Chapter 176: 3-58 End hurdle

A bleak morning greeted the group on the morrow. It was past dawn by the morning mist had yet to be lifted. A shallow stream of fog lingered in their path, bringing along the whiff of death and battle. Erin and her companions were travelling on foot and for once, she was thankful. If they were on horses, their mounts would go mad from the atmosphere and the smell. As they headed down east, the remnants and traces of battles became ever the more apparent. Corpses riddled in their path and they would either cross over them or moved them off the path. Even nature wasn’t spare in the mindless conflict. Trees were burned and fields were razed. The river that ran along their path was tainted by the bloodshed.

“What happened here?” Lyra asked. “Bandits?”

“Not just bandits,” Siv said. She pointed to a few corpses. “Look at those bodies. Prayer beads and robes. These are godly men and women.”

“Bandits attacked some religious sect?”

“Mordius’ Apostles versus the Covenant’s goons,” Erin surmised. “Most likely they’re here for me but instead, they found each other first got into a scuffle.”

“It’s a massacre,” Olivia corrected. “The corpses are strewn about almost too randomly. Neither of the sides had any formation. A battle would have looked more proper. This is plainly a massacre, albeit one of both sides.”

As more corpses came into view, a crushing feeling gripped Erin’s heart. A woman was hung alongside a man. They wore different manners of garbs but they were killed in a way as cruel as the other. An old man was impaled by arrows, sticking the corpse to a tree. There was a boy, or she think it was a boy as the head was nowhere to be found. Everywhere she looked, there was death. She was not unfamiliar with death and battlefields but getting accustomed was a different story. There was also another matter, the one that gripped her heart the tightest. She had only seen the bodies of those who consented to the bloodshed, going by the dead’s garbs, so far. She dreaded to stumble upon the bodies of some farmer and his family who just happened to be residing down the road. Collateral, that was the true horror of wars to her.

Moreover, she was the intended mark. If there was collateral, she wouldn’t be able to help to feel responsible for those deaths. She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists as they waded through the remnants of the massacre. All these death for one person. If she was unhinged, no doubt she would feel honoured and in her past life, she knew a few people would feel honoured in her shoes. She could never understand how those people shun any guilt that would befall them.

“It’s alright, Erin,” Lyra said, taking Erin by the hand. “You’re not the one at fault.”

“Did I say anything?” Erin asked. She was sure she did not utter her thoughts out loud but considering how disturbed she was by her fears, she doubted herself.

“You said nothing but that’s why I know,” Lyra explained.

“Your tails and ears are drooped, mistress,” Siv cut in. “Lyra is just fibbing.”

Erin touched her ears and tails. It was as Siv said, they were plopped down.

“Why you…!” Lyra grumbled. “Have some consideration, damn it!”

“Quiet, you two!” came Olivia’s reproach. “We’re still amidst enemies’ lines. Keep your wits about you.”

“You smell or hear anything?” Lyra asked.

“Death and fire, that’s all I could smell,” Erin replied. “Our enemies could be hiding themselves using those two aspects.”

“And say, aren’t you suppose to be very strong, Olivia? You’re even more worried than us,” Lyra pointed out.

“Of course, I am,” Olivia said. “You should be as worried as me too. These people aren’t just anyone. They are Apostles of a Divine and these bandits belong to the Covenant. You are a fool to not be your most vigilant.”

“These are all Apostles?” Erin asked.

“Some are Acolytes.” Olivia pointed at those who were dressed in robes but with plainer embroideries. “They are sort of the followers of the Apostles but everyone just calls them Apostles all the same without bothering with the distinctions.”

“Do Acolytes have Divine Gifts?”

“That would depend on the respective Divines. Some do but some don't.”

“Great. Another unknown variable to the equation,” Erin muttered.

“You speak like an arithmetic scholar.”

“Magic was stagnant in where I’m from. Arithmetic is all the rage.”

“You’re not born in a Faerie Forest?”

Erin smiled. “I wasn’t.”

“That’s… surprising.”

“Mistress is full of surprise,” Siv complimented.

“Not only that.” Erin clutched her sabre’s hilt. “I also happen to be a lodestone of surprises.”

“Enemies?” Lyra asked upon noticing Erin’s hand on her sword.

Erin nodded. She drew her sword but only then did she remember the blade was broken. She sheathed it and conjured a sabre of a similar contour with Bespoke.

“I don’t smell any changes,” Siv said.

“I don’t sense any danger either.” Olivia unleashed her wings, raising small clouds of dust and dirt. “But I don’t doubt your words, Lady Erynthea.”

The only reason Erin could tell was because of Life Sense. She had been using it once every few minutes ever since last night. It had been a hectic day and the hecticness did not leave her mind in peace. She couldn’t sleep well. She was always on the edge. She resorted to meditation to pass the night. As she meditated, she cast Life Sense every quarter of an hour. When they resumed their journey at dawn, she shortened the interval after the scent of blood intensified.

“How many?” Siv inquired.

“Four. In the trees. They’re moving around.”

“Any mages?”

“I can’t tell but they’re using magic tools to conceal their presence. So best to regard them as mages and fighters alike.”

Lyra readied her bow but then she remembered she had run out of arrows. She cursed her luck and holstered her bow. Siv drew her swords and wielded them in reverse, fixing her gaze at the trees. She strained her eyes but she still couldn’t see the slightest disturbance in the leaves and branches. Her admiration bloomed even greater towards her mistress. Erin noticed the misunderstanding but she was too occupied with the imminent threats to correct it.

“Allow me, milady,” Olivia said. “It will be safer I am the vanguard. Surely you understand, milady?”

Erin nodded. “Just be careful.”

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At her permission, Olivia dashed forward to the trees where Erin sensed the presence from. Her wings cut through all that stood in her path as she streaked through the desolated battlefield. She arrived below the trees before one could blink. She tossed and shook the trees by using Wind Magic. What fell from the trees was no person but straw puppets.

Olivia snapped her eyes to Erin. “It’s a trap!” she yelled.

Erin surrounded herself, Lyra, and Siv in Storm Shell. Olivia immediately beat her wings and flew but the trap had already been sprung. Chains erupted from the ground and wrapped themselves around Olivia as if they were alive with minds of their own. Olivia was pulled back to the ground with strength that rivalled hers. Their enemy was as strong as her or they simply had the means to nullify the difference of levels. Her trepidation worsened when she realized the chains weren’t forged of normal metals but magic. This was an Arcane Art and one that was strong enough to restrain her. She tried assuming her true form but the chains dispersed her every attempt at conjuring a spell. More chains erupted from the ground and they darted towards Erin and the rest.

“The chains nullify magic!” Olivia shouted her warning but it came too late as the chains pierce through Storm Shell without suffering the repercussions.

The chains easily found Lyra as she was the slowest of them all. The chains wrapped around her legs and hung her upside down in the air. Siv avoided two attempts but fell prey to the third when one erupted from her feet and caught her leg. Erin escaped her plight by using Warp. She moved herself a few hundred feet away from where the chains erupted. The chains did not follow her but instead stayed and eyed her like a snake would at their prey.

“Spatial Magic, this is unexpected,” said a man in clergy garbs as he emerged behind a tree. His arms were wrapped in chains, similar to those that had erupted from the ground. A glowing talisman was hung around his neck. He gave the talisman around his neck a gentle tap and an invisible shroud was lifted. Erin could finally smell and sense the godly man’s presence. “But whatever, I have waited for quite a long time. This will not perturb my efforts.”

“Erin, just end this man. Don’t worry about us!” Lyra cried.

“Lyra’s right. We will be fine,” Siv said.

“Run and your friends will die,” the man told Erin sternly.

Erin’s Lust Deviant reacted to the man’s presence and that was enough to discern the man’s identity. “Another Skinwalker.”

“I’m not primitive. Mordius is not my Divine Guardian,” the man answered. “My god is much more particular and discerning.”

“I don’t care whose Apostle you are. Let go of my companions.”

“I do not wish to harm them. You are my target. If they don’t interfere, no harm will befall them. And if you run, I’ll them.”

“And I’m supposed to take your word for it?”

“I wish you would not generalize me. I’m a man of integrity and my word. I’m not like the other thugs of an Apostle you have faced.”

“Bollocks,” Erin scoffed. “You all see yourselves under different lights but you are all the same. If you’re different, why would you be wanting to kill me?”

“You are right in that regard, Lady Erynthea.”

Erin was taken aback. The man did not belittle her like all the others.

“This isn’t completely personal. This is partly vengeance and partly to save lives.”

“Fancy reasonings but I have heard fancier reasons accompanying worse deeds. Atrocities are always committed in the name of god or the greater good.”

“You have killed a brother-in-faith of mine. Ba’al, his name was. Only a newly appointed Apostle but you ended his life. Granted, he had it coming. Most of them do.”

“A person like him has a caring friend?” Erin snorted. “You must be very magnanimous but I’m not buying your act.”

“Think what you will but if I have a choice, I would have preferred to leave you alone. Sadly, you have made too many enemies. Some of them are powerful enough to even threaten an Apostle into doing their bidding.”

“Is that your bill of goods you’re trying to sell?”

“It is the truth. If I don’t kill you, my village will perish. I can’t say no to that man. No one can.”

“Your Divine approves?”

“You killed Ba’al so he doesn’t have a reason to stop me.” The man turned sorrowful. “I’m sorry. It is your life or my people’s. I will make it quick and painless.”

Erin’s face twisted with anger. “Don’t fuck with me,” she muttered, clenching her fists tight. “You think that suffices as a reason that I should just throw everything away and die?”

“I don’t believe any amount of excuses will suffice.”

“Yet, you still gave them. What’s the point of telling me things you don’t believe in. Is being a hypocrite the point of your life?”

“Enough of your japes. I will do what I have to do.”

“Then so will I,” Erin said.

Lyra and Siv widened their eyes. They were blinking as if they feared they misheard Erin’s words.

“You think I won’t kill your friends?”

Erin chuckled. “Will or won’t, it matters not. Point is, you can’t kill them. You won’t be able to, Elliot.” She chewed his name.

The priest, Elliot, raised an eyebrow. “Says who?”

“Wrath.”

Elliot sensed it, then, but she was fast and the boulder she threw flew even faster. He sent out a bundle of chains to destroy the boulder but he was too slow in his reaction. The boulder exploded and sent him tumbling across the ground. The chains around Olivia, Lyra, and Siv loosened.

A lady in clergy robes appeared from the sky as her landing formed a vast crater. Her aura was enveloping her like a bonfire. Steam exuding from the pores of her skin. Her teal eyes met with Erin’s amber eyes.

“Aera,” Erin muttered.

“Erynthea,” Aera returned the greeting. They both exchanged a nod.

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