Chapter 26 – Yes I’m setting the forest on fire

“Nathan.”

I heard someone calling out to me.

The image of a girl flashed before my eyes. Short black hair, that was cut down to bangs ...

No, wait, that didn’t make any sense.

She wouldn’t be here.

It must be a dream.

I didn‘t mind for a moment, though. It was like one of those dreams where you knew it was a dream. But I just brushed off this sensation, because the dream right now seemed much better than reality.

Reality ...

“Nathan.”

Again, the voice called out, and this time I realized who it belonged to for real.

“Raven.”

I opened my eyes and came to face with my weirdo Incubus servant.

I wanted to puke, fall into a coma, and smash my head into a wall because it hurt so much at the same time.

Wow, what the fuck.

“What happened?” I asked him because what else should I do.

“Well, Shelly told me you came crashing down into the town square while they were discussing their strategy for defend the town.”

Oh right.

All at once my drowsiness faded and I was fully awake.

“Shit, what happened after that, where are they?”

“The villagers capable of fighting and magic have headed out with Shelly and Misha towards the gate to apprehend the priest, it seems. Everyone else is hiding below the town in the labyrinth.”

“Oh god, how long have I been out?” I asked.

“Not that long, maybe two or three hours?”

“Hours?!” I jolted upward and looked for a window. I didn’t really notice before, but for some reason we were in our room inside the inn. I looked outside the window and indeed it was dark outside, the room only illuminated by a lamp somewhere.

“We need to help them!” I exclaimed and threw the blanket I was under off of me. A dull pain in my right arm made me flinch.

My arm was wrapped in a fresh bandage, but this time something was different: It was actually encased in some sort of hardened material.

Wait ...

“Is that a cast?” I asked with a bewildered expression.

“Oh yeah, when you crashed you seemed to have broken your arm. Luckily, this town seemed to have a fairly competent medic. Also, I’m not sure if you noticed, but...” Raven, who by the way was sitting on the opposite end of my bed, reached out and touched my carotid artery. The moment he did, an uncomfortable sensation crept through my entire body. The spot was sore as heck, and I felt the urge to scratch it open like a victim of Hinamizawa syndrome. Though I was pretty convinced there weren’t any maggots or the like crawling under my skin.

Raven continued his explanation.

“... you lost a lot of blood on the way here, so I had to give you a blood transfusion. If that bastard of a priest crosses my path, I’ll rip his guts open and slowly let him bleed out.”

That wasn’t an image I necessarily wanted to have in my mind now, but there was something more important I needed to ask.

“First of all, absolutely pro revenge here, but wait, you gave me a blood transfusion?”

“Yeah, I am an Incubus after all. Just a bite and I can give anyone who needs it, my blood. I have too much of it after all.”

Okay, so that’s just a thing Incubi do.

“That’s interesting,” I tried not to hang onto the image of him sucking my neck, too long, “but you should know, it wasn’t really that pastor’s fault. I used up too much mana, trying to get to the village in time.”

“Master Nathan! If that’s the case, that was really reckless!” Raven complained, sounding like some butler named Alfred or something.

I wondered for a second how long I took to reach the village. My memory of the past hours has become rather blurry.

Speaking of which ...

I softly clapped my cheeks with both hands and remained in that position.

“Oh wow, my fever seems to have disappeared. That’s incredible, Raven, was that because of your blood?”

Raven who was still pouting after his last statement suddenly averted his gaze.

That ... was odd.

“Raven? Are you good?”

“No,” was his faint answer.

For a second I reminded myself that I could probably just give him an order to tell me the truth. But that was unethical. I didn’t like playing that dirty. Especially on people close to me.

“Look Raven, I don’t know what the matter is, but I’m pretty sure I’m making you feel bad right now so ... am I right?”

He sighed and opened his mouth, searching for the right words.

“You have had a fever over the past few days.”

I simply gave him an affirmative nod and he looked me in the eye.

“Well, I didn’t know about that. I am not mad at you, it’s more that I am mad at myself for not having noticed it.”

He averted his gaze again, his face showing bitterness.

“It’s not your fault,” I tried comforting him, because that seemed to be the obvious thing to do.

“It is! You know, how fast I healed you if I had noticed, I could have helped you.”

“Look, I’ve kept it from the others, that I am sick, because I am not good at magic, and being sick, I was even more useless.”

“What, but you are amazing!” He inched uncomfortably close, as he said that.

“Of course I am ...” I muttered, awkwardly looking at the floor. Because of course he would only think the best of me, even though I am total trash.

The conversation still demanded something to be said, but none of us seemed to be sure what exactly it was, so I looked for another topic to change to.

“Ah, right,” I exclaimed when my gaze fell onto the Grimoire, I for some reason shared a bed with.

Ahh, yes, my darling Grimoire-tan have you rested well~?

[Ara, ara, master. Your maid didn’t expect you to be a big spoon ❤️(^ᴗ❛❁)]

Oh wow, have you devolved into an A-Type Onee-san? Or possibly a C-Type?

[Why don’t you spread my pages and find out?]

Yikes, please god no, we agreed to keep this story PG-13 with the occasional dick joke thrown in for good measure. Also, a 14-year-old having sex with a book would be the most pathetic thing ever. Anyway, what is my current status?

[Your MP have been completely filled up.]

[Also, you have leveled up.]

[Level: >>3<<]

[HP: >>335<<]

[MP: >>110<<]

[Your ability to take damage has been severely enhanced.]

[I assume this is due to the incubus’s blood transfusion.]

That ... is amazing. I have no idea what to do with any of this, but still, I am impressed.

I had all these numbers, but without having any actual comparison to other people I couldn’t really tell if my stats were incredibly low, or maybe just average.

Anyway ...

Do you know where Raynard and Aurelia are?

After all, I couldn’t just leave them out there fighting for their lives.

[This inquiry- search complete.]

The Grimoire interrupted itself.

[Raynard and Aurelia are in the forest.]

The Grimoire showed me the mental image of a map of the forest, though honestly everything looked the same, so I still have no idea where they were.

However ...

“Since they aren’t at the gate anymore, does that mean they have actually managed to defeat the pastor ...?”

[I cannot find the pastor.]

“What, what does this mean?”

[I use magic signatures for my search.]

[If I am unable to find a certain magic signature, it could mean the searched person is dead, unconscious, or has used up all their mana.]

All of those options seemed rather unlikely, the more I thought about it.

I rapidly got up and tried ignoring the sudden headache and vision loss due to iron deficiency, so as not to worry Raven.

“Master Nathan?” he obviously asked.

I walked around the room looking for my clothes, that were just lying around. Well considering I was on the verge of dying due to blood loss, sorting my clothing was the least concern, when I was brought up here. I would have stored them in the Grimoire, just saying.

“We have to help the others,” I said while picking up a shirt. Raven was looking the other way, but clearly still stealing a few glances. I was naked, but that didn’t bother me.

...

Maybe I was an exhibitionist after all.

I thought there was no use of him turning away if he was still looking. Also, wasn’t he flirting with me before we headed out of town?

I figured that his flustered behavior must have just been for show. And honestly it kinda worked, he looked cute blushing like that.

“Master, I have to remind you that you shouldn’t seek battle in your condition.”

I moved a bit to be able to meet his gaze. I hated not being able to look a person in the face, when talking to them, and also, I wanted to tease him a little.

I wanted to disagree with him, but then I realized, he was right actually. I had a now broken arm, and after my last encounter with the priest I have used up all my mana and half my blood running away.

So, I proposed the next logical idea.

“Then you fight in my stead.”

“What?”

“You’ll fly us through the forest and help the villagers out while protecting me.”

“Do you want me to fight for you?”

“Erm, yes?”

His fake uncomfortable expression gave away to a smile, and he suddenly moved forward, leaning on his arms.

His excited squeals were equivalent to a keyboard smash, and I halted in the middle of putting on my shirt.

“Raven, are you good?”

“YES, I AM FINALLY USEFUL TO MY MASTER.”

His excitement elicited a chuckle from me.

“Alright then, time to go,” I said, after having changed and put the Grimoire in my rucksack.

Raven stood up, and hugged me from behind, before leaving the room through the window.

We dove down for a short second, while Raven spread his wings and after a spectacular dive soared high above the buildings.

We flew over a couple of villagers that were stationed at the edge of the forest as guards and I waved at them, as they nearly flew on their butts in surprise.

This time the forest was even darker than when I left it, and I had to rely on my Grimoire to navigate. I confirmed the locations of several villagers, before telling Raven where to fly to. I decided it was best to first meet up with Misha and Shelly as they kinda were the leaders of this whole operation.

Luckily, the Grimoire was able to track their position, so I could find them without a problem.

After a while we reached their position, according to the Grimoire, but the forest was so thick I couldn’t actually see them from above.

I ordered Raven to just blindly land somewhere nearby.

We sort of just fell for a couple of seconds, somehow avoiding thicker branches. Raven seemed to shield me from getting any scratches, but I could clearly hear the rustling leaves attacking him.

Shortly before landing he spread his wings to create an upwind, preventing a hard collision and making it seem more like a feather gently gliding towards the ground.

The wind he caused made every leaf and grass stalk churn, while also directing the attention of our targets towards us. As well as a few unwelcome guests.

“Nathan?” the older of the two women shouted when she realized who had joined them.

She had drawn her sword and I realized that was probably the first time I had seen her engage in actual combat.

“What are you doing here?!” Shelly asked, turning her back to the Zombies that were steadily getting closer to her and Misha. The latter only gave me a quick side glance but kept her full attention towards the enemy.

“I came to help,” I answered, though I wasn’t quite sure what that help would entail. But I thought it would be best if I simply asked her for a quick status report. “So, how’s the situation?”

“Raven, didn’t I tell you, to keep him away from the fights?”

Great, not only was she ignoring my question, but now she was also out for Raven.

“Shelly, look out!” Misha warned her, and with a swift motion, Shelly cut off the attacking zombie’s head. I wasn’t quite sure whether she just randomly lashed out or whether that was her talent speaking.

“I’m sorry, Miss, but Nathan gave me orders, and he is rather hard to resist.”

“I’m really sorry Shelly, but I don’t need you babysitting. Anyway, do you need any help or ...” My voice slowly trailed off, as I noticed a shadow slowly rising up behind her.

What the fuck?

I just stared at the headless, tattered corpse of the zombie Shelly had just chopped the head off of, climbing onto its feet, my eyes just growing bigger and bigger, unsure what to make of this.

Shelly of course noticed my stares, and while, at first, she was waiting for me to finish my sentence, she soon realized what was going on. She lunged forward in a twirl, smashing her sword into the corpse like a baseball bat.

“Those bastards just keep coming back!”

She was indeed just lashing out in frustration.

“Wait what?” I took a moment to fully process what she just said. “They keep coming back?!” Well, they are zombies so it kind of makes sense they are coming back, but ...

“Yeah, even if you smash them to tiny pieces, they just merge into another monster altogether!” Misha confirmed.

Wow, that’s just way too OP.

Shit, what are we supposed to do?

“Have you any idea, how to permanently kill them?” I asked tentatively.

“No,” Shelly replied.

“We tried, brute force, magic, everything!” Misha replied.

“Does your magic thingy maybe have an idea how to kill them?”

“Your magic thingy?”

Misha of course didn’t know what we were talking about.

But Shelly was right, and for a second I felt stupid I didn’t have this idea myself, but of course I immediately asked the grimoire for help.

Do you know how to defeat these zombie thingies?

[This appears to be an unknown species.]

[I’d need to analyze them to give you a list of viable strategies.]

What does analyze mean? How do I do that?

[You simply need to establish contact between me and a specimen.]

Contact? Do I have to touch those things?

[You don’t have to.]

[Only I have to touch them.]

“Okay, listen up, I need to get close to one of these bitches, close enough to be able to touch them.”

“Eek, you want to touch these monsters?” Misha exclaimed.

“Not exactly...”

“Here, take this!”

“Huh?”

This eager offering came from behind me. Raven was there, his wings spread, offering me a zombie head like an apple.

Does this work for you?

[Yes, this should suffice.]

“Well, thank you, I guess. Just please don’t bring any of those into my house as a gift, like a cat.”

Thankfully, Raven took this statement with humor.

“Everything for my master.”

“Alright ...”

I took the Grimoire out of my bag, and slowly approached the zombie head. Honestly, it didn’t really feel disgusting. I guess, this situation felt too surreal for me to register as messed up.

I could see slight movement coming from the jaws, that were held shut by Raven.

And then I established the contact.

I don’t know what exactly I expected to happen, probably some cool loading sound effect, or the information being sent to the Grimoire neatly visualized. But mostly, it was just me and Raven with outstretched arms, letting the objects in our hands touch each other.

It was almost like The Creation of Adam.

I wanna wanna touch your ...

[Body. Body. body, body, body!]

Wait, why do you know that song?

[I have access to your memories.]

[Dare I say you have interesting tastes.]

I feel like you already know this, but interesting doesn’t really sound accepting ...

[Data collected.]

Way to change topics ...

[It appears that burning the >>Zombies<< is the most effective strategy.]

“Fire ...” I muttered. “Of course, if they don’t have a body, they can’t reform!” I turned around leaving Raven and his head alone. Shelly and Misha have been crushing the same zombie over and over again, it seemed. Oops, guess I was a bit preoccupied.

Anyway ...

“Misha,” I called out, “haven’t you tried using a fire spell to burn the monsters down?”

“A fire spell? No, we’re in a forest in the middle of summer. Do you know how easily that could cause a forest fire?”

Why is everyone always doubting what I say?

“Look, either we have a forest fire, we might be able to put out, or we are overrun by those undying zombies, alright?”

Misha just looked at me in bewilderment, while that zombie was bracing for attack, for the eleventy-seventh time.

Fuck it.

“Firebolt!” I shouted, shooting off a spell, I had just downloaded from the Grimoire on a whim.

The zombie’s chest exploded, and it went down with a horrific gurgle, its corpse slowly burning on the ground, casually setting a bit of nearby grass on fire.

We waited a couple of seconds, but it did not move.

“There you go,” I said, content with my work.

“It worked ...” Shelly responded in bewilderment, while the corpse lay on the ground slowly burning away.

“Do you know, where the other villagers are?” I asked the both of them.

“We told them to spread out, but stay close to the edge of the forest,” Shelly responded.

“Can you get a hold of them and tell them to leave the forest?”

“If we split it shouldn’t take too long, but why?”

“I am going to set this forest on fire.”