As soon as they were far enough away from the crowd to be totally out of sight, Alia let go of August. He released a breath he did not realize he had been holding in, finally free from the prying eyes of the citizens, and of the monstrous person they had just come into contact with.
"What the hell was that?" He asked, glancing over at Alia.
The redhead was a bit more visibly shaken than him, with sweat glistening off her skin.
To be honest with himself, August had to admit they were probably overreacting. It was only natural for someone who fought beasts for a living to be much stronger and more imposing than the standard person.
So then, why was his entire body screaming at him to flee?
Was it the instincts he had gained in the dark forest? Was it that the feeling he had gotten had reminded him of his past? Or even that he was scared?
In truth, it was a combination of all these things, and August realized that rather quickly. As a child, he had dealt with things by running away, in the dark forest, he ran when the beasts of the forest were much stronger than himself, and fought when they were not. Luckily for them, none of the beasts they had encountered after the armored rhinoceros had been strong enough to warrant that reaction.
But because of all these experiences, August had gained a valuable skill, knowing his limits. And he was much more than sure that Jihan was well beyond his limits.
"I don't know, but you felt it too right? so it couldn't be wrong." Alia responded
"I say we just go home" he told her.
It was around noon, which meant that they had quite some time until sunset to both recover and prepare. August suspected that Alia shared his leak of will to get especially flaky with these plans, which meant skipping out on rest.
The redhead nodded and began walking down the paved road, and he followed silently, for a few moments at least.
"What are the chances we actually end up in a conflict with him? How bad could it possibly be?" He asked.
Alia slapped him – gently of course, it was just a casual slap, but she was also much stronger than the average person, even in the new world, meaning that August was left clutching his face.
"Very bad, so do not jinx me, got it Cross?" She demanded of him.
He rolled his eyes 'If only you would spend half of that slapping energy on cooking, maybe you'd be good at it.' Of course he did not say this, he valued his life too much, throwing it away for a mere retort would be Darwinism at its finest.
"Ignoring your unwarranted assault, we're just going off nothing but bad vibes here, it doesn't make sense to treat them with hostility."
Alia frowned "I guess you're right, but just in case… Do I get to use the world forge?"
"Seriously? What is your obsession with it? I only have so many molds!"
Now it was Alia's turn to roll her eyes.
"That you haven't been using, not like we've had to fight anything. So stop being selfish and let me use them!"
"Fine!" He playfully shot back "you can use one!"
"Five." Alia said.
"Hell no, two."
"Five!" She yelled with a bit more spirit.
"Two and a half." he bit back
"How would you even use half an aura mold? Is there just like… a point where half of it is left?" Alia asked, sounding a bit confused.
He shrugged "no idea."
August had not used the world forge, or any of his abilities– besides storage, in almost two months now. After finding his current job and between practicing with his aura, he simply did not find a need.
He was no longer fighting for his life at every confidante moment, so he did not really care for any artillery.
Well all except one weapon in particular.
Subconsciously, he called upon the lavender screen, searching for a specific description.
"Sapphire Sword"
"Created by the Collector in a time of dire need from the soul of an Apex predator. The Sapphire Sword is as powerful as the weilder permits, but always just as wild and hungry, yearning to be tamed."
He himself had to admit, the burning blade was far more than simply impressive, in terms of weapons he owned, it was by far the most powerful one.
The blade itself was strong, sharp and powerful, how much so? He simply did not know. However, what he did know was the ability of the sword.
The Sapphire Sword was capable of drawing upon aura to not only heat up, but also produce streams of majestic, winter blue flames. Sadly, he had learned that if one did not control the amount of aura they provided the blade, it would simply take it all. Though, that would not be a problem with his massive reserves of aura.
If only he could use it.
The blue blade was so hot at times that simply being near it would burn August's skin, forcing him to release it. This had not happened the first time, potentially because he had only held onto it for a moment, but he was now much more relieved that he had not.
Shivering at the memory of when he first encountered the flames, he then dismissed the organizer. There was no sense in dreaming about what he couldn't do, so he instead thought of what was possible.
Alia could handle the heat of the Sapphire Sword, her body was much stronger than his and as such did not struggle to withstand it – at the very least when she was not in direct contact with the flame. Which was why it was decided that the Sapphire Sword would become hers to use.
He was still a bit envious that his most prized aura mold had become something he could not take advantage of, but since his friend was a much better fighter than himself, it was not too bad a feeling.
While he was somewhat lost in thought, their current house came into view.
The city was quite compact, as a large portion of it was used for farming otherworldly crops and expansion projects. This served to make trips in around the city extremely short, which August was extremely grateful for as someone who worked in the delivery industry.
Waltzing up to the front door and Summoning a key, August pushed in into the newly installed doorknob and turned it, then pushed the door open.
"We're home!"