Unneeded

Was the only word that occupies Aldeice mind as a bystander. His only contribution was ringing a bell that shoots a flash of light away from him, its spectacle was similar to fireworks, but instead of mesmerizing colors, after an explosion, all it does is illuminate the whole area for his sight to widen.

Besides the back of Mordor and Granpa Crow, at his approximation of ten meters from him, a huge navy blue scaled drake was squinting, surrounded by its twenty or so children, it roared in anger when it was struck by the light. He was sure that it was the Mother Queen Ceruleanator that Granpa Crow talks about.

In a slight bend knee, Granpa Crow gave Mordor a sideway glance, in which the latter responded with a nod. The former then blasted with a jump leaving a spot of scattered mud underneath the dirty water, hitting the peak in the air, his fall accelerated like his weight multiplied in tenfold, rocketing down similar to an unburning meteor, it resulted in a bang followed by winds and muds that smashes on Aldeice's figure. Raising his arm to protect his eyes, some trees broke into halves like popsicle sticks, and two Ceruleanators was thrown up by the impact enters his field of view, but before the two hit the ground, the rear of Mordor blurs, then a line of blood appears at their necks, blood squirts, heads split apart from their bodies when they splashed to the puddle. Mordor reappears at his unchanged position, daggers on each hand in a reverse grip, he twists his shoulder to look behind at Aldeice, then gave him a smirk that seems to be boasting.

Yeah-yeah, Aldeice perceived what he meant, showy one-hit kills.

With a nimble sprint away from him, Mordor hurriedly approaches the surviving Ceruleanators. Following him with his pupils, Mordor elegantly swirls in the battlefield as he shreds the helpless reptiles with his dual dagger, his posture was slightly crouch due to height difference. Strangely, he wasn't entering the area where Granpa Crow and the Queen Mother Ceruleanator come into blows. As a Ceruleanator approached him by quick leap, it received a blurring spinning hook kick from Mordor on air, it connects to its side abdomen making it fly towards Aldeice.

Facing him, Mordor gives another one of his irritating smirks. Reading his intentions, he pulled out his sword upwards from his back scabbard expressionless. With a calm mind, he lunges in, footsteps splashes the puddles. As he is but a step away, he stopped his tracks to wait for it to recover, alerted by him, it arose and jumps backward to distance, then It hurriedly waves its claws as if lifting the water, seems been called, it bends like snakes to cover its whole abdomen healing it.

Few moments, it regains its lively bearing, then it bared its sharp teeth and fiercely growls at him, it seems upset for being underestimated, without hesitation it lunges forward. Parrying its claw with a cut, then swiftly slides in to mutate it into a thrust, the tip of the sword pierced between its eyes, he can feel a squishy object that has been poked into a hole. Not a flashy move compared to Mordor, but he beams in satisfaction.

He has not been slacking on his daily training ever since he got his new weapon, he even asked a couple of adult Forsadi for pointers in swordsmanship, tried them out on his punching bag Nekrilias, as a result, he only had a hard time on his first Ceruleanator on their journey, memorizing their attack patterns, what follows were one-sided killing, and this little progress and experiences gives him delight.

Clearing up, he strolls towards the main battle. Mother Queen Ceruleanator, the supposed bipedal creature was on its four, there seems to be an invisible pressure weighing its figure, its attacks were oddly sluggish for Granpa Crow to easily block its claws with his tower shield. It was showered in crimson blood by deep cuts from the sharp heavy sword, but they were gradually closing in due to its monstrous regeneration, while Mordor remains unmoving on the sideline. Was Granpa Crow's strength so formidable that all his heavy equipment were carried with ease?

Like a cornered beast, the Mother Queen Ceruleanator wails bitterly, afterward, he heard a stream of water. Following the sound, he witnessed the waters in the surrounding congregating on each Ceruleanator corpses, they form into tentacles reassembling the dismembered parts. The dead can not be revived when the soul, the driver of the body has long gone, Aldeice shook his head as he thought.

Against his expectation, the bodies started moving. He continues to gawk as their bodily fluids appeared to be leaving through their orifices as waters penetrate their insides to replace the blood. Dashing to the nearest corpse, he stabs its vitals leaving gaping holes but to no avail, it still rose back, its white eyes unflinching by his attacks, and the damages were patched close by the wriggling veins of water from within its body. This is bad, have they turned into undying zombies? His thinking covered his back in a cold sweat.

Similar to controlled zombies, they all ignore him and dashingly gathers towards their Mother Queen Ceruleanator. Sadly, their objective was hindered by Mordor. With his unbelievable speed uncatchable by Aldeice's vision, those small zombified Ceruleanator were sliced into bits, no matter how many times they reformed, they were unable to overcome the unpassable wall. It became a fight of Mordor's stamina against the mana pool of Mother Queen Ceruleanator, which Aldeice thought of as the cause of this phenomenon.

Knowing his worry was unwarranted, he runs in to enter the battlefield to assist Mordor while the Mother Queen Ceruleanator were getting pinned down nearby. Curious of why Mordor drew a line between him and Granpa Crow, as the Mother Queen Ceruleanator was to take its last breath, he barged in their area. Then a pressure suddenly struck him, as if his body was equipped by a weight vest tenfold his own, he was pulled down to the ground, reacting with a quick Spectral Flash to escape the force, he was sent outside but wasn't able to save himself from falling, he slumped to the ground on his stomach, the soft mud devoured his front.

Quickly standing up, he decided to never be this stupid again, to never try a thing that was avoided by the stronger ones, as he heard Granpa Crow's roaring laugh signature, his face caught fire from embarrassment, hopefully, his redness was covered by brown mud.

---

Name: Enni Ashtanar [Forsadon (Substratum Stage)]

Brisk - 11

Mana Insight - 7

Force - 4

Mana - 19/35

Foundation: Soul Annihilator

Gift: Soul Disrupt

Spell: Spectral Flash

Swordsmanship Level - Apprentice

Reading his information in mind, he grins ear to ear when a new detail appeared at the bottom, since it wasn't connected to his Foundation, it can be measured by Eye of Lotus based on the previous data from other Forsadon.

'Looks like the bell of Kindle cost me ten mana. Doesn't matter, using any type of ability is unnecessary on this journey, this has served as my sword training'

Burying his humiliation of using four mana for Spectral Flash, he remains smiling brightly, ignoring the itchiness of dried mud stuck on his child's face, he should've brought a piece of cloth next time. He also has to manually edit the particulars on his Soul Disrupt and Spectral Flash every time he achieved a change, or in other words, able to take them to the next level. Currently, he hasn't reached the second level of them yet.

And having such privilege as an originator, he of course gave his abilities some fancy names, like his Soul Disrupt.

'Now that, felt like inputting data on my diary. Well, it wasn't so weird thanks to my experience on the Earth's technology of using brainwaves to utilize machines'

While his hand on his chin, Mordor taps him on his shoulder from the back, "let's head back home now." He seems happy with his half-smile, perhaps due to his overall excellent performances?

"Our little brave warrior Enni, it's an honor to fight with ya," entering his view, a jolly Granpa Crow gave him a wink, he's on his stylish black thick plate armor, a portion of the tower shield and the great sword peeks from his back. Behind him, he was pulling the huge Mother Queen Ceruleanator's intact corpse. He was gripping into chains that were pierced to its shoulders, it's almost triple the size of him, but he drags it as weightless as a balloon.

His eyelids twitch, he thinks that this old bastard is only playing him for fun, throughout the fight he didn't need his "exemplary aid", or maybe he was just there if a miscalculation of Mother Queen Ceruleanator's strength has arisen? He just let out a heavy breath to clean these thoughts.

These scenes where the times he will hear commentaries from Blanche, it's either she will share her amusement, laugh at his silly situation or cheer him with her concerns. Even in the previous life, they always stick together like glue. Pondering about, this is actually the first time of no communication for a long time, oh hell! This time might even take a year before they met again. For the first time, an emptiness coming from not hearing her voice tightens his heart.

'I'll be waiting on you Blanche'

---

Seven months have passed.

In the first week after their Mother Queen Ceruleanator expedition, the woman at his shed finally woke up. She kept a stone face during all those passing days she interacts with him. He does not know what kind of curse Radelia has granted her, but it undoubtedly crushed her sentiments, for she remains in discomfort even after her full recovery from injuries. Whenever he saw her lonely and despairing figure, he was unable to explain why, but his relation with Blanche resurfaced in his, that could be it, she must have felt abandoned and alone, trapped in this dark world who has no one to rely on, and this, this impression of his has also soothed his longing heart, for he has still someone he awaits for unlike her.

Those dead eyes of her, those that reflect nothing but distress, have begun to drastically change, from the moment of her gradually protruding belly to finally the day of her delivery. He could not forget witnessing her dramatic crying when she finally snuggled her daughter into her arms, she appears as someone who has lost all meaning in life, then on one miraculous fateful day, she regains it back.

What magic is this?

Her lips remember to smile, she has begun to move with newfound vigor, and through her gestures, he understands her willingness to learn his Forsadon language to communicate, does she not have a plan to leave? Or was Radelia's curse has prevented her to do so? She even offers her teaching in the art of the sword, It baffles him. Did she not suspect him nor the people of Verlassene for any kind of irregularities in hers? He does remember that Radelia says she has been stripped of the abilities to harm, was her power sealed? He has so many questions. She may be in denial, unable to accept that the trust she has given has been returned with callousness, that must be it, he theorized.

Two months more has flown fast.

While he was on his usual routine, sitting on a chair as he grinds his experimental subjects with his pestle, his attention has been grasped by the woman's loud gasp at the corner, or should he say Harriet Sunbright by her introduction.

Gazing at her, beads of sweat have gathered at her forehead, her eyes went round as she stares at her child. Switching his sight to the child on her arms, he discerns that their shadows were contorting in bizarre shapes. 'Aren't you suppose to be happy?' For her daughter to be naturally gifted with the power over darkness element, what's with the strong reaction? As if it was associated with evil, for all he knows, power and status do not dictate evil, it all lies on the possessor.

"Sorry," she uttered in a fake Forsadon accent. Laying down her child on the fur bed, she reaches out her nape to untie her necklace, approaching him, she grabbed his wrist gently to place it on his tiny palms.

"You, all Forsadon, must leave, danger, a bad man, he will come, danger, please leave and Forsadon" she tried her best to explain, even repeating the word "danger" twice.

He could see her lower lips trembling, there seems to be great fear in her pleading eyes. This sight made his heart pounded from a premonition, has she been tracked down? How? Recalling her previous reaction, he glances at the innocent baby in a swaddle. 'Damn it,' he cursed inwardly, not having the time to blame himself for bringing upon a disaster in Verlassene, he gave her a nod of understanding and dashed out of his shed.