The group continued traveling throughout the day, crossing rivers and villages while talking and laughing. They stopped at a place to eat lunch together as well.
Before quickly leaving on their journey again. As the Neruthal City ca closer and closer, the atmosphere started to turn somber and quiet.
Orion looked out at the road and realized that fewer and fewer pedestrians were walking in that direction. 'Looks like the aftermath of that battle was worse than what I read,' he thought.
They passed by a few quiet villages until only the ruins of villages started to appear in their line of sight.
It should still have been morning—birds chirping, insects making noises—however, sothing along the way had changed quietly, before Orion and the others could recognize.
"Felt sothing different?" Eldric asked, looking at Orion with a half smile.
Orion focused on his surroundings, "No… I don't hear any—" His eyes slightly widened as he realized, "All the noises are gone…"
"Exactly. No birds, no wind, no sign of life." Eldric heaved a deep sigh. "Those demonic bastards did this here. Not leaving a sign of life."
Orion looked out of the window, and he could still see green trees in the surroundings. "Then how co there are still these alive trees?"
"The kingdom asked for help from the Holy Church. Those with the Light Affinity can purify the Darkness of the Demons," he explained while looking at the lush greenery outside. "Even though the Church Priests did their best and even restored the majority of this place, signs of life are still missing."
"Even if we bring insects, animals, or birds, they would either die after a while or just run away. The kingdom asked for advice from the Holy Church again but all they said was that it would take ti for this place to heal naturally." He finished saying in one breath.
Selene placed a hand on his shoulder, "We tried to purify this place ourselves, but we couldn't co up with anything. The dead bodies of demons and humans once filled this place—maybe this issue rose from that ti."
Orion beca silent, focusing on Eldric's words. 'Darkness elent brings corruption? Is my Darkness Elent the sa? But… I—I thought darkness was the absence of light, not the corruption of everything else.'
Eldric noticed Orion's deep contemplation ever since he ntioned Darkness. He decided to expand on it. "The Darkness elent is the opposite of Light. Where one purifies, the other corrupts. The demons are mostly born with Dual Elents, with one being the Darkness and the other being one of the other elents."
"They corrupt the natural elent with their Darkness and make a fused Demonic Elent—Abyssal Flas, Nether Water, Hell Wind, etc. But this doesn't give them that big of a boost against normal elents. It gives them a corrupting power which eats away at the mana of their opponents. That's why fighting with them always leads to a pyrrhic victory."
Orion looked at Eldric in surprise. 'No wonder I didn't find many details about the Darkness elent in the library. It's sothing like a forbidden elent to the Humans.'
"Are there any Darkness affinity users in this kingdom?" he asked, ignoring the demons for a second.
Eldric raised an eyebrow, "Brat, you aren—" Then his gaze landed on Rina and Fiora, who were looking at him curiously. He held back on asking whether Orion wanted to master the Darkness Elent as well.
"Yes, there are Darkness Elent users in our world as well. But they are mostly the outcasts of society, as the Darkness Elent corrupts them, too. There are only two ends for them—either getting killed by their own Darkness or being hunted down by those they offended."
Selene took over, understanding Orion's curiosity. "It's not that they are hunted on sight," she sighed, "but most don't want to associate with Darkness Affinity users, since they are very volatile."
"…What about Light Elent? Since both are the polar opposite of each other, shouldn't Light also affect the ntality of practitioners? Albeit not to the sa type as Darkness, but it should still affect them, right?" he asked, wondering about the workings of these two weird elents.
Eldric nodded in approval. "It's good that you caught on so quickly, and the answer to your question is yes. Light elent also affects the user. However, it doesn't affect them like Darkness. It only amplifies the positive traits of users, unlike Darkness, which amplifies the negative traits."
Orion frowned. He didn't like this. He didn't like this one bit—that both Eldric and Selene hadn't told him about this before.
Selene gently patted his head. "We didn't tell you about this before because we wanted you to make your own choice once you reach the academy and learn more about this stuff. That's why I didn't give you the Affinity Rune book."
His expression eased slightly after hearing Selene's explanation. He asked, "Is there any way to break free from the elent's influence?"
Eldric shrugged. "You know, all elents subtly affect us—or rather, they are the embodint of our emotions, so they perfectly align with our true selves. That's why those with Fire elent have fiery personalities while those with the Water elent have calm personalities. Now you only have a single choice—your will needs to be strong enough to ignore the elent's influence, since your case is rather… special."
He finished saying, looking deeply at Orion, who fell silent at his words. The remaining resentnt in his heart dissipated as he thought, 'Can Light or Darkness corrupt a True Dragon Emperor? Hmm, fuck it. I'll just master both elents and create a balance between them.' He decided and felt a burden lifting from his shoulders.
Fiora and Rina looked at each other. They finally realized that Orion had the Light elent. They couldn't hide the shock and a hint of pride in their eyes.
After all, having the Light elent is considered Holy and Divine in their world. Only the righteous people with pure hearts can awaken with Light Elent. That just proved the Master they were serving was the correct one.
Alas, if they knew he also had Darkness affinity, then who knows what they would have done?
They continued chatting while their destination neared. The carriage grew silent as after a while, Lucan finally stopped the carriage and dismounted it.
"This is as far as we can go, boss. We would need to head the rest of the way on foot," he said, gesturing at the dark zone ahead. It was so distance away from the outskirts of the city.
Eldric and the others dismounted the carriage. Looking around, they saw an empty outpost with dark bloodstains.
Orion ca forward and read the words written at the outpost: 'Neruthal City's Outpost.'
"So, we are finally here?" he said, looking at the burnt banners hanging on top of the outpost.
Selene nodded her head. "Yes, this is the outpost. From here on starts the Neruthal City."
"Lucan, you stay here and tend to the horses with Edgar. Helena, Selene, and I will take care of the kids," Eldric said before turning back toward the post where Orion and the others were looking.
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