Today, I decided to say goodbye to the darkness of the caves after a long time.
The sunlight outside was harsh—almost hostile—so I tugged my hood lower, shielding and covering my eyes. The warmth of the outside felt a little suffocating after spending so long in the coolness of the cave.
After spending centuries in that cave, I wasn't used to the sunlight.
Nonetheless, the blue sky stretching endlessly, the drifting clouds here and there, and the forest's soft, humid breath were refreshing.
This area looks way different from what it used to be.
There were grasslands here before, and there used to be a small settlement that consisted of people who wanted to either live a life far away from other humans or were banned from entering the cities for various reasons.
Now, though, it had turned into a dense forest. Still, I didn't dislike it.
The sound of insects buzzing filled my ears. Birds were chirping to each other. Little critters were darting through the bushes. I walked barefoot, being a good listener and an observer of all the activity going on around me.
The damp carpet of fallen leaves was soft underfoot. Pebbles and broken twigs jabbed at my soles.
The air was thick with the scent of earth, crushed greenery, and sweet rot. It was strange, sure, but not unpleasant.
I glanced back at the cave.
The darkness had been comforting to some extent. I felt a little troubled leaving, but I'd waited for far too long.
It felt like an eternity had passed while I was there. I had thought I could spend an eternity there. But I had grown a bit tired of it all. I couldn't wait any longer.
"You didn't come to wake me up either, Lia," I said. "I'm leaving by myself now."
After I had announced my decision, I felt like a burden had been lifted off my chest.
I raised my hand up in the sky and pointed my index finger toward the entrance of the cave.
The stones let out a sound, and the entrance folded in on itself, leaving behind nothing but a pile of crumbled rocks.
I was done with this cave now.
I spent the rest of my time exploring the forest. There had been just so long that I was interested and captivated by even the mundane, everyday things a normal person would find boring.
I walked up to the flowers and drew in their pleasant fragrance. I touched the bark of the tree trunks to feel their rough yet delicate texture. I lay in the patches of glass and lost myself for hours listening to the sounds of the forest.
Whenever I got hungry, I searched for fruits and ate them. Whenever I was thirsty, I drank water from whatever nearby streams or ponds I could find.
A normal person would have gotten a bad stomachache from them, but thankfully, that wasn't the case with me.
The forest looked beautiful as it bathed in the golden sunlight when the sun started to set. Soon night came, and a blanket of countless stars was woven up in the sky.
I kept walking, and a while later, the density of the forest around me decreased, and I came out in a clearing. Since the tall trees were no longer obstructing my sight, I looked up and saw a bright full moon in the sky.
It was mesmerizing.
As I was admiring the beauty of the moon, I suddenly sensed someone's gaze being focused on me. It was a strange feeling indeed, after all, no one had let their eyes on me for centuries.
It was nice, to be seen.
I turned to look at the place where I sensed the gaze from and saw that a girl was lying on the ground. She had deep-red coloured hair, her clothes were all messed up, and she was bleeding rather badly.
"Help…" she said, her voice barely reaching my ears while she desperately tried to drag herself on the ground.
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The boy took a few steps toward her, focusing his attention on the state she was in and casting his gaze upon her.
Suddenly, she felt like she had made a big mistake. After all, who else would be in this forest in the middle of nowhere, coincidentally appearing right in front of her? Who else other than the people who were after her!
Still, it was too late. She could barely pull herself together. If he indeed wanted to kill her, there was nothing she would be able to do.
"Who…are you?" the girl asked in a cracking voice in a last desperate attempt, hoping that the reality was different from her worries.
Meanwhile, she used all her willpower to force herself to stand up on her feet that were still trembling with blood dripping from the cuts they had gained.
The boy stopped at a feet away from her. He matched her gaze, looking directly into her golden eyes.
"I'm Auren, Auren the mage," he said.
She was a bit confused. What could a mage be doing here? Well, yes, there certainly were cases of some crazy prodigies leaving all civilization behind and living in the woods to focus purely on their research, but they were like one in a million.
If anything, this only deepened her suspicions—of course, he was lying! Why would anyone who wanted to ambush her openly give out their identity?
Just when she was coming to terms with leaving this world, she heard a rattling sound, which was soon accompanied by a loud crashing noise behind her.
She turned to look at what she was and saw that the five guys from before had jumped down. It seemed like they had successfully pulled off the stunt she was trying to do and had landed without any major injury.
However, at that moment, it was as if a wave of enlightenment had suddenly hit her.
He couldn't be with them! After all, if he was among those who wanted to kill me, then he easily had the chance to do so all this time, yet he didn't. She thought to herself, rationalising the situation around her.
The leader of the five guys looked at the state she was in, and a twisted smile appeared on his face.
"Finally, the game of cat and mouse is over," he said.
Now that it was clear to her that the guy in front wasn't a danger to her, she didn't waste even a second to listen to whatever monologue they wanted to pull off.
She forced her legs to move, letting out a scream and pacing away from them.
"Run or they'll kill you too," she said as she passed Auren, but then suddenly stopped and looked behind to see he still hadn't moved an inch from his place.
Does he not realize the situation he is in? Ah well, this is my fault to begin with!
She quickly turned around and grabbed his hand, pulling him along with her.
Since this part of the forest was not too dense, she was able to run without much trouble despite her injuries, although she still couldn't go too fast
Perhaps that was the reason the people behind her weren't too worried about her escaping again and were leisurely chasing after her while two of them flanked them from the sides to surround them.
"Why are they behind you? Are you a criminal or something?" Auren asked, a sense of curiosity in his voice.
At this point, even though she was holding his hand, he had started to use his own strength to run so as not to hold her back.
"Huh? No! My father sent these assassins after me—ahh!"
Suddenly, the world around her flipped as her body struck the ground. She had lost balance and tumbled due to the uneven ground beneath her fault, and in doing so, she had caused Auren to fall along beside her.
She wasn't running very fast, so it didn't take much time for the assassins to catch up to her. In fact, they were visible quite clearly when she turned her head around.
Tears began to form at the corners of her eyes as the hopelessness of the situation hit her.
"This is the end after all…they're gonna kill both of us," she said, sobbing. "I'm sorry, it's my fault I got you caught up in this."
Auren looked at her, his expression neutral as he seemed to be lost in thought. Then, finally coming to a decision, he looked toward the assassins who had surrounded them from the front and sides by now.
"Not really, people don't die that easily," he said, standing up. He then moved in front of her and stood between her and the assassins.
"Now who the fuck are you?" the leader of the assassins asked in an irritated tone.
"Oh I'm just a passerby, don't mind me. What about you, though? Do you all have any business with her?" Auren said, standing his ground.
"Yes, we do in fact have some business with her. So, how about you just scram off from here? It would make things a lot easier for both of us," the guy said.
"I'm afraid I can't do that," Auren replied, strengthening his posture and making it clear that he wasn't about to go anywhere.
"Tch, I don't get paid enough for this shit," the guy said, mumbling to himself. "Die if that's what you want!" he shouted, raising his right hand toward Auren and the girl.
A bolt of red energy shot out from the palm of his hand and accelerated toward Auren.
However, just before it was about to hit him, the bolt of energy vanished without a trace as if it had never been there to begin with.
"The fuck?!"
There was a look of astonishment on the leader's face since something like this had never happened before. Not able to make heads or tails of whatever just happened, he decided not to mind it too much and try again with a bigger spell.
He raised both his hands up in the air, and red energy began to swirl around between his palms. As it swirled, it began to take the shape of a sphere and within the next second, it turned into a big fireball.
He shifted his arms a bit backward, preparing to throw the ball toward Auren.
"Inferno!" he screamed, hurling it forward.
"Permission denied," Auren said, and before the fireball could get even an inch away, it disappeared into thin air just like the bolt from before.
Resulting in a look on the leader's face that was even more astounding than before.
"This is way worse than what I was expecting," Auren said, sighing to himself and expressing his disappointment.
"I'll admit I was a bit surprised since I could sense concentrated mana inside your body, I was even looking forward a little to see what you'll do with it.
"But sing my own magic against me, are you immensely brave or just extremely stupid?" he asked in a sarcastic tone.
"W-What nonsense are you talking about?!" the leader of the assassins said, his voice trembling as the world around him started to make less sense.
He backed off a few steps and then frantically turned to look at his comrades, who were standing on guard.
"What the fuck are you all doing standing like statues? Finish him!" he screamed.
Following his order, all of them left the defensive posture and launched multiple attacks toward Auren. Some were fireballs, some bolts of energy, some shards of stone turned into projectiles.
However, all of them disappeared in a similar fashion before they could reach anywhere near Auren.
"Impossible…" the leader mumbled to himself, clenching his teeth in frustration.
Auren took a good look at him and waited, but when he didn't say anything, he sighed in disappointment.
"Is this the best you can do? Even if I were to assume that you're trying to prove some point by using my own magic against me, at least use the spells that are meant for battle rather than the ones meant for hunting animals," he said.
"Hunting spells…?" There was a clear look of confusion on the leader's face. Auren picked up on that, and his disappointment deepened.
"Don't tell me this is the best you can do?" he questioned, but received no answer. Instead, they fired another volley of spells at him, but the result was the same.
Auren turned his head and looked back at the girl who was still bleeding, and the intensity of pain she was in could be seen clearly on her face.
"What am I even doing?" he softly mumbled to himself. "Maybe being out in the world after so long made me a little restless, I guess."
He sighed once again and then turned back toward the assassins.
"I'm sorry, but the only way you can harm me is if you're using spells that are not developed by me. Although it doesn't seem like you have any of those, so I would be ending this little farce here," he said.
Before any of them could even begin to reply, the vines of the trees around them moved rapidly on their own and engulfed all the assassins.
The vines twisted tightly around their arms, legs, and even their heads, like snakes coiling and tightening their grip. In seconds, they were lifted off the ground, completely restrained and unable to move a muscle.
The pressure kept building, slowly, like the vines were trying to crush them alive. But just before it became unbearable, the squeezing stopped.
Heh, I guess I'm still not good with seeing blood. Auren commented internally, his thoughts carried a hint of sarcasm, as if he was mocking himself.
He looked up at the assassins as the vines coiled tighter, thickening until they completely enclosed each one in a cocoon of twisting roots. The pressure no longer increased, but it was still enough to slowly choke all the life out of them.
Auren had chosen not to crush them into a blob of flesh and blood, but that ended up only delaying their death. It didn't mean they were going to survive.