Chapter 20 – Whistling

After my frustration lessened somewhat and Levia quickly extracted some materials including mana stone from the Beisvart, which was after all a valuable high silver monster, we continued onwards to the gate. There weren't many monsters on the way, since the Beisvart massacred most of them, so we walked unimpended with only a few stray goblins interrupting us and not living to tell the tale. Instead there was a shitload of corpses, body parts, innards, rubble and blood everywhere, which wasn't swaying me particularly, probably thanks to being a Demon, but it was still quite uncomfortable to look at and walk among.

And, well, we walk up to the gate, not past it, because we have a farewell party waiting for us there.

Now we're standing before the gate side by side with a group of hunters with Geru in the forefront. They are blocking our way for whatever reason, but, needless to say, if we wanted to go out they wouldn't stop us. They are too weak. The reason we stopped though is simple. We'd rather not kill them.

As we approach we are looked at with surprisingly large amount of hostility. Geru is either restraining himself or has nothing against us, but some of the guys behind him, particularly a group of hunters I recognize as the same one I met in Aver's Crossing as well as some guy I don't remember look at me with stares that can only be called murderous.

I tap my foot, watching them with raised eyebrows and unconcealed displeasure. "What's this about?"

Some people from the back start making a ruckus, but Geru quickly shuts them up. "Silence! I'll be speaking with her." He shouts, turning to them, then looks back at me with furrowed eyebrows. "I was told that you have caused the fire and monster attack in Aver's Crossing."

Excuse me, what?

I look at him incredoulusly and glance at Levia who wears similarly dumbfounded expression. "Excuse me, what?"

His gaze hardens and he starts explaining. "When you arrived in Aver's Crossing, it was attacked by monsters and destroyed-."

"And I have to stop you here." I interrupt him sharply. "When I arrived in Aver's Crossing, it was being attacked and already half-destroyed. All I did there was killing a few tens of monsters and an idiot who wanted to kill me."

He pauses for a while, but then continues speaking without a care as to what I said. "Now, you arrived in Riverside and the next day there is a monster attack. Additionally, this attack was directed by goblin shamans, and it was planned, but goblins wouldn't dare attack the town alone."

"And what?" Levia asks, visibly annoyed. "She convinced the guards not to alert the town when the monsters were approaching? Or she communicated with goblins that have hundreds of tribal languages around Beholder's Eye? Do you yourself believe what you're saying?"

"I only want to find the culprit, and Helia here is the most suspicious." He replies unfazed, narrowing his eyes.

"If we're talking about suspicious people." I ask with a roll of my eyes. "Maybe you tell me what are you all doing here instead of fighting the monsters on the eastern side?"

"And you?" He asks, making me sigh.

"In case you haven't noticed, we cleared this whole street and did probably much more than your whole bunch altogether." I say sarcastically, crossing my arms with raised eyebrows.

I wonder about the Beisvart though. If anything, I have no idea how they arrived here without encountering it, but I don't mention it for now.

Geru scrunches his eyebrows and takes a deep breath. "No matter. I'm here to stop you."

I blink in surprise, but then step forward, narrowing my eyes with a grin. "Let me make on thing clear. Is this a fight, or is this a spar? If it's a fight, I won't be pulling my blows particularly."

He visibly hesitates for split second, but then resolution appears in his eyes and he also takes a step forward. "A fight."

"I see, so you've resolved yourself from the beginning." I comment.

Well, there go verbal arguments. Time to resort to nonverbal it seems.

"I'll take care of it." I say quietly to Levia, who nods in response, then turn back to Geru. "Don't say later that I didn't warn."

I don't even will my gaunlets to manifest in my hands because I don't see them necessary in this fight. My magic sight tells me that Geru is significantly weaker than the Beisvart I just killed.

He stays silent, instead shifts into battle stance and rushes forward with his arms wide. Fists as his weapon then.

He is fast, I can't deny it, but not nearly fast enough. The ten meters that are between us shrink rapidly as he steps heavily on the ground. If I were to say how fast he is, he would probably be almost as fast as the Beisvart, merely much smaller.

The moment he comes into my range I quickly swing my fist straight into his that is coming for my face, surprising him.

After that fight with Beisvart I noticed that my bloodline ability that allowed me to control my momentum and forces better has started disappearing at some point. That, combined with the empty frame after the one skill allowing me to coat my body with flames, can lead to two conclusions. One, the system is fucked up and isn't working properly. But, as this is very unlikely, the only solution that remains is that it disappeared because I learned to do what it did myself.

And one thing worth noting is that I have Energy affinity.

As our fists collide I will the flame filling me to stand firm and to push back. I don't release it. At the same time I will my fist to have stable, powerful, unchangable momentum. Simple enough, and yet couldn't be more effective.

Geru's arm folds on itself, completely overpowered and unable to push forward, and my fist continues on its path, barely fazed by his attack, straight into his head. His eyes open wide as saucers for a split moment before my fist arrives. His face visibly caves in under the impact, his body twists, his neck almost snaps as the head is thrown backwards, and he falls violently onto the ground. His head, with crushed, bloody nose, whips into the stones on the street and he loses consciousness without a single word.

Silence reigns among the hunters for a long while and I glare at them, making some of them start visibly shaking in fear or nervousness. I guess it is something pretty intimidating to beat one of the strongest hunters in town with pure strength, which just happens to be his forte, in a single hit. Not to mention I'm almost two feet shorter than the guy and, not counting my wings, at most half his weight.

"Anyone else?" I ask.

Silence.

"Then get the fuck out of here." I growl in a low, throaty, resounding voice that comes out of my mouth after I put some demonic energy in my throat on a whim.

The effect is almost immediate. A single person turns tail and runs away, and after a moment of hesitation they all start scrambling to the sides, making a path in the middle and uncorking the gate, now revealed open with its wings... intact. Duh, what? Shouldn't it be broken or something? At least the bar should be broken, but it's whole. Well, no matter.

I turn back to Levia and look at her with a grin, showing her a victory sign. "Refreshing." I comment, making her giggle, and she quickly catches up to me, having backed away a bit before the fight, if it can even be called as such with how fast it ended.

"So? What are we doing now?" I ask, still abiding by what I said earlier.

She thinks for a while, glancing back to the town. "Do you want to go back and kill other monsters?" She turns to me with raised eyebrows and faint smile dancing on her lips.

I narrow my eyes at her. "If you're asking if I want to fight with them, then I can pass." She raises her eyebrows in half-artificial disbelief, so I explain further. "I don't hear any stronger monsters from there, and the sounds of the battle already mostly died out. I think that guy exaggerated the number of silver monsters."

"You can hear them this well?" She asks with raised eyebrows.

"Not normally. I am focusing my demonic energy in my ears. It makes them much more sensitive and it's easier to make out each sound."

"Oh. Um, how are you doing it? I can't control mine well. To be honest, I was making only swords because my ability allowed me just that." She asks with a frown, making me look at her with momentary surprise.

Oh, right. She didn't get Shiva's advice, did she?

"Um." I stammer a bit, unsure how to explain it. "You need to... focus on your energy, feel it properly, and find what it needs to obey you. Actually not obey you, but how to make it do what it wants, because my energy doesn't obey me exactly. I can't exlplain it properly, but in my case I need to give it clear purpose, and it works much better if I specify the goal I want to achieve, but it refuses to obey orders for example. I have no idea how it will be in your case though. It's like understanding your own energy and how to make it do what you want."

I explain and see Levia's face morphing through puzzled and confused, then a look of realization to an intensely thinking, frowning expression.

"Don't concern yourself with it for now." I say with a smile. She's cute. "You'll have time. What do you want to do now?"

She shakes her head and refocuses on me. "Right. You said that they are managing to kill the monsters?"

"More than that. They majority of them is dead already judging from the fact I hear almost only humans now." I shake my head ligthly. "If we went there, all we would be able to kill would be some strays."

"Oh, okay." Levia frowns lightly and shrugs after a while. "I don't really want to clean up there. Let's go to Tavensville and then to Black Harbor. We should warn the authorities there, because I don't think anyone has warned them already."

"Sure." I nod. "Let's go then."

We jog out of town briskly onto a gravel road, a steep, grassy slope on one side and large forest on another. We travel in silence till the town is out of sight around half an hour later and I glance at Levia's thoughtful face. If I had to guess, I would say she's trying to make her energy listen to her.

"Say, would you mind if I tried flying here?" I ask and she raises her head in interest. "I realized something a while back and I should be able to. If I succeed, I might even be able to take us both much faster."

"Sure!" She nods enthusiastically. "I have an ability that allows me to move faster, so I could use that."

"Okay~." I skip ahead not to fly into Levia by accident.

Along with my realization about Energy affinity I also realized that I should be able to fly easily with some input from it. Considering I managed to conserve my altitude without its conscious use, I don't think I will have any trouble with flying if I make sure I use it properly.

Technically there is also the cool option of enlarging my wings with demonic energy, and I think it would work, but I'd rather not rely on that.

I stretch my wings to the sides and start running, feeling the pressure on my wings increasing. I reach the limit of my speed a few seconds later and jump up, beating my wings strongly and feeling the pressure on them increasing greatly. I rise high, at least ten feet into the air, and push some more energy into my wings, willing them to lift me higher and to push the air stronger, and start beating them quickly against the huge strain from the air pressure to gain more speed and altitude.

I feel the weight of my body coming from quick acceleration and surprise myself greatly when I realize I'm rising upwards, and much more quickly than I expected. Within barely seconds I am well over ten meters above the ground and flying much faster than before with wind whistling in my ears. I stop beating my wings and stretch my wings as wide as I can, and I actually start gliding with my body tilted by around twenty degrees to the ground.

I look downwards in surprise, and just... Holy shit.

That's...! That's fucking awesome!

I grin silly with a burst of happiness and excitement rising in my chest as I take in the feelings, the wind pressing on my wings and whistling near my ears, the weight in my stomach coming from being in the air without a foothold and it's just fantastic.

I'm passing the trees at what should be at least twenty meters per second and the ground below me would have been a blur if I still had human eyes.

I try to turn my head to look at Levia and make the mistake of turning my whole torso while still keeping my wings in the same position. Before I realize what's happening, the pressure on my wings shifts abruptly and the sky starts spinning, and I realize I'm falling judging by the hole I feel appearing in my stomach, just like when you start to freefall.

I don't panic though, instead I calmly fold my wings close to my body and plunge downward, spreading my arms and legs wide to stabilize my posture.

At this point I realize I'm around ten meters from the ground.

At five above ground my body steadies somewhat.

And at two I flare my wings abruptly and beat them as strong as I can with a fantastic booming sound and angle them upwards, shooting straight up into the sky and rising above the trees within no more than two seconds.

I shout with excitement, spreading my arms and legs with a wide, ecstatic smile and look at Levia who is already hundreds of meters away and seems to be waiting for me. I beat once again and fold my wings, continuing to rise only on my momentum. I fly up to around fifty meters above the ground and at this point gravity gets the better of me and I start falling. I tilt forward, positioning myself head first, and ten meters above the ground spread my wings a bit and sharply turn forward, starting to glide.

I end up as planned at just two meters above the ground and start beating my wings quickly to gain more speed, the ground below me starting to become a bit blurry even with my better eyes. Levia's figure quickly becomes bigger and bigger in my eyes and I tilt sideways, turning my path slightly to the right and passing just a few meters from her.

I turn on my back sharply and fly upwards to look at her and see her eyes following me as she has wide smile on her face and hair ruffled by the wind from me passing.

"It's fantastic!" I shout, turning backwards and starting to fall freely.

I spin in the air and fold my wings, starting to dive, and just before hitting the grassy slope I flare my wings and start gliding along it with increasing speed. I feel the excitement as I pass just a meter above the green grass that shifts into jagged stones and suddely the ground below me disappears and I see the sky.

From downside.

The shining line of magic and the huge swarm of islands painted on the dark sky above the jagged stone cliffs and walls with white mists flowing in between stretching hundreds of kilometers till I can't see any details even with my improved eyes. Past one detail.

There is a fucking eye here.

Deep blue with vertical slit, deep and somehow beautiful and fucking huge. I can't tell from this distance, but that's got to be at least fifty kilometers in diameter. Not to mention the half-transparent tentacles that stretch at least twice that distance. They are made out of mana, right?

Is it possible that this thing produces mana? Well, no matter. Not like I'll be able to do anything about it anyway.

Apart from that, there is one more thing. A faint, orange streak of energy flowing lazily upwards from the huge glowing ring. Or at least that's what I assume, because it fades away a few thousand kilometers down and I can't see it further. That makes me realize two things.

First is that I see what keeps the islands in place. I don't know what kind of energy it is, but it's very likely it has something to do with mana and it comes from the ring in the sky.

And second, how absurdly huge the amount of energy must be in that ring. If the amount of energy high enough to keep a fucking continent in the sky becomes too thin to see after a few thousand kilometers, then how much energy is in that ring for it to be so bright and vibrant from hundreds of thousands kilometers away? It's like a fusion reactor, where the heat emitted by the ring of plasma, being just a fraction of the energy inside, is what powers things while the ring itself stays unchanging.

I shake out from my surprise and chase the thoughts away for later, then stretch my wings a bit and quickly turn around a hundred and eighty degrees, the view before me rotating along me. I start beating my wings to gain altitude and sharply rise upwards to island, seeing the stone slope again. I continue till I am on the same height as the road, then turn around and make a barrel roll that leaves me on Levia's height.

I stretch my wings wide, steadying my flight and starting to glide. I approach where Levia is from the side, this time much slower and bleeding speed slowly. When I'm around fifty meters from her I tilt my body back and start flapping my wings to lose speed.

And, as it is with landings, the first one can have only one result. I realize a bit too late that I should pull myself upwards more and don't have time to adjust before my feet crash into the ground while my speed is still that of a quickly running human. I manage to preserve the rest of my dignity as I jump upwards and do an impromptu sommersault, losing most of my speed and landing crouching with support of my arm, but I still leave huge gashes in the ground and dirty myself a fair bit, especially my hand.

"Damn." I say, standing upwards and dusting myself off, then look at Levia with a grin as I fold my wings and let them rest comfortably.

"Fantastic." She says with a bright smile. "If I didn't know, I would never think it could be your first flight. How do you fly so well?" She asks curiously.

"Hm." I walk closer to her. "Depends what you're asking about. I used my Energy affinity to manage my momentum and forces driving my flight better. If not for that, I wouldn't even be able to fly up properly, or at least not so quickly. But you're asking about how naturally I fly, right?"

"Yep, exactly." She nods.

I stay silent for a while. "I'm not sure. It just feels natural to me, as if I have been doing it in the past." I reply with a frown, stretching my wing before me and trailing my finger on the smooth skin. "It's hard to describe, but I feel like I've been doing all this for a long time."

"Oh." She stares at me with a thoughtful look. "Um, I think... Um, sorry for bringing this up, but I think it might have to do with you being trans. Like, your mind thinks that's the base for a female and tries to adapt as quickly as it can."

Oh. That's... interesting. But nope.

"No. And don't worry about it." I answer and look to the side. "There's something more to it, I just don't know what." I glance at her. "My dysphoria was different from normal."

"Huh? How so?" She asks with a concerned frown.

"It's not just about man and woman, boy and girl." I say seriously, turning to her and looking straight into her eyes. "It's about human and Demon."

She blinks a few times, confused. "What's the difference?"

"When I logged out, I wasn't missing just the female body." I say, biting my lips lightly. "Wings, tail, horns, feet, all that as well. I think it might have hit me even harder. I don't feel only like a girl, Levia, but like a Demoness. I'm not sure what that fully means, but I think that's not just being trans."

She stays silent for a long while, furrowing her eyebrows and thinking about something intensely.

"Well, no matter." I sigh. "Let's leave that for later." I walk up and circle around her, hugging her with my hands on her waist, eliciting a small squeak of surprise from her that makes me grin, and I say with my mouth next to her ear, blowing air on it. "Do you want a ride?"