“I am going on a journey ~ with my beloved Hannah.” I sang loudly, looking at the charred landscape eagerly. Under the light of the sun, barely penetrating the dark clouds above us, everything looked less gloomy, even though it still didn’t look exactly pleasing to the normal eye.
“Isn’t this the first time it’s just us two?” It really was the first time going on a longer adventure just with Hannah alone … and a certain someone accompanying us.
“It is? Let’s do a pillow battle or … I don’t know? A race?” I proposed eagerly. We had to do something special to celebrate.
“What are you? Twelve?” Sadly, Hannah wasn’t going along with it.
“Okay, then let’s fill out our tax return and count every coin we have.” I nudged her side while Hannah rolled her eyes a bit too annoyed.
“A race it is.” Without any further warning she made a jump ahead by using her magic to the fullest.
“Oh no! Hannah is a racist~” I laughed loudly and dashed after her, but my backpack kind of stopped me from picking up any speed whatsoever.
“That’s not how you use that word!” I certainly used that word this way but she didn’t seem to be that happy with being labelled a racist.
“I can’t hear you! The voices in my head are too loud.” I put my hands over my ears while laughing happily only to be interrupted by a very displeased Lucy.
‘Why are you giving me away?’ She complained a bit hysterically.
‘Not you … the other voices.’ Laughing once more, I kicked the dust and scooted past Hannah who stopped further ahead, probably because I told her something odd or because I was too slow.
“Is the system that loud again?” She asked concerned which did make me stop as well and look over my shoulder. With the sun right behind her, she seemed like a wild oasis in a sea of destruction, so beautiful that my heart ached a little.
“On a scale from one to ‘You levelled up!’?” I asked, hiding my feelings behind a wall of adamantium.
“I believe I can answer this question myself then …” She said bummed out. Honestly, I wanted to tell her the truth. That my health had improved considerably even though needed to show the opposite to the outside.
“Don’t worry about me. I learned to live with it surprising well.” I smirked a little apologetic and fastened the backpack around my shoulders further.
“That’s not making it better, is it?” Hannah was rather doubtful about my attempts to change the topic, that was for sure.
“You are right … how about we ruin this world and make me feel better at the same time?” I proposed with a huge grin on my face.
“You can’t have one without the other, isn’t it?” Well, it was true that a catastrophe was always making me happy, but I didn’t necessarily need chaos to be happy. Drinking blood with wine for example at this point in time would make me the happiest woman on the whole planet.
“… you know, a cup of night-growl tea would make me feel good as well. Is doesn’t have to be destruction all the time.” I explained and took her hand while she looked in my eyes rather dumbly.
“You know that these plants only grow when watered with blood … naturally you do.” What could I say? I liked my meals bloody … and fresh. Which was why I didn’t exactly like drinking the bottle of stale blood hours later. But I needed Hannah in her best condition, which was why I always declined her offers to drink her blood. After all, I could track the direction the ‘heroes’ were in by using a compass, but it was hard or near impossible to figure out how far they were away when we went straight towards them.
Well, that was the case for two whole days until my lovely dragons finally came back with positive results. They had spotted a larger group crossing the river and entering the land of the undead half a day away from us. Thankfully, it was during the day when they were spotted, so we were in no hurry and rather sat down on two nice round rocks and enjoyed the bit of sunshine piercing through the clouds.
“Hannah, did you ever wish to be immortal?” I asked out of the blue. Elves had a long lifespan, but even they would die at some point, if one ignored illnesses or accidents in the first place.
“It would be nice … but at some point you have seen everything. You have travelled the world, you have loved, you hated, you ate everything. And at this point, wouldn’t be living on just be a chore?” Hannah had apparently didn’t put that much thought into it as she asked that, because she did look at me for approval.
“I can assure you that your hobbies will never cease to amaze you. Aren’t you itching to fight those in front of us? To smell the blood in the air? To feel their death … those are all things I like as well … at least in general. And so far, it has never gotten boring.” I told her while gripping the pitch black sword on my hip tightly.
“In that case, I would like to be immortal as well.” She told me while looking at the ashen ground to her feet.
‘Whatever you are thinking, that was not part of the plan. We need to focus.’ Lucy chimes in, even though it was just a whim of mine.
‘Alrighty …’ I replied a bit bummed out. I wanted to make Hannah a little offer, but apparently Lucy wasn’t so keen on doing so. “Let us rest for a little. We will need all the energy we have tomorrow.”
She nodded quietly, took out a dusty blanket from her backpack and laid down on the ground after clearing it a little.
“Good night.” Hannah closed her eyes slowly after looking at me one last time. And at that moment, I saw a hint of fear in her eyes. She did not know what the future held for her and I couldn’t talk with her about it. It was a nightmare come true for her.
“Good night.” I told her a bit soothingly and put my own blanket over her. I didn’t need sleep after all and would be on lookout duty.
And so, I looked out for the three dragons drawing cycles above my head, mostly because they looked kind of cute with half their flesh already missing and the other bits in the process of rotting away, but that was it. I couldn’t do anything except chatting with Lucy of course. But she was apparently pretty darn busy with some obscure math I had yet to understand properly. But hey, at least she managed to calculate where they would camp through the night.
Sadly, a surprise attack was completely out of the question, but I was quite pleased when she told me they weren’t anywhere close to water. As such, I was quite happy as the sun went down and shook Hannah awake right away. Ash had been blown into her hair and onto her attire, so she took a few minutes to clean herself up properly before securing the backpacks onto our shoulders again.
“Do we stick to the plan or do we freestyle?” Hannah asked a few hours later, laying flat on the ground while watching a campfire a few kilometres away on a hill.
“I believe it’s going to be a mixture of both.” I told her, eyeing the elven guards closely. Luckily I couldn’t see Tom or anyone else of them in that group, so either they were already dead or chose to stay out of this mess.
“As always … let’s go then.” She turned around, robbed a bit down the hill and then knelt up in front of the red dragon. He stank a lot at this point already, but luckily the wind blew from their camp towards us, which was why they had yet to notice us properly. All, except one of course. The goddess of life must have noticed us already, but she probably didn’t tell the others yet.
As such, the dragon with Hannah and I on its back ascended undisturbed for a few hundred metres, until it flew straight towards the camp at breakneck speed. I had to grab a bone sticking out of its flesh to hold on, while Hannah seemingly had less issues as she held onto a scale.
“Three … two … one … jump.” Hannah counted loudly and then jumped off the dragon while I rolled to the side and slid downwards as well. For a few seconds, I was free falling with the campfire down below as my target. The blade on my hip soon disconnected from its straps and floated by my side effortlessly until the wind picked up from below and cushioned my fall.
Easily, I landed near the campfire in the middle of their encampment and feathered my fall a little more by rolling off the ashen dirt.
Under the surprised gaze of several elven guards, I stood up again and bowed respectfully.
“Bonjour my friends!” The sword separated in several palaces, forming sharp throwing daggers without any handle in the process. “Can you tell me what the fuck you are doing on human lands? I thought I made it clear that I’m going to end this world when you cross this filthy border.” Shaking my head, I swiped with my finger through the air, shooting all throwing daggers in different directions. Some stuck into the throat of the elves, some were blocked by magical barriers glowing up brightly. Just by increasing the force on these daggers a little, I broke through most of the barriers and thus killed the majority of the guards in mere seconds.
And whoever survived was struck by lightning a millisecond after my attack failed, cooking them alive in their weak bodies.
“Huh … that was pretty easy.” Disregarding the single tent which survived our assault for the time being, the camp was already a mess. My daggers were still flying through the air, cutting through tents easily while Hannah landed by my side, bored out of her mind.
“I just hope the others put on a better fight.” Hannah mumbled while the tent pane was finally pulled to the side, showing the sleepy group.
“I doubt it. But I’m up for surprises.” I smirked towards Irminsul and stepped back to help a little as the wind picked up and flung us backwards right as their barrier disintegrated and a spear was flung towards us. “Let’s tire then out first.”
Half a minute or so later, we landed on a nearby hill with thousands and thousands of undead streaming towards the group while I just sat down and took the backpack a undead brought us.
“Do you want something as well?” I asked Hannah loudly to overtone all these disgusting sounds the undead made.
“No, I’m fine.” Well, that was her mistake, not mine. With my eyes glued to the five people watching their surroundings carefully, I took out a red apple and bit into it.
“Delicious.”
