Chapter 3
Day 24 – Hour 03:19 – Location: Primera's Southern Forest
My hands flew to my neck as I attempted to pry the now nonexistent hand that was around my slightly bruised neck. I let out a strangled gasp and attempted to sit in an upright position on to have Sayre's arms stop me.
I looked to my left side to see Sayre with her arms wrapped around torso and her face buried into my side. She let out a sigh of content as her ears flicked in her sleep as she shifted in to a more comfortable position. My face turned scarlet and I was immensely embarrassed. In an attempt to quell the rising embarrassment I started to think about the 'dream' I just had.
It didn't feel like a dream and on top of that I don't normally dream, let alone have nightmares. But I had no other explanation for the strange event, except for what the 'Goddess' Mariam had said. Although I had this strange feeling that it wasn't just a dream but that it was this supposed ability Mariam gave me. So I decided to wake Sayre so we can leave.
I lightly put my hand between her ears and gently shook her awake. Her ears flicked and she groaned in protest. I continued this action for a few more seconds till she finally pushed away from me and said, "I am awake, what did you wake me up for?"
She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and then seemed to realize the position she had woken up in. Her face turned red and she fumbled with the sleeping bag zipper and climbed out while stammering an apology.
I would have smiled at her embarrassment but a creeping feeling of dread was blossoming in my chest. I sat up and opened my mouth to speak but I rethought my words and said,
"Sayre do you trust me?"
Her face pinched in confusion and she slowly nodded.
"Then we need to leave this place as soon as possible. I can explain it all once we have left this area but I just need to trust me that something very bad is about to happen."
She nodded and we started to pack up.
Day 24 – Hour 04:49 – Location Primera's Southern Forest
It has been about an hour and a half since we left the campsite and only just a few minutes since the feeling of dread had lessened. Deciding it would be a good time to talk to Sayre about my dream I slowed my pace and said.
"The reason behind wanting to leave the area is because of a dream."
"Was it a nightmare? That would be the only other explanation as to why you would want to leave."
I shrugged, "I wish it was just a nightmare. If Mariam hadn't told me about the ability I probably would think it was all just a nightmare."
A looked of something resembling fear flashed across Sayre's face at the mention of Mariam but I decided to not say anything.
"What did this 'Mariam' say?"
"She told me I have this power that when I die I am sent back in time to were the events of my death aren't set in stone with my memories intact."
"So, I assume you died, but you seem totally fine for someone who just died and came back to life."
"I was thinking about that and I don't feel anything. It's like I am almost numb to the concept of death. It used to be terrified of death but now I just don't really care, it kind of worries me."
"Well considering you have the ability to go back in time, your actions have no consequences. You could kill someone then kill yourself and Rewind back. And this might be off topic but what about if you die of old age, are you sent back to the previous day?"
I was glad that Sayre trusted me but she seemed to accept my ability as truth as if she was already told about it. I wondered if Mariam had talked to Sayre like she had talked to me. It just seemed off, and it didn't worry me I was just curious as to way she accepted this idea.
"Interesting idea, I got no clue, but back to what happened. Mariam sent me back to my body but with a warning from her brother telling me to start running. When I awoke a jet-black knife came shooting out from the darkness. Without even thinking, my arm caught fire and I fired a blast of fire towards my feet and the blast moved us out of the path of the knife. We got up and another knife came hurtling from the darkness behind you. I shoved you to the ground but I wasn't fast enough and the knife hit my left shoulder."
Sayre looked worried and asked, "Do you still have the wound?" I shook my head no and continued.
"I told you to head back to the city and you tried to convince me not to but I forced you to go anyway. After you had left a 4-foot tall Goblin with slender limbs, pointed ears, dead grey skin and blood-stained teeth. The Goblin flew towards me at impossible speeds and time slowed down. Something flashed purple behind it and a knife shot from the flash. Since time was slowed I was able to dodge the knife but the Goblin used this to grab me by the neck."
My hand absent mindedly touched the area the Goblin hand had touched my neck and continued.
"I tried to pry his hands off my neck but he was to strong. So, I attempted to burn him but he was fire resistant. As a last-ditch effort, I tried to create a smaller version of the explosion I had used to destroy part of the forest. But before I could do that he told me his name was Vetic and then snapped my neck."
At the mention of Vetic she froze. Her ears were flattened against her head and she looked like someone having a PTSD flashback. I remembered back to her adopted father, Eric, mentioning that her entire village was wiped out before he had started to take care of her. Because of this reaction to the name Vetic I assumed it was probably somehow related to her village being destroyed.
I moved closer to her and the moment I got closer to her she wrapped her arms around me. Not knowing how to react to this I returned the gesture by hugging her back. At this she started to sob. After a few minutes of this her sobs quieted and said,
"You would think that after 10 years I would get over it," She takes a deep breath, "But every time someone mentions his name I relive that week," She shuddered.
"You want to talk about it? It might be better if you talk about it."
"When I was younger I lived in a village named Arkala with my parents. It wasn't a large village and we lived off the land. The village was small enough that you knew almost everyone there. When I was 5 a Goblin with dead grey skin, sharpened blood-stained teeth was found sitting in the center of town in the middle of the night. When the sun rose, the Goblin started to attack people, but he didn't kill them just crippled them."
Her breathing sped up and her voice seemed to crack. I pulled her into a tighter embrace and she continued.
"He did this to everyone under the age of 8, and everyone who tried to run was almost killed. He then killed anyone who didn't have a child or whose children were over the age of 8. Everyone else was tortured, and he forced everyone below the age of 8 to watch him torture our parents, and it went on for a whole week. Once the week was up our parents were dead and he was gone."
She started to openly sob in to my chest. It was amazing she had gone through something like that and still seemed so put together. I rested my head on her forehead and said,
"Hey it's going to be fine. Nothing like that will happen again."
After a few minutes of me murmuring comforting words she stopped sobbing, but I the same feeling that I had gotten prior to my first death. I froze and quietly said,
"Sayre, I know this is pry going to terrified you but I think-"Something flashed purple in front of me and I lunged to the left and pulled Sayre with me.
A knife cut through the air where we were just a second ago. Sayre started to shake in my arms and I pulled her to her feet as time started to slow.
I summoned a ball of fire in my hand and the area around me was lit up. Purple flashed to my left and a feeling of an odd calm came over me. I raised my hand it meet the knife and a stream of lime green flames shot towards the oncoming knife.
When I was sure the knife was vaporized I stopped the flames and the gravelly voice of Vetic sound from all around us.
"Hmm, it seems you know of my attack. Well no matter I am not a one trick pony, and I will have your girlfriends head."
The trees rustled and, in the darkness, I could vaguely see outline of humanoid shapes standing side by side in a circle. It took me a few seconds to realize that the humanoid shapes were in fact other Goblins. Purple flashed above me and I rolled to my left, all while pulling Sayre along with me.
I pulled my compound bow from my shoulder, made a ball of fire that was bright enough to light up the area and pulled Sayre to her feet. I notched an arrow and aimed at one of the Goblins. The arrow lodged itself into the thigh of one of the Goblins but it only went in as far as the arrow head.
"Well Shit," Then an idea hit me. I notched another arrow and pulled the bowstring back and asked Sayre, "Hey I need you to shrink the bowstring while also increasing its tensile strength." She nodded and placed her hand the bowstring and it suddenly felt like I was trying to keep a car from moving downhill with only kite string.
"Now Sayre I need you to reinforce the overall strength of the arrow so it doesn't shatter on impact." She touched the arrow and then nodded and stepped away from the bow.
I nodded in thanks and took aim at a random Goblins head. When I released the arrow, even with the speed of time halved, the arrow crossed the distance of about 60ft in a split second and impacted a Goblins skull with a sickening crack.
"Hmm, well now we can't let you live, now can we?" At this the Goblins slowly walked into the light and they all vaguely resembled Vetic. The only difference is that they all wielded weapons raging from short swords, long swords, war hammers to other weapons I didn't know the name for.
The moment I could see them they charged at us. The closest one to us was wielding a knife and quickly closing the distance between us. I dropped my bow, pulled the Cursed Sword from it sheath, and moved to block the strike from the Goblin.
Our swords collided with a metallic clang that resonated through the forest. I pushed his sword away from mine then while he was off balance I grabbed his sword arm and twisted it. Now that his sword was facing himself I then kicked his feet out from under him and he fell on his own sword.
The Goblin coughed up blood and I plunged my sword in its neck. The Goblin spitted and crack started to spread from the Goblins neck and cover its entire body. The cracks glowed the same green color as my flames and then he turned to dust.
With the Goblins now almost on top of me I didn't have time to think about what I just did or how I did that without feeling anything. I turned towards the other Goblins and started to attack them.
The first one I got to, I jabbed my sword into its neck and before he turned to dust I vaulted over him and stabbed the Goblin next to him.
Before I could kill the 4th one Sayre screamed and my blood turned to ice. Not caring about the Goblin wielding a War Hammer I turned around and sprinted towards the source of the scream.
I was almost there when something the size of my fist slammed into my side. I could feel my ribs crack and a warning bell went off in my brain. I tripped and fell and slammed into the ground.
My sword flew out of my hand and landed a few feet away. Blood started to pool in my mouth and I could feel my shirt starting become wet with blood.
I could see the vaguest hints of someone's shadow standing over me holding what looked to be a sludge hammer type weapons. As he started to raise the hammer I heard Sayre scream my name then silence.
My heart beat faster as I thought of what happened to her. Tears brimmed in my eyes and I feebly struggled towards my sword but that's when the hammer was brought down on my spine and my vision went black.
Day 24 – Hour 04:19 – Location: Primera's Southern Forest
I cried out and stumbled forward. Sayre's hands reached out and caught me before I fell. I murmured thanks and when I saw her I couldn't stop the tears from brimming in my eyes. She saw the tears in my eyes and her expression went from confused to concerned and she said.
"Carter what's wrong?"
Deciding now was not the time to be emotional I pushed away my sadness and, in a rush, I explained everything that has happened. I explained how she told me about her past and about Vetic. I told her about the fight with the Goblins but I left out the part where she screamed my name.
A few minutes later…
Sayre currently sat in my lap with her face leaning into my chest crying. I had just mentioned that the Goblins name was Vetic and she was having her meltdown. I whispered comforting words to her and she gradually calmed down.
Once she was clam enough I asked her, "Sayre, do you know of any weakness Goblins have? Or any weakness Vetic himself has?"
"Goblins are resistant to fire but they do have a threshold that you might be able get over. Since their muscles are as tough as stone slashing or stabbing them with anything other than an enchanted weapon. Carter there is no way around this."
I moved my hand on to her head and started to gently pat her. "You're forgetting the small detail that whenever I die I go back it time. I will eventually figure something out, but for right now I really only see 3 options. Option 1 would be to try and kill myself repeatedly so I can travel back in time to the point before we came here. Option 2 would be to attempt to kill Vetic or wound him to the point that we can escape. Option 3 would be to just simply run like hell or just hide."
"Would you stop petting me like a house cat, it makes me uncomfortable."
I stopped and started to blush, "Yea sure, but what do you think?"
"Well I would think kill yourself over and over again would be the best course of action, but I don't think your ability works that way. Running and hiding would both be out of the question."
"Fighting has already proven to be nearly impossible."
Sayre got off my lap and said, "Well, what if we can get your flames to burn other things but not me. Then you could incarnate the Goblins and not me at the same time, possibly make another explosion like when you destroyed the part of the forest."
It was a good idea but I didn't feel comfortable with the possibility of burning Sayre. "What if I burn you?"
"Something magic could fix."
"Still,"
She smirked and in a teasing tone she said, "Aww, do you really care that much about me."
"You act like an 8-year-old on the playground."
"Ah so you don't deny it."
I groaned and stood up. "Come on Sayre better start practicing."
45 minutes later...
I had finally mastered the ability to keep my fire from burning those I don't want to know. It was honestly quite easy to master, it only took me 5 tries to accomplish it. We now sat back to back in a small 50ft wide clearing that was about a 15-minute walk from the destroyed part of the forest.
"So, Carter how does it feel when you die, does it hurt?"
I sighed, I knew she was going to ask eventually but I didn't really know how to explain it. "Well, ever since I had that talk with Mariam I don't feel pain like I used to. It's now more like a warning bell telling me I am injured and where. When I die I feel like I am being ripped out of my body then shoved back in to a younger version of myself. The feeling of when I rewind back feels almost like I am trying to fit into a small jacket that fits but is a tad too small."
"Hmm, do you think there are others who have a power like yours?"
"Honestly I don't think I would wish this power on anyone. Sure, it may seem like not being able to die is great but when I die I am the only one that remembers the other timeline. I also wonder if every time I rewind back is the timeline I came from still there. I have always feared dying but know that I am kind of immortal I don't think I will want this forever. Like what happens if I grow old and my heart gives out in my sleep. Will I keep waking up from the morning before that day for entirety, or will I perpetually grow old? If I do I will outlive those I love and live in a frail, never dying body."
"Damn that's deep, like really deep. Well think on the bright side, your actions don't have consequences."
"You're not wrong, but the goddess said she wanted entertainment. That sounds like she wants me to go out and do some stupid quest, like slaying a dragon or finding that Holy Grail. I don't want to have some important destiny, I just want to live peacefully with someone I love in like a cabin out in the woods. I don't want to have to deal with gods, monsters, or quests. That is the whole reason I moved out into a random part of the forest before I was pulled into this world. When I was finally well enough to start hiking I was going to try and live a simple life as a knight or blacksmith but now I have a freaking destiny. Now I won't be coward and try to run away from my destiny but couldn't it have been someone else... Sorry for dumping my problems on you."
"It's alright, I don't mind listening to your problems. But a god wouldn't have you kill a dragon."
I don't know why but the subject change made me kind of happy. I don't know why, maybe because it was that she was listening or that I didn't really want to talk about my problems. "Why is that?"
"Well its believed that dragons are the god's kin and its punishable by death to kill or even attack a dragon, even if you are attacked by it."
"Even if it attacks you, that's kind of stupid don't you think?"
"Well it is believed that if you kill a dragon brings disaster on the nation it was killed in."
"You know that would be a good tactic in war. Lure a dragon into enemy land then kill the dragon there and boom your enemy is weakened by the curse and you can now win easily."
Sayre chuckled and said, "You're weird."
We sat there is comfortable silence with our back to each other for another few minutes with a feeling of dread washed over me. I moved to sit up and I said, "He is here."
Sayre nodded and I could hear her breathing quicken as she stood up. I reached out and gave her hand a quick squeeze in a weak attempt to comfort her. I unsheathed the 'Cursed Sword' and stood next to Sayre and she whispered,
"Carter you should do it now."
I shook my head, "I am going to wait for him to appear. He moves at incredible speeds and I am not sure if he can out run my flames before I summon them. Plus, I have to make a smaller explosion since I don't know where the nearest road is and I need to have the only casualty be Vetic and no one else."
I slowed time down and started to watch the clearing. Two purple lights flashed in front of me, one at my head and the other aimed at my gut. At the same time two purple flashes appeared on my left and right.
I closed my eyes and imagined flames that would only burn the knives. My body flashed lime green and a wave of fire exploded off my body and enveloped the knives and incinerated them. I turned to see Sayre standing next to me with a mix of relief and awe on her face.
I smiled and I lost my focus on time and a flash of purple appeared 5ft from my chest. I regained my focus but was unable to dodge the knife and only watch as even at 1/16 the normal speed of time the knife shot from the purple light and impacted my chest in the span of 1/16 of a second. The knife buried its 5in blade right below my ribcage.
The force of the knife knocked me off my feet and I fell on Sayre. All the while the dead grey Goblin, Vetic slowly emerged from the trees. I tried to move but Sayre stopped me and whispered, "Don't when he gets close enough do the explosion."
I ignored the warning in my brain and waited for Vetic to come closer. He walked about 40ft but wouldn't come closer. "You seem to be planning something-"
Before he finished what, he was going to say I realized wouldn't come closer so I improvised. I started to summon a explosion and stood up.
"Yea, but don't worry the ground isn't hollow and since I can protect myself from your knives your only other option is to use that small army of Goblins you have waiting in the darkness."
The Goblin looked at me in an almost pitying expression, "It's a shame I have to kill such a brilliant and perceptive mind."
With that I slowed time as the Goblin rushed forward and I rushed towards him. Right before we would have collided I released the explosion and the ground under me cracked and like a geyser, a column of lime green fire shot into the fire.
Like the first time this lasted for a minute or two and when it was over I collapsed to my knees as a wave of exhaustion washed over me. Sayre ran over to me and said, "Carter that was freaking amazing."
I nodded as I tried to shake the sleepiness from my mind and I looked up at her and asked, "Is he gone?"
She shook her head, "No when he realized what you were doing he bolted but he didn't exactly make it but right as the fire disappeared I him stumble out of sight. I doubt he will bother us again today. You know I just noticed that there isn't any mana in the air."
I tried to stand up only to have my knees give out and I fell forward on to Sayre. She caught me before I hit her and said, "That wasn't even a fraction of what you did earlier and your tried."
"Not tired, just feeling weak at the moment. Can we just rest for a moment?"
Sayre nodded and I flopped down on the ground and closed my eyes.
Author's Note
Hello, Cyrus here I made some changes to the way Sayre explains magic in Chapter 1.