Step. Step. Step.
Alstair gasped for air, his breaths shuddering as he moved on with Lucian's lifeless form draped over his shoulders. His muscles screamed, sweat dripped down his temple, but he gritted his teeth and moved on. He had no destination in mind, all he could do was trail behind the man in front of him, Zeydris.
Why?
Easy enough since Zeydris had rescued him from that cluster of fucking giant wasps that were pursuing him unrelentingly…. And the second reason is that Zeydris is powerful. Extremely so.
His thoughts went back to what happened before.
***
Several hours ago….
Alstair trailed the enigmatic man who had rescued him, each step cautious yet assertive. He had named himself Zeydris, and while his aura was overpowering with authority. Alstair had no other option but to follow him. After all, he had rescued him from inevitable death in this goddamn hellhole.
'But seriously how the heck did I even end up here directly from the banquet?!??'
"I will guide you to a safe shelter, but hurry. We should get there before sundown," Zeydris instructed bluntly, his tone cold but infused with an implied order.
'How does he even know about the period here? The abyss, to it, seems like it's always nighttime here.' But Alstair shook his head and nodded and inquired hesitantly, "So where exactly are we in the Abyss at this point?"
Zeydris didn't even glance back when he said "It's an unclaimed region of the abyss that even the seven clans have not overcome."
Alstair, let out a deep breath through his nose, frustrated. 'I already solved that part, man! So you won't be telling me anything useful, huh?' he told himself but remained silent. He owed this guy his life, and pestering him too much may not be wise.
______
They were walking in a thick twisted forest when Zeydris suddenly halted.
What is it?" Alstair questioned, being cautious and raising his defenses as he looked around but saw nothing.
Zeydris squinted his blood-red eyes to the left. "Something is wrong…why is it awake so early?"
Without further warning, he disappeared from where he was standing, leaving Alstair behind in complete shock.
"H-Hey! What the hell?"
Realizing he had no other option, Alstair sprinted after him, fighting through his fatigue, his feet thudding against the broken stone road.
Then he saw it.
Lucian Lunastre.
Bloodied. Broken. Folded on the big carter around him. And above him, stood a figure that Alstair quickly realized.
How could he not?
Every mortal knows, that the sighting of that horror announces the soon rising of the devastation.
"V-Vespralith?!"
Alstair's breath caught. He wanted to get up, and do something, but his body locked in fear.
Just then–
A green blur passed him by.
A magnificent woman with long green hair and piercing golden eyes stood there. She was beautiful and otherworldly, yet her aura was cold and impassive.
She seized the neck of the Vespralith, her eyes emotionlessly regarding it.
She gazed at Lucian's beaten form, and then at the Vespralith.
BOOM!!!
An abrupt explosion of energy emanated from her that shook the whole land mass within a radius of a hundred kilometers.
Even Alstair was swept backward a few hundred meters by the sheer pressure she emanated, his eyes blanked out for a moment as agony wracked his whole being. He felt like his whole existence was being squished!
Crack! Crunch!
The women snapped Vespralith's neck clean rendering its head loose like a ball.
SCREEEECH-
The Vespralith emitted a screaming pain that echoed all over the abyss, as if the pressure she was emitting wasn't sufficient to frighten the abyss creatures that the Vespralith scream created even more fear.
But soon she withdrew the pressure and discarded the vespralith like she was discarding a toy.
She cast a spell on the Vespralith so that it could not move from its position.
It continued to scream in pain.
But no one, not even Alstair who had somehow returned to the scene panting heavily, or Zeydris who was silently watching everything bat an eye on the monster's painful screams. Both of them focused on the woman who was walking towards Lucian with a pained expression.
How must it have felt? One moment it was relishing and enjoying the sight of its victim, Lucian, screaming and suffering, and then the next moment the tide had turned!
"I am sorry, I couldn't arrive earlier…." the woman said as she crouched down and placed Lucian's head on her lap. Then she summoned a green-looking potent liquid stored in a glass veil and made Lucian's unconscious body drink it, slowly.
The effect was immediate!
The gaping hole in Lucian's abdomen had started to close, although the process started immediately it would still take hours for his body to repair. She then slowly and carefully bandaged him up.
She then turned back to Zeydris, still crouching and caressing Lucian.
"Take care of that thing. I don't want my hands to be covered in blood right now. It isn't even worth it to spend my energy on that thing, it's just an incomplete newborn Vespralith anyways." her tone was impassive.
Sigh
Zeydris let out a tired sigh as he slowly moved towards the trapped Vespralith." You brats making this old man work…..Don't you have any shame?" although he said that Zeydris complied with her words either way.
'Old man? You look like you are in your late twenties though!' thought Alstair.
Zeydris wasted no time, instantly appearing in front of the Vespralith he plunged his hand into its chest.
Squelchh-
Zeydris ripped out its heart. And tossed it aside.
Again he plunged his hand into its body and took out its mana core.
The Vespralith didn't even have the chance to register what happened to it as it occurred so fast. Now its lifeless body lay there as black blood oozed out from its gaping holes.
"So why are you here? Do you want to take Lucian with you? Did he order you to take Lucian in?"
At Zeydris's question, the woman shook her head. "No, I won't be taking Lucian with me. I only came here cause he said that Lucian was in danger so he sent me here. And he also asked a favor from you, Sword of the Abyss."