WIEDERGEBURT Act II: Chapter 11

My return to consciousness was slow. Peeling my eyes open just a crack, I stared at the blood-colored sky for several seconds without comprehension. Was it sunset? Sunrise? I’d never seen the sky this color before. It was as if someone lopped off a person’s arm or leg and used it as a paintbrush to color the sky crimson.

Forcing my sore muscles to move, I groaned as I pushed myself into a sitting position. Dizziness struck me. My body tilted to one side. However, through force of will, I shoved the nausea and dizziness into the back of my mind. Once I was sure I wouldn’t vomit, I took a look around, to see if I could find my companions.

The last thing I remembered before blacking out was the Warp Gate destabilizing inside of the ruins.

My current location was not those ruins.

What appeared before my eyes was a world unlike anything I’d ever seen. Desolate. A landscape of craggy rocks, broken ground, and skeletons filled my vision. Nothing else seemed to exist for miles. Right next to me was the skeletal remains of some creature, though I didn’t know what. Several massive boulders jutted out from the ground around me, and in the distance, just barely visible, a mountain range stood tall, its tops hidden by clouds.

I wasn’t sure where I was, but I knew my priorities. First things first. I needed to find Kari, Erica, and Tungsten.

Standing to my feet, I glanced around before heading off in a direction that gave me a good feeling. That was about the best explanation I had. Fortunately, my good feelings in regards to Kari tended to be right, and just as I’d expected, I found her lying next to a large rock.

She wasn’t moving.

Panic raced through me as I knelt before Kari and took her into my arms. Placing one arm around her shoulder to keep her in place, I cupped her face and rubbed my thumb against her cheek, sending a mild electric shock through her body. Kari opened her eyes. They fluttered rapidly several times as though unable to focus, but then she turned her head and looked at me.

“Eryk,” she mumbled. “Where… what happened? The last thing I remember was fighting that giant monster, and then…”

Shaking my head, I helped Kari stand to her feet. Her knees wobbled a little. I assumed that, like me, she was undergoing a minor sense of vertigo. Whatever happened to us, it had messed with our sense of balance.

“I don’t know what happened either, though I have a theory.” I glanced back up at the bloody sky, which could never exist in our world, and then back at Kari. “Let’s wait until we find Erica and Tungsten. I’ll explain what I think happened then.”

Kari’s ranseur was located several meters from us. She picked it up and kept a tight grip on it as we picked our way through the boulders.

I activated Spiritual Perception as we moved, using it to try and locate our companions. The colors around me faded. Everything turned to shades of gray with a few exceptions, like the woman beside me, who appeared as bright, golden flame. There were two other Spiritual Signatures not far off from here. One was a bright green. The other was a fiery red. Both were moving in opposite directions.

“I’ve found them,” I said to Kari. “Follow me.”

The first person I went to was Erica, who I was more familiar with. We found her just sort of wandering aimlessly. She seemed confused, which was totally understandable since I felt more or less the same way. As we walked out from around a boulder, the woman readied her massive claymore, though she relaxed when we appeared instead of an enemy.

“It’s just you two,” she said with a sigh. “I’m relieved to see you are both okay.”

“I wouldn’t say we’re okay, but we’re alive,” Kari said.

“Let’s grab Tungsten and then find a place to settle down,” I suggested.

Neither of them disagreed with my idea, so we set off at a brisk pace toward where I had last sensed Tungsten’s Spiritual Signature. As we neared the area, several sounds all of us were familiar with, the loud clangs of metal on metal and roars of combat, filled our ears. We shared one alarmed look before running.

After rushing out from between a pair of massive rocks jutting from the ground like stakes, we came upon the sight of Tungsten, swinging his axe around as he released a series of battlecries. The things he was fighting weren’t anything I’d ever seen before. Their bodies were all black. They walked in six spindly legs. I couldn’t see a mouth on them, though several strange eyestalks emerged from their backs and stomachs.

There were four of them.

I didn’t speak as I rushed toward Tungsten and the strange creatures. Using the Flash Step, I appeared before one of those creatures. My fist was already crackling with bolts of lightning as I raced underneath it. This strange monster tried to attack me with its spindly legs, but I wove around them, transformed the lightning in my hand into a sword, and began slicing through the eyestalks.

The creature released an agonized shriek that grated on my ears, which was almost enough to make me stumble. I quickly righted myself and used the Flash Step to get away when the monster went on a rampage. Then I activated the Flash Step again and appeared above it. As I landed on its back, I slammed my hands into the creature’s hard carapace, shoving lightning into its body.

It did nothing.

Oh, sure, the lightning skittered across its body, but it couldn't break through the hard shell. I supposed that, unlike those eyestalks, this shell was a lot more durable.

Realizing this, I leapt into the air again. The eyestalks on the back followed me. The creature turned in my direction and stood up on two of its six legs. I realized it was planning to attack me and channeled more Spiritual Power into my feet, activating the Flash Step in midair and appearing right near the creature’s now exposed belly.

I didn’t use lightning this time. I used water.

Channeling water into my hand, I created a lance that I didn’t hesitate to plunge into the creature. Unlike the lightning, the water sliced through it much more easily. I didn’t think it had something to do with affinities since this creature obviously didn’t have a fire affinity, but maybe the density of the water made cutting through it easier.

Either way, as I landed on the ground, a spray of blackish purple blood gushed from the wound I had created. The creature fell backward. Blood continued spraying from its wound like a fountain, but that eventually tapered off, as did the spastic motions of its limbs. When the monster eventually stopped moving, I sighed in relief and glanced at the others.

Everyone was already finished with their enemies. Kari’s was covered in strange holes that looked like something had melted right through its body, Erica’s was burned to a crisp, and Tungsten’s had been sliced into segments.

“It looks like everyone is okay,” Tungsten said.

“So it seems,” Erica murmured, her frown pensive. “Though I don’t know if ‘okay’ is the word I would use.”

Now that all of us were together, we moved away from the battle sight and found a place surrounded by large rocks. I didn’t want to run into any creatures like the ones we had just fought.

We sat around in a square. Kari’s ranseur, Erica’s claymore, and Tungsten’s battle axe were leaning against a boulder. I felt a little jealous that I didn’t have a weapon, but I put that aside to propose my theory on where we were.

“I believe we are in another world,” I said to them. While Kari had already come to this conclusion and was nodding along, Erica and Tungsten looked like I’d just told them something incomprehensible. “When the platform collapsed, the Warp Gate destabilized with us around it. I remember being engulfed in darkness, and then we woke up in this strange place. I believe we are currently located in the world those cultists…” I paused as the words of that creature, Zadram, echoed in my head. “No, where those Sekbeist come from.”

“I do not want to admit that you are right,” Erica said with a sigh, “but I believe you are right. Circumstances being what they are, I can’t imagine this is our world, especially with that sky.”

“We need to find a way back to our world then,” Tungsten said.

“Unfortunately, we don’t even know how those Warp Gates really work,” Kari said before I could. “We also don’t know how those cul—how those Sekbeists got to our world. Before we do anything else, I believe we should discover more about the world we are currently in. We can consider this a long-range reconnaissance mission into enemy territory, if that will make you feel better.”

Her words held the truth and were logical, but as I stared at Kari’s sparkling eyes, which she could not hide no matter how much she wanted to, I understood the truth of the matter.

“You just want to explore a new place, don’t you?” I said with an amused smile.

Kari rubbed the back of her head, but she didn’t relent. “Well, I mean, come on, Eryk! It’s another world! An entirely different world! How many people have ever had the chance to do something like this? I doubt we’ll get another opportunity, so we might as well make the most of it, right?”

As Erica and Tungsten shared a sigh, I could only chuckle helplessly. Kari wouldn’t be the woman I fell in love with if she didn’t have that adventurous spirit.

***

Lin and I woke up early that morning and had a large breakfast. I ended up getting her a massive steak to chow down. I was fortunate enough to know someone who cooked meat in the marketplace and asked if they’d be willing to give me a slice early in the morning, which I brought home and cooked for her. After eating the two of us got dressed, made a quick stop at the blacksmith’s, and then traveled toward the north gate.

My backpack, which was quite rotund (probably because I was carrying both mine and Lin’s sleeping bags), bounced on my back as I walked, but I paid little attention to it as Lin and I enjoyed the morning air. It wasn’t long before the north gate appeared. We stopped close to the entrance.

We were a little early—or maybe everyone else was late. Fortunately, the air in Nevaria was mild year round. We didn’t really have what I would have called seasons, certainly nothing like the Northern Plain, which had Sommeren, Vår, and Høst.

“We were too early,” Lin muttered in displeasure. “This princess could have slept in a few more minutes.”

“Better to be early than late,” I replied with a only a mild look of exasperation as I tapped my Dragon Tail Ruler against my shoulder. It was during my reply that I caught something traveling toward us. “Besides, we aren’t that early. They’re already here.”

“Hmm?” Lin looked at me, saw where I was looking, and then looked in that direction as well.

A carriage was traveling toward us. It was white, glossy, and had golden designs along the surface. There were no curtains, so we could easily spot Kari, Fay, and Kari’s three brothers inside. The carriage, being pulled by two Mares, stopped in front of us and the door swung open.

Kari was the first person out and, just as I had expected, she was wearing the same clothes as yesterday. The only difference between today and yesterday was she had a large backpack strapped to her back. Fay was wearing her standard outfit, the one that looked a lot like mine. She also wore a backpack. It was much smaller, though.

As the two of them disembarked, Lin and I greeted them, and then I presented Fay with her gauntlets.

“Here you go.”

“Oh… th-thank you very much.”

Gingerly taking the gauntlets from my hands, Fay stared at them for a long while before putting them on, first the right, and then the left. The gauntlets were a brilliant steel color that gleamed in the light. There was nothing spectacular about them, but they were well-made. Once they were securely on her hands, she pounded them together and did a few test punches. The air made a whistling sound as she sliced it with her fists.

“How do they feel?” I asked.

“Much better,” Fay admitted.

As Fay was testing the gauntlets, Geirolf, Mikkel, and Earland emerged from the carriage. Like Kari and Fay, they were also carrying backpacks and their weapons. The driver cracked the reins to get the Mares moving again. While Geirolf made a face as he saw me and Fay talking, Mikkel looked at all of us with a smile, while Earland remained stone-faced and silent.

“Since we’re all here, why don’t we get going?” Mikkel suggested.

“I think that’s a great idea.” Kari nodded several times, eyes shining with a brilliant luster, and turned toward the gate as she pumped her fist into the air. “Let’s go!”

I sighed alongside Lin, who seemed to be sighing for a slightly different reason, and the six of us went up to the Nevarian Spiritualists guarding the north gate. It wasn’t open yet. Mikkel presented them with a letter of authentication, which caused the spines of the two guards to straighten as they snapped off a salute and opened the gates.

“Must be nice being the sons of royalty,” I said after the incredibly, almost overbearingly, polite guards let us pass.

“It certainly has its perks,” Mikkel admitted with a shrug and a smile.

After making it out of the city, we journeyed along a dirt road for about five kilometers, where another, even larger gate stood. This one might not have been attached to a massive rampart, but it covered the mountain pass that we needed to use to reach the Demon Beast Mountain Range. Composed of steel and brick, with two watchtowers on either side, it was far more imposing than the ones in the city.

There were a lot more guards here than there were by the city. I counted at least six. There was one in each watchtower, two patrolling the top of the gate, and two on either side the gate itself. The two on the ground noticed us approach and walked up, though they stopped upon spotting who we were.

“Lords Geirolf, Mikkel, and Earland. It is a pleasure to see you three are in good health.” Both Nevarian Spiritualists saluted at them. “If you’re here, can I take that to mean you plan on traveling into the Demon Beast Mountain Range. You can go. We’ve seen you three enough times that we don’t need to a letter of authorization.”

“This isn’t for us.” Mikkel held the sheet of parchment out for the Nevarian Spiritualist to take. “It’s for these four.”

“Oh…” The Nevarian Spiritual glanced at me, frowned, and then looked at Lin next. He paused when he spotted her snake lower half. Blood drained from his face, but he shook his head, then glanced at Fay and Kari. “Princess Kari!”

“Good morning.” Kari clasped her hands together and bowed in a polite gesture. It was a smooth, practiced motion, which let me know it was something Kari had probably been doing for years now.

“Everyone makes such a big deal out of her,” Geirolf muttered in a bitter voice.

Geirolf’s petulance was almost enough to make me snort. While I was able to hold myself back, Fay couldn’t after hearing what he said and giggled into her hand, which caused the youngest of Empress Hilda’s sons to blush all the way to the roots of his hair.

Mikkel was very practiced when it came to dealing with the gate guards, whom he talked to for a few minutes while the gates slowly opened. I stood beside Lin, Kari, and Fay. While Fay looked a little uncertain and Lin seemed almost indifferent, Kari was almost shivering with anticipation. It was easy to tell from the way her legs shook like she wanted to bolt through the gates before they opened that she was barely restraining herself.

When the gates finally opened, I actually had to grab Kari’s hand to keep her from running. We passed through the gate and walked along a mountain pass at a steady pace and not a sprint. Large cliff faces stood on either side of us. I wasn’t sure how high up they were. As we walked, Mikkel talked to us.

“Once we reach the end of this pass, we’ll be in the Demon Beast Mountain Range,” he was saying. “It won’t take more than half an hour to get through at our current pace.”

“I feel like we could go faster,” Kari admitted with an impatient frown.

Her words made me smile and rub the back of her hand. “We could go faster, but it’s important not to rush into things. Besides, if I remember right, there’s a steep incline immediately after we emerge from the pass. If you got too excited and started running, you’ll fall right off.”

“Wouldn’t that be a hilarious sight,” Geirolf said with a guffaw. His laughter stopped almost as soon as it started when Fay gave him a frown. “W-what? I was only kidding.”

“I do not think that is something you should joked about,” Fay said with a disappointed shake of her head. “Small, harmless jokes and pranks are one thing, but something like that could potentially kill Kari depending on how far the fall is.”

“I said I didn’t mean it,” Geirolf muttered to himself.

If Geirolf wasn’t hitting on Fay, I would have winced in sympathy at how bad an impression he’d just left on someone he clearly had a crush on. I’ll admit that I felt slightly overprotective. I didn’t like the idea of Fay being hit on by one of Kari’s brothers. Of course, I wouldn’t have been okay with anyone trying to court her, even though a part of me still felt like it wasn’t my place to protect her.

Just as Mikkel said, it took about half an hour to reach the end of the mountain pass. What lay sprawled out before us was a series of mountains with tall peaks, deep valleys covered in forest, massive lakes, arid deserts, and large ravines. It spread out for hundred of kilometers in all directions.

“So this is the Demon Beast Mountain Range,” Kari murmured, her excited look gone now that the immensity of this place stood before her. Replacing her original expression was shock.

“The air here smells very different,” Lin said, finally speaking after a good deal of silence. “This princess can sense a lot of life in the air.”

“There are many Demon Beasts down there.” Earland hefted the pack on his shoulders as he prepared to move. “We’ll have to be careful.”

On some unspoken signal, our group of six began descending into the nearest valley via a winding pathway that moved downward. While Kari was enraptured by the sights, Lin was sticking by my side as she slithered along. Fay was also glued to my side, but I assumed the reason she remained there was because of Geirolf, who I could feel drilling a hole into the back of my head with his angry gaze.

It was enough to make me release an involuntary, weary sigh.

Once we reached the bottom, the area around us shifted into a heavily forested region with trees whose branches had twisted together over our heads. They were entangled with each other in such a way that it was almost impossible to tell which branch belonged to which tree. I gazed into the deep forest, which was quite dark, and recalled the time when I had returned to Nevaria several years after Kari had died. I’d taken this path many times during that year or so when I stayed with the mysterious woman cloaked from head to toe.

“We’ll journey through this forest for a time,” Mikkel informed us. “It will take most of the day to navigate through, but we should reach the end of it once the sun sets, provided we don’t run into any Demon Beasts.”

“Are we likely to run across Demon Beasts?” asked Fay.

Mikkel paused, tilting his head before, ever so slowly, shaking it. “It is certainly possible, but it’s not as likely. There are only a few Demon Beasts in this region that are aggressive, and they’re located further in. We’re cutting straight through the smallest section near the edge of the forest, so we should be okay.”

“Don’t worry, Fay. I’m around to protect you.” Geirolf thrust a thumb at his chest.

“I’m more than capable of protecting myself, thank you,” Fay replied, her voice irritated. Given how hard she had worked to get stronger, I could understand her irritation very well. She wasn’t someone who wanted to be protected. After everything that happened, she wanted to protect herself.

Geirolf looked like a balloon that had suddenly deflated.

“I feel like we shouldn’t just be standing around here,” Kari said, her own voice tinged with impatience. “Let’s go. If all we do is stand here, it’s going to get dark before we reach our first destination.”

“You’re so impatient,” Mikkel chided, though he was silenced when Kari actually glared at him. I think he could tell how serious she was simply because of how hard her stare had become, and the fact that Kari had likely never glared at him before further emphasized her feelings.

“I think Kari is correct,” I said. “We should get a move on.”

“Well, it is true that we can’t stay here forever,” Mikkel admitted.

“I’ll take point!” Geirolf announced as he walked to the front. Kari looked like she wanted to say something, but I held her back. As she glanced at me, I conveyed that we should let him have this “moment of glory” with a headshake.

We made a quick party formation. Geirolf had point, Mikkel and Lin would be immediately behind him, while Kari, Fay, and I had the center formation, and then Earland would take the rearguard. It was a simple but effective formation, though Geirolf complained a bit. He said he wanted Fay to be closer so he could “protect her.” Of course, all this did was make Fay state that she was perfectly content with their current formation, which made the youngest of Kari’s brothers depressed again.

With our formation set, our group began our journey deeper into the Demon Beast Mountain Range.

***

The journey went smoother than Fay seemed to expect, though I think the smoothness of the journey frustrated Kari. It seemed she didn’t approve of their journey not being filled to the brim with excitement. Her grumbling about how there weren’t enough Demon Beasts around was enough to make Fay and I sigh. The girl really was an adventure nut.

I wondered if she’d been like this in my previous life. She’d always had a thing for adventure, but she never expressed this much impatience before. Maybe it was because she was young? Or maybe being married to Grant Leucht in my previous life had simply tempered her impatience? I really couldn’t say.

No Demon Beasts attacked us in the forest, and we made it through without any incidents. On the other side of the forest was a ravine with a wooden bridge connecting the two sides. It really didn’t look like much. It was just a simple bridge made of wood planks and suspended with rope. I wasn’t sure how old or sturdy it was, but back when I had returned to Nevaria in my last life, the bridge hadn’t been there.

I had just leapt across the ravine.

“We’ll cross this bridge, and then set up camp on the other side,” Mikkel instructed. I could tell he was the leader of the three brothers despite not being the oldest, or perhaps calling him the planner might have been more accurate. Either way, none of us contested him and began crossing the bridge in a single file line.

I was located in the center.

Looking down, I could see the raging waters of a river at the bottom, though I was unable to judge how deep the ravine was. As we were walking across the bridge, the hairs on the back of my neck and arms prickled. I sensed danger. Just as this feeling came over me, a loud screech tore through the air, and everyone looked up to see a massive avian with thick black feathers, dark yellow eyes, and a crimson beak diving right forward us.

“That’s, a Giant Svart!” Mikkel exclaimed. “It’s a B-rank Demon Beast! What is it doing here?! It’s territory shouldn’t even be anywhere close to Nevaria!”

I really did have to wonder that same thing. While there had been B-rank Demon Beasts who attacked Nevaria during the Demon Beast Invasion, they’d been few in number. I couldn’t remember seeing this creature there either. Saying that, I could admit that I’d been too scared to pay much attention.

Whatever the case was, it didn’t change the fact that a B-rank Demon Beast was attacking us.

“Everyone, get off the bridge!” I shouted as I raised the Dragon Tail Ruler above my head, channeling as much lightning into my blade as I dared while suspended on a bridge. I swung the blade in a horizontal arc because I didn’t want to accidentally cut the ropes. A massive crescent wave of lightning raced toward the creature, but the Giant Svart met my attack head on by unleashing a sphere of wind.

The two attacks collided with each other, crackling as they fought for dominance before simultaneously exploding. Everyone screamed in shock when a powerful wave of energy swept over the bridge. I gritted my teeth as I hung on. However, while I was clinging to the bridge, I noticed that the ropes were getting thinner and thinner.

“Oh, not good,” I muttered.

“What’s not good?” asked Kari behind me.

“The ropes are about to snap.”

“What?!”

At that exact moment, the ropes on one side snapped, causing the bridge to tilt. All of us clung to the bridge as best we could. However, I realized that if something wasn’t done, we were all going to fall.

There was also the Giant Svart to worry about.

Taking a deep breath, I channeled Spiritual Power into my feet and activated the Flash Step. I was using the Flash Step Version 2L Jump Step, which allowed me to temporarily suspend myself in middair. The first thing I did was grab Kari and Fay, who were on either side of me, and Flash Step over to the other side of the ravine. We were closer to it than the one leading back to Nevaria, so it took less steps. After making sure Fay and Kari were safe on the other side, I grabbed Lin, then Mikkel, Earland, and Geirolf… who I admittedly saved for last because he was my least favorite of the brothers.

Once I had made sure everyone was safely on the other side, I turned my attention back to the giant avian Demon Beast, but I think I made a fatal mistake. In working so hard to get everyone to safety, I had narrowed my focus too much. By the time I turned my attention back to the massive beast, it was already diving straight toward us.

“Everyone run!” I shouted as I swung my Dragon Tail Ruler vertically. Another crescent wave of lightning shot from the blade, though all it did was explode against another sphere of wind. I couldn’t help but click my tongue as I used Spiritual Perception to figure out how much power this creature had.

I balked when I did.

While it was impossible to get a truly accurate reading of someone or something’s Spiritual Power, I could at least gain a general sense through how thick the Spiritual Signature around them was.

This creature was a little stronger than I currently was.

Knowing that, I also realized that if I didn’t stay and fight this creature, it would chase after us and may harm the girls. I really had no choice.

Charging Spiritual Power into the Dragon Tail Ruler, I unlocked the latches that kept it in place and swung the weapon around. The segments split apart and the blade suddenly became a tail that I controlled with my lightning.

After seeing my ruler suddenly split apart, the Giant Svart narrowed its eyes and unleashed several spheres of wind at me, but I controlled the segments and had them pierce each sphere with overwhelming amounts of Spiritual Power. Then I struck the creature in the side. It shrieked at me, but it wasn’t in agony. It was rage. My ruler had merely glanced off its feathers, which I realized were harder than any type of metal.

That meant my ruler was useless.

Great.

Jabbing the Dragon Tail Ruler into the ground, I darted across the ledge, traveling further and further from Kari and the others. I could see the three girls trying to reach me, but they were being held back by Geirolf, Earland, and Mikkel… well, Lin was strangling Mikkel with her tail as she shouted her petname for me, but he was tenaciously keeping her from moving further despite his face turning purple from a lack of oxygen.

I knew I wouldn’t have many chances to kill this thing. If I wanted to kill it, I would need to unleash all my Spiritual Power in a single, overwhelming attack that could penetrate its harder than steel feathers.

With this thought in mind, I used the Flash Step to appear several meters above it. I channeled a combination of water and lightning into my right hand. Moats of swirling energy crackled with pale arcs of power. Then they congealed together, turning into a golden glow that almost resembled Kari’s light element, though I think a more accurate term to describe this was the storm element. A combination of water and lightning.

Straightening my fingers, I transformed my hand into a knife, and then I used the Flash Step to appear on top of the creature’s back. Before the Giant Svart could realize I was there, I thrust my knife-shaped hand forward. There was a bit of resistance. However, the lightning element had the greatest piercing potential among the seven elements. My hand went straight through the creature’s neck, severing its spine, and killing it instantly.

Before I could rejoice at my success, my body suddenly felt sluggish. I had used up all my Spiritual Power. I tried to reach for the pills I kept in a pouch at my hip, but my body wouldn’t move the way I wanted it to. In fact, it wouldn’t move at all.

As I fell away from the Giant Svart and began free falling into the ravine, I saw the despairing faces of Kari, Lin, and Fay just before I closed my eyes.