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Chapter 210: (4/12): Time Gap

Over the past few hours of nonstop fighting, many of the hunters had formed bonds outside of their own party and city. Despite their new bonds, they ultimately had to part, and just like that, over two hundred hunters scattered in all directions as they returned to their respective cities.

After reuniting with the token force that they left outside of the dungeon, everyone was startled to find out that nearly a month had passed in the time they were inside—three weeks. 

“Three weeks? That’s way too long!” Camilla said. “We were in there for…a day at most, maybe?”

“It’s not surprising considering there were multiple layers of time compression,” Kagriss pointed out. “The first layer is when we crossed that mana barrier before the three gates. The second layer is that long tunnel where all those golems came from, and there’s a third layer in that strange place we met the flugel in. A day or two could easily translate to weeks after going through so many layers.”

“The long tunnel…you mean…?”

“I’m not sure, but I believe so,” Kagriss said, nodding, confident of her answer. 

If what Kagriss theorized was true, then the rate at which the golems came made sense. It would be simple if a region outside of the time compression created golems and then brought them into a region within. In reality, the dungeon couldn’t produce golems all that fast; it simply seemed that way.

Camilla had yet to see or hear about a technique that could stretch out time instead, but if a mage could create a zone of stretched time, then their efficiency at everything would jump to immense heights. Any temporal magic had mind-boggling applications.

Fortunately or unfortunately, it seems that temporal magic was even rarer than spatial magic, which itself is one in several million at best.

“Still, three weeks…” Camilla muttered. It wasn’t that she could accept that so much time had passed. She simply didn’t want to accept it. “I wonder what’s changed?”

“We’ll have to get back to civilization to find out. When we return, will you take a break or begin gathering helpers immediately?” Kagriss asked. “With this mission, your reputation will spread far and wide among the hunters, and with Ismelda by your side, you’ll doubtlessly attract many willing to follow you as long as you pay enough.”

“Isn’t payment the problem? We’re not exactly wealthy.”

At that moment, Ismelda fell in step with them, full of curiosity. “What are you talking about? Money? I heard my name.”

“Just future plans,” Camilla replied. The contents of their conversation was no great secret, especially since they’ll be working with Ismelda in the future. “Now that we’ve completed our end of the bargain, I think, you’ll be coming with us all the way to human lands. Can you stand being away from Victoria for so long?” She took out the feather stone and waved it in front of her for effect.

Ismelda frowned, but she nodded. “It’ll just be a little while. For someone as long lived as us, a year or two is nothing. You should drop the thought process of short lived beings now that you’re a vampire lord.”

Although Camilla had planned on teasing Ismelda, she ended up being teased back about her ignorance. She was basically being called a bumpkin and she couldn’t even refute Ismelda’s words, since she really didn’t take into account the way that long lived races perceived time. No wonder Ismelda hadn’t been concerned about “wasting” three weeks, and neither was Kagriss.

“By the way, what’s this stone for?” Camilla asked. “You mentioned it being a key, and it did end up being useful for unlocking the seals, but I doubt that this is all Victoria is collecting this for.”

Ismelda pouted a little, making a small harrumph. Now that Camilla was taller than her, Ismelda looked a bit like a sulking child. Once again, Camilla celebrated her new height. 

Her worry that she’ll forever be small did not come to pass, and now she was of average height again. Still a far cry from her old height that was well above average, but this was acceptable.

“I keep telling you that I don’t know. I’m not lying,” Ismelda said. “Victoria always dodges the question, which is weird because normally if she doesn’t want to tell me things, she just refuses me outright. I won’t mind if she refuses, but why dance around it…” She ruffled her hair, frustrated. 

“It’s my first time seeing you complain about her.”

“Well… I guess…” Ismelda gave up protesting. “I’m just sad that she can’t be straight with me.”

As someone on the same boat as Ismelda, both being kept in the dark about most things, Camilla sympathized. But just because she knew how Ismelda felt didn’t mean she could do anything about it and her comforting was rather meaningless. Besides, more conversation would mean engaging with Ismelda, which Camilla did not want when she could feel Kagriss about to explode with something to say.

Kagriss had been struck with some epiphany and the reaction was so big that even Camilla felt it through their bond.

With Camilla not being a good conversation partner, Ismelda quickly got bored. After making sure that the stone was safe, Ismelda meandered off, heading elsewhere, leaving Camilla alone with Kagriss again.

As soon as Ismelda was out of easy earshot, Kagriss nudged Camilla. “Milla, Milla, you’re not going to believe this, but what if Victoria didn’t dance around the topic with Ismelda?”

“What?” Camilla wasn’t able to keep up. Did she blink and miss several parts of the conversation or was Kagriss moving too fast? She didn’t want to blame Kagriss but… “Please slow now?”

“Okay, okay. Wait,” Kagriss said as she visibly ramped down. “Do you remember the sculptures in the dungeon?”

“We were just there like an hour ago.”

“I know, but what did Beitra tell everyone not to do?”

“Look at the sculptures? That was really weird,” Camilla said. She licked her lips before taking the bottom lip into her mouth and bit it lightly as she tried to figure out what Kagriss was getting at. “He told us to not look because he had headaches seeing it. But why?”

Seeing her get closer to “Right? Why were we unaffected by the sculptures but everyone else affected? Even Ismelda couldn’t look at it head on. What was on the sculptures?”

“…Flugels? Oh…” 

Part of Camilla was ashamed that it took her this long to understand, but once enough of the puzzle was completed for her, the other pieces fell in place naturally. 

However, Kagriss wasn’t going to give her the chance to steal the conclusion—not when she held it in for so long. 

“Ask anyone what they saw on the sculpture and they’ll be too busy complaining about the headache to complain. When we touched the door, we were the only ones to be taken to that place. Who else even knows about the flugels?” Kagriss asked. “No one except us.”

Although Camilla knew where Kagriss was going, the scale of such a magic was bizarre. It was even more bizarre than the temporal and spatial magic they’ve already experienced. A magic that directly affected the mind and actively prevented knowledge of something…

“I still think it’s a bit of a stretch, but that’d explain why Victoria gathered two feather stones by herself and sent us for this one. Somehow, she knew that we wouldn’t be affected, or rather that I wouldn’t be affected by that magic,” Camilla muttered. “This is a rabbit hole that goes deeper than I thought. I thought that this mission might be the end of it, but perhaps not…”

“Either way, I hope Victoria explains everything when we get back.”

Camilla nodded. Victoria owed them that much at least.

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Thunder boomed in the sky, rolling over them. Sometimes it seemed far away, the sound hitting them seconds after they saw the bright flash of lightning, and other times, the sound was almost deafening and the lightning almost blinding.

After each strike, darkness swiftly returns as if filling the void left by the heavenly bolts.

Sometimes, the trees on the side of the road explode as the water within them boils into steam and blast the wood apart, but Fleur was already used to it by now. The little skip in her heart when hear the crack of wood splintering was nothing compared to the pounding she felt when running away from the hellhounds, as they’ve taken to calling the undead chimeras that hunted them, since most of the chimeras had some canine elements weaved into their shape.

Thankfully, the number of chimeras seemed to have dropped as they neared the border.

“Why do we have to travel in this kind of weather?” Fleur muttered. “It’s all good to be stealthy and travel under the cover of darkness, but it won’t do us much good to be sick. It’s so gross to be moving around in wet clothes too.”

“Just bear with it for a while longer. We’re almost at the next town. Look.”

Anne pointed at the meager lights spilling out of the windows. It was in the middle of the night, but although no one was going to come out in this weather, they still got out of bed to chat and move around.

“What’s the point of being stealthy if we’re literally just going to march into a town?” Fleur asked. “Yeah, I know, I know, so we don’t get seen by too many people, but it’s been so long since we last saw a wanted sign of us. Are they even still looking?”

“We can only assume that the undead and the Church are one and the same. As long as hellhounds keep finding us, there’s always a chance that the Church is still hunting us,” Justin replied.

Fleur sighed. Justin was being paranoid. That was the difference between discovering something and being told a discovery. Personally discovering a secret always made the secret so much more personal, and now Justin could not even separate the concepts of the Church and the undead.

She had tried countless times with Anne to convince him that the overlap was not as extreme as he thought, but nothing worked when he asked for proof. They had no proof, but he didn’t either, so they were at an impasse. 

Since they weren’t getting anywhere and Justin was the oldest and most experienced one among them, they went along with what he suggested. She had to admit that it was safer his way, but the extremes to which he took caution irked her. 

Moving under the cover of rain in the middle of winter crossed the line.

She still hadn’t forgotten the last time Anne came down with a fever after walking in the rain, and that was only a week ago. Now, they were doing this again. She gritted her teeth and pulled her cloak closer, hoping that it does not get completely waterlogged by the time they do reach the village.

Lights were always further than they seemed.

After a few more steps, she fell back and kept pace with Anne. She touched Anne’s forehead and found it burning again, although she couldn’t be sure if it was just because her hands were cold, or if Anne was running a fever.

Anne brushed away her hand and glared at her. “You’re getting water on my face.”

“Oh, I’m sorry…”

“I keep telling you that I’m fine. I won’t get sick so easily after I was just sick. Thanks to worry though,” Anne said, and then leaned over and kissed Fleur on the cheek. Just when Fleur was feeling happy about it, she felt a huge patch of wetness smudge over her face. Anne had wiped her face on Fleur’s face.

Fleur’s mouth opened. “I can’t believe you just did that!”

“Heh. Consider it payback.”

“But I didn’t do it on purpose…” Fleur said, pouting.

Anne laughed and nudged her. “Then… Do you want to get me back again?”

Fleur sobered as the implications of Anne’s suggestions dawned on her. “…was that your plan the whole time?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

With someone to talk to, even the rain wasn’t as bad anymore. Being wet wasn’t miserable either. 

“Justin, what are we still lacking?”

Without needing to consult a note or even take the time to recall the information, Justin rattled off a list that started with “supplies” and ended up with more “supplies.” Different kinds of supplies, but when it came to surviving winter while traveling increasingly further south, having supplies at hand was vital.

Preserved foods as backup rations was especially important because none of them were especially good hunters even after months of living as vagrants. 

“And lastly, we need information about our pursuers. As usual,” Justin finished.

The village ahead was not far off. Thankfully, from experience, such settlements rarely refused visitors even so late in the night.