A flash of dark energy started to flow out from Aren's chest, passing through the clothes. It was an emblem shaped like a dragon's head but it was made glowing black. The energy was unstable, and Aren was feeling that it was draining a lot of his mind's energy.
The bear also stopped the charge, as if it felt the upcoming danger and had to be careful.
[Your Majesty, what happened?]
"My emblem just awakened Val", said while breathing really heavily.
[Is this the Bright Dragon emblem?]
"At the beginning I thought the same, but I realised later that this is another entity, called Dark Dragon. I didn't have to ask but I am sure that it is also a Prime emblem", it was true, the moment the Dark Dragon came close to him, he realised that it was indeed another entity, he wasn't sure that this one would have been friendly like the Bright Dragon, so he took the risk to not antagonise him, even at the cost to not get anything from him.
The emblem was Prime but it felt like it was using just a small percentage of its true power, and this was already enough for him to feel that he didn't have much time to keep using it.
The bear was charging again, and this team's red energy was expanding more, making his fur look like it was on fire. The beast started to run towards him while Aren tried to focus his energy from the chest, towards the dagger.
My body can't hold this power for long , the amount of focus he needed was absurd.
The energy was too raw to be controlled and it was his first time using it, which meant that he could just simply release it as a blast for now.
The bear was closer and closer, until in the least few meters he leaped towards Aren. The claws were almost reaching him, and even if they didn't, the weight and the sharpened teeth would have done the rest.
Aren's silver eyes began to glow even more, as if the emblem augmented his sight as well, and that when he noticed that the time slowed down for a moment and he could see the energy flow inside the creature, flowing actually from the stomach and not the chest as he would have imagined.
What is happening to my eyes? Is that what I think it is?
"Val, can you see what I see?"
[Affirmative, it looks like your retina acquired another depth of visual.]
In the stomach he could even see the emblem and its details inside, it was like a pattern of decorations but made of energy coloured red, forming a very feral beast as a shape. This was the first time for him to see so many details in an emblem, as if he could see their real shape.
The creature was really close, and the time started to move again, but in that moment Aren had his eyes locked on the feral emblem and with a swift movement, he charged his hand holding the dagger from behind, tracing an horizontal like with the blade the slashed through the stomach.
The blade that was coated in black energy, released it all with a wave that pass through the enemy and hit the tree behind.
Aren's eyes were still locked on the enemy's emblem and it was obvious that his slash affected it, because he could see it being cracked from the inside, and then shattered into pieces.
Did I destroy his emblem? What kind of power is this?
The red energy dissipated from the bear but despite the blood he was still alive and capable of moving.
The Dark Dragon effect was already depleted, but at that moment a loud noise came from the back.
It was the tree, Aren's previous hit landed on the trunk, finishing what the lumberjack already started.
'I got to move!" he said while dashing and rolling on the side.
The tree fell instantly over the bear, hitting exactly the spot where the axe was stuck, and finally killing the creature. Aren was really out of breath and sweating, in his mind he knew that hitting the bear wouldn't have been enough with his current strength, so he aligned the emblem and the cut in the tree, hoping that the impact was strong enough to generate an energy blast and to make it fall.
"Val, check if the bear is alive"
[Negative, the creature is not exhibiting any vital signs. Your Majesty, you have some bruises and your muscles seemed to be extremely tense. I suggest drinking some water, and eating something.]
"Now you sound more like my Val."
Aren finally realised that he became an Awakened, despite not knowing anything about the Dark Dragon, he was happy to have the possibility to use a Prime emblem.
He slowly closed his eyes for a few minutes before continuing his exploration.
⁂
The bear's carcass was stuck under that tree, Aren retrieved the axe which was still intact, but while cleaning from the blood.
He still had a few hours before the night so he had to explore the area enough to see if he could find any lead.
[Your Majesty, in behind that bush] the digital trail appeared, indicating a possible path.
"Yeah, it looks like someone walked frequently on this path, oh no… wait" a few meters further, someone was lying face down on the ground. Aren approached the person carefully, but as he suspected he was dead.
Judging the clothes and the size, he was the lumberjack from the cabin, a man probably in his fifties. There were strong lacerations on his back, which fit exactly the bear's claws.
"Judging the wounds, some days ago, the earthquake must have scared the bear, who ran into this area and encountered this poor man.
"Ah, wait" looking further there was another carcass, it was another bear, this was a female one, which fate wanted to be stuck as well under another trunk. Aren looked at the base of the trunk and this one was uprooted, probably caused by seismic shocks. There were some smaller animals close to this bear's head, all dead but not eaten.
He analysed the scene for a minute and came to the conclusion that the man was cutting the wood while the shocks started. At the same time a bear was escaping but she got struck by the falling tree. Judging by the distance between the men in this bear, he must have tried to free her, but the male bear came later and thought that was his fault and attacked and killed him. He must have tried to feed her, that's why he hunted some animals for her, but she was already long gone.
[Your Majesty, your deductive skills are impressive. Almost better than mine I have to say.]
"As a king I came across many situations where I had to be the judge. I had to analyse every case properly, hear all the parties and see from all the points of views available. Making the wrong assumptions can ruin someone's life forever ".
The path was clear, it felt like it was very worn which made it pretty straight forward to follow, so he decided to go back to the cabin to get ready for a long journey.
⁂
The next morning he felt way better than before, he stuffed himself with some soup, and finished his morning training and meditation. His body was looking way better, and he noticed that he could properly hold and swing the axe.
[Your Majesty's biometric is improving a lot. The muscular mass regenerated and increased during the night. That's remarkable], said Val while he was gathering things to bring.
"I forgot this feeling, but it is pretty common after being Awakened to get a physical boost for the first days, as the body gets a lot of energy from the emblem to adapt around it."
[It's still very impressive. When will you be able to use the emblem properly?]
"The truth is that it is also thanks to the Valoria's blood that I can adapt that easily, very superficial wounds already healed as you can see. But to use a Prime emblem properly, it requires time, training and patience", during the morning he tried to meditate and to see how long could use the emblem. The result was less than a minute, which was already better than yesterday's performance. What he noticed is that he was able to see the bear's emblem and the internal energy flow, but he couldn't see his own.
"Using my emblem requires a lot of energy, especially if I don't know how to use it properly. For now I can only blast some raw energy with it or augment my strength for a few seconds, which will make me pretty tired right after, so for now I will rely on my physical skills and use it only when it is needed".
[You mentioned before that your blood allows you to live longer, does it mean that you will age slowly? How long are you going to look like this?]
"That's a tricky question, because I don't really know what happened to my body and what my real age is in these conditions. But let's say that I follow Valoria's growth, it would mean that I would indeed age slowly, but the first twenty something years of my life I would age normally. I guess it's because my body needs to reach the optimal conditions before being stable, and then I would start to age really slowly, almost looking in my thirties for a hundred years and then you can guess that I will slowly age but not that fast." a blessing and a curse, which he wanted to hide in the current situation, to avoid being exploited by ill-intentioned people.
He packed in the backpack some sets of clothes, dried meat that he found, the medical kit from the pod and some herbs from the garden.
He didn't have to carry a lot of water since he already found some sources of water.
Since the lumberjack was gone he decided to keep the money that he could find, a pouch of bronze and silver coins. Among that he decided to grab a notebook that he found and some pen and pencils.
[Your Majesty, there is no need to take that, I can take notes.]
"Thanks Val, but I want to keep my calligraphy on check, plus this is also for sketching or drawing] he said with a smile on his face, drawing was still in his heart.
At least he grabbed a black hooded raincoat and put it over his clothes, in case of bad weather but also to hide the axe and the dagger, and last but not least he brought a shovel that was used for the garden.
"Let's go! It's time to leave this forest."
⁂
The holes were fully covered, it took him a while but he didn't want to do a half hearted job in making the graves.
The lumberjack was buried next to the roots of a tree, he felt that it would have made sense even if he didn't know him at all. While for the couple of bears he decided to simply find a spot out of the path. The hardest part was to push the trunks away and drag the bears, but luckily he got some extra strength now and with the help of the emblem he was able to do it with some breaks.
He tried to find some flowers and placed them on top of the graves. In his life he did attend some funerals, and his parents taught him to get used to it, a Valoria's lifespan is longer than any regular person and it's normal to see people coming and leaving before you. At last he sat down and took out a page of the notebook and started to draw something, and while doing that he started to hum a song. It was one of his mom's favourite songs, she was singing it a lot but he couldn't remember the lyrics. He felt that it wouldn't have mattered if the song wasn't appropriate for a funeral, it was just a way to say goodbye to the past and welcome the changes.
Looking at his current body he wondered if his lifespan changed as well, if the clock turned back or if he got somehow stuck in this. He wouldn't have found the answer anyway soon, so after some moments of silence he grabbed his backpack and started to follow the path.