Chapter 14
The sun's rays barely could penetrate the dense canopy above, which meant that Mitsue had to calculate her prices by lantern from within the largest wagon.
There was a sandstorm in Tatalia a few weeks ago, meaning that there was a need for more building supplies, so in order to maximize profit, lower the prices of cloth by about fifty cole. And Mitsue had to account for the recent shortage of ore, which would drive up the acquisition prices for merchants, fortunately, however, she did have a medium-sized cache on hand. But all this calculating was making her really feel the bumps of the path.
They should be passing by the old Slaith graveyard soon, and that place always did give her the creeps. The werecats seemed on edge today, they normally stayed out of sight, but for some reason they were leaping from tree to tree, yowling and mewling loudly. Like they were trying to warn their kin about some change in the forest.
The caravan paced further along the overgrown path, with the guards occasionally having to use their great swords to slash at some shrubbery or more rarely, an overconfident animal looking to scour the carts for provisions.
The sun's rays began to even out now, where before there was total blackness disrupted here and there by streaks of golden light, now it appeared as if it were a moonlit night, the forest cast in a pale glow. Through the vegetation, Mitsue could faintly make out the outline of the Slaith graveyard-and looking rather closely she could glimpse a slight shine of silver? The abandoned blade of some long dead adventurer perhaps?
As Mitsue's eyes focused further on the dead man's blade, around her-all hell broke loose.
Gray, being a seven foot tall red dragon man, had a talent for attracting attention, at least everywhere but Eden. They were so used to their gods walking the streets beside them that a dragon man seemed rather normal. And Gray was grateful for this-less of a crowd to disperse that way. However, this did not necessarily mean that he got around completely undisturbed, after all, Edenians were used to their gods walking the streets, so he had to explain to quite a few people that he was in fact not one of those mana-god things.
He hoped it wouldn't snow here, it was getting cloudy, with the lush greenery of Noir slightly made greyscale by the dark clouds above. And, thanks be to whatever gods there may be, it did not snow. No, it only started pouring harder than a closeted gay man would liquor at a family reunion with both of his preachy aunts present.
"Damn it, my armor better not rust from this." The dragon man quipped to himself in a half-hearted attempt at a joke.
"Don't worry, rain in Eden has no magical properties, I think."
That melodic voice, Gray knew that voice from somewhere, but couldn't quite place it. Best to turn toward the source then-ah, it was Viese. Just the gal he had wanted to see.
"Oh, Viese. It's been a while." The words left his mouth before he could even register them, a hint of his brotherly persona creeping in.
"Yeah! It's been... what, um... three or four months now?" She said weakly.
Viese looked more worn than when he had last seen her. Apparently, she hadn't taken Felt's leaving all that well. It was to be expected really, he was her first love, and Gray knew from experience what it was like to lose someone like that.
"It's uh, it's raining. Would you like to come by the workshop to catch up then?"
Gray chuckled in mild amusement.
"Haha, lead the way."
"Getting there didn't take this long before," Felt lamented. "this suuucks."
Fee sighed, whilst Felt's childish antics were cute sometimes, other times it was just annoying. Especially after the fortieth time.
"We're almost there Felt, just be patient." She responded coolly.
"I know, it's just the whole waiting part that's hard, I could've sworn that when I still had the Azoth, that we got everywhere almost instantly. In fact-" Felt paused suddenly, slipping into his combative stance, left hand on the hilt of the Crimson Azoth. He seemed to emanate a deadly aura, his gaze darkened, eyes darting to and fro, scanning for any movement. .
"What? What is it?" Fee was startled at his sudden shift in personality, Felt had never been like this during their original quest. But then again, they'd always been in a larger group. If this was how he'd been when he fought Chaos alone, then it wasn't a mystery as to why he'd been turned to stone.
"There," Felt pointed, "about twenty meters that way." Felt stalked dangerously toward the direction in which he'd pointed, undeterred by her subtle inquiries.
Just passed those trees lie the remains of a recent homicide, for behind the dense shrubbery were the bodies of no less than four men, all with gunshot wounds and missing heads. There seemed to be a slight trail of dried vitae leading along paths previously unseen.
Quickly approximating by using the position of the hidden sun and his general instinct, Felt came to a dire conclusion.
"Whoever this is, they're headed for Zwital."
Far above the lands, in the springs of poison abandoned in the sky, a tainted gemstone merged with fragments of men long dead, and the spirits of fallen mana. And it was in this cruel light, that Antithesis was made; a demi-mana of destruction.
WITH THIS, MY IMPROMPTU BREAK IS DONE, FOR ALL TWO AND A HALF OF YOU THAT CARE.
AND SLIGHT SPOILER: THINK BACK TO WHO KILLS AND TAKES HEADS IN THE DARK FOREST.