I threw my head back and stretched my neck trying to get the last bit of drowsiness out of the way before we continued. Unfortunately, not all of it disappeared. I decided that if I had any more questions for Elysa it would probably be a good idea to wait, lest anything worse than just this drowsiness happened.

I sighed. “What a mess.”

“Well,” Gwyn said optimistically. “If the three obelisks do serve as anchors for a spell, do you think it’s safe to assume that as long as you don’t mess with the other ones, we’ll be fine?”

“I hope that is the case,” I said.

“I’m not going to sit around and do nothing,” Vyath said, determined. “We’ll report to base tomorrow. I reckon we will have couriers sent out across the continent within the next two days.”

“Will you need any more information?” I asked.

Vyath shook his head. “There is little you… any of us can do at the moment. We don’t know exactly what secrets the obelisks hold, and we won’t find out as long as we are here. You two should continue doing what you planned to do. I hope that when we get things going, we will know more sooner rather than later.”

“If you need me, do let me know. We are headed towards Thymhil. I don’t think it would be a hard task to find me.”

Gwyn chuckled. “I doubt it will be. If we are in a hurry to contact you, I’ll probably send my pet flying in that direction. If you’re okay with it, could you head towards the wall as soon as you spot it?”

“Saying no would be kind of… I don’t know. Shameful? Seeing as I’m the reason behind this mess.”

“Don’t blame yourself,” Cellestra immediately let out.

I looked at her to see a hint of anger, but also of worry.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized softly. “But yeah, if I see your… pet, I’ll make my way over as soon as I can.” I turned my head to look at the succubus. “Where is it anyway? I haven’t seen it in a while.”

“Dunno,” Gwyn said with a shrug. “Out and about, I guess. I’m not really concerned. He always finds his way back to me anyway.”

“It’s getting late,” Vyath stated clearly. “We still have to rent a room for the night. What will the two of you do?” He looked at me while asking the question.

I, in turn, turned my head to Cellestra who was at my other side. “What do you want to do?”

“If you have no more questions, I think we should be going and sleep somewhere on the way.”

I nodded. “That would be best, I think.”

“Such a hurry. There’s no need for that my dears,” The succubus said in a slow, caring manner.

“There is, in fact,” I said. “We cannot remain in cities for… reasons.”

“Care to share?” Gwyn said slyly.

Cellestra shook her head.

“Seems not,” I translated.

“In that case,” Vyath spoke once more. “Let us part ways for now. Hopefully, we will see each other again soon. I hope the circumstances will be better when we do.”

I nodded, as did Cellestra. “Thanks for your help,” I said, before looking at the succubus. “And yours, too.”

Gwyn smiled. “Not a problem.”

I bowed slightly in appreciation of what Gwyn and Vyath had done for the both of us so far before turning around to walk towards the exit of the temple. The two doors were still open and it was dusk outside. After exiting with Cellestra behind me, I lowered myself and without a word, Cellestra stepped back on.

Silently but quickly, I made my way to the edge of town along the road that I’d followed before. From there, I would have a better idea of what way to go. I didn’t want to get lost in this hard-to-navigate settlement.

“Elysa wanted me to say hi to you,” I said softly as soon as we were outside of the village.

“She did?” Cellestra replied quietly and with a frown.

I nodded.

“That’s… amazing. I don’t know what to say. I feel honored.”

“Maybe I should ask her if she would like to talk to you someday.”

“I… I don’t know.”

“I’m sure it will be okay. She really is as kind as the stories go,” I said, smiling. “But I do think her power is a bit exaggerated. She has been quite clear that there is only so much she can do from her realm. The information is priceless, though.”

I started running as I wanted to get away from the village so that Cellestra’s curse would have no impact on the lives here. Besides, I rather liked being alone with her. Having nobody near us just seemed to fit both of us better.

“I’m sorry for dragging you into this. I know you probably don’t want me to say that, but I still feel like I owe you an apology.”

“You’re right,” She responded. “I don’t want you to say that.”

“Thought so.”

We remained quiet as I created some distance. I used the time to think about what I could do to help out Vyath with his research but concluded that I wouldn’t be able to find out more than the goddess had already told me. The only thing I could come up with was to somehow try to figure out the language that was written on the obelisk and there was only one way that came to mind — acquire the language skill.

That made me wonder if I could actually acquire language skills through my devour ability and if so, what in the world would I have to eat to do it? Would I need to eat sapient creatures? That thought didn’t sit well with me at all.

It brought me back to when I had first learned the spirit language. The tree that protected the dungeon entrance was obviously sapient in some way. Would I eat something like that? I mean, it wasn’t anything like a human or elf, right? Besides that, it attacked me and I killed it.

I sighed as I had no idea where my morals were anymore. This blessing had already caused me to do things that I never expected to do.

Cellestra petted the hair on my back gently.

“Thanks,” I said softly in response.

There were several questions I wanted to ask Cellestra such as what she knew about banishment spells. I had dedicated my life to the way of the sword and a bit of supporting magic attuned to that. Spells like the one the goddess talked about were not something I ever concerned myself with. I knew, of course, that banishment magic was used to seal away certain beings, but that was the full extent of my knowledge about it. Cellestra would hopefully know more.

Even if I knew exactly what it was about, the way it was used in this world could be different, still, and in this case, assuming it was the same as in my old world could prove disastrous.

If anything, I had been lucky so far with my assumptions. Perhaps I should be more careful with those.

“You don’t deserve the worries that you go through,” The elf whispered after a while of me running. “You don’t deserve any of it.” She continued to run her hand through my hair slowly, knowing that it had a soothing effect on me.

“Maybe. Things were going a bit too easy, weren’t they?” I referred to our journey to Len Asari and the relatively little trouble we encountered on the way.

Cellestra shook her head. “Don’t think like that. It makes you expect bad things to happen. That’s no way to live.”

I tilted my head upward and looked to the sky which had gone completely dark in the meantime, save for the moon and stars. “I suppose that’s true.”

I paused for a few seconds. “I should be thanking you the most for all you’ve done for me so far. You really turned my new life upside down — in a good way.”

I came to a halt in the middle of a field. Several enormous boulders were scattered throughout it, which provided a nice change of scenery for once. It actually evoked a certain curiosity within me about how they got here.

I summoned a flame spell to light the area as we moved our goods onto the grass. Cellestra needed a quick toilet break, but soon we were sitting across from each other drinking tea. She proceeded to have dinner at the same time.

“So, how do you feel?” I asked. I wanted to know what she was thinking.

“Honestly? I’m worried about you more than anything. You blame yourself too much for things that happen. Stop doing that.” She looked at the grass before continuing with a whisper. “Besides, I want you to be happy. Whatever is going on, we will find out and deal with it. That’s what you do, right?”

I nodded.

She was right. I was no coward. Whatever challenges lay ahead, I would face them. Hopefully, with her at my side.