Chapter 115 - Guide"s Gift (1)
1
Every night Yuren Rizester went to sleep he always had a dream. The guide in his dream had approached him one day, and now he always had a dream every night. Now he couldn’t remember a time when he didn’t have a dream.
-In the end, you met your destiny, Yuren.
At a glance, Yuren could tell he wasn’t in reality. He could see numerous fragments of memories connected to each other, and the guide’s words came to Yuren in this chaotic s.p.a.ce. The guide’s voice allowed Yuren to be able to think clearly, and a sense of calmness was promoted from within.
The dream of the guide was different from a lucid dream. However, his consciousness wasn’t fully awake. He couldn’t remember all that went on within his dreams.
It was similar to a half-asleep state. He was asleep, but he was conscious of what was happening around him in reality. It felt as if someone was whispering into his ears.
‘Ah. It was as you said… The man makes me think of Azell Karzark from the legends.’
-Right?
‘The heir of Aunsaurus suspects that Azell Karzark is the original Azell…. Well, that isn’t possible, but he does make one think it is a possibility.’
It had only been several day since Yuren had met Azell. However, Azell became more remarkable as Yuren continued to look at him. It was as the guide had said. Yuren thought Azell really might be able to open up a path that will allow them to bring down the Dragon Demon king worshippers...
-He will show you the answer. I only tell you what you have to do, but he will the one to lead your destiny.
‘If he is the descendant of Azell Karzark… Our meeting seems very fateful.’
After 220 years, the descendants of the hero Azell Karzark and Archmage Carlos Rizester had met. If the two of them allied with each other to eradicate the evil left behind by the Dragon Demon King Atein, how poetic would it be?
The guide spoke.
-It is destiny. Your relationship with him has to proceed forward, so you have to be on his good side. The road will open when you gain his trust.
‘I’ll work on it. This is why I am here.’
Yuren was having a nightmare even though he wasn’t asleep. If he s.p.a.ced out for a brief moment, nightmare-like thoughts plagued him. There were people out there, who were deprived of their lives like Yuren. The Dragon Demon king worshippers turned people into tools, and the fact that they were suffering even now was horrifying to Yuren. Then there were the children he had tried to rescue. In the end, they had all died, and he could still hear their screams. He had driven them towards their deaths.
-You did your best.
‘However, the result was the worst.’
-Yuren.
‘I know. It is useless to blame myself. Leticia already nags me about it so much that I’m fed up with the topic.’
Yuren shook his head from side to side. He had a sad smile on his face.
‘I have to help him to end all of this. Even if I die, it is my duty.’
He had walked through the long darkness to find a person, who might become the light of hope. Yuren had to earn Azell’s trust at all cost. He had to become Azell’s companion.
The guide’s voice remained silent for a brief moment before it spoke again.
-All right. I’ll give you knowledge that’ll allow you to gain his trust.
‘Is there anything else I can do except fight by his side?’
-Of course. Time is precious right now. At this moment, the world is going through a sudden change. There is too little time left to build trust and camaraderie through human interactions.
‘What is happening?
-You already have the answer.
‘Is it the Dragon Demon King Atein’s revival?’
When Yuren asked the question, he felt a peculiar reverberation.
Dragon Demon King Atein.
He said this name countless times before, but he now suddenly felt a weird sensation.
Before he became preoccupied with this point, the guide continued to speak.
-That isn’t the problem.
‘Then what is it?’
-This will cause the Plain of Darkness to move in earnest.
‘I’m not sure what you are trying to say.’
-Think this through Yuren. You have to come up with the answer for yourself. You can’t just expect me to feed you all the information. If not, you’ll just become my puppet.
‘This is why I’m conflicted. If you were a Demon trying to destroy me, you wouldn’t say stuff like this to me.
-Maybe, this is all part of my design.
‘Ah, all right. Good. ’
Yuren compiled the information available to him, and he came up with several possibilities. The Plain of Darkness had countless schemes ongoing on the continent. In the past 200 years,there had been several changes of generations. Each change of generation provided an opportunity for the Dragon Demon king worshippers to worm their way into the human society.
‘They haven’t revealed themselves. They might after Atein’s revival, but they don’t have the power to pick a fight with the world..’
The Plain of Darkness hid in the shadow of the world as they schemed. They did this, because they didn’t possess the power they once possessed in the Dragon Demon war. In the past, they had enough forces to take over the world. Of course, if they concentrated their forces now, they would be able to fight and win against a single country. However, their existence would be revealed to the seven kingdoms in the process. No, the whole world would become their enemy, and only ruination awaited the Dragon Demon king worshippers.
‘If that is true… The only thing I can think of is the fact that they want to sow chaos from the shadows.’
-That is what they"ve been doing up until now. What has changed?
‘Hmm. I’m not sure. Their goal was to make human society diseased… Will they instigate a war between humans?’
-That is one of the right answers.
‘Really? Well, I guess that is within their capability.’
It would be crazy for the Plain of Darkness to reveal themselves and go to war with the humans. However, they had infiltrated all the ranks and cla.s.ses of society, so it was possible to engineer a war.
‘However, that isn’t all there is to the plan?’
-No. The fact that a war will start soon is correct. War is the most violent way to exhaust the power of humans.
‘It isn’t just about a fight between humans. There are other beings aside from humans…. So they’ll try to bring beings from other races, who aren’t affiliated with the Dragon Demon king worshippers, into a fight with the humans?
-That is also another correct answer. They’ve been conducting numerous experiments.
‘For example, are you talking about the Grand Alliance of Darkness that popped up in the Rulain Kingdom?’
-Yes.
The Grand Alliance of Darkness had threatened the Rulain Kingdom around 30 years ago, and they had been created by the Plain of Darkness. The strong and wise mutant Orc named Dakan had been made with evil magic. It had been surprisingly easy to gather monsters by propping Dakan up as a leader.
-The winds of change will blow over the world. Be prepared for the ensuing chaos.
The guide had told Yuren a surprising amount of information. If the guide’s words were correct, he could buy Azell’s trust with it. The guide’s words had never been wrong before.
Suddenly, Yuren asked a question.
‘I never expected such an arrangement to exist. It is amazing. Anyways… Isn’t it time for you to tell me who you are?’
-It would be meaningless to tell you.
‘Why?’
-You’ll forget it once this dream ends. The answer will come to you at the right time.
‘But…….’
The dream ended there.
2
Azell’s party was moving at a much slower pace than they had originally planned. A week had pa.s.sed, since they had left the County of Karzark. Currently, they had decided to rest at an inn. Kairen grumbled.
“We should have already covered twice the distance by now. That magician move like a snail….”
“…are you trying to kill me? If so, you should just tell it to me straight.”
Yuren grumbled. If one was looking at a map, they were traveling in a straight line at 60 km/h. They were traveling at an incredibly high speed. It defied common sense.
If a layman saw Yuren fly, one wouldn’t understand how difficult it was to fly through the air. Flight over a long period of time required the extreme consumption of magical energy, stamina and willpower. It was very remarkable that a young man like Yuren was able to keep up with the pace.
In terms of innate magical energy, Laura was more outstanding than Yuren, yet even she was exhausted. Leticia, who trained in the Dragon Arts, was keeping up, but it hadn’t been easy for her.
‘However, I can’t deny this is good training for me.’
Normally, regular magicians never thought about using Flight magic to travel a long distance at high speeds. The reasons were as previously stated. Those reason also applied to Laura.
She was demanded to do tasks that she had never been required to do before. She could feel herself improve. On the first day, she had been completely ga.s.sed. She needed to be carried by Azell to the next town. However, she was now reach their next destination under her own power.
‘This will be most effective when I have to run away.’
Leticia had to expend quite a lot of energy when she had to run away from Dragon Demon king worshippers in the past. However, she never overdid it, because she had to preserve her battle capability. However, if she was put in a similar situation, she would now have an easier time evading her trackers.
Leticia made a remark to Azell.
“I never knew the human body could move so well.”
Even if he was a Spirit Order Pract.i.tioner, the way he moved was absurd. Azell was equipped lightly, but he carried all the baggages needed for the trip. He ran across mountain and forests, while carrying such a burden.
Kairen smirked at her words.
“If my friend wanted to, he could travel much faster than me. In truth, I"m slowing him down. If I’m grabbing at his ankles, you guys are like b.a.l.l.s and chain on his feet.”
“Mmm? What are you saying?”
“You’ll have a chance to see it later. Even I don’t dare to imitate what he does.”
Azell was able to teach Kairen a lot of techniques. However, Kairen wasn’t able to learn ‘Incarnation’, which allowed one to create a clone of substance. In the first place, it was a skill incompatible with him. Kairen had rarely used the cloning technique before. This was why Kairen couldn’t learn the long range flight technique devised by Azell.
Kairen spoke.
“You are doing pretty well in keeping up with us, Leticia.”
“I’ve always preferred to run on my own to feet. However, I’ve never experience traveling long distances day after day like this. It is hard for me to see you guys as being sane.”
Leticia shook her head from side to side. Kairen looked at her with interest. He didn’t know what the Dragon Demon King worshippers did to her,. However, she possessed more Dragon Demon magic as a Dragon Majin compared to most Dragon Demons. She was the most talented female pract.i.tioner of the Dragon Arts he had seen in his lifetime.
“If you are overflowing with energy, why don’t we spar? Azell doesn’t play with me anymore, so I’m a little bit bored.”
“You are old, yet…. You are overflowing with energy.”
Even as she said those words, Leticia looked interested. It would be a lie to say she hadn’t wanted to fight him during the week long travel.
Yuren spoke as he saw the two of them exit towards the backyard of the inn.
“Ah, youth.”
“You are the youngest amongst us.”
Laura, who was lounging around, spoke.