Ignite the Sun Chapter 2: Choices

Calen was silent for a while. It was difficult to process that kind of information, granted his situation wasn’t as bad as it could be.

He didn’t know anyone outside of Asharil, and the whole place was frozen in ti, so his friends were fine, but it was still a bit disorienting to learn half a millennium flew by while for him it had only been a few monts.

Koravel stared at him, his eyes asking a silent question, so he quickly answered:

"I didn’t really lose anyone; I’ve rarely left the town, and I have no real family. I’m more worried about those who are still in stasis back there."

"That is... good to know, I suppose. People of Asharil are, in fact, the next topic I wanted to bring up.

While the power of the divine fla is a force to be reckoned with, it cannot do everything, and to redy that, I have prepared sothing for you."

He reached into his robe once again and pulled out three pieces of parchnt as well as a small pebble; all of the items were glistening with ink that ford a complicated pattern of runes on their surface.

"These are displacent sigils," he said, holding up the scrolls.

"They are commonly used when soone is stuck sowhere, be it physically or magically. Each of them can transport exactly one person to the location of the beacon and can be used only once.

You can choose three people to accompany you on your journey; simply attach the sigil to their bodies, leave the barrier and infuse your magic into this stone."

Calen took the items and studied the runes for a while. There were so familiar ones, but most were far more complex than anything he had ever seen; Koravel clearly wasn’t joking when he said he used to be an archmage.

"That sounds too simple. I just go in, stick so paper to a few people and go out?"

"What you have to do is simple in theory; the problem lies with the barrier itself. While you are currently sowhat resistant to its effect, it will still slow you down significantly, and you cannot linger inside for too long.

I advise you choose companions beforehand and plan your route carefully."

Calen knew quite a lot of people, but only a few of them were fit for the task at hand.

The most obvious choice, his teacher, was out of the question since he was the one acting as an anchor for the spell, and who knew what would happen if he forcefully removed him?

His swordsmanship tutor wasn’t a viable choice either since he had fallen ill the day before the disaster.

Calen shook his head; he would pick his companions on the way to the city; he had a few more questions for Koravel.

"How far are we from Asharil anyway?"

"Only a few hours to the south, it is the closest safe location I know of. If you make haste, you might be able to get your companions and co back before dusk.

If you want a weapon, you should be able to find sothing on the rack next to the door."

Koravel sighed heavily and looked Calen in the eye.

"I have a favour to ask of you, but I will understand if you deny. I have held on to my sanity while allowing the rot to change my body for centuries, but I will not last much longer. I want you to burn my body with the divine fla before I beca a Withered."

Calen was stunned; he understood that the giant did not have long to live, but he didn’t expect him to ask for a quick death.

"I know I have told you very little of the world’s situation, but worry not; I have compiled everything you should know in a temple nearby.

When you co back here with your companions, seek the putrid grove to the south; you will find everything you need there."

Calen knew that fulfilling Koravel’s wish would be beneficial to him as well, and now he confird that he wouldn’t lose any knowledge either, but it still didn’t sit well with him.

He has never killed a person and didn’t want to start now, but he was also aware that he might not have a choice in the coming days.

He thought long and hard, but he finally decided. Holding onto morals in a corrupted world was important, but not as important as survival.

"Fine. I’ll do it."

Koravel looked relieved.

"Thank you."

Calen walked up to the hunched figure and placed his hand on its shoulder.

He focused on the fla and ordered it to engulf the old man, simultaneously willing the fire to be painless and quick, but he didn’t know if it had any actual effect.

A soft radiance spread from beneath his fingers, enveloping the giant, and monts later... he simply turned to dust.

The next thing he felt was that sothing had left the pile of ash and flown into the lantern, making the fla ever so slightly brighter.

He stood silently for a while, not sure whether he was honouring Koravel’s death or absorbing all the information the forr Archmage imparted on him.

’Well, I feel like shit, and this is just the beginning...’

The situation was far from ideal; he had to traverse many miles to reach Asharil, and he had to do it fast.

Still partially lost in thought, he wandered over to the weapon rack Koravel ntioned to see if there was anything usable there.

The weapons were in a surprisingly good condition for sothing that was most likely centuries old; they must have been enchanted in so way because the blades didn’t show any signs of rusting.

Calen decided on a longsword – it was a very simple one – a leather-wrapped handle with a small tal poml leading to a broad, unadorned guard and a long, straight blade.

After swinging it a few tis, he nodded to himself, satisfied, and secured the sheathed sword to his belt.

’I think it might be better than the one I have at ho, actually,’ he smiled to himself.

He wasn’t very keen on going outside, but he didn’t have much choice. After a quick look around the storage to see if he had missed anything useful, he steeled himself and finally opened the door.

What greeted him was a desolate landscape of ash and dirt; there were no plants or animals, and everything was eerily silent, to the point he could hear his own heartbeat.

What imdiately stood out to him was how dark it was, and when he looked up to see the sky, he almost stumbled – instead of its usual peaceful blue, it was vibrant red, with a ball of crimson fla glowing dimly slightly above the horizon.

’...Ominous.’

Another thing he noticed was that the ground was covered in a net of vine-like growths, twisting and curling, spreading wherever they could; so were even climbing the walls of the building he was in.

They were black in colour and varied in thickness; so were as big as his thigh, while others were smaller than his pinkie finger.

They appeared rotten and dead, but upon closer inspection, one could see brown veins on the surface, pulsating faintly.

While he had never seen anything even remotely resembling the strange growth, it didn’t take a genius to guess that it was one of the manifestations of the corruption that invaded the world.

He took out his sword, and then slowly and cautiously, careful to avoid stepping on any of the vines, he began making his way north.

***

Two hours later Calen was lying flat on a small hill overlooking the ashen plains. The good news was that he could see Asharil in the distance; the bad news was that it wasn’t the only thing he was seeing.

Every now and then sothing moved swiftly from one place to another; sotis it was just a single dot, but other tis it would be an entire group of them.

He was lucky to have not encountered any monsters so far, but it seed like he might not be able to avoid them any longer.

His biggest problem was that the plain was almost entirely flat, with the only exception being the ruins of a small village situated halfway between where he was and Asharil.

He didn’t know anything about the entities inhabiting the space between him and his destination, but it was reasonable to assu they could perceive the world in a similar way to animals or humans.

This ant that if he could make himself invisible and odourless, he could traverse the plain unnoticed.

Of course he was still an apprentice mage, so casting a spell that would perfectly hide him was completely out of the question.

He could, however, cover himself in dirt and ash and then cast a minor illusion that would muddle his presence. Hopefully that would be enough.

A minute later he was thoroughly covered in ash, his skin and clothes completely grey; hopefully it would mask his sll as well.

The next step was casting the spell; he had done it many tis, but it was much more nerve-wracking when his life was at stake, not just a grade from his teacher.

He spoke the words quietly but firmly, the familiar yet alien language in which all spells were spoken flowing out of his mouth like a song as he was ordering the world around him to conceal him from others.

’Please work, please work, please work...’ he thought in a silent prayer.

Then he felt a subtle change around him; it was as if a translucent bubble ford around him, cutting him off from the rest of the world.

That was when he knew the spell had worked as intended. It wasn’t perfect, of course; if soone were to stand close and look directly at him, they would see his partially see-through, distorted figure.

It was fine though; as long as he doesn’t move too quickly and keeps his distance from the monsters, he should be safe.

Calen took a deep breath and descended the hill; half-crouching, he began steadily making his way towards the ruined village.

As he was walking, sothing moved in the distance to his right, so he stopped and slowly turned his head.

The creature was a good distance from him but close enough that he could make out most details. It looked like a crossbreed between an alligator and a wolf but much larger than either of those, almost the size of a horse.

It was covered in thick brown scales that were almost stone-like in texture; its head was crowned with three curved horns that looked like they were cut from obsidian.

The large body was finished off with a massive tail ended with a spike covered in a glistening substance, most likely poison. It didn’t seem like it noticed him, though, as it was calmly walking in the opposite direction.

’That thing looks like it could bite in half. ’I have no idea what it is, but I’m not going anywhere near it.’

Calen would have loved to observe it from afar, but he didn’t want to push his luck and moved on.

He was passing a fourth beast of the sa species when sothing snapped under his boot.

The instant the monster perked up, it turned its head and looked straight at him. He froze as the massive creature walked up to him and stopped rely a few paces away from him.

From up close, the beast looked even more terrifying, with its maw covered in dried blood and chunks of at stuck between its enormous fangs.

What was also noticeable was the sll; the beast stank like rot and sulphur, most likely due to the mucus that was seeping from beneath every scale on its body. It was like a rotten body of a crazy alchemist’s experint brought to life.

Calen was standing perfectly still, and as the abomination sniffed the air around him, it beca clear that its eyesight wasn’t the best.

The monster looked around once more, clearly confused. Then, it let out a growl and left.

Once it was out of sight, Calen released a breath he didn’t know he was holding, cald himself down and continued.

’Note to self: watch where I step more carefully.’

On the way to the ruined village, he ran into two more types of bizarre monsters:

The first one was a small biped, barely reaching him at the hip. It had grey skin and was vaguely humanoid in shape, but the proportions were all wrong.

It had two arms that were too long and thin and ended with three sharp claws; its legs were short and stubby with no distinct feet. It had a large protruding belly, and its head was attached directly to the torso.

The head itself was devoid of most sensory organs; there were no eyes, ears or nose. What there was instead was a large mouth set in a grotesque grin, full of needle-sharp teeth, its long tongue running over them from ti to ti.

It looked dumb, silly even, dragging its long arms behind it. The problem was, however, that it didn’t travel alone but in groups of ten to twenty creatures.

Calen has seen them rip apart the significantly larger wolf monster in seconds.

A small blessing was that the creatures seed to rely solely on vibrations to find their prey, which ant that he could remain invisible to them as long as he stood still.

The other creature was even stranger but no less dangerous.

It looked like a glob of thick mucus rolled into a ball, with a magnificent and vibrant fungal growth on its back.

It used its countless tentacle-like appendages as legs and arms while it road the plain without any clear purpose.

It didn’t hunt; instead, it grabbed any living creature that it would cross paths with and shoved it directly into the gelatinous substance its body consisted of, upon which the slow process of digestion would begin.

The creature was enormous, easily three stories tall, but as far as he could tell, there was only one in the vicinity, and its wandering nature made it very easy to avoid.

Seeing the monsters created by the corruption made him glad he didn’t face one of the invaders that brought the destructive force to this world. He had a feeling he wouldn’t have survived such an encounter.

He also noticed that the vines covering the ground seed to fulfil a couple of crucial roles in this bizarre approximation of an ecosystem.

In places where a few thick vines t, a brown bulb the size of a shed grew; those were hollowed out and made into nests by the small grey creatures.

So of the wolf monsters actually ate the vines, or more accurately, bit them, and consud the stinking substance released by the growth.

The mucus creature also seed to consu the vine juice from ti to ti, albeit on a much larger scale.

Calen was so busy observing the strange new world around him that he almost didn’t notice that he had finally arrived in the ruined village.