After the group finished cremating the bodies, they grabbed all the food and water that they found and headed West. Ed said that the smell and smoke would attract a lot of troublesome creatures and eventually enemies. Hence, they had to move and gain some distance over them.
"By the way, you are pretty handy with a bow considering that you don't remember anything about your past," Ed said while they were crossing the dark roads of the area. "Can't say that I had seen kids mastering the bow when they were ten. Do you think that you trained somewhere after that incident with your friend and then lost your memories?"
"That seems to be the case since I look to be older and taller," Sigma said while looking around and hearing the sounds of some owls in the nearby trees.
"You still have some youth on you. There are no signs of a beard either… maybe you are like Eclair and Sabrina, around eighteen," Ed said. "By the way, I am twenty-five, but everyone says that I look older. Hahaha."
Sigma frowned after hearing that. Ed was weirdly being too friendly… in any case, Sigma decided to keep his guard up since he could feel some stares coming from the back. Apparently, those three were blood-related siblings, and Eclair and Sabrina were twins… while those two looked alike, Ed couldn't look different.
"Sure, why not?" Sigma replied.
The group traveled in silence for many hours. Sigma felt that he had good senses when it came to finding himself and memorizing the terrain, but walking around at night with barely any light to guide him was messing with his senses.
When morning came, they took a break in a small grove where they had access to a decent shade. Everyone looked pretty tired, and Ed truly needed a break since he had lost a lot of blood before. That was a note that Sigma made for himself… Heal doesn't recover his blood.
After resting for three hours, they began to move again, and this time they walked until mid-afternoon, where they finally could see a few kilometers away some large walls that looked quite rough on the side of a mountain. It was the city that Ed mentioned… it was impossible to see how things were inside since the walls were fifty meters tall. Still, they have a lot of marks of attacks on them… they weren't that deep, but they looked quite recent.
"Geolia is behind those walls. We will have to climb it to reach the city," Ed said. "Does that name ring any bells?"
"Can't say that it does," Sigma replied while looking at the walls and wondering if he could climb those.
"I can make us fly toward the top," Sabrina declared.
"I see," Sigma said.
"You aren't the type that gets surprised by many things, are you?" Ed laughed.
"I guess not," Sigma replied. "By the way, you are being way too friendly, are you guys that shorthanded?"
"You are quite something by noticing that and saying it so bluntly…" Ed said and then sighed while his sisters looked away uncomfortably. "Not many people can fight, and not everyone wants to fight. We have a few thousand people living here, but less than fifty are working to keep the relative peace that we have."
"I suppose fighting is scary for most people," Sigma said while confirming the thought that his lack of fear came from some training that he had, and he forgot.
Even if he had forgotten about it, it seemed that the results wouldn't leave him despite that. Regardless, after a while, they reached the wall and then. Sabrina created a thin earth platform, and then they began to float toward the top of the wall.
[The spell Earth Manipulation was added to the skill shop.]
Skill Points: 40
Skill Shop:
Fireball - 10 skill points
Earth Manipulation: 100 skill points
"I guess it is like that… it isn't exactly a spell per se, but some kind of effect obtained by constantly using Mana," Sigma thought.
It didn't take long for them to reach the top of the wall, and Sigma couldn't help but blink when they landed there. The interior of the city was quite massive, like ten kilometers long in all directions. Still, more than ninety percent of the place was destroyed and became piles of rubble. It looked like they thought of walling the place once they lost a lot. Sigma looked at Sabrina and then realized that people like her probably built the wall… although his eyes were on her, her sister bid behind her as well.
"What?" Sabrina asked.
"I was just wondering if people like you built the wall," Sigma said and then looked around and only saw a couple of guards keeping watch of the surroundings.
"Our parents did that a long time ago," Sabrina explained.
Sigma realized that they probably couldn't keep the whole wall guarded with only fifty people that could fight… It was a miracle that the enemies didn't notice that such a city was in such a dire situation. Now Sigma could understand why Ed was being so friendly, and he needed more allies that could fight. Even if they were strangers that he had just met and barely could trust.
"Which reminds me, those guys that captured you, why did they look like humans?" Sigma asked. "Can't they just become stronger by turning into demons?'
"Even criminals have things that they would rather not do… they are pieces of trash, but they like to be the way they are," Ed said. "As I told you, demons are worse than monsters, and they have no restraints. They do what they want when they want, and those who try to stop them are considered enemies. In a way, it is like giving up on the part of yourself."