The first day was an uneventful slog. We marched along from the ti of our departure to the Sun's. Finally, we concluded our day with the usual routine of setting up camp.
While scouting, we heard a chorus of haunting howls echoing throughout the twilight sky.
According to Mizuno, it belonged to a pack of timber wolves. Based on the low pitch of the howls, she also deduced they were hunting. Knowing that we opted for high ground. It took the form of a tall, mossy boulder with a relatively flat surface.
Of course, sleeping would be uncomfortable on solid rock, even with our animal-skin bedrolls. However, it was better than getting torn apart in our sleep by predators.
So banter was exchanged before bed, but it was limited to being between the two brothers. The rest of us devoured a portion of our packed rations before sleeping, minus Mizuno.
She had agreed to take the first watch. Then, after a few hours, she'd wake up, and we would switch. Then I'd swap with one of the Traunt brothers and so forth.
I flattened my bedroll and set my pack/gear aside, minus my armor. I wasn't about to be caught taphorically naked during an ambush. Likewise, I kept the shortsword I was given within reach.
When I laid down, sleep alluringly called to . My desire for it was amplified by the natural white noise of nature. Billowing pine trees blowing against the wind and chirping insects beca the lullaby that forced into unconsciousness.
***
The darkness faded away, revealing a rock similar to the one we had perched on beneath . Only I was alone and the sky was dyed a deep crimson with clouds as black as midnight.
There were no trees, just large, dead towns filled with the broken mories of my past. The rubble was ashen black from being razed by a now burned-out inferno.
Seeing the familiar ruins, a bottomless lancholic pit ford in my stomach. The past four years of my life were ahead of : just endless fields of lifelessness and ashen destruction.
'Welco to paradise,' I joked somberly.
I was about to step down from the rock when the shadows above the ground began churning. The darkened smoke swirled and twisted upward into large pillars before each congealed, manifesting into a person.
Old to new, comrades to enemies, all forms of the acquaintances I've ford over my life stared back at ; their eyes were devoid of emotion. Rather than smiles or hateful glares, their expressions were blank, as if they were frozen in ti.
There was one main similarity between those that stood before . Every single one of them was dead. During my campaigns, I witnessed the end of every person here.
"I'm sorry," I grimaced, feeling the onset of survivor's guilt. So of them I failed to save, others I made it impossible to save. Either way, I was responsible for their deaths.
Suddenly, the blackened ground sparked into yellow flas. It grew high, consuming everything in its wake. Only I, on my large boulder, remained unscathed. Even the specters surrounding were engulfed by the fire.
However, the dead can't die twice. Instead, they were locked in perpetual agony, dood to burn for eternity. The once silent space was filled to capacity with the tornted wailing of the damned.
I saw myself within them, the "" who'd also been reduced to boiled blood and charred skin.
Instinctively, I brought my hand to my chest as I watched a sea of immolated suffering. I held it there, feeling the heavy thumping of my heart within. I was growing increasingly queasy at the sight before .
Beyond the unease, I felt relief. Relief that I wasn't amongst them, safely out of the fla's reach. "I'm safe... I'm safe..." I whispered to myself, but I spoke too soon.
The burning shadows snapped their necks upward, glaring at . Then, like a hivemind with a single objective, they sward toward . Their ashen fingers gripped the rock, leaving smoldering palm prints as they climbed up to the top.
My breathing beca sporadic, and my eyes flashed with panic as they approached.
"No... No, stay back..." I slowly backed away from the rock's edge, centering myself on it as much as possible. Given how I was surrounded, there was nowhere left to run.
Their cracked, flaking fingers eventually grasped the rock's edge as they pulled themselves up, one by one.
"STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM !" I frantically began kicking the fallen souls back to the depths of hell.
I winced in pain every ti I struck them; their burning faces seared the soles of my feet whenever I kicked them. But the pain was nothing compared to the terror within my heart. I had to survive dammit!
"YOU WON'T TAKE !" I hoarsely shouted while hamring away at the relentless hordes.
Sadly, my struggle was a losing one. Despite my efforts, I soon beca entirely overrun by an army of burning phantoms. The black haze of smoke exuded from their immolated skin, forming a large, darkened cloud above.
They reached for , clawing at however they could.
"NO! NO!!! STAY AWAY! PLEASE!" I kicked in their legs, cracking the bone to stun them. I threw my fist repeatedly, knocking more of my attackers to the fiery pits below. I did everything I could to survive. I had to survive!!!
I pulled my arm back for another strike, only for it to get caught. With widened eyes of shock, I turned to see the platoon I had died with. They returned my gaze through horrifically disfigured faces. Their flesh was pieced back together through a series of grotesque cauterizations.
"Let go!" I tried to yank away, but it was too late. Soon my skin was branded by the grips of dozens of flaming hands.
I matched their agony, screaming from the pain of my flesh sizzling off.
They pulled by the legs, forcing to fall to my face, and dragged toward the rock's edge. They aid to haul back to where I rightfully belonged. They sought to cast my sinful soul into the depths of hell.
Upon realizing their intentions of hauling into the fiery pit below, I resorted to begging. "Please, please, please, stop. Don't! DON'T!!!" Tears from the fear of being roasted again broke down any semblance of pride I had.
I clawed into the rock as deeply as I could, desperate to stop them. However, that only accomplished the tearing of my fingernails. Ten streaks of blood trailed after as each nail snapped off.
'Not again! NOT AGAIN!' I struggled and clung to the rock's edge by my bloodied fingertips. I pulled myself against the weight of a thousand souls. The muscles in my arms spasd and tore from overuse, but I still held on. I couldn't die. Not here. Not like this!
However, the weight of my past was too heavy in the end.
I couldn't help but cry helplessly as I felt my fingers slip away, one by one, from the rock. When I finally lost my grip, I saw my countryn. They replaced where I once stood on the rock, staring at with distrust and contempt.
"Please! For fuck's sake, help !" I reached for them, hoping they'd return my desire to protect them in kind. Only they turned away, leaving to my fate.
There was no ti to experience betrayal, not before I felt the familiar sting of fire on my flesh. I was stuck in a storm of raging fla, and as I fell, the inferno fed on my body, converting my flesh into fuel to grow larger.
Again, to my terror, I beca a human torch.
I burned for what felt like an eternity. The pain was constant enough that it dulled, and my body beca accustod to it. My mind was on the brink of fracturing to pieces...
Then a voice reached into my subconscious and pulled from my hell.
"SATO!"
My eyes sprang open, and I awoke to see Mizuno shouting at . She was drawing in deep blue orbs of magic with a worried expression.
Likewise, the Traunt brothers and Barik stood as far as they could away from and stared at in confusion.
'What are they looking at?' Maybe I was screaming in my sleep from the nightmare.
But that wasn't it at all.
They weren't focusing on because I was loud. No, they were focused on the unnatural brightness surrounding my body. I looked down to see my bedroll and clothes had totally burned away. In their place, a raging fire cloaked my body.
"What is this?!" I stood up and frenziedly attempted to put myself out. "What the hell?! WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!"
"Stay still!" Mizuno shouted while she finished charging. Water was condensing from the air into large translucent orbs. "Your mana is out of control! I'll put you out; you just need to stay still!"
I tried everything possible to comply with her order, but my fear overrode my will. "Fuck that!" I shouted and leaped from the rock to the mud below.
When I landed, I rolled recklessly across pine needles and moist dirt to extinguish the fire.
But the mud wasn't enough. The flas burned hotter, searing the ground and any twigs on the floor. The whole ti, I was shouting and bawling like an inconsolable child. "Help !!!"
Following my screams for help, Mizuno finished stockpiling energy. She threw her hand toward , loosing a torrent of water in my direction.
Her magic engulfed , snuffing out the untad fla until every bit was just a very terrifying mory.
Afterward, I was soaked to the bone, and my naked body was bared to the world, but I couldn't care. The fire was finally gone.
I kneeled within a muddied puddle, and tears ford in my eyes. They were tears ford from intense relief. 'I'm okay... I'm okay... I'm okay.' I tried calming my ragged breathing.
I brought my mud-covered hand to view. Though my clothes and bag were reduced to ashes, my flesh was left unhard, just like what happened in the tower with Weiser.
Except this ti, the flas belonged to .
"What the hell is happening to ?"
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