The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (57 page)

Somehow, he still managed
to jump out of the way as the spell flew past him. But, he seemed to
get the message that I knew he was there, and grumbled as he began
running back in the direction he came from.
It
might have been their equivalent of a diplomat maybe. But coming at
night with two weapons, prepared for battle? I can’t risk it.

When I went back to work,
thinking that I had time to create a barrier spell now, another
message I had been expecting for a while appeared.

I should wait to test
the Walking Vision until I have someone watching my body, right? But,
I can use Perfect Vision now.
Thinking such,
I canceled the spell and quickly reactivated it by pouring additional
mana into the spell, taking advantage of my skills to simulate the
effect of the chant. It cost more mana to cast, but right now that
didn’t matter as much as staying quiet.

When the spell
reactivated, I could indeed see everything around me all at once. I
saw Denise sleeping in the shack behind me, the diagram I had drawn
in front of me, and even a few more of the tribal soldiers off in the
distance. It appeared that the range of my Scan increased, as well as
the additional benefits. The people I spotted weren’t close
enough to be an issue, nor were they moving in this direction.

Taking a bit of time, I
searched through my vision to look for a few things. My biggest
concern so far had been the complete lack of creatures. Not including
the tribesmen, we hadn’t seen a single creature since we
arrived here. In a forest this big, we should have seen something by
now.

But now that I was
looking, I still couldn’t find anything. There were fox dens,
some burrows dug in the ground, or even hollowed sections of trees.
But no foxes, moles, or owls living in them. There weren’t even
any bones or blood that I could make out.

My first thought was a
subterranean monster that was eating everything whole, but there was
nothing underground, either. Not even the bones of long-dead animals.
Okay, this is getting to be too weird. I think
I saw a movie about this once, and it did not end well.

The only thing that I
could make out with my vision was the forest itself. Aside from the
tribesmen, the forest was the only thing that had any life in it. Not
only that, but it was overflowing with life. I considered that maybe
these were Mana Trees, but they didn’t share the coloring of
the ones we saw in Grazel.

“
Midnight…
you still awake?” I didn’t glance back at the horse, but
my sight focused in on him.

Of course I am. Did you
expect me to sleep in this forest?

“
Right… I
know what you said earlier… but I want to send you back.”

...Why? What’s
wrong?
Suddenly his head was raised in alarm,
looking in my direction.

“
This forest…
Something here got rid of every single animal without leaving the
slightest trace. There are no birds, insects, or even bones in the
ground. If it only targets animals..”

Then it will come for
me… those savages!
Midnight let out a
neigh as he declared his suspect.

“
It’s
possible. For now, will you let me send you back to Hell? I think
Denise and I would both feel better with you out of danger.”

...Very well. I agree
to this in protest, though. There’s definitely something wrong
in these woods.

I nodded, agreeing, and
went to my pack in the shack to grab a paper, on which I wrote a
simple note explaining the situation.

‘
Lilith

Something is wrong
in this island, and it has no animal life in it. Since there seems to
be a tribe of people, I do not believe Denise and myself are in
immediate danger. However, I am sending Midnight back to you with
this note. Please take care of him. And, when you can’t hear me
in the daytime, it might be best to have Levy monitor our situation.
I’m not sure what will await us, but I want to try handling it
on our own before we call for backup. Also, I really hope you can
read the human language. I kind of got this far before even stopping
to think of that.

Jin’

With the letter written, I
went to Midnight and placed it into his saddle. “Alright, I’ll
open you a gate here, and send you straight into the throne room.
Lilith will recognize you, and she’s probably listening anyways
so she should understand the situation. If not, she can read the note
I gave you.”

Midnight nodded to me, so
I turned around and pointed towards the trees, retrieving my grimoire
from my bracelet and accessing the spell I needed. “I am he who
holds the favor of the underworld. Rise now before me, and open your
gate.” There was a cracking of stone that could be heard as am
obsidian gate rose from the ground. Alerted by the noise, Denise was
instantly on her feet with her bow out.

“
What’s going
on?” She asked, immediately seeing the gate I called up.

“
Something’s
wrong here. Midnight is going back to Hell for now. This place is
especially dangerous for him.”

Denise looked to me
curiously. “What do you mean?”

“
There’s
nothing here. Not a single living creature, aside from those
tribesmen. I used my detection spell to find abandoned dens for
animals, but even beneath the ground, there are no insects. There’s
not even a single bone, above or below the soil.”

“
But the
tribesmen..”

“
Right… I
think whatever this is, targets mostly animals. That’s why it
is more dangerous for Midnight.”

She nodded, gripping her
bow firmly. “I understand. It would be terrible if something
happened to him.”

“
Agreed.” I
willed the gate to open, and let Midnight walk through. Briefly I
heard another thought in my head, but I knew it couldn’t have
been from the horse.

Mom said you should be
careful.
It seemed like Levy had another
trick up her sleeves, and the connection was stronger when I opened a
gate.

I will. Keep an eye on
me, okay? I’m not really that confident this time.

I was going to even if
you didn’t ask.

Lilith doesn’t
know you can do this, does she?
I smirked a
bit at the thought, and couldn’t help but chuckle when I got
Levy’s reply.

Does she need to?
I could swear that it was the tone of a rebellious teenager wanting
to keep a secret, though it seemed like she might have told if I
asked her to.

Not for now. Don’t
slack off on your training, you hear? I want to know as much as you
do what you will become.

Yeah, yeah. You aren’t
my father.
As the gate closed behind
Midnight, I thought I heard a laugh at the end of her message. She
doesn’t even have a father, does she? Kroa said that demons
were made by other demons crystallizing their essence. That should
mean she only has her mother, Lilith. Maybe she inherited her
mother’s sense of humor? Now
that
was a dangerous thought.

With Midnight taken care
of, I felt like I could relax a bit. Of course, Denise did not share
my opinion, and insisted on taking watch while I went to rest for the
night.

Chapter
27

That night I went to sleep
thinking it would be nice if things weren’t so mysterious. In
the morning, I woke up wishing the world was more subtle.

“
Jin! Look out!”
I heard Denise’s voice rousing me from sleep. “Dammit,
demon sword, hellfire slash!” Her shouting had gotten me to
wake up enough to look, and I saw a sea of black and red flame
soaring over my head. But.. that wasn’t really what had my
attention the most. What
really
had me concerned was what that flame was burning.

For some reason, the roof
that I had constructed for the shack had been crawling towards me
like a mass of snakes. “What the hell!?” I quickly rolled
out of the shack, only to find that the trees seemed to be different
than they had been before. They weren’t attacking or anything,
but it felt like there were less around us.

When we set up camp, we
chose this location because the trees were so densely packed around
the circle. Now, it just looked like another part of an open forest.
It was then that I remembered something.
Shit…
I built two roofs.

Quickly turning around, I
saw that, indeed the branches and vines I had used to make a roof for
Midnight had begun moving as well, slowly crawling towards us.
“Dammit, I spend all that time trying to come up with spells
against people, I don’t have spells to use against plants!”

I raised my hand,
materializing a scimitar like Denise’s normal one. “Hellfire
Aura!” My body was quickly wrapped in the black and red flames
of Hell, but more importantly the flames came strongest from the
sword that was made of my mana. “How did that go, again?”

Pulling back my sword, I
channeled magic into the edge of the blade. “Hellfire slash!”
When I swung the sword, I expanded he aura outwards from it, shooting
a part of the aura out in a wave at the approaching plants. The
clinging flames quickly devoured the roots and vines, leaving a black
scorched path along the ground.

“
We’re
fighting the plants now?” Denise backed up until she was just
outside my aura, with her back to me. “We’re fighting
plants, in the middle of a fucking jungle?”

“
Yeah, I know. This
is not what I had in mind either.” Though, it seemed like none
of the trees around us were moving anymore. So, maybe it was only
certain trees? “Think you can cover me for a quick bit?”

“
What do you have in
mind?”

“
I want to see just
what our friendly neighbors do at times like this.” I smirked
to Denise, and she laughed, readying her black sword.

“
Alright, I can buy
you a bit of time if they advance again.”

“
Good.” I sat
down on the ground, dismissing the scimitar. Though, I kept my aura
active. I’ll be damned if I’m going to make it easy for
them. “In my eyes, all things are as one. Walking Vision.”
I opened my eyes, and nothing changed. I experienced the normal green
tint to my vision, but aside from that it was like normal.

Damn, did it not work?
I went to stand up, and found myself flying into the air instead. No,
I wasn’t flying.. I could still feel myself sitting on the
ground. Suddenly, my vision stopped rising, and I tried to slowly
look down. Indeed, I saw myself, sitting while wrapped in an aura of
hellfire. Standing behind me, Denise was glancing in various
directions to watch for approaching plantlife.

Can’t waste time,
need to get a good view.
My vision began
rising faster and faster, until I could see every corner of the
island. I could make out the moving treetops and identify that there
were a great many trees that seemed to come alive. Likewise, several
kilometers from us, there was a collection of stone buildings built
on the beach. Trees near these buildings in the forest were shifting,
as if leaning back and forth to wait for a chance to attack.

Okay, so lesson one,
wood bad, stone good. The three little pigs would have a field day
with this. And they didn’t move until daybreak, so they need
the sun to function. But damn, there’s no way to be sure that
other trees aren’t also affected, and just hiding it.
I
turned my vision towards the mountain, and was surprised to find that
there weren’t any camps along it.

The trees kept a fair
distance from the base of the mountain, yet none of the island’s
inhabitants took advantage of that? Could it be because they wouldn’t
have access to water and food without going through the forest? But
why did the trees avoid it… The answers to my questions only
raised more questions.

Taking one last look down,
I saw that a pair of trees were moving in the direction of the camp
Denise and I had set up. “Incoming, two from the south. About..
two hundred meters.” Seeing as I could still feel the ground, I
figured I could still talk.

“
Got it.”
Denise turned in that direction, and I suddenly became all too aware
of a very crucial fact. Roots began sprouting out of the ground,
tearing up the dirt as they sprang at us. “Dammit!” Her
sword was wrapped in hellfire as she slashed the roots. “Get
back here! We need to move!”

I didn’t take the
time to complain, instead canceling the spell and instantly getting
flung back into my own body.
I should have
realized about the roots! Nothing in the ground!