For a moment, her blue eyes flashed with fierce power compared to which the might of Sankesh had been pitiful. She was a Heaven Soldier, but she was clearly a cut above the ones Hadjar had met before. He wondered how much the boundaries between the levels of cultivation could blur… Or did it all depend on one’s personal talent? Damn it, the world of martial arts was demonically complex!
“That’s right,” Hadjar said. The black fog surged up around him, and the black blade appeared in his hands. Beside him, Einen’s shadows started writhing eerily, and the blade of his spear popped out of his staff. “But that doesn’t mean that either of us will bow our heads to you, little elf.”
They stared at each other for some time. Finally, with a sigh, Dora lowered her hammer and, with a wave of her hand, sent it back into her spatial artifact, which looked like a small locket hanging around her neck.
“I respect you, junior disciples,” she said. “There is nothing more surprising than when geniuses without any support come from the most remote corners of the Empire and become disciples of such a prestigious School as ‘The Holy Sky’.”
She saluted the two shocked friends who’d already gotten used to being treated with contempt by the other senior disciples. Moving her fist away from her heart, she turned and started walking toward the forest.
“By the High Heavens, I’ll certainly regret this later,” Hadjar said wearily, and called out to the girl: “Wait, heiress! Whatever you’re doing, we agree to help you, just tell us what we need to know about the upcoming adventure.”
In fact, Hadjar and Einen had agreed from almost the very beginning to join the adventure. They’d felt no hostility coming from Dora, even if she’d tried to hide her feelings. After all, she wasn’t dealing with inexperienced youngsters, but with a duo of experienced travelers, an ex-pirate and an ex-General. Why were they so willing to join her? Because that’s why they’d come to the capital of the Empire in the first place. Not just to learn more about cultivation, but to encounter new, scary, and deadly challenges as well. For only by overcoming these kinds of perils could they become stronger. Significantly stronger.
The girl froze. She stood there for a while, thinking, and then turned and walked back to Hadjar.
“You will probably lose your ring in the upcoming adventure, but I promise to give you a worthy reward in return: Glory points, money, or... my personal gratitude.”
The elf girl’s cheeks flushed slightly at that last bit. Hadjar choked and waved the offer off.
“We’ll do it without the latter, honorable senior heiress.”
The prospect of sleeping with this young heiress of a clan didn’t appeal to him. Although, if Anise had offered... High Heavens, how difficult it all was…
“Well, since we’re allies now,” Einen started again. “Tell us, Dora, why do you need a cheap ring?”
The elf girl shook her head and took out her knife.
“Oaths first.” She said, cutting her hand. “I swear that I won’t harm my allies until our mission is over.”
The girl’s blood, which was flickering slightly and clearly different from human blood, burst into flames, and the wound healed, leaving a thin scar behind.
“You can just swear not to disclose the information I’ll give you.”
Naturally, out of pride, Einen and Hadjar vowed to both not divulge her secrets and to not harm the elf.
“I can tell you everything now,” she said with a sigh of relief. “My father controls all my expenses, so I can’t save up for a spatial artifact. And I need it to catch one of the spirits that live around here.”
“To catch a spirit?” The two men asked in unison. “That’s impossible!”
“Only if you don’t know how,” Dora said, and fished a scroll out of her spatial artifact. “This is one of the volumes from my clan’s Technique library. It’s a Forbidden Technique that I stole.”
“A Forbidden Technique?” Einen stepped back.
“I take it,” Hadjar sighed again, “That I’m the only one who doesn’t know what a Forbidden Technique is. Did you say you stole it?”
“Yeah. That’s why everything has to go as smoothly as possible, otherwise I... and you two as well, will have a very hard time.”
Well, they got what they’d wanted. They’d been looking for adventures and had found even more than they’d bargained for.
Chapter 442
The newly formed three-person squad rode beneath the black canopy of the trees. The darkness crept under the hooves of their Three-horned deer (apparently, Dora’s father really restricted her finances if she was riding such a relatively cheap ‘transport’), and the prolonged cawing of local crows and other flying scavengers filled the air above them.
“Let’s start from the beginning,” Hadjar held his hand on the hilt of his sword. Like the others, he was constantly on alert in this dangerous and creepy forest. “What is a Forbidden Technique?”
The elf girl looked at Einen:
“Where did you find your friend?”
“In the Sea of Sand,” the islander replied calmly. “He came there from Lidus.”
“Lidus… Lidus...” Dora murmured. Her white hair cascaded down her beautiful, slender back. “There’s something familiar about that name… Is that the small village that sells us the Solar Ore?”
Hadjar flinched, but then pulled himself together. By the standards of Darnassus… Even the Marnil clan’s estates were ten times larger than the entirety of the Kingdom of Lidus. That’s why, in Dora’s eyes, this country was no more than a backwoods village. He was surprised she even knew it existed.
“What a strange name.” A shadow blanketed Dora for a moment.
They heard a rustle of wings coming from somewhere above them, and Hadjar’s heart skipped a beat. For a moment, he was hit by an aura so powerful that blood flowed from his mouth. The same thing happened to Einen. The elf girl paled slightly, but withstood the pressure without any obvious harm befalling her.
“High Heavens! What was that?”
“One of the monsters of the Storm Mountain,” Dora said, shivering. “My father told me that one needed to be a Spirit Knight at the middle stage to even stay up there for a few days. On top of that, in order to survive and even thrive, you need to have at least a minimal talent.”
Hadjar and Einen looked at each other. They’d suspected that there was some sort of talent measuring system in the Empire, but it wouldn’t... be right to pester their new friend with too many questions.
“Okay, so, Forbidden Techniques,” the elf girl continued. “They are created for a specific bloodline in a specific family.”
“And studying them is life-threatening,” Einen added. “They say that only one in ten people who start to learn a Forbidden Technique are able to do so.”
“That’s right.” Dora confirmed.
Suddenly, she swung her hammer. She moved so quickly that Hadjar didn’t even manage to unsheathe his sword before the elf’s weapon was back in its sheath on her shoulder. A hammer! Isn’t that supposed to be a slow and heavy weapon?
Her powerful attack turned into a green pool of light that crushed the monster rushing at them, turning it into a bloody mess. Hadjar hadn’t even managed to see what the creature had looked like when it had been alive. It had emerged from the darkness faster than the experienced Hadjar had been able to react.
There was no doubt that the elf girl’s power was in a completely different dimension! Her emerald token was very appropriate.
The pile of meat was left behind by the group. Somewhere inside it was the core of a monster at the high King Stage. This meant that the elf had killed a creature equal in power to a strong Heaven Soldier!
Once again, Hadjar was convinced that he’d made the right decision. Here in the Empire, he could actually become much stronger... if he survived.
“You,” Hadjar decided to clarify, “without the permission of your father, the head of House Marnil, one of the most powerful men in Darnassus, broke into
your family’s library, stole the Technique that is the foundation of your family’s power, and are now willing to risk your life to study it?”
“Yeah…” Dora’s eyes dimmed slightly. Apparently, this topic was a bit of a sore spot for her. “To forestall your question, Hadjar, I’m doing all of this for the sake of winning the Tournament of Twelve.”
The Tournament of Twelve was an event where the strongest representatives of the twelve ‘pillars’ of the Darnassus Empire came together to do battle. The winners of this Tournament would earn undying glory and truly valuable rewards. It was a rare event. The next one was planned for three years from now... or something like that.
“And, obviously, you won’t tell us why you want to win this Tournament,” Einen finished for the elf girl.
“Because of our oath, I’ve already told you so much that the Marnil clan, if they find out what you know, will start hunting you and everyone you’ve ever spoken to in your life.”
Hadjar couldn’t imagine himself revealing such a huge secret to the first person he met. However, apparently, the young elf was so desperate and determined that she was prepared to do anything.
“But why us?” He asked.
“I already told you, it’s because you have a spatial ring and-”
“You already told us about the ring,” Hadjar interrupted her. “But, honorable senior disciple, we’ve been traveling away from the ravine for the last half hour. That means you followed us from the moment we entered the forest.”
Once, Hadjar’s survival had been dependent on his skill as a tracker and hunter. Even in an unfamiliar forest, he could navigate rather well.
Dora examined both of her temporary allies curiously. They were somehow different from the other ‘village prodigies’ whom she and her family respected immensely, and they appeared to be without any guile. There was nothing special about achieving success when all sorts of resources and ingredients for cultivation had been available to a person since their childhood. These men were different. They reminded Dora of her clan’s military officers, the warriors who had spent their entire lives on the battlefield, whose power was like a blade that had been forged in the misery of battles and tempered in rivers of blood. They were an odd duo…
“When you rode down on the platform, Einen said your Name,” Dora said honestly.
Hadjar shot a reproachful glance at his friend. The islander just shrugged. They couldn’t have known that anyone would be interested in listening to two ordinary disciples.
“And Spirits feel a strange love for those who have a Name,” Hadjar sighed.
“There is no reliable information about how to get one,” the girl said, sounding disappointed this time. “There are simply those who have a Name, and everyone else. At most, ‘The Holy Sky’ School has maybe a hundred people with Names.”
Hadjar didn’t point out that no one was particularly keen to explore this ‘subject’. A Name didn’t bring its owner any obvious advantages, and most people focused on what would help them survive, not stand out from the crowd.
“Now let me tell you about the elves!” Dora tried to smile, but her eyes still showed a hidden sadness. By the High Heavens, something was off about her story. “Einen, do you mind if I tell the story?”
“I would be honored to hear the story of the spirit people from the Princess of those very people,” Einen bowed.
The Princess? Oh, of course, if the Marnil are the only representatives of the elven people in the Empire, then Dora would automatically become a Princess. Some of these Empire customs are rather amusing.
The only other Princess Hadjar knew was his own sister. Although, come to think of it, he was also the Prince... of a ‘village’.
“I saw your Calls,” Dora began her story. “So I dare say that you are both Inheritors of ancient and insanely powerful monsters. Ones who were able to take human form and plant their seed in a human. Well, we elves are very similar and very different from the Inheritors at the same time. We are similar in that we aren’t descended from humans, but we differ in that we don’t need to use a Call to awaken the power of our blood.”
“Wait a minute,” Hadjar didn’t understand what she was getting at, “if you aren’t descended from humans or monsters, then... who?”
Dora looked into his eyes. For a moment, Hadjar thought that she would delve deep into his soul, where the dragon was sleeping, where Traves’ Inheritance was, where the Black Blade lurked… And where the speck of the Black General, the enemy of all that existed, resided.
“From spirits,” Dora said and turned away.
The moment she said it, Hadjar felt like he could hear the wind whisper:
“Run.”
Chapter 443
“In ancient times,” Dora didn’t seem to notice the oppressive atmosphere of the gloomy Forest of Shadows, “back when there were no humans, and the gods freely walked the earth, their only rivals and, paradoxically, allies, were the spirits — concentrations of power and consciousness generated by places and areas which had existed for so long that they looked upon the young gods as infants.”
Hadjar remembered something like this from South Wind’s stories. Alas, he hadn’t listened to them, relying on the neural network to record his Teacher’s stories. One of the first things he would do when the neural network finished updating would be to check what he’d told him.
[Update started!
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“These spirits, who’d seen stars die, be born, and die again, were terribly lonely. For ages, they’d seen no one but their own reflections within eternity. Then some of them attempted to create entities they could talk to, ones with similar knowledge and power.”
Hadjar didn’t like where this story was going... For some reason, he wanted to ask Dora to stop telling him this. His heart was beating fast, as if he’d sensed the possible danger in the information he would hear. Hadjar felt like, if he listened to this story until the end, his fate would take an irreparable turn.
“That’s how we elves came to be.”
“You came from the spirits?”
“One spirit,” Dora corrected. “The spirit of the forest.”
“What forest?”
“An ordinary forest,” the elf girl smiled a little sadly. “The very first forest. We came from the very first forest of this world. It died right after, withering away, and its spirit was scattered in the World River. That’s how it gave life to us, the elves.”
Hadjar pondered this. He felt like this story, which hadn’t surprised Einen at all, touched on something extremely important and mysterious, but, as always, he didn’t understand what that was yet.
“Each of the spirits who created a race left an inheritance for their Inheritors. It is like your Call, but, as I said, it is with us always and everywhere.”
“What’s that like?” Einen asked.
Apparently, his knowledge of elves was also limited. In response, Dora laughed so loudly that the two men drew their weapons, looking around cautiously. They were afraid that the elf’s laughter would attract predators, ones they might not be able to deal with.
“If you asked someone else from House Marnil that question,” Hadjar noticed how distantly Dora pronounced ‘House Marnil’, like she wasn’t talking about her own family. “You would’ve been sent to your forefathers immediately. The Inheritance of the descendants of spirits is one of the strictest secrets of the elves! However, because I lured you into this adventure, an adventure that will be difficult for even me to survive… You took the vows, so I think I can tell you. Or maybe it’ll be easier to just show you.”
Dora closed her eyes. A whirlwind of green energy erupted around her. It was so dense and powerful that it could elicit envy in many Spirit Knights at the initial stage. Then, something resembling a spirit appeared behind Dora! At first, Hadjar had believed that a spirit could only assume the form of an animal. Then, during his battle with Sankesh, he’d learned that it could also be a weapon. Now, se
eing the vague, indistinct hieroglyph for ‘forest’ hovering behind Dora, he realized that there was a third option.
“That’s it.” The pale Dora breathed out, and the hieroglyph disappeared. “I can’t hold it for any longer than that. Until you reach the Spirit Knight level, it’s very difficult to summon your spirit.”
“Really?” Hadjar asked, nodding nervously, his eye twitching. “But it’s not impossible, is it? Difficult? Of course it’s difficult! Einen, did you hear that, my friend? It’s difficult for this Heaven Soldier to summon her damned spirit!”
“Envy, my friend, is a bad feeling, and it leads to… Damn! You said it’s actually difficult for her?”
For the first time he could remember, Hadjar saw the islander’s eyes wide open. His purple eyes shone with a natural brilliance.
“Sorry.” Dora wiped away her sweat and, with an effort of will, fished out several restorative pills from her spatial ring. “You’re right, that’s really impossible for most Heaven Soldiers to do. So, you’ve just witnessed some of the special power of the spirit descendants. Since we were created in their image and likeness, we have a special relationship with the World River that allows us to awaken our spirit earlier than human practitioners.”
“By the Great Turtle and the Evening Stars,” Einen almost stammered. “With all due respect, it’s a good thing that there aren’t many of you, or you would’ve taken over the world by now.”
Again, a slightly sad smile appeared on Dora’s beautiful face.
“What about the hieroglyph?” Hadjar asked.
“It means Forest.” The elf said, shaking her hair. “This is a closely guarded secret of the descendants of spirits. You know that awakened spirits are divided into three classes, right?”
Einen and Hadjar shook their heads in unison.
“Of course you don’t. With all due respect, it is unlikely that your villages can produce even one Heaven Soldier who can awaken their spirit and become a Spirit Knight, even just one every century.”
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