Volume 3 Chapter 11 To the River

Chapter 11 To the River

I

From the corpse of Cheius, vines began to grow out. They filled the whole chamber, drawing their nutrient supply from the purified organic matter conjured by Cheius’ water elementalical power.

With the power of life, even the most twisted things could become beautiful and prosperous once again.

Some Rainwater of Regrowth touched the vines and merged into them.

The vines grew out from the chamber of Cheius and crawled into the corridors of the pagoda. Flowers were blossoming on the vines, filling this stuffy building with gusts of heavenly fragrance.

In the classrooms and laboratories, students were lowering their heads to study. Their eyes were degenerating because of fatigue while their skin was mutating because of the radiation of elementium. However, in their worldviews, bad eyes were a sign of wisdom while the mutation was a symbol of honour.

When they saw the vines crawling into the laboratory from the window, they began to scream in fear.

Quietly, the vines crawled out of the pagoda and assembled at the top of the building, where the power of life in the vines streamed into one great seed, which grew into a gigantic tree.

The root of that Yggdrasil-like tree wrapped the whole pagoda, and the pagoda was drowned in darkness.

Students and professors were screaming in horror in the darkness and suddenly, fireflies began to show up, lighting up the whole building.

It was in the wee hours right now. That enormous tree was changing the air above this city. The sky was clear once again and stars were appearing in the sky.

Now, in the chamber that once belonged to Cheius, Aisling was healing her friends.

Caressed by Aisling’s magic, the injuries of Floria, Stasha and Yanni were recovering with visible speed.

“You’re back, Aisling. I am really missing you,” muttered Yanni tenderly.

“I’m missing you too, Yanni,” whispered Aisling, looking at Yanni affectionately.

“What is the Sanctum of Life like? You said that you heard the high elves calling you. What are they like?” asked Yanni.

“There are no high elves there. All of them have died. I am really the last elf now,” sighed Aisling.

“What? But why?” pursued Yanni.

“They sacrifice themselves to carry out a ritual in order to call me and guide me to Cuore Celeste, because I am the only one on Earth Dimension whose magic is strong enough to open the seal of Cuore Celeste, which can only be opened from outside,” answered Aisling.

“Since they are all dead, what’s the point of calling you to unseal Cuore Celeste?” questioned Floria.

“They want me to finish the ritual of the Rain of Regrowth, which can only be done … at the expense of my life,” whispered Aisling.

“What? They want you to sacrifice yourself to carry a ritual?” blurted Yanni, his mouth wide open in astonishment.

“That ritual can purify this earth and change the future … There are dozens of elves sealed inside Cuore Celeste and all of them have sacrificed themselves in order to guide me to unseal the Sanctum of Life. I cannot fail them,” explained Aisling, lowering her head.

“But it’s at the cost of your life,” argued Yanni.

“Yeah … You have seen the power of the rainwater in Cheius’ test tube. When the ritual is carried, the Rain of Regrowth would fall down upon this earth, which was composed of billions drops of that kind of water … The pollution will be reversed, and the world will be purified. The world of nature will prosper and thrive again, and earthlings will be able to see the stars in the night sky once again. It’s my destiny, Yanni,” drawled Aisling peacefully.

Yanni didn’t say anything but looked at Aisling’s face. Gently, he hugged her and stroke her azure hair. Aisling was blinking her eyes, with barely invisible tears streaming down from her cheeks.

“Yanni, my future is always hopeless like this. Even if I don’t need to sacrifice, I will face the inevitable fact that all my best friends will leave me one day, because your lives are short … Sacrificing for the purification of the earth is the most meaningful thing I can do,” murmured Aisling.

As soon as her words were spoken, Floria and Stasha sensed something wrong.

It was Cheius. He was not dead yet. His corpse began to move again and he dashed towards Aisling.

Caught by surprise, Aisling didn’t dodge. Cheius wrapped his slippery mollusc-like arm around Aisling.

Aisling was screaming and struggling but the arms of Cheius was too strong. Smirking demonically, Cheius put his arm into Aisling’s mouth and something horrible happened.

The whole body of Cheius went into Aisling’s mouth. Cheius forced Aisling to eat him! Now Cheius was inside Aisling’s stomach.

Closing her eyes, Aisling passed out. All her veins were clearly visible and as black as ink on her skin, like a horrible spiderweb.

“Aisling, Aisling!” shouted Yanni.

It was not useful. Aisling was deep in coma.

“What shall we do?” Yanni turned to his elder sister and asked.

“Let’s leave here first. It’s not a place to dawdle,” proposed Floria.

Stasha and Yanni nodded in agreement.

II

Mouiguia went back to her dormitory.

It was almost midnight but her roommates were studying like mad. They could study from the dawn to the wee hours. They were like machines designed to write papers and compete with others.

If they didn’t study hard, they would be eliminated and become a loser. The society was always cruel.

When Mouiguia opened the door of her dormitory, all her roommates stared at her scornfully for a second. To them, Mouiguia was a loser as well as a heretic. Speaking with her was a shame to them. Therefore, they ignored Mouiguia and continued reciting textbooks or writing practical exams.

Mouiguia looked outside of the window and saw the misty street. Common people on the street were playing with the elementalical spheres. They were completely addicted to this kind of elementalical drug.

Elites were as silly as commons too. Their lives were a voyage through endless competitions and fears of elimination.

No one was really happy in this world. Hardly a day went by without someone suicided. It was a pathetic world.

She sat down and began to meditate. The sounds her roommates’ pens against their papers were hellishly annoying and disturbing.

Images of those three Normanians she met flooded into her mind.

They promised to change this world, but could they really change it?

Her roommate once told her that a person like she would end up in the asylum or become a tramp finally. And the civilization of humans would develop and devour all the things she considered beautiful, because all the things she considered beautiful belonged to the uncivilized world.

She opened her window, preparing to jump out of it and ended her life.

Her roommates saw her opening the window, but they just continued writing their papers to prepare for the examination. They didn’t care whether Mouiguia would suicide or not.

Without more hesitation, she jumped out of the window.

Her hair was dancing in the air elegantly. She could feel the gravitational acceleration that pulled her towards the ground …

She closed her eyes.

She kissed the ground.

The window that she jumped out of was not high enough. She was still alive.

It was painful. All her bones were broken and she couldn’t move at all. Blood began to stream out from every parts of her skin, and her organs were twisted because of the shockwave produced when she kissed the ground. She looked up. She didn’t want to die like this.

Her life didn’t deserve to be just like this. She wouldn’t die easily. The legends said that when a person died with grudge, he or she would become an evil ghost.

When she became an evil ghost, she would haunt this world! She would punish everything she hated! She would bring fear, horror and nightmares to this hopeless incurable world! She would be the avatar of night and death! She would eat everything! She would sentence everything to death! She would never die peacefully like others!

As she was about to close her eyes with grudge, she saw vines come out of the building.

It was not an illumination. It was the reality!

A gigantic tree was growing out on the top of this dark pagoda. It was exactly like Yggdrasil, the tree of world, which she had read in the ancient poems of Normania.

Fireflies were flying around the building.

Seeing this beautiful scene, her grudge dissipated. At least, she could die peacefully in the end.

She wished that there were afterlives.

III

People were staring at that gigantic tree that was growing out on the top of the pagoda.

Their eyes were filled with numbness. They knew neither what that was nor what that meant, since they might have nothing to do with their lives.

Floria, Yanni and Stasha ran out of the pagoda. Yanni was carrying Aisling on his back while Stasha was holding that book she took from Cheius’ worktable and Floria was holding Cuore Celeste in her hand.

“ꡁꡋ, ꡮꡝꡞ ꡋꡡꡲ’ꡏ’ꡇꡞ’ꡗ ꡔꡞꡋ!” [Look, it’s Normanians!] yelled one of the passers-by.

Upon noticing the four, constables ran towards Yanni. Unlike the commons, the constables were mutant too. Some parts of their skin were purple and they seemed stronger than common people, though they were still far weaker than the four. Anyway, their mutations seemed to be of the similar kind of as soldiers.

“Run!” commanded Floria.

The four started to run. Although those constables were no match for them, they should still act prudently. They didn’t want to cause to many troubles in this city, after all, their imperative was to save Aisling who had been poisoned by Cheius.

Fortunately, their physiologies had been strengthened by the Spring of Sylvana and they could run at a higher speed than those clumsy constables.

“Where shall we go?” asked Yanni while running.

“I don’t know … Wait, is that a pier? Let’s go to the pier and rob a ship. We can drive the ship to a safer place like a lake. Since Reauneian soldiers had been enhanced by elementalical fire, they would not like water areas,” guessed Floria.

“There will be other ships chasing us!” argued Yanni.

“I’ll sink every single ship who dares to approach us with my supersonic arrow! To me, a ship at the centre of the water was the one of the most defensible places in this world,” explained Floria.

“Good idea. It was like a déjà vu. Remember the last year? You and Aisling saved Yanni and me from the Court of Le Meraviglie and we robbed an flying obelisk,” recalled Stasha.

“For sure I remember!” Floria smiled.

The four ran to the pier.

There were many guardsman at the pier, but Yanni knocked them down easily and soon they boarded on one of the sailboats that parked at the pier.

IV

The life of Captain Mar was colourful and full of ups and downs.

When he was young, he joined the Archdruid Ravelino to fight against Normanian Government. Soon, the terrorists were defeated by the Grey Factory and Archdruid Ravelino was taken to the prison on Infernal Mountain.

Fortunately, Captain Mar had a very lucky escape and he ran to the Harbour of the Outcast and lived there. Many residents of the Harbour of the Outcast were dangerous criminals, but luckily, Captain Mar was respected there since he used to work for Archdruid Ravenlino, who was a legendary figure among outlaws.

After living in the harbour, he became a sailor and he earned money by sailing people to Desertia.

However, half a year ago, the Harbour of Outcast was ransacked by the government and all the criminals there were recruited into the army. They could atone for their crimes by making great contribution to the war against Reauneia.

Therefore, Captain Mar became a marine scout of Normanian Army.

Unfortunately, when he was implementing a mandate, he was caught by Reauneian soldiers. Soon he would be taken for interrogation. He had been working for the army for half a year, and he knew how terrible military interrogation was.

Now he was locked inside a cage on a Reauneian sailboat. The sailboat would carry him to the prison where he would be interrogated. His heart was thumping and his brain was drowned in fear …

When he was about to be devoured by despair, he saw some of his old acquaintances.

“Floria, Yanni, Stasha, save me! I am here! I am Captain Mar! I sailed you to Desertia! Do you remember me?” shouted Captain Mar.

“Captain Mar! It’s you! Wait! We’re coming!” returned Floria.

With Yanni carrying Aisling on his back, the three jumped onto the sailboat of Captain Mar’s cage and knocked all the crews off the boat. Stasha slashed the cage into pieces with her stellarite daggers and saved Captain Mar out of the cage.

Tenderly, Yanni put Aisling on the ground. She was still in coma.

“How to drive this sailboat?” queried Yanni.

“I have no idea,” sighed Floria.

Soon this pier would be surrounded by Reauneian soldier and they would have nowhere to run.

“I can drive this sailboat!” revealed Captain Mar. The three breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.

Captain Mar put his hand on the steering wheel and began to drive the sailboat. At a formidable speed, the sailboat started to move forward.

There were several sailboats chasing them but Floria sank those boats with her arrows. Soon, no one was chasing them and they were safe finally.

“The sailboat is powered by air elementium and it can move pretty fast … By the way, what has happened to Aisling, she doesn’t look well,” queried Captain Mar with concern.

“She is poisoned by a man called Cheius,” answered Floria.

“Cheius? The greatest elementalist in this world? Wow it’s hard to imagine that you know him,” commented Captain Mar.

“Yeah, we know him. Now he is inside the body Aisling,” murmured Floria.

“Inside the body of Aisling? What do you mean?” pursued Captain Mar.

“Simply put, we fought Cheius in Reauneian Academy of Elementalics and Aisling defeated him. Upon finding out that he was no match for Aisling, he squeezed through Aisling’s mouth and went inside her body. After that, Aisling passed out and I am sure that Cheius is inside her body now and poisoning her there,” narrated Floria.

“Since that, we need a powerful emetic. I’ll drive you to a save place and make an emetic for Aisling. I know some herbalism, after all,” proposed Captain Mar.

“Wow! You know herbalism! Bravo! Let’s go!” exclaimed Yanni.