Category: Chapters – Version 2

Emerging from the narrow stretch of trees lining the right hand side of the road, Nihil and Ignis were greeted by large open skies and farmland as far as their eyes could see.

The town they were headed towards was just over the nearest hill. That being said, it was over a day’s walk away so they wouldn’t reach the town for roughly another 2 days. Now that they’d exited the ancient forest, the towns and cities would all be 2-5 days away from each other by foot until they reached the rocky plains at Avalon’s shared border with Sheol.

The ruins were roughly 37,000km away so it would take almost two months to reach them on foot. Since they were adventurers, they wouldn’t use horses or other methods of transportation. After all, their destination wasn’t their only objective. They were also interested in the magical beasts that they could kill on their way. The average party could travel around 450km per day on foot, and Axis’ months all consisted of 50 days, each of which being 30 hours long.

If they’d been on their own, Nihil and Ignis would have been able to travel much faster so this slow pace was sure to annoy them. However, they couldn’t pass up the cover they’d receive from Diei Noctis. After all, the Royal Guard would expect them to have travelled much further by this time. In fact, they probably assumed that the men were already at Avalon’s borders at the edge of the Central Sea. The Guard must be frantically searching, hoping to catch the pair before they crossed the border.

The Central Sea was entirely Arcadia’s territory. Anything that was on those waters would fall into their jurisdiction, and no other country could interfere without going through the council first.

Since the inter-species council was in charge of the Central Sea, it would make sense for Ignis and Nihil to head there to petition for intervention. The sea also happened to be much closer to them than the borders of Sheol. However, knowing that the Royal Guard would anticipate this, the two had decided to head to the ruins first.

This route would also end up with a much shorter journey at sea in order to reach the main island. This island was called the Black Isle, and the city at the centre was the capital of the entire country – Bule.

Despite the island’s ominous name, It was actually named for the onyx within the ground, literally making it black in colour. The citizens really embraced it, and they built most of their buildings out of the stone. It also had the added benefit of being a very valuable material for enchanting due to its purity, so they often sold it to the other countries for a decent price.

* * *

There were a few groups of people dotted here and there, making their way to or from the road leading to Imber. These groups would be merchants, travellers, and also other adventurers that had business in the capital. However due to the recent developments with the crown prince, there were far fewer non-humans as compared to previous years.

Picking a path that would navigate them through the farmland and take them to the village they were headed to, the group set off. Before long, a few magical beasts attacked the party, trampling through crop fields and vegetable patches that happened to get in their way. Luckily these magical beasts didn’t attack in groups, so they were quickly dispatched and dismantled. After these attacks, the group would help the farmers clean up the mess and apologise for the trouble. The farmers were normally understanding and forgiving, but there would always be a few grumpy people that couldn’t be pacified.

Magical beasts normally wouldn’t care about farmland and the weak farmers who tended the fields. However, if a large group of powerful cultors passed by, the nearby magical beats would get stirred up into a frenzy and attack the group without worrying about what happened to be in front of them.

During their journey, it soon became evident that, with the absence of their leaders, the group was much more subdued than usual. However Ignis soon cheered everyone up again by telling them many different stories of his past with Nihil. He even told them the story of when he’d first befriended Nihil.

* * *

Ignis was 10 years old when he first arrived at the same compound that Nihil was being kept in. Looking through the glass wall, for some reason Ignis was immediately intrigued by the defiant man before him. Since that day, Nihil’s appearance hadn’t changed at all – aside from perhaps coming across as much friendlier.

That day, Nihil had looked even more stoney faced than he did in recent days. Ignis had thought that Nihil’s indifferent golden eyes were hiding a deep-rooted sadness. No matter what happened to him Nihil never seemed to even register it, but Ignis still sensed that there was more to him than met the eye.

To a child of 10 years old, Nihil had always been mysterious and somewhat scary. However, that just made Ignis want to talk to him even more. Unfortunately no matter how often he’d approached the strange man, he’d always been shot down and told to go off and play by himself.

Back then, they’d all been referred to by numbers. Nihil’s number was zero, while Ignis’ was 1915. That being said, by the time Ignis arrived, there were only around 20 kids left in the compound. He hadn’t really understood the full implications of this at first, but as the years passed and the kids slowly vanished, he gradually understood what had happened to them. He also finally understood why Nihil had never once told him to play with the other kids.

It was when Ignis was 15 years old that something happened to change his relationship with Nihil. Ignis had been wandering around the small, walled garden. As always, he’d been wearing the shackles that were compulsory for all the incarcerated children to wear.

Ignis had noticed that the apples on the tree in the centre of the garden were ripe, and he’d wanted to pick one to eat. While he was within the branches, Ignis had seen Nihil sleeping in the shade not too far away from the tree the little boy had climbed. Surprised that he hadn’t sensed the man’s presence until then, Ignis jumped down from the tree and approached the stranger for a better look. Even with Nihil right in front of him, Ignis still couldn’t sense the guy at all.

Looking at Nihil’s face, Ignis noticed that the guy’s sad expression didn’t disappear even while he was sleeping. Just then Nihil’s eyes flickered as he woke up and saw the boy standing over him.

“Y-your eyes are a pretty colour.” Ignis awkwardly stuttered. He was embarrassed at being caught staring, and his brain stopped working for a few seconds.

Realising what he’d said, Ignis had blushed deeply and started rambling in a desperate attempt to explain what he meant. “I-it’s just that I haven’t seen that colour before – not that I remember my past before I came here. Are you a half-breed? Though most half-breeds take after just one parent … You have horns, but you also have a fox’s tail and elven ears. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone like you before -”

“You like my eye colour?” Nihil interrupted upon realising that the little boy in front of him wasn’t going to stop talking any time soon.

“Huh? Oh yeah, it’s super awesome. It’s almost as if they’re glowing.”

“Well, you’d be the first to think that way …” Nihil had muttered to himself.

Standing up, he tried to reenter the compound building. However Ignis was still standing right in front of him, so Nihil ended up tripping over the chain connecting his two shackles together.

Catching him, Ignis checked to see if Nihil was ok.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It was just a particularly rough day, is all.” Nihil replied, exhausted.

“No wonder you were sleeping out here then.” Ignis commented sympathetically. “Right, I’ll walk you back to your room.”

“I can walk just fine on my own …”

“If you’re certain, then …” Ignis replied reluctantly. “I hope we can be friends from now on, though.”

“Huh? You want to be friends with me?” Nihil asked in shock. He was convinced he must have misheard the boy.

“Yeah. Do you not want to?”

“It’s not that I don’t -”

“Then it’s settled.” Ignis interrupted before Nihil could finish what he was going to say.

* * *

Naturally when he was telling this story, Ignis altered it slightly to fit the circumstances of two merchants’ children. As a result, none of the group noticed anything amiss with the story, and they even found it sweet. Some members found themselves warming up to Nihil slightly. However, most of them were more intrigued by Ignis’ strange personality of being so persistent.

At this point, the group reached a small woodland along the edge of their route. Since it was around midday, they decided to step inside to hide from the scorching sun for a minute, and to eat lunch while they were at it. Checking his supplies, Nihil realised that their stocks of food were very low. Looking around, he noticed that there were actually plenty of small animals and wild game in the area they were in.

Just as a low growl echoed throughout their surroundings, Ignis’ face grew serious. He could detect at least 13 magical beasts encircling them. They had stumbled across a pack of wolves.

“Nihil, there are 13 adults surrounding us, with their cubs hiding just behind them.” Ignis warned his friend after concentrating a bit harder.

“That’s a little troubling.” Nihil replied with a furrowed brow. “I’m not sure this group can take on that many opponents. Ignis, I’ll need your help here.”

“Got it.” Ignis declared after Nihil had explained the plan to him.

With perfect timing, the pack jumped and attacked the party of nine just as Nihil had finished explaining his plan to his friend.

“Now!” Archer shouted to the group. He had become the de facto leader in Stella and Lunam’s absence.

Archer was an older demon with greying hair, but he was still just as strong as he had been in his prime. His rich experience allowed him to lead this group with no problems, and his tactics in battle also left no room for doubt. Not even Nihil could often find fault with Archer’s cunning strategies.

After Archer shouted, Lucas, Alexis and Merry all opened fire with their long range weapons. Merry’s magical rifle was the most powerful, but the reload time was the slowest since she had to allow the rifle to charge between shots.

As the wolves drew nearer, she reached down into a pouch on her waist. Inside this pouch were several magical beast cores that she could slot into her gun. She hadn’t used these earlier because the rifle used a lot of the energy stored within the crystals, so she had to make sure that each one was used to maximum effect.

These wolves had an incredibly strong defence, so the rifle could only take one of them down after a couple of shots in the same area. Merry’s gun had the most powerful single attack of the entire party so it was needless to explain how the others were faring.

Lucas and Alexis were shooting their arrows at the wolves’ eyes in order to blind them. Even if they didn’t hit, the opponent was forced to look away from the party as they slipped behind trees to dodge the sharp projectiles.

Linley and Archer both worked together to limit their enemy’s movements further. They both shot out small dart-like objects into the trunks surrounding the group, forming a protective circle around them. Attached to these small darts were thin wires made from a spider-type magical beast’s webs. These threads were far stronger than any steel wires, and would serve to slow down the wolves’s advancement.

The attack style of these two was more suited to ambushes and assassinations, rather than a head on confrontation like this, so their options were severely limited. However, they weren’t defenceless, and their cultivations were among the highest in the Star and Moon adventurers. This meant that their hand-to-hand combat skills wouldn’t be lacking in comparison to the rest of the group.

Once the threads were all set up, the two demons fell back to the centre of the group while pulling out two short knives and taking up a defensive stance. They, along with Klaus and Claude, would perform hit and run attacks in order to keep their distance. The long range specialists would have the biggest affect on the outcome of this battle.

For this fight, Claude switched to an urumi as his normal whip wouldn’t deal as much damage in this kind of fight. An urumi was a sword that was made of super flexible steel, and could have a varying number of blades that were unbelievably sharp. He did have to sacrifice some of his reach, but as this had actually been his main weapon before joining Diei Noctis he was highly skilled at using the whip-like sword. His urumi had five blades, making it extremely difficult to master. However, it did mean that the amount of pain it dealt to an enemy was by no means small.

Noticing his choice of weapon, Nihil was impressed as it was one that required many years of constant practice in order to master.

“That weapon suits you better than the whip from before.” Nihil commented after watching his movements for a moment.

“This used to be my main weapon, so I’m not surprised.” Claude responded blithely.

Just then, the wolves managed to force their way through the threads protecting the group and started viciously attacking the party in fury. Blood dripped from their bodies in several places, and it was almost synced up with their drool, making for a rather terrifying scene.

Sensing something, the wolves all looked towards Nihil and broke off into two separate groups. Four of them headed towards Nihil, while the rest acted to keep the adventurers of Diei Noctis busy. Nihil had been standing a bit away from the group in order to keep out of their way, but now that had turned out to be a bad idea.

Looking at the adventurers, Nihil could see that they were all wondering why so many were heading towards him. They tried to stop the wolves, but the magical beasts’ defences were just too strong for them to be defeated in time.

Tch. I could easily take care of these few small fries, but that would mean displaying my magic to the group. Nihil thought in frustration. I guess I’ll just have to tell them some of the truth.

Just as he was about to unleash his magic on the beasts, Claude suddenly appeared before Nihil. The demon was covered in cuts and lacerations, but he still stood his ground and protected Nihil with a determined look on his face.

“I know you’d be fine even if I didn’t get involved, but that would mean showing everyone that you’re not as simple as you lead them to believe.” Claude muttered to Nihil under his breath. “I wouldn’t want to be around when Stella found out.”

“Haha … no, I wouldn’t either.” Nihil responded with a small laugh.

In this way, Claude was able to hold off the four wolves for just long enough for Ignis’s mission to be completed.

“Hey! Jackasses!” A shout echoed out from a distance away. “I have your cubs here!”

At this new voice, the wolves stopped attacking for a moment and turned to look in the direction it was coming from. Naturally this was Ignis, who’d disappeared unnoticed right at the beginning of the fight. In his arms, he was holding a cub that was desperately struggling to get free. The others were drugged and lying on the floor, asleep.

Seeing their cubs in such a situation, the wolves tried to head back to save them, growling in anger and panic, but the adventurers didn’t let this chance go. They unleashed a barrage of attacks and didn’t stop until every last one was dead.

Before, they’d had to worry about defending so they couldn’t attack with their full power, as that required time to muster. However, when the wolves had been distracted, they had completely lowered their guard against the group of adventurers, giving them time to prepare their attacks.

In the end, each individual wolf was less powerful than each of the adventurers, it was just that the wolves’ defence was tough to beat when they had their guard up. That, combined with their numbers, was what helped them to take out much stronger prey.

Now that the battle was over, Linley and Archer took care of the cubs. They weren’t old enough to have cores yet, but if left alone they would definitely seek revenge and become a pain to the group.

Nihil and Ignis exchanged pained looks at this cruel necessity, but they ultimately didn’t prevent the cubs’ deaths. Seeing this look, Claude wondered why the two were so soft. It wasn’t like the creatures had any intelligence. They also actively sought out people in order to devour their refined energy.

Nihil and Ignis weren’t so naive as to think that killing magical beasts wasn’t necessary, it was just that they didn’t like taking the lives of such young creatures. These cubs were, for all intents and purposes, still innocent, so slaughtering them like this seemed just a little bit wrong to them. However, they didn’t stop the group because they knew that this way of thinking would only serve to get people killed.

The only reason the magic beasts hadn’t been completely wiped out, was because in a way people relied on them to survive. All the different magical items used their cores in order to function, and so naturally most infrastructure was also dependant on beast cores to continue working. This, combined with the beasts’ incredible fertility, kept the species around. Besides, even small villages these days had walls to prevent incursions from magical beasts, and they tended to ignore the farmers outside of the perimeter. As such, the death count due to the beasts’ activity was actually very low in comparison to many other causes of death.

The next morning everyone got ready after eating a huge breakfast. As it turned out, Ignis didn’t have to worry about his friend as Nihil seemed completely recovered after just a couple of hours of rest, so he’d still been able to cook their food.

There were subtle bags under Nihil’s eyes that Ignis didn’t fail to miss, however no one else appeared to notice them. Even if they did see them they didn’t mention it, so neither of the two men brought up the subject either.

Nihil noticed Claude giving him curious glances throughout the meal, but didn’t bother to ask why. The two newcomers could already tell that Claude was the type of person to directly confront someone if he had a legitimate problem with them, so Nihil assumed that the half-demon’s behaviour had something to do with the discomforting aura that surrounded and continued to distance the golden-eyed man from the rest of the group.

Of everyone in Diei Noctis, Nihil actually liked Claude the best. He had a simple and honest nature, and yet he wasn’t nearly as touchy as Stella so Nihil found his personality rather refreshing. Actually, in a way Claude reminded Nihil of Ignis.

The village they’d been in before had only been a small one that was situated within a clearing of the ancient forest. All of the trees in this forest were at least 1,000 years old, so their widths and heights were staggering to behold for the first time. However, these trees were still tiny in comparison to the ones all over in Alfheim – the elven country.

Alfheim was a country on the other side of the Central Sea, and the forest that covered their entire land was even older than Avalon’s. There the youngest tree was 10,000 years old, and not even the entire party linking hands could fully encircle its trunk. Within Alfheim’s forest, there were many elven towns among the branches and they had rope bridges that traversed from tree to tree. Anyone with a fear of heights would give these towns a wide berth. However, the ground had a far greater number of magical beasts than any other country due to the dense world’s energy generated by the ancient trees. As such, the country was no place for the weak.

Soon they reached the end of the forest. Stepping out of the trees, the group was greeted by strong sunlight that took a few seconds to get used to after the dim green of the forest. Blinking rapidly, the group’s eyes finally adjusted and they saw a busy road running parallel to the forest’s edge. There was a line of normal sized trees running along the other side of the road, causing the disparity between the sizes to become all the more obvious. This was the road that led to Avalon’s capital, Imber, and the capital would be their first stop before heading to Sheol.

Reaching the road, they started to follow it into the city. However, it would still take most of the day before they finally reached the city’s walls. The large party attracted a lot of attention from the other travellers, but everyone soon looked away when they realised that the group was from the Adventurers’ Guild. Adventurers were well respected for the materials they gather by risking their lives, so no one wanted to accidentally offend one of them.

“Maybe we should split up into smaller groups in order to draw less attention. I get the feeling that we’re making people uncomfortable.” Paul suggested awkwardly.

“You’re probably right.” Linley responded with a small sigh. “Let’s split into groups of 3 or 4. It’s not like we’ll get lost while we’re following this road.”

In the end, the groups were organised as such: Alexis, Merry, Lunam and Stella; Paul, Linley, Carl and Clark; Archer, Klaus, and Lucas; and the last group consisted of Nihil, Ignis and Claude.

No one had any objections to Linley’s suggested groups, so they all parted ways and tried to merge with the crowd better than before. Nihil was surprised that Linley had noticed he was more comfortable around Claude than the rest of the group, but he was glad for it all the same. It seemed that Ignis was no longer the only one who was capable of reading Nihil’s moods.

“Umm … there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you all morning, but I didn’t get a chance to pull you away from the group.” Claude spoke up after they had put some distance between them and the rest of the party.

“Oh? Well we’re not with them now …” Ignis replied, genuinely confused.

Nihil had an idea of where this was going, but he didn’t stop Claude from asking his questions. He didn’t see any distrust or evil intentions in his eyes, so Nihil had decided to try trusting this man.

“Last night I was on my way back from taking a leak, when I noticed a glowing from between the trees …” Claude started. At this point Ignis had caught on to what was about to be said, and his eyes widened in panic as he desperately tried to come up with a reasonable explanation.

“As you can imagine, I was worried about what it was, so I headed towards it cautiously, and I saw you two. Your back was to me, Nihil, so I plainly saw your tail and the flame you created with magic. I also saw you eating it, Ignis … I guess what I want to know is why you guys are keeping your abilities from the group. If Miss Stella knew, then I’m sure she wouldn’t be so antagonistic towards you, Nihil.”

Ignis was shocked by the last sentence. Claude didn’t seem to be affected by Nihil’s negative aura, and was genuinely concerned for him. This revelation immediately made Ignis relax his guard, and he was truly happy that Nihil was finally making more friends. He decided to leave the choice of what to tell Claude up to Nihil.

“I’m afraid that Stella’s attitude wouldn’t be swayed so easily. The truth is that at least part of her aggression towards me is due to my special constitution. I have a negative aura around me that sets people on edge whenever they’re too close to me. It’s not something that I can control either.” Nihil explained expressionlessly, but his sorrow was still evident in his voice.

“I see … but why do you have such an aura? It’s not like you’re a bad person, after all.” Claude replied confidently.

“Hah, how are you so confident of that?” Nihil laughed rhetorically before continuing with his explanation. “It’s because I wasn’t born in a ‘normal’ way, and people can instinctually sense that about me so they get uncomfortable in my presence.”

“Does this have something to do with your tail? Come to think of it, why can’t we see it normally? Are you constantly using magic to hide it?”

“Not quite, my belt is enchanted to camouflage it. The only reason you could see it last night is because I was using all of my mental energy to create that especially dense flame you saw. As a result, I didn’t have enough concentration to spare to direct some more energy into the belt.” Nihil neatly dodged the question of his origin. He didn’t like talking about it after all.

“Oh! That makes sense. But wouldn’t a belt like that be expensive due to its unconventional nature? Why do you need to go to such lengths? It’s not like tails are an uncommon sight after all – most half-breeds can’t hide their tails and ears.”

“It wasn’t exactly expensive for us though … since Nihil was the one who created and inscribed it. He also enchanted his hat to -” Ignis started to respond, but then suddenly stopped as he realised that he was giving too much information again.

Hearing his friend’s words and seeing his worried expression, Nihil just rolled his eyes and smiled. He then slowly reached up and removed his hat from his head. Claude was curious as he watched Nihil’s actions, but soon his eyes lit up in shock and understanding. He then quickly turned his head to the others around, but soon realised that they hadn’t noticed anything unusual.

“So that’s what the enchantment on your hat hides. But how come no one else sees them?” Claude asked in confusion.

“Just before taking my hat off, I set up an illusion so that they wouldn’t see anything more than us walking along as we talk.” Nihil explained truthfully.

Underneath his hat, Nihil had a beautiful pair of obsidian horns that seemed to absorb all the surrounding light. However, there was something wrong with them. They were broken stubs that looked like they had previously been much, much longer. There were also a couple of other changes that Claude didn’t fail to notice. The first being that Nihil’s ears had lengthened to resemble those of elves’, and the second was that the boy’s pupils had stretched into slits like a cat’s. However, the horns were the most eye catching of the three.

“What happened to your horns? With their jagged edges, they look like something snapped them off!” Claude was understandably shocked, horns were among the strongest and densest known materials, so snapping them would take an incredible amount of force. This was especially true the darker they were, and Nihil’s were the darkest he’d ever seen. In fact, logically the man’s skull should have been the first of the two to give way.

“That I’m not sure about. I’ve had trouble remembering some things about my past. But I do know that they used to be much larger than most demons’. In a way, they’re easier to manage like this.”

“But don’t they hurt? I can’t even imagine the pain I’d be feeling if my horns were broken like that.”

“If you live with something for long enough, you get used to it eventually.” That was all Nihil would say on the subject.

Upon hearing this Claude and Ignis shared a concerned look for their friend, but they ultimately didn’t say anything. They knew that there was nothing they could do to help him.

Putting his cap back on, Nihil lowered the illusion barrier and sped up his pace slightly. Clearly the conversation was over for now. Taking the hint, Ignis and Claude quickly followed him.

Just then someone nearby called out to Claude and grabbed his arm.

“I should warn you that the guards at the gate won’t be too welcoming to anyone who’s not human.” The woman warned in concern. “You’re an adventurer so you’ll be let into the capital, but the guards won’t be too pleasant about it.”

“Huh? That wasn’t the case when I visited last year, though.” Claude replied in confusion.

“I thought you might not know, did you guys travel through the ancient forest from Kuk?” At Claude’s nod, the woman continued. “About six months ago, Crown Prince Pravus took over control of Imber’s security and governance in preparation for his duties as king. Since his father is occupied with managing the rest of the country, the prince has been left to his own devices and he started making his loathing towards other species much more evident. Obviously that made the guards at the gate try to curry his favour by also giving other species a hard time.”

“That sounds about right …” Ignis muttered under his breath with a dark expression.

Hearing his words, Claude gave the two men beside him a strange look but ultimately decided not to ask. Luckily the lady didn’t seem to hear, so she carried on explaining the situation to the guys.

“Since you’re an adventurer you’ll be allowed to enter, but the fee will be much higher than for humans. There will also be an additional fee when you leave and for the duration of your stay.”

“That’s really pushing the limits of the Non-Aggression Pact.” Nihil commented derisively.

“That’s what I think too! The Non-Aggression Pact might not specifically prohibit this sort of discrimination, but it still goes against everything it stands for.” The woman seemed to have a personal reason for such strong antipathy towards this new atmosphere. “Sorry for my outburst, my husband is a dwarf so I know first hand just how difficult and outrageous the guards have become under Prince Pravus’s control. It’s got to the point where finding a job is even difficult for such a skilled blacksmith as my husband. I’m actually on my way back into the city to let my family know that I’ve managed to secure us a new home in a relatively nearby village.”

“Thank you for letting us know. By the way, how can they tell what species someone is? Do they just go by appearance and miss a lot of half-breeds and the mysterious beasts in human form? Or do they actively scan people for their species?” Nihil spoke up in concern for himself and Ignis.

“Oh that! I’m not quite sure … I guess they have some sort of scanner? But I’ve never seen it. I just know that they don’t miss even the people who look to be human.” The woman speculated. She’d never thought about it before, but the boy did bring up a good point.

“Thank you for the warning, I hope you and your family can make a more comfortable life for yourselves in your new home.” Ignis spoke up, letting the woman rush ahead to see her family again.

“We need to find the others to let them know of this change. We may be able to get better prices for our materials here, but with all those additional fees it might not turn up more profit for us in the long run.” Claude commented after she’d disappeared from their view. “Most of our group isn’t human after all …”

“That sounds like a good idea.” Nihil spoke up, but something in his voice seemed off.

After rounding everyone up, Claude explained to the group about the current situation.

“It’s up to Miss Stella and Miss Lunam to decide what to do. Since we’re here already, it would take less time if we go, but we’d probably end up with less profit in the end …” Claude laid out the options after he’d finished explaining everything.

“My sister and I need to make a stop to see someone inside the capital, so we don’t really have a choice in the matter …” Stella answered in frustration.

“Well, how about this? Ignis and I were thinking it might be testing fate a bit for us to head right into the Royal Guard’s headquarters, so we and some of your group can stay behind here and limit the cost of entering the capital that way.” Nihil spoke up, quickly coming up with a reason for him and Ignis to avoid the scan at the entrance.

“That’s a point, we could do that.” Claude responded before Stella could jump down the guy’s throat. “If we head toward the next town on the way to the ruins, we could resupply and meet up there. That way we would probably even end up saving time.”

“That’s true …” Lunam mused. She then seemed to suddenly reach a decision. “Right, that’s what we’ll do then. Stella, Carl, Clark and Paul will enter the capital with me, while the rest of you should all go on ahead to the next town.”

“Hu~h?” Alexis whined half-jokingly. “And I was so looking forward to finally sleeping in a proper bed tonight as well … now it will be another few days at least.”

“It can’t be helped …” Linley responded, resigning himself to the trek ahead. “That prince is considerably shortsighted … if he pushes his luck too much, he’ll have the council breathing down his neck.”

“From the sounds of the douchebag, I would really like to see him knocked down a peg or two, though.” Paul piped in angrily. He may have been human, but most of his friends weren’t so he really couldn’t abide the prince’s behaviour – perhaps even more so because he was human.

Having decided on a plan, the group went their separate ways. After all, there was no point in just standing at the side of the road talking to each other.

Nihil and Ignis were just glad to have managed to avoid the scan by the guards. They’d been passing themselves off as human this entire time, and explaining themselves now would only be a hassle that was also likely to draw the Royal Guard’s attention.

“I’ve thought this for a while now, but the two of you really don’t smell normal.” Klaus spoke up a while after they left their temporary camp.

“Wow. Do we smell nice at least?” Ignis retorted, only half joking. He was a bit of a clean freak so he hated smelling bad.

Klaus rolled his eyes, and took the hint to drop the subject. It was good that Stella hadn’t heard his comment, as she wouldn’t have let it go as easily. To those who didn’t know better, it would look as if she had a personal vendetta against Nihil for some reason. Then again, none of the rest of the group ever tried to stop her – except Ignis, of course. However, Nihil mostly just ignored it as he seemed to know something about it that the others didn’t.

“So where are you guys from? You can’t have always been thieves, surely?” Lunam inquired after dropping back from the front of the group.

“That’s what we’d like to know.” Ignis muttered under his breath, a tinge of frustration coming through.

“That is to say that we were constantly on the move as children, and so we’ve never had a fixed location to call our home.” Nihil quickly covered for his friend, shooting him a warning look.

Ignis hurried to agree, instantly regretting his slip of the toungue. He was glad that Nihil was a quick thinker.

“Oh? Your parents must have had an interesting job, then. Are you two brothers?” The last question was asked somewhat dubiously, as the two really didn’t look anything alike.

“Haha, no we’re not.” Ignis laughed. “Our parents were business partners, so we naturally became close. They were merchants, you see.”

“Ah, that makes sense then.” Lunam smiled in understanding. “By the way, ever since I heard about it, I’ve been curious … what did you guys steal from the Royal Guard?”

At this, the duo suddenly felt as if the entire group had shifted all their focus onto their answer. It seemed that the two wouldn’t be able to dodge the question.

“That’s something we won’t say.” Nihil refused point blank. They weren’t going to be travelling together for long, and he didn’t see any need to tell them.

“Well that’s rude.” Stella muttered loud enough for the entire party to hear.

“There’s no reason to tell you, and it’s none of your business.” Nihil replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

“No matter what you say, we are currently travelling together. Does that not mean we have a right to know?” Klaus asked, naturally taking his leader’s side.

“Afraid that’s not enough of a reason.” Ignis replied lightly. “Knowing just might put you in even more danger.”

Giving his friend a strange look for the overly dramatic statement, Nihil quickly let it slide. It never ceased to amaze him just how innocently the guy could lie through his teeth. Then again, he wasn’t any better himself.

“Hmm … ? Is that so?” Lunam responded slowly. “And if we were to say that we didn’t care?”

“It wouldn’t make any difference.” Nihil put it simply.

“Fair enough then.”

“Lunam! Why are you letting him be so rude?” Stella angrily confronted her sister. “I don’t trust them! They’re probably just lying to us!”

“Enough! They’re correct, it really isn’t any of our business. We can’t force them to give up their secrets. Can you honestly say that we’ve fully disclosed everything about ourselves too?” Lunam pointed out to her sister in an effort to mediate the argument. After she spoke as such, the conversation quickly turned to other topics.

Slowing down, Nihil and Ignis put some distance between them and the adventurers.

“What should we do now? I’m starting to think that this wasn’t a good plan after all …” Ignis asked his friend worriedly. “The vibe you give others has never been good, but that Stella acts as if we murdered her father or something. It almost seems personal.”

“I’m used to it by now. Honestly, it’s not their fault – I am an unnatural existence after all …” Nihil replied indifferently.

“No you’re not! If anything you’re the most natural existence of all of us!” Ignis angrily refuted his friend. He really hated that Nihil genuinely believed that about himself.

Nihil just smiled gently at his friend. He knew that this man was probably the only one who would ever feel that way about him, despite knowing the truth. Honestly, he’d thought that he had long since given up on even trying, but ever since Ignis had accepted him, a small part of his heart had slowly started to get his hopes up once again.

“Since we’re headed in the same direction, we might as well stick with them. I’ll try to get along with the group better to make this easier on you.” Nihil replied, dodging the subject of his origin.

Choosing not to say anything, Ignis indicated his agreement and the two swiftly returned to the main group.

* * *

Along the way to the ruins, the adventurers hunted magical beasts and stole their gems. These gems were the coalescence of unrefined magical energy in the beasts’ bodies. It sustained their lives, but it was also a very valuable resource for other species. They were often used to create storage gems just like the ones used in the inn, and the amount of space they could support was directly proportional to the strength of the magical beast that nurtured it. As such they were very valuable. However, the danger posed during their collection (especially for the higher quality ones) was not to be looked down upon.

Magical beasts were different from Mysterious beasts. Mysterious beasts had intelligence at least equivalent to a human, and they could speak the common tongue of Axis so communication was possible. They could also train in magic or cultivation. In contrast, magical beasts were dumb, wild animals that actively sought out the other species to fight. They were instinctually attracted to the refined magical energy contained in a person’s body, knowing that it would be highly beneficial to their strength. However, they couldn’t train to independently increase their strength, so stealing it from the other species was their only option.

Villages were always surrounded by walls precisely due to the existence of magical beasts. Without their protection, the people inside would be massacred every night by wild hordes attracted to the large congregation of refined energy.

For the most part Nihil and Ignis stayed out of the way of the seasoned adventurer’s group as they fought, but sometimes they acted as bait to lure the prey into a trap or ambush. It was interesting for the two men to watch how such a large group of people worked together in perfect sync. It was clear that they had worked together for a long time, and that they all respected and trusted each other with their lives.

Merry, Alexis and Lucas were all long range type fighters. Alexis used a bow, while Merry used a rifle. Just like the two girls, Lucas was an elf. His weapon of choice was a crossbow. As such, they stayed at the back of the group and covered the rest of the party with supportive fire. They would pay close attention to the opponent and strike devastating blows at just the right time.

Klaus, Lunam and Stella were, of course, close quarter fighters. Lunam wielded dual blades, while Klaus simply transformed into his wolf form and fought with his fangs and claws. Stella fought with steel gauntlets that gave her punches more strength and power. These guys could all fight without worry because they trusted Merry, Alexis and Lucas to cover their backs when they needed it, and their role was to draw the opponent’s attacks to them in order to allow the rest of the party to fight freely.

Claude, Linley and Archer were demons that specialised in mid-range and restraint techniques. Claude had mastered the whip, while Linley and Archer used throwing daggers and other hidden weapons, such as traps and wires. Their job was to restrict the enemy’s movements from a distance, assisting both the close-range and the long-range fighters. Linley and Archer had a pair of jet black eyes, wings and a tail. However, Claude‘s wings and tail were blood red, but he also had a pair of matching horns. This difference in colour indicated that Claude had a weaker bloodline than the other two, however the presence of his horns indicated that one of his parents had an especially strong bloodline. In addition to this inconsistency, he had purple irises hidden behind his tousled brown hair. This colour clearly revealed Claude’s half-demon status.

Finally, Paul, Clark and Carl were sensory type support cultivators. They were all humans who had specifically heightened each of their senses so they could hear, smell and see things in greater detail than specialists in other fields. This was especially impressive, since humans started at a lower start line for all these attributes than any other species on Axis. They also focused their cultivation on healing so that they could better support the fighters. However if they were forced to fight, they were rather adept at using poisons.

Their job was to keep an eye on their surroundings while everyone else fought, so that the party wouldn’t get ambushed while they were distracted. After the battle was over, they and Stella would tend to any wounds that had been incurred during the fight.

In this manner, the group could split into 3 smaller teams and take on multiple enemies. Both Nihil and Ignis were impressed by their teamwork.

Ignis was especially surprised when he learned that Stella was a skilled healer. Mage healers could use spells to heal wounds, so it was somewhat easier as long as they had the knowledge and imagination necessary in order to perform said spells. However, cultivators had it harder. They had to use their own internal energy stimulate the patient’s cells to heal themselves, so the amount of concentration necessary was a lot higher. Plus they were doing it blind as they couldn’t sense any energy other than their own.

A mage could naturally manipulate energy outside of their body. As such, using the patient’s own energy to control the healing process was simple for them. However, there was a danger when using an energy source other than the patient’s as their body could end up rejecting the foreign power and instead make the wound worse. It was only possible if the healer’s internal energy had a neutral attribute, which was very rare.

Attributes for mages were much clearer than for cultivators. For mages, while they could master any kind of magic as long as they could imagine it, the spells that matched their own attribute would be much easier to imagine and would also require far less power. There were many types of attributes. The basic ones being water, wind, fire, earth, light, dark, and lightning. However there were also rarer ones, such as: space, time, speed, food, poison, different combinations of the various basic elements, etc..

However, attributes for cultivators were slightly more subtle. Unlike mages, a cultivator’s attribute wouldn’t necessarily affect their fighting capabilities too much. However, only those without an attribute or a matching one would be able to heal a patient. That being said, if a person had an attribute, they wouldn’t normally bother to learn the healing technique at all since the uses for that knowledge would be severely limited. Instead, they’d focus on learning to fight.

A cultivator’s attribute was still important for them to be aware of, though. If utilised properly, they could find a corresponding weapon that would feel a lot more comfortable and easier to wield. For example, a fire attributed cultivator would normally feel more comfortable with a close range weapon, while water and wind type cultivators would normally be more at home with mid or long range weapons respectively. Earth types would also normally have very good defence, so close range weapons or shields would probably be a good fit for them as well.

Attributes were similar to blood types in many ways, one of which being that there were many who believed that specific attributes would affect the person’s personality. However, just as with blood types, there was no evidence to prove that theory, and there were also many outliers that didn’t follow the trend. Take Stella for example, she had a pretty hot-blooded temperament, and just based off her personality and fighting style she would normally fall under the ‘fire’ attribute. However, she could heal others of different types, so she must have a neutral attribute which some would claim to mean an indifferent attitude to most things and an unruffled demeanour.

After each battle, Nihil and Ignis were in charge of dismantling the magical beasts’ bodies and removing their core from the centre of their chests. They volunteered to do so because the beasts’ meat just so happened to be super delicious. If stored and cooked properly, the unrefined magic in their bodies would remain and help with a person’s cultivation. It wasn’t nearly as useful to mages, but the exceptional flavour more than made up for it. The hides and bones were also useful in crafting various armours and weapons, so none of the remains would be wasted and they could net a tidy profit at the same time.

While they got to work with the dismantling, Nihil and Ignis took the opportunity to talk privately.

“It’s a good thing that these guys are headed to the same place we are.” Ignis commented cheerfully. “They should be good camouflage for us.”

“While it has worked out well for us … Ignis, I’m worried because it’s been several weeks since you last ate that. We need to find the next available opportunity to slip away otherwise you won’t last much longer.”

“I told you yesterday that I’ll be fine for a while yet. It’s not worth the risk of the group seeing us.” Ignis replied with a gentle smile.

“Stop that. Even if they did happen see us, it wouldn’t be the end of the world as we can simply leave the group. This is only a temporary arrangement anyway.” Nihil responded testily. “Besides, I’ll need your help if something happens, so you have to be in top form.”

Giving up with a small sigh, Ignis smiled and relented. So later that night, Nihil woke his friend while it was his turn on watch.

“Now seems like it’ll be the best opportunity that we’ll get, so make sure you eat your fill, ok?” Nihil insisted, worried about his friend.

“Sure, I won’t hold back though so I hope you have enough mental energy.” Ignis replied only half jokingly as he got out from under his blanket.

Walking a short distance away from the camp, Nihil turned to face his friend. “Here should be fine. We still need to keep an eye on the group’s surroundings after all.”

Subsequently, he held his palm out to face the dense canopy overhead. A strange flickering appeared in the centre that gradually strengthened into a roaring green flame. As he did this, a long, midnight blue fox’s tail suddenly appeared at the base of Nihil’s spine. Since he didn’t seem surprised by this, it was clear that Ignis had known about it for a long time.

Another second passed and the flames had reached a strength that almost made them seem liquid. It was at this point that the last strange sight of that evening then appeared: the flames got even brighter and turned into a stream that rushed towards Ignis’ open mouth. He was somehow managing to suck in and swallow all of the burning flames without damaging his throat at all.

It was clear that neither of the two men were the ordinary ‘humans’ that Diei Noctis had assumed them to be.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Nihil concentrated all his power into his palm. He ended up gripping his wrist with his left hand as he forced as much power as he possibly could into the fire ball. This wasn’t a normal mage’s flame. The concentration of power had to be much denser for Ignis otherwise it would lose it’s purpose. On top of that, Ignis hadn’t eaten in a long time so he would need a lot more fire than usual. This was going to drain most of Nihil’s mental energy.

For a mage, the amount of external energy they could use was entirely dependant on their mental energy. The more they had, the stronger the spells they could use. Also, they could only manipulate the world’s energy for as long as their concentration and mental energy lasted.

As a result of this, Nihil’s physical energy wouldn’t drain, but his mental power would take a severe toll. He also wouldn’t be able to focus on his surroundings, so he left that job up to Ignis. His friend was much better at sensing danger than he was anyway.

After a good 15 minutes of Ignis rapidly absorbing the green flames, he had finally eaten his fill. Opening his mouth to thank Nihil, Ignis’ eyes widened and the words caught in his throat. Catching his friend just in time, Ignis prevented the boy from collapsing hard onto the ground. Ignis had promised not to hold back, so he had used up almost all of Nihil’s mental energy.

Since it was Ignis’ turn to be on watch after Nihil, he calmly picked his friend up and laid him down on his camp bed, covering the tail with his blanket. Smiling sadly, he whispered a small thank you to his sleeping friend.

After that, he returned to their original spot and covered the rest of Nihil’s shift as well as his own. His watch would only last for the next couple of hours until dawn so he worried whether his friend would be able to get enough rest before having to wake up and move on with the rest of the group at that point.

At this time, neither of the friends managed to notice the suspicious pair of eyes that had been watching this entire exchange.