Chapter 69 — In which they bring light (2)

Traveling with a ghostly boatman was easy and efficient.

For a basket of warm dumplings and some songs, they could cross half of Purplus territory in the matter of minutes, when usually it would take days.

Of course, there were faster ways to travel, for example, teleportation.

But teleportation was only possible when there were two connected points in the fabric of space-time.

Otherwise, if one was to try to jump through space-time without a destination point, they would quickly get lost in unknown planes, their body and soul ripped apart.

And traveling with a ghostly boatman had one other benefit.

It was very secretive.

No one knows where the boatman goes.

Amara was only able to roughly deduce when one of them may be crossing the river passage under the Temple of Forgotten and Dead Gods, and it was only thanks to his deep connection to the spiritual world and understanding of dragons.

Therefore, their opponents couldn’t expect someone using this route of infiltration, and wouldn’t be on guard about it.

Soon the boat docked at their destination.

In consideration of the guests, the boatman moved the oar very carefully, without making even the quietest of sounds, so as to not alert anyone.

Phlox and Alexandrit nimbly landed on the ground, also without making a sound.

Some gods with authorities in hunting and fighting noted:

 

*They’re used to it.*

*Proficient. Many hunts.*

*As expected, our Am wouldn’t take them with him, if they couldn’t even keep quiet.*

 

Amara paid them no attention, as he turned to the boatman and bowed deeply.

“Thank you very much.”

 

He mouthed, and the boatman waved their hands in reply, as if saying that they didn’t do anything worthy of thanks.

Amara pretended not to understand and turned around to jump out of the boat.

The chill that spread through his body the moment he touched the ground told him that he arrived in the correct place.

He nodded to his two companions and swiftly followed the path, dimly illuminated by the moonlight.

According to the intel provided by Perlliar and Cotteo, there should be a stone pile around…

 

‘Here it is.’

 

He noticed a shadow of what appeared like a naturally formed stone pile, either created by the stones falling from the nearby cliff, or brought here by the river.

If he didn’t know better, he wouldn’t pay much attention to it.

In fact, it was a cleverly disguised watchtower.

And inside of it was a little magical guard.

Though not a conscious creature, if it detected any abnormalities, it would send a signal to the main defense system and execute a programmed defense procedure – most of which probably were ‘kill’.

Such structures were hard to deal with without a correct key, but Amara just looked at it as if it was cute.

When Ver drilled into him and Saf how to deal with them, he used at least four layer defense system’s watchtowers as ‘simple problem-solving exercises’.

Remembering his older brother frantically drawing on the old wood under the light of a simple oil lamp, while seriously explaining the solution to an absurd defense system Saf came up with, Amara smiled slightly and prepared to deal with the watchtower.

Soon, with some boiled water, intense fan waving and pouring out a heavily fermented grape wine, he messed up the watchtower’s time system and convinced the watchtower it was currently winter and therefore making its messages completely nonsensical.

Even if someone immediately noticed that something was wrong, it would take a while for them to figure out it was a problem with the time of some little stone pile tower.

Amara gave a signal to Alexandrit and Phlox, and they started moving again.

After crossing an illusion checkpoint, they were able to see what was hidden from their eyes before.

 

People.

Lots and lots of people.

They stuck close together, either to seek warmth and comfort from others, or because the constraints tying them together didn’t allow any distance.

In the darkness, their faces looked thin and hollow.

It seemed some of them were humming, as if to soothe their minds, but their voices were so dry, it was like a wind blowing between branches of an old tree without leaves.

In the distance, where the only source of light was located, the tents painted with magic circles grouped together.

As if the captors were uncomfortable with the bony mass of people they were about to slaughter, they kept their distance and took shelter in the light of the enormous fireplace.

 

‘As expected. People of Rubrun can’t miss the fireplace.’

 

Amara smirked as he thought about it.

People of Rubrun refused to acknowledge any kind of worship in their borders, but if one looked closer at their culture, fire was one of their holy symbols.

Even if they didn’t directly use fire anymore thanks to technological development, the symbol of fire could be found everywhere. On the clothes, walls, adornments and official symbols.

It was like a covert obsession.

 

‘It’s only basic politeness to follow the audience's beliefs when performing a ritual.’

 

A fox-like grin crept over Amara’s face as he gazed on the fire and judged the distance.

They were less than 100 meters away. Even with a light wind, Amara’s gift should be able to reach them.

 

‘Please prepare.’

*Roger.*

*Ah… I don’t like the air here, but I should be okay…*

*Our believers are there! Even muted we can see them clearly thanks to our Am!*

*Let’s roast them!*

 

There were methods in this world to prevent gods from interfering.

The most full-proof method was to simply not believe in gods.

But when gods could send down a literal lightning when asked, it was easier said than done. One may try to start to believe that stones do not exist first.

The other method was to strongly believe that gods are much weaker than they appear.

Perhaps they’re not gods at all, just powerful spiritual entities that impersonate human beliefs?

If so, wouldn’t they have weaknesses and limits?

 

With such a base in their mind, one could devise countermeasures against gods they strongly believe in.

For example, popular belief said that gods cannot see where there are no trees or tree roots.

Therefore, the territory around the ‘meat farm’ was meticulously cleared from any trees.

If not for Amara’s strong connection with gods, they wouldn’t be able to see anything here.

 

The other popular belief said that inverse holy symbols absorb and twist a god’s powers, so if put on the devotee, the devotee’s connection to their god would be severed.

For that reason, all imprisoned people in this place were wearing headbands with numerous holy symbols.

The gods couldn’t hear their prayers and begging for help.

There were also symbols which were believed to directly counterattack the ‘spiritual entity’ when a god tried to engage with them, dealing damage to their very being.

The clothes the guards were wearing were full of such symbols.

 

‘The question is… how strong your belief will be in your dreams?’

 

Amara unfolded a pouch and held it in the air when a favorable wind blew.

The breeze touched the pouch content, a gray, ash-like powder, and lifted it up, gently carrying it to its destination.

The enormous fireplace.

The moment powder touched fire, the flames flared up a bit, but besides that, there were no visible abnormalities.

The slightly sweet note that rose into the air didn’t draw anyone's attention.

 

Black sandthorn was a plant that had slightly toxic effects for mana users.

Their mana channels could get clogged, making it harder to operate and quickly draw mana.

And it had one other useful effect.

When burned, it worked as a wonderful hallucinogen.

 

*~*~*

Author's note: Sandthorn is a real plant, but black sandthorn shouldn't be. If it happen to exist, please refuse its existence.

Thank you very much for reading <3