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Chapter 77: Lizards playing with Magic. [Release Version]
🕑 Added 2020-06-20 00:55:57 +0000 UTC
Chapter 77: Lizards playing with Magic.
Stroking the feather plumage on his head, Mister Kushlek’zar muttered “Create Water”, producing a blue magic circle in his other hand which slowly poured water onto the ground, “Custom spells. I’ve asked Miss Tasianna about what she thought of you. Is it true that not only was she your first magic tutor but that you’ve also learned the basic four phases of magic casting from her?”
Forming a wry smile, I nodded in response.
“…I’ve promised not to ask your circumstance, but my curiosity grows ever more the more I learn how ignorant I am. Just like the God Istari, we mages will always wish to seek knowledge,” Mister Kushlek’zar said with a short sigh.
If I remembered Tasianna’s theology lessons correctly, then this god should be a member of Aurena’s pantheon. Acting as the God of Knowledge and Magic, Istari serves as the god that overwatches all mages.
Despite only being a subordinate god, Istari is considered an incredibly important figure among mages, embodying all the values that one should uphold as a practitioner of the arcane.
Mister Kushlek’zar might be a priest in the service of Plesia and Xohulotel, but it seems he valued Istari as much as Tasianna mentioned.
“I really wish to question how you grew up to be such a fine young lady with such extraordinary amounts of talent in the arcane arts while knowing barely anything about the world. I had about the same evaluation of your friend Saori, although, I found her maturity quite fascinating. You two mystify me,” he remarked, still stroking his plumage.
Unable to break my wry smile, I could only nervously swallow my spit as I stayed silent before the saurian’s inquisitive glare.
Once he noticed that he was making me feel uncomfortable he quickly apologized, “Well, that was terribly rude of me, apologies, Hestia. Do not worry, I’ll keep my word to not push you into elucidating it, after all, I very much sympathize with you concerning your ignorance of the world.”
“You do?” blinking my eyes in surprise, I reflexively asked him about it.
Nodding in confirmation, he continued speaking, “I’ve overheard Krim-slak speaking with you, so you should know about the saurian's history, yes?"
I nodded.
“Good, then this should make it easier for me to explain. You see, the ships from the Caedhul expedition did not have enough space to transport all of us to Altrust. Every half decade, ships meant for our migration would come, but even now, many of my fellow scale-kins are still in the vast jungle of Aelozonia,” he explained. “I was among the few that had to wait a few decades to come over here, but once I did, I had to say that it was worth the wait.”
He then took out his ID again and even revealed the party bracelet under the sleeve of his robe, "I was amazed by the technology. How could mortals create tools which complemented the God's System? Simply astounding. Compared to saurian society, we were embarrassingly behind."
He then packed everything back into his robe and continued, "I've learned here that traveling from Altrust to Aelozonia took time and money, and this money doesn’t come from thin air. Many of us saurians have joined the Tide Watchers for this very reason. Being a Depths Guard was an honor, but I wanted to learn more of this continent while also earning money to help my scale-kins.”
“…So when you mentioned that you sympathized with me…,” I muttered as I glanced as his party bracelet which bared the symbol of Plesia.
“I meant that I also once felt overwhelmed by everything. As if I was transported into a whole new world, with how different this continent was to mine,” he admitted, tugging a few of my heartstrings as I clenched my hands into a fist. “If you wish to blend among society, then remember what I told you today, young scale. That also includes the magic lesson that I will give you in a minute, ha ha ha ha.”
Listening to how much he’s revealed about himself, I followed along with his laughter with a giggle, feeling a bit of a kinship with him.
Although my circumstances were a bit more complicated, I understood what he meant by it. Whether it was the System or the magic or how beautiful my first flying experience was, I could vividly remember all the “WOW!” moments I had in this world that just blew my mind away.
“Yeah, I guess I was acting a bit childish today when you showed me your ID. That emblem change was a real surprise,” I said with a grin, scratching my cheek in embarrassment.
"Oh, really? Well, speaking of surprises, did you know that saurians aren't considered beastmen?" he casually dropped.
“What?” I uttered.
“Beastmen are children between humans and monsters. We saurians do not share that link. We are spawn of the jungles of Aelozonia,” Mister Kushlek’zar mentioned. “Also, I was also pretty intrigued by how varied the males and females are among the races of Altrust. Saurian males and females all look the same, among our three races.”
“HUH?!”
“And then there was that-” he was about to continue but I quickly interrupted him.
“Stop! Stop! STOP! Enough! I think I’ve had enough random information dumps for tonight. Can we just skip all of that and get to the magic, please?” I said in a rush, wishing to end this before it turned into Trivial Pursuit.
“Hmm, a mage should always seek more knowledge, especially when you do not know much of the world, young scale. Still, if that is what you wish, Hestia, I shall oblige,” seemingly quite disappointed at my abrupt stop to his trivial session, Mister Kushlek’zar gave an elaborate sigh before looking at me with stern eyes. “First, I require you to show me your full status board. No [Identity Blocker]. I cannot determine your current strength without all the information.”
I guess it does make sense. Without showing my draconic skills and [Toxin Secretion], he won’t be able to fully know what I can do. Still, I shouldn’t show my titles, [The Light]'s spells, nor the SP System to him at all costs.
After tweaking my status board, I nodded to his request, allowing him to use [Identify] on me again. Needing a moment to process all the information, I waited for him to finish his thinking.
"Hmm, alright. Besides your draconic skills and abilities, you didn’t hide many skills at all. Although, that [Toxin Secretion] sounds pretty dangerous," he said with a grim expression before shrugging. "Anyway, it seems you really do not have any advanced magic skills. I was wondering how you were able to cast so many spells this morning, but it seems your [Parallel Thoughts Lv. 9] was the reason. Interesting.”
Stroking his raptor-looking head’s jaw, the elder scale took another moment to think before continuing, “The four processes of magic casting, recite now!”
“Huh?! Wha-?! Uhm," staggered by his sudden demand, it took me a second to work my brain. "Invocation, Incantation, Activation, and Release!" I responded, reluctantly remembering why I always hated this flash questioning that teachers would sometimes do.
“Good. Invocation to command how your spell should work, Incantation to prepare your spell, Activation to fuel your spell with mana, and Release to cast your spell. This is the foundation of magic casting, proper mages can repeat it the second I ask for it,” he scolded me.
Urgh, give me a break, I haven’t been to school for seven months now.
“The reason why I am emphasizing this so much is if you wish to become a better magic practitioner, then you must master all four. Magic is as fluid as water, ever-changing and always adapting. Your vast mana will help you improve, but it will never be the reason why you became a true master,” he explained. “If you master the basics, then you will advance naturally to the next level. Invocation for [Fluid Cast], Incantation for [Multi-Cast], Activation for [Delayed Cast], and Release for [Continuous Cast]. I have those skills in my status board, so look the descriptions up now.”
Identify, I diligently listened to my magic tutor.
<Fluid Cast: An advanced form of magic casting made into a skill. Allows the user to morph and change a spell’s form depending on their will>
<Multi-Cast: An advanced form of magic casting made into a skill. Allows the user to directly control multiple spells simultaneously without needing to fully cast one. Its effectiveness is influenced by the [Concentration] skill>
<Delayed Cast: An advanced form of magic casting made into a skill. Allows the user to fuel the magic circle of a spell with additional mana to sustain it before releasing it>
<Continuous Cast: An advanced form of magic casting made into a skill. Allows the user to sustain a spell's magic circle for multiple casts, continuously draining more mana the longer it is sustained. Its effectiveness is influenced by the [Mana Efficiency] skill>
Hmm, some of these techniques sound familiar.
“Is something the matter?” Mister Kushlek’zar asked.
“Nothing really. I just think I’ve been able to do some of them for a while now, but haven’t gotten the respective skills,” I answered.
Intrigued by my statement, Mister Kushlek’zar requested me to display them for him. For [Fluid Cast], I showed him that I was able to materialize spells in different sizes depending on how I imagined it be.
“Good, it seems you’ve understood the fundamentals of [Fluid Cast]. However, that is not the limit of Invocation. Observe, Hestia," with that said, he then began casting [Water Bolt], morphing the bullet-like form of the spell into a spear. "A mass of water hitting the head will stun people, but a sharp, concentrated water spear can even pierce armor. An offensive spell can also act as a defense. The potential of our God's spells is limited by your ability to control mana. Interestedly enough, this is the origin of custom spells."
For [Delayed Cast], I showed him my self-made bombs, showing him the magic circles that I’ve attached to them, explaining that they will activate the moment I inject my mana into them.
"Fascinating, it seems your experimentations have caused you to accidentally start with the fundamentals of runecraft, however, as you are using the System-made spells, you haven't received [Runecraft] yet,” he explained. “Also, that [Storage Magic] you just showed me, that is [Space-Time Magic], right? How in the world did you manage to learn such a rare skill? I must reevaluate your potential once again it seems, ha ha ha.”
As Mister Kushlek’zar was laughing, I was quietly pouting at the fact that none of what I showed was enough to impress him. Lately, it seems my pride as a mage has been continuously tested, from my inability to cast my custom spell and my lack of mastery of the fundamentals of magic.
“Ha ha ha, don’t be so disappointed, young scale. Don’t focus on what you haven’t learned yet, but on what you have already achieved. How old are you and when did Miss Tasianna teach you about magic theory?” he consoled me. “You are still young and you’ve already achieved this much. You already have the hard part behind yourself: leveling up your skills. Now you only need to master it, which only requires time and diligence.”
Casting another spell on his palm, this time [Water Ball], he morphed the shape of the spell into a star, "Our time together is limited until we finish the Quest, afterward, my party must set forth to continue our duties as members of the Tide Watchers. That is why I shall teach you the basics of the four advanced skills and how to practice them. How fast you improve will depend on your willingness to learn. Now, let us start with [Fluid Cast] as this is what you need to construct your own custom spell.”
This is where the real lecture started. Miss Kushlek’zar would start with the theory behind each of the four skills while demonstrating an example as a reference for me. He then asked me to start practicing Invocation. In other words, he wanted me to acquire [Fluid Cast] first.
Whether I actually gained the skill or not was irrelevant for today. It only mattered that I understood his lecture, he explained. Polishing my foundation would be integral for me to learn more advance custom spells.
Doing this was actually the harder method. Usually, he would teach me one or two beginner-level custom spells like [Create Water] or [Greater Create Water] to help me improve, but as he only knew water spells in addition to my low affinity for that element made it hard for me to learn them, he decided that it would be better for me to just become a better caster.
I couldn’t ask for a better teaching philosophy as this was exactly what my dance instructor always told me. “Haste makes waste” and “Solidify the foundation before you start dancing on it”, were two of his most often used phrases.
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
While I was focusing on my own practice, Saori and Tasianna came over to us and also asked Mister Kushlek’zar to tutor them on the basics.
Saori, compared to me, had the opportunity to learn [Water Magic] not by spending SP but naturally by increasing her proficiency for it through learning [Create Water]. Unlike a monster, most humanoid races learn magic by first learning how to cast a custom spell, then they would transition to the System-made spells like [Water Ball].
Tasianna, as she always mentions, was a simple maid before she met us, having only a limited magical education. To make up for neglecting to further her magic training during her time in the fairy’s village, she needed a water element specialist like Mister Kushlek’zar as a tutor. Acquiring even one of his custom spells could benefit her immensely.
As they were doing this, I continued trying to gain [Fluid Cast].
Ok, Firebolt. Morph the form. Morph the form. Make it into an arrow to make it fly faster. Increase the speed and po-eaaaaakkkkk!
“FOCUS, HESTIA!” my magic tutor shouted into my ear, causing my eardrums to ring. “On a battlefield, your goal as a mage is to continue the casting process while avoiding being distracted! You can’t level up [Concentration] if you can’t multitask!”
Urgh, shouting into my ear and scaring me by splashing cold water at my exposed back, after I took off my cape, were the few ways that Mister Kushlek’zar would use to disrupt my focus. It was honestly super annoying, but I understood the intent behind his actions. It really felt like this was the best training method for [Concentration].
I could technically use my parallel minds to help me multitask but that would be cheating. I couldn’t avoid unpleasant stuff if I wanted to become better. It was the same thing with my dance instructor’s training. Repeating the same movements is super boring but how am I supposed to get better if I didn’t? Diligence and determination, I’ve been through this already, and I can do it again.
“Mister Kushlek’zar is this teaching method truly necessary-eek!” noticing my plight, Tasianna wanted to come to my defense but quickly received a finger snap to her forehead.
“You have nothing to say, Miss Tasianna. You too are a pure beginner when it comes to the arcane arts. 87 years old but your class is merely [Mage]? Inconceivable as a member of the elven race, masters of martial and arcane arts. I will sharpen your fangs, Miss Wind Elf,” Kushlek’zar sternly scolded my friend.
We haven’t told the saurians about Tasianna’s fairy origin yet as she didn’t want to reveal it. Although, Mister raptorsilian did show his displeasure, he respected her decision and was treating her to the standards of a member of the elven race, instead.
“Witness Miss Saori’s diligence, Miss Tasianna. She hasn’t stopped the construction of her magic circle yet, despite how loud the surrounding is. IS THAT NOT CORRECT, SCALE-KINS!” he shouted once again.
“KRIIIIIIIIIIIIII, I’M SHARPENING MY HALBERD-honestly, we shouldn’t be shouting during the night, Kush. Unwanted visitors might hear us,” Krim-slak the blue carnosilian responded with a frown.
“Don’t let your old habits appear again, Kush. You were considered one of the worst instructors by most of the Tide Watcher’s trainees back in Caedhul. You don’t even have the [Instruction] skill yet, because of how slow your students learned skills,” Grazlahta the red carnosilian casually commented as he focused on maintaining his axe.
“Grrrrrr….zzzzz,” while all this was happening, the massive sarcosilian, Akasht, was already fast asleep.
…Honestly, I never imagined Mister Kushlek’zar to be such a dork when it comes to magic…huh?
<Acquisition requirement fulfilled. [Fluid Cast Lv. 1] acquired>
“Oh?! As your scales just clattered, I just got [Instruction]. Did one of you three get one of the skills?” Kushlek’zar said as he tilted his green-scaled head.
Raising my hand and saying “me”, he went over to me and sat down while holding onto a long stick, “Perfect, thank you for being the one to grant me this skill. It would seem like my affinity for it was bad enough that it took me eight years to learn it, ha ha ha. Ok, now that you’ve learned [Fluid Cast], let me now explain to you how to properly construct a custom spell. You told me that the System already registered it?”
I explained to him how I received the spell, retelling how it happened when I was frustrated during a fight where the System randomly gave me it. Mister Kushlek’zar was quite intrigued by it but couldn’t understand how it happened to me.
He mentioned that it was common for the invention of a new spell to begin with the magician experimenting with different mental images while writing down the magic circle for the spell. After numerous tests and the construction of a proper Incantation and magic circle, the spell would be put to the test under the eyes of fellow magicians to scrutinize every bit of it.
Until this was down, the spell would not be acknowledged by the System.
“You are becoming more fascinating by the second. Come, show me your spell and we will work on it together, Hestia.”
Obeying him, I recited the Incantation of my spell and constructed the magic circle. I followed through the proper magic casting process as I’ve learned from Tasianna and Mister Kushlek’zar. Invocation, Incantation, and Activation. It was all down with ease, however, like during my battle against Astalos the wyvern, I couldn’t execute the Release of the spell.
“Tch, dammit, not again,” I said disheartened.
“Hmm, as you’ve correctly presumed, the runes for the magic circle do not match your Incantation. I suspect you’ve not mastered the Common tongue alphabet yet, correct? Are you illiterate?” he asked, causing me to shrink down in embarrassment.
Speaking and reading a language was completely different. It took me merely two months to learn how to conduct a proper conversation with others, but I was still learning the grammar and writing rules for Common tongue. It couldn’t be helped that I still had trouble.
“Unfortunate, indeed. That is why the first thing initiates learn is to read and write. Custom spells require you to know the language,” Mister Kushlek’zar explained.
With the stick in one hand, he started writing my whole Incantation down with Common tongue letters before showing me how it should look like as rune in a magic circle. With that in mind, he told me to work on it, telling me that some of the words sounded off and that my imagination of the spell could use a revision.
This whole magic lecture lasted for three hours until it was late enough that we could see the moon. Understanding that we needed to rest, we all agreed to end today’s magic lessons. Our party quickly thanked the saurian priest for everything that he’d done for us and then retreated into our tent.
It was quite spacious since this was made to accommodate the saurians, so all three of us had enough room to sleep without needing to squash each other. We discussed what happened today and how we could improve in the future before slowly falling asleep due to fatigue.
During the night, I suddenly woke up as I had to, uh, ‘water the flowers’. Slipping out of the tent soundlessly, I planned to quickly go to a bush and then go back to the tent, but my attention was attracted to the fact that one of the saurians was sitting beside the campfire.
“Mister Grazlahta?” I said as I came closer to the fire, recognizing the red carnosilian.
“Oh, Hestia? You’re still awake?” he responded.
“I, uh, needed to go to a bush. Uhm, I could ask you the same question,” I answered back.
“Hmm? It’s not like I couldn’t go to sleep. Somebody has to keep watch, don’t you think? You can’t let your guard down during the night, even if you have [Enhanced Enemy Sense] or [Detection Sensor],” he stated while feeding the fire with more bits of plant matter as fuel.
Realizing why he was doing it, I used [Pyrokinesis] and fed it my mana instead to keep it going, "Oh, I'm sorry for that. Our party forgot to offer to help."
“Jikla, don’t worry about it. Considering you had to go through a magic lesson under Kush’s tutelage, I think you fully deserve a good night’s sleep,” he said, causing me to form a wry smile as I couldn’t argue back. “Oh yeah, thanks for keeping the flame fueled. You really have an impressive mana capacity considering you can just donate mana like this, despite your age. Most priests require years of training to get as much as yours, and that is only to reach your humanized form’s mana limits.”
Abruptly losing the desire to empty my bladder, I simply sat at the campfire with Grazlahta, staring into the starry sky that I sleep with every night.
After stoking the fire a couple times, the saurian turned his head towards me and spoke, “Say, Hestia, you still haven’t answered Kush’s question. About if you’ve ever ended a sentient person’s life before.”
“…I guess I did,” I answered.
“You ‘guess’?”
“You know about the race Grimgarians, right?” I asked him, waiting for him to nod before I continued. “Kobolds, orcs, and a couple of trolls. Demi-humans. I don’t know what society views them as, but I’ve recently learned that they were pretty similar to wind elves. You know, the fact that they are spawn of Gods.”
Wind elves are the children of Zephira, the Goddess of Wind, and Krunal, the God of Weather and Harvest, while grimgarians were born by Marsven, the God of Darkness, and Edna, the Goddess of Monsters and Fertility.
I always treated kobolds, orcs, and trolls like any other monster as I was used to them always being ones according to Earth’s media, but now that I’ve listened to Tasianna’s time with the trolls, I had to question this very idea.
I knew the System considered them to be monsters ‘cause they had a monster rank and could evolve, but what would that make me then? I was the same way; I had a rank given by the System and I could evolve into many variations of dragons but am I not sentient? Could I not reflect on my own actions and learn from them, while hoping and wishing to pursue a goal that didn’t revolve around the five basic needs?
Although it was very hostile, those trolls wished to go to war against the humans ‘cause of some selfish reason, a very “human” way of thinking. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve started to consider them similar to humans and beastmen.
“Hmm, society treat all grimgarians, like goblins and orcs, like monsters, as they are handled by the hunters guild rather than the mercenary guild,”Grazlahta answered in a textbook way, lacking in overloading energy like his blue carnosilian companion. “However, I do understand what you mean by that. Then let me rephrase the question, ‘Have you ever killed a human or beastman, yet’?”
“…No,” I uttered truthfully. “I do admit that I am a bit hesitant about the idea. I can’t exactly explain to you why I am feeling that way, but I just feel a bit nauseous concerning the idea of killing humans. Urgh, I know I shouldn’t be saying this to you now, I’m sorry.”
The nausea itself wasn’t due to me not wanting to kill humans but it was a by-product of my fear of hurting Saori and Tasianna if I couldn’t control my urges. I know that they reassured me about it, but I still felt insecure about my ability to stop.
That’s why I felt conflicted about killing a human. Could I do it? Could I do it similarly to how I ended the lives of numerous amounts of animals and monsters in the Belzac forest over my seven months of living there?
What will I feel when I do it?
“…Don’t lose your tail over it, young scale. Saurians don’t think like that nor do Tide Watchers initiates. When you join something like the mercenary guild, where you will have to fight against humans and beastmen someday, then you should understand and accept that idea before the day comes and smacks you in the face with reality,” Grazlaht remarked with unwavering eyes. “As a warrior, the only things I put my trust into are my weapons and people that I’ve fought together with. Kush informed me about your status board already, but that isn’t enough to reassure me. The last thing I need is a young scale hesitating to deal the last blow amid a battle.”
Urgh…, I cowered at his gaze. While I could return his glare if he questioned my ability to fight, I couldn’t do it when I’m so conflicted about what he just said. I accepted this Quest ‘cause it benefitted me financially while also giving me a chance to help Lorena out, however, our party’s real objective was to learn if we could fight to the death against a human or beastman. We needed to know this. There won’t always be a chance for us to hold back, after all.
“That’s why I asked your two companions this question. Want to know their responses?” he offered, to which I nodded. “Tasianna gave me the answer that I liked the most while also giving me the eyes that proved her sincerity. She said, ‘If it is to protect Lady Hestia and Miss Saori, then I would summon an Ice Age to bury the human race in unending snow’. Extreme, but I can respect that sort of loyalty.”
Tasianna…
He continued, “Saori was indecisive but she eventually came to an answer that was acceptable for me. Pretty personal one too, she said, ‘I’m not sure if I will be able to do it without hesitating, but I definitely will do it if I must. If it is to protect my two friends, then not even my conscience will stop me’.”
Saori…
Grazlatha then went silent, awaiting my answer.
Tasianna and Saori would do that for me? Can I-no…I will.
Raising my head, I stared deeply into the elder scale's eye, unwavering as I gave out my answer, "I made a promise to my friends, something that is very personal to me. I…will not allow anything to happen to them. I would prefer not to have to do it, but if I was given the choice to protect my companions by killing somebody, then I would turn that person into ashes the moment they made that choice. Ethics, be damned!"
“…Get some rest, Hestia,” he patted my shoulder before returning to stoking the fire in pure silence.
As he wasn’t talkative anymore, I quickly dipped myself into a bush for a few seconds before returning to my tent, sneakily.
Once morning came, we continued following Saori’s nose, as she led us on a trail of Lorena’s scent. It stayed relatively calm, aside from one or two beasts that we simply scared away, until the weather suddenly told us to stop by sending down rain on us.
Technically, we could have continued. The saurians didn’t really care about the rain as Mister Kushlek’zar could simply keep us dry with [Xohulotel’s Scaled Barrier], a spell that morphs water into reptile scales and uses them to form a thick barrier, giving me a feeling that we were protected by the coiling body of a snake.
It was very similar to my [Sanctuary], only that it was more difficult to cast as it required the caster to imagine and control a detailed design. Although…that does give me an idea on how to train my newly acquired [Fluid Cast].
Anyway, due to the rain, Saori couldn’t pick up the scent trail anymore. She was still able to sense it, but the rain broke it up, giving us only a vague direction. So, instead of continuing any further, we decided to just bunker down for the day, as wandering aimlessly wasn’t smart.
As a consequence, that did give our party another magic session with Mister Kushlek’zar, which we all appreciated as our progress from yesterday wasn’t satisfying enough for us.
We all continued trying to acquire the four advanced magic casting skills but to no avail. It was hard. Nothing we can do about it. Although the three of us had titles which enabled us to learn skills faster, it didn’t mean that it would be miraculously fast. Just like Mister Kushlek’zar when he first started out, we all had to show some effort to become stronger.
In fact, the only reason why I was able to receive [Fluid Cast] so early compared to my two friends was that I was already pretty good with the Invocation part of magic casting. There had to be a reason why I suddenly received an unfinished custom spell, so there is a chance that it simply popped into existence due to my ability to control fire spells well due to [Pyrokinesis].
Well, it’s just a theory, really.
Before it was time to sleep, I also sat down to work on my custom spell [Imperial Hellfire] now that I had [Fluid Cast]. Forming the magic circle was still a problem for me, but, on the other hand, the image that I had for the spell was slowly coming to me.
Compared to how I tried to make it work in the Belzac forest, this new version of [Imperial Hellfire] had a different concept. Knowing that I could create the spell however I wanted with [Fluid Cast], while suddenly remembering that I could use [Pyrokinesis] to negate certain deficiencies, the only thing that remained was simply its name.
Once morning came and the rain ended, our search for the bandit continued, although extremely slowly as Lorena’s residual scent was barely traceable now. Like yesterday, it was simple and calm, until Saori suddenly caught onto something fishy.
Asking us to hasten our pace, we followed Saori as she ran through the woods, blindly following her nose towards the destination. As we closed in, the smell of burnt trees and leaves began to greet my nose, something that I was extremely used to.
Eventually, Saori raised her hands up and asked us to follow her slowly, as the sight of smoke became clear to us. Once flames appeared, our parties stopped advancing to analyze the situation.
What we saw were two vehicles resembling wagons being torched to charcoal by a powerful pyre, while multiple men in ragged clothes with varying amounts of leather and cloth armor watched it happen. All of them were carrying some sort of weapon and some were even carrying food and trinkets onto an unharmed wagon.
There were also three carts that looked like mobile wooden prison cells that carried beaten up men and shivering women in them. Their clothes reminded me of the ones I saw in Carine village. Simple but patchworked clothing that looked extremely used, as if those were the only ones the villages had.
“Ha ha ha ha,” drawing my eyes away from those imprisoned people was a haughty laugh, sounding intentionally provocative. “Flames, pure POWER! Ha ha ha ha, the strongest element is fire, so witness this everybody! In the name of the God of Fire and Destruction, Danterno, may you be graced by his eternal blessing! Now, who wants to convert to his religion?!”
“Oi, shaddup, Macklemor. The boss ain’t hiring you for ya damn sermons, ‘ere. Kill them flames of yours so nobody can see us!” a man with greasy hair, styled in a mullet, shouted as the pyromaniac. “We need to get this ‘ere loot back to base. Fucking lucky us that some dumb idiots were dumb enough to sleep in the forest during that rain. Ha, we ain’t got problems for winter with this amount!”
“Ack?! Killing my flames?! That is a sin as I have dedicated these flames to Danterno! Let them continue to burn!” the pyromaniac said, as he rattled his red cape vigorously. "Come on, Jasper, give me some of your boys. Some of them have an affinity for flames and destruction. Danterno’s church needs people, so give me some time to turn them into-”
“WHO FUCKING CARES?! We only need one fire mage and that’s you! Make a fire with ya fancy magic and kill them before some soldiers or mercs find us! We got da loot and we got them slaves, so we're leaving now!” the mullet guy shouted.
Begrudgingly, the pyromaniac recited an Incantation as a magic circle appeared above the flames, before calling out “Reduce Heat”, turning the fire smaller and smaller until it was gone. He sighed in exasperation before getting onto one of the wagons.
“Tasianna, Saori…” I uttered.
““Yes!”” they answered back with fervor.
“The bandits have been found. Let’s go and save some people,” I commanded.
“By your will, it shall be done, Lady Hestia,” Tasianna said with icy rage, unable to suppress her cold aura as she witnessed what happened with pure contempt.
“Anata ga meijita yo ni, Hestia Oujo-sama,” Saori responded in Japanese, as a blood-colored aura surrounding her eyes, locking onto the bandits like a predator would on her prey. (As you have commanded, Princess Hestia.)
