Beyond the Black Ashes
The towering trees began to catch fire. Once the flames took hold, even a torrent of freezing cold could not easily smother them.
Sparks mixed with the cool breeze that had been tickling my cheeks, swelling larger and larger until they swallowed the massive trunks whole.
Leaves turned to ash and scattered on the updrafts rising above the forest canopy. Light flooded the once-dark woods, illuminating everything.
I raced through the trees, gathering survivors. Any thought of putting out the fire had long since vanished.
After a frantic search, I managed to collect only six people. The rest were nowhere to be found—not even bodies. They must have escaped the heart of the forest safely.
Praying the missing had not plummeted from the treetops, I hoisted the six survivors onto my back and ran for the edge of the central grove.
Carrying six full-grown adults was no small feat. The weight was one thing; keeping six bodies balanced at once made every step unstable.
Their limp arms and legs inevitably dragged along the ground.
The unconscious survivors were in terrible shape. Like me, they had been struck down by the King’s attack, their bodies little better than rags.
Broken bones left limbs bent at grotesque angles, dangling uselessly. Thin streams of bloody foam bubbled from half-open mouths. Without swift first aid, every one of them would die.
I ran without pause toward the forest’s edge, sinking into deep thought.
With my power I could heal their wounds easily. Even a bare-minimum recovery spell—just enough to keep them from dying—would do in a pinch.
The problem was the mana I carried. Normally, the mana spinning in my heart would glitter like starlight, and I would have healed them without a second thought.
What filled me now was the mana of Monster Island. Calvein’s influence had given it a scorching heat, yet it remained the same force that had transformed my body and the monsters of this land.
I could not bring myself to use it lightly. Even I had changed while recovering.
In that moment one of the survivors on my back vomited a gush of dark-red blood. A heavy lump mixed with the fluid—she had coughed up a piece of her own organs.
It was Noel. Her face was deathly pale, her breath a faint thread, as if death stood right beside her.
Yet her hazy eyes burned with a fierce will to live. The instant I met that gaze, every tangled doubt vanished, leaving only a small, clear resolve.
Fwoosh—!
I stopped and looked back. The roaring flames towered into the sky, shaping themselves into the form of a colossal dragon.
“Hah…”
What I needed was a vivid image—holy yet gentle, mana that would wrap around a body like a soft embrace.
The mana circulating inside me began to glow green and gold, spilling outward.
Healing someone else’s flesh was different from healing my own, yet the method should not be far from what I had used before.
Watching the approaching wall of fire, I poured every scrap of concentration into controlling the mana. What entered with each breath passed once through my heart and flowed straight into the survivors.
Perhaps because I was restoring six people at once, the drain was terrifyingly fast. Mana that entered my body vanished the moment it arrived, leaving no residue.
Crack—
As their wounds closed, changes began to appear. Pupils in half-lidded eyes sharpened like a monster’s. Blunt nails lengthened into claws. Some skins that had been pale turned ghostly white.
I emptied every last drop of mana and halted the healing. When the glittering green currents and golden halo faded, I could finally see what had happened to my own body.
“Scales…”
I brushed the crimson scales covering my wrist with a clawed finger. Hard and unyielding, they were spreading across my skin like the fire devouring the forest.
I shook my head and checked the survivors. Noticeable changes had appeared, yet they still looked human. Sharp nails could be trimmed later.
Seeing Noel breathe more easily, her expression relaxed, I let out a long sigh of relief. Then I gathered them up again. Once more their arms and legs scraped along the ground; there was nothing I could do about it.
Even if they woke right now they would not be able to walk. What I had given them was emergency treatment only—nothing more than a forced grip on lives that had been about to snap.
With every scrap of mana spent and the flow stopped, the searing heat inside me began to cool. The long horns that had grown from my head and the scales vanished; claws and fangs dulled again.
My enhanced physical strength remained, however, so I could still carry six adults and keep moving.
After a long run I finally broke free of the forest’s heart. In the distance I spotted a figure racing toward me at incredible speed, accompanied by a black horse.
Only one creature in this forest could run that fast: Nightmare. The person beside him was Celion.
They must have seen me; both put on a burst of speed. Nightmare nearly stumbled more than once on the unfamiliar path, yet he and Celion reached me together.
Prrrrh—!
“Ceris!”
“Celion. Nightmare…”
“What… what in the world…”
“We were hit by a monster… We managed to get away for now, but…”
I set the teammates I was carrying carefully on the ground as I spoke.
“Mm… the others…”
“I couldn’t find them.”
“Hah…”
Celion sighed, looking from the burning forest to the fallen teammates.
I stepped closer to Nightmare.
“Can you carry these people?”
Prrrh—
Nightmare snorted as if the request were a nuisance, yet he seemed to understand the gravity of the situation. Without further protest he let the survivors be loaded onto his back.
“We need to get out of this forest first…”
Celion muttered, eyes on the massive wall of flame advancing behind us.
We ran together until we reached the base camp. Celion and I hastily gathered the important items inside and stuffed everything into a huge pack.
Most of the space was taken by thick bundles of documents bound with thin leather cords.
Once the gear was secured, we sprinted straight for the forest’s edge.
Outside the forest we had to set up a temporary camp. We had left most of our supplies at the base camp, so comfort was out of the question, yet the simple lean-to we built by felling trees and driving stakes into the ground felt surprisingly snug.
Celion and I could only sit and watch the enormous forest burn. We were capable of moving, but we could not travel while guarding wounded people who had yet to regain their senses.
The flames only grew larger with time. Even after the sun set and night fell, the area bordering the forest glowed brighter than midday, everything painted in orange as if the whole world were being swallowed by fire.
“Thank you.”
While we sat side by side staring blankly at the blaze, Celion suddenly spoke.
Thank me? For what?
I turned to her with a questioning look. She answered with a faint smile and glanced toward the teammates lying inside the lean-to.
“You must have been exhausted too… You did well.”
“We’re on the same team.”
I answered with a long sigh of my own, eyes on the injured.
The mana that had blanketed their bodies had faded, so they looked human again. But if they ever used the mana they now carried, monster traits would surface once more.
I had worried the changes might be permanent. Thank goodness they were not.
The teammates who had lost consciousness finally opened their eyes two full days later.
The fire still raged across the forest, black smoke blotting out the sky and casting a gloomy pall over everything.
“K-King… King…!”
“N-No…!”
Two of the six who woke showed signs of delirium. They flailed at empty air and scrambled into corners as if trying to hide. One even seized a nearby sword and swung it wildly. The blade work was sloppy, yet the power behind each stroke could not be ignored.
In the end Celion had to step in and subdue them both.
Facing the King must have shattered their minds.
“Haa…”
Celion watched the two thrashing on the ground with a heavy expression. She kept an eye on them for a full day, hoping the symptoms would ease, but there was no improvement.
The next morning she drew her sword before anyone could stop her and cut the two delirious teammates down. A single clean stroke severed each neck.
“Ah…”
I stared, mouth hanging open. Why had Celion struck down her own teammates without the slightest hesitation?
“It was the only choice…”
“The only choice…?”
Celion began to explain just how terrifying a skilled swordsman in the grip of madness could be.
“A sudden fit could draw strong monsters to us. They might not be able to tell hallucination from reality and attack their own teammates… That’s why I had no other option.”
“But none of that has happened yet…”
“True. And it still could.”
“Mm…”
“We couldn’t just leave them behind either, could we? If I hadn’t dealt with them, they would have been torn apart by monsters. A far uglier end.”
She frowned as she spoke, her gaze drifting through empty air as though recalling old memories.
“Has something like this happened before?”
“Plenty of times. Far too many… And it will keep happening.”
While I listened I watched the remaining teammates. Dorvan, Noel, and the other two whose names I could not recall simply stayed silent, as if the scene were all too familiar.
Noticing my glance, Celion spoke again.
“A little shocked?”
“Mm… Yeah. Honestly, a lot.”
“You can call me a bitch if you want. It’s true.”
“I wasn’t going to…”
“Hmm.”
Celion gave a weak smile at my answer and began to tidy the bodies. She buried them, then collected their belongings into a small leather pouch.
“Let’s head back.”
With that she turned and walked away. Her long red hair spilled over the leather pouch on her back, looking for all the world like the fire that had swallowed the forest.