"Mmmm... This is quite unexpected." I sighed while looking at a map, the map that would lead us to a human camp set up to fight back the demons.
'I have no clue where we are...'
It's been three weeks since we first entered the 'Scorchlands' and the map was useless, with the landmarks covered and changed we were bound to get lost eventually.
"Are you sure your not cold lord Arulwyr?"
"I'm fine... Worry about yourself, the Scorchlands are massive, and if we don't find anything we might as well consider ourselves dead."
"I guess your right." Rivena looked at me unworried while picking up a massive sword.
"Let's go west today," I said, breathing into my cupped hands.
We had been traveling for quite some time now, and we even tried backtracking but that made us even more lost, so now we've decided to go in random directions every day. With my sub-space, we have an abundance of food, but we won't be able to stay out here forever.
We walked through the desolate snow lands for hours, the past desert covered in snow was beautiful but the fact we hadn't found a single life form was concerning, how did the fabled Scorchlands become a tundra?
Days passed by more and more passed by. The cycle continued of us going in random directions and the situation was becoming more hopeless, perhaps I should just pick Rivena up and soar through the skies we would cover ground much quicker but with the dense blizzard, I would probably have missed something below.
The snow crunched underneath my feet and the furious winds brushed past me, holding my hand out in front of Rivena I stopped her, my head snapped to the left and a smile spread out on it.
Soon an explosion of snow flew up from the west of us and the blizzard became even more fierce sounds of clashing went off in the distance.
"W-what are you doing lord Arulwyr!" Rivena demanded as she got swept off her feet. I
picked her up and blasted into the air spreading my wings, I flew towards the sounds at an immense speed. Rivena looked at my wings confused but didn't say anything.
"Getting us out of this situation," I replied looking down at a few orcs fighting a centipede-like monster. "You will be fine falling from this height right?"
"It's no problem." She said while looking at me with a curious expression.
"Good." I threw Rivena off to the side and raised my hand out to the side.
My hand trembled and a red aura encompassed it, my nails grew longer and sharper and my veins bulged out. 'This should be enough' I thought while fine-tuning the aura to kill the monster below me in a swift blow.
Taking a deep breath I angled myself toward the monster preparing for the killing blow, my wings vanished as if they were never there and I blasted through the air at the monster. Booms rang out as my speed far surpassed sound, and in an Instant, a hole the size of a massive tree was through the centipede-like monster's torso.
Crushing a small core in my hand I threw the disgusting body off me and looked at the orcs before me, there were 13 orcs and a few of them had been injured. I then looked to my side and saw Rivena standing there with a slightly annoyed look.
Chatter broke out from the orcs and I simply stared at them confused, calming me down was Rivena approaching them and speaking in a strange language. The language humans spoke was universal for demons, elves, and dwarves. The orcs lived in a less advanced society, cut off from the world most tribes developed their own communications. It's very impressive that Rivena can converse with them, but it's not surprising considering the elves border the orcs and do trade with them.
****
"Welcome elf." A humanoid man with one giant white horn sticking out of his head, and deep black hair sat leisurely on a throne.
"We greet Grand Warrior of the Blackmaw." Rivena kneeled with respect.
I watched Rivena kneel and quickly followed her example. I was happy I could finally understand what was going on around me, for the last few hours I'd been led along by Rivena and orcs who didn't speak the same language as me.
"You may address me as Korgath honored guest."
"I am Rivena."
"I am Arulwyr."
Looking up at the orc I observed him with interest, 'The orcs I saved were giant barbaric-looking creatures but, the ones in here must be Kargrims...'
Once an orc surpasses a certain threshold of power they evolve, and the rest of their bloodline stays evolved. It's common knowledge knowing about the evolution of orcs known as Kargrims.'
After we entered the tribe I noticed that most of the people were Kargrims, and the regular orcs were less common, which goes against logic. 'Perhaps regular orcs are going extinct, with the threat of demons it's only natural mostly all of them are becoming Kargrims, to fight in wars.'
"I've heard from my warriors your issues, I will help you myself. The nobleness of the elves is much to be appreciated, and I will support you in saving my kin." Korgath got up and walked over to Rivena, Mana surged from his fingertip and he placed it on her forehead.
Rivena's face scrunched in an expression of pain for a few seconds before changing back to her usual indifferent demeanor.
"Thank you Grand Warrior Korgath," Rivena said
Kograth turned around and walked back to his throne sat down and got back into his noble seating position.
'Is he not going to give me the knowledge as well?'
"You must be thinking why I didn't give you the knowledge as well? It's simple, you aren't an elf... You give off the vibe of a demon or monster, you do not have a shred of mana in your body. Because you are not an elf I do not trust you as I trust the girl." Korgath explained.
"You're right, I'm not an elf." I stood up staring at Korgath.
Rivena looked up at me surprised, probably piecing up a few puzzles in her head.
"What are you then?" Korgath said with his usual simple expression.
"It's not something I want to share with a bunch of randoms I just met."
Korgath stared at me with a noncaring expression for a few moments. Korgath simply sighed and changed position on his chair.
"I won't pry further because of your good intentions, you may stay here for the night... We have a few things that may help you with your journey, as well as comfortable places to stay."
"Thank you, Grand Warrior Korgath," I said with a slight bow.
The evening proceeded on a very simple the Blackmaw gave us bracelets that protected us from the cold and allowed us to take feast with them despite the low resources they had currently. The highlight was the explanation of this snow, which was something very unexpected.
A prince-ranked demon known as Mammon was the cause of the blizzard. Mammon was a demon who took on the form of a giant polar bear, it seems the demons managed to let it escape through a gate and it caused an eternal gale that spanned the entire Scorchlands.
'Uuuugh...We're probably going to fight multiple prince-ranked demons... Although none of them should even be close to the strength of Minos, I won't be able to fight multiple... Let's hope the humans and dwarves sent extra people to that camp.'
Exhaling I turned and look at my travel companion who had been laying in the same bed beside me fast asleep. 'Elves truly are innocent.' I thought looking at Revina. Elves had a long lifespan, it's natural older ones like Revina didn't have any feelings of lust anymore, elves don't have much crime activity besides the children's messing with each other.
It has been three weeks and I've seen this same sight multiple times, so it doesn't bother me anymore. 'Revina truly snores loud...' Twirling my hair, I turned around in the bed and closed my eyes, still cautious of the orcs I depended on Althieus to wake me up in the event of any trouble.
But to be honest I didn't really expect much from Althieus, with me not using her at all lately it seems like she's asleep, there's not much activity in my brain from her and she doesn't speak much at all.
'I kind of missed when you were more active Althieus.'
[Shut up, Rei. I'll keep night watch or whatever.] Althieus barked in an annoyed voice.
'It's been a while since I've heard that name.'
[Arulwyr doesn't roll off the tongue, you should switch back to Rei soon.]
'It's the name my mother gave me so I can't really complain.'
[She probably also gave you the name Rei.]
'True... Maybe my next cover name can be Zenith?'
[That's even worse.]
'Mmmmm... I kind of like it.'
With the years that have passed, I've truly synchronized with Zenith, and although I don't completely remember the other life I can remember most of it and honestly... I kind of wish I lived in the advanced world I used to live in.
[You can go to bed now Rei and~, don't worry I'll try my best to watch you.] Althieus said unenthusiastically
'Thank you so much.' I replied sarcastically.
After our banter ended I fell into a light sleep, and before I noticed it was morning.