The start of my chaotic life began when a stranger came by my home, and asked me to safely transport him to Tartarus. Just getting him there would be simple enough, but safely? That was just slightly more difficult. As in, it would take all of my magic, and then some, to do so. It wasn’t impossible, but it also wasn’t something I was willing to do without sufficient compensation.
Noticing my hesitation, the man swiftly deduced the reason, and pulled out several treasures that would help improve my magic realm by leaps and bounds. If I used these treasures before fulfilling my end of the deal, it would become but a simple matter. To top it off, they weren’t consumable items, like pills or medicines, so their value was insanely high.
“If you allow me to use these before sending you on your way, we will have ourselves a deal.” I replied excitedly to his generous offer. Or, that’s what I’d thought it was, at least.
“That should be fine.” He replied indifferently.
“Will you be needing a return trip as well?” I asked. In fact, due to the planet’s shape, getting back from Tartarus was a whole lot more complicated than getting there.
The planet (Axis) was, in fact, bowl shaped, and Tartarus was the land of dragons that resided on the underside of said bowl. It was a veritable mountain range that covered the entire bottom. To top it off, it consisted of nothing but volcanoes. As such, the air was toxic to all other species – unless one had special means, or were unique existences. However, even such a dangerous environment had its benefits to Axis. One such benefit, was that it played a significant role in regulating the temperature of the planet.
Proving that even the most extreme environments can have life adapted to live in them, dragons evolved. Due to their surroundings, they swiftly became the most powerful species on Axis.
Luckily, dragons could seldom bother to interfere in the upper-world’s affairs, and even when the Great War happened many centuries ago, they were but a by-stander to it all. However, they too consented to signing the non-aggression pact with the other species. After all, they weren’t unreasonable fellows.
“That shouldn’t be necessary.” The stranger replied, turning down my offer.
“Well, just in case, you should take my token.” I responded doubtfully. I then handed over a small jade circle with my seal (a Divine Phoenix). The level of detail on the jade was astonishing, and it took me a good few months to complete with painstaking care. As such, I was somewhat reluctant to hand it over. However, upon thinking of the treasures he’d given me as payment, my regret soon faded.
“If you find yourself in a pinch, just drip a single drop of your blood onto this, and it will immediately transmit your location into my head. If you’re on the move while using it, you’ll need a steady stream of blood in order to keep transmitting your signal to me. Only with a precise location, will I be able to retrieve you.” I quickly summarised how it worked. “This isn’t a consumable item, so there’s no limit to the number of times it can be used.”
“Oh? It’s a pretty impressive item.” The man sounded genuinely impressed for the first time since I’d met him. I couldn’t help but puff my chest out a little at his words.
“Ok, so when do you want to leave?” I asked him perfunctorily. “For there to be an absolute guarantee on your safety, I’ll need to use these treasures. A day should be long enough to improve my realm sufficiently. However, if you need to leave sooner, then that is still possible, but the level of my guarantee will drop significantly.”
“I will return tomorrow morning, then.” He replied decisively, before turning around and leaving, without so much as a glance over his shoulder.
Sighing, I moved to a corner of my room, and splashed my face with some clean water from a bucket. Feeling the refreshing coolness, I glanced up at my reflection in the mirror.
My long, wavy sky blue hair was slightly damp around my face, and my obsidian irises made my pupils seem huge. I was wearing my hair loosely pulled back into a messy bun, so there were strands free and framing my face.
My two horns protruded from my temples, and were an onyx that matched my nails. They were somewhat reminiscent of a dragon’s horns, and indicated a noble heritage. From my back, extended a glorious pair of obsidian wings that were currently folded and tucked away to avoid knocking things over in my cramped living quarters. In order to stretch them properly, I was forced to step outside into to the scorching sun of the desert.
I lived outside the capital of Sheol (the country of demons), but I was still close enough to have plumbing – thank god. I liked the quiet surroundings, but, as a lady, I would rather force splinters under my nails than go for long without a fully plumbed bath and toilet. Like hell I was going to piss into a hole, and go without bathing – this was a desert after all, there weren’t any convenient streams just lying around.
My preferred clothes to wear were: a short, flared battle skirt (with a pair of shorts underneath, for modesty’s sake); a pair of knee high gladiator sandals; a pair of leather vambraces: and a fully supportive crop top that neatly avoided the wings on my back. All of these were made from high quality leather that was soft for the skirt, shorts, and shoes, but a tough armour for the top, vambraces and soles. I also wore a stylish leather choker and arm band that was engraved with enchantments and had a small amulet. These were magical items to significantly improve my defence – especially against surprise attacks.
This may sound like it exposed way too much skin for life in the desert, but, given my species, this was an all too common sight. Unlike humans, demons’ skin wasn’t so ineffective as to burn in mere sunlight. As such, just this was enough, and it had the added benefit of being less restrictive on movement in a battle.
Despite living in cities and groups around various oases, demons’ tempers were still rather volatile. Due to this, street brawls and duels weren’t an uncommon way to settle disputes. Very often, this lead to weaker demons dying in a ditch.
When a demon died, they would disintegrate, so, despite the high death toll, the city could never get cluttered with the dead.
Having fully stretched my wings, I returned inside to develop my magic diligently. The treasures the man handed over were truly wonderful.
There was a mortar and pestle that had the effect of purifying mental energy; a formation tablet that had the effect of gathering world’s energy; and a puzzle that had the effect of improving one’s control over their mental energy.
The first step was to grind my mental energy, using the mortar and pestle. To do this, I had to slowly send a slither of my mental energy into the mortar, and then grind down on it using the pestle. Such a process was stupidly painful, but the effects were equally large. Using this tool would rapidly increase the speed at which I could reach the next small stage – an hour’s grinding was the equivalent of 3 months of normal effort, so it was clear just how painful this process was. This was the [Mental Strengthening] realm.
The next small realm only required me to assimilate my increased mental energy with the world’s energy. As such, this was where the formation tablet came in. At my stage (being the 7th time through this sequence), this would normally take a couple of weeks in order for the world’s energy to equal my mental energy. However, with the tablet, the world’s energy was 15 times denser, thus rendering the slow accumulation pointless, and it only took me a few minutes. This was the [Elemental Movement] realm.
My final step was to increase my proficiency with using my mental energy to manipulate world’s energy. This is where the puzzle would help. The series of complicated tasks that the tool asked me to perform, slowly got harder and harder as time went by, and I improved. It also had the effect of reducing the amount of mental energy spent at the beginning, while it guided me. This helped to increase the length of time I could train before using up my mental energy, and so my rate of improvement increased dramatically. As I got better, the amount it reduced the mental tax decreased gradually, until my proficiency was just as good with the full toll. This was the [Mental Agility] realm.
The final stage took me late into the night, so I decided to stop there upon completion. However, this was accounted for in my estimation the previous morning. There were still 3 more small realms afterwards to complete, but I was happy with the progress I’d made in just 1 night. It was the equivalent of 6 months worth of normal training, after all. Besides, I’d already improved enough to make the previously dangerous task, as simple as a figurative stroll through the park.
Given my age of twenty, being a 7th stage [Elemental Acceptance] realm, indicated that my talent was average at best – having taken roughly a year for each cycle through the small stages. However, my focus was mainly on research and developing new spells and enchantments. Even in such a situation where my training realm was average, I was still confident of beating anyone under the [Magus Expert] realm. My knowledge and technique, combined with my unique spells and enchantments, made my attacks unpredictable. It also had the advantage that my magic was much more practical and allowed me to do crazy things like safely transporting a stranger to Tartarus. For anyone else, this feat would be beyond impossible. As such, I had a unique reputation as the Sage of Magic.
After a brief rest to recover my strength to its peak state, the stranger arrived at my door. It was morning already.
“You ready?” The man asked me impatiently.
Upon seeing my nod, he walked straight into a magic circle I had carved into a stone platform behind my house. This was a permanent fixture, and with it I could send anyone within to any place on Axis I choose. The jade token I’d given my client the day before, was a smaller version of this platform, and the two could connect to form a gate to transport the holder of the token back here. However, this required an accurate location to do so, so I’d set up an additional formation inside the token, to ping me a location when it absorbed a drop of blood.
This intricate feat of inscribing 2 separate formations into such a small piece of jade, was an exceptionally impressive feat to accomplish – if I do say so myself. This was why I was both reluctant to part ways with it (despite having others) and proud when the other party complimented it. It seemed that he had already seen through the token’s complexity at that point.
Once he was within the magic circle, I placed my hands at the keystones and released a torrent of energy. One keystone was for the formation to protect the stranger. And the other was for the teleportation formation itself. This was why I’d needed the increase in my training. Before, while I could operate the two simultaneously, my control was somewhat lacking in order to make a long distance transfer safely. While the formations allowed for any place on Axis, the reality was that my control could have only guaranteed transfer within 10,000km (as the crow flies) of the platform, and the thickness of Axis’s crust was roughly 15,000km. Needless to say, the extra 5,000km was enough to dramatically decrease the chances of survival.
As for the diameter of Axis (not including the curvature) that was roughly 90,000km. Of that, the outer ring of 15,000km depth all around, was unoccupied. This plateau was the edge of the crust, and was an uninhabitable wasteland. Upon reaching this section, gravity would start acting up at weird intervals.
With my improvement, although it was only 3 small realms, it was now possible for me to guarantee safety across the entirety of the planet. This was due to the realm I’d reached allowing me to split my thinking two ways. With this ability, I could easily keep track of both formations at once, thus exponentially increasing my control area.
Once he was successfully teleported, I busied myself with tidying up my house before settling down for some hard-core research. Now that my realm had improved, some of my more advanced theories could start entering their trial phases. On top of that, my efficiency had now improved, as I could split my attention perfectly between 2 tasks. For example, one half could focus on engraving different formations and enchantments, while the other half could focus on perfecting or creating other designs. Of course, for the more complicated tasks, just half my focus wasn’t enough, so I had to apply my entire attention on that.
The next morning, there was a series of urgent knocks on my door. Before I could even stand up, the other party had already barged into the small room that served as my kitchen, living area, and bedroom.
“Kahara! You need to hide right now!” I stared at the other party as they shouted upon entry.
“Catania? How come you’re here? And why do I need to hide in my own home?” I raised an eyebrow as I hurriedly stood up.
No matter what the issue was, it was a fact that my best friend was in a panic. We’d been best friends since we were children, and yet this was only the second time I saw her this upset. The first was when her mother had died.
Taking a few calming breaths, Catania hurriedly explained the issue. “Yesterday, a scary looking guy, went all around the capital, asking questions about a reticent stranger of mysterious background. No one payed him much mind at first. Some because they didn’t know the guy he was looking for, and some because he pissed them off.
“However, some of the more powerful demons got fed up with a human bossing them around, and went on a rampage! He’s already killed all of those who went up against him! And the truly frightening thing, was that he barely even raised a finger to deal with them!
“Finally someone let slip that they saw such a guy headed your way … he’ll be here any second!”
Barely even pausing for breath, my friend forced the explanation out while physically pushing me into hiding.
“Excuse me! Does a Miss Kahara live here, by any chance?” Just then, a man’s voice called loudly from outside.
“I’m sorry, this is my residence. My name’s Catania.” My friend replied before I could say anything. Pushing me into a cupboard, she stepped outside to greet the other party. “Kahara’s residence is the other side of the capital.”
“Oh? I thought I followed the directions well enough …?” He replied, glancing around the area in confusion.
Just then, the wind shifted and he seemed to catch a whiff of something before he tensed up.
Oh no! Is he a mysterious beast? We’re doomed if he is! I thought to myself. Crap! mysterious beasts can only shape shift after reaching the upper levels of cultivation or magic. That means he’s at least at the level of [Magus Expert] or [Soul Expert].
Cultivation Realms had the same set up as Magic Realms. The only differences were the names of the Realms, and the type of energy being harnessed. While magic harnessed the world’s energy, cultivation harnessed the internal energy of one’s body.
“Who’s there?” The man asked snapping his head round to my direction.
Knowing that there wasn’t much point in hiding anymore, I decided to come out and be honest.
“I’m the one you’re looking for – Kahara.” I replied calmly, stepping out of the house. “What can I do for you?”
“You’re Kahara?” He asked in a disbelieving tone.
“Yes. I am. Now, if you don’t have a job for me, then you should just leave already.” I responded testily.
“Fair enough. Let’s get right to the point then, shall we?” He shrugged his shoulders and let out a small smile. “Did a tall human, wearing a hat, thawb and abaya approach you recently for transportation?”
“Could you narrow it down a bit? No human in their right mind, would reach this place without those clothes. Humans’ skin is so pitifully tender that even a cultivator wouldn’t survive here unscathed for long with it exposed.” I rolled my eyes scathingly. In truth, I already knew who he was talking about, but he’d pissed me off, so I was deliberately being difficult.
“It would have only been a couple of days ago?” He knew that I was messing with him, but he still persisted anyway. “I would like to render your services to transport me to the same location as him.”
At that, I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrow at him. A lion like him, going to Tartarus? Despite his impressive cultivation, he wouldn’t survive very long there. I’d only transported the human because he paid me enough to no longer care. Then again, considering that he was able to casually take out so many priceless treasures, there was no way that he wouldn’t have prepared something in advance to help him survive down there.
Deciding to give up the act, I questioned the man’s determination. “You want to go to Tartarus as well?”
“Tartarus!?” He asked in shock. “He really went there?”
“Yep. He asked me to drop him off near one of the Axis Pillars on the outer edge. Said he didn’t mind which one.”
“Crap! He’s already prepared to go that far!?” The horror in his voice was plain to hear.
Sharing a confused glance with Catania, I decided to ask him what was wrong.
“That fellow plans to do something stupid.” The lion replied. “He’s going to transfer worlds. But there’s no guarantee that he’ll safely make it over.”
“Transfer worlds?” I asked in confusion.
“Yes. Well, strictly it’s a transfer between two halves of a single planet.” The stranger replied. “This world used to be a complete whole, and our ancestors lived in the planet’s centre. However, the planet was split and severed into two halves.
“Given that it was the core to the universe, every mage worked together to reconnect the planet and stop the destruction of the universe. However, they only managed to create an axis for the rest of the universe to revolve around. And, the Axis Pillars act as that axis.
“That being the case, it’s natural for the pillars to connect to the other half of our planet. He intends to use this connection to act as a link to transport himself over to the other world.”
Catania and I just blinked our eyes at the stunning truth. Now that we’d heard this, a lot of our unanswered questions were now fulfilled, but the sheer scale of the magic required, and the focus put into every strand of the spell, must have been immense.
“How could that many people work together that well?” Catania asked in shock. For something like that to be able to be pulled off, every single one of the mages would have had to be of a single mind and thought. That sort of intense cooperation should have been impossible to manifest.
“You’d be surprised at what people can achieve when their very lives and existence are at stake.” The man replied simply.
I nodded my head at his words; that did make sense. At that moment, there would have been no reason for any selfish thoughts as they would have been counter productive.
“I’ll send you to the location I sent him. If he activated his token, I would have a more precise location, but this is the best I can do for now.” I offer willingly.
“Yes, that would be for the best. However, I don’t have any way to survive in those toxic conditions. Within three minutes, I’d definitely die of asphyxiation – and that’s already if I don’t die from the heat first.” He responded frustratedly.
Pondering over his predicament, I thought to ask him something that had been bothering me for a while now. “Why are you chasing him?”
“He’s a fanatical scientist that performed heinous crimes that went against the inter-species pact.” The man replied honestly. “It’s my job to hunt him down and see to it that he faces justice for what he did. It’s only due to the other party’s magnanimity that he isn’t already dead. Though, of course, that makes more work for me.”
Sighing, the man struggled to think of a solution.
Just then, I remembered the research I’d started just before he’d arrived. I had been working on a way to purify various substances, such as water, world’s energy, and different minerals required for forging. The uses for such an object would be limitless, even if they only worked a little. Having finished the ground work long ago and started producing a prototype, I could see no reason that it wouldn’t be able to work on air too.
If I could purify the toxic air of Tartarus, breathing would no longer be an issue.
“I have a solution to the toxicity of the air, however, the temperature will still be a problem …” I trailed off awkwardly.
“What!? How?” The man asked in surprise.
One must know that the toxicity of Tartarus had been an age old problem that no one had managed to solve. It was only though various artefacts that allowed one to go without breathing for extended periods of time (or special constitutions that didn’t require the same environmental conditions as most people) that anyone was able to make short-term visits to the place.
It wasn’t my intention to try solving this issue, as I’d had no confidence in the matter – nor any interest to – but, it just so happened that my research had managed to take an unexpected turn.
“It started out as a general purpose purification circle, but I can’t see an issue with adapting it to be portable. I can make a similar device to my location tokens.” I spoke up, showing the group the latter object.
“This sort of workmanship takes an insane level of skill!” The man exclaimed. “If you can really make a similar device to purify the air, that would really save me. But there’s still the issue of the heat to deal with.”
“Umm …” Catania hesitantly started. “I have something that I’ve been working on too.
“We get a surprising number of human visitors here, and because they can’t expose their skin, they have more problems than us with trying to deal with the heat. As such, I came up with an idea to create an accessory that would work to regulate people’s body temperatures.” At this, she held up a choker that she’d pulled out of her storage ring.
Storage rings were devices that used spatial magic to create another dimension in which people could conveniently store all their belongings. As the name suggested, they were often made to be an accessory such as a ring or a bracelet.
Taking the chocker, I peered at the flawless inscriptions carved into the tiny pendant. “This is exquisite workmanship! You always did have a steadier hand than me.”
“It’s only because you taught me the basics of enchanting.” She responded modestly.
“Basics are basics. This was all you.” I replied, sincerely impressed by my friend. I may have taught her the fundamentals, but she was the one with the skill and imagination to come up with this device.
With that sorted, I told the man that I’d require a week to adapt my research and create a purifying token for him. He responded that he also needed to gather a few supplies, so that worked out well for him too.
He also finally introduced himself to me – his name was Leo, and the guy he was chasing was called Mark. Knowing this made it easier to honk of the two, rather than just referring to them both as strangers or by their species.
In the blink of an eye, a week passed. The days were spent researching, while the nights were spent training. Not wanting to come to rely on the training treasures too much, I decided to stabilise my current level, and continue at a normal pace for a while. This way, I could gain complete mastery over my powers, and still use the treasures to overcome any bottle necks I might face.
As I was 20 already, it was about time for me to start thinking of challenging the [Magus Expert] realm. The prime time to start training in the initial realms, was around 13 years of age, as one entered puberty. Likewise, if one ever wanted to reach even greater heights than the initial stages, then the prime time to challenge [Magus Expert] realm, was when one was exiting puberty at around 20 years of age. If one waited too long, they will have entirely missed their chance to take that leap at all.
To challenge the higher realms, I knew that I would need absolute control over my mental energy, and I would also require the acceptance of the world’s energy itself. The benefits of reaching those realms, was that for every realm increase, one would double their life span as well as have access to an even higher level of power and strength.
The next morning, Leo arrived right on time as usual. During this past week, we’d often spent time, talking to each other. As such, we were pretty familiar with each other by now.
“Are you ready?” I asked upon seeing him.
“Yes.” Leo replied somewhat grimly. Understandably he was still nervous, even with the devices we’d prepared for him – both of us had given him a couple of spares, since we weren’t sure how long they’d last in the extreme heat that was Tartarus. I also gave him one of my tokens as an additional security measure.
“Good. The transportation circle is behind m house.” Leading the way there, I also gave him a few pointers about what to expect during the teleportation.
Despite his nerves, Leo swiftly entered the transportation circle, and waited patiently for me o start the process. Nodding my head in admiration, I quickly got down to business, and started the formation.
However, in the middle of the process, I sensed something going terribly wrong. I realised that Mark must have interfered with the formation when I’d teleported him over a week ago now. Due to the subtlety of his work, I only realised after I’d already started the formations.
Crap! This is bad! If it was just an object, it would be fine, but he’s somehow managed to mess with the life preserving section for transporting living things! Quickly, I tried to come up with a solution.
Once the formations had been started, there was no way to terminate the process without destroying what was inside the circle. Naturally, this wasn’t an option, so I had to do some very quick thinking.
That’s when it hit me. If I transferred myself as well, I could control the formations better, and protect Leo from the warping energy field around him. The only problem with that, was that I would still have to remain outside the circle, so I’d experience the chaotic flow of energy much more strongly.
It was a risk, but it was my own negligence that had created this situation in the first place.
Having decided what to do, I quickly focussed all my power and energy into the formations as I achieved a level of control that I’d never managed before.
Suddenly, my body felt like countless knives were slicing my skin open, while countless opposing forces tried to rip me into tiny shreds. Transporting myself in this manner was somewhat similar to grabbing onto the side of a freight train, and hanging on for dear life as it travelled at full speed. In other words, it was excruciatingly difficult to even breathe, let alone focus enough to protect someone else as well.
However, by gritting my teeth and focussing all of my mental energy and willpower onto the formation, I somehow managed to pull us through the perilous situation.
Slamming into the ground in a bloody heap, I lost consciousness just as Leo started calling out my name in shock. As there was no way, or time, to tell him, he’d been completely unaware of just how close he’d come to dying.
An unknown period of time later, I awoke to air that was surprisingly breathable, and at a comfortable temperature.
Suddenly I remembered what had happened. Realising what the aforementioned sensations must have meant, I glanced around and immediately saw a jade purification token. Next to it, lay my normal defensive chocker, so I quickly realised that the one around my neck must be one of Catania’s.
Looking at my arms and legs, I noticed that my wounds had been expertly treated, and I felt a surge of warmth well up inside me. This must have been Leo’s doing. Thinking that, I quickly looked around to find him, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Sighing, I couldn’t bring myself to blame him. He’d already done enough just by treating my wounds – he was on a time limit to catch a heinous fugitive, after all.
Right, I should check what supplies I have before deciding on my next course of action. I thought before doing just that.
Sending my mental energy into the ring, I noticed a couple of items that I didn’t recognise. The first was a piece of paper, and the second was a large box. Pulling them both out, I immediately smiled as I figured out what they were.
The paper was actually a letter from Leo explaining that he’d had to leave me to capture Mark.
Apparently, we’d arrived right by an Axis Pillar, but we were exposed to the elements, so he’d quickly pulled out the devices that Catania and I had made him, put one of the chokers on himself, and then put one on me too. Carrying me to a decent sized cave, he’d then set about cleaning and treating my wounds, and watched over me for a night, just in case I’d taken a turn for the worse.
Having gotten through the most dangerous period, he quickly recuperated to his top form, and left after writing me a note and giving me a box with food and water in. There was enough in there for 10 days, which he thought was enough time for him to locate and capture Mark, and finally make it back to this cave.
He ended he note by saying that he hoped I was well, and that I could help him by finding a way for us to get back to the main continent.
Since I had no way of telling how long I’d been unconscious for, I also didn’t know how long he’d been gone for. As such, I could only do my best to fulfil my end of the arrangement.
Luckily, I had enough materials, in my storage ring, to make a temporary transportation circle. However, it would only work once, and I couldn’t guarantee it’s safety, as it wasn’t going to be even half as stable as a permanent one.
For just 3 people, though, one trip would be enough to get us all back to Sheol.
For the next few days, I worked diligently to etch the two formations into the rock bed inside the cave. To make it as safe as possible, I had to make sure that there weren’t any mistakes in the carvings. I’d also figured out a way to further stabilise the transfer by locking into my permanent circle as a fixed location. In other words, the only place the temporary circle could transport people to, was my own back garden, on top of the permanent transportation circle.
When I was finally satisfied with my work, the food and water was running very low. In fact, it would probably only last a day or two more. Now hat I didn’t have something to distract myself with, I was starting to get worried about Leo.
Just then, I felt the ping of one of my tokens requesting me to teleport the owner back to Sheol. However, since that was impossible for me right now, I instead frantically headed in the direction it was coming from. I was worried that Leo had managed to get himself into trouble, and needed my assistance to apprehend Mark. The way I saw it, even if it was Mark’s token, Leo was bound to be close by anyway.
Spreading my wings, I rapidly flew towards the direction of the ping. My flying speed was actually the fastest of all the demons – even rivalling the speed of those demons that had reached the higher realms of cultivation or magic.
Given my speed, it didn’t take me too long to reach the destination. Landing a short distance away, I decided that it would be better to gauge to situation first, before blindly heading into a potentially deadly situation.
Hiding behind a rock, I poked my head round in order to get a clearer view of the area ahead. Doing so, I immediately saw Leo lying on the ground in a pool of blood. His token had fallen into the pool, and that was the source of the ping I was receiving.
Upon seeing this sight, my vision went white, and I stupidly charged over to him without determining the location of the enemy.
“Leo!” I screamed with a sheer degree of emotion that I hadn’t expected from myself. At the end of the day, I’d only known this man for just over 2 weeks now, and we’d been separated for 8 days of that time. However, the time we’d spent together as I was researching the jade purification token, had engraved itself onto my heart. It surprised me that I’d chosen such a rough looking man in the end. But compared his looks, his personality was much, much sweeter.
He was so patient as I struggled to find a way to help him. I’d ended up delaying him by a week, and yet he never tried to hurry me up, nor did he really seem all that anxious about the lost time. He even extended that delay by another day just to treat me, when he should have been desperate to finally catch up with his target.
Different images of my time spent with him flashed through my head, as I finally realised what he meant to me. He may have looked a like frightening, standing at 2 metres tall, with pointy teeth and sharp nails – he was a lion after all – but he was very gentle with me, and dealt with my often irrational behaviour surprisingly well. No matter what else happened, I didn’t want him to just die like that.
Rushing over, I quickly checked his wounds and realised that they were even more severe than I’d thought they were. His stomach was sliced open and he was loosing blood at an alarming rate. Desperately, I hurried to circulate his internal energy.
As a mage, any energy that was external to my body, was capable of being manipulated by me. This was why cultivators didn’t like fighting mages. In comparison, mages didn’t like fighting cultivators, because the latter was often too fast for them to properly cast any spells.
While directing his internal energy, I also hurried to apply pressure to his wound with my hands. They quickly got drenched in blood as his pallor got paler and paler. Reaching into my storage ring, I pulled out every single recovery item I owned, and fed them all to him. At this point, he needed a lot of energy in order to heal his wounds. Luckily he was a cultivator, so this meant that his body was stronger and more resilient than others’ – thus allowing it to heal at a much faster rate. When his wound was finally showing signs of healing, I relaxed a little and allowed a small sigh of relief to escape my lips.
Just then, a heavy object slammed against my head. Crashing into the ground, a body landed on top of me. This must have been what hit me. Squinting my eyes, I was able to barely make out the silhouette of he human who’d asked me for transportation. Mark.
However, instead of getting up and proceeding to further pummel me, it seemed like he was in a worse condition than even Leo. There was no way to save this guy. He was already dead.
Blanching upon realising this, I quickly pushed him off of me, before struggling to sit up again. After checking on Leo’s condition first, I soon located culprit who’d thrown Mark’s body at me. Of course, it was a dragon.
Seeing this, I stood up and moved away from Leo, hoping to draw the dragon’s attention away from him.
“Great dragon! Did we unwittingly offend you by coming here?” I asked respectfully.
No matter how strong the mage or cultivator, it would take a lot of power and effort to even put a single scratch on the hide of a dragon. The natural defences of a dragon were on a whole other level to the other species, thus making them the undisputed strongest. Given their strength, they could easily rule over the main continent, so everyone was relieved that they weren’t interested in doing so. We were no different than ants to them.
“Those two got too close to the Axis Pillars. It is our duty to look after them, and protect them from anyone who would do them harm.
“Even if it’s next to impossible for them to harm the pillars, they deserve their punishment for their malicious intentions. These pillars are what is keeping the universe stable. If even just one of them has a problem, then the entire universe could cease to exist.” The dragon replied vehemently.
Hearing her reason for attacking, my face paled in surprise. The dragons exist to protect the pillars? No wonder they’re so powerful!
“Indeed, that is a fitting punishment for such a crime.” I admitted. “But this man here was actually chasing that human, and trying to bring him back o the main continent.”
“I know about that. I saw him carefully track the other over the course of 8 days.
“While the human was circling the pillar, the lion was stalking his prey, choosing the best moment to attack.”
“If you knew, then why did you do this to him?” I asked in confusion.
“No matter his reasons, he got too close to the pillar. During their fight, the pillar was exposed to violent energies and this could have affected the balance of he universe. While the pillars are unimaginably strong, at the same time, they are unimaginably weak.” The dragon responded cryptically. “If you want that man o survive, you had better take him home quickly.”
With that reminder, I pushed my confusion to one side, and carefully carried Leo back to the cave. I decided to fly there, since that would both save time and joy his body less.
Carefully placing him into the transportation circle, I activated the formations and rapidly arrived at the back of my house.
“Kahara! You’re back!” Catania’s voice excitedly exclaimed when she saw us appearing.
She’d realised something had gone wrong when Kahara had gone missing. Since then, she’d been dropping by everyday, hoping to see her friend reappear. She knew that it would take about this long to do so, but she’d still hoped that Kahara would be quicker.
“Hurry! Call a Medical Mage over!” I cried out desperately. I knew that Catania had been worried, but right then, I couldn’t think about anything other than Leo.
Just then, Catania noticed the blood and her face paled immediately. Nodding her head, she quickly turned around and flew into the capital to call one over.
A few minutes later, a Medical Mage had arrived and was treating Leo.
“How is he, Luke?” I asked worriedly, once the medic came out of my house.
“He’s finally stable, but he wont wake up for a few hours yet. He shouldn’t move too much for a couple of days as well. He can eat, but if he moves too much, he’ll reopen his wound.” Luke replied calmly.
He’d been treating Leo for 2 hours now, so he was exhausted. As such, he quickly left to return home and recuperate.
As I entered the house, Catania held my hand firmly, silently expressing her support. Squeezing back, I braced myself to face Leo.
The first thing I noticed, was that his wound had been stitched up, and that his pallor was a lot healthier. Luke had used magic to stimulate the production of blood cells in order to replace the vast quantity that Leo had lost.
Sobbing in relief, I never left his side until he finally awoke again the next morning. A some point, I must have fallen asleep, because it was only when I felt his hand on my head, that I realised he was awake.
I immediately bombarded him with questions, to which he just smiled patiently. When I finally ran out of breath, he pulled me closer to him and kissed me firmly on the mouth. Feeling his warmth, I melted into his arms, and when our lips finally parted, I started sobbing against his chest.
We remained that way for a long time as he gently comforted me, assuring me that he was fine now. Eventually, I pulled away from him and set about making a light meal for him. The food couldn’t be too hard to digest, given that his stomach had just recently been healed.
After a few days of rest, Leo returned to Arcadia. I hated him for leaving me – especially after the kiss – but I also knew that he had an important job to fulfil. If it wasn’t for people like him, the world would be a chaotic and lawless place once again.
Just as I thought that I would never see him again, a knock sounded on my door.
“It’s open!” I shouted.
“That’s poor security.” A familiar voice sounded.
Whipping round to face the door, I felt tears gather in my eyes.
“I thought you were never coming back!” I accused vehemently. He had truly pissed me off with that. He didn’t even say goodbye before leaving in the night!
“I’m sorry.” He replied sheepishly. “I didn’t want to say goodbye because I was hoping to come back. But I also wasn’t sure if they’d let me just quit like that, so I ended up chickening out.”
“W-what?” I asked in shock. “Does that mean you’ve left you job? For me?”
“If you’ll still have me.” He replied seriously. Striding over to me, he swept me into his arms and continued. “I might end up being useless and relying on you; I’ll probably make you mad most days. However, I’ll love you more than anyone else, and everyday I’ll try my hardest to be a man worthy of you. Do you think you can stand to love a guy like me?”
Hearing these words, they both frustrated me, and made me want to never let him go. In the end I decided to just kiss him for now and see how it goes.
However, I fear I’m already unable to live without him.
Aerone Grey 