1717-1718 eng

1717 Rustle

Rain collected her things and holsted the backpack onto her shoulders. The axe blade was terribly heavy, which messed with her balance a little... but she could handle it. The frightful black sword her teacher had given her was already gone, and her tachi regained its shadow. She studied the familiar sword for a few moments, then sighed and sheathed it smoothly.

Rain was ready to leave.

...But she didn't.

"Uh, teacher. We might have a problem."

He turned to her and raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"A problem? What's the matter?"

She hesitated for a moment, then awkwardly scratched the tip of her nose.

"Well, you see. That explosion was much more powerful than I had expected. So... all the ice is broken. How am I supposed to get back to shore?"

He stared at her for a bit, then glanced at the ravaged landscape of the vast swamp.

Indeed, the little island was surrounded by nothing except mud and black water, with not a single Intact piece of ice in sight. The deadly expanse of treacherous sludge stretched all the way to the distant shore.

Her teacher lingered for a bit, then sighed and approached her.

Crouching, he pointed to his back:

"Climb on, brat."

Rain didn't make him ask twice. There were ways to traverse a swamp, but none that were both safe and timely. Not to mention that she had just disinfected her wound and didn't want to get it wet and dirty again.

Plus, her battered body was exhausted. Why would she refuse a piggyback ride offered by a powerful deity?

Climbing onto her teacher's back, Rain wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled.

He lifted her like a feather, not showing any strain at all despite how thin his body looked, and headed for the swamp.

"Ah... how humiliating... a divine shadow like me being reduced to carrying ungrateful mundane girls... gods are truly dead..."

Ignoring his grumbling, Rain rested her head on his shoulder and allowed her consciousness to drift into a relaxed state. The familiar sound of her teacher's voice was almost like a lullaby.

Walking to the edge of the island, he didn't even try to slow down and stepped directly into the muddy water. However, his foot never plunged into the murky sludge - instead, the shadows moved and coalesced into a glossy black plate under it. Then, another plate appeared as he took a step.

Like that, her teacher walked across the swamp as if he was walking on a paved road, the black plates dissipating behind him after a few moments. The water sloshed and surged, but never managed to touch his leather boots.

"Huh, that reminds me of that time we fought the Drowned in the lost temple of Fallen Grace... back when I was still wearing the Serpent King's crown... who knew that I would end up becoming a swamp rickshaw one day? Damn, life is sure full of irony..."

Rain did not know what the words Drowned, Fallen Grace, and Serpent King meant, but they sounded exciting. Was her teacher a king once, in ancient times?

...No, knowing him, it was more likely that he had stolen a king's crown and wore it to gloat and boast about his nefarious deeds.

The walk to the shore was both comfortable and uneventful. Rain could have climbed off her teacher's back once they reached solid ground, but he simply continued to carry her without saying anything, and so, she didn't say anything either.

Perhaps he saw through her bravado and realized that her condition was worse than she was letting on, and that she was too exhausted to hike through the forest while suffering the pain of her wound.

Still…

After a while, Rain spoke:

"We should take down the corpses of the fallen Awakened and give them a burial."

Usually, the Queen would have taken the dead. But the Huntsman must have prevented them from leaving on a pilgrimage to her palace, and as a result, their bones had been left unattended.

Her teacher stopped.

Rain couldn't see his face, but she felt a subtle change in his mood. Suddenly, the shadows populating the frozen forest seemed much deeper, and the world felt much darker.

Her breath escaped as a cloud of cold vapor.

'Does he not want to bother with burying them?'

"Climb off."

He bent his knees, allowing Rain to stand firmly on the ground. She was a little confused.

"What..."

But then, she heard it. A branch snapping somewhere behind her.

Placing her hand on the hilt of her sword, Rain turned around and looked back.

There, she saw several human figures walking in their direction. They seemed like a cohort of Awakened… no. A Master and his retinue, perhaps? One, two, three people... one of them was waving his hand in a friendly gesture...

Before Rain could discern any details, though, something strange happened.

Her teacher's hand appeared from behind and covered her eyes.

She froze.

'W-what... what...'

Something was very wrong.

His voice sounded very calm... too calm, even, which only made Rain feel more nervous.

"Hey, brat. Listen to me very carefully. From now on and until I tell you otherwise, no matter what happens, don't open your eyes. Alright?"

She nodded slowly.

"Yes, teacher."

He remained silent for a moment.

"Alright. Stand here and don't move."

With that, her teacher removed his hand. Rain's eyes were tightly shut, so she couldn't see anything, but she felt him walking past to stand between her and the approaching people.

Their steps were drawing closer.

'Wrong, wrong! This is very wrong!'

Rain was not stunned by the fact that he had covered her eyes. What truly disturbed her... was the fact that her teacher had not retreated into the shadows,

In all the years that she had known him, he had never, ever shown himself to other people, It was to the point that Rain had considered him a hallucination at first.

But now, her teacher remained in the open in front of absolute strangers.

Why?

Her silent panic was Interrupted by his bright, carefree voice:

"Greetings! Who might you be?"

The sound of steps halted, and a deep baritone answered in a friendly tone:

"Greetings, greetings! I am Master Sean, and these are my companions, Master Skif and Awakened Ardon. We were on our way back to Ravenheart... are you headed that way, as well?"

Rain frowned.

'Master Sean? Master Skif?'

She had not heard of these Ascended before. Granted, there were thousands of Ascended in the world, but still. Each of the Song Domain's Masters was like a minor celebrity, especially those in Ravenheart.

There was something else that seemed strange about these people, too. She was standing there, frozen, with her eyes closed... but they did not seem to care enough to react in any way, Wouldn't it be natural to ask what she was doing?

Her teacher lingered for a few moments.

"Yeah, we were on our way back to Ravenheart too."

Then, there was a long stretch of silence.

Eventually, Master Sean asked, his voice sending a chill running down Rain's spine, for some reason:

"You look a little familiar, young man. Say, have we met before?"

The tone of his voice was perfectly friendly, and so were his words. But she suddenly felt suffocated, as if there was something eerily, maddeningly wrong with it all.

Her teacher's answer was a little somber:

"As a matter of fact, we have indeed met before. Although I doubt that you'll remember. In any case, why don't you and your friends continue onward? Let's part on friendly terms and go our separate ways. How about it?"

There was another lengthy silence.

Shivering, Rain heard a strange rustle come from the direction of the three strangers. Their surroundings were slowly turning colder.

'What was that rustle?'

"How about it... how about it. How how how about it."

Master Sean's voice still sounded human, but his speech had turned strangely incoherent.

Another voice joined, its mannerisms and Intonations too similar to the first:

"We are on our way back to Ravenheart. These are my companions... Master... we are on our way. How about it?"

Rain was still stuck on her previous thought, unable to throw it out of her head.

'What... what was that rustle?'

She had never heard a sound like that before.

Just at that moment, the disturbing rustle grew louder, and a third voice added amicably:

"These are my companions."

"My companions..."

"My companions."

'That rustle...'

"How about..."

"...How about you become my companions, too?"

Her teacher took a deep breath. Rain could hear his voice turning dangerously cold:

"Listen here, bastard..."

She had never heard such coldness in his voice before, and the unfamiliarity scared her.

"You might have managed to claw your way out of Dread's Tomb, but so did I. You might have survived in the depths of a thousand hells, but so did I. So save me the theatrics and be on your way. Otherwise, I'll stop being gracious and skin you alive."

Rain shuddered.

'Skin... skin him...'

Suddenly, a thought flashed in her mind.

'The Skinwalker!'

The Great abomination that had been the nightmare of humanity for the past four years!

A Great... A Great abomination...

Three of the indescribable horror's vessels, no less!

Her terror was so vast that she couldn't even move. All Rain could do was keep her eyes closed and tremble.

'I'm dead, I'm so dead...'

No, death would be a mercy.

At that moment, Master Sean — Skinwalker's vessel — spoke with a hint of curiosity in his voice:

"You... whose companion are you?"

Her teacher scoffed.

And then, the world quaked.

1718 Sounds of Battle

The world quaked, and then, Rain was suddenly enveloped by absolute darkness.

It was as if an Impenetrable wall rose to surround her from all sides. The deafening cacophony of terrible sounds coming from the outside was muffled and dampened by that wall, and nothing but slight tremors reached her.

For the moment, at least, she was safe.

But those sounds...

Feeling a cold dread grasp her heart, she took a shaky breath and tried to comprehend them.

There was the sound of trees snapping. There were the screams of the air being torn. There was the roar of the ground being upturned.

These were the sounds that she could recognize.

But there were other sounds, as well.

Inhuman howls. Chilling groans that sounded like... like the world itself was weeping. Eerie and revoltingly organic rustling, as if a mountain of flesh was ripping as it expanded while consuming itself.

And many more that Rain simply could not describe, and was afraid to fathom,

The ground was shaking violently, and she was struggling to stay standing.

Her fingers turned white on the hilt of her sword.

'Teacher... be safe. Please...!'

But how could anyone stay safe when facing the Skinwalker? Countless people had fallen to its menace and were consumed, becoming vessels of the abomination's corruption. Mundane humans, Awakened, Masters... even Saints.

Not even the Sovereigns could eradicate this living curse.

Shrouded by darkness, Rain realized how painfully weak and helpless she was.

Just a few moments ago, she had been full of pride, praising herself for slaying an Awakened Demon.

But now, she remembered that in the world of the Nightmare Spell, she was nothing but an ant.

An ant who couldn't even do anything when her teacher was fighting to protect her.

'Strong... I want to be strong.'

She had not changed at all. She was still the same girl who had been powerless to protect herself, let alone anyone else, when the tide of Nightmare Creatures descended on her school.

...The world continued to scream and quake for several minutes,

Then, an eerie silence suddenly enveloped it. The tremors stopped, and the terrible sounds ceased.

Rain remained motionless, keeping her eyes closed,

She didn't dare to think about how the battle had ended. The thought of imagining her teacher... her teacher not being there anymore was too appalling. More appalling than what would happen to her if he was truly gone.

Suddenly, the wall surrounding her disappeared. She knew that it had because light suddenly shone through her eyelids, and cold wind scraped against her face.

The air was permeated by the smell of wet wood and soil.

'Please…'

A moment later, a familiar voice spoke from somewhere near:

"Brat, you can open your eyes now."

The relief Rain felt at that moment was strong enough to make her sway.

She slowly opened her eyes and looked around, then froze in shock.

'N-no way...'

The frozen forest... was gone.

It was obliterated entirely, and everywhere she looked, nothing but a barren expanse of flattened and upturned land could be seen. The trees had been reduced to mere splinters, and the ground itself was broken, with dark fissures covering it like bottomless scars.

Here and there, the splinters were wet with blood. Buried under them, broken corpses of the unfortunate Nightmare Creatures who had populated the forest lay, their macabre sight mercifully hidden by the debris.

That scene of devastation stretched as far as the eye could see.

The entire landscape had been drastically changed in a matter of minutes, redrawn by the fury of the harrowing battle.

The scale of the dreadful destruction... was simply unfathomable.

Rain took a trembling breath and finally looked at her teacher.

He was standing a few steps away, as nonchalant as ever.

His hair was ruffled, and there was a smudge of something dark on his check... but other than that, he was the same pale, roguish scoundrel she knew.

Of course, Rain struggled to perceive him in the same light.

She had known that her teacher was a powerful being, of course... but this was the first time she really witnessed his power.

Where were the vessels of the Skinwalker?

Rain tried to compose herself.

"The… the Skinwalker?"

Her teacher remained silent for a few moments, then silently took a step back.

Behind him, three human corpses were piled on top of each other, each missing the head and with a deep wound where their hearts should have been.

'Three vessels of a Great Nightmare Creature...'

Rain swallowed.

Her teacher had just killed three Great abominations. Just like that.

There was something else. Did she imagine it, or were there tiny shards of a broken mirror glistening on the ground in front of the corpses?

"W-what... how..."

Trying to comprehend the situation was too disturbing. So, Rain would rather think about its consequences... her teacher had revealed himself, and although they were far away from Ravenheart, such a drastic change of landscape would not escape notice.

Which meant that they had to get out of here as soon as possible.

Receiving the reward for the Huntsman was also not an option now. Rain would have to keep the fact that she was anywhere near this place a secret... It was a good thing that she had not shared her plans to hunt the demon with anyone.

No one could know that a being who could slay three vessels of the Skinwalker lived in her shadow. She would have to return to Ravenheart and lay low for a few months... luckily, that was what she had wanted to do, anyway…

Her teacher sighed.

"I know what you are thinking about. But, Rain... sadly, you are wrong."

She tilted her head a little.

"What? Why? Because you defeated the Skinwalker?"

He lingered for a moment, then shook his head and pointed to the three corpses.

"No. Drawing attention to myself is not a good thing, sure. But actually, we have a bigger problem. This guy, Master Sean... I recognize him. He was an Ascended from the House of Night."

Rain failed to understand what he was trying to say.

"...So?"

Her teacher sighed and rubbed his temples in frustration.

"Right. You don't know. Well... let's just say that members of the House of Night should not be anywhere near the territory of Queen Song right now. And they must have been fairly close to Ravenheart, moving in secret, when the Skinwalker got them. So... I am afraid that you and I have seen something that we were not supposed to see."

She hesitated for a few moments, remembering everything that her father had mentioned about the House of Night and its relationship with the Song Domain, Was there some problem between the two? It didn't seem that way…

If anything, the Song Domain seemed to be moving toward having a problem with the Sword Domain, while trying hard to maintain a friendly relationship with the weaker House of Night.

All of it was very mysterious.

But, at the same time, Rain understood the underlying meaning of what her teacher had said.

"Something that we were not supposed to see. Got it. Promising that I won't tell anyone is not going to work, I guess? So... just how big of a secret is it?"

Her teacher's face was a little somber.

"Big enough for Clan Song to erase any witness from existence. Well... not any witness. But a mundane girl with no backing? They won't hesitate to silence you even for a split second."

Rain felt a cold chill run down her spine.

'Damn... the royal clan?'

Why would Clan Song pay attention to someone as small and insignificant as her?

She gritted her teeth and looked at him stubbornly.

"I do have backing, though. My father works for the government... his rank is pretty high now, too. Surely, Clan Song won't want to spoil their relationship with the government because of something like that?"

Her teacher smiled wistfully.

"Ah, the naïveté of youth... first of all, you are overestimating the significance of your father's position. Second of all, you are overestimating the significance of the government. And lastly, you are underestimating Clan Song. Who says that anyone would be able to prove anything after they make you disappear?"

His smile turned colder.

"In fact, they won't even have to make you disappear. Technically. There's a guy among them who is much worse than the Skinwalker. He can destroy your soul and wear your body like a suit, coming to family dinners and gossiping about boys with your mother. No one will suspect a thing."

Rain shuddered.

Slowly, the magnitude of the trouble she had gotten herself into was starting to dawn on her.

'Crap... crap. Crap!'

Who had made her think all those stupid things earlier? Spend months in absolute safety? Rest and relax while working on Awakening at a leisurely pace? Be pampered at home?

She had been such a fool!

Rain cursed quietly, stared at the three corpses for a while, and then asked her teacher in a hopeful tone:

"So what do we do?"

Her teacher was... whatever it was that he was. He had to have a solution, without a doubt,

Suddenly, she felt a lot calmer.

Her teacher remained silent for a while, then smiled.

"Who to do, indeed. Well... I am sorry to tell you this, Rain, but you can't show your face in Ravenheart for a while. You'll have to disappear before they can make you disappear. We need to go somewhere where they won't be able to find you quickly, and spent some time there."

She closed her eyes and asked, her tone turning a little grim:

"Where can I even go? Even if I can survive a solo journey to another Citadel, there is no city in the Song Domain where the royal clan doesn't have eyes. Crossing into the Sword Domain is not an option, not that I would want to leave my family behind. I can't return to the waking world without the help of a Saint, and even if I could, locating me there would be even easier."

Her teacher scratched the back of his head with a thoughtful expression.

He lingered for a while, then glanced at her with a strange expression.

"What about one of those road crews? They are safe enough for you to survive, with more than enough mundane humans for one more to not draw attention, and best of all, far removed from all Citadels. They're lacking manpower, too, so no one would ask any questions. If I were you, I'd get myself hired as a laborer there and hide in the crowd."

A sly smile appeared on his face.

Her teacher remained silent for a moment, then added with a chuckle:

"In fact, wasn't there a huge crew being assembled to construct a road east? You know, to Godgrave. Why don't you join that one?"

Rain sighed.

'Why not, indeed?'