Chapter 52: Burn, Gabriel, Burn. (1)

"Alright, my knights. I understand that many of you are excited because Young Master Woodime is joining us on this expedition, but anyone who shows signs of recklessness will be sent home so keep that in mind."

Arioch stood on a wooden platform just outside the Barong estate, the 50 knights that had been selected for this culling expedition standing at attention beneath him. Alice and Caine stood on each side of him, Teresa and Gabriel behind Alice while Caine had three attendants standing behind him.

"We will go about this in the same way as always, cleanly and efficiently, as safely as possible. If any among you still harbour vain hopes of impressing others then I want you to look at the knight standing next to you. Look at them, memorise their face. And then prepare to tell their family that they were unable to return to them because you got excited."

50 knights, 3 nobles, 5 attendants, a grand total of 58 people would head out on this expedition, and Arioch hoped that every last one would be able to make it back home alive.

"Yes, we are more than usual, but that does not mean that it will be safer than normal. People find safety in numbers, comfort. They become careless, relaxed as they throw the responsibility onto others. I will have none of that here! We depart as one and we will return as one, am I clear?!"

His voice was thunderous as it echoed across the land, a stern and merciless glare forcing the backs of the knights to grow ever straighter. Normally they would go in groups of 30, 20 knights and 10 knights-in-training, and only on some rare occasions would he join them himself. But since he was bringing along Alice and her group he tacked on another 20 knights, plus himself due to social conventions, to reduce the potential for risks as best he could.

"YES, MY LORD!"

The knights responded with a loud shout, the clanking of metal accompanying them as they banged their fists on their armour in salute. Arioch allowed a breath to escape him as he looked at the knights, his gaze turning to those that shared the podium with him.

"I imagine that all of you are also ready?"

It was a bit of a pointless question, really. Caine’s attendants were already dressed in their armour, while Caine wore his usual clothes, a warm cloak covering him. Alice’s group had also already donned their armour, Teresa and Alice clad in a delicate silver armour. It looked thinner than what his own knights wore, but Arioch could see a faint shimmer run across it at times so he had no doubt that Alice had spent her money freely to enchant the armour.

And unlike the sparring matches that took place when they first arrived, Gabriel was also properly wearing armour. But his was a darker and matter shade, almost like scorched silver, a kaldor helmet covering his head, four plates jutting up as if to mimic a crown. The entire armour looked as if it was covered in fine scales, Arioch didn’t even want to guess how many layers of metal had been magically attached to each other to form this suit.

Now he looked the part of a knight, and with only his violet eyes visible through the visor, he was just intimidating enough to serve someone who took their name from a dragon.

"Good, then we can head out. I’ve prepared extra horses for you so you don’t need to worry about wading through the snow."

Arioch called them horses, but no normal horse could survive the harsh environment of the north. No, these animals were specifically cross-bred with some demonic species to get the desired traits. As a result, they were about two metres tall and heavier than other horses, pale grey fur covering their entire bodies. Dense tufts of fur gathered around their hooves, two curved horns poking out through the dark brown manes that flowed down from their heads.

"Thank you for the offer, Young Master Arioch, but I have my own mount."

Alice politely declined the offer as the others got onto the horses that were provided. She brushed the back of her left hand, a faint light racing across it for a moment before one of her two spirits appeared at her side.

"I’ll be relying on you, Fen, please take care of me."

Fen, Fenrir. A black wolf with crimson eyes, a sharp gaze that surveyed the frozen lands. Alice was no longer a child, and neither was the wolf. He wasn’t quite as large as the steeds that Arioch had prepared, but Fenrir was now almost as large as a normal horse. It was the perfect size for her to ride right now so Alice had probably been talking with him before she even brought him out.

"Very well. Cornaich, take the extra one back to the stables."

Arioch naturally had no reason to refuse so he sent back the horse and then mounted his own steed, giving the knights under his command one sharp look before he raised and lowered his arm in a quick motion.

"I hereby declare the beginning of the culling expedition! Line up and move out, let’s all return home to our families when this is over!"

The knights moved in unison as Arioch ordered their advance. A group of knights, as well as Caine, in front, a line of knights-in-training, the group with the three nobles, a line of knights behind them, and then a line of knights on either side of them. This formation lowered the chances that Alice and the others would get attacked, it gave them less opportunities to join the battle but it also ensured their safety.

The large group made their way further north, past the Barong estate and towards the sharp mountains that rose in the distance. After they put some distance between them and the estate, the knights in front of the formation brought out what looked like incense burners, Gabriel detecting a very soft and spicy scent waft out from within them after they were lit.

"Just moving about randomly isn’t a good way to cull the beasts living in these lands. Those burners are filled with a mixture that, when burned, releases a scent that can’t be picked up by humans. The scent works as a sort of pheromones for demons and beasts so they’ll be drawn to it, more and more flocking as time passes and it gets to spread. We’ll cover it up at night and hide our traces, otherwise we’d never get to sleep."

Arioch took on the role of teacher as he explained what they were doing to Alice. Thanks to this scent, even the shyer beasts would come out from their caves to be culled. Naturally, it carried with it some risks, attracting demons always did. But some risks simply had to be borne.

———

The landscape was dreary. A dull white that washed over everything, murky grey clouds covering the blue of the sky. There were a fair number of trees jutting up through the snow around them, but the flakes that constantly fell from the sky blocked out even the green of their leaves. Dreary and dull, that would be what Gabriel thought of the frozen north now that they left the civilised lands.

White and grey, no matter where they looked. It remained the same even after over an hour of travelling, white and grey, dreary and dull. The knights were tense, and the knights-in-training even more so, backs straight and hands clutching the reins.

The scent kept spreading. Like chili in the nose. The horses beneath them were uneasy and restless, but they were well trained so they didn’t respond to the scent. Gabriel turned his head slightly.

Colour.

Alice and Fenrir were like a blotch of colour on this dreary land. He could see strands of her violet hair fall out from her helmet, and the crimson eyes hidden by the visor occasionally turned to look at him. Fenrir was looking around sharply, his nose twitching. Alice didn’t say anything. She was watching, waiting, perhaps even gauging them.

The knights seemed rather well-trained, as they stopped their march after a mere two more minutes. The ten in front quickly got off their horses and handed the incense burners to the knights-in-training, drawing their weapons with practised movements.

"It seems the first round has arrived. You should watch, it’s not often you’ll get to see something like this."

Arioch spoke to them, not a shred of nerves in his voice. Perhaps it made sense, the only man here not wearing armour also got off his horse along with the other knights. Caine Woodime, the original protagonist of this story.

A slight trembling reached them before long, the snow shifting as something approached them. And then they burst from the ground, tearing through snow, ice, and dirt alike as they rose.

Centipedes, each one somewhere around ten metres in length. Chattering sharp legs that were as blue as the ice beneath the snow, a thick pale white carapace covered in fine barbs, and four large mandibles that clicked incessantly as they moved. They were the first to be attracted by the incense, and they came in a group of three.

"I’ll take those two, you guys can handle the last one."

Caine took the lead, easily the most relaxed one out of all the ones that went out to fight. He could take on all three, but taking all the work away from the knights wouldn’t be fair, these expeditions were a good way for them to train.

The ten knights quickly divided themselves into groups to handle the third centipede, some of them muttering as they cast their magic. It was just a centipede so they were quick about it. Two used earth magic to force its entire body down to the ground, two seemed to use strengthening magic on the others, and a fifth used fire magic to weaken the carapace. The last five simply needed to quickly cut it apart. Quick, clean, efficient.

Gabriel guessed that they could probably do it just as easily with just three or four people. If they were fine with a tougher fight then they could probably also do it alone or in groups of two. They weren’t knights for nothing.

And then there was Caine…

The centipedes tried to charge past him, but he positioned himself to block the path of one of them. He waved a hand towards the other one, which suddenly found itself bisected, sharp legs twitching for a moment before it fell silent. The other one charged straight at him to burrow through him, but his other hand reached out and grabbed its sharp mandibles. The large beast was halted in its tracks, the mandibles that could crush earth unable to leave a scratch on Caine’s hand. His other hand moved again and another centipede found itself bisected.

Quick. Easy.

Murky yellow blood stained the snow around the centipedes, some of the knights quickly stripping the beasts of everything that was useful before they proceeded to burn their bodies.

"Fascinating, isn’t it?"

Arioch spoke up as the centipedes burned, his gaze on Caine as the latter was heading over to them.

"Unique magic, I mean. It doesn’t follow a single one of our laws, doesn’t even require a word to activate. Pretty ridiculous, don’t you think?"

Arioch kept talking, eyes alight with fire. Unique magic was an outlier to every magic they knew of. It placed more of a strain on the body than normal magic, but in turn it required next to no mana, nor did it require activation words or formations. And it came in all kinds of shapes and sizes as well, it wasn’t constrained to a single system.

"It’s not that ridiculous, Arioch, you’re hyping it up too much. It’s just a ‘shield’ and ‘sword’ slightly stronger than the normal ones, they’ll become useless all the same when faced with an overwhelming power."

Caine didn’t let Arioch’s admiration get to his head. His Unique magic was a sword and a shield, and they were indeed strong enough to make the people of this world feel awe. But he couldn’t let it get to his head. His gaze momentarily drifted to the side, sliding past Gabriel before Alice spoke up.

"Even so, it is still quite fascinating, Young Master Caine. Unique magic, what is it like?"

Naturally, even Alice held an interest in Unique magic. Gabriel constantly called her unparallelled, but her magic still followed the system of this world, it was just a system commoners knew very little of yet. But Unique magic… it ignored all that. She was confident that she would be able to breach his shield given enough time, but she could not deny its apparent strength.

Caine thought over the question for a moment. In this world, there was perhaps no one better than him when it came to talking about Unique magic. He had studied it intensively over the multitude of loops he went through with Abigail, honing his skills with each iteration. But thanks to that knowledge, he also couldn’t help but glance at Gabriel while pretending to survey the surroundings.

"What it’s like… hmm, how do I explain it? It’s kind of like a part of you, so once it awakens you just know how to use it, its like an extension of your body. Well, it seems to stem from the soul so its perhaps rather apt to call it a part of you. As for how to awaken it… my research shows that there is no one set way to do it. One awakened his because he was hit by inspiration while writing a novel, one awakened his while cooking for his wife, one awakened his while taking a bath, one awakened his while practising his archery. It’s about as unique as the magic itself."

Unique magic could be passed on to your descendants, albeit in a weakened form. But if someone tried to take over your body they would be unable to use the Unique magic, even if they supposedly knew how. So it was physically in your body, but it came from your soul, and said soul could revoke it at a moments notice.

And in that lay his worry. The body standing there was Azuras, but most of the souls inside were not. Since it supposedly contained parts of his own soul, would it be considered someone who got through a World Fissure? Or what about the other souls that had traversed time to end up in there, would any of them be considered something similar?

And finally, the special soul Azuras said he put in there… Caine still didn’t know where it came from. But if it came from a world outside of the loop, would it be a soul considered worthy of a Unique magic? Or was the mix of souls in that body considered ineligible for Unique magic because of its chimeric nature? He didn’t know, he didn’t have enough information, thus he worried.

———

The group kept moving after dealing with the centipedes, Caine moving a bit back so that he could keep talking with Arioch and Alice’s group. They were attacked more often as time dragged on and the scent spread, but the knights showcased their experience by handling it properly.

Like that, the first day of the expedition quickly passed as the sun raced across the sky. As it started to approach the edge of the horizon, the group of knights had already fought off and killed almost ten different groups of demons. Caine still took care of a few in each group, but he left the rest to the knights. The knights-in-training were also allowed to deal with one of the demons that attacked, Hellion receiving the honour of dealing the final blow

"Alright, men! Put out the censers and set up camp, we’ll sleep here for the night! You’ve done well, no one has died so far! Kartoch, Artuki, Tymaus, Kambal, you’re in charge of blocking our scent!"

Arioch stopped his steed and announced the end of the day, his orders met with a loud salute and some subdued cheers. They had spent almost the entire day riding and fighting so it was inevitable that they would be tired and relish this chance to get some rest. And they wouldn’t even have a problem with the night guard because they brought more knights than normal.

A perimeter was quickly formed, the four knights assigned to it quickly hiding all traces of them so that no demons were attracted by the incense during the night. A camp quickly formed within the perimeter as the various groups set up their tents and lit their fires, it was time to eat.

Gabriel sat by one such campfire, the fire reflected in his eyes when his gaze didn’t drift. Night was falling so the dreary appearance of this place was only getting worse. Shades of black and white, murky grey, even the light of the fire was being swallowed by the dull colours. It reminded him of his past life, even if only for a moment.

"What are you thinking about?"

Alice’s voice came from the side, she had apparently walked over while he wasn’t paying attention. Colourful. She was a blotch of colour as she sat down, brighter than the flames.

Fenrir was following at her side, a sharp glare still surveying their surroundings as his nose twitched. This time too, Alice didn’t seem as if she was going to tell them. Good, the longer you kept your cards to your chest the more they would be worth. If she revealed it at an appropriate time she would stand to gain far more than if she just revealed it from the start.

"I thought that it was rather dull here. White earth as far as the eye can see, grey skies that stretch beyond the horizon. It’s all just dreary and grey, even the campfires seem to lose their colour here."

He didn’t lie to her, he never did. So he spoke of what he felt for a moment as he looked at the fire, the thoughts that flashed past his mind for but a moment. Well, that thought was already gone now that Alice was here, it would be hard for the world to be dreary and dull as long as she was as colourful as she was. But well, he didn’t say that because the thought struck him after she asked, as such, her answer wasn’t influenced by it.

"Hmm, yes, I can see that. But don’t worry, I’ll take care of it for you."

Her gaze swept the surroundings as she spoke. Yes, she could see how this frozen waste could be considered dull. But that was no good. It was just as he said when he thought she was asleep, she went above and beyond.

"Quetz, gather them all up for me please."

She rubbed the back of her right hand as she spoke, another faint light surfacing for a moment before her second spirit appeared at her side. Fenrir had grown so naturally Quetz had done the same. The little green snake was now almost two metres long, the plume of red feathers around its neck thick enough to be considered a mane while the rest of the thin feathers that covered its body were visible enough to make you think that it was soft. Of the three sets of nubs that ran down its back, one of them had sprouted into a pair of feathery wings, the golden feathers adorned by red and green veins. Fenrir was eerie and powerful, but Quetz looked majestic.

Sounds came from just beyond the perimeter of the camp as Quetz appeared, the subdued sound of something rushing across snow. Gabriel could see them when he raised his head. They looked like car-sized white leopards with metallic fur, but their tail split and ended in two sharp blades, a mantis-like scythe growing on each side of its body.

They had been patient. They stayed out of sight after the scent faded, they waited quietly for a moment when everyone dropped their guard so that they could ambush them. Arioch and the knights naturally reacted faster, but Fenrir had warned Alice of their arrival from the start so how could they possibly react faster than her?

"They’re sneaky! Men, to ar…"

Arioch’s order was drowned out by the roaring of wind. Quetz flapped her wings and kicked up the wind, a storm surrounding the pack of charging leopards. Bright blue arcs danced in the wind, the rumbling of thunder mixing with the wind as the large beasts were picked up with ease. They released metallic sounds as they collided with each other, Quetz forcing them into a huddled group within her storm. And Alice was looking straight at that huddled group of beasts, an arm stretching out as a slender finger pointed.

"Makar, Alect Hui Devak." (Lava, Rise And Burst.)

The Crown Princess and Caine revealed the element to the world, but Alice became the first to display its power to the world.

The earth rumbled, a tremor causing the tents to shake violently. And then the night burst. The ground split apart, the ice and snow melted as a thick pillar of bright orange lava burst through the surface and shot skyward.

The leopards couldn’t even roar, there was just a hiss as the liquid washed over them and left nothing behind. When the pillar reached the 15-metre mark, it burst like firework and scattered lava beyond the camp, Alice controlling the various lumps to handle the remaining demons that thought themselves clever.

"Is that better, Gabriel?"

Her gaze was turned back to him, as if she had never even looked at the leopards. She stood there, beneath the fluttering lights of the lava that now swallowed the night. Violet hair. Crimson eyes. A red dress covered by a black coat adorned with silver thread.

He couldn’t take his eyes off her as she smiled. Even here, as the myriads of orange and red dashed above her like shooting stars, as if dawn had risen once again, she was the most colourful thing he could see.

"Yes… its beautifully colourful."