Riko slipped the water bottle into an inner pocket of her coat, the absurdity of the situation clearly weighing on her.
Kerina, who had been watching the exchange with a smirk, decided to push the joke further. "While you're at it," she said, gesturing to one of their supply sacks, "you could keep the raw meat we have for dinner cold. It'll spoil otherwise."
Riko turned her head slowly, her eyes opening just enough to deliver a glare of pure, icy disdain at Kerina.
"Do I look like a carrying chest for you to stuff things inside?" she asked, her voice dangerously flat.
The carriage rumbled on, the playful tension from Kerina's joke fading into a comfortable, monotonous silence.
The hours passed, the landscape outside the small window slowly shifting from the lush, green fields of the capital's heartlands to a more rugged, untamed wilderness.
Lila sat silently, clutching her pouch of gold, trying to make herself as small as possible in the cramped space. She watched the others. Riko was meditating, her breathing slow and even.
Kerina was meticulously maintaining her gear, her movements efficient and practiced. Hayato was just staring out the window, his expression as blank and unreadable as ever.
Finally, Kerina finished her work and looked over at the nervous, silent thief. "You're quiet, are you scared?"
Lila flinched, then shook her head a little too quickly. "No. I'm fine."
Kerina just sighed. "Look, what you did back in the city... that was a mess. But what Hayato said is true. On this mission, you're an asset, not a criminal. As long as you do your job and don't cause any trouble, you'll be treated as a member of this team. So relax."
Lila looked at her, then at Hayato, and then at the Riko. A team. It was the first time in her life anyone had ever called her that.
She gave a small, almost imperceptible nod and clutched her gold pouch a little less tightly.
The comfortable, monotonous rhythm of the carriage continued. Kerina was maintaining her gear, Riko was meditating, and Lila was watching the wilderness pass by with a new, quiet resolve.
I had my eyes closed, trying to process the variables of the mission ahead.
Then, a strange feeling.
It wasn't a sound or a vibration. It was a cold, sharp prickle on the back of my neck, a sudden, instinctual sense of wrongness. My eyes snapped open, and I sat up abruptly, my head whipping around as I tried to pinpoint the source of the feeling.
"What is it?" Kerina asked immediately, her hand dropping to the hilt of her sword as she saw the sudden change in my demeanor.
"I don't know," I said, my voice low. "I just... feel something."
As the words left my mouth, a brilliant, impossibly bright pillar of light shot down from the heavens, striking the earth somewhere far ahead of our convoy.
It wasn't a lightning strike; it was a clean, silent, vertical beam of pure, white energy that lit up the entire sky for a single, breathtaking instant before vanishing.
The brilliant, silent pillar of light caused the entire convoy to grind to a chaotic halt. Horses whinnied and reared in terror, their eyes wide with fear. The drivers fought to control their panicked animals, shouting curses and commands that were lost in the sudden uproar.
"EVERYONE, DO NOT PANIC!"
A powerful, magically amplified voice cut through the chaos, instantly calming the drivers and their horses. It was Ayaka, standing atop the lead carriage.
"That light was a divine signature!" she announced, her voice carrying to every member of the convoy. "That was the power of Gideon, the Paladin of Light! It's not an attack! He's trying to send a message!"
Doors creaked open all along the convoy as curious and worried adventurers peeked out, trying to see what was happening.
From the rear carriage, Hayato, Kerina, and the others saw Ayaka leap gracefully from her carriage and begin to run towards the spot where the light had touched down, her expression grim and determined.
Kerina, immediately opened the door to the rear carriage.
"Stay here," she ordered Riko and Lila, before jumping to the ground and striding purposefully towards Ayaka.
From the middle of the convoy, Lenna emerged from her own carriage, her expression one of calm, academic curiosity. She began walking towards the site as well, her long strides easily keeping pace with Kerina.
Hayato watched from the window as the three most powerful members of the expedition converged, all moving towards an unknown variable. This was where the decisions would be made. This was where he needed to be. Without a word, he opened the carriage door and followed them, leaving a confused Riko and a terrified Lila alone in the cramped, dark space.
By the time Hayato arrived, the three women were already standing in a tight, serious circle in the middle of a clearing where the grass was flattened and scorched in a perfect circle.
"So, what was the message?" Lenna asked.
Ayaka looked up from the ground, her expression a mixture of hope and deep, gnawing suspicion. "It was a warning. Gideon's light... it burned a message into the ground for me to read."
She pointed to the faint, glowing runes that were already starting to fade. "It says there will be an ambush on the right side of the trail, just after we pass through the Glacier's Teeth."
Kerina's hand immediately went to the hilt of her sword. "An ambush? Then the message was a good thing. He's helping us."
"But is he?" Ayaka countered, looking at them, her eyes filled with a desperate confusion. "Is he trying to help us? Or is this just a trap? How could he have broken free from the Jester's control?"
Just as Ayaka finished voicing her fears, the tense silence was broken by a loud, booming voice.
"Hey! What in the blazes was that light?!"
They all turned to see one of the adventurers from the carriage in front jogging towards them. It was the man Hayato had noticed earlier, the one with the powerful aura, but his usual cheerful smile was gone, replaced by a look of serious concern.
Kerina looked at the approaching adventurer, a spark of recognition in her eyes. "Talon," she called out, her voice sharp and to the point.
The man, Talon, stopped before them, his gaze sweeping over the scorched earth. "That was Gideon's holy light, wasn't it? Ms. Ayaka, I heard you shout. What's the message?"
"We have a situation," Kerina said, cutting straight to the point. She looked at him, her expression serious. "That power of yours... the one that lets you 'see' through your arrows. Can you shoot an arrow to the right side of the Glacier's Teeth and tell us what's there?"
Talon looked from Kerina to the distant, jagged peaks of the Glacier's Teeth, a serious expression replacing his usual grin.
"You need a scout arrow? To that distance?" He whistled. "That's pushing my limit, even for me."
"I will provide the necessary power," Lenna said, stepping forward.
Her ancient, silver-bound tome materialized in the air before her, its pages flipping rapidly until they stopped on a detailed illustration of a magnificent, longbow made of what looked like polished, overlapping steel plates.
Lenna placed a hand on the image, and a soft, golden light flowed from her palm into the book.
Talon, who had unslung his own simple wooden longbow, gasped as a shimmering, golden aura enveloped it, the wood groaning and creaking as it was magically reinforced and strengthened.
"Give me your arrow," Lenna commanded.
Talon wordlessly handed her one of his arrows. She ran a single, glowing finger along its shaft, and intricate runes of wind and speed appeared for a moment before sinking into the wood.
"Go on," Lenna said, her part in the ritual complete.
Talon took a deep breath, nocked the glowing arrow onto his now-empowered bow, and drew the string. "Alright," he said, his voice low and focused as he closed his eyes. "I'm ready."
Lenna placed her hands on the back of his shoulders. Her ancient tome floated before her, open to a page filled with complex runes of wind and motion.
Kerina, seeing the scale of the magic about to be unleashed, turned and yelled to the front of the convoy. "Everyone ahead, brace yourselves! There's going to be a lot of backdraft!"
Lenna began to chant. A powerful vortex of wind began to gather around her, swirling with golden light before flowing directly into Talon's empowered bow and the glowing arrow nocked upon it. The air crackled with immense power.
As she drew on her mana, however, something unexpected happened. Hayato, who was standing nearby, suddenly gasped, his hand flying to his chest. A aura, identical to Lenna's, flared to life around his body against his will. The mana vessel she had forcibly created inside him was acting as a conduit, a secondary power source, and his own newly acquired mana was being violently siphoned out of him and into her spell.
The system interface flashed in his vision, a blaring red warning he couldn't ignore.
[WARNING: Uncontrolled Mana Siphon Detected!]
[MP: 1500/1500]
[MP: 1250/1500]
[MP: 900/1500]
[WARNING: Rapid Mana Depletion in Progress!]
With the spell reaching its peak, a torrent of golden energy and swirling wind converged on the nocked arrow, making it shine like a miniature sun.
"Now!" Lenna commanded.
Talon released the bowstring.
WHOOSH-BOOM!
The sound was not the simple release of an arrow, but a deafening explosion of pure force. A sonic boom of wind and displaced air erupted backwards from the bow. The adventurers in the carriage directly in front of them, who had braced themselves as Kerina warned, were still not prepared for the sheer violence of the backdraft. The entire heavy carriage was lifted from the ground and thrown onto its side with a sickening crunch of splintering wood. The two horses attached to it screamed as they were toppled, their harnesses snapping as they crashed to the ground in a tangled heap.
Further ahead, a brilliant streak of golden light, the arrow, shot across the sky with impossible speed, disappearing towards the distant, jagged peaks of the Glacier's Teeth.
As the chaos erupted, Hayato collapsed to his knees, his body wracked with a sudden, debilitating weakness. The aura around him sputtered and died. His system interface flashed a final, critical warning.
[MP: 50/1500]
[STATUS: Critical Mana Depletion. Physical functions impaired.]
To Be Continued.