Chapter 26

Looking ahead I saw several wolves like creatures approaching us with steady and careful steps. Behind me, Lady Lissandra was preparing to engage in the butterfly. These wolves looked strange. Pitch black fur, and huge in size, with drooling maws that asked for flesh. Amongst them, a solitary wolf stood tall, he was twice their size with almost three meters long, while it had a horn on its head.

‘it seems that a silver fang wolf has appeared…’

‘You must retain carefulness while fighting against it. It will try to kill you using superior numbers, be very careful Basara.’

This is the first time I saw a wolf though. And somehow a deep primal fear premature my bones and body, it was the fear of death, the fear of the unknown, truly. Looking at this beast made the hairs on my back stand to no end.

‘Steady your heart Basara, you have met with greater danger than this, met with me, and suffered countless deaths at my hand, why fear what can be killed while not fearing what cannot be killed.’

He must be talking about himself…

‘Indeed, I should steel my heart, however, I can’t help but be afraid.’ I replied as I moved forward calling upon my Scythe.

‘Youcan only use this for a brief amount of time Basara, once you quell a life it will grow heavier and rampage more. Be wary and be careful lest that you lose control and die to it sucking all of your energy away.’ Said Nocturne

Hmm. So this all powerful weapon has a weakness like this.

‘How long do you think I can stand using this?’ I asked.

‘At most, five minutes. Any longer and you will suffer from splitting headache and you will lose your body’s balance forcing your limiter to destroy you.’

‘I guess five minutes is about alright’ I said as I looked at the charging wolves.

The first to come forth was three black wolves that encircled me. While two others went toward Lady Lissandra.

Without batting an eye, I jumped forward ignoring the three wolves and came down crashing with my scythe towards one of the two wolves that got too close to Lady Lissandra who just commenced her attack on the butterfly.

The moment the scythe cute through the skin of the wolf, it turned limp. Falling down dead and unmoving.

However, the scythe grew heavier as a result. It was still bearable, yet if this continues it will be very hard using this.

Striking at the second Wolf it also died on the spot. This forced the other wolves to become much wearier from the weapon as they slowed down their approach and became much more careful.

“Careful Basara!” said Lady Lissandra.

Turning around I saw the huge butterfly’s wings glowing white with hundreds of light bolts shooting towards me.

I could only run forward trying to evade as the bolts struck and shattered the ground. With each bolt caving and piercing at the same time a huge portion of the earth.

Receiving only one of them is equivalent to death.

The wolves grew much wearier as they began to retreat slowly yet not giving up on the hunt.

The silver fang then howled, and just like that, the moment the torrent of bullets stopped I found myself swarmed with wolves as they all charged at once.

I could kill one, or even two, yet once I am caught I will be ripped to pieces.

“Fire that burns all, Firestorm!”

“Lightning that destroyed all, Chained lighting!”

I dual cast my two strongest spells. Normally for anyone else, these spells wouldn’t even be considered strong spells, they are used via a chant, making them weaker than their original. And also used by someone of low magic capacity. However, they were the strongest spells I could call upon right now.

A ring of fire burst out from beneath me and shot toward the wolves, right after that. A lightning streak shot forward, the moment it landed on one wolf, it spread to the others channeling the lightning that began to resonate as it burnt every single one of the wolves touched by it to a crisp.

Once the majority of the black wolves died, the silver fang decided to retreat. No longer wanting to fight. This wolf is smart, knowing that it has not the chance to win it decided to retreat sacrificing his own kin to give him a chance at it.

A wail sounded from behind me as the butterfly cried out.

Once I looked at the scene I saw that Lady Lissandra was already atop the butterfly hacking away at the root of one of its wings.

Successfully cutting the wing, the butterfly struggled to remain afloat and fell down. However looking at the situation it seems that the beast was trying to bring down Lady Lissandra with it. As she looked to be struggling to get her stuck feet free from the tangling roots.

Wanting to help but unable to I only looked at the scene helplessly.

Then the crash came. I hurried towards the location of the two to find the butterfly unable to move, with green blood spilling from its side.

It was a huge creature, almost ten meters long without accounting for the gigantic wings on its back. Lady Lisssandra was somewhere stuck under this. Fearing the worst I struggled to try to free her from under the beast.

Once I reached out to her, she had blood seeping from her forehead and various cuts all around her.

Using monochrome vision I saw that her left hand and right leg were fractured. Her head also had a small fraction on the forehead side, the shock must have rendered her unconscious, I believe that if she didn’t strengthen her body at the last moment she would have become a splat on the ground. She doesn’t have a lot of time…

I picked up her sword and hacked the roots that were entangled to her away, in doing so the Butterfly gave more howls of pain. Forcing me to end its misery with a stab to the head.

Its head was disgusting to look at, like a creature of horror with but teeth and five lifeless eyes looking forward. Now dead only a look of horror was printed on it.

The situation is dire… without help, Lady Lissandra will die.

I placed my hands in my pockets and picked up a golden coin. This was the coin to be used to call for assistance. If in trouble.

Once I pressed on it. It instantly turned to dust without giving a signal.

“Huh? This shouldn’t be right?”

‘That coin is fake…’ said Nocturne ‘Once you broke it, instead of the Qi surging towards the school it died down. There is something or someone not wanting you to send a signal for help… there is no other choice you must hurry and cut off the other wing before it begins deteriorating.” Said Nocturne.

‘This woman will die

if not taken care of, I don’t think that wing is worth the life of Lady Lissandra.’

‘Indeed it is not, however you can use that wing to cure her, don’t waste the chance.’ Said Nocturne.

I walked towards the wing and sliced it. It wasn’t that tough right now, due to Qi no longer circulating, once the two wings were cut apart they looked like enormous flags that spanned a few dozen meters.

‘How are we going to use this?’ I said to Nocturne.

‘You must first refine them. Once that is done their size can be immensely decreased and their potency enhanced.’ He said

‘How do we refine them then?’ I asked

‘ use your energy to force the impurities out of the wing and enhance Qi, like you do to your body you will force this item to undergo the same treatment. Due to it being infused with Qi, it will not need external Qi to improve its quality but will use its own Qi to become pure.’ Said Nocturne explaining the matter.

Using the black flame the wing was almost instantly covered with it. I didn’t even feel that I exerted a fraction of the energy but a huge curtain of black fire covered the wing.

Almost immediately the wing began to shrink. And after few seconds it was the size of my palm.

‘You have successfully refined it. Now around us lay hundreds of usable medicinal herbs, take those’ said Nocturne as my vision dimmed out. Only focusing on three different herbs.

‘This is a ten-year spirit grass’ he said as I grasped at a normal looking batch of grass. However, it radiated a huge amount of Qi.

A purplish flower that had more thorns than anything I had ever seen was also valiantly swaying against the wind.

‘That is a purple demon thorn,’ it is also usable, get as many as you can they can be used later for other things.’ Said Nocturne as I collected a whole batch of them suffering from some injuries in the process. The thorns were stronger than steel it seems.

‘Finally, shadow wolf’s blood’ he said as I looked at me.

‘Blood? Using blood in rituals is forbidden, aren’t we committing a huge sin here?’ I said

‘Indeed, for your world right now, they all fear them, however, they fear what they don’t know and at the same time don’t try to understand it. The only way to help this person is using this, afterward, they can complain however they want. Saving a king’s daughter should be overlooked even if one uses forbidden means. Without this, she might not survive until you reach the gates of the school.’

‘Alright let’s hurry, how do we use this then?’ I asked

‘Open your book there you will see the method.’ Once I opened the book its papers turned until a black paper showed up. Words began being inscribed on it until the method of concrete a Qi and body restoration pill was shown.

A refined butterfly wing added to few strands of spirit grass of at least 10 years of age, with the essence of a purple demon thorn. These three items must be refined with intense spirit flame. While being submerged in the blood of a dark beast.

I already have the three items, and I guess the dark beast is the shadow wolf, it seems that any dark beast's blood would work, however.

‘Where would I get a spirit flame?” I asked

‘You don’t need it, you have the hottest flames of them all. Use your flame of creation’ said Nocturne

‘However, without a proper furnace, it will be hard to contain the fire. Still, this pill is not hard to make just the ingredients that are a bit difficult to come by.’ Said Nocturne

“Now let me take over lest you ruin it, now you must watch carefully how a Reciptarier does his job.” Once he took over the items floated and their essence was extracted.

The grass released a green lustrous fluid while the flower and the wing each released a corresponding color to their nature. Their remains becoming dregs and falling to the ground.

The beast’s blood swarmed he essences and condensed itself until a small red pill, the color of blood was all that was left.

‘this is a perfectly refined Qi and Body restoration pill.’ Nocturne said, then went towards Lady Lissandra. Gently flipping her over and opening her mouth the pill was swallowed.

‘Normally it is stupid to force pills down one’s throat while they are unconscious, however, if one was proficient in guiding Qi, they can assist in helping the other party using the pill’s effects to heal their body’ said Nocturne.

He positioned Lady Lissandra on the lotus position and gently pressed his palms on her back.

I instantly felt my world change as I entered Lady Lissandra’s sea of consciousness.

Unlike mine, hers was a gigantic sword of fire that had five separate parts smaller swords floating about. Representing her Dantian and meridians.

However, one of them was cracked and the middle sword was faintly glowing.

‘I stood there alone looking at the scene until Lady Lissandra showed up.

‘Who are you?What are you doing here? How come you managed to enter this place?” she said with a bit shock on her face she looked weary and stood still she pressed her right hand forward and a sword of light showed up on her hand. However, she instantly fell to the ground unable to use any ability

“You lost your consciousness and your meridians have been damaged, don’t use any Qi else you will die. Said Nocturne’

How come she doesn’t recognize me? I asked

Then Nocturne looked down. What I saw was strange… it was nocturn’s body… how bad will it be if someone that looked like a grim reaper appeared within your mind?

“It seems that I messed up…’ said Nocturne

Indeed you did…

“Anyway, I made you swallow a Body and Qi restoration pill, you must allow me to circulate its energy through your body or else you will die,” he said

“Get out of here!” she shouted unable to harness any strength. “I will not be swayed by the words of death,” she said

‘Take over Basara’ said Nocturne as he gave me control.

In that moment I regained my former body and found myself in control

“Illusion?” she said

“No this is the real me… do you remember when I told you about the one who taught me how to use the sword? You just met him… anyway let me help you, we are surrounded by a lot of monsters and I can’t get you fast enough back to the gates..” I said

“Why not use the gold coin to ask for a teacher to come and help,” she said gasping for air… can you even breathe in this place?

“The coin that I was given by that old man turned out to be useless and no one showed up, I tried…”

“I can’t trust you…” she said

“Then you will die,” I replied.

“Tch! Fine do what you want” she said

‘ ask her to give you her hand.’

“Give me your hand,” I said as I approached

The fearsome, and pride Lady lissandra looked a bit hesitant, with a look of fright on her face. Yet without any other way, and with the clear deterioration of her sea of consciousness, she understood that she will truly die if she does nothing.

She then gave up and gave me her hand

‘Now what?’ I asked Nocturne.

‘Circulate your Qi into her’ he said

Once I did, a surge of energy flowed out from her etheral body and began washing over the floating swords in the background.

The broken sword regained its former appearance while the other ones became brighter.

‘This should do ask her to wake up and let her finish the job, it seems that there is someone getting closer to us.’ Said Nocturne.

“This should be enough, you should now be able to awake from unconsciousness, you will need to guide the remaining energy of the pill yourself. There is someone that want us harm and is closing on us” I said as I left her sea of consciousness letting her alone and bewildered.

Once I awoke I felt the Qi of Lady Lissandra Surging madly, it was repairing the damaged parts and refining her Qi at the same time, making it more abundant, and cleaner. Circulating rapidly from her Dantian towards her meridians and back.

‘She will be well soon, however, a thief that I once thought your encounter with will be far off in the distance is approaching’

‘ a thief? I asked

‘Indeed, someone of old, someone that stole something from me long ago. It is now due time for him to pay, it is now due time for him to repent by giving away his life, and in doing so, once he is slain you shall gain one more secret of the book. Fail and you will die. Now stand forward’ said Nocturne.

As I did and summoned the book, a voice resounded in the distance.

“You don’t look like someone who will be easily willing to die. Give me that book, you need it not young one, do that and your end shall be swift.”

Surging my scenes all around me I couldn’t even feel anyone’s presence.

‘He has the Death’s shroud…, you will not be able to locate him unless he attacks…’ said Nocturne.

‘What is this Death shroud?’ I asked

“That is my cloak. It is that what he stole, and you have to get it back. The torn pages of the book are the secrets that I have lost once I died that day. This one managed to get a paper of the book and in it lay my cloak. You must get it back, without it you cannot be complete.’ Said Nocturne

Lady Lissandra then woke up and looked around

I was standing before her, while she was barely able to remain seated.

“Don’t move Lady Lissandra, it seems that we are in deep trouble right now, concentrate on recovering, I think someone very dangerous is approaching us.’ I said without turning back. Trying to sense where the attacker might be.

My heart began to beat faster as beads of sweat began to trickle down my spine. A cold wind of the night soon brushed past me forcing me to look at where it came. Then the coldness of death approached from behind.

Space distorted and a figure emerged from it, wearing a black cloak that covered him from head to toe a long sword went forward headed towards my chest. Without a sound, the blade moved forward towards my heart, without me ever sensing the person.

In that brief moment, in that brief second, I had a good look at who it was. It was not someone I knew, however, it was someone that clearly was working for the school. He was wearing the school’s teacher’s uniform.

Once the blade made contact, I heard Lady Lissandra shouting out my name…

Death comes without invitation…