My movement was a success, but I felt a little sluggish, and the landing was rough: I fell with my back on the ground, and the dry grass was digging into my skin, scratching my arms and legs, so I quickly jumped up from it.
I found myself in some woods, and in the distance I could hear the noise of labor. I could assume they were lumberjacks, since we were in a forest.
The trees were scattered before me, the ankle-high grass made my feet uncomfortable, and there were bushes on every corner. But the trees in this particular area were not as clustered as the ones a little farther away.
The portal closed under the influence of the local energy: absorbing it, it gradually became smaller as the magical energy recreated the broken 'wall' between realities in place of the 'hole'.
The body of what appeared to be a boy was lying not far from me. It seemed that he adapted to this world slower than I did, which was even better.
I brought my monster arm over him and was ready to strike, but he was dodgy and cunning enough to use wind magic again.
It turns out he was just pretending to be weakened.
I fell to the ground again, hitting my head on the protruding tree roots, and the boy was running away, judging by the sound of rustling grass. Damn, and once again that grass is digging into my skin, and I'm already bloody without a fight. Need to get some clothes right away. Also a broken soul that won't let me expend too much energy... I'm already exhausted.
This event could have far-reaching consequences if he survives. But I doubt that will happen, after all, he was in an unfamiliar world with no knowledge of the language. And in the woods! Depending on where he escapes to, he may come out either to the town and the lumberjacks, or he may go deep into the forest – to predators, if there are any, or just to die of starvation.
But if things work out well for him? What then? Then I'll be in trouble. So I'd better get rid of him, and I'd better get rid of him as soon as possible.
To begin with, I assumed a standing position and looked around a bit for the boy. Okay, I was just coming to, but I could see the boy's direction: he was running deeper into the woods.
"Realignment," I whispered an incantation at the three central fingers of my regular hand, and the nerves stopped transmitting signals to the brain, making the pain disappear; the blood vessels were redirected so as not to interfere with the subsequent changes.
Next, the phalanges began to grow, the flesh stretched and tore, and, as a result, bones of 20 centimeters came into existence. Under blood and atmospheric pressure, they would be able to fly dozens of meters into the distance.
I ran forward as fast as I could, in the direction the boy had run off in. I had to head deep into the forest, where the trees were denser than they had been in the clearing a moment before.
With every step I took, I stepped on that crappy grass, and after a couple steps I could see the bloody footprints I'd left behind me.
As I ran deeper into the woods, I stopped hearing the distant work of the lumberjacks. If I went too far, I might get lost, and the kid might never be found.
To start, I looked around and listened to the sounds of the forest. I could hear birds chirping and the wind blowing, but that wasn't what I needed.
I amplified my hearing by increasing the sensitivity of my eardrums. Those sounds that had been acceptable a second ago became loud enough to cause discomfort, but those that were nearly inaudible appeared on the periphery.
So, I could hear distant labor behind me and the faint sounds of breathing. Human breathing. I could already guess who it belonged to, but I decided not to act on it yet.
Instead, I relaxed a little, as if to accept the loss, but in fact I was using the blood from the wounds to create a flexible but hard enough crust on my feet to make it easier to continue the chase.
I pointed the hand 'crossbow' at the spot where the breath had come from, then fired.
Three bone bolts hit the thick tree behind which the boy was, but only half pierced it, after which they broke off.
The boy shrieked, either from surprise or fear, and ran away. I chased after him, but I no longer felt any discomfort in my feet.
Sometimes the teenager tried to hide behind trees, but my hearing quickly picked up his location, and sometimes I tried to shoot him on the run, but I couldn't aim. There was almost no energy left for new bolts, so I decided to save them.
We'd run too far... I looked around, listened, and realized I couldn't hear the sound of forest work anymore. I had almost no energy left for the boy, so I decided to go tricky. I moved a respectable distance from the tree behind which the boy was hiding, so as not to frighten him away.
"What's your name?" I asked, not coming any closer.
There was no response.
"Answer when Master asks," I pressed.
"Alec," he replied with a puff of breath.
"Look, Alec, I won't hide it: I wanted to kill you, but we've both gone too far from the nearest settlement," I said, watching his breathing closely. "If the chase continues, we both end up in a lose-lose situation: in a wild night forest in an unknown world. I suggest peace."
"All right," I heard the boy's surrendered reply.
"I'll head towards the city," I continued, "and you follow me, but keep your distance to fifty meters, understand? All for your safety and mine."
"Yes," Alec replied briefly.
As I walked toward the local settlement, I planned to lead Alec through the densest parts of the forest we'd been in so we could get lost there. Then I planned to eliminate him in one fell swoop.
He was staring at my back and following me, and I could sense his presence with my enhanced hearing.
However, no sooner had we reached the dense forest thickets than we both felt something, or rather heard something. A very mesmerizing female voice, coming from somewhere nearby. It acted on some deep level, urging us to go in its direction.
Here it is, the world of magic... with some unknown danger waiting at every corner.
I could resist the call, but my ward could not. His breathing quickened, and he stopped following me, heading toward the voice as if hypnotized.
I followed him, 'crossbow' at the ready.
At some point, the voice faded, Alec moved on, and I shot at him.
Suddenly a strong wind blew from him, scattering my bolts to the side.
Who was that and what did they want with Alec? There was magic coming from the wind, but it was weak.
I moved to the left, trying to get a good angle. Alec had already stopped and was kneeling in front of something. When I walked a little farther, I saw that he was sitting in front of someone's corpse.
Alec took a ritual knife out of the dead woman's pocket with very slow movements, then used it to cut out her heart and bring it to his lips.
A person's soul has been stored in the heart since birth, but after death it leaves the body itself. In that case, if we are talking about mages, then if they don't want to die like this, they can seal their soul in heart, hoping that a weaker mage or even an ordinary human will fall under his influence and absorb the soul.
A stronger soul of a self-confident mage will be able to suppress the will of the carrier until it finally assimilates his soul.
I watched the scene until the light of reason reappeared in the young man's eyes. But it was no longer him.
"Don't make any sudden movements," the boy said in the language of this lands. It was something like a wild mixture of Latin and Ancient Greek, but only superficially. There was something else about it, something different from the languages I knew, but I could still learn it from the notes left by the ancient mages.
"A parasite, I suppose?" I asked, already knowing the answer. "What of the original host of this body?"
"He's with us," the possessed one turned the corpse over, showing me its face. A girl, looking young and thin, her face pretty, her hair blonde. She could be called the standard of female beauty, if it weren't for the maggots and rotten odor. "Nice to meet you by the way, you can call me Noctua."
"I wouldn't call this meet nice," I kept my 'crossbow' and monster arm down, preparing to attack if necessary, "Noctua. Anyway, what have you managed to learn from his soul."
"A little," she replied, "but even if I learn more, then others will not know anything."
"What are the guarantees?" I asked. "If you know something about me, then I should know something about you. This is called an equivalent exchange."
"My name is Noctua, in the city you both were traveling to, the official mages called me the Queen of Beasts for my animal control abilities," he, or rather she, replied with a smile. "Unfortunately, they did not know that animals can also include humans."
"Compared to the mystery that you will learn about, this is not enough," I said, referring to our relocation, "tell me more."
She paused for a while, and then looked at me.
"Already found out," she smiled. "I am the daughter of the former head of our Church of the Black Dragon. Why former? Because he was already killed, and our Church in the city was destroyed and called the Cult, all the believers were either wiped out or 're-educated'. There are very few of our fighters left and they are all in this forest. If you tell the official mages about this, it will result in our total annihilation. Equivalent enough?"
I thought for a bit, then answered with a nod.
"The city is located a little further from the settlement of the woodcutters, orient yourself on the spot," she replied, after which she slowly got up from her seat.
"Conversion!" she chanted a spell.
Her skin has become some kind of dark, metallic in the light of the sun, and a little rough and lamellar.
Conversion differs from metamorphosis in that the essence into which the mage turns is recorded on a spiritual shell, and, in fact, is a spiritual call of this shell; metamorphosis pursues the goal of completely transforming a person using either energy from outside or their own reserves.
The hands gradually became covered with some kind of metal plates, and they themselves became more like wings, the clothes were torn, the legs began to look more like birds. With her paws, she grabbed the corpse and flew away into the distance.
"See you soon," I muttered softly to the departing figure.
***
At first I reached the place I got to at the very beginning, then I walked towards the noise of the work, while the further I went, the cleaner the forest was from the trees, but the unkempt grass still interfered, and the place of the trees themselves was occupied by stumps and bushes that caught the eye more than if the trees were still there.
At the junction of the untouched forest and its felled projection, I noticed a small group of workers who, apparently, were deciding how to cut another tree. They all looked very ordinary: shaggy men, mostly bearded, in linen shirts and the same trousers, which were supposed to give their feet freedom, but were pressed against them with ropes so as not to interfere with work.
I watched them for a while, after which I noticed one of them moving away from the group deeper into the forest. It was the perfect moment to get at least some set of clothes.
I followed the lumberjack and waited for him to urinate. When he was done, I came up behind him and squeezed his neck with my monster hand, or rather just my index finger and thumb. As a result, it crunched very quickly, and I, with the same hand, dragged him away from the place.
When the forest around me was whole again, as if no man had ever set foot here, I began to undress the corpse. First of all I took off his shoes, which were boots with laces that looked like a bundle of various strings; then I took off his pants and then his shirt. The pantaloons I did not take off.
After undoing all my bodily modifications, I quickly put on all the clothes I had removed. The threads that held the pants to my legs I did not put on.
I looked toward the city, preparing to head out.