Chapter 84
Chapter 84
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 84
Chapter Title: Sage
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Sage and Jade dismounted their steed and were climbing the hillside. They wanted to get to a higher vantage point to survey the battlefield.
"Elves don't all look the same, huh. Even in that quick glimpse, their ear lengths, hair colors, and skin tones were all a bit different."
Jade said this as he followed behind Sage.
"Just as your kind has various races,
elves do too. Even within the same race, appearances can differ slightly by region."
Sage replied.
"What races are there?"
"The elves you saw were all forest elves. Besides them, there are earth elves and tunnel elves. There are plenty of other races too. But these days, if you divide them up by race like that, they call it racial discrimination and get upset, so it's best to just pretend you don't know. You won't get dragged before a judge for being surprised by a dark-skinned elf, but there are plenty of elves who'll draw their swords if you misspeak."
"I was plenty shocked by Merruld the black orc. What more surprise could a black elf bring?"
"Who knows. Oh, watch your step there. That gap's a bit wide."
The terrain had turned treacherous the moment they left Teimon's territory. If Sage hadn't warned him, Jade would have fallen into a rock crevice about three paces across.
The ground was covered in thick tree roots sprawling like a spiderweb, piled high with broken branches and leaves, making it impossible to tell bare earth from mud without someone pointing it out.
The rocks used as footholds were carpeted thick with moss—some soft and pleasant to walk on, others slippery as ice. A slip meant plummeting down a cliff dozens of meters deep.
"I thought 'great oak' meant big by human standards. But here, a 'big tree' is nearly two hundred paces tall. So by elf measures, two dupons?"
Panting, they reached the hilltop, where the treetops finally came into view.
The Darkwood had trees of all kinds stretching branches every which way to block the sky, but the oaks in this forest grew their branches mostly upward, so it wasn't all that dim.
"If you uprooted just one of these trees and plunked it down in Rolom, they'd probably call it a world tree."
"Wouldn't surprise me. Of course, there are even bigger ones. Deeper in Teimon, they've got three-dupon trees. And those house about thirty elf families each."
"They live in the trees? Isn't that dangerous?"
"S afer than those three-story wooden buildings you humans build. Above all, we don't harm the trees to make our homes."
Sage chuckled and continued.
"Though sometimes we set up in trees that haven't fully grown yet, and when the tree does, the house gets all warped out of shape."
Jade turned his gaze toward Teimon. From this angle, the forest hid most of it, showing only the tall tower he'd glimpsed earlier and a few of those three-dupon trees Sage had mentioned.
'If the fight ends, it'd be nice to tour the elves' city with Saf. Has Ruby already seen it?'
Jade allowed himself a modest hope.
"This looks a bit wide for you to jump."
A chasm in the cliff face blocked their path. Peering down, Jade couldn't even see the bottom.
"Grab my hand."
Sage seized Jade's hand with half-force and leaped without any signal.
Jade had no chance to resist—he was yanked along. He thought for a split second he was falling, but somehow they were already on the other side.
His legs went weak and he staggered, but Sage pulled on his hand to steady him and kept walking.
While holding Sage's hand and running, Jade strangely felt no fatigue, his body light as air. His strides grew enormous. The side he'd been nursing all the way from Campion stopped aching the instant he took her hand.
"Did you cast some spell on my body?"
Jade asked.
"You're right, I did cast a spell. But you'd never understand the explanation."
Sage said.
"Couldn't you just give me the gist? I'm dying to know how this stuff works."
"If Merruld asked you to explain Kaitelic doctrine in a nutshell, would you get how I feel?"
"Haha, fair enough. Speaking of which, you seem to know a lot about humans, Sage. You came across as familiar with our religion and culture."
"Live as long as I have, and you pick up the basics of other races' cultures."
"Asking your age would be rude, right?"
"Asking a woman's age is bad manners, whether on your side or ours. Even for a granny like me."
"You look far too young to be called a granny. Merruld called you 'granny,' so I figured you used some special elf magic to keep your looks young while your body's old. But the way you just jumped? Like a wild-raised girl. And that staff you're carrying—it's not for any bodily ailment, is it?"
"Strictly speaking, it is for discomfort. When I was young, I could wield great magic freely without a staff like this."
"Still, you did make yourself look young. Do all elves do that? The older mages back in Teimon make it seem like you've got some special secret technique."
"Elves live much longer than humans. But in my case, let's call it a special circumstance."
Sage smiled and went on.
"Oh, and I warned Saf, but I'll warn you too: don't talk religion. I don't want to discuss Kaitelic priests or gods."
"Even if I don't believe in God?"
Sage paused and turned.
"You're a priest, aren't you?"
Jade shook his head.
"It was a forced title, and anyway, I don't hold that position anymore."
"Your tone carries guilt and anger together."
"Do elves have gods?"
"We don't recognize gods with personalities. We believe there's a light within, and when it shines forth, that's god. Life is the process of finding the god inside yourself. If you fail, your good deeds earn you rebirth to keep searching..."
Sage resumed walking as she spoke.
"...That's our faith. So elves reject not just a world ruled by gods, but any hierarchy at all."
"For someone saying that, you don't sound like you follow that faith yourself."
"Good eye. Even with that belief, rotten elves are rotten, power-hungry ones do anything for power. There are elves who worship evil gods, tribes that persecute those who follow other gods. Know what? Teimon's already got a cult springing up that follows Komora."
The picture formed without explanation.
Jade muttered like to himself.
"Elves are no different, huh."
"They're not."
A massive roar grew closer. The enormous great oaks snapped, the ground cratered, and the earth thrummed.
A serpent head whipped past beyond the trees. The oaks here towered over the Darkwood's trees, hiding Heldra's head well. But its overwhelming size came through clear.
"You know Ruby's an angel?"
Jade asked again.
"Saf asked the same. You thought elves wouldn't know about angels?"
"I figured angels were a human concept. Saf probably did too."
"Each race uses different names, but everyone knows angels. Though how they interpret them differs."
"How so?"
"Humans made the mistake of accepting only one side of angels."
"One side?"
"The good side. Angels are as two-faced as humans. Eh, this could go on forever—let's leave it there."
Sage shifted back to Ruby.
"You ask if I knew Ruby's an angel? I saw it while healing her. But she was a bit... how to put it, different from the angels I know. Not saying she's not one."
"She's pretty ferocious and belligerent for an angel. Rough talker too."
"That's the prejudice you have. Why assume angels aren't aggressive? In the old scriptures before Kaitelicism, angels massacred tens of thousands of humans."
Jade still couldn't get used to hearing "scriptures" from an elf.
"True enough. They burned everyone who followed other gods, calling them corrupt."
"That's the scary part of angels. No coexistence for them. They slap 'corrupt' on anyone who 'believes in other gods.' They've come to elves living peacefully in forests, threatening to burn them down if they don't convert."
"Angels... threatened elves? When?"
Jade asked, stunned.
"Long before I was born, in ancient times. We have documents like your old scriptures. Read them if you get the chance. Fair warning: I don't have them."
Sage stopped at the hill's peak.
It overlooked even the tallest great oak. When she let go of his hand, Jade's side ached again.
Gazing down the hill, Sage said,
"Don't misunderstand me. I don't mean to badmouth you traveling with Ruby. For every bad angel, there's a good one. And it's no big deal for a mage using angelic magic to travel with an angel."
"Yes."
Jade answered casually, then belatedly startled.
"Angelic... magic?"
"Why can't elves use light magic? Why are demons weak to it? Because it's angelic magic."
"I'd vaguely thought as much, but hearing you classify it precisely is a bit disconcerting."
"I'm disconcerted by how shocked you sound. The teacher matters in magic, but they didn't teach you that? Who taught you magic anyway?"
"Father Danel..."
"A priest? A Kaitelic cleric taught you light magic? That's surprising."
"He's a bit unusual. He taught me elven language too."
"Makes me want to figure out if I've met him. Danel's probably a false name too."
"I get that feeling. I wouldn't be shocked if he used another name and met the Darkwood sage now and then."
Jade didn't mention Danel was dead.
Saf might have already told her, and he didn't want to admit it himself.
Heldra, advancing on Teimon, halted about one shipon from the oak wall. Roars echoed, but Jade had no clue what was happening.
To his eyes, the massive heads just rose and dipped over the treetops repeatedly. Dawn was breaking, but the sun hadn't risen, leaving things dim.
Sage stood on tiptoe at the hill's edge, hand shading her eyes as she peered at the forest. Wind whipped at the height where a fall meant rolling till world's end, but she showed no fear.
"It's huge, really huge. First time I've seen the whole thing."
Jade couldn't get within five paces of the edge. Still, the serpent head rising over the green sea of leaves was clear.
"Why'd Heldra stop?"
Jade asked.
Sage observed and explained.
"Merruld said he'd block it, right? He's doing just that."
"With what weapon?"
"Merruld handles all weapons well. But here, he's using a bow."
"Merruld's arrows are big, but they'd be like needles to Heldra."
"He's not shooting Heldra. He's hitting the ground and trees around it."
Jade crawled forward as close to the edge as he dared.
Heldra was attacking something. Each strike was tremendous.
When the lion head spat black fire, the struck spot charred black—trees vanished, leaving only lumps of coal.
The serpent head spewed poison. Where it hit turned white and steamed; grass evaporated, trees withered instantly. Ruby surviving a dousing like that suddenly seemed incredible.
Other heads relentlessly rammed or snapped at empty air, trying to devour. Looking closer, Merruld was leaping between trees.
Atop the lion head section stood the demon that had kidnapped Saf.
'Buffalord, was it?'
He wasn't doing much, but clearly directing Heldra.
"What do you think, Jade? Can you dispel it?"
Sage asked.
Jade reported his observations.
"From what I see... each head has different attributes. The eagle-headed one seems hellfire-based... the other three are darkness, but the skull one's unclear. Could all five be darkness. Or I could be all wrong..."
His confidence waned as he spoke. Sage asked,
"It's not one of those demons you need the name to dispel, right? Then leaving Saf behind was a big mistake."
"No high demon with a name would be such a jumbled mess. Saf said the same. If anything, Buffalord's harder for me to dispel. He's got the name 'Antevas.'"
The moment Saf told him the name, Jade recalled seeing it on a few pages of the Tome of Dispel.
"Uh, Sage. If Heldra reaches Teimon like this, really..."
Jade paused, glancing from Heldra's position to Teimon. It looked stopped, but fighting Merruld, it inched closer.
"Thirty thousand elves'"
Burden hit suddenly; even Common tongue escaped him.
Gazing down, Sage said,
"You're worrying about the wrong thing. Just shatter."
She thrust her staff forward; a gentle wind pushed his back.
Jade flattened himself more despite being prone.
"W-what are you doing?"
"Better to fear this hill's height. Worry only about your own life. Stake it on dispelling Heldra... Nothing else."
Sage said firmly.
Suddenly, Heldra's spot flashed white. The colossal body sank down as if pressed by invisible hands.
Sage leaned her torso out over the edge, still on tiptoe.
"Success."
"What?"
Heldra had flattened under the trees; Jade saw nothing.
"Binding. Merruld shot arrows into ground and trees to form a magic circle, and Heldra stepped into it. Simply put, it's caught in an invisible net now."
"Isn't Merruld not a mage?"
"Broadly, he is. I'm a mage of spells and herbs;
he's a mage of terrain and features. Too advanced for you yet. Come on."
Sage extended her hand.
Jade took it reflexively. But as she leaned toward the downhill side, he panicked.
"Th-the way down's the other way!"
"This is faster."
"Not about fast—"
Sage yanked Jade's hand and leaped down the hill.
"Ah!"
With a yelp, Jade's body plummeted. For a dizzyingly long moment, they fell, fell.
He pictured his body shattering on impact. But opening his eyes, they weren't falling—they slid down a slope as steep as a cliff.
The speed was insane; Jade's mind reeled. Looking down, his soles hovered a handspan off the ground. Dirt and grass whipped past beneath his feet.
Like riding an invisible sled.
"Such a big beast won't stay bound long."
They hit flat ground, speed unyielding, slipping between trees and rocks. Jade trailed like baggage, dragged over dirt and stone by her hand.
They reached Heldra's vicinity in seconds.
Sage twisted to halt as violently as the descent.
Jade bounced airborne from her grip, then hit the ground. Her magic cushioned the impact near-zero, but couldn't stop the nausea.
Suppressing the urge to vomit, he looked up: Heldra's body blocked ahead like a wall. The fall had cratered the ground around; nearby lay a few crushed komora corpses.
Up close, sizing it up was impossible. Lizard-like scales rippled like waves; even which part this was baffled him.
'Has a mane—must be the back.'
Jade traced the mane toward the heads.
Body pinned to the ground, but the five heads thrashed. Busy above the trees, they missed Jade and Sage below. Merruld still held their attention.
"Take it out."
Sage said it like, your turn in dice.
Jade stood on shaking legs, flipped the book with trembling hands to the darkness-demon dispel verse, recited, and touched.
Light shone from his hand. Expecting backlash from the size, he squeezed his eyes shut then open.
Nothing happened.
"Huh?"
Jade blurted.
"What's wrong?"
Sage asked.
Jade pressed the glowing dispel hand to Heldra's flesh again. Still nothing.
"The dispel light..."
Jade stammered in panic.
"...isn't working."