21 Forest Chase

The sun had already dipped low, painting the sky in bruised orange hues. Night was coming on fast.

"So, what now?" Aurelia asked, poking her head around Friederich's side. She wore a white embroidered tunic lined with gold seams, white pants, and leather boots, her wavy red hair partly tied back with a metal butterfly clip. Simple, yet regal.

Every bit the expedition-ready princess.

Friederich tapped his ring, and a blue hologram shimmered to life in the air. "Let's try a locating spell," he suggested.

Aurelia swatted his hand away. "Don't open the arc comm! We'll be exposed."

His brows furrowed. "Then what do you suggest we do?"

A condescending smile touched her lips. "We get to higher ground," she said, pointing toward a defence tower looming in the distance, a few kilometres away.

They set their sights on the structure at the edge of the dark forest, a potential shelter for the night.

Friederich strode forward, his glowing white sword cutting a path through the gloom. Aurelia followed at his heel, her leisurely pace slowing them down considerably. Standing at 160 centimetres tall, Aurelia's stride covered less than a metre, compared to his 190 centimetres in height.

It began to grate on him.

"It's getting dark," Friederich said, his voice tinged with irritation. Hiding emotions was a strength of House Regis, but not today. "Could you pick up the pace?"

"Ugh! My legs are already sore," Aurelia whined, dragging her feet. Physical exertion was clearly not to her liking.

Friederich extended a hand, palm up. "I can carry you," he offered, his tone deadpan.

"No way. If I can't even walk by myself, I've already failed," she replied, shaking her head. "I just wish we had Arc boots…" she muttered, kicking petulantly at a branch on the path.

A vein pulsed on his forehead. "Could you not kick things around? You're making a trail for hunters to follow."

"Oh, Mother Gaia, you're such a killjoy, Fried! Zeta would have brought arc boots and flown us to the tower by now. If Zeta were here, we wouldn't be trekking like fools in the first place!"

His expression darkened. "Zetius is gone, Aurelia."

"No, he's not," she replied instantly.

"He is."

"Na~ah!" She shook her head, stubborn.

Suddenly, Friederich snapped. He grabbed her wrist, his grip surprisingly forceful, his eyes blazing with a seriousness that stole her breath. "Aurelia, Zetius is dead! I don't care what you thought of him, a prodigy, Ignius's prime disciple, a god? Even gods die. Ignius Lux Draconus is dead! So, I am not arguing with you about this again. Do. You. Understand?"

The words tumbled out of him in a torrent, fast and sharp. A primal fear flickered in her red eyes.

He saw it and immediately retracted, the harshness of his own voice echoing in his ears.

Aurelia rubbed her wrist, silent. "But he... he isn't... dead..." she murmured to herself.

"HOW WOULD YOU KNOW!?" Friederich's voice boomed, startling birds from the trees in a frantic burst of wings. He shook his head, unable to believe her delusion.

She wouldn't meet his eyes. "…I don't know… I just… I can still feel him." She hugged herself tightly, a small, defensive gesture.

The meaning behind her words hit him like a physical blow, and his heart ached. She loved him.

Who wouldn't have? Zetius wasn't just brilliant; he was gentle, kind, righteous, and level-headed. All the things Friederich was not.

How could someone be so selfless? he thought, a bitter taste filling his mouth. What's the point of living for others and not for yourself? The world would be a better place if I had died in that envoy instead of him.

At least then, Aurelia would be happy.

Friederich exhaled, the sound heavy with a grief he couldn't voice. "I'm sorry..." The words were soft, nearly lost to the wind, but she heard them.

"You're forgiven," she replied sheepishly.

The awkward silence that fell between them was heavy, slowing their progress even further. Evening crept in, and a deep darkness began to pool beneath the canopy. The light from his arcane sword wasn't enough. He could conjure more, but it would be a waste of mana, a resource that needed to be managed with strategic precision.

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As the forest surrendered to night, the shadows began to play tricks on the mind. Gnarled branches and twisted tree bark took on humanoid shapes, only to resolve back into inanimate objects when looked at directly.

"Fried!" Aurelia called out. He had pulled ahead by ten metres, his longer legs covering more ground.

He turned slowly, the arcane light illuminating his jaw from below. "What?"

"I'm scared," she said, rushing to his side.

"Good. Stay close," Friederich replied, his tone unfazed. His dazzling blue eyes, a perk of his elven heritage, glinted in the gloom, granting him heightened vision. "I think phantoms dwell here."

"Ph~phantoms?!" Aurelia gasped, a violent shudder wracking her body. The forest's oppressive chill sank deep into her bones, making her tremble.

"I think I know where we are," Friederich told her, a mischievous grin spreading across his dimly lit face. "The Dark Forest. Mirehaven, in Western Germund."

Aurelia's fingers tightened on the cape of his arc coat. "Why are you smiling like a creep?"

"Because I didn't mess up my portal spell, Aurelia. We're only twenty kilometres off the mark," he explained, a note of pride in his voice.

"That's not really impressive," she replied, tilting her head. "But how can you be so certain we're in the great dark forest of Mirehaven?"

"Hehehe," Friederich chuckled, not answering directly. "I bet you've noticed it for a while now. Things in the corner of your eye taking the shape of humanoid figures, but when you look directly at them, they vanish. A trick of the light that's been happening every single time." He wore a smug expression.

"Wouldn't that mean this is just any phantom-haunted ground?" she questioned, unconvinced.

"Not quite. Mirehaven is different," he replied. "First, I had a hunch. I recognised the flora and bird species as being from the western part of Germund. But there's something else… something I've noticed for a while now."

He paused dramatically, his eyes locked on the distance. In reality, his elven vision was fixed on the faint silhouette of the defence tower.

"What? Don't just stand there grinning! Tell me!" Aurelia urged, her fear mounting with every passing second of silence.

"I can still see the tower, you know," Friederich said, pointing to his glowing eyes. "We've been walking for hours, yet we're not a single step closer to our destination."

"Holy Mother Gaia…" Aurelia's eyes widened in shock, her legs threatening to give way. "What should we do?"

"We set it on fire," Friederich suggested coolly, his hands gripping her shoulders to steady her.

He chanted, "Lampos-patha!" and swords of light materialised in the air around him.

Leaping nimbly, he ascended into the sky and perched atop the highest blade, ten metres above the forest floor. He swung the static sword a few times to build momentum and, with a powerful push, landed atop his blade in a crouch, signalling for Aurelia to stay below.

The red-haired girl nodded, closing her eyes. Her hair fluttered in the wind as she imagined a burning forest, the roar of the inferno echoing in her mind.

Fuel.

"Empyrion!" she chanted, her divine voice resonating through the trees.

Red ancient butterflies stormed outward from her body, shifting into a torrent of flames. The fire engulfed her and then burst out in every direction, incinerating everything within a five-metre radius to charcoal.

The smoke swirled around her, the sharp scent of burning wood filling the air. She covered her mouth, coughing.

Friederich descended nimbly with his sword, landing softly on the blackened earth. "Hmm?" he pondered aloud.

Nothing had happened.

"Must you be so harsh on us?" An echoing voice suddenly reverberated from all directions. Friederich stood his ground, listening intently, but the source remained elusive.

"O' Phantoms of Mirehaven, grant us passage or face annihilation!" Friederich shouted, his voice unwavering.

"We'll burn you down!" Aurelia added, her tone now laced with newfound confidence.

A weary sigh seemed to pass through the entire forest. "Fine…" the echoing voice replied, its tone almost surreal.

The forest itself appeared to move. Trees shifted aside, their branches groaning as they revealed a single, clear path leading directly to the defence tower.

"Fried! You're a genius! How did you know the fire spell would work?" Aurelia exclaimed.

"It's a wood phantom," Friederich replied, a hint of humility in his voice, though his eyes sparkled with pride. "It wouldn't take a genius to figure out its weakness."

The two managed to step out of the haunted forest without further issue.

As they exited the tree line, they saw a figure kneeling on the ground, her face serene in prayer.

Friederich and Aurelia exchanged a wary look before approaching.

The woman wore a veil over her head, and her dark robes, resembling those of a priestess, wrapped around her from head to toe. As she tilted her head to meet their gaze, her face lit up with a joyful smile.

"O' Mighty Mother Gaia, you've arrived safely," the priestess said, as though she had sensed their arrival before it happened.

"Do you know us?" Friederich asked sternly, his hands held ready to cast a spell.

"Oh, there's no need for hostility, Sir Friederich Eir Regis, and Princess Aurelia Sol Solara of Solis Aeternum," she replied softly. "I am but a humble Novitcius of the Virgo division, Terissa Mercier. I was simply praying for you. You can call me Triss Mercy."

As Friederich examined the woman, he noticed her beautiful green eyes and the dark green hair braided into a tail beneath her veil.

A Virgo medallion dangled over her ample chest. His eyes lingered there a moment longer than intended before he quickly averted his gaze, a faint heat rising in his cheeks.

"Umm… Thanks, I guess?" Aurelia scoffed. Friederich nudged her, signalling her to behave. She straightened up, gathering her regal composure. "Oh, well, Virgo disciple, I appreciate your thoughts and prayers," she said, her voice overly sweet and dripping with sarcasm.

Friederich exhaled deeply, putting a hand on his hip. "Well, Triss Mercy, it's a pleasure to meet you," he said firmly as the woman rose to her feet. She was slightly shorter than Aurelia, perhaps 158 centimetres tall.

"Please, come this way. Our castle hasn't fallen, unlike most of Germund," Triss said, politely motioning for them to follow.

They walked obediently along the dirt path toward the ancient, dark rock walls of the defence tower. Its pointed tip soared high into the sky, with interconnected buildings nestled inside the three-metre-high walls.

"Why do you think the enemies didn't attack your garrison?" Aurelia asked, brows raised.

"Well… I suppose it's because they got lost in the forest? Fufu," Triss replied, chuckling softly.

"Stop asking the obvious. It just makes people question your intellect," Friederich whispered to his princess.

She waved him off dismissively. "It's called small talk, Fried. You should try it sometime. It might make you more likable," she quipped, winking at him.

"Hades's hell," he grumbled, his face sour with exasperation.

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