WIEDERGEBURT Act II: Chapter 30

After getting dressed again, Fay and I went in search of food. We hadn’t eaten in a long time, and while a Spiritualist could survive for a long time without food or water, there was a limit. Even the strongest Spiritualist would die if they didn’t eat or drink within a week give or take.

There weren’t anymore ponds located within this desert region. However, there were some strange animals that had burrowed into the ground. They looked like rodents. I thought they were squirrels at first, but they were thicker and fatter. I believe they were called gophers.

We caught a few of them using a combination of fire to draw them out of their holes and my water blade to kill them. After returning to the room where I’d first woken up, the two of us lit a fire and cooked the gophers on a pair of makeshift skewers.

I sighed. “These taste so bland without proper seasonings.”

“You’re really big on having food taste good when you explore,” Fay muttered.

“That’s because I’ve tried the rations that other people eat when they go on expeditions.” I shrugged as I tore into the gopher because, despite my complaints, I was starving. “Most people who go exploring like this eat dried jerky and hard bread. It’s absolutely atrocious. I told myself after being forced to rely on it for the first few times that I would never eat such awful food while out on an expedition again.”

“Well… I suppose I can’t blame you,” Fay muttered. While I was eating like Lin did, with little care for manners, Fay ate her food in a more dainty and refined manner.

We finished the rest of our meal in silence. I leaned back against the wall after satiating my hunger and placed a hand on my stomach. The clothing I wore was so torn that my palm came into contact with skin. I felt a moment of lamentation as I realized this outfit was no longer usable, which honestly saddened me because this was the outfit Fay had bought for me so long ago. It had a special place in my heart.

“You said before that you have an idea as to why the Demon Beasts suddenly attacked us like that,” Fay began as she scooted over to me. She was just close enough that I could feel the warmth from her thighs. “Would you mind telling me what you think caused this now?”

Now was definitely the best time to explain what I saw, so without further ado, I told Fay about how I’d felt a strong Spiritual Power while I was arguing with Marko, how I had followed the power to its source and discovered a group of people. Of course, I mentioned how a man dressed in a black cloak had been enacting a strange ritual using a Rune Circle with Dyr in the center. I held nothing back. By the time I had finished, Fay was biting her lip hard and clenching her hands.

“So…” she muttered, “The Leucht Family and somebody in a cloak were using Dyr as a ritual, and you think this ritual somehow attracted these Demon Beasts and caused them to attack us?”

“I don’t think the ritual caused them to attack us.” I paused and put my thoughts in order. “I believe the more likely scenario is that the ritual attracted the Demon Beasts to our location. You know as well as I that Demon Beasts are violent to begin with. Once they locked onto the Dyr’s Spiritual Power, they followed it, discovered us, and attacked en masse. What I’m surprised about is the range of the technique. It even managed to attract Pteranodons from the Pteranodon Valley.”

“Do you think they were hoping to kill us with this?” asked Fay.

“More than likely.” Nodding, I explained my theory even though I was sure she already knew it. “I’m pretty sure the Leucht Family knows about what happened to Grant. They were probably hoping to kill us in a manner that made it seem like they had nothing to do with it. No one could blame them if we died in a Demon Beast attack.”

“Then that first time we traveled into the Demon Beast Mountain Range…”

“They had likely used Dyr to attract that Giant Svart,” I said with a nod when Fay trailed off. “I don’t think they used the ritual that time, which is why they only attracted that one Demon Beast.” I lowered my head and frowned. “The ritual they used was a type of Rune Circle. I’ve heard them called arrays before because they rely on combining multiple Runes and channeling Spiritual Power into them to produce a specific effect. If I had to take a guess, I would say the Rune Circle that cloaked man used expanded the range of Dyr’s special ability.”

“Her special ability?” Fay asked.

I nodded. “I believe she has the ability to attract Demon Beasts with her Spiritual Power. It draws them in and causes them to go crazy. At least, that is what it seems like to me.”

“I’ve never heard of anyone with that ability.” Fay frowned.

Shaking my head, I said, “Me neither, but that just concerns me more. How did the Leucht Family find someone with such a unique power?”

It was a question I couldn’t help but ask. I didn’t think Dyr was a member of the Leucht Family herself. Of course, there was no evidence to prove that she wasn’t, but I had a good intuition for these things, and it was telling me that she wasn’t related by blood to the Leucht Family. However, this just gave me more questions. Who was she? How did she have such a unique power? And where had the Leucht Family discovered her?

I knew I wouldn’t receive any answers right now, so I stood up and dusted myself off. I felt a pair of eyes on me and looked at Fay. She was staring at me with a curious tilt of her head. Smiling, I held out a hand toward her.

“I’m feeling a bit restless, so why don’t we go exploring? It looks like this room leads deeper into the mountain.”

Fay gave me a resigned smile as she placed her hand in mine. “You sounded like Kari just then.”

“I suppose she has rubbed off on me a bit,” I replied as I pulled Fay to her feet. “Anyway, we can’t do anything else right now, and I’m too full of energy to just lie around.”

“Are you sure exploring is a good idea right now?” she asked. “I feel like we should be thinking about how to meet up with Kari and the others.”

“We can’t do that until we know where we are,” I said. “This might be one of the ruins that have been already been excavated. If that is the case, knowing which ruins these are will help us figure out where we our in relation to Nevaria.”

Fay couldn’t disagree with my logic, so the two of us traveled through the entrance on the opposite side of the massive hole in the wall. This archway entrance led into a long hallway made of stone. Our footsteps echoed down it and bounced back to us.

“I’m a little shocked to discover there are ruins inside of a mountain like this,” Fay muttered, her voice echoing. “I heard that most ruins are the remains of ancient cities that existed before the Catastrophe.”

“There are a few ruins like this one, though,” I added. “There probably aren’t many here in the Demon Beast Mountain Range, but that’s because there were never that many cities located in this area to begin with.”

“What do you mean?” asked Fay.

The hallway ended up branching off in two separate directions, which made me pause for only a minute before choosing on to travel down. It was dark in this tunnel, but Fay and I had created a sphere of lightning and fire respectively, helping light our path.

“From what I understand, the Demon Beast Mountain Range has always been a dangerous place, so very few people were willing to build cities here.” I paused as we took another turn, then started again. “There’s some evidence to suggest that a lot of the cities were actually fortresses that had been used during a great war that embroiled the entire continent, but any documents pertaining to this war have been lost to the ages.”

“That sounds rather fascinating,” Fay said. “I’m sure Kari would love to learn about this.”

“She probably would,” I agreed. Just as I was nodding along with Fay’s words, the Spiritual Pressure from two people caused both Fay and I to stumble.

“This feeling…” Fay muttered as I activated Spiritual Perception and quickly zoned in on the unique Spiritual Signatures of the two. I found a bright golden aura battling against an electric yellow. The yellow one I knew vaguely but not enough to recognize, but there was only one person in the entire world who had a golden aura.

“It’s Kari,” I said.

“Really?!”

“Yes. Come on.”

Grabbing Fay by the hand, I picked up the pace and began heading in the direction I felt Kari’s Spiritual Signature.

***

Kari woke up to find her body was no longer wrapped up in Lin’s tail. That was odd. She looked over and found Lin lying right next to her, shoulders and chest moving as she rhythmically breathed in and out. While the Lamia’s tail was no longer trapping her within its embrace, the other girl was still hugging her with an arm.

The fire was still burning merrily right next to her, which made her wonder if someone had been feeding it wood… but no. It didn’t look like that was the case. At least, she didn’t think so. The more likely answer was that she’d just woken up soon after falling asleep because she was having trouble sleeping.

After all, how could she sleep when these ruins remained unexplored?

Lin’s arm slid off Kari’s chest as she sat up and landed on her lap as she looked around, gazing at the other sleeping figures strewn about the floor. She saw Catalyna dozing against a wall, Marko sleeping on his side, Finn on his back, and Ander several meters from Finn. The others were all spread out.

Everyone is asleep…

Would now not be the perfect time to do some exploring of her own? She knew now wasn’t the greatest time, that their situation was dire, but since they were here, it would really be a shame not to explore at least a little bit.

Gently removing Lin’s arm from her lap, she placed it on the ground and began to stand up.

“Darling…”

A soft mumbled made Kari pause. She glanced at Lin, who was mumbling restlessly in her sleep. The girl moved onto her back, face scrunching up as her tail moved seemingly of its own accord, thumping against the floor. It seemed like she was having a dream. From the cold sweat forming on her brow, it wasn’t a pleasant dream.

Kari bit her lip as a war waged within her, with one side telling her that she needed to go exploring, while the other told her she couldn’t leave Lin. This battle raged on until Lin finally settled down. As the girl grew quiet, Kari reached out and brushed some bangs away from Lin’s face, then leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her forehead.

I really do feel kind of like an older sister…

Standing up, Lin carefully made her way across the floor, stepping around the people resting there before exiting the room. After entering the hallway, she looked around. This hallway ended in a dead end, which meant if she wanted to explore further, she needed to go back to the staircase and choose one of the other paths.

Nodding, she wandered off until the light from the fire had disappeared, and then raised her hand and moved it around in a clockwise circle. She released some of her Spiritual Power. It trickled through her like slowly flowing stream, illuminating the ground with its radiance, and then it was expelled outward to form a small sphere that released a bright light.

Aside from the staircase and the hallway she had come from, there were two other paths to choose from. This junction formed something of a cross. After giving it a moment of consideration, Kari journeyed down the middle path, which turned out to be a long hallway that stretched out for quite a ways.

The hallway ended and a room suddenly opened before her. With an oblong shape, the room looked sort of like a fork in the road. There were two paths she could choose from, left or right, causing her to bite her lip in indecision.

She was about to choose the left path, but then she paused upon feeling a soft breeze blowing in from the right. Pointing the sphere in that direction, she focused her Spiritual Power and moved her hand to direct the light, causing a beam to shoot out in a cone shape that illuminated the hallway. There didn’t seem to be anything there. However, there was a breeze coming from this one. Moving the sphere back and forth between the two hallways, she finally chose the right.

Kari wasn’t sure how long she traveled down this hall, which was more winding than she would have expected. There wasn’t anything to note of in this place. This particular hallway was fairly empty of adornments, and even the murals located in the entrance hall were absent here. All she could do was listen to the sound of her own footsteps.

Tap-tap. Tap-tap. Tap-tap. Tap. Tap-tap.

Pausing as an extra tap echoed around the hall, Kari stopped walking and turned around, shining her light behind her. She didn’t see anyone. A frown appeared on her face. She could have sworn she’d heard the extra tap of a second set of footsteps.

A feeling of caution welled in her heart. However, this didn’t stop her from walking on. She continued down the hall until it widened into a gigantic room that was even bigger than the entrance hall.

It looked like she was standing on a walkway several dozen meters above the first floor. This walkway wasn’t the only one around either. Multiple catwalks spanned this room, some above her, some below her. Not only that, but there numerous doorways like the one she had just emerged from. Where did they lead to? She didn’t know, but a part of her was eager to keep exploring.

She walked up to the walkway’s edge and looked down. The bottom floor was pretty far, but not so far that she couldn’t see it. There was something strange down below, an elevated platform surrounded by several statues. Sitting atop the platform was what appeared to be a pair of massive hands that formed a strange archway.

Kari took several steps back—and then yelped when she bumped into something behind her. She spun around and leapt back, then paused. Glancing at the person standing behind her, she tried hard to hide the frown threatening to break free behind a polite smile.

“Finn,” she said. “What are you doing here?”

“I thought that should be obvious, Princess Kari,” Finn said with his usual polite smile. “I was woken up by the noise you made when you left the room and decided to follow you. There is no telling how dangerous these ruins are, so I wanted to make sure I was around to protect you.”

If you wanted to protect me, why did you not say anything to announce your presence?

The question was on the tip of her tongue, but she held back, knowing that saying something of this nature would only cause problems. Unless he did something that harmed her or one of the others, she would not react to his strange and creepy mannerisms.

“I see. Thank you very much for your concern.” Kari offered a polite bow of her head.

Finn’s smile seemed to grow fixed for some reason, but he waved his hand as though to tell her not to worry. “Are you planning to continue exploring? If you wish to, I shall accompany you.”

For just a moment, Kari seriously considered accepting his offer despite not trusting him, but it was only for a moment. Then she slowly shook her head. “No, I believe we should return. I will need to be well-rested since I plan on searching for Eryk and Fay tomorrow.”

“Oh?” The fixed smile grew stiff. “I don’t want to seem mean or heartless, but you have to realize that the chances of them having survived after acting as decoys to draw away the Demon Beasts is very slim.”

“I am aware of how dangerous their situation is.” Kari gave Finn a confident smile. “But Eryk isn’t the kind of person who would be done in by something like this. He’s stronger than anyone I have ever known. He might even be stronger than my mother. I know he’s alive.”

Thought’s of Eryk caused Kari’s chest to grow warm. It was a gentle heat that spread to the rest of her body.

She was very worried about Eryk and Fay, and she understood there was a chance they were both dead, but she had chosen to place her faith in them. Until she found proof that they were dead, she would continue to believe they were alive. Kari wouldn’t give up hope.

“Eryk. Eryk. Eryk. He’s all you ever talk about,” Finn suddenly snapped, his voice no longer polite. Now it was an angry growl to match the scowl that had appeared on his face.

Kari almost took a step back out of fear, but she didn’t. Doing that would have made her feel weak. She didn’t want to be weak. What’s more, while this man might be a powerful Nevarian Spiritualist, that didn’t mean he was stronger than her. She had been training with Eryk and Fay for over 63 days now.

“He isn’t all I ever talk about,” Kari said with narrowed eyes and a frown. “You would know that if you spent any time with me. And besides, it is only natural that I would speak fondly of the man I love. What is so wrong with that?”

Those words seemed to only make Finn angrier. His face turned a deep scarlet as veins throbbed on his forehead. A strange pressure began emanating from him, which she recognized as a light Spiritual Pressure.

He took a step forward. “You should stop thinking about that idiot and look at someone who is more deserving of your attention! I’ve been in love with you far longer than Eryk has! I’ve loved you for years! Look at me! Pay attention to me!”

“Why would I do that?” asked Kari. “I don’t even know you. We have never spoken before this expedition. The only thing I know about you is that you’re a Nevarian Spiritualist who entered the Spiritualist Grand Tournament and fought against Fay. That’s it. What makes you think I’m going to fall in love with you just because you love me?”

Cruel but necessary words. If people fell in love with one another based on how the other person felt, this world wouldn’t have so much heartbreak, but that wasn’t how the world worked. Someone might fall in love with a person they admire. However, that didn’t guarantee the person they loved would return their feelings.

While her words were indeed the truth, Finn didn’t seem to much care for the truth. He stood there with his head bowed. The bangs covering his face cast shadows over his eyes, stirring up an ominous feeling within her chest and causing Kari to begin circulating her Spiritual Power. She was ready to activate her Spiritual Aura at any time.

“It’s not fair,” Finn muttered. “It’s not fair. It’s not fair. It’s not fair!” The mutters turned into loud shouts that echoed across the large room. “I can do everything that man can! I’m strong! I’m worthy of you! More worthy than him!”

With glaring blue eyes narrowed in anger and frustration, Finn took several steps toward her. She wondered if he realized his hand was on the hilt of his rapier. This time, she did take a step back as she prepared to fight.

“I do not know what makes you think you are more worthy of my love than Eryk is.” Kari continued to move backward along the walkway, even as she cursed herself for not bringing her ranseur. “However, the only person who can decide who is worthy of receiving my affection is me, and I decided that the person I want to give myself to is Eryk. Sorry, but I have no interest in you.”

Finn was gritting his teeth now. He drew his sword out with a sibilant hiss of steel, lightning suddenly skittering along both his body and blade as he unleashed his Spiritual Aura. Realizing a fight was inevitable, Kari unleashed her own Spiritual Aura, the golden light of her affinity encasing her body not in a flame this time, but in a very light film that looked almost like armor.

“If I can’t have you…” Finn muttered as he drew his rapier into his chest. “If I can’t have you… then no one can!”

Finn thrust the rapier forward so quickly most people would have missed it, but Kari stepped aside and allowed the thrust to move past her. This first missed attack didn’t deter Finn. He drew his rapier back and thrust it out again. It missed once more when Kari took a step in the other direction. Then he pulled it back and thrust it again and again and again in an almost never ending stream of attacks.

Kari dodged left and right to avoid being impaled. Sometimes she ducked when an attack came to close for comfort. The air around her crackled with lightning as small bolts leapt from Finn’s blade, striking her body but not breaking through her Spiritual Aura. This seemed to make Finn even angrier, as he increased the speed of his thrusts, to the point where even Kari had some trouble seeing the attacks. A few scraped against her Spiritual Aura. Fortunately, they were not strong enough to pierce it.

I see. Leaping back several times to gain some distance, Kari analysed what her opponent was doing. He’s using the movements of his thrusting attacks to channel lightning through his arm and increase the speed he can move at.

That was an awfully dangerous technique to fight against. The only way she could think of countering it was to use the Flash Step, but this walkway was a little too narrow, and she didn’t feel comfortable using it when there was a high chance she could accidentally tumble off the walkway. If she wanted to stop him from using this technique, then she would need to somehow stop his arm from moving.

However, as if he’d been able to tell what she was thinking somehow, Finn reached behind his back and grabbed something that had been hidden inside of his shirt. From the bottom of his shirt came another rapier. This one had a differently designed crossguard from the other one. It was also a little shorter, probably because it was meant to be used with the off-hand. As Finn took a different stance than before, Kari suddenly realized something.

“I see.” Her eyes narrowed. “So you are the one who attacked Eryk that first night we spent here in the Demon Beast Mountain Range.”

“That’s right,” Finn said, apparently no longer seeing any point in hiding it. “I thought I could do him in with a surprise attack. I never would have imagined he had such sharp senses. But it doesn’t matter anymore. If I can’t take him out, and you refuse to give up on him, then I will simply eliminate you instead!”

He came at Kari again, blasting off the walkway and reaching her in record time. Now wielding two rapiers, the speed of his attacks increased, to the point where Kari really couldn’t dodge all of them. Several fast stabs came at her shoulders. Her Spiritual Aura deflected them, but each attack also came with an intense burst of yellow lightning, which had enough force to make her stumble.

A powerful thrust came at her from below, aimed at her heart. She took a step back but the other rapier appeared where she moved, striking her in the throat. The attack was deflected. However, there was still enough force to make her gag a little as she stumbled backward. She had also been so focused on her opponent that her foot slipped when it came into contact with the walkway’s edge, causing her to stumble.

Finn laughed as he used this opportunity to try and push her off the walkway with several lightning quick thrusts, but Kari, now desperate, activated the Flash Step and appeared several meters from where she’d been standing. She took several deep breaths as Finn stared at the place where she’d been standing. Raising a hand, she felt her neck. There was no wound. Even so, the knowledge that his attack would have killed her if she hadn’t activated her Spiritual Aura caused her bones to chill.

“It seems that man isn’t satisfied with just tainting you,” Finn growled as he turned around to face her. “Now he’s even teaching you his Spiritual Techniques! Damn him! I won’t have it! I refuse to let you use a technique you learned from that man!”

After shouting out these words, Finn began dancing along the ground with a rhythm that Kari recognized. This was the technique he’d used during the Spiritualist Grand Tournament to keep Fay from using the Flash Step. It was an oddly specific technique, but she didn’t think it had been designed specifically for the Flash Step itself. This Spiritual Technique released lightning into the ground, which caused mild electric shocks to race up the legs of Finn’s enemies. She imagined it had originally been designed to paralyse low-ranking Demon Beasts.

Still, this presented a problem. She couldn’t use the Flash Step anymore, which was the only Spiritual Technique she could use that didn’t require her ranseur. What could she do now?

“I’ll kill you. I’ll take you! I’ll kill you! I’ll make you mine and then kill you!”

Finn was mumbling nonsenses as he moved closer to her, still dancing in that strange manner that prevented her from using the Flash Step. He was moving slower than before. This Spiritual Technique must be one that couldn’t be used with high-speed movements… Her eyes widened.

I don’t think he can use his thrusting technique so long he’s using this!

It looked like this attack prevented him from using that other technique, and while he could use the one that launched lightning at her, he was clearly aware that using such a dangerous technique in a ruin like this wasn’t smart. If he accidentally caused a cave-in or the walkway to collapse, he would be in just as much trouble as her.

That meant she had a chance.

Kari prepared herself both physically and mentally. She took several deep breaths, shifted her feet along the floor, and adopted the fighting stance she’d seen Fay use. It felt a little awkward. She wasn’t a brawler like her friend. Even so, she’d seen the redhead fight enough times to have memorized her stance and even some of her techniques. It should be enough to at least strike back at this man.

She waited and watched as Finn finally reached her and thrust out the rapier in his left hand, while at the same time moving the other rapier to where he thought she would dodge. This was how he’d been attacking her up to this point. However, she didn’t do what he expected this time. Drawing her right fist back into her torso, she took a step forward and threw a powerful straight jab.

“What?!” Finn shouted as her fist, coated in the glow of her Spiritual Aura, smashed apart his rapier. Steel shattered and clattered to the ground. Her fist continued on, striking the crossguard and breaking that too. The man screeched in pain as he jerked his hand back. It had gone completely limp. More than likely, the bones in his hand were shattered.

Knowing not to let an opportunity like this slip by, Kari awkwardly stepped into his guard, drew her other fist back, and slammed it into his chest. Finn’s eyes widened as his leather breastplate shattered. Kari didn’t stop there. She hyperextended her fist completely, even rotating her torso like she’d seen Fay do, and the result was Finn being lifted off his feet and flying backward. He landed on the walkway, skidding along before coming to a stop. Kari waited to see if he would get back up, but he didn’t.

Walking up to him, she kicked the other rapier out of his now limp hand and looked down. His eyes were still open, but they had rolled up into the back of his head, and there were also a large indent in his chest as though his ribs had caved in. He was still breathing. However, it was shallow and growing weaker. Her last attack had probably punctured his lung. He would likely die in a few minutes.

Kari did feel a little conflicted about letting Finn die. She had killed Leucht Grant back when he’d kidnapped Fay, but she was able to kill him because of what she and Eryk had come across. The sight of Grant forcibly removing Fay’s clothes to rape her had caused Kari to see red and lash out without thinking. This was different. However, she also understood that he’d been trying to kill her, which lessened the guilt she felt.

All these thoughts raced through her mind when two familiar voices echoed from somewhere and caused her ears to perk up. She blinked several times and cocked her head, straining to listen.

“Are you sure it came from this direction?”

“I’m positive. I definitely felt Kari’s Spiritual Signature coming from here.”

“Doesn’t this seem a little too coincidental? If you can feel her Spiritual Signature, then it means these ruins are the same ones Catalyna was taking us to before the Demon Beasts went into a frenzy, doesn’t it?”

“It’s not so strange when you think about it. We didn’t travel that far from where Kari and her group were going. Our path took us just slightly west of the direction they were headed. We probably ended up on the opposite side of the same mountain as them.”

“That still seems a little strange.”

The voices grew increasing louder, and just as it seemed as if they couldn’t increase in volume anymore, two figures stepped out through a hallway on the ground floor. Kari couldn’t believe her eyes. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest as she saw the two down below, who looked a little beat up, but at least they were still alive.

With joy surging through her heart, she called out to the pair. “Eryk! Fay!”

The two looked up, revealing the familiar features of Eryk and Fay.

She glanced at the first person who’d firmly earned himself a special place in her heart. Eryk’s face was covered in dirt and sweat, but the elegant and somewhat feminine charm that gave him such a pretty boy appearance remained the same. The leather band normally wrapped around his hair was gone. His long locks of green hair surrounded him and made him look even girlier than normal, but to Kari, who knew of his strength, this contradictory appearance only made him more attractive to her. On a side note, she noticed that he was shirtless.

Fay stood beside him. The redhead who was easily her best friend looked up with bright green eyes. Like Eryk, her clothing was torn in certain places, revealing the smooth skin underneath. The swell of her left breast was partially exposed. It looked like she’d been caught by several Demon Beasts, but she was still alive, and that was what mattered.

“Hey, Kari!” Eryk raised his hand and waved at her.

“I’m so glad you two are safe!” Kari shouted. “Stay right there! I’ll find a way down to you!”

Fay looked like she was about to say something, but Kari turned on her heels and dashed toward the nearest entrance. She was sure that one of these entrances would lead to a stairway that would take her to the first floor.