Chapter 30 - Lying in Wait

“I can feel it! He’s here!” Luna yelled.

Luna’s voice pulled Sol from his trance. He shook the thoughts out of his head to snap himself back to reality. They had been walking all morning and hadn’t said a word, both engaged in some kind of reminiscence that they dared not acknowledge to the other.

Luna poured over her Detect Magic spell, staring intently at an enormous red spot, the source of the magical energy they had spent the last two days tracking. It glowed so bright and so potent that it tainted the blue of the rest of the spell, creating pulses of purple each time she scanned the area.

“Just over this hill, come on!” Luna jolted forward so fast that Sol struggled a little to keep up.

Once they reached the summit of the hill, they discovered it was not just a hill, but a cliff overlooking a river. It was a serene view, clear flowing water running alongside a pebbled bank and giving way to the mouth of a rocky cave. It was like something out of a painting, subtly beautiful greys and blues meeting under pristine sunlight.

Only one thing ruined the scene. Dried blood on the rocks near the cave’s entrance. The landscape was stained and it was an easy guess as to why. 

Crossing the river was an easy task for the siblings, climbing down the cliff wasn’t a challenge with their physical capability and the water was shallow enough for them to easily walk through it.

They didn’t speak as they made their way to the cave’s mouth, Luna was far too focused to even dream of saying a word and Sol respected her drive. Although, with that said, he did need some clarification on their movements. “Uh, so do we have a plan, or…?”

Luna snapped back to attention. “Wait outside. I’ll go in first and check things out. I’m faster and stealthier.”

“But what if he sees you?” Sol frowned.

“I’ll run like hell, obviously.” Luna sighed. “Given the size of the cave relative to him, he’d have to crouch to exit, so I’ll be able to escape faster than he can catch up.”

Sol nodded, reassured. “Alright… I do have to ask though, what are we hoping for here? I mean, he’s still immortal. We don’t have an answer for that.”

“With any luck, we’ll discover more information here. If this is his hideout, it’s possible there’s a geographical element to his power source. We have to investigate it.” Luna didn’t look at Sol when she talked, poking her head into the cavern already.

“Alright. Good luck, then.” Sol sighed, taking a position against the rocky walls of the cave entrance.

“Thanks.” Luna said curtly, already refocusing on Detect Magic. It was hardly a usable spell anymore, just a ball of red. Whatever magic Blüt was using, it was overwhelmingly powerful, more than anything Luna could even imagine. She did, however, have a theory. Though she prayed that it was wrong.

The inside of the cave was vast. It was no wonder the ogre had made such a place his home; it was one of the only places that could ever accommodate his size appropriately. And accommodate it did, as when Luna arrived in the central chamber, lit only by her overwhelmed Detect Magic spell, she saw him.

He was somehow even more grotesque when asleep. To see such an awful monster at peace was a disgusting thing, the fact that a beast that had ruined and ended the lives of so many others was offered a peace his victims were denied sickened Luna to her stomach.

He took up a large portion of the chamber, allowing Luna little space to maneuver around him. He slept on his side, cutting the room in half with the length of his body, a great wall in and of himself.

Luna shuffled against the cave’s rocky edge, choosing to take the path closest to his face. She figured that if he awoke, it’d be easier for him to kick his feet and crush her than to use his head.

As she grew closer to him, the air became warmer and thicker, his blood-stenched breath permeating as she passed by his fat, pig-like face. His sleeping expression was one of serene joy, humongous mouth hanging open in a blissful smile, all the while exposing tusks and teeth that had gored countless innocents. Luna wished she could blow his head up all over again.

“‘Ogre’, huh. It suits him…” Luna thought. Ogre was not Bllüt’s species, but instead a title. Originally a word for the Orcs’ ancient, lesser-evolved ancestors, in the modern world it could only be fairly applied to Blüt. He was an unevolved being, simplistic and instinctual. He knew only desire. To eat and to be amused.

It was often said that Blüt was a demon who was born evil. Something so innately awful and disgusting that his own mother died of shock at his birth, repulsed by him so thoroughly that she could not stand to live in the same world as her son. It’s widely believed that after this, his father recognised the evil in him, and attempted to kill the child, only for him to survive. Other reports claim he was made a slave as a young boy with the attempt of utilising his incredible size and strength by working him to death. Regardless, across accounts there was one thing that remains consistent. The ogre is evil, and it can never die.

Luna shimmied past his dark bushy hair like she was wading through tall grass. The spell in her hand had gone from red to white now, like a sun on the verge of supernova. Whatever the source of his power was, it was right next to her.

Suddenly, the cave grumbled and shook, a horrid noise reverberating throughout the cave, causing a rain of small stones and particles of dust. It was a mere snore from Blüt, but it was enough to make the earth itself tremble. Luna sped up, realising just how much time was of the essence.

She continued past his neck, down toward his back. It was there that Detect Magic dissipated entirely. The spell’s construct shattered suddenly, so overwhelmed by sheer magical ability that Luna, even with her mana reserves, could no longer maintain it.

She looked up from the destroyed spell, finding before her the source of Blüt’s unimaginable magical power at last. The large metal box he wore on his back, even as he slept, was strapped to him. Whatever made the beast immortal. It was in there.

“I thought you wanted me to wait outside…” Sol muttered, using every ounce of his focus to follow Luna’s stealthy path past the sleeping giant.

“Things have changed.” Luna moved quicker, more desperately now. She could feel that presence she had felt in Lillinberg once more. Not as intensely or overwhelmingly, but it was subtly everywhere like the smell of freshly cut grass.

She dashed ahead. It took Sol some time to catch up, but when he did he found her with her head pressed against the metal box, muttering something to herself.

“It’s in there?” Sol asked, taking a place next to his sister and putting a hand on the metal.

Luna nodded. “I need you to melt through it.”

“...Don’t you know fire magic?” Sol raised an eyebrow.

“Only the basics. I didn’t want to step on your toes.” She only half-focused on Sol, eyes locked on the cold hard metal. “I need you to do something a little more advanced.”

“Advanced? Surely I just cast a fireball and-” Sol began.

“No, a fireball won’t do. Any light will alert the ogre and we can’t handle a fight in here. There’ll be a cave in before we know it, and his odds of surviving that are way better than ours.” Luna explained. “No. We need heat and heat alone.”

“Is that possible?” Sol raised an eyebrow, looking at his own hands.

“It’s technically its own spell named Fondre, but with your capabilities, you should be able to recreate it.” Luna finally faced Sol, eyes wide with expectation. “I need you to cast a fireball as you usually would, but don’t visualise any form. In fact, remove any conception of form at all from your mind. We need just the mana to flow from your hand, and that mana to maintain the heat.”

“Be formless… I got it.” Sol hummed, closing his eyes and focusing hard. Warmth began to pour forth from his hands. It was a familiar feeling, one he felt often when casting his signature spell. Sparks came to mind, the usual pattern of creating a fireball beginning to take shape.

“No, you’re making it too easy for yourself.” Luna frowned. “This isn’t like anything you’ve done before, don’t get complacent.”

Sol breathed out deeply. He strained his mind to try and avoid any thoughts, but all that came to mind was fire. He could feel the mana desperately pumping in the skin of his hands, wanting so desperately to spark and burst out into flame. He shook his head. Trying harder didn’t seem to be the answer, despite what Luna had told him.

“Sol, quit it!” Luna whispered. “You’re making sparks! We can’t risk waking him up!” She chided, every muscle in her body tense.

Magic is hard work. That’s what the women of the Dragoneart family believed. It was a tough, regimented thing, practiced over thousands of hours and repetitions. It had been reinforced into him so many times by his sisters and mother. It was why he never formally learned it as a child, why he eschewed any form of magic other than his Fireball. To him, he didn’t want magic to be hard work. Because to him…

Magic is fun. Magic is an art. A joyful act of creation. Unlike one’s body, which can only be trained to limits and in specific ways, magic is a vast, free thing. Anything one can imagine can be done. That was the joy of it to Sol, and why he was so talented at improvising with his magical abilities. He wasn’t bound by education or strict laws, he merely followed his muse and did what he wanted. And now, he wanted to cast Fondre. Heat without flame was a enticing concept, it could open up so many more possibilities for further expression and exploration. This was why he managed to pull off the spell. Not because of the objective before him, not because Luna had asked him, but because quite simply, he liked the idea.

Sol raised his hand to the metal, warmth blooming forth out from his palm and into the cold material. Quickly it dissipated, forming a large circle of heat that only grew hotter and hotter. It went from red to white to finally melting off in large globs as he burned his way through the iron.

It was dark inside the box, so they didn’t see what was inside for quite some time. It wasn’t until the hole was wide enough to fit a person through that they were able to see, just barely, what lay inside.

She was strung up like she was quartered. Hands and legs bound with metal wires reinforced by chains and several smaller wires wound across each finger. She was a young Auf, so small it was like she was hardly there. She was clearly malnourished, thin body practically consumed by her shaggy, overgrown hair. She lay atop her own matted mane, asleep, her little face buried into her ragged curls, the only softness available to her in this prison.

It was the little girl Luna had seen, the one who had suffered so much, and quite possibly, the source of the immortal ogre’s power.

Current Party: Luna Dragoneart, Sol Dragoneart

Bullets Remaining: 5