated, âEverything I did, may the gods strike me down for any deceit, was to preserve the peace within the Kingdom of the Blue Sky! The Red Sky was pressing against our borders and dissidentsââ He caught himself, a pained look crossing his face. âI⊠proved myself to be lacking in virtue back then. So I was exiled. Such was how it had to be, and it allowed me to contemplate my mistakes and attempt to regain some semblance of virtue, even if it were at the edge of the plane.â
âHa! Soââ Mari began, but Leon swiftly cut her off before she could tear into Tiraeses as she seemed primed to do.
âWhat about any others?â Leon asked. âOther than LaeâRil?âfreewe bnovel.com
âI would have guessed ArdâKhun, had he not been taken by the Red-Eyed One already,â Tiraeses said. âMy apprentice, who succeeded my position after my exile, PoâJun, always had a darker streak to him, though he never had any kind of affinity for devilish magic. My exile was not a secret to the people, though it wasnât widely publicized, thank the gods. Many heard of me and my crimes, though the common people, especially after so much time, are unlikely to have ever heard of me. But of those that have, an army could be raised. Or could have, may Just Helior judge all those who have been taken by the Red-Eyed One as they deserve.â
âIf any were caught up in all this shit,â Mari bitterly said, âI hope theyâre thrown to the devils they worshipped in life. They have destroyed too much of Arkhnavi, and now our last hope is an outsider.â To emphasize her point, Mari first gestured around them, her Ulta suit raising its arms in an incredibly human way. She then lowered both hands to Leon, who didnât need that kind of reminder of the stakes at play here. Only the Grave Wardens could prevent the Primal Devil from getting looseâassuming Xaphan was right in saying that it wasnât yet free of its cageâand his only hope of reaching Ambrose was maybe finding something in Tell Kirin that could help him in getting off Arkhnavi.
The barren land pocked with ruined cities they now found themselves in was reminder enough of that, as it was.
After the moment of silence Mariâs statement left on, Leon asked, âWhat was this place like before it⊠became what it is now?â
âA land of beauty and plenty,â Tiraeses said as he waved his hand and conjured a dome of light around them. The inner surface of the dome resolved into images of the Mandian Lands as Tiraeses remembered it, with fields of green and gold everywhere Leon could see. It was an obviously bountiful land with extensive farms and great, glittering cities rising out of the earth. The region was fairly flat, and Tiraesesâ illusion showed more than a hundred large cities in the distance, showing just how prosperous the Mandian Lands were if they could support such a heavily urbanized people.
âI donât remember it ever lookinâ this nice,â Mari said as her Ulta suitâs head rotated back and forth, taking in every detail. âThe east was in marginally better shape last time I was there, and the darkness hadnât quite spread beyond the Mandian Lands, but the Kingdom of the Blue Sky has been destroyed, basically. Thereâs barely more than a few miserable piles of brick left that we might call cities, and all of them have been suffering from famine for a long time. It may even be gone by now, if there were reprisals for our expeditionâŠâ
âDid you have any family back in your home? Any friends?â Leon asked.
âJust my father,â Mari replied. âNo one else. And now that heâs gone⊠I have no oneâŠâ
She trailed off, going just as quiet as tiraeses, and Leon understood that their reminiscing was over. Tiraeses waved his hand again and the dome of light dissipated.f reewe bnovel
Hoping to galvanize them even just a little bit, Leon said, âYou two can ask me anything you want. In fact, Iâll even invite you two to come and live in the Thunder Kingdom when all this is over and done with.â
âAssuming we donât meet the Red-Eyed Bitch, first.â
Leon chuckled and shrugged. âAssuming that, yes. Shall we get moving again?â
Mari and Tiraeses both agreed, and Leon led them onward. Their route would take them a little further east than it shouldâve required, as Tiraeses wanted to personally check in on his homeland, if possible. The Kingdom of the Blue Sky sounded dead to Leon, with its King and Crown Prince having been apparently slain in battle, along with so much of its territory now belonging to the Primal Devil. However, he knew that if Kataigida were to ever fall, he wouldnât give up hope for at least some people surviving until he laid eyes upon the island himself and investigated.
Piquing his curiosity, Tiraeses called the team to a halt not long after they set out once again.
âI⊠would like to revise our current trajectory,â he said.
âHow so?â Leon asked.
âWhen planning our route, I sought to make Wise Farangeun proud by avoiding the city of Naxor Amis, the city where the first ritual that summoned this darkness reportedly took place. I believeâI may cause much grief to Wise Farangeun by simply stating this aloudâI believe that we should scout the city and see what has become of it. And⊠I believe that if we want answers about this cultist who apparently knows me, then weâll find them in Naxor Amis.â
âThatâs super dumb,â Mari stated. âWeâre already heading to Tell Kirin, where this devilish shit is probably thickest, and you want us to walk right into ground zero for the destruction of the Mandian Lands?â
âIf the gods will lead us to answers, then the destination will lead through Naxor Amis,â Tiraeses said.
âThat sounds more like you want to meet the Red-Eyed Bitch instead, Fake Name!â
âAll I want is the salvation of Arkhnavi,â Tiraeses claimed. âTo do that, we need information. Naxor Amis, while dangerous beyond compare, will be the best place to try and gather some.â
âThatâs a flimsy reason,â Leon said. âIt would be faster and safer to bypass this cityâand all othersâand head straight for Tell Kirin.â
âNot necessarily safer or quicker,â Mari responded. âLots of Black Veils got in our way during the Two Skiesâ push.â
âThatâll be the case whether or not we head for Naxor Amis, though,â Leon pointed out, to which Mariâs Ulta suit shrugged. âI can see the merit, I suppose. We can check the city out from afar and make our decision then. If I judge itâs too dangerous, weâll swing around and make for Tell Kirin. Understood?â
Mari and Tiraeses both acknowledged his decision, and Tiraeses did as heâd requested and altered their course to put them on the path that would lead them to the place where Arkhnaviâs fall began.
âGreat. Any more questions?â
âNot a question,â Mari said, âbut Lele, that lightning bird thing ya did with the Black Veil was really cool.â
Leon was still wearing his helmet, so he allowed himself a smile. âThank you.â
âIt was suuuper cute, too, especially the way it gouged the darkness right outta those banshees! How didâya make it?â
Leon chuckled and began explaining what he knew about creating autonomous creatures using his power. He wasnât nearly as good at it as Maia or Xaphan was, but heâd been taught enough and was good enough to give her the basics. From the way Mari gushed over it, Leon figured she was going to be making something that might require wisps in the future.
Just another reason for him to do his best to keep herâand Tiraesesâalive. He feared he might not be able to save the plane in the end, but he felt he at least had the power to save these two.
Assuming they all didnât die when the Grave Wardens made their move, or the Primal Devil got loose. With that thought crossing his mind, Leon forced all other thoughts of the future out of his head so he could concentrate solely on getting out of this mess and back to Aeterna. Everything else could come after that. He just had to get home.
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