NOVEL NEXT Chapter 95: Cursed Being
I watch the bare-bones airship fly around the village. It is very simple in design, but that can easily be changed after this coming crisis. The pilot and crew are currently practicing flying the airship; after months of being unable to fly, they need a refresher.
While the crew practices their flight, everyone is packing their things. Necessities first, tools to rebuild should that be needed, clothes, Myrou dedications. Then valuable and sentimental things, and finally common things if there is any room to spare. Everyone is given a limit on how much they can bring, but that limit is fairly generous.
Once the crew has had time to practice, they land the airship and dock, then allow people to begin boarding. The airship can fit almost a hundred people and their things, more if they were to be packed like sardines, but we aren't that desperate for time; even the other villages haven't fully evacuated.
My family is among the first to leave. Yafe and Yafel are excited to get back onto an airship, running up the gangplank to be the first onto it. The airship already has many supplies on it; not just for flight training but also materials to assemble a temporary shelter at our destination.
Once the airship is full we take off, flying to the outer mountainous ring a hundred kilometers away. The mountains tower high into the sky; more tall than wide, they pierce the sky, forcing clouds to part for them. I never knew how tall they were, but they are simply colossal. They even tower above the ley lines, the mana currents that bring the world's mana to the Nexus. We reach the evacuation rendezvous point, the sandy beach at the base of the mountains, in an hour and a half.
As to not intrude onto any other islands, the elders seem to have opted to settle the mountains instead. I wonder if there are any caves, but, considering the building materials, we'll be building shelters here, not sheltering in caves.
Splashing down near the beach and rowing to the sands, we start unloading the materials, everyone forming a conga-line to pass materials down the line. Once everything is taken off the airship, we get to work setting up the first shelters. With almost a hundred people, we should have at least one by the time the next group gets here, in three hours.
People unskilled in construction help by holding things in place while the skilled quickly hammer everything in place and direct where the next pieces need to go. Piles are driven into the ground to provide a foundation; again, we don't take the time to decorate our work. I watch the skills in action as the dedicated builders hammer in nails at a lightning pace. Each support is precisely placed, each plank nailed in, and within a few minutes, the wall is complete. [Inquisitive Perfection] grumbles at the work, but it's not exactly displeased, more just barely giving a passing grade. This isn't to say that the workers are bad; it's just that there are almost three hundred people that need a place to sleep other than wet sand, also; we need places to bathe, which is being set up by another crew.
How am I going to help in all of this? They are simply going too fast for me to keep up, I don't know all that much about construction, and I'll probably just slow everyone down if I try and get involved.
"Aly, why don't you make everyone towels and blankets. I am sure some people forgot those," Mom says, giving me a reassuring smile. I nod, returning her affection, and start mana weaving.
Only now do I see why we were the first to be evacuated. Most of us have skills that can help set things up: construction workers, smiths, mana weavers, and tailors. Our culture has given us the means to quickly overcome natural disasters; since most of us have some sort of craft that can be used to rebuild, most of us have some way to contribute to the efforts.
By the time the next shipment of people arrives, we have several buildings set up, more than I initially thought we could get done. These people help by unloading more supplies and starting to set up a few workshops. The first is a blacksmith’s workshop, then a potter’s workshop. Things are established to quickly set up a society, the beginning of infrastructure starting to show.
Baths are taken in turns as we only have one bathing spot for now. No bathing oil has been brought yet; it's nonessential, but it is the main export of our village and I doubt the Elders will let that go if they can help it.
The last members of our village arrive, and more supplies are unloaded. The airship crew takes a brief bath and rest before getting back on the airship once everything is unloaded. Not everyone has left the airship, though, and soon they go back. Probably to get as many supplies as we can, so in the case that our village is destroyed we can rebuild without losing too much of our livelihoods.
Warehouses are built to hold everything and, when night falls and the airship returns for the last time, we all celebrate a job well done. We hold a Lojyo on the beach, and a bonfire is lit, but before the events begin, Tusile and the other Elders call for everyone.
"Everyone, I am proud of you." Tusile says, "We have managed a great feat; in a single day, we have built all that we need. In a single day, we have gotten everyone to safety and retrieved most that we can afford. It is a shame we could not take everything, and I hope there is more time tomorrow but for now, enjoy what we have!"
The Lojyo starts, and music is played, and everyone dances to the rhythm; spirits are high after the three days of hard work; one could almost believe it's a field trip, just an outing for fun. The realities soon hit us when a world-spanning roar echoes across the Nexus.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The pets are rather greedy; they don't know how close they were to getting caught up in the coming fight.
Safyr feels the miasma being consumed. With the flow of mana cut off, it is a signal that the metaphorical egg should hatch. She knows not how strong this one will be, but cursed beings are never to be taken lightly, even with her title empowering her. Speaking of... she should use it to summon help. Safyr swims to the surface and climbs onto the surface of the water as if it were solid ground. The water isn't disturbed by the huge dragon rising out of it, not a single drop of water disturbed or a wave made.
Safyr breathes deep and then lets out a roar. A call to other dragons, not a cry of help but a proud "Join me, brothers and sisters, join in this glorious battle!"
Safyr then focuses on the powers granted by her title. Mana rushes into a point in front of her, being consumed to fuel the magic.
"Erandur, come, my child," Safyr mutters, and then a golden-red dragon appears, wreathed in blood-red flames of vitality.
"Mother, I heard your call. Where's the foe?" Erandur asks, looking around.
"You still have much to learn if you can't feel it," Safyr says, looking down at the ruins. "A cursed being is about to be born."
"It has to be strong if you are calling for help," Erandur says, mimicking his mother's majestic aura.
"I do not know, But given the circumstances, I'd say it's not going to be weak. Regardless, all you've been doing is hunting Elementals for the last three thousand years; you need the experience in fighting other things." Safyr says, her heart beating faster as the Miasma is almost gone. Any minute now the cursed being will be born.
"Speaking of Elementals, it seems that some are trying to invade this realm from another. Ice elementals and great winter spirits. They seek to conquer all the realms. I do not know how many there are, but I may need your help should they arrive in force." Erandur reports.
"I'll be there should you call, now get ready," Safyr says, warping reality around her, the very concept of motion and liquidity granting her improved speed and reaction.
The last of the Miasma is consumed and, appearing as if crawling out of space itself, is a shady being, like swirling shadows in a vaguely Runalymo shape. It isn't large, only a little taller than the pets. At first glance, it seems to be a mere wraith, but its shade-like features prove otherwise. The most damning evidence are the tears streaming down its face from the eyes of blackest void, and its sadistic grin. Cracks are running over the creature as if it was broken like glass, and a void lies beneath the skin, showing through the cracks. A feminine humming echoes with an unworldly presence; it's as if the humming comes from all directions, with no origin.
Chills immediately shock Safyr as she realizes what this cursed being is: a fragment of a fallen legacy.
"KILL IT! Kill it now!" Safyr shouts. But before she can do anything, she finds herself flying in the air, rushing past the clouds high above. Looking around, gore fills the sky, scales, blood, and bone. Her body regenerates near-instantly, as does Erandur's, his body growing from flames.
Far below, the earth shifts as massive amounts of mana are consumed. Under the moonlight, the ruined city rises, earth and water sloughing off as if the ruins suddenly reject them.
Safyr dives as fast as she can, reality bending to allow her to move faster, a shockwave rattling the air for only a single instant before she crashes into the cursed being, the ruins being blown away from the impact. The cursed being screams as it is torn asunder by her claws. Appearing in a burst of flames, Erandur bathes the cursed one in flames, the ruins instantly combusting and the waters around vaporizing from the heat alone. Even the fabric of reality seems to burn from the flames, but the cursed being has cast an impervious shield to protect it from the fire.
The mana vanishes once again, and Safyr finds herself smashing through a mountain and splashing into the ocean. Her body restores itself from the largest piece and she flies up, kilometers away from the Nexus, the mountain still crumbling from her being thrown through it. Then the sound catches up, an earsplitting roar and a shockwave crashing against the earthen barrier. Whatever the pets have built, they'll need to rebuild now.
Safyr flies back in seconds, wreathed in flame, with a vacuum behind her roaring as air fills back in her wake. The ruins are pristine now, any damage done either a thousand years ago or just a few seconds ago gone, as if it had never happened. Shades of those long past walk the streets, a re-enactment of the life that once was.
Safyr sweeps up the floating cursed being high into the sky. She has to stop it from absorbing the Miasma from the other ruins and becoming a true Fallen Legacy.
Safyr bites down onto the cursed being, empowering her jaws with magic to sunder the ethereal being. Suddenly Safyr finds herself elsewhere, this time crashing into an island and skidding next to a village. The pets are shock and running away; they have been trying to rescue those that are trapped in the rubble of what once was a village. Clearly, not just the central and inner islands needed to evacuate.
Safyr regenerates her body again, leaving a shredded wing behind, and charges back at the cursed being, only to start falling as the mana around her vanishes. Her wing regenerates yet again, and she continues her charge, leaving two more wings falling to the waters below.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I lay close to the ground, crawling closer to my sisters as I watch the battle with my perception, the unworldly and eerie humming not matching the current situation. The cursed being has no soul, no mana signature; it does not produce mana. But it shines brightly to me. A powerful being made of magic, visible only to me by my [Sense Magic].
Ting! Sense Magic has met the requirements for a breakthrough and will continue leveling past level 680!
33rd Breakthrough: You have seen a magical being; this will help you study them.
Ting! Sense Magic has obtained levels 561-563!
I never thought to see a dragon matched, let alone two of them. This is what a cursed being is capable of? They use mana, so the less mana there is, the easier it might be to fight them... but here in the Nexus? There is just too much mana.
Everything that we've built today is nothing but rubble now, all blasted to pieces from the shockwaves alone. There really was no safe place, was there? No matter where we had gone, we would have been in danger from the cursed being; the humming is a testament to that. Well, there is a place safe for us, or that would have been safe, anyway; the dungeon. We just need to slay the Treant and build a bunker there, a place where we can go in case of cursed beings and elementals.
Another shockwave hits and pieces of rubble go flying. I am nearly picked up by it myself, but I can only watch as a broken log arches through the air and lands on someone, crushing the life from them in an instant. We have to get away from the mountain, now!
"Yafel! Yafe!" I shout to get their attention. I get up and run toward them, throwing myself to the ground as another shockwave hits. The Guardian rushes overhead, smashing through another mountain. Rocks and boulders the size of houses start raining down and rolling down the side of the mountain in a monumental landslide.
"Into the waters!" someone shouts. "Get into the water!"
I pick up the crying twins, each under one arm, and run as fast as I can. I fill my body with as much speed essence as I can and run faster and faster.
"Summon your armor!" I yell at the twins. The Heroic-tier armor that I made them will empower their abilities and should defend them from the rubble. Their armor appears just as mine does, little pebbles clinking off our defenses.
Mom and Dad catch up with me, each grabbing a twin, and we wade into the warm waters, ducking our heads into the waves as another shockwave hits. As we swim farther out, the landslide shakes the waters from its fast approach. We swim farther and farther, the beach ending to the sheer underwater cliff. Mom propels us with her water Bond to faster escape the rocks and boulders sliding down the mountain.
The first rocks splash into the water, soon followed by a large island's worth of earth. A huge wave carries us farther out to sea just as another shockwave shakes the world.