Blood Red

While I was staying idle inside, I started exercising my body.

The altercation on the cliff has made me realize that my body is far too weak to properly control powerful magic, so even if I have potential to wield higher levels in the future, I will need more strength to match that.

In the meantime, no one was coming back.

Xax fell ill and spent a lot of the time in his bedroom being treated by Anna.

His answer regarding my request didn’t change.

I wasn’t allowed to personally look for Gyorn, and it was driving me up the wall.

The person who understood me better than anyone else in this world after grandpa, needed help but I was under strict orders to remain on standby.

Putting that aside, at least Braun was doing better.

He was making a fast recovery and he could even walk a little bit now.

Thank you, Lord Asclepius.

Thank you for granting my wish and helping Braun…

I will remain faithful to you for the rest of my life…

To keep myself busy, I swung my pickaxe and expanded the cave. I was doing pushups and squats to harden my muscles. I was eating more than usual, too.

But something was missing.

A critical piece that I couldn’t identify.

Something I would only realize upon going to sleep one day during that same week.

It was a weird dream.

Inside it, I was in my own room practicing meditation, just like Gyorn.

Nothing was happening during this plain exercise.

It seemed useless, so why would he bother with it for 20 years…

I kept trying, but I couldn’t ignore my feelings of frustration.

To me, rex was much more useful.

The two were supposed to be interconnected, yet they seemed so far apart from each other.

What a peculiar name… how did Braun even come up with that…

…rex.

…Rex? …REX.

I can use rex to find him!

As if I had perfect control over my sleep, I willingly stopped dreaming and woke up.

If I practiced it, maybe I could even increase the scale of its operation.

I stood up on the cold floor and repeated my approach, praying that it works.

First, I was going to check the entire hideout.

Step one, imagine clear, blue sky.

Step two, dive into it, and spread your ‘consciousness’.

Step three… look around yourself and perceive at will?

The control area was very large.

As challenging as it was, I focused my hardest to cover all of it with my consciousness.

Since when was Aireven this big…

I was becoming annoyed.

Because this was a cave, the process was slow, but it was working.

I was going into the depths and reaching as far as I could…

I saw a hundred or so colors, but none were his.

He wasn’t here after all…

Then I sensed it.

Once was enough to remember it for the rest of my life…

Cold sweat ran down my back.

I was immobile as panic firmly settled within me.

The revolting, blood red existence that was in our neighboring country, found its way into the country, inside the deepest part of our cave…

We were under attack.

At the worst possible timing, too.

First, there was Xax and the incapacitated state he was in.

Then, there was the fact that though people lived underground here, they still followed a strict schedule similar to those living on the surface.

When it was time to sleep, everyone followed.

As it turned out, this infiltration was done exactly in that moment of weakness.

I ran out of my room and started sprinting through the tunnels.

I hated to bother him when he should have been resting, but this was one of those instances where I had no choice. I needed to find Xax and explain the situation immediately.

The dark, winding corridors that I was painfully familiar with got even darker.

My fear was inhibiting my senses, but I still tried to get to my destination as fast as possible.

I arrived at some tunnel crossroad, but I didn’t know which direction Xax was in…

I used rex again. I was sure I could recognize his color if I saw it, even though this was going to be the first time.

Light yellow, probably not…

Lime green, not it either…

Bright orange…

Plain grey…

Questionable pitch black… will have to mention this to Xax later…

Rose pink…

Navy blue…

This is it…

This had to be him.

I hastily struggled in that direction.

My head was getting dizzy. It was probably a side effect from spreading my consciousness all over the place this often.

I will keep that in mind next time.

Just as I thought things couldn’t get any worse, I started hearing things, and hallucinating.

Something ran past behind me, but I didn’t pay attention to it, I gritted my teeth and ran where to Xax was supposed to be.

I needed to reach him, or we could all die today...

Suddenly loud, piercing noise started perforating my eardrums.

I lost my balance and fell on my hands.

“AAHGHHHHHHHHH…”

I gripped my head, trying to withstand the deafening wail.

If this continued, my skull was going to explode.

Blood started coming out of my ears and nose.

I was losing my mind and consciousness.

“…”

“…zo…”

A painful smack was delivered to me right in the face.

I was instantly taken out of the trance and before me stood my rescuer, Xax.

Exactly whom I have been trying to find.

But there was a slight problem, I couldn’t hear anything anymore.

My eardrums suffered physical damage from whatever that was.

“Zenzo! What’s going on!” he yelled.

But I didn’t understand what his concerned face and lips were mouthing to me.

I could only stare at him blankly and listen to the ringing permeating through my head.

Regardless, I had to quickly explain the situation to him.

“…XAXXXX… INTRUDERRRR… BELOWWW…” I screamed.

His eyes widened.

He helped me up and we started limping back to his quarters. It wasn’t too far of a trip.

He took something out of his room and came out into the cave once more.

“Close your ears Zenzo!” he said.

I stared at him blankly, not understanding what he was saying and he turned away, remembering that I went temporarily deaf.

He took a deep breath and blew into some kind of horn.

Shortly after, all of Aireven was awake.

The sound was apparently an emergency signal known by every resident.

We began scouring every single corner, to find the intruder.

In two hours, my hearing partially came back, and Braun joined Xax and myself in searching the most suspicious part of the cave. He was accompanied by a couple more people as reinforcements.

“…what happened Zenzo… why were you using rex in the first place?” asked Braun.

“WHAT?” I yelled.

“WHY WERE YOU USING REX?” he repeated, so I could hear.

This wasn’t exactly a stealth mission anymore.

“…I WAS GOING TO PRACTICE AND SEE IF GYORN… IS HERE…” I explained, “I REMEMBER HIS COLOR...”

“Zenzo, you can use rex…?” asked Xax, taken aback.

“…WHAT?”

“YOU CAN USE REX?” Xax yelled.

“…YES, GYORN AND BRAUN TAUGHT ME…” I said, “…BUT I SEE COLORS, NOT FLUCTUATIONS… BRAUN, THIS INTRUDER IS THE ONE I FELT AT THE BORDER…”

Braun’s face turned serious and he started explaining to Xax what I meant by this.

“…can you­­­­­­—” Xax stopped, looking at me, “CAN YOU USE IT AGAIN AND SEE WHERE THIS PERSON IS?”

“OKAY.”

I focused as best as I could under the current circumstances and went back into a state of nothingness, diving into the deep blue sky, once again.

While others were protecting me, I scoured the remaining parts of the cave. 

But something was wrong.

The blood red entity was already gone.