Chapter 10: Onward!

The rest of the night had proceeded in silence. He slept in his bed and refused to talk with anyone. Everyone else in his group was nervous about him, but regardless, they gave him time to rest. The next day, no work was done. People were too busy mourning the deaths of Amai.

Ora remained in bed for the duration of the entire day, until he heard a commotion. He slowly dragged himself up and peered through. His body moved sluggishly, still sore and disoriented from the beating yesterday.

He had bandages wrapped around his arm, presumably by his squad. He looked at the bandages, uncertain of when they did it.

It must have been when he was asleep. “huh…that’s.” His eyes zoomed in, on Aren. The Plague child with greying hair. Aren’s face was distraught. Ora slowly crawled out of the room to hear what they were speaking of.

“O, Ora.” Aren turned to him. His face was much the same as Ora’s own. “I’m sorry.”

“I couldn’t save Aries. I brought her here from Luri’Seo. And yet, I couldn’t save her.” He chuckled. “I do terribly at being a hero.”

“Ay, Aren. Answer the question. Where were you?” Alel asked. “I had gone to check up on Lynx after I finished searching for Aries. I came on the scene and was knocked out by some strange man. I don’t remember much about him except that he had a gold ring on his finger.”

Ora couldn’t recall any of them having a golden ring. “But he moved freakishly fast…when I came to, I only found corpses. I was too late.” He looked over to Ora.

“ I saw you there too, but I had assumed you were also dead. I came back the next night to recover the bodies and yet again, bumped into one of the trio.”

Rel, Lin, and Alel all paid close attention to this part. “And?”

“Well, he took all the bodies with him, and buried them outside of the city.” Aren recalled the scenery that night.

He had come back to hopefully collect at least Aries’ body. But upon returning, he had found that Aries and Lynx’s bodies were gone and the man with the ring on his finger went around picking up each individual piece of Amai.

He followed him, only to find the man on the outskirts of the city itself, burying the bodies.

The two guards standing post were actually in deep sleep or knocked out and made to look like they were standing.

He couldn’t fathom what he was seeing. The man had dug out 3 graves for each of his comrades, and buried their bodies in the graves, even saying a prayer for each one before departing on his horse. He then fled west.

Rel, Lin and Alel all nodded. “Very well. We’ll head to the west. Those four will answer for their crimes.”

Ora’s eyes widened. They couldn’t stand a chance. But of course, they had to do something. Ora crawled out of his room “Please. Take me with you.”

Rel’s eyes scanned Ora’s body. “You’re in zero condition to fight. You’ll only slow us down.”

“No... please. I have to make them understand what they’ve done.”

Rel grabbed onto Ora’s bandaged arm and held it up. “Look at this, your arms brok-“ he stopped mid-sentence and took a closer look at his arm. “What in the world…I could’ve sworn it was broken yesterday.” Rel observed Ora’s arm intently, finally looking at the palm of his hand.

The dark gem glared back at him, seemingly sucking away all the light from around him. For a couple of seconds, his vision darkened and he dropped Ora’s hand and looked away. “What in the world is that?”

“I can fight.” Ora nodded. “I know I can.”

Lin looked over to him with that closed-eyed smile he always held. “Ora…do you have a relic? Where’d you find that.” He picked up Ora’s hand observing the gem as well.

“Woah, trippy. He put his hands down and tried to clear the darkness that had fogged his eyes. “Haha, what kind of relic is that. It has to be at least C-ranked. Seriously, where’d ya find that?”

“you’re a relic wielder!? What does it do?” Alel asked, exasperated.

“I don’t know yet, some old man gave it to me.” He unwrapped the bandages and began flexing his hands. “It doesn’t feel broken..”

“Hm…I see. I don’t think it would be wise of you to come with us. You’re not yet familiar with your relic. You might end up being a liability.”

“I can fight.” Ora assured.

Rel patted him on the shoulder. “I think so too. Actually… I have no doubt you can fight.” He turned to the other two. “We should bring him with. Besides, he’s the only one that may have seen their abilities in combat.”

In a battle between relic wielders and mages, information was everything. At the moment, Alel held the C-rank relic ‘Ignifir’- a bracelet resting on both of her arms. It allowed her to supercharge the temperature in her own arms up to her shoulders. They could reach smoldering hot temperatures to where she could ignite things simply through touch alone.

Lin held the relic known as “Iridis” it was one entirely unsuitable for combat. It only served to see energies. He could see the full extent of someone’s power as well as see hidden forms of energies around him.

It was very useful in scouting out traps, seeing magical fields, or even deciding the power capacity of those around him. It was a useful means of gathering information.

It also allowed him to peer through the view of various different people at once. Even now, it was no doubt that he was looking through the eyes of several other beings in near proximity.

Rel on the other hand, held an infiltration relic. It was one that allowed him to be undetected. Even through all 5 senses. It wasn’t invisibility, it was more of something that erased his presence. If he were to get into a fight with someone, he would most-likely overcome them with ease.

And then there was Ora, who was still yet uncertain of his own abilities. He nodded.

“very well. We depart tonight. Get prepared.”

That rest of the day passed by very slowly. They all gathered preparations which Rel carried the brunt of the weight.

Someone knocked on the door to his room. Ora nodded and allowed the man to enter. “Hey, Ora.” The brutish voice spoke.

“Look. I came to apologize about yesterday. I was rash and lost my temper. Despite what had just occurred, I don’t view you as an enemy.”

“It’s fine Rel.”

“But that was a very powerful punch. I didn’t know you had that kind of power in you” He said, touching his chin to make sure it didn’t break.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll kill the entire lot of them. And if we should fail... I’d like you to return at the very least.”

Ora looked over to him surprised. “Huh?- what are you saying?”

“The three of us, we talked it over. Should anything go wrong, you should be the new leader of all this.” He motioned with his hands, speaking of the sanctuary.

“Your people really trust you. I think that’s the marks of a good leader. Truthfully, if it wasn’t going to be you, it would have been Lynx.” He chuckled. “You two were very much alike.” Both Ora and Lynx were anomalies even amongst the plague children.

Lynx was one of 2 plague children to inherit red hair. Ora was the only one to have white hair. Since they both appeared in the capital at the same time, they were treated as brothers. Both quickly became geniuses amongst their kin and regarded in great light.

“But I’m sure it won’t come to that.” Rel said, patting Ora heavily on the back.

This slightly annoyed Ora because Rel was extremely heavy-handed, but he put up with the temporary assault.

“Um, Rel. How are we gonna get there?”

“Hah, are you serious? The same way we always go on parting missions.”

Ora looked confused. He had never gone on an expedition with the rest of the group.

He had come to find that it was rather anticlimactic. They basically just walked straight ahead to the stables where the guards had kept the horses. Lin’s Iridis ensured that they would not bump into a single other entity. Furthermore, it looked like there were 2 uses to Rel’s relic.

Not only did it allow him to cloak himself, but nearby allies for a certain amount of time can fall under the effects. As they withdrew to the stables, the guards on duty had no reaction to their presence.

It was similar to the blanket spell. However, unlike the blanket spell, the people within could not be heard or even smelled. It was also superior in that, it posed no drainage to their user’s abilities. In theory, he could spend days under the effects of Ethiri.

To the guards, the horses merely looked like they disappeared and as they began to panic, Rel knocked both of their lights out swiftly. They got atop 2 horses each. Ora rode with Rel, and Lin shared a horse with Alel.

“Alright. Let’s see…according to Aren, they headed east. Let’s see if you can pinpoint their location. They headed eastward in quick succession. After they got out of eyesight of the capital city, Rel stopped hiding their presence. He could only cover multiple people for so long.

Ora stared jealously at Alel and Lin. They rode their horses so gracefully. He, on the other hand, had trouble keeping his head up. Rel was bobbing back and forth so fast and pumped that holding on became a struggle for Ora. He wouldn’t have been surprised if he had lost consciousness a couple times.

“I’m so ready to mess up some damn faces.” Veins appeared on his hands. Rel was a rarity amongst rarities. In this world, there are those very few who are born with special talents. They’re known as Variants.

Variants for centuries were a truly revered force. People believe them to be blessed by certain deities upon birth.

While the natural innate abilities of Variants aren't always useful, Rel's held significant addition to his abilities. It was entirely possible for him to kill someone in one blow.

Other notable Variants, were Zion, Sevesmir, and the Band of Claw. Zion was a magician that held significant stamina and enormous amounts of mana.

Much more so than any other mage to have existed. He was also noted to have extremely high vitality. 300 years had passed by and the man appeared to be only middle age.

His death occurred under strange circumstances without a body being present, but others suggest he perished on the fields of Qara'til when they utilized "Goodbye Tommorow".

Originally, people held Variants in light of awe and admiration, but specifically due to Zion, people’s opinions changed to one of wariness.

In recent times, a group of Variants calling themselves Band of Claw had surfaced up. It was a criminal organization that was composed entirely of powerful Variants who wreaked havoc to much of the western countries. Several countries dispatched relic wielders and magicians in order to deal with them.

None had ever come back victorious. Or at all. In the end, the countries realized their resources were going to waste and with constant failures to subdue the Claw, their efforts decreased slowly.

Of course, if Kars were to find himself facing against Claw, the chances of his victory presented too much of an uncertainty. So in order to avoid any problems, Yorba had opted to remain silent until the problem inconveniences them.

A hawk suddenly flew overhead and shrieked loudly. Somewhere above, its eyes viewed the world through complex, accurate lenses.

Somewhere below, Lin’s eyes fed off the image. From his own mind, he witnessed the thousands of trees, rocks, and tiny critters. Thus, he was easily able to spot the encampment.

It was about 2 more miles away from where they were at. Though, he realized they were slightly off trajectory.

“Readjust, 23 degrees east.” They shifted their horses, following his lead. “We have exactly 2 miles left. At the speed we’re going we could reach there within about 45 minutes to an hour.”

Alel nodded. “However…” he continued. “They seem to be well fortified. I count at the very least 35 of them. It must be a whole military unit.”

“eh?? Are you saying they sent a whole military group past our borders just to kill Lynx and Amai?” Alel shook her head. “That makes zero type of sense, why? For a mere child?”

“Furthermore, the country looks to be carrying Yorba sigils.” Lin said, as he observed their sigil. Yorba held the symbol of a snake eating its own tail. Ouroboros, they called it.

Rel scowled. “We’re dealing with fucken Yorbians? Tch. I say fuck em. I can take care of all of them myself.”

Truly, Rel’s Godsend was a powerful one to be trifled with, but when combined with his relic, he could easily clear through the group of knights before they knew what hit them…however, the magicians and relic wielders were an unknown factor.

Many of them might have detection magic of a weird sort, or can utilize AOE magic and thus deal damage to him without knowing his precise location.

And who knows what the relic wielders abilities might be. It would be best to take care of the real threats first and then destroy the knights last. That was a task that would be much easier said than done.

“I think we still have a chance. They can’t utilize AOE because they’ll be close to comrades as well right? Then all we really have to worry about, are those who might have superb detection abilities. They won’t have it on for no reason, otherwise it’s a waste of mana.” Ora spoke for the first time during this trek

“So…we kill all the magicians first and then work our way to the relic wielders. It will be better to wait until midnight once we arrive.”

Lin nodded in approval. “Of course, I was going to suggest the same, Ora.”

Alel looked to the both of them and boldly claimed that she was thinking that as well.

Rel had no choice but to admit he too was thinking the same way, but everyone wouldn’t buy that. Rel was much too brawn to think tactically.

The ride went smoothly with them discussing tactical opportunities until finally, they found themselves just 100 meters away from the encampment. They rested behind a giant rock and sat silently. Lin utilized his iridis.

From behind the rock, he was still capable of seeing and hearing conversations through everyone else’s eyes. The mages that talked amongst themselves, the knights that drank and laughed.

He had no trouble keeping up with all the scenarios at once.

He had also noted a detection barrier set up around the encampment, but it was of no consequence. They had Rel’s cloak around them after all. It was actually able to circumvent most detection techniques.

“Eh? Lin?” Lin hadn’t moved for several minutes and his hands were shaking. He was breathing pretty heavily, unable to stop himself. Alel slapped him hard and severed his mental link with all the others at the encampment. “Get a grip Lin.”

“W-we gotta go.” He clutched his head. They had tied the horses a good 200 meters back to avoid any disturbances. He looked too nauseous to even make it to the horses.

“What did you see, Lin?” Alel calmly asked, tugging on his sleeve.

“K-..kars. The Silver Knight”

All 3 of them froze.

The name Kars bears a heavy weight in the hearts of everyone who hears it. He was from the Kelshung family. They were the first instance of an entire family lineage to be considered Variants.

It’s an uncertainty how the whole of the Kelshung family were variants, but they all possessed the same Variant ability.

To date, every Kelshung family lived beyond the age of 300. Though he only appeared to be in his 30’s, Kars was 120, and his brothers were all around the same age.

Due to their actions during the war, they were all famously known. After-all, who could hold up against 100 years of skills and knowledge.

“It’s alright. They couldn’t possibly do anything to us if they don’t know we’re here. My relic should keep us all safe.” Rel said nonchalantly.

Though, even he couldn’t keep his hands from shaking as he said this. Truly, just the name Kars alone is a weapon.

Ora nodded, agreeing with Rel.

“Don’t forget what we came here for. It’s to take down a couple of murderers. They killed our very own Comrades. Tch” He added. “Let's take out the lot of them.”

Alel hesitantly agreed with Rel as well and Lin calmed himself down to the point where he could focus. “Alright…Let’s do this.”

He continued to watch the group through their very own eyes. Little by little, each viewpoint he had closed off. They were going to sleep. He very hesitantly watched as Kars was the last one to fall asleep.

The only set of eyes left was the mage that utilized the detection barrier. He and one other mage were entirely awake and prepared for any foreign invasion.

“Let’s move.”