“What are you hoping to find in the library of Mage City?”
Hadjar wasn’t shocked by the question, if anything, he’d been expecting it. Einen wasn’t stupid or naive, and even Nehen could’ve envied his sagacity.
“From the very beginning, as soon as you heard Rahaim’s story,” Einen continued, “you did your best to join the search. I’m certain that, even if Paris hadn’t offered you any rewards, you would’ve still gone on this journey.”
Hadjar looked at the islander, and then back over to the shimmering arch. Next to him, Mountain Wind lay on the sand.
“I think there is information about the gods and the Seventh Heaven in that library,” Hadjar answered.
Einen sighed and shook his head.
“Mortals mustn’t seek the divine, my friend. It never leads to anything good.”
“I can’t say that I’m looking for something good, necessarily,” Hadjar admitted honestly. “I’m looking for justice.”
“Justice and the gods.” Einen’s lips trembled slightly and he grinned. “I’m not sure that those words can coexist in one sentence in this world. And even if other worlds exist, it’s the same thing there, surely. It sometimes seems to me like people came up with the concept of justice in order to find an excuse for the gods’ cruelty.”
“They also came up with,” Hadjar’s palm was now on his sword, “the concept of upholding justice.”
Einen opened his inhuman, violet eyes wide.
“Well said, Northerner,” his hand touched his staff-spear, “Well said, indeed.”
“And what are you looking for?”
“Nothing specific,” Einen answered. “This is simply a new test for me, which will either kill me or make me stronger. Staying weak is certain death. So, I really have no other choice. ”
“You could’ve sought your test in Underworld City, couldn’t you?”
“Yeah, I could have,” the islander agreed and scratched Azrea behind the ear. She purred and began to rub against his arm. “But my friend is going to Mage City, and that means that I’m going there as well, to keep an eye on him.”
They said nothing more. They sat there for a bit longer, then went down to the squad. Hadjar had listened to the thunder all night. Surprisingly, the dune seemed to have shielded them from the storm raging in the sky of the Demon’s Heart. Not a single flash had erupted above their camp.
That morning, even before the sun rose, Ramukhan woke everyone and lined them up.
“Everyone knows their tasks,” he said, sitting in the saddle of his mighty camel. “I hope we’ll all get to come back here together.”
Judging by Tilis’ look, she was hoping for something else entirely — that their squad would be short at least one member by the end of this.
“Let’s begin,” Ramukhan commanded.
Karissa grabbed a long, narrow, red talisman. Holding it between her index and ring fingers, she whispered something. The talisman burst into flames. It spun around Karissa’s palm. She whispered something into it again, and a ball of fire coalesced above her head.
Gradually, wings began to emerge from it, then a body appeared, and soon after, after flying in a circle over the hunters’ heads a couple of times, a fire swallow shot toward Underworld City. Now it was clear how Paris had been receiving updates from the previous groups.
“That was amazing,” Hadjar whispered as Karissa caught up to him.
The witch looked at the northerner and muttered, “Barbarian.”
To the rest of them, even Glen, it had looked as casual as sending a letter by carrier pigeon.
After climbing the dune, the hunters moved through the veil. As soon as they crossed the invisible border between the Sea and the Heart, the pressure of the local atmosphere began to weigh down on them.
Hadjar felt like he was carrying a dozen logs on his back, similar to when he’d been one of Dogar’s officers, may his ancestors be favorable to him.
The camels were noticeably nervous. Even the small and frail one that Hadjar rode was trying to buck him off and run. Fortunately, Hadjar’s strength was enough to pacify the animal. However, Salif and the boy couldn’t deal with their camels and needed help, which Glen provided. The fear was clear in his expression. And there really was something to be afraid of.
The black sand was almost alive, licking the camels’ hooves, caressing them with the tenderness of an experienced lover. As soon as something was dropped, it absorbed it easily. Perhaps this explained the pure emptiness of the surrounding area. The low, heavy sky pressed down on their shoulders. The red lightning, arcing through it sometimes, seemed like the eyes of a monster, one that was gazing steadily at the ground, looking for a victim that it could grab. The feeling of a hungry predator staring at them filled the squad members with unease and dread.
They abruptly slowed down. Salif and Glen talked to Ramukhan, and echoes of their conversation came to Hadjar. They were moving northward, toward the spot where the last report of the previous hunters had come from.
It wouldn’t take them long to get there, about three days at most. But that didn’t mean that they could relax. This fact was confirmed in the second hour of their journey.
“Danger!” Ramukhan roared.
He threw his rod out in front of him, whispered something, and the whole squad was covered in a gray dome. At its top glowed a hieroglyph swirling around its own axis. Karissa, still in the saddle, opened her book. Two fiery shadows flew out from the pages. Their long robes touched the black sand and, frightened, it parted for them.
The group stood on the crest of a dune, and right below them, a battle between creatures raged. Hadjar didn’t even know the monsters’ names. A huge red bird, announcing its presence with a piercing ‘Kya!’, was fighting against a giant snake. The bird’s claws were so large that they could’ve torn apart castle walls. Its wingspan would’ve been able to cover the whole of Kurkhadan with its shadow. The snake, however, could’ve easily coiled around the entirety of Lidus’ Palace, completely covering it with its body. The bird’s feathers turned into pillars of fire as they fell. The snake’s scales looked like they were made of steel, and its mystical pattern radiated a hypnotic, mesmerizing energy.
Both of the monsters were at the peak of the Alpha Stage, which meant they were as powerful as a Spirit Knight.
“I don’t like snakes.” Hadjar grabbed his blade and jumped out of the saddle. “The bird is mine.”
Einen and Hadjar charged the monsters. Glen looked from the monsters to the rest of the squad, cursed, and rushed in after them.
Chapter 357
Blurring into the shadow of the Six Ravens, Hadjar covered the distance between his group and the clashing giants in an instant. He had to dodge the fiery feathers falling from the sky as he did so.
The closer Hadjar got to the monsters, the more clearly he felt the pressure of their power. The huge creatures covered the sky and the distant horizon with their enormous bodies. Compared to them, a simple human looked like a windblown grain of sand, nothing more. However, after his battle against the dragon’s Shadow, the size difference no longer frightened Hadjar. On the contrary, the flames of excitement flared up even brighter in his heart.
The six ravens suddenly melded together, forming a human figure. His caftan fluttered in the wind, and the blade of his classic sword flashed brightly. A feather enveloped in flames dropped from above. Its heat was so intense that the air around it resembled a disturbed silk canvas: it was shimmering and vibrating slightly. The black sand parted, trying to swallow the fire feather. The man stood unafraid, his back straight. He stared at the feather, and the instant before it touched his turban, the man swung his sword.
Hadjar shouted: “Spring Wind!” putting more than half his energy into the attack.
Attaching his inner black blade to Mountain Wind, he aimed the strike right at the center of the feather. The long, blue crescent that surged out of his blade contained the silhouette of a dragon and several black lightning
bolts. Hitting the feather, it easily cut it into many pieces. They rained down on the sand, which greedily consumed them.
Even after being weakened a little, the crescent still pierced the fire bird’s left wing. It flapped its wings as it cried out, conjuring up more than just air vortices. Its power produced fiery ones as well. Seeking the snake, they scattered across the black sand. The snake reached out with its sandy tentacles to capture a piece of the heat.
“Divide and conquer,” Hadjar smiled at Einen, who was rushing past him.
The islander sunk into the shadows as he ran and jumped out of them right behind the giant snake’s head. The steel spear’s tip popped out from his staff. The islander swung his weapon a couple of times, and the familiar ‘Boulder Storm” Technique came down on the monster’s head.
The two beasts, who had simply been fighting each other until recently, were now puzzled by their new foes.
Unfortunately, Hadjar could no longer afford to watch his friend’s fight. Glen was also hurrying over to help him. Apparently, he didn’t particularly like fire birds.
The winged monster hovered thirty feet above Hadjar. Each flap of its wings created fiery whirlwinds. As soon as they got close to Hadjar, they disintegrated into motes of fire that were then immediately devoured by the black sand.
Behind them, the battle between the two practitioners and the serpent raged, but relative calm reigned here.
Hadjar looked into the bird’s orange eyes, trying to understand what had attracted his attention. When the monster, flapping its wings desperately, rose higher, Hadjar realized that he’d allowed himself to get distracted. Hovering over Hadjar, the bird shook its wings violently and made its feathers rain down on him. Unlike the feathers from before, they didn’t just turn into pillars of fire, but became miniature copies of their owner.
“Fried Sparrow,” Hadjar smiled, recognizing the likely inspiration for the 'Scorched Falcon’ Technique.
Who would’ve thought that, after so many years, he would get to meet the bird that was the reason why Balium and Lidus had that Sword Technique?
The scorched falcon, as if realizing that the man had recognized it, flapped its wings even more furiously. As a result, hundreds of its copies rained down on Hadjar. Anyone else would have used a protective Technique, tried to dodge, or at least assumed a defensive stance. But not Hadjar.
He wanted to test the limits of his power. Moreover, he’d guessed that there was another, higher level beyond the level of ‘Wielder’. And now Hadjar was passionately hunting for it.
His sword whistled through the air at a speed that even most fencers at the Heaven Soldier level couldn’t have matched. Where a human’s gaze could spot two slashes, Hadjar was actually making four. Thanks to his understanding of the Sword Spirit, ghostly silhouettes of Mountain Wind were conjured by each swing.
Like two raging mountain streams, the fiery falcons collided with the ghostly blades. They tore at each other viciously. Shards of ghostly steel and bits of the fiery feathers fell to the black sand.
After sending about a dozen more blades toward his foe, Hadjar suddenly sheathed his sword. Crouching, he put his hand on the hilt and imagined a leaf falling onto the scorched falcon’s wing.
“Falling Leaf!” He shouted, ripping the blade out of its scabbard at the same time.
The attack that followed had once used to assume the form of a barely distinguishable dragon. However, the past two months of constant battles hadn’t been a waste of time for Hadjar. Although he hadn’t encountered any truly dangerous opponents in the Pit, his understanding of his level of swordsmanship had deepened and strengthened.
Like Traves, he could now use the full potential of the fourth stance of the ‘Light Breeze’ Technique.
Forcing everyone in the area to freeze for an instant, the powerful roar of a Lord of the Heavens filled the air. A black dragon with scales shrouded in miniature lightning bolts fell from the sky. Its body leaned downward like a dangerous blade.
The falcon, its head tilted up, met the dragon-blade with another ‘Kya!’ However, this time, the piercing scream seemed to go on indefinitely, and then it turned into a huge, roaring, fiery tornado.
The ‘Falling Leaf’ that fell into the funnel of flame and power didn’t last long. The stream of fire tore away bits of its essence and lightning from the dragon, exposing its true body — a sharp sword. The dragon, having barely managed to leave behind a shallow cut on the bird’s wing, melted away and disappeared within the stream of flame.
Hadjar was preparing to charge the beast head on, but he didn’t realize that the falcon hadn’t finished its attack yet.
The bird, squinting at the insect that had injured it, opened its beak, and the fiery tornado turned into a gigantic ribbon. It soared through the air toward Hadjar, who hadn’t expected it at all.
His conditioned body and mind, hardened by thousands of battles, reacted with blinding speed. It was quite difficult to catch Hadjar unawares, and this time was no exception.
The ‘Calm Wind’ stance, which conjured a powerful stream of descending wind, didn’t manage to fully stop the beast’s attack, but it did slow down the fire ribbon, despite it being as wide as a city street. The time it bought him was enough for him to saturate his blade with almost a quarter of his energy supply.
The falcon’s attack clashed with Mountain Wind, which was shining with a blue light. The force behind the collision was so great that Hadjar was torn off the ground and, after flying a dozen yards through the air, landed hard on the black sand. The falcon, sensing he was weakened, licked Hadjar’s chest, which had streams of blood flowing down it. A burn blackened his solar plexus, and a long laceration ran down the length of his torso.
Jumping to his feet, Hadjar saw Einen and Glen standing in the distance out of the corner of his eye. Breathing heavily, they were leaning against each other, and the huge snake’s corpse lay behind them.
“Are you gloating right now?” Hadjar growled out. “There’s two of you, and I’m doing this on my own.”
The wound on the falcon’s wing was small, but still bleeding. Surprisingly, red-hot lava was what the fiery bird had for blood. As it fell across the sand, the lava made it hiss and turn into glass. It was a terrifying sight. But not as terrifying as an infuriated Hadjar.
Mentally, he plunged into the depths of his soul. There, in the pitch darkness, a miniature dragon slept on a disk made of blue light. As soon as Hadjar called out to him, the tattoo on his chest flashed.
A cloak of black fog, ragged and wispy, appeared across his shoulders, and the same exact fog began emanating from Mountain Wind. Hadjar could use the Call of Blood for only a few seconds, but even that was enough to deal with the monster.
Where Hadjar had stood until a second ago, a funnel of energy formed. Then a loud clap was heard. In an instant, he appeared on the back of the fiery bird.
Since it was much stronger than a mere mortal, it managed to perceive Hadjar’s movements, but to the spectators, he looked like a black streak that had simply crossed the distance in an instant.
Even though the scorched falcon managed to see its enemy move, it didn’t have time to do anything. By the time Hadjar, standing on the bird’s back, had already brought his blade down for a finishing strike, a frightening roar swept across the sky. The residents of Underworld City, feeling true fear for a moment, looked around in a panic.
Hadjar, who’d had time to stick his blade into the bird’s skull and pierce it with a blue-black crescent, recognized the roar. Einen did as well.
They looked at each other and whispered in unison, “Dragon.”
Chapter 358
The roar that swept through the distant clouds was much livelier and a lot fiercer than the one the ‘Falling Leaf’ stance had produced.
Hadjar — the black cloak had already disappeared from his shoulders — rode his dead foe’s body down to the ground. The scorched falcon, whose feathers let out the last sparks of its flame, turned into
a simple, but very large bird. With a cry, it rolled over onto the black sand. A congealing lava was flowing from its beak, getting slowly devoured by the sand. Under normal circumstances, Hadjar wouldn’t have hesitated to cut out the monster’s core, but now...
With a cry of “Put up some defenses!” Hadjar rushed over to the others.
The pale Einen, dragging Glen along, followed him. Hadjar noticed that the former head of their barracks was favoring his right leg. There was no blood, so the snake must’ve broken his bones. For a strong practitioner, that wasn’t a serious injury, but, by the Evening Stars, this wasn’t the time for it!
“What’s the matter?” Ramukhan scoffed. “Don’t you want to collect the cores? It’s your loot, after all...”
Apparently, the look in Hadjar’s eyes, which contained his own, awakened dragon and the fear of a stronger predator, brought the sorcerer to his senses. No, Hadjar wasn’t very afraid of the dragon, but still...
“Put up the shields!” Hadjar shouted, rolling his camel onto its side. “It’s best if we play dead.”
None of the residents of Underworld City understood what was happening. They only saw a trio of fighters that had just defeated two powerful monsters burrow into the black sand, hiding behind their camels.
“Hurry up! Gods and demons!” Hadjar yelled. “Hurry up or we’re all dead-”
The second mad roar drowned out the rest. Now Salif turned pale as well. Apparently, his unique memory had clicked and he understood what was happening.
“Do what the barbarian says,” he croaked out, slipping out of the saddle.
Soon, the entire squad lay in the sand, hiding behind the camels. Fortunately, even though the animals were nervous, they were being kept from panicking by the released energy of Ramukhan, Tilis, and Karissa. Their total power was stronger than the horror of a Lord of the Heavens.
Faint hieroglyphs flickered above their heads. Hadjar had already seen them before — Serra had used them as well. They created a good disguise.
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