๐๐ถ๐บ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ล
I woke up at the sound of rummaging of things then when I open my eyes I see the three women picking up debris from our destroyed wagon.
The horses were miraculously still alive but wounded, they are tied to a tree currently and don't seem to be moving much. It seems that when we were about to jump out of the wagon, Astoria freed the horses to give them a chance of surviving by making them jump on the trees as well.
My body was still very sore but there were no open injuries. Thinking about it now, a standard health potion was definitely not enough to heal since my momentum was enough to break my bones meaning only one thing, they used our greater health potion.
A greater health potion had properties of both ๊ซ๊ซal and แ ปiแฅ whilst a simple health potion only had ๊ซ๊ซal as its properties.
Back in Bellken, I heard from the doctors that the spell แ ปiแฅ could attach bones back together.
I sigh internally knowing that they had to waste such a valuable potion on me.
'Every day, the gap in their abilities and mine becomes larger.' My mood sours.
'I don't want to be a leech to them' I said to myself but I was still very powerless.
My only my body was the only thing I could do to them but I noticed that they, even more, when I threw myself at the enemy to protect them even though I still take the rear position.
"Bad sleep?" Alice said briefly, it seems she misunderstood my self-loathing to waking up badly because of my injuries.
"Yep." I lied to her like it was natural and then she stands up again and starts speaking.
"I see, well while you were sleeping, we're currently trying to salvage our things."
When we looked at the destroyed wagon, Astoria was vigorously taking the debris away and seemed to be looking for something and then.
"I found it!" She screamed.
Freya looks at Astoria, Alice stared at her with a dumbfounded face and I looked at her like she was an absolute idiot. In Astoria's hand was a big bottle of wine which she was hugging happily.
"Did this woman really just sneak a bottle of wine in our wagon so that she could drink?"
"Yes, yes she did," Alice said briefly and we continue to look at her, Freya a bit infuriated, tries to take the bottle, and in response, Astoria runs into the forest by jumping from branches to branches.
I could only sigh at her spectacle and Freya and Alice laugh it up for a bit before calling her back by saying that they won't take her bottle as long as she will share it with us.
"That's what I was planning in the first place," Astoria says with a snobbish face before they continue to look around the wagon, trying to take our bags out of it.
*****
"Ohh, that's pretty bad." In the morning Freya commented as she looked at my back.
There was a dark red-purple scar on my skin where I crashed into that thick branch, my forearms also had this scar when I crash myself onto those branches and used my arms to shield my face.
"I'm sorry..." She said with a bit of a down face.
"It's fine," I said only briefly but she was not convinced. Without saying anything, she let me prepare myself before we went out.
I tied the long sleeve of my white shirt where my left hand is supposed to be so the sleeve doesn't move anywhere then I wore my leather armor, next I sheath my two swords in my waist and lastly, I wear my backpack where my art supplies and the katana with a long handle was tied to.
Standing up slowly, I take a good look around me. Surprisingly the greyish grass and trees were very lush instead of having a haunted atmosphere. The horses managed to recover enough that they can walk but they wouldn't be able to handle so we decided to walk in the greyish forest.
Alice grabbed the reins of the horses and they followed her obediently; I hold the side of one of the horses to make it easier for me to walk.
"By the way, where are we anyway?"
I asked the most obvious question while also trying to start some sort of conversation.
"Hmm? Oh, we're in the former territory of Megu."
We all stopped then we look at her.
"Isn't a godless land very bad for us mortals?"
Alice commented
"More importantly, why did we take the road that was NEAR the border of a godless land?"
I ask another question.
"Hey, this was the fastest way to the sun and moon tree and besides, no one goes here so we didn't have to be alerted as much"
"Wha- but-" Freya tried to counter but she couldn't say anything, after all, she was the embodiment of bad ideas.
"I revoke your right to ever hold a map as long as you're in this party"
"Hey!' I announced and both Alice and Freya approved of it while Astoria looks at us with a pouty face and with that our conversation ended.
I wanted to try and prolong it but I feel, I would die if I do so and I also don't know how so I decided to stay silent and keep walking for some sort of exit out of this continent.
We were going north because that was the general direction to the sun and moon tree after checking the map.
Both Freya and Astoria seem to pick up something as they both stop us in our tracks. Alice, getting their message, quickly leads the horses behind a very thick tree while we hide in smaller ones.
My ears moved a bit then I finally picked up some sort of sound that was getting stronger.
The screams of the creature seemed awfully familiar to me so as Astoria and Freya hide, I hid further away from them.
As I head to the spot that I choose, I drew the finely made sword that Jin gave to me and hid. I inspect the sword again, it was a double-edged damascus blade with a guard shaped like a V but in my opinion, it's more of a shape between a V and a crescent.
I peak from my spot and I was right about my suspicions. Walking madly, I saw a humanoid figure with a very long neck that was long enough to reach my spot. It was wearing tattered clothing, had white skin and its facial expression was furious.
It was one of the demonic beasts of emotion, hatred. Unlike other demonic creatures, this being cannot be seen normally but they instead smell and see the emotions of creatures, this being able to see hatred in oneself or another creature.
The reason I hid in a farther spot away from them was simple, I despise myself even now, I wanted to kill myself after all.
I peek again and saw its head going in my direction and in response to that I raised my sword as high as I can and waited.
The head sways faster than the naked eye as its furious face drips drool from its mouth. It made eye contact before I slash its head off with all my power. Immediately I ran towards the body of the hatred as it starts flaying wildly as it slowly regenerated its head.
'Demonic beasts was not a demon nor any normal monsters, they were created with a concentrated amount of mana in one given area meaning cutting their head off only loses their capacity to think, hear, see and taste.
Instead, they had a core that houses both their artificial soul and the concentrated mana which were used in their creation'
I monologue to myself as I approach
The book that I read about demonic creatures said that a good rule of thumb when it comes to destroying their core was to stab or slash their heart or the very center of their torso and so I try to stab its heart first.
However, I do not charge at it even though the demonic beast is practically blind. I cowardly waited for my companions to attack them first which may give me a safer opportunity to attack.
Astoria shoots its legs enough to make it fall on one knee then Freya took her chance and charges at it and beats it down with her staff before jumping back.
I then ran towards it and with my only hand wielding my sword, I try to slash the hatred, however, it turns its body around, and unfortunately, its punch was head in the direction.
I tilted my head and finally, my sense of death became silent once again meaning that I was safe from it.
I finally slashed its heart and after a moment, it stop flaying around. I sigh in relief and approached the body. I wanted to test something so I drew my silver sword and stabbed the center of its torso.
Nothing happens meaning one thing, it was not a demon. Like in the book, it was not a demon nor a monster but was more like a sentient clump of mana.
My hand was shaking a bit, not from fear but from the impact I received when I tried to slash the hatred. Even though it cut through easily, it was clear that I was still weak.
I close my hand and bit my tongue.
'I want to be stronger, but I don't know how and I also keep getting weaker after every major fight.' I thought, infuriated at myself as I look at my missing left arm.
Sheathing my swords we checked on each other before continuing to walk north.
'Each day, I was being even more useless to them.' I thought to myself as I walk behind them with my face down.