Nightfall was coming.
Should we be worried about night time? I asked.
“Of course,” Acnologia said. “This section of the day was filled with the most dangerous beasts ever know. It is not plausible to think they would refrain from attacking you, especially at the time when predators thrive.”
A simple ‘yes’ would have been fine, I sighed.
“Ah, I apologize,” the Dragon said.
No, it’s okay. My fingers ran down my arm. I’d have asked you about the possible threats anyway. It’s good that you told me the kind of issues we’re under right now.
I looked at the people around me. Irmeia was glancing up at the stars, while Freya had her seal take over and revert her back to her moon-elf form. Raffyr and Viola whispered to each other, with voices so low even I couldn’t hear them. And I was only a few feet away.
Viola had still not met my eyes, and that bothered me. Actually, it annoyed me a bit as well. I was the one that had been ill-treated in that friendship, and yet she was the one ignoring me, as if she had the moral high ground, as if I was the one who was in the wrong.
“Let it go, Zoran,” Nyx said. “It’s not worth it.”
I know, I sighed. We have more important things to focus on.
Freya walked up to me. “Do you think we should leave soon?”
“Night time is not apt for adventure,” Raffyr said.
“True,” Irmeia said. “But spending the night a place such as this is worse. We’re just sitting ducks here.”
Everyone glanced at the cave, at the darkness that creeped out from within. Personally, I had no problems with darkness, especially since the Phantom Lord was kind of known to be cool with the dark. But I had to agree that staying in that cave was probably not a good idea. The standard ‘Light up a fire and go to sleep’ tactic would not work here. We had no clue what kind of beasts lived within these forests.
And if that Volcanic Forest Bear was any indication, it seemed the creatures that might come after us won’t be so easy to take out anyway. Even if we grouped our powers together.
“Moving forward seems to be the only option,” I said.
Silence rang through our group, and then Freya spoke. “It does,” she said.
“Shall we leave camp then?” Irmeia asked. “If we leave soon, we might be able to traverse the denser parts of this forest before nightfall. That will help us immensely with regard to safety.”
“Yeah, that sounds good,” I said.
We quickly tossed aside the burnt sticks of wood, and scattered them so the signs of a fireplace were not obvious. There was no need to let anyone we’d been here, neither beast nor someone else.
Freya double checked the bonds on Oris — who was still unconscious. We actually ended up checking his heart rate, in case we’d accidentally killed him or something. He was still alive though, just in a really, really deep sleep.
“Diablo,” Acnologia said as I scattered away the firewood. “There’s one thing that’s been bothering me all this while.”
What is it? I picked up a few burnt branches from the fireplace.
“From what I understand, this Seal of the Eternal was something all the Eternals cast onto you, paying for it with their lives in the process.”
Yeah, I said. What of it?
“The Dark Lord however didn’t come to life back then because you broke a part of your seal, but because someone else used your powers to break him out of whatever was constraining him.”
Right again. I walked over to the forest side, and dropped them behind a line of bushes.
“Thus, we can establish just breaking your Seal of the Eternal does not cause an Eternal to return to the world.”
Sounds plausible. I headed back to the cave. Sure.
“So if that is indeed the case,” he said. “How on earth is Irmeia before us right now?”
That’s…I stopped.
“There’s no good reason for that,” Nyx realized.
Wait, someone could have instigated her return, I thought, just like with the Dark Lord. Isn’t that a possibility?
“It is,” Nyx said. “But remember? When the Dark Lord came back, the process used to summon him was felt by multiple people — even if they had been far away from the summoning point. We felt no such reaction this time, meaning it’s highly likely no one instigated Irmeia’s return.”
“Unless…” Acnologia said. “What if we are looking at this the wrong way?”
Eh? I asked. What do you mean?
“What if Irmeia appearing in our world wasn’t really a ‘return’ at all?”
I froze. But that would mean—
“Irmeia was not summoned to our time.” Acnologia’s voice rumbled. “She time traveled to it.”
***
CHAPTER EIGHT
The situation we were in was already tense, and now I had to deal with this.
How sure are we that she time traveled to our time? I asked as I went to put away the last pieces of firewood.
“Not sure at all,” Nyx said. “Acnologia and I simply arrived at that through a process of elimination. We said it wasn’t likely she was summoned to our world the same way the Dark Lord was, meaning no one instigated her summoning. So the only likely process left was that she must have come from this past by time traveling.”
“It is just a possibility to be wary of,” Acnologia said. “And one that I believe we should be alert to.”
You both confuse me a lot, I mumbled. Do I take this seriously, or no?
“Just keep it at the back of your mind,” Nyx said. “I’m quite certain that even if this is the case, Irmeia would not have any recollection of this, so it wouldn’t help to ask her either. We’re just going to have to keep this theory with us until we find any indication that we’re right.”
Got it, I said, tossing away the burnt firewood at the side of the cave and walking back to the group.
We’d cleared up our fireplace by now, and everyone seemed raring to leave the place.
“Let me go!” A yell came from inside the cave. Oris ran out, with Freya at his heels, her broadsword in her hand. The knight dashed in my direction, his hands still bound behind his back, his eyes looking at the elf instead of taking notice of me. He’d run but a few feet when he tripped over a stray rock, and fell hard onto the floor.
This guy’s been really annoying. I walked up to him, and knelt to his fallen form. Better shut him up good. I held his chin, and tilted his face up so I could look into his eyes.
“Escaping?” I asked, a smile on my lips. I lifted my free hand up, pointing my index finger into the air, and summoned a flame of black right above my fingertip. “Let’s hope I don’t lose control of the flame, shall we?” I chuckled. “Accidents are quite unfortunate, don’t you think?”
The Knight’s eyes went wide in terror. Freya made her way to him by now, and she knelt down, gripping his bound wrists, and jerking him up to a standing position. Oris kept his eyes on me, his gaze frozen in fear until the elf turned him away.
“Wow, that was terrifying,” Nyx said. “Your Evil Overlord identity is really starting to flourish.”
Shut up, I muttered.
A few months ago, I had been as innocent as one could be, trusting the worst characters, and being nice to everyone all the time. Unfortunately, blood and battle had hardened that innocence within me, and so now I found it easier and easier to be colder and harsher to the people that had wronged me so.
“That was unnecessarily dramatic,” Nyx said. “You just like scaring people, don’t you?”
I stayed quiet. I don’t expect you to understand, Nyx, I said.
“Wait, what?” The spirit sounded confused. “Zoran, I was only joking.”
“Leave it alone, spirit,” Acnologia spoke and gave me my silence.
I walked back to the mouth of the cave, and noticed that everyone was there now, including the Dark-Alliance-idiot-who-had-just-tried-to-escape.
“Are you ready to leave?” F
reya asked.
I nodded. “We should move soon.” I looked up at the yellow sky. “Nightfall is approaching.”
“However, we have yet to decide which direction to move in,” Irmeia said.
“That is not a concern.” Freya held up a withered scroll. “I had stored many scrolls about these lands in my Item inventory in order to study them later. I have been going through them since we got here and have determined that this forest is called the Alpinian Forest. There also seems to be a river far west from here. So, we must follow the sun, deeper into this forest.”
“Are we certain the map is correct, though?” I asked. “The ancient documents have been wrong on numerous occasions before.”
“Given this is the only lead we have, I don’t think we can drop it.”
I scratched my cheek, and thought for a few seconds. “Very well.”
“What do we do about this man?” Raffyr pointed to the Knight in his grasp, and the young man glared at us in silence.
“Bring him along,” I said. “There is no doubt he will turn against us once we set him loose. It is best we take him along this journey, given it doesn’t prove too hard to do so. He may end up being useful to us at some point in time.”
“Very well,” Irmeia said, and I nodded. “However,” She looked in the direction of the forest, “I believe it would serve us well to obtain steeds for ourselves.”
“Steeds? Like horses?”
“Well, horses would be the standard,” she said. “But I was thinking more along the lines of,” she pointed to the cluster of dead bears still within the trees, “Volcanic Forest Bears.”
I blinked. “They’re dead.”
She cocked her head “So?”
“What do you mean ‘so’?”
“Does Zoran Diablo not know how to make a dead animal his steed?”
I froze instantly. She knows who I am, I panicked.
All this while I had tried to make sure this Eternal didn’t find out who I really was. I’d never given her my full name, I’d never used my special powers before her, and I hadn’t used my special sets of weaponry either — neither the armor nor the blade.
“How did you find out?” I asked.
“Eh?” She stared at me. “Are you not the Phantom Lord?”
“It is best we admit it,” Acnologia said. “Even if she herself is not entirely sure. Lying bluntly is not something we must do to someone we treat as an ally. Furthermore, it appears this lady does not bear any grudge against us.”
I nodded. “Irmeia, I am the Phantom Lord.”
“I thought as much,” she said nonchalantly.
“How did you know?” I asked. “I thought you said you could not remember much of this time.”
“I do not understand it much as well,” she said. “I don’t think I could identify any other Eternals if I saw them. But I most certainly knew who you were the moment I laid eyes upon you.”
“Oh,” I said. “That’s surprising.”
“My only theory is that you both had a close relationship during this point in time,” Nyx said. “That seems the only plausible reason why memories of you would be easier for her to bring up than her other memories.”
I remember nothing about her though, I thought.
“Ugh,” the spirit said. “Why is all this so complicated?”
“Do you remember anything about me, Irmeia?” My heart thumped.
The Eternal shook her head, and her curly locks followed her movement. “I do not,” she said. “It seems that something about your appearance,” she reached out, touching my chin, and her green eyes looked into mine, “bewitches me.” She smiled.
“Can we focus on the task at hand please?” Freya had a stern expression on her face. “What is this about the Volcanic Forest Bears?”
“Ah, yes,” Irmeia glanced at the fallen creatures. “I believe Zoran has the ability to raise them back from the dead?”
“I do,” I said. “But I’ve never used it before.”
“Are you saying I resurrected by myself then?” Acnologia chuckled.
Okay, okay, I said. But in my defense, yours was a completely different case.
“Even so.”
“Can you raise these bears from the dead then, Zoran?” Freya asked.
“They will prove useful in traveling through the forest if you do,” Irmeia said.
“I haven’t used the power before.” I looked at my hands. “But I will try.”
“Very well.”
I stepped into the forest, standing close to the dead bears.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Nyx asked.
I’m quite certain these things will help us move around the forest, I said. So yeah?
“We do not know what exactly your Re-animator Special Ability does though.”
Now is always a good time to find out, I smiled, and took a look at the bodies before me. I lifted my hands into the air, and pointed my palms toward the bears. I closed my eyes and put my mind into a deep focus.
I concentrated on the energy within me, channeling it to my head. My thinking intensified, and multiple thoughts filled my consciousness. I quickly re-diverted the energy back down, toward my palms. I felt a tingling sensation on my fingertips and I held my hands stiff.
I imagined the bears slowly rise, their forms healed of wounds and moving through the world once again. I imagined the fires upon their ankles burn once more, and their blood-red eyes open back into this world.
My eyelids lifted and I jerked my hands into the air, uttering not a single word. A breeze slithered through the trees silently. Suddenly, gusts of wind rushed behind in, putting us in the middle of what could only be described as a wind storm. Winds and gales swirled around us, trapping us in the eye of this mini-hurricane.
All of a sudden, a blast of lightning struck the ground between the fallen bears. A large flame of golden-yellow rose from the impact point and rose high into the air, with flecks of burnt cider spreading into the wind.
A few familiar growls sounded, and the fire died down, revealing the shadowy silhouettes of five creatures. They walked forwards, and their forms emerged.
Five Volcanic bears stepped forward, with flames burning bright along their ankles, wrists, and neck. Their eyes of blood-red glared at us, but I felt no rage within them anymore.
“You actually did it,” Raffyr whispered. “You’re a necromancer.”
DING!
Congratulations! You have resurrected: Volcanic Forest Bear (x5). Your strength is not enough to raise these creatures to their full strength. Thus, the beasts you have summoned will now be capped at Lv. 200.
That’s fine, I thought. I’d expected that to happen anyway. My special ability had a level cap on the things I resurrected, and the actual numbers were based on my level itself, so the only way I could get the things I resurrected to be stronger would be to raise my own strength.
But leveling up was not the easiest thing in the world when I needed like a gazillion experience points to even move 1% closer to my next level. It’s probably more, I chuckled.
“Let us mount these steeds,” Irmeia said and stepped up to the closest beast.
“Wait!” I yelped, but the Eternal had already jumped onto the backs of one of the bears.
She looked at me. “Is something the matter?”
I stared at her. “Nothing.”
I thought they’d attack anyone that wasn’t me, I thought.
“Well I think they’re smart enough to know who’s on your side, and who’s the enemy,” Nyx said. “Their view of people reflects how you view those people as well.”
That makes sense. I looked to Oris, and noticed that one of the bears was giving him dirty looks. It also seems to be true, I chuckled. I walked up to the knight and picked him up by his bound wrists.
“Hey!” he yelled. “What are you—”
“You ride with me,” I said sternly. “Is there a problem?”
He stayed quiet as I plopped him onto the back of
the bear, and lifted myself onto the beast, seating myself in front of him. The bear’s fur was very soft, something I had not expected for a creature that looked so violent. The flames of its back were barely warm, and seemed more like they were decorative rather than weaponized.
In a few seconds, everyone had gotten onto their steeds — with Freya and Irmeia riding one each, Oris and I sharing one, and Viola and Raffyr sharing another. I’d raised five bears in total though, so there was one left. I contemplated what to do with it for a second and decided it’d be best to just let it follow us.
Volcanic bears seemed a good resource to keep. Especially in a forest like this.
“Let us get going then,” I said as we moved through the forest, heading for the sunset. The bears strode through, moving at a steady pace. I glanced at the scenery around us and we entered the thick of the forest.
The trees clustered closer, not more than a few feet apart from each other now. The bears shifted formation, lining up one behind the other as we made our way through the clutter of wood. The leaves weaving the canopy were not as dense as I’d expected however, and quite a lot of light still made its way through, even though we were approaching nightfall.
The sounds of the forest however turned quieter the further we headed in, and soon nothing but our steps and breaths resonated in our ears. Where did all the insects and birds go? I frowned.
“Maybe the deeper parts of the forest are uninhabited,” Nyx said.
That does not sound comforting, I thought. Why would that be the case?
“I’m going to shift the topic for a moment,” the spirit said. “What do you think of the fact that Irmeia knew who you were?”
Not sure. I scratched my arm. It certainly is concerning. But a lot of people could have known who I was. My fame is at Level 10, remember?
“True. However, I was wondering if you felt that may strengthen or weaken the claim that she is from this time.”
I’m not sure I know what to do with that thought, I said.
The Eternal: Transcend - A LitRPG Saga (World of Ga'em Book 3) Page 8