Chapter 156
The Reverse Side of the World was mostly closed off to the modern world by the end of the Age of Gods, with it simply being impossible to reach physically, as Albion showed well enough. His corpse, left behind in British soil as he tried in vain to dig downwards to reach the reverse side, was a lesson in futility of trying to reach the other side physically, the Spiritual Tomb of Albion under the Clock Tower fashioned from his remains, the presence of the dragon's body serving as one of the factors that the capital London was built where it was.
Nonetheless, it was still possible to reach the Reverse Side through specially created portals, with some places more suitable to such portals than the rest. There were places that were closer to that side than this side, the texture between the Age of Man and the Reverse Side blurring, with a hole outright appearing in some cases, with Lord El-Melloi II involving his pupil Wills Pelham Codrington being one such example. Through the usage of Mystic Eyes and a specially designed land made to channel the energies, a portal was torn to the land of fairies, and only through great effort was it able to be closed again.
For Saber, the place she was in right now was definitely closer to the Reverse Side, the sight of the cavern being something that couldn't be found on the surface anywhere in Britain. The closer a place was to the Reverse Side, the less the rules of the world of Man applied, making it more likely for things impossible by the laws of physics and science to happen.
With the conditions correct, the boggart was able to shapeshift, turning into a large troll-like monster that towered over Saber. Its head was the size of a bale of hay, with two beady black eyes deeply set into the gray skin, a snout akin to a pigs with two long vertical slits almost right between its eyes. A large mouth unevenly lined with fangs that were equally sharp adorned its face, and large bristly hair grew all over its back, the follicles thick enough that they were like small twigs sprouting from its body. A thick, stout body and four limbs padded with wiry muscles that looked like they could easily snap a cow in half completed the image. The beast possessed no visible humanoid genitalia, and it wore no clothes, though it wasn't like any clothes would it fit it anyway.
Hunching slightly to avoid hitting the ceiling, it stared at Saber, and Saber stared back at it.
Boggarts were mostly known for playing pranks and being mischievous, but that was due to the lack of mana in the current Age that reduced them to this state, with the continuation of the Age of Man almost wiping them out of existence except in very few places, with these few places mostly being under the care of magi and similar existences. Only in a rare few folktales were boggarts ever described as being capable of more, and of them they ascribed the powers of shapeshifting, with fiendish forms that frightened anyone who saw it.
Their tendencies to steal things and break objects to prank humans was in fact an attempt to elicit a response from humans, inciting their emotions for fluctuations in latent Magic Circuits for them to feed on. That was the main reason when the victims outwitted them and their emotions remained stable, the boggarts grew frustrated. They also existed in sites like marshes, caves and dangerous sharp bends on a road, feeding on the fear that humans had of the unknown or death, in places where accidents frequently occured. It also served to mask their comings and goings, while making these places less frequented by people to give them a more comfortable environment of isolation to live in.
It was also known that naming the boggart would strengthen it, and looking upon its monstrous size, Saber was relatively sure that it was named.
The cave used to be lived in by a hermit, but after the boggart came and he unwittingly named it, he vanished. The cave became what it was in part due to the hermit, and in part due to the boggart, and also in part due to what it was before.
Regardless, Saber was faced with a deadly foe.
Upon drawing her sword into a two-handed stance, the boggart's eyes twitched, and then in a flash it was on all four and charging towards her, knocking down the strange plants and trampling the plants stretching across the floor, already bearing down upon Saber before she could even blink.
"HAH!"
A shrill cry ripped free of Saber's throat as she jumped into the air with all her strength, the boggart going past her underneath as she barely cleared its head, the boggarts reflexed too slow to react to her sudden jump. At the same time while somersaulting to tuck in her legs to avoid clipping the boggarts head, her wooden sword smacked on the boggarts head, a strike that would have given Kay a nasty bruise, if not making him faint outright.
All it did to the boggart was lightly scratch the skin, giving it the equivalent of tap, with barely any sensation. The wooden sword was blunt, and even a steel sword with a finely honed edge would have difficulty cutting into its thick hide. Still, it was what Saber expected, and the blow was only to test how thick its defenses were. As she landed on the ground behind the boggart, her mind worked furiously, struggling to find a way to victory.
Stopping, the boggart spun, its bulk concealing a surprising amount of speed.
Leaning far backward, the bogart's long arms swiped the air above her like a solid log, the vine-trees breaking like straw as its arm went through them. Rolling on the ground beneath its swipes, Saber put some distance between them, going towards the entrance to the cave. Dirt and plants stuck to her clothes, her wooden sword bumping against her body, but she ignored these things and rolled as fast and hard as she could.
She stood up and jumped backwards right as the boggart realized that the swipes were being avoided, its hand with long claws homing in on her and slamming down on the ground to squish her in an overhead smash. She was sprayed with dirt and green matter from the plants, spitting out some that made it into her mouth as she dashed towards the entrance.
If she could escape the cave, she wouldn't have to worry about the boggart, since it was far too large to fit into the hole, the only thing it could fit being one arm. Of course, if the tunnel worked against her like it had earlier, she could possibly find herself trapped in a spatial loop and into a deadend corner, with the boggart easily able to drag her out if the loop was shallow enough, and no space to dodge the massive hand in the tunnel.
While debating these possibilities in her mind as she rushed towards the tunnel, the boggart pulled its arm free of the dirt, its other hand gouging out the stone walls surroundings them, several hefty chunks of stone big enough to be called a boulder when combined encased in its hands, the raw strength built into its body and sharp claws crushing the them together as it tilted its arm backwards, the hand reaching far behind it, and then swinging it forward to throw the stones in one smooth motion.
Saber slammed her sword into the ground as her legs stiffened and her feet skidded on the ground from the momentum of her run, the wooden sword stuck in the ground serving as an anchor for her to stop. With her Core running, she was going much faster than usual, and if she didn't stop as soon as possible, she would be killed. She barely came to a stop as the rocks landed right in front of her, a near miss that almost crushed her small body.
Several chunks smacked right above the entrance, breaking the stone there and causing a shower of rocks to fall in front of the entrance, including those the boggart just threw. The entire area around the entrance was surrounded by a cloud of dust, hiding Saber and the entrance, the boggart standing on the other side of the room and waiting for the dust to settle. Within the dust cloud, the flickering of will o'wisps could be seen faintly, with little else visible. Saber couldn't see outside of the cloud, and the boggart couldn't see anything in the cloud either. Reaching out its hand, it closed on another weapon.
*Guchi-swoosh*
A shadow fell over her, and she twisted her body desperately as the vine-tree the boggart had ripped up impacted. The tree kicked up a shower of dirt, sending even more dust billowing into the air.
When the dust cleared, Saber was nowhere to be seen, and the entrance was almost sealed, with only a small gap left.