NOVEL NEXT Chapter 196: Ruin
“Should we continue our journey or should we set up camp first?” Max asks. “It’s getting pretty dark.”
“And I’m getting pretty tired.” Carol slowly raises her hand.
Lise looks at Hilda and after that they both look to me. “What do you think, Ami?”
“Uh… I don’t know… If we rest now we do lose time we could use searching.”
“But on the other hand, two of our party members can’t really see in the dark and fighting while tired could be a bad idea.” Sam puts in a valid counterargument.
“We would also not lose too much time.” Hilda replies. “We will have to sleep either way, if we do it now we can keep most of the useful hours of tomorrow. If push comes to shove we can stretch heading to bed by a bit tomorrow too.”
“Hmm. That’s true too.” I nod.
“And if it’s necromancy we are up against, I honestly don’t want to fight that in the dark either.” My sister comments. “Scary ass ghost shit. Not really that much of my thing.”
“Okay… I guess then it’s decided we will for the night.”
“Second question.” Max raises her hand. “Where exactly are we going to camp?”
“Why not here?” Hilda replies.
“Hilda?” Lise quickly turns around to face Hilda. “Didn’t I just say I really don't like spooky ass shit. The picture of this ruined city is literally next to the definition of that in the dictionary.”
“Don’t be a drama queen, Élise.” Hilda chuckles. “There’s plenty of ruins back the way we came that already give plenty of cover that blocks line of sight. Besides, the necromancers already did their work here, I doubt they will be back any time soon.”
“Hmm.” My sister crosses her arms and grumps a bit. “I’m not really convinced.”
“Why don’t you sleep next to Nikki the entire night, the rest of us can do guard duty.” Hilda proposes.
“And I’ll just keep Carol company by the fire.” Max nods.
“Are you sure?” Lise asks.
Nikki puts a hand on my sister’s shoulder. “C’mon. I don’t mind sitting out on guard duty for once.” She then slides her hand to my sister’s neck and then traces her finger up to her cheekline.
My sister gulps. “You make a convincing argument… But I will be keeping my gambeson on though…”
“I can work around that, no problem.” Nikki smirks.
“Okay, with that lewdness sorted, let’s go back a bit to find us a nice ruin to camp in.” Hilda starts walking back. Of course we follow her.
The ruin we pick to camp out in looks like it was a big house of sorts. The walls that were still standing were stable enough so they wouldn’t fall over without warning and the walls were also tall enough so that you could quite easily stand without anyone being able to see us if they came from the suspected direction of the bandit camp.
We all work together and quickly set up our tents and start making a little bit of a campfire. Being careful enough not to make it too big, or at least make sure the light it gives off is masked enough so that it ain’t too obvious we are here.
After that we proceed with making a bit of food, mostly consisting of some soup and some of our rations, nothing too fancy but still tasty enough to fill up my stomach.
“So Ami and I take the first watch, Max and Carol the second and Hilda the last?” Sam proposes as we stow away our cooking equipment.
“Fine for me.” Hilda nods.
“Sounds good to us too.” Max and Carol both agree as well.
“Alright, then we’ll wake you two up in three hours or so.” Sam smiles.
We say good night to everyone as they all disappear into their tents. Although it was slightly hard to ignore the weird noises coming out of my sister’s tent, those fell quiet not that long afterwards. Leaving Sam and I alone with our crackling campfire.
While we are looking out into the darkness I rest my head on Sam’s shoulder, she in turn rests her head on mine. “Thanks for helping out my sis earlier.”
“With the firefighter stuff?”
“Mhmm.”
“It’s really not a big deal.” She chuckles softly. “She’s gonna be my sister in law after all.”
“Hehe.” I start blushing.
“It’s the truth though.” Sam chuckles softly once more and turns her head just enough so that she can give a kiss on the top of mine.
“I love you, Sam.”
“Love you too, Ami.”
We continue being a cute couple for the next three hours, as for our watch, nothing really appears to happen nearby as the silence of the night goes on interrupted.
We then wake up Carol and Max for their watch. Max is a bit harder to wake up compared to Carol, but with enough kisses from my friend, Max does finally wake.
“I already regret picking the middle watch.” Max yawns.
“Yeah, it’s definitely the most ungrateful watch.” Sam agrees.
“Let’s just teleport back like we did next time. At least that way we don’t have to do that.”
I look at Sam and she looks back at me. Both our eyes go wide. “I totally forgot about that…”
“....” Max stares at me.
“....” I stare back.
“....” She continues staring.
“Look, you also didn’t say anything up to now.” Sam intervenes.
“I thought we were being adventurous.”
“Let’s just finish the night and think about that next time.” Carol comments. “There’s no point in trying to change it now. Breaking up camp would take too long.”
“Alright… I’ll let it go for now.” Before I start thinking Max is actually annoyed she grins and rubs her hand through my hair in a playful manner. “Don’t worry, in actuality I also only thought about it after we went to sleep in the tent. Anyway, have a nice rest you two.”
We wish our friends a good night back and then crawl into the tent they just got out of. Rolling out our own bedrolls and cuddling up close to each other. It doesn’t take long for us to fall asleep. It’s been a busy day.
A good long rest, however, is not what we got, as some time later I get violently shaken awake by Max.
“Amicia, Sam! Wake up! Quickly!”
“W-what’s wrong!?” Sam already has her hand on her hunting knife.
“Ghosts!”
“Ghosts?” I ask as I scramble out of my bedroll and make my way outside.
“Max! Did I hear you say bloody ghosts!?” It’s my sister’s voice coming from the tent nearby. “Hilda, I fucking told you we shouldn’t camp near this spooky ass shit. For fuck’s sake!”
It’s dark and misty outside, the light of our campfire noticeably more dim than when Sam and I were on guard, even though the campfire should still have plenty of fuel.
Just outside the ruin we are camped in, Carol is casting lightning spell after lightning spell in multiple directions. It takes my eyes a couple of seconds to see what she’s aiming at. Ghostly green, blueish figures slowly closing in on our position. I can see that every time one of Carol’s spells hit, a couple of the figures get pushed back a little, but it doesn’t really seem to harm them.
“My spells aren’t doing anything, help!” Carol calls out to me.
Ami, can you try to communicate with them like you did at Hofudstadr?” Hilda, who has just jumped out of her tent, asks.
“Uh… I can try?” I run up to Carol, the ghostly figures seem a lot more clear to me now. Practically all of them are Ulusu from all different kinds of ages and sizes, from children to the elderly. Apart from being classically ghostlike transparent, their look would make you think they were still walking around living their lives up to now, albeit in clothes from a way older culture than the one we have witnessed in this world so far. But something feels very off, way different from the souls of the people that were trapped in the obelisk. These ghosts just feel… soulless… empty and when I get closer that feeling only grows stronger. Those empty silent eyes just looking at me as if I was not there, though this still try to whack and bite me.
“Watch out, Amicia. Those fuckers do hurt if they hit you. One of them got me in my arm when I was swinging at them.” Max warns me.
I swiftly pull back towards my friends.
“No avail?” Hilda asks.
I shake my head. “It might be the necromantic magic or these people might have been dead for too long, but I don’t feel anything from them anymore.”
“Alright then.” My sister, still only in her gambeson, unsheathes her sword.
“That won’t do much to them.” Max looks at my sister’s sword.
My sister smirks as her sword begins to light up. She then reaches for Max’s axe, putting her hand on the axe blade, which then swiftly begins to glow in a similar light. “I’m not just some random swordsman, Max. I'm a paladin. And the Goddess I’m serving is standing next to you. Ain’t no undead going to touch my sister when I’m around.” Her shield then appears on her arm as she’s done imbuing Max’s axe. “I don’t know what happened to these poor sods but let’s send them back to their eternal rest.” And without any further hesitation, my sister charges in.
“But what about my blades!?” Hilda calls after my sister, but it’s already a bit too late for that now as a swipe from my sister’s sword makes one of the ghosts disappear in sparkly light.