Chapter 43

"I saw it! We will arrive at Alsak! Should take around a month!" I yelled down from the stone pillar I created, it rose high over a hundred meters in the air allowing me to see everything in around a hundred kilometers.

"Alright! Check if there are any monsters nearby too!" Lemes yell from down there was only like a whisper up here.

The air up here is cold and crashing on me with violence,

From the distance, I saw the small blurry silhouette of Alsak. The last checkpoint to the Maze City of Rapan. It was where most merchants that came from the west side resupplied before entering the journey to Rapan to sell their wares.

The blurry view makes it harder to see and judge the distance accurately. Still, I think it should take around a month, and then it will take around five months of non-stop traveling to get to Rapan.

This place is the last place we will stop, trying to recruit more warriors who want to join us to Rapan, more survivors from the teleportation, and Supplies for more than seventy people, food and water are no problem.

The journey to Maze City Rapan will be a harsh one, after all, there will be no stopping for the next five months, no inn to rest, no village to resupply, and certainly more monster attacks than we could count on.

For some reason, the big city between them always has more monsters than the rest, especially if that town has a dungeon. It was like it was attracted to something.

Food is not much of a problem. We normally brought jerky and other dry food to preserve and use when we got no meat from monsters. Still, with how many monsters I saw these past few months in the city, I could say that we wouldn't be hungry.

Water though, was another problem together. But that is not a problem for us. After all, they have me. An advanced rank magician who can create an entire oasis if I want to.

We lack clothes and shelter, sleeping and sitting all day in the cramped carriage is not ideal. That is why, on this trip, we must buy a tent and more than a hundred pieces of clothing.

Scanning the area one more time, I saw a hulking sight of a Behemoth, its body was at least fifty-meter tall. Other than its elephant-like leg that slowly made a rumble every time it brought its foot down, I didn't see anything else. Only the empty sand seems to stretch everywhere.

It seems...to be moving for the empty field that is possibly a worm dent. So it seems that it would block our path if we are not fast enough.

Slowly lowering the height of the stone pillar I step on, I finally reach the sweet, sweet ground but the lightheadedness hit me in a flash and it went like it never happened.

"Behemoth around twenty to thirty kilometers away south-ease, it is moving to the empty sand on our path, it would block us if we were moving too slow but there is also a problem that the Sand field would be a worm dent. What do we do?"

I ask Lemes. He takes his time to think about our options and it seems he got the answer.

"Hm...Karas and Karias, you guys go ahead and check whether it is a worm dent. You guys are the fastest here besides Lucelia. We will continue with the schedule until we reach the halfway point. If Karas and Karias still haven't returned after fifteen days, we will assume that you guys are dead, and take the longer route." We all nod at his command, Karias and Karas begin packing the essentials for the fifteen-day journey, they will have to go alone.

Letting them go off first will make it much faster, our group is pretty slow. If it really is a sandworm dent, it will help us decide what to do next. The two of them will probably come back in ten days but maybe it will take longer.

"Lucelia, make enough water to last them for around thirty days," Lemes said.

"You sure? That will make them slow down a lot."

"Ah, better safe than sorry, I initially want you to go too but you are too valuable to risk and make this group collapse. You are our translators and healer after all."

"I see, it should take around an hour but if you really want it fast then, I can exhaust my mana a bit to make it in around thirty minutes."

"No, reserve your mana. I know that these days you start to use less mana than before. Is something wrong with your body?" Lemes asks, so he notices it too huh.

"Don't know. My eyes are getting worse by the day and my mana reserve is like a dying lake right now. If it was before all this I could probably create a whole oasis for us to play in and still enough to drown an entire village." I answered him truthfully with a bit of humor, which probably weirded him out, as seen by the look of confusion on his face.

Huh, never knew I could make a joke? Did I make one before? In my childhood? Wait, does this even count as a joke? Is it a...dark joke? Don't know and I don't care.

My Mana, the energy that has been with me since birth, a power that is in everything, in every person, Without mana your body will become sick. or at least that is what I read from the book.

Every day since I learn magic from Zenith, I always steadily increase it. But…But now my pride and joy…is all but an empty river.

It feels like I can't even tap into the vast ocean that is my mana, the small crump that I was left with was not even enough to make even two or three Saint rank spells.

That is still a lot, compared to the ordinary mages I occasionally saw in my adventuring day. Most of them can't even push their mana to the limit. They will pass out from the mana exhaustion before they even empty out their tap.

Ordinary humans aren't suited to take the stress of mana exhaustion, after all, I even saw someone almost die because they were trying to imitate my magic.

.

Chuckling to myself at my own random memory, I turn to face Lemes, Looking him in the eyes.

"Well, you don't need to worry about anything, Lemes. I'm fine without it." I said to him with a smile. This time it feels more genuine than before.

Unable to use my mana properly forces me to adapt to my new state. Using the lowest bit of mana possible to make Touki, making use of my natural strength as much as possible, and Controlling the mana inside to not waste even a single drop of it.

Changed my sword style to be able to adapt to my sudden change in strength, Flowing along with my movement as if it was water, so fluidly that even I didn't I could do it, parrying any attack my way, dodging the fetal hit, and not wasting anything. Funny enough it actually suits me more. Maybe it was just like Ghislaine said, I was more suited to water style than Sword god style. Maybe this is the push I need to advance my swordsmanship?

Though it's not really much considering that I almost got myself killed a lot of times during fights when I forgot my mana usage. I even got my hand chew off at one point but luck shine on me and the damn bird didn't eat my arm.

"Ah…?" wow I was so deep in my thought that Lemes already went away and the gourds to fill were in front of me now. Hm…normally do I was this deep in thought? Was I this easy to space out?

Well, whatever. My hand read for the first gourd, it was around two inches tall and one inch wide. one gourd should last for around two days if they don't hold back on drinking it which is what I want. half a gourd for the two of them.

that means for thirty-day trips that fifteen gourd…that…is a lot to carry. It is probably a piece of cake with Karas and Karias's physics. But they need some dry and smoked food too. so that is an extra weight.

Hm…it is what it is. The extra weight will probably be no problem for them, Hell knowing Karias, he probably eats almost all of the dry stuff before even a week is past.

Taking my sweet time I fill up all the gourds with water to the brim. The last thing I want is for them to save their water, everyone knows that when you are in the desert you should always drink when you are thirsty.

Filling the last gourd to the brim and sealing the lit, I felt tired. Yeah…It seems it really got out to me. Feeling tired just from filling some gourds with water?

Hah…This is really bad, Grandma is almost able to contact me again and what do I tell her? That I was robbed of my mana and reduced to this pathetic…state…

My heart… was destroyed on the night of Eris's kidnapping. Grandma is the one who replaced it with What she calls a mana core. Which is essentially a new heart that operates on mana.

But our last conversation…was around three years ago, after Eris's tenth birthday, the day I met the water god. Which drained all of the mana in the Mana core, The mana was used as a medium to contact between Grandma's place and my soul.

"Oi!"

That means that my current state could be the result of the Mana core starting to fill it reserved, But why now? Why did it start now and not all those years ago? What more why is my eyes deteriorating?

"OI! You heard me?! I've been calling you for a long- SHIT!"

"Eh?" Looking over toward the voice, I found myself staring at Karias backing away while retracting his hand. Karas was holding her Boardsword, threatening to slash me in half with her stance.

"...What going on?" I ask them, unknowingly tightening the hold of something in my hand "Why are you guys here? And why are you holding a sword, Karas?" I step closer but the moment I move, Karas swings her sword in a wide arc almost separating me in two had I not dodged it at the last second.

"What are you doing!? You almost kill me!" I yell at her, But her eyes are not on me, but rather on my right hand. Looking over where she was, I saw it. The black blade that I was familiar with, lit up in brilliant blue flame as it threateningly consumed everything that touched it.

The sand around me was char black, and one of the gourds even had a burning smoke from the side as the water I carefully poured in was leaking out then… a servered arm was next to the gourd, bleeding profusely.

Not even thinking about it at this point I retract all the mana in my sword, making the radiant blue flame go away like a puff of smoke.

Sheathing my sword back into its rightful place I hurry over to Karias, But Karas suddenly blocks me with another swing of her sword. "Don't move! If you move even a bit I will cut you up!"

She screams at me threateningly as I stop just an inch from her sword, Her voice attracts the attention of other people nearby, and as the group starts to gather naturally that means Lemes and Lilia will see this.

Soon enough, just like I thought, a loud footstep rang out from the ongoing crowd, Lemes appeared, Arms crossed on his chest, face remaining unchanging from the usual scowl he has when something happens.

"Ha…What happened? I only leave your side for a few hours and you got in a fight with each other?" He asks, looking around and checking the surroundings. When his eyes land on Karias, I can see it visibly changing and he looks at me and around me.

"What going on? Did you hurt Karias or something? Has he tried hitting on you again?"

"I-"

"She cut his arm off! While Karias was calling out to her, that girl suddenly used her sword and cut his arm! If he moves a bit slower then he would be splitting in half!" Karas speaks without stopping while still standing between me and Karias. She was using her body to protect him.

Lemes didn't say anything, He only looked at me, and from his eyes, I could tell that he wanted me to speak.

"I-i… didn't know what happened…when I came back to my senses I was already holding the sword." I said, holding my head down. I don't want to see the look on his face. No, I can't bear to see it. What if it distrusts? What if it was fear?

Damn it…What's wrong with me?!

I could hear it coming closer. to his footstep. It was louder and louder with each step he took, I could feel myself shaking, My hand was sweating, my leg was shaking and one of them was already moving backward like it was ready to run away.

The footstep ringing in my ear was the only thing I heard among the endless murmur of people around us.

Then the footstep stops ringing, and I can see his leg in front of me. My hand is curling into a ball and clenched so tightly I could feel pain.

"Lucelia, Look at me." I didn't move.

"I will say it one last time, look at me." I still didn't move…I could hear him sighing.

Then all of a sudden, I feel a sharp pain in my face, my face moves with the force of the slap and I finally face him.

"Finally, Go heal Karias, he will bleed to death if you don't heal him now. After that, we can all talk just the four of us. Now go, look he already got the arm for you." He pushed me forward, uncaring toward Karas who still looking at me with hostility.

I was speechless, Why didn't he scold me? I mess up. I cut Karias's arm off without knowing I did that.

I feel a little nudge behind me, as I look back I see Lemes pointing at Karias, "What are you waiting for? Go and heal him useless you really want him dead." he said that and pushed me off again.

Staring straight ahead, I see Karias already sitting down with his right hand next to him, Karas was a bit more hesitant but she lowered her weapon, and allowed me to approach.

For some reason, I feel a bit of pain in my chest seeing her like this. No…maybe…this feeling is sadness, I was starting to grow closer to her and Karias for a bit than I thought but maybe…that all was destroyed today.

walking toward them was like walking with extra weight on me, every step I took felt heavy, like I was wearing a heavy armor that weighed me down, trying to crush me into the earth.

Karas's eyes looked at me, her eyes were full of distrust and it…hurt me, it hurt me more than I thought. Karias is clenching his bleeding arm to slow down the bleeding.

Crouching down next to him, I grab the served arm and attach it to the rightful place. "Sorry, This will…hurt a bit." With that said, I cut hop the burned wound on his arm, he jerked up instantly and almost started screaming had he not shut his mouth, focusing my attention on his nerves, I saw that most of them got burned away. cutting them up with as little bit of mana as possible, careful not to burst his veins and make him lose more blood, I connect the nerves together, mending them is the basis of reattaching the arm, with the nerves done I focus on the bone next, I couldn't grow bone.

But what I can do is force the regenerative ability in humans, although we humans cannot grow new bone the bone itself does repair itself, and thankfully, the bone was cut clean off otherwise it would be a huge problem if-

"Guh?!" the sudden headache almost broke my concentration and I almost put too much mana into his body.

"What's wrong?" Lemes sent me a question as he watched me from behind.

"Mana… depletion," I answer him quickly and focus back on healing Karias's arm.

With the bone forcefully repairing itself, I began to focus more on his muscle, connecting the tendon slowly, to not damage the repair. I open my eyes to see the work, his flesh begins to connect itself on its own and I can see the relive look on his and Karas's face.

The moment I saw those faces, I dropped down to the ground, a splitting headache overcame me as I just sat there, Wishing it would go away, Using the little bit of mana I had left from healing Karias I tried to ease the pain. The keyword is 'Tried'.

No matter how much mana I circulated in my body, washing against the pain, it didn't stop! The throbbing becomes worse, and the pain enhances as if to mock my effort to ease it.

"What's wrong Lucelia?!" I can faintly hear Lemes's voice. Also, a little footstep that feels familiar to me. Turning my head to the side, unaware that Lemes had picked me up, I saw Her.

Slik black hair that goes to the shoulder, eye as dark as the night sky I saw every night. with the nurse gown still on her, She smiles at me.

"Hey, long time no see right? How life? Still tried to kill yourself every day?" The Familiar voice, the one I heard every time I opened my mouth before this life.

"Why are you surprised? I mean it normal to see me after all,"

"Lucelia! Oi! What wrong?! OI!"

"We are one and the same, Your life is mine and mine is yours," She continued to come closer, each step She took made everything in my being tremble with fear, "You just hidden it behind those walls you call emotion," Stop…Don't come any closer…

"What did you say again? The day they died? Hm…" Stop it…

"H…h-help me… grandma…" Zenith, Paul…lilia…Anyone!

"Ah! I remember now! 'The nuisances are finally gone! I can live my life without a worry!' Right?"

"That's not true!"

"That's not true! right? Come on, we both know the truth! After all…We are one and the same." Her appearance changed, in an instant it changed into that of a baby, held by someone I know, it Anashia… "We share the same name, the same blood, and the same parents," She changed again, changing into a child with green hair and gold eyes while looking at me gleefully,

"T-that not…"

"Possible? Eh? Why not? I mean I'm your soul, I can change our soul to whatever I like! Not even that granny of you capable of changing our soul! After all, We are special, we were just a weak soul back then…But a miracle happened and our soul managed to fuse with something more powerful than anything you've ever seen!"

"G-Gah! What the?!" The sudden scream of Lemes's registers in my ear, I turn toward him only to see the wall of ice surrounding me away from others. I didn't notice how it happened, but I could see everything clearly, the bloody floor, a single flower blooming amidst the blood, The flower I always buy once every year.

"You see this? This is the extent of mine, no! This is the extent of our power!"

The white Chrysanthemum flower, bloomed in red today.

"This is your doing... and together, we will be stronger than everything."