Re:START/If {Book 1.0}
Chapter 64: Aswad 11 of 15 “Glaub mir” (Part 07)
Late night. At a time when the day would change, a quiet atmosphere filled the campground's final transit point before reaching Luke's residence. Almost everyone had already slept inside the tent, except for a few soldiers who had their turn to guard until the last third of the night.
The bonfire was still burning for warmth and light, some of the soldiers standing guard around it broke the branches into smaller pieces before throwing them into the flames. They did not look sleepy at all, only looked bored because there was nothing to do but to keep watch.
In the wagon where Odo was, the two elite soldiers on guard were already sleeping to relieve fatigue and only one was still awake. They slept sitting on the ground, leaning against rocks and tree trunks as if they were accustomed to such sleeping conditions.
Although both eyes are tightly closed and sleep until snoring, their subconscious still looks alert. From the position of the hand holding the sword in the deck, Odo knew this .
Looking at the soldier who was still awake and standing looking at his comrades near the campfire, Odo narrowed his eyes and felt that there was no longer any need in the group.
“Being here will only cause problems. But ..., if I come back, I will run. Looks like the King and Father have also decided something. Now that my magic structure has not recovered, Transformation Magic also cannot be used,” the young man's mind. He leaned against the wagon barrier, sighed and put on a tired expression.
Odo momentarily closed his eyes, wanting to activate Perception Speculation but could not because access was denied from within. Returning to open his eyes and turning his gaze into the wagon, he fretfully muttered, “Sucks …. This must have been Mahia, she closed her access.”
Having no other alternative to be able to blur smoothly and solve the problem quickly, Odo lay on the floor of the wagon and closed his eyes for a moment. Without Perception Speculation, he does calculations manually and estimates what can be done and what choices will lead him to the right answer.
“You how else, I think I should use that way ...”
Odo immediately sat down, staring at the elite soldiers who were still awake and standing facing the campfire in the middle of the camp. Sighing deeply and regulating breathing to a minimum, the young man used Aitisal Almaelumat to manipulate the Mana compaction chain that bound his two hands and turned it into a liquid without destroying it.
The chain melted to the floor and Odo's hands were free. When it falls to the surface of the cart, the chain quickly hardens again and the shape returns to how it was. In that way, Dart will not realize that he broke away because the chain also serves a kind of detection device when destroyed.
Taking the dagger from the storage dimension in the glove, the young man put it into his mouth and bit the dagger. Taking the green glass ball like a bulb from the storage dimension, the young man absorbed his magic structure in order to temporarily use magic.
The glass ball broke and shattered into ashes completely, falling onto the wooden floor without making a sound. Activating the magic with his right hand, the collection of Runes started to float around Odo's wrist and made a sound magic array on a minimal scale but the consumption of Mana was very effective.
The rune that circled Odo's right wrist began to focus on his palm, then formed a faint ball of light from the collection of runes. Taking the dagger from his mouth and holding it with his left hand, he smashed the bunch of runes towards the dagger and made it a medium so that magic could continue to be active for a longer period of time.
It was a magic to make the sound it emitted would be instantly erased and obliterated by the invisible imperceptible space ⸻ Created by the magic structure on the dagger. Jumping down from the wagon and landing on the ground, sound did not come out of Odo at all due to the thin impermeable space that enveloped the surface of his body.
Without wasting any time and before the soldiers on guard turned their heads towards the wagon, Odo immediately ran into the forest and left the party. It was a perfect escape and should have given her a few tens of minutes to get away from the camp.
But running for less than two minutes in the oak forest until the magic effect had just disappeared, a blue-haired woman was waiting for her among the trees. Odo's footsteps stopped, then turned around and made sure that only the woman caught him.
That woman is Princess Arteria. Black cocktail dress that shows himself in mourning, embroidered purple iris flowers that blend with a dress and a dark blue cloth belt. Turning towards Odo, her hair fluttered beautifully under the starlight.
He put on a thin smile with a pale face, stared with the look of his eyes flat and began to step foot wearing long leather boots to the knees.
A little different from the appearance earlier this morning, Princess Arteria wore a thin cloth robe to protect her fragile body from the cold. The color is also combined with the dress worn.
Odo was confused as to why the woman could be there. But seeing the low-level spirits that were vaguely left behind on Arteria's clothes, the young man immediately knew that the ones watching him were not just Darts.
Thinking of the reason back, Odo still found it impossible for Princess Arteria to move faster than him in the forest. In other words, the woman had indeed been waiting in that place.
“Are you also a Mediator? Ah, true also …. The people of Felixia call it Oracle ..”
Getting the question, Princess Arteria opened her eyes that had lost the light and looked straight at Odo Luke's soul. He was at first glance astonished because within a few hours the Soul form of the young man had changed, into something with a completely different feature than before.
“Actually who are you? Why is the shape of your soul so uncertain like that?”
Even getting answers in the form of questions, the face of Odo immediately turned flat and felt no obligation to serve the Princess Arteria. Ignoring and considering himself not to meet the woman, Odo immediately walked away to avoid her.
Odo's footsteps came to a halt just before entering the bush and disappearing into the darkness. Turning to face the woman, in an annoyed tone he asked, “What do you want? What do you want to know from me ...”
“How about name?” Arteria smiled widely as Odo was willing to talk to her for a moment. While putting on a happy smile, the woman walked over and asked again, “I don't know who you really are. I am Arteria Vi Felixia, if you?”
“Huh?” Odo chuckled softly in an expression fed up of hearing those words. It made Arteria's footsteps stop, putting on a confused expression as if she could see Odo visually normally. “For what I introduced myself to an accomplished liar like you …. You're not Arteria, are you?” said Odo while opening his palm forward and preparing magic to attack.
Not seeing any signs of the female's magic activation, Odo undoes the intention to attack and instead points straight at her while asking, “Arteria is asleep inside that body, ‘kan? Am I wrong, O one of the Immovable Goddesses?”
“What ... did you say? The goddess? I am not a Goddess …. Are you flattering?”
Seeing no significant change in expression on the face of the woman's blue hair, Odo was at first glance hesitant about his own conclusion because he was now unable to use Perception Speculation. In the night where the wind was blowing lightly between the trees, the young man momentarily stopped his breath and completely stared flatly without hesitation.
“Here there is no one, just confess. If you keep insisting like that, I won't answer your sense of urgency, O City Concept embodiment.”
Gaining the words with a completely unshakable expression, the blue haired woman let out a light sigh and clapped her hands. He stared flat and showed that he could actually see Odo visually. In a faint smile he said, “As Lileian said, you are indeed the Black Element. No loss myself willingly go from City to the outskirts like this ..”.
“Lileian?” Odo lowered his hand, briefly looked away and pretended to just remember, “Ah, the Witch of the Pando Forest, huh? Means from the beginning you already knew who I was?”
When Odo confirmed it, at a glance his forehead shriveled while hiding anxiety. The fact that the Soul Contract could allow a Goddess to squeeze into the body of the contact maker slightly disturbed Odo's sensitive zone.
“Hmm, sure ...” Putting my right hand to the front of my chest, the blue haired woman said, “However, unfortunately I can only come to the surface when this child is asleep or his consciousness is weakened.”
“You don't share consciousness?” asked Odo while staring intently.
“Shared, but only one way …. Arteria can't know what I'm doing, but I know what Arteria's doing.” Straight staring at Odo, the blue-haired woman again walked over and said, “Take myself as her supervisor.”
“So how do you get away from him? How do I get you off him?”
“Surprising.” The woman's footsteps stopped about two meters from Odo's place. While staring at the wonder he was dubious, “I thought you were a very cold person, it turns out you can also be angry like that.”
Murka faintly looks on the face of Odo. The current state of Arteria was one of those things that the young man disliked, sharing the body with another consciousness. Looking at the blue-haired woman before him, Odo seemed to see himself sharing a body with some consciousness.
“Tch!” Odo rang his tongue. Not expressing this, the young man instead said, “Of course I am angry, the woman you took over is my future fiancee. Although I am this kind of person, I appreciate such things ...”
“What a surprise, don't tell me you've fallen in love with this girl?” seduce the woman with a thin smile.
“Mana may.” Odo's wrath grew clearer, to the point that his forehead furrowed tightly and his eyebrows almost fused to the center. Taking a breath and calming down, he tried to be cool and replied, “I just don't like it when someone else intervenes in my relationship later. It sucks, reminds me of another troublesome problem.”
“I don't know what pisses you off. But unfortunately ..., I can no longer be separated from this girl.”
Odo momentarily fell silent, rethinking the workings of the Soul Contract Magic used to establish connections with astral beings. “Why? That's some kind of Invocation, ‘kan? It should be able to be easily released as long as the connection is severed or you willingly take it off,” said the young man in a pressing tone.
“If I disconnect the connection, this girl will only stay dead.” The woman put on a grim expression, braided her fingers and lowered her face. In a soft voice he said, “You know, O Black Element. When the Soul Contact was made .., the girl named Arteria was dead. Those adults are so stupid, they don't even care about the risk. They should understand that a child's body will not be able to withstand the Power of Contact and become a gathering place for the Great Spirits ..”.
A fleeting dark emotion rose to the surface quickly, Odo's two eyes glared sharply and filled with anger. But in a matter of seconds, all of it was instantly muted and buried back in the mind. Sighing deeply, the young man thought carefully about what Arteria was going through as well as her present condition.
“Do you defend his life with the Power of Contract? You took care of his soul and tied him to that body?”
The blue-haired woman nodded, stopping her fingers. Staring straight at Odo Luke, he sadly said, “That's true …. I connected this girl's life with the contract, so it was impossible for me to leave. Now the condition becomes a kind of Spirit, an astral being attached to this body with me. This body is just a corpse for a mere container …. Are you angry?”