Chapter 187: Chapter 158- Final Journey I

Fanrik, for the millionth time since they began their journey, wondered whether or not he had chosen correctly. Juka and Molly had caught on like a house on fire, with similar results. They were always together, talking about magic or their pasts or their skills or, when the worst came to pass, him.

The trip was, generally, peaceful, but he would have sworn that the only reason they were not being swarmed by pirates was because of Molly and Juka being in the same area. At one point, during their midday rest stops, theys snuck off together while Fanrik decided to take a nap. He was awoken a few minutes later by a large explosion just a few hundred feet from the small tent he had set up for them. As it turned out, they were trying to increase the effectiveness of Juka’s flammable blood. After a few tests, Molly used a bit of runic work to make… something. Something that made flammable blood explosive.

Apart from that and other similar incidents, they also had their fun teasing him whenever they could. It was all in good fun, but it did not help that he was getting his crafter’s itch after not making or tinkering with anything for over a week. But, after a long journey, they finally made it to the fortress. Only to find it abandoned. They slid to a stop in front of the clocksteel gate, unmanned, “Looks like everyone moved on,” Molly remarked, “Maybe Mori’s done something? Actually, how’s she doing? I haven’t asked, huh?”

Fanrik shook his head. She had not asked, as she spent her time conspiring with Juka to give him a headache, “She is… doing great. You will have a field day going over her various accomplishments and… let’s call them alterations to herself. Also, she has dragons.”

Molly was happy after that, willing to sit through them taking a small tour of the fortress to find anyone. They did not find a single person within, so they were left with a choice; go to the Aekan pass and see if they were in the midst of their war, or just leave and go home.

Obviously, none of them even entertained the thought of the latter option, so they were off to see what became of the Aekan Pass. As it turned out, not much was left. There was a large wall, but it had been torn down majorly. A large, hundreds feet long stretch of the wall was destroyed from the base. There were piles upon piles of Clocksteel just laying around, and the only reason Fanrik could fathom as to why the Joint Force had not taken it all was because they could not fit it all in their skiffs.

No matter how much wealth was laying there in the sand, though, they had a destination, one that they had been traveling to for over a week straight. Luckily, Molly did not want to bring much with her, so Fanrik could grab a few interesting shards of metal and they could be on their way. Once they left the pass, they had no other landmarks to work with. The massive trails left by a skiff fleet the size of the one they were tracking had been wiped away by the wind, so they could only head in the general direction of the city of Aekan and hope that they were not diving into the wyrm nest.

At the end of that day, they knew that they were on the right path, as they had stumbled upon a truly massive battleground. Clockworks of all sizes were everywhere, scorched and sliced. The battle was so massive, in fact, that there the sand was still black in some places, burnt by explosions. Fanrik did not grab any souvenirs, but Molly did, surprising enough. She found a rune on a ‘fiendishly complicated Clockwork’ and pried it off. When she brought him to see it, he was face to face with one of Mori’s Immortals, dead in the sand.

It took a lot of explaining to help Molly understand what the metallic undead in the sand was, but once she heard, Molly was ecstatic. She dragged both Fanrik and Juka, who was not very interested in the battlefield, back to the skiff and got them going once more. She was a fan of Mori’s undead, it seemed.

There was nothing else of interest on that battlefield, so they moved on after a small rest. As they traveled, they found more and more fields, strewn with dead Clockworks, and the occasional Immortal-- though, for every Immortal, there were thousands of Clockworks lying dead. They also saw the occasional dragon, flying around and ignoring them as they traveleed along. After another day of traveling, they came upon a small camp right as the midday sun was a bit too much to bear. The men and women sitting around under their tent were calm, barely sparing Fanrik, Molly, and Juka a glance as they stopped beside them.

“Hey there,” one of the older men in the group greeted. He was a Chimeric, an almost perfect mix between a lizardman and a wolfman, with a Nikolan uniform and a standard rifle on his lap, “You three lost, or are you coming this way for a reason?” he asked.

“We’re looking for my daughter,” Molly answered, “We know where she is, so we’re just traveling along. What are you bunch doing out here? I thought that the Joint Force needed everyone they could get.”

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They all looked at the massive field of Clockwork bodies just a few hundred feet away, then laughed a bit, “They did,” the old man replied, “Then some lich lady comes in, decides she wants to help, and flattens the enemy armies. I don’t even know why we're following along, but I’m not too worried about it. We don’t have to fight, and this damn Hive gets destroyed. Win-win in my books. Though, some of us have differing opinions on that,” he said, eying a young human man leaning against one of the tent’s poles.

The young man scoffed, “Hey, I’m just saying that we could have done this. We have thousands of soldiers kicking about, not doing much, mercs who don’t want to give up on such a good payday, and a few wandering mages hanging around. We could have won. But now we’re following after some lich who could turn on us at any moment. I don’t trust it. I mean, do you remember what happened with her lackeys? They directly took over the camp, and they didn’t even try to hide it.”

“Yeah, but even if she’s aiming to betray an entire army, you know that she’s taking on most of the battles,” one of the women, another human, replied, “If she wanted to try, then why would she act like the spearhead? She would prefer to whittle down the rest of us before doing that.”

“I’m just saying-”

“Well, whatever the case, do you guys mind if we rest here?” Molly cut in, giving a nice smile, one of the ones that Fanrik knew she used as a way to convince people to do things for her.

They all nodded easily-- they must have trusted them, as they were traveling light and had little room for more than a few weapons. They set up camp right beside the soldiers’ tent, making the shaded area twice as big and letting everyone spread out a bit. Fanrik’s group stayed near the back of their shaded area, sitting beside each other with a calm atmosphere. Eventually, Molly turned to Fanrik, “Are you sure this is the right decision? I mean, I doubt we could convince Fara of anything else, but… we’ll be leaving everything we know behind. It’s… I don’t know. We’re leaving everything behind, here…”

“Molly,” Fanrik said, “You trusted Fara to go off into the world, without anyone more than Mori for company. This is just her next step. I don’t mind going off somewhere else, because it’ll be with our daughter. I mean, did you really like teaching over at Mount Averus?”

Molly thought for a moment, “I kind of did, but I left for a reason. Not enough fun,” she paused for a moment, “Yeah, I get what you’re trying to tell me here… I can even look forward to it, if that’s how I’m thinking about it.”

After a moment of silence, Juka sighed, “I feel really out of place here…” she said, “Fanrik, give me a kid so I can reminisce like you two,” she chuckled. Molly laughed as well, leaning up to Juka and whispering in her ear. The lizard woman's eyes widened and she turned to Fanrik. He had a sudden, strong, and bad feeling when he looked into her eyes.

That bad feeling persisted throughout the rest of the day, even as he fell asleep. He woke up that evening, his two companions still sleeping. He sighed in relief at nothing happening and waited until they woke up to continue their journey. It was about midnight when they finally saw something on the horizon. It was the city of Aekan, and it was alight with fire, mana, and explosions.