Akin to the beasts that bounced from dead body to dead body, Athelei went into scavenging too. His scentless and formless fog-body spread across the bloodied waters unperturbed by the many creatures still lingering around.
He found a starwhale cloak similar to his own, as well as a few other ruined pieces of clothing. He found quite a few silver coins and a new harpoon he could use which he slung on his back.
'Perhaps I could return here to salvage more items in the future,' Athelei thought as he brought all his scavenged items to the surface. Dressed in rags, he adorned the face of Nikiri Mist, hid the Tidal Tome in his cloak, and swam towards the surviving humans.
A trail of carnage was all that he needed to follow, and it didn't take long for him to catch sight of five surviving ships, fighting desperately to stay afloat.
Athelei held onto a wooden plank and swam following the ships. Many of the beasts ignored him, given his unique form, so he wasn't bothered at all. The beasts preferred to dine on what remained of the battles, whether it was a human thrown overboard or their own kind.
Nonetheless, Athelei still noted the berserk auras the beasts all possessed. If he had been a human of flesh and blood, they would've hounded him already. Now, without body heat, a beating heart, the need to breathe, or anything of the sort, he was just like an inanimate object or piece of debris.
Thus, a tiring journey home began for Athelei and the humans on the ships.
Athelei continued to feast on the residual consciousness of those who lost their lives as he followed the carcass trail. Avina's ships were moving just a bit too fast for him to properly catch up to with just his wooden plank and his limbs, so he could not really do much except endlessly paddling.
Aside from such a laborious task just to bring home some extra loot, he could only send out bits of his fog-body, as those parts of him could move unimpeded through the air. It's what allowed him to devour in the first place.
'I can feel it...' Athelei thought to himself quite excitedly, 'I should be close to another pair of wings. That weird barrier that has been stopping me from forming a second pair is thinning!'
And with all the minds that became his, Athelei's physical body was progressing through its mutations. The White Jade Earrings had been a trigger for a chain reaction that was spreading fast. Its ability of adjustment that it had been applying to his body was no longer the core force that drove the mutation.
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
Nikiri Mist (Hidden: Athelei, Inactive: Angel, Orien, ... )
- Race: Human (58%), Starless (1%), Unnamed Mutation (41%)
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
Whatever remained of Avina's previously valiant fleet chugged across the beast-filled ocean. The ships sailed forward like dying snails.
Many people had gathered on Avina's harbours even before the sun had risen. The distant chaos had been visible to all, and as the survivors returned, a gloomy atmosphere descended upon those who had been waiting.
The injured disembarked looking like zombies with pieces and portions of their bodies bitten off or mauled into dust. Their eyes were empty as if their minds were about to break.
Many collapsed on the wooden docks as if the sense of relief of reaching dry land was the last straw. One ship even fell apart like loose sand after the Dictators and Artists fell unconscious.
But...
They made it home, and that was enough.
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{[ Early Morning, April 21, 102 A.A.]}
{[ Arthime Mansion, Great City Avina ]}
Battered, bruised, and heavily injured, Lady Karire emerged past a pair of grand doors. She staggered into her home, as blood flowed from her nose and ears, and chunks of flesh were missing from her body.
Apple, whose wounds had bones exposed for all to see, dragged his body after her. He was barely holding on.
Bladesman Jack had lost a good portion of his left arm, as he grimly walked into the mansion. Bite marks were everywhere and his armour was torn in many places.
Blood splattered on the floor, as the face of Orien greeted their entry.
"... Who should I call?" The young child took one glance at Lady Karire and the two who came after her and hurried over.
"Don't... worry... child," Lady Karire collapsed onto the tiled floor of her home, "The butler... should already be preparing things..."
Apple and Jack also fell to the floor, leaving a worried child and several servants frozen for a few moments before Sir Xiu and the Arthime family butler came running in.
"Bring them to the medical ward, stat." Sir Xiu said as he instantly formed a sequence of Mystic Patterns to soothe the injured trio.
The servants scrambled as the butler gave them their tasks, and they gingerly transported the trio through the long hallways of the mansion. Sir Xiu kept drawing Mystic Patterns as he tried to patch up the more worrying wounds on Apple and Lady Karire. The bleeding on Jack's arm had also been stopped by a servant who had wrapped it up in bandages.
They paid not much heed to the child who was silently following them all the way through.
When the group made it to a pair of doors that leaked the scent of different concoctions, they knocked patiently despite their hurried expressions. Brashly entering an alchemist's lab was a lesson nobody needed to learn the hard way. Simply seeing the smoke wafting out from the gaps in the doorway warded many from randomly entering.
"Master Gehir, is it safe to enter?" Sir Xiu was the one to speak.
"Yes, Sir Xiu! I am preparing the proper medicine for Lady Karire and her companions. Please, bring them in!" The voice of an old man sounded out from inside the room.
Sir Xiu opened the doors with care, and seeing that things were indeed safe, he allowed the group inside. He led the way, moving through billowing pillars of smoke.
The exotic stench of herbs and chemicals assaulted every person's nostrils when they spotted an old man, deep within a forest of glass bottles. That old man had blue-dyed hair and a scraggly white beard, and his eyes shone in an intelligent light as he manipulated an assortment of alchemical apparatus with great finesse.
If they looked away from the old man at work, they would discover desks with piles of papers of which were filled with scribbles and calculations. A priest's robe was hung on one of the stools somewhere, and the scales of Libra was displayed at the centre of the room.
Clink!
The sound of bottles softly colliding made the group focus back on the old man Gehir.
"Here! I finished three bottles of Heart's Touch just in time. This should keep them alive and quicken their ability to heal!" Gehir hurriedly passed the three freshly concocted potions to the servants supporting the injured trio.
"We can feed it to them now, right?" Sir Xiu asked Gehir to clarify things.
"Yes. It is best if they take the medicine now. Also, Sir Xiu, we would need the Tranquility pattern to aid their consumption. I will hold the blessing at the same time." A reply quickly came as Gehir grabbed his priestly garb of blue and donned a holier image.
"Alright," Sir Xiu quickly moved his hand, preparing a complex pattern as Gehir's voice began to resonate with the Mystical Energy present in the room.
Gehir, Sir Xiu, and the servants worked in tandem. One said a prayer, another drew a pattern, and the rest fed medicine to the injured.
A tense minute passed as the light of the Tranquility pattern faded and the bottles were emptied. Gehir completed his prayer and surveyed the state of his patients.
"...We should let them rest in the other room," He said after a brief glance, "Douse their wounds with a bottle of Healer's Care each and keep food and water by their bedside. Also, clean the blood off of their bodies and change their clothes."
The servants bowed in compliance when Sir Xiu gestured for them to do as asked.
"Thank you, Master Gehir." Sir Xiu bowed his head, "Your presence here never ceases to bring me peace of mind."
"Don't mention it, Sir Xiu," Gehir took off his priestly garb and hung it back where it was previously, "Without your resources, I would not have made this many achievements in the magical field of alchemy."
Gehir chuckled and put on a smile, "It is my pleasure to be of service."
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.
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"Orien," Sir Xiu called out to the boy who had been walking slightly behind him.
"Yes, Sir Xiu?" A youthful voice rang in the man's ears.
"There will be a dinner tonight for the nobles of Avina." Sir Xiu said, his voice a lot more serious than what Athelei was used to, "Please make your preparations. We will be heading out before sundown."
"...Are the nobles convening because of the beast tide?" Athelei couldn't help but ask and clarify.
"Yes, we are," Sir Xiu ceased his footsteps to throw his gaze out towards the sea.
Athelei followed the man's eyes, and there he saw the waters taking on a darker shade. If he looked closely, he could spot hints of movement from beneath the surface. The destruction of the God's Altar had triggered something, and Athelei had been unable to find out what exactly.
But all that mattered for the humans of Avina right now, were the beasts right at their doorstep.
"Things are dire," Sir Xiu sighed, resuming the rhythmic beats he played in the hallways of the Arthime mansion.