Arya carried his heavy body through the the forest, walking near the edge of the ravine. Looking down occasionally at the forest of bloodflies down below.
"The viscera egg are empty. The did the bloodflies find no blood these days." The large potion of the forest was filled with only dead and decaying fireflies, there eyes going red to blue.
The forest trees were not the best condition either, falling apart from all sides. The entire path of was a mess. Claws marks on the trees that had fallen, and there was stench as well.
"There is this smell coming from.." Arya walked towards the stench that became more and more worse and choking. He crossed pass the trees, hauled down to logs with claws marks and blood splattered all around the area.
The center of the smell soon was coming a set of three barks stacked on top of each other, Arya climbed over the logs without using the spaces in the bark over the top. The sight soon came to his eyes, and with the bomb of foul smell and color.
"It's the young born bear cubs." Sitting in the middle of hundred dead mice, where the bodies of young cubs and the image of hundreds of insects feeding on their body. Arya put his elbow in-front of his nose to minimize the smell that came from him.
The blood was full of nutrients that some mushrooms were already growing on the ground, the ground was mix of dried red blood, tree leaves and wood. The ground mice were many squished to pieces, and spilled into mince meat.
"This things... why didn't the bloodflies consume there entire bodies. What is happening to them? Did Mercy do something about this?" Stranger things were happening in every second. Nature was not on it's right course, ever since Mercy appeared.
"What if he is the one in the crypt..." Arya shook his head, the timeline of events wouldn't make sense, Reva knew Mercy far before that, and Mercy build this place for the dwarfs and the winning Ana and River's trust, things do not happen in such a short time.
"I can think of things later, I need take care of these things. But how? I don't have energy to swipe them to the cliff, maybe if I had a potion of energy, but the area if large and I don't know and fire spells..." or maybe he could.
Arya brought out a vial of vampire blood from his pocket, and looked at it deeply. His mind was thinking on two sides, the memory of the time we was grinding himself and vomiting blood, and on the other side was the memory of Reva's words.
"Even if I get seven life, I don't be able to touch him." Along these words, Arya realized something himself, he wasn't himself in a while.
He was falling in despair and rising to in minutes worth of time, the same was his reaction about everything, it felt incomplete and non human, as if true emotions weren't there until a attack at life came, either from the bone bear or Reva's bullets.
"I can't dream of taking my revenge either if I can't even finish this bottle. Things are beyond me, far ahead of me. People above me control this, I am pawn in this rush of kings and anarchists. Whatever Mercy is doing right now... it will affect the entire world." This gave Arya to drive to gulp down the entire things at once.
Then he removed the his hand from his neck and took a deep breath, clenching his entire body preparing his entire body for what was coming. Just like the cloak in his room, time ticked down
Tick tock...
"!!!" Then the pain came and so it the needles. Arya grabbed his throat, it wasn't like the last time.
"gRGh..." his throat was drier than ever, he could feel his tongue's skin touching his mouth. The pain was coming to his eyes, the scream were empty and painful. He the ground ahead,
The flesh of squished rats, their bones and blood was all covered his mouth. But his eyes were redder than the dirt mixed blood on the floor. He turned on his back, facing the sky gasping for water.
"..." In this moment he knew no better his tongue came out on his own, the tongue moved fast licking the blood of a rat just like rat drank water.
Lick! Lick Lick
His tongue pushed down the blood his throat which gave him a second of warmth and ease. Rubbing himself against the trees bark he tried to calm down his itching, the rays of rising soon were leaving burn marks on his wrist.
"I wouldn't have done this! I am going to die!!" His mind called out to him the time of trouble, he passed the point of no return. Tears came running down his cheeks, which he didn't realized were of blood.
His breath came shorter and shorter and the light of losing... his neck was getting down anymore air. His neck became tightened... the body numbed and death felt closer and closer.
"One last time... I can't save you anymore."
When Arya eye's were near shut, Sera's shadow came close to him. It was her voice, close to him. Then she gave him a kiss on the cheek. Arya tried reaching out her but she vanished into the air.
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"Time is a illusion." The words written in beautiful handwriting hung on a small picture frame on the red wall. The wall surrounding it were covered with books and gems. A portrait of a wedding couple hung from the same wall.
"What did it mean?" On her rocking chair with her feet resting on the board nearby. The words were making her body uncomfortable. "All 5 books on Mithaias say that it does not make any sound barrier to confuse the trespasser."
Her eyes then turned to other heap was books lying on all sides, on the her study table. It disorganized as ever.
"And this healing magic is not working at all."
Meow..
The orange cat came meowing into the room, "Tessa? Did River finally let you go?" The chunky fat cat came sliding from the door and jumped straight into Ana's lap. Purring and caressing itself on her.
"Cats do feel your stress, huh... I need some good bedtime rest." A light yawn came out from Ana's mouth, "I feel so sleepy with all the things going on. I forgot to sleep. River also hasn't delivered any blood yet."
Ana could see herself reading books all night, shifting each book trying to make the perfect spell to heal a small cut. But the composition was too complex, there was a chance of bacteria or other infectant getting in mixed with the blood.
Ana tried to lose herself to sleep, trying what had happened in the past. "Why did I run away from her family in near naked in the forest? Why had she gone to see desert of Dynasty and met River? Why do I need the crown of Nausicca, if I can't give see anyone suffering?"
She tried and tried, but there was no complete answer. Always her memories were hazy, there no major motivation to anything, she loved River and hated her family, the answers were simple to her.
"There is something wrong going on... I feel like things are not adding up and becoming more and more distant." Ana picked up the chunky cat, which was not so heavy to lift with some wind magic.
The blue eyes with white iris meet Ana's emerald eyes. "A cat that can walk through magical barriers, while also being found in the ravine of the dead." Ana gave Tessa a sharp and cruel smile.
"Tessa, are you are real or Mercy's creation?"
Meowwww!!!
The cat tried to run away from Ana's hand but the wind from her hands trapped the cat in a cage, and the cage was getting smaller and smaller by the second.
"Tell me, Tessa? Are you real? Is anything real? Or, is it the whispers of the illusion master in our ears that push me to insanity." Ana leaned back and began enjoying on her rocking chair.
The rocking chair was closing down slowly watching the cat being squished further and further without any emotion on face. Her eyes were cold and hard seeing the suffering.
"I can really feel my genes now." Ana dispersed the wind magic, and Tessa feel on the floor on her feet and ran back from the door immediately. Ana got back on her feet and took a deep breath.
"I need to close all of Mercy's magic in my head, there is something surreal about this whole area. I need to find the person who gave Arya this message."
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