Morvian's mind immediately conjured up an image of a tall guy with long, russet-colored hair. Almond eyes that looked like falcon eyes.
Now he was in the body of a hideous monster with deadly claws and bone armor.
This amused Morvian a little, but he realized that even in the ordeal some things hadn't changed.
After all, damn the challenge, the monster was about two and a half meters tall. What that meant was that even here Morvian was still shorter.
'Who even looked at height besides most people, though? Pathetic assholes...'
Lamenting his genes, he noticed the look in Elias' eyes, who was still waiting for a return greeting.
Morvian thought for a few seconds before replying, finally deciding what he would do with the name.
"Nice to meet again, Elias... My name is Morvian."
He decided not to hide his name from the young man, as he was not his enemy and made a pleasant impression. At least in human form.
Scarlet eyes widened slightly, as if they recognized him.
The pleasant voice reappeared in Morvian's mind.
"So you are Morvian, nice to meet you. However... have we met before?"
Morvian looked in surprise at the perplexed Elias, who was standing as if nothing had happened.
'Come on! We saw each other a couple days ago and you've already forgotten me! We had already met even then!
Resentment rose in Morvian's heart, but he stifled that emotion.
"Alright, bygones."
He withdrew the dragonflies with some reluctance and they flew back into his hand, becoming a tattoo.
Elias watched the process with interest and couldn't help but wonder.
"Looks like you got lucky. Got into the body of a sorceress during a trial. You have so many artifacts and weapons."
The guy in the girl's body looked at the monster with obvious anger, but didn't say anything back. Only rolled his sleeve back up and started looking around.
The wind tickled the green field and the moonlight lay gently on top of it.
A few night beasts ran past the strange couple, and a pair of large birds cut through the clouds.
Morvian tried to find the lights of the caravan, but there was only bare steppe all around with no hint of civilization.
He turned to Elias and asked with obvious bewilderment.
"Where are we, anyway?" Morvian remembered something and continued, "By the way... why did you drag me away from the camp, so far away?"
Elias sat down on the grass, and began to pull the bullets out of his body, while the viscous scarlet colored liquid clung to them.
"The thing is, I was only recently able to get outside and didn't know the area at all. That's when seeing the caravan made me decide to borrow a map from someone."
Morvian gave the seated monster a strange look, rolling up the sleeve of his right hand.
Several scarabs flew out of the tattoo and landed on Elias' fur.
The jade insects got down to business, healing the wounds.
Elias wheezed a couple times, but was grateful for his new acquaintance. So he decided to continue.
"However, as you can see, my appearance will not be of any help to me in this endeavor. So I decided to cautiously find a man who had strayed from the caravan and carefully steal the map from him."
"And that's when you came across me. And apparently, because of the crowds, you decided to be cautious." finished Morvian.
Elias nodded in affirmation and squinted slightly at the healing pain.
The blue shavings surrounded the ring again, taking shape.
A wrapped scroll of a slightly yellowed map appeared in Morvian's hands and he opened it.
Though it was night, the moonlight was doing a good job as a luminary.
"We're somewhere around here... so we're still a few days away from the city of Pyr. Hell, at this rate, the ordeal may already be over."
Elias looked at the map with scarlet eyes, studying it.
"We really need to hurry. However, there have been cases where the trial could last for months. Therefore, we shouldn't worry too much."
At this moment, he noticed something and pointed his clawed finger at one point on the map.
"Look, there's a small village here, located by a river that leads directly to the city. We can take a boat there and swim to it by water in a day or two."
Morvian nodded understandingly, assessing the idea.
"However, there is a problem."
Saying that, Morvian looked at Elias in the monster's body.
The latter realized what the guy in the girl's body was talking about and sighed.
His sigh was more like the scraping of metal, but sadness seeped through that cacophony.
"Yes, the problem is my body. It's unlikely the locals will welcome me."
The scarabs continued to bind the monster's flesh, humming and fluttering their wings.
"Then I can go into the village alone and get a boat, and you can go further than the town along the river beforehand, where I'll pick you up later."
Elias looked over the small golden-haired girl appraisingly. Trust could not be found in his scarlet eyes.
"Are you sure about this?"
Morvian looked indignantly at his interlocutor, jutting out a small chest.
"Some old men won't be able to stop me. And besides, why would they attack a defenseless girl?"
Elias shook his head.
"That's not what I mean... I've already had to pass by several villages and they had one thing in common..."
The buzzing of bugs filled the silence and a light breeze caressed the grass.
"All of them were like on needles. I've already noticed myself that the beasts of the abyss are quite numerous in the area, but the gate is nowhere to be found. Something strange is going on here. Maybe it even has to do with the ultimate goal of the trial. That's why it's fatal to split up now. After all, our strength is in numbers."
Morvian listened to his new acquaintance, then sank into some thought.
His sun-colored eyes stared pensively into the void, and strands of his hair moved in the breeze.
After a few long seconds, he straightened up and breathed in the fresh air, looking up at the sky. Afterward, he looked at Elias.
"I think it's worth doing this. I'm going to try to enter the village alone anyway."
Elias wanted to object, but Morvian continued.
"You'll be nearby keeping an eye on the situation. Give me a couple hours to talk them down. If you see things take a serious turn or time runs out, you'll step in. I can also signal you, in case of failure."
It took Elias a moment to weigh the pros and cons.
Eventually he nodded his head in agreement.
"Alright then, three hours for you to get a boat, and I'll wait nearby, watching. When I see it's worked out, I'll run farther down the river for you to pick me up unnoticed."
Morvian nodded in agreement and extended his arm.
"Excellent, shall we begin then?"
The monster looked oddly at the girl's pale hand, but shook it back with his bony paw.
Only the moon was an observer of the strange scene.
A beautiful girl with golden hair, once a slave was shaking the spawn of Hell with sharp claws.
It was this moment that became a turning point in the lives of these souls that had become bound by the chains of fate.