Chapter 277

The rest of the trip to Traehall had gone relatively smoothly. We kept a regular rotation of guards on my [Carousel] mounts. The only downside of using them was that I always had to be somewhat aware of what they were doing. That meant that even when I was not personally on guard, I had to at least be in the coach's seat watching them. If I didn't, they started to ignore orders, and one of them even dematerialized at one point midstride. Silva was the one who learned that the hard way. I would say it was unfortunate, but I was also relieved because she is much sturdier than my other friends. She could take the hit better than some of the others would have. Bella was quick to heal her up from the nasty tumble she had taken when we discovered this drawback.

We hadn't run into nearly as much trouble on the road this time since the weather was clear, and all of the monsters we ran into were manageable. The trip gave Morrigan plenty of opportunities to get the final kill on monsters, and she was already happy with the progress she's made with increasing her mana pool. She still didn't have a lot of mana, not anywhere near enough to even consider it manageable as a traditional mage, but it made her happy that she was able to use basic cantrips that were once out of reach for her. It was funny to see her so happy with herself being able to light candles using her own power when I've seen her throw fireballs with her wild casting.

It wasn't until the last day of our trip that we started noticing anything out of the ordinary. We hadn't run into anyone headed in our direction since we left Norta three days ago. At first we thought it was just a coincidence, but the time kept stretching on longer, and it became more notable. This road wasn't as busy as the one to the capital, but we still expected to see one or two other caravans or messengers pass us each day. Eventually, we decided to send a few of us ahead to scout.

I rode ahead of the caravan with Torien and Lori at my side with Mimi hidden around my neck as a choker. We were just far enough ahead that we could still see the caravan behind us. We were hoping that one of the four of us would spot something that would stick out, but the road was completely empty and we weren't close enough to see Traehall in the distance yet. The lack of any other caravans or couriers stood out all the more. There were a few monsters we could see in the distance, but that was it.

"This is weird. We should have seen someone by now. This is the only road that connects Traehall to anywhere else," Torien said.

I blocked the sun from my eyes and squinted into the distance. "Can you guys see any farther than I can?"

Lori shook her head. "I don't see anything either. No one is headed our way."

I frowned. "Do you think something happened in Traehall?" I asked.

"It would make more sense than this being random," Lori replied.

Torien turned to me with a grim look. "Do you think it was a demon dungeon break? There had been demon sightings before we even fought them ourselves."

"Didn't you cause the dungeon break by destroying the crystal?" Mimi asked.

"It's not like we're the only ones who would destroy a demon dungeon. There are actual teams that specialize in finding and exploring dungeons. Raksha'va was planning on putting us in one of them when we got back," Torien explained.

I frowned. "Is there anything else that can cause a dungeon break?"

"I wish I knew," Torien replied. "Everything I know about dungeons is mostly through stories. We were taught a few facts about them in our adventurer training, but the expectation wasn't that we would be in first explorer teams. The kind of people who buy adventurer slaves don't usually put themselves at risk by leading them into such dangerous places. That's a risky gamble unless you're desperate or already well-trained. Most of what we were taught was about exploited dungeons, which are much more common."

"I only know one other way of reliably triggering a dungeon break. You can trigger one by breaking the dungeon's rules. Tunneling through walls or climbing over obvious out of bounds zones," Lori said.

Torien raised an eyebrow. "I know that upsets the dungeon, but is it enough to cause a dungeon break?"

Lori shrugged. "People in the Order have intentionally triggered several to put pressure on the guards of a city. If you do it too often, the dungeon goes berserk, though. I wouldn't recommend it."

"That's a scary thought," Torien said while turning her attention back to the stretch of road in front of us.

"There is one way that I could scout ahead even further..." I said.

Torien smiled. "I don't think Bella is going to like you going off on your own again."

I scratched the base of my horn. "It's... kinda why I asked Mimi to come with."

"You could have invited Bella to go with you," Lori pointed out.

"Well... Then I would have to convince her to go flying with me, but we haven't practiced it together yet..." I replied.

"Just go. It's better if we have an idea of what we're getting into. She'll understand," Torien said.

"Should I blame you if Bella gets upset?" I asked.

Torien sighed. "Please don't. Bella's scary when she's mad."

I started climbing off the magical giant squirrel I was riding. "You better get off the mounts if you don't want to take a spill like Silva did the day before yesterday."

The others hopped off their mounts and watched as Mimi stripped my armor and top before handing me a tight-fitting backless top I had purchased for this occasion. I shifted to my true form, rolled my shoulders, and pulled the top over my head before growing my wings through the back of the top. Once I was finished changing, Mimi turned back into a heavy choker so she could come along for the ride.

"That top would look scandalous if you weren't using it for such a practical purpose," Lori commented.

"It's not that bad, is it?" I asked while looking down at myself. It was a little tight, but I didn't think it was that provocative...

"Don't listen to her, Lori's just giving you trouble," Torien said with a laugh.

"What do we say when the group catches up?" Lori asked. She was looking behind her at the caravan that was slowly catching up with us.

"I don't intend to take that long, but just tell them I went to scout further ahead. I'll return on a mount if it takes longer than I plan," I said while getting used to the mana circulating in my wings again. I turned and took a deep breath. "Alright, here goes nothing."

"I'm gonna tell Bella on you," Torien said with a grin.

I laughed and shook my head before getting a running start. I circulated the magic through my wings, loosened my lust aura to coat my body, saturated it with my internal mana, and leapt into the air. It came much easier to me this time, but even though I was ready for it, my stomach still lurched at the sudden jump in altitude. I stretched my wings to my full span and caught an updraft that carried me higher into the sky. Just like last time, the flight was invigorating as I began to move faster and climb higher.

-- "This is so cool!" -- Mimi called out through the bond. Her voice sounded excited and giddy. Her exuberance filled me through the bond and the two of us shared a moment of unbridled joy as we soared through the sky together. I banked back toward the road and felt myself catch the wind and carry me forward.

My excitement tapered off when I saw the smoke on the horizon. It was cloudy enough that it hadn't been visible at the distance we were looking from earlier, but from here it was obvious that there was fire coming from Traehall.

-- "Do you see that smoke in the distance, Mimi?" -- I asked.

-- "I see it. That's a bad sign, right? Something did happen to Traehall, didn't it?" -- she asked.

-- "It seems like it. We should get a little closer, but I don't think it's a good idea for me to get anywhere near that smoke this high up in the air." --

For the next fifteen minutes, we flew closer to the town off in the distance. We could still see some obvious fires going, especially from the woods surrounding the city. The main walls and buildings were made out of stone, so it looked like the city was still standing despite all the smoke.

-- "Can you see anything?" -- I asked Mimi.

-- "I see something piled up at the gates," -- she said.

That didn't sound good.

-- "Can you tell what it is?" -- I asked, slightly alarmed.

-- "They look like bodies. I can't tell from here what kind they are, but there are a lot of them," -- Mimi replied.

-- "Let's go back and tell the others. We have to warn everyone what we're walking into," -- I said grimly.

I turned around and started to head back. I could see the caravan. They had made some good distance from where we had left them. I flew a bit lower so they wouldn't spot me and touched down behind some trees so that I could quickly change back before being noticed about five minutes away from where they were on horseback.

I glanced at my notification. Normally, I would have been happy to see it, but it wasn't the time to think about it right now.

[Flying has increased from level 7 to level 10]

I quickly dismissed it and moved on.

The landing was a little rough, but I managed. The moment I settled myself on the ground, Mimi quickly shifted and handed me my normal top and breastplate. I quickly dressed myself, buckled my armor back on, and summoned another mount to ride back. This time [Carousel] took the shape of a saddled uuna in the spitting image of Nikka. It was a bit of a shock because it was larger than most of the other things it had summoned before, and decidedly more dangerous. Featherjack notwithstanding. Mimi shifted back into the heavy choker and we were rushing back as fast as we could.

It didn't take long to catch up with the others, and the moment our bonds reconnected, I realized just how worried I must have looked. The caravan pulled off the road and slowed as I approached. I skidded to a stop in front of our carriage where Cecilia was waiting.

"Traehall is on fire and under attack. The woods surrounding it are burning and there are bodies piled up outside the gates," I told them.

"Bodies!?" Cecilia asked. "Could you tell what they were?"

I shook my head. "We- I didn't get a good enough look. You can't even see the smoke from here yet because of the clouds, but things are still burning," I said pointing in the distance.

The merchants in charge of their wagons started walking over and my and Eira's groups gathered around them.

"What's going on?" One of the caravanners asked.

I shook my head. "Wait for everyone to gather, we need to decide what we're going to do next," I replied. I dismounted, and a short few minutes later, everyone was out of their wagons and standing around waiting to hear what was happening.

I pointed east toward the city. "Traehall is under attack. I didn't get a great look because of the distance we're at, but there's a lot of fire surrounding the town. I... used ritual magic to see further into the distance. I couldn't see what it was clearly, but something was piled up against the city walls outside the gates."

"Bodies? As in people?" One of the caravanners that I hadn't talked with much asked.

"I don't know. It could be monsters or... demons," I replied.

There were lots of murmurs coming from the merchants now. One of them stepped forward. "Why do you think they might be demons?"

"Most of my friends were near a demon dungeon outside of Traehall when there was a dungeon break. Most of us are demon hunters now, and we've heard lots of rumors that there are more demons in the area. I think the chances of enough demons to pile against the city walls is pretty high," I said with a grim look.

There was more arguing and a third merchant stepped up. "You think they're demons piled at the gates? Not people? There might still be people alive in there?" The cat beastkin asked.

I scratched my horn. "I didn't get a good look. But if they were piled up outside the gates, that implies to me that the city is trying to hold the demons back."

"I'm going. My cousins are in that city," Tenna declared.

I looked around. "We signed on to be your guards, but I want to go help. We're about halfway between Traehall and the last fort now. Either we all go forward together, or we can send Eira's group back with you to the fort and then back to Norta. They are strong enough to protect you from the monsters on the way."

"You said you were demon hunters? Truly?" the lead caravanner asked.

I nodded. "Four of us are, but everyone in my group has fought demons before."

Some of the merchants took a few steps away to discuss things while we waited. I had thought they would take longer to decide, but they came back relatively quickly.

"All of us will go. I have family in Traehall too," the lead caravanner said.

"Besides, provisions pay better in times of war!" someone called from the back.

"Someone should ride back to Norta and warn them!" someone else called out.

I grinned. Not all of their motives were noble, but I could work with that.

"Alright then, we need to hurry if we're going to make it in time to help." I turned and patted Nikka on the side. "You ready to go save some lives, girl?"

Nikka chuffed before nuzzling her big head against me.

I climbed onto my uuna [Carousel] mount, summoned four more mounts for my friends, and cracked my neck. "Let's go see what we can do for Traehall."