Arya was quietly sitting at the seat in the royal council. The things around him were a little ghostly and unclear, but he could hear everything clearly.
He was standing at the centre of the hall, with Lord Mathers standing near Arya and Ina on her seat. The warlord's council on their throne beside Lord Mather's throne.
"You think I would marry a lowborn? Don't you know the interests of a lady? Marry me today, and I will leave this wedding and eat poison!" Ina was wearing green garb and white pants that day and screaming loudly.
"Why is she screaming like that? Ina loves me; why is she doing this?" Arya asked himself, why things were moving so fast.
"You hear her; now get out of my kingdom! You have been exiled for failing to follow the king's order and still asking for the reward." Lord Mathers, in his white-red tunic and crown of silver and gold on his head, screamed at Arya.
"I think it was the first time he screamed at me. In fact, he never screamed at anyone; not in anger, grief, or fear, he never screamed." Arya told himself.
"Exile! Exile!..." The people of the city on the corner began shouting aloud. Mercy could see the other lower warlords around him rising and speaking; none of them raised their voices in his favour. They were laughing at him.
The council members were the only ones who remained quiet; when he looked closely, Alone Riza even had a look of sadness on his face, while the others were stone-cold quiet. The judge was ready to raise his sword, but Dia Mantha told him not to.
"..."
Mercy then realised that someone was sitting on Lord Mathers's throne, dressed in white clothes from up to down, with his hat covering his body. His expressions were unknown, but his fingers were showing something.
All five fingers were out on his first hand, while only one was on his second.
"You will not remember this," the voice said in the tone he had heard before.
Then everything went blank when the figure came blazing on from the throne and cut off Arya's head in a second.
Arya accepted his death with a smile.
—----------------------------------------------
The voices of a horse and the sound of running water from a river disturbed Arya's dream.
Arya's sleepy eyes opened like any other person. He blinked once or twice and tried falling asleep again, but he couldn't. He then properly opened his eyes and saw the green trees around him.
"What is happening? Was I dreaming?" His eyes squinted, and his body felt like it was jammed.
Then he slowly realised he was sitting straight on an animal, and from the noises, he knew it was a horse.
"I was running from a realm." Suddenly, Arya's body jerked to the left, and his eyes completely opened.
Neighhhh!!
Rush jerked himself to the right, giving Arya a violent shake on his saddle as he responded to his movement. Arya then realised he was strapped with belts on Rush's golden hide.
"Calm, Rush… Calm.." Mercy rubbed his hand over Rush's skin, which was not covered by his golden saddle or armour, and Rush calmed down. Arya began removing his belts and jumped down from Rush.
"Where the hell are we?" Arya wiped the half-frozen drool on his face.
Arya glimpsed the world; it was trees everywhere, lush forests. They were not that dense; Arya could see a good distance around them.
"The trees here are fruitless; the forest of the forsaken has only large trees or trees with fruits. And if it is the evening of the same day, we must be at the Forest of Blood."
Arya had been there before, and he did not want to come here again. The night would be hell for them if they were on the bad side of the forest.
"There are still hours before night." The sun was still out, and it was still just evening. Arya, perplexed by the condition he was witnessing, needed to answer his questions. The man who could have answered his question was missing somewhere he didn't know.
"Maybe Rush knows?"
"Where did Mercy go, Rush?" Mercy looked at Raven, a horse with green eyes. The horse gave no response but silence. Maybe even Rush didn't know where Mercy went.
"You know, Rush. Mercy is just an asshole; I know you feel the same. He does whatever he wants and never cares for others; you know, he pushed me and knocked me out. That bastard."
Neighhhh!!
Rush shoved away Mercy's hand when he was tired of caressing him. "What do you still like about him? Even after I told you that, he punched me and left us here. How are you still supportive of him?"
Arya moved away from Rush, as the horse was getting angrier. He gave Rush a look of disgust.
"Truly an animal after all." He said that and moved away to find Mercy.
「Natural Ability: Shatter Land」
With his ability, Arya grew extremely tiny spikes through every piece of land above and underground, touching the things, and telling her something was there. He could predict the shape of things if they were buried, as land would touch them from all sides.
Nothing came; no presence was nearby or underground. Although Arya found a large yellow ant colony below the ground,.
"I wish my ability could work on trees; maybe Mercy is seen sitting on one of the trees or near the river."
Arya heard the voice of a river nearby; maybe he could find something to drink and wash his face.
Aggh…
Arya's stomach growled as he reminded himself that he had not eaten anything physical in a while due to hiding from assassins. Mercy's illusion made him feel worse.
"Maybe I will find some fish in the river.
Arya followed the river's voice, slowly moving downhill, trying not to hit himself by slipping on the rocks and hitting a tree, which could lead to potential death if he hit his head hard enough.
But he kept trotting his way. The rocks below are like simple rocks, but when poisonous ones were brought from the dragon wastelands and mixed with simple ones. Being an exploration and library person helped him a lot.
Arya was halfway down while keeping each step cautiously and avoiding any booby traps if there were. Constantly using his ability to detect anything nearby.
"This will take hours like this. Who can anyone walk on the ground swiftly here?" Then Arya realised how stupid he was.
「Natural Ability: Shatter Earth」
「Power: Shield of Marsh.」
He summarised his spectrum and cast his abilities one by one. The spikes rise from the earth and are lined sideways, acting like a staircase and piling up on top of each other.
"Why do you forget that I am a warlord? I am living easy."
Arya walked proudly and openly. He stringed countless booby traps in the way, like a sharp spike on the back of his head, an arrow shower from crossbows, and a log. His rock shield blocked all of them, and he got down safely and steadily on the downhill towards the river's voice.
"Finally off." The staircase of spikes finally ended at the end of the forest trees, and the river's water was clear to see.
Arya jumped off the stairs out of the forest and onto the river edge, filled with pebbles and stones.
"Finally some water..." The first look at the water was refreshing, but Arya saw the red reflections in the river. The reflection dropped Arya Apatite and his wish to drink water.
'No, not again. Mercy must have gone to the Ravine of the Lords."
The red-bloated eggs of bloodflies were hanging alongside the bright violet flowers of the viscera. Hanging off the branches of the trees, and bloodflies lying dead on the other side of the river.
They were like mosquitoes but worse, with scarier and massive, noisy wings; their needles were used to cut open the skin, and their small teeth ejected a toxin that made any scar bleed endlessly, so they would drink all the blood of their victims.
The last time Arya saw a victim, the course was so dry and thin that it could be used as fuel to light a flame.
Arya had walked on both sides of the river; he knew if he followed the path opposite the river's flow, he would soon reach the road through the forest of blood flies leading to the monument.
"That goddamn, Mercy will get me killed. He left us so close to these things. They will bleed me dry. I don't want to think about protecting Rush; that horse is done for. If Mercy didn't return, how would I get food and shelter?"
Arya knew if he ran, the forest of blood, other hunters too, bears, and mind-controlling larvae at the least. He needed to find Mercy somehow, so he gulped his fear and searched the road.