Chapter 4: RE:First Contact(1) Start of Bella side chapters(1)
Talk - " "
Think - [ ]
System - ( )
Author thought - [[ ]]
Action - * *
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As Alex flew, his gaze remained fixed downward for the majority of his journey. Below, he observed a desolate landscape, characterized by lifeless trees, barren hills, and mountains shrouded in mist that obscured the lower half of the tree line.
As he journeyed, Alex attempted to utilize both the mounted machine gun and the rockets at his disposal. However, he only managed to operate the mounted machine gun effectively. With each shot fired, he felt a negligible depletion of mana, which was swiftly replenished almost instantaneously, resulting in minimal sensation of mana expenditure.
After soaring at full speed for approximately 20 minutes, equivalent to about 18 mph, Alex finally detected movement within the dense fog. Initiating a course toward the source of activity, he soon realized that there were multiple entities in motion. Hovering above the obscured figures, Alex maintained a high altitude as he tracked their movements. Unbeknownst to him, several other entities within the fog were also trailing the same target he was pursuing.
[[Correct me if I got the speed wrong]]
??? POV
[WHY? WHY? Why do they destroy everything? Why do they take everything away from us?] My brother was holding onto my hand after my big brother said that he would try to make time for us. I started to cry as I knew that he was never coming back, like with mother and father.
"Shh. Stay quiet." My brother quickly told me to stop crying as we could still hear the humans following us. There were at least 17 other people who were also running with us, most of them were children and women. My brother and the rest of the members would have been trying to use magic, but our plant magic doesn't work in areas with no life, even if we can use magic. We need to save our mana as dark magic and miasma can corrupt our bodies.
As my brother looked back to see if the humans are close, he yelled "FIREBALL INCOMING." Once he said that he jumped to the right, pulling me with him, but the man that was in front of us was too late to dodge as the fireball quickly engulfed the man, catching some of the people that were near that man to catch on fire.
My brother dropped me as the explosion knocked both of us to the side and as I looked at the humans that were attacking us, I felt that it was over me, and my brother. More and more fireballs, even wind blades were conjured by the humans, they killed at least 10 others before they got close enough to use their weapons.
"BELLA MOVE." I just froze seeing my clansmen dying right in front of me, burning from fire, getting cut in half, my brother yelled something at me but I couldn't understand what he just said as I felt my head was going to explode. I just felt so powerless seeing all of this happen. Today was supposed to be my birthday, a happy day, but it turned into the complete opposite.
I looked for my brother's voice and saw his face filled with horror, he jumped at me while keeping a handout. Before I fully realized what he was trying to do, he pushed me to the side as a sword slashed at the same spot. I was able to dodge the strike, unhurt, but I couldn't say the same for my brother.
His arm was fully cut off, making blood spray on the ground and on my face. I felt my stomach turn after seeing that, I wanted to move to help stop the blood but my body wouldn't respond to me, I tried to move a finger, blink, anything but nothing happened, I felt trapped in my own body.
"Your one little cutie, this must be your brother. How sad that he lost an arm, I wonder how he will react once I start playing with you in front of him. HAHAHAHAHA." I suddenly felt someone grab my hair tightly, they yank me off the ground. I soon started to feel the human breathing down my neck, I felt something sharp on my back, going up and down, cutting the back part of my clothes.
My brother tried to get up and tried to use his magic but another human came and slashed his other arm off. My brother yelled out in pain and quickly paled as he was losing too much blood. "NOO please leave her be." My brother yelled out, even in so much pain and losing consciousness he still tried to get up on his feet. "brother" I whispered out those final words to my brother before an arrow pierced his head, I saw his body slumped down on the floor.
"no no no NO NO NO, BROTHER." I yelled out to him, sobbing, hoping all of this wasn't real, that this was all just a dream, no a nightmare. I prayed, and prayed, and prayed to our goddess, trying to see if I could wake myself up from this nightmare. But the man that was holding me by the hair slapped me on the face, and that is when I realized that all of this was not a nightmare, reality hit me hard, I WAS AWAKE.
"SHUT UP ALREADY. Stop crying. Once I'm done with you, you will forget about your family. The only thing that will be on your mind is pleasuring me. HAHA." I gave up when he said that, no one else was alive but me and the humans that hunted us. The fire was blazing all around, and dead bodies that litter the floor started to catch on fire. I felt smoke going into my lungs, the humans had some kind of mask covering their mouths and noses. From what I saw, there were at least 20 other humans.
"You can play with her once we are back at the base, We went too far tracking these elves. We should be near one of the elven main borders, they will definitely see the fire and smoke that is --." A human who appears to be the captain of the hunting group wasn't able to finish his sentence as loud noises appeared out of nowhere.
I saw the captain try to say something but his body just fell backward, blood was pouring out of his back and some started to seep through the clothes he was wearing. "EVERYONE GET TOGETHER. THE ELVES ARE SOMEWHERE IN THE TREES." One of the humans was able to get his bearings and told everyone to get into a circle.
The rest of the humans followed the new captain's order and got into position, covering each other's backs. Seeing that everyone was on guard, the new captain grabbed me by the arm and put a dagger to my throat, making a bit of blood come out of my neck due to the pressure.
"COME OUT YOU BASTARDS, I WILL FUCKIN SLICE HER NECK IF YOU DON'T COME OUT." The captain yelled at the trees thinking that there were elves surrounding them. It was just silent, except for the crackling of the fire that was burning down the surrounding trees and dead bodies.
Seeing that there was no reply, I felt the man holding me, start to pull back his arm, causing me to feel the cold blade cutting into my throat. As I thought I was about to die, my life flashed through my mind. I saw my family, my brothers, my father, my mother, my home, friends, all flashing through my head. But I realize one final thing. [I DON'T WANT TO DIE.]
I tried to stop the blade from moving by grabbing the man's hand, but his grip weakened. I heard the same loud noise as earlier, going off again but it did not stop. I covered my ears and went on my knees as too much noise was being made which was overloading my sensitive ears. I heard shouting, heavy thuds, and the noise that stood out the most, the noise that allowed me to live.
'tatatatatatatata'
[[How do even write the noise?]]
After what appeared to be several minutes, all the noise stopped except for the fire that was still crackling all around me. I looked up and saw that most of the humans were dead but some were near death. I got back on my feet and looked closer at the humans that were dead.
At first, I thought that the men died by arrows but when I look closer at the wounds on the humans. It didn't appear to be arrows that caused the men to die, but I saw a glint in the corner of my eye. It appeared to be some kind of metal rock. I tried to pick it up but I looked up as I started to hear a buzzing noise coming closer to me.
I looked all around me, trying to find that buzzing noise that was coming closer, but I was not able to see what was making the noise.
The noise kept coming closer and closer to me but all of the smoke around me made my vision blurry. I tried to remember which way my brother was taking me but I could not remember. I started to walk in a random direction so that I could at least leave all of the smoke.
I tried to find some sort of sword or dagger that would at least allow me to defend myself. I was able to find a small dagger, I also found a cloak to cover my body as the clothes I was wearing were falling apart.
As I was about to keep moving forward, I froze as some kind of flying thing was right in front. I have never seen something like that before. My first thought seeing this thing was that it was blind as I couldn't see any eyes, but I felt it gazing at me.
I put the dagger in front of me, getting ready to defend myself. I tried to keep my body still but I could not stop shaking. I was really scared as I thought that this thing in front of me was the culprit for killing all of the men.
But the thing just stayed still, there was no movement coming from it other than the weird wings that it had. I started to slowly back away from it, still keeping my eye on the thing. As I was backing away, I heard a single word come into my head. [Follow].
I started to panic and looked around me as I thought that there was someone sneaking upon me. I found no one other than the flying thing that started to move away from me.
The thing turned to face me and I heard someone's voice in my head that said [Follow]. I quickly realized that the flying thing was talking to me. I started to think if I should trust it or if I should run away. As I was still thinking about my options, I noticed that I was starting to go limp, when I brought my hands up, I immediately knew that my mana reserve was empty.
I soon started to lose feeling in my hands, I started to cough up black goo, and I could feel my consciousness waning. I thought that I would be able to escape from this place, but I was wrong, I was soon taking my final smoke-filled breath near my dead brother. Everything turned black once I saw the flying thing go toward me.
[..... Am I dead? Where am I? Mother, Father, Are you here?] I had awoken in a place that was all white but I was standing on what appeared to be water. No matter what direction I looked, the only thing I saw was the water that went as far as I could see.
The weird thing was that I was not falling through the water. Each step I took caused ripples. When I tried to see how deep the water was, it seemed endless. I decided to touch the water to see if I could put my hands in it but I noticed that the liquid I was standing on was not water, It was all mana.
[What is your name?] A voice came out of nowhere surprising me, as no matter where I looked there was no one.
[What is your name?] The voice asked the same question again, the voice itself sounded like a man, it sounded calm and soft.
[What is your name?] The voice said the same thing again. "M-M-My name is Bella. W-Who are you and w-what do you want?" The voice stayed silent for a bit after I asked that question.
"You don't need to know what I am. But what I want? I want some questions answered and a small favor from you. Don't worry I will give you a little gift from me." The voice replied to my question but I was still on my guard for anything that would happen.
"What are your questions?" I decided to answer the voice question.
"What is the name of this world?" I was surprised by this question but I quickly came over it and replied back. "The world is called Zielyr."
The voice then asked for the name of the forest where I died in. "The name of the forest that I died in has many names but most call it The Dark Forest, Whispering Forest, or the Dead Forest."
"From the stories, I heard about the Whispering forest was that it used to be a very lively forest that was filled with animals, plants, and mana that was very pure. But hundreds of thousands of years ago, A massive three-way faction war happened. It was Humans vs Elves, Demi-Humans, Dwarf, and Dragons vs Demons. All three factions Gods and Goddess summoned other-worlders to fight in their name and armies. The reason for the war is unknown but the final battle that ended the entire war was this place."
"What caused the forest to die?" The voice asked me more about the story of this land.
"During the final moments of the battle, The demons were able to gather massive amounts of dark and demonic magic by sacrificing their enemies. Once they completed the sacrifices, they unleashed a massive spell that killed almost the entire forest and all living things in the spell radius." I stopped for a bit to see if the voice had any questions.
The voice just stayed silent so I started speaking again. "The spell the demons made would have been able to spread past the forest boundary but the gods and goddess used their divinity to stop the spell and to banish the demons and the demon gods and goddess. The gods and goddesses of the human and dragon fraction used most of their divinity to banish the demon to a separate realm. But after the war, our gods and goddesses started to weaken as their strengths came from their followers and once they started to weaken, the spell that kept the demon banished also started to weaken, allowing the weaker demons to occasionally come out."
"Stop, That's all I need to hear. For my final question, how do you use magic?" This perplexes me as almost everyone should already know how to use magic as mana is everywhere.
"It's really simple. From what my mother taught me. You use your will to make the mana inside your body to follow your command, but it's different for each person as it also depends on their talent and will. Once someone can at least manipulate mana to exit their body, they are called an apprentice mage and can cast low-level magic spells. Of course, some don't follow the path of becoming a mage, some become magic knights, magic blacksmiths, and other jobs that fit them."
"There is also a limit on what a person could cast, for example, if someone wants to shoot a fireball they need to have the mana for it and the affinity for it. Depending on a person's mana control, affinity strength, and mana pool, the spell strength could vary depending on these factors. Of course, people can use beast mana core, artifacts, or runes to cast spells with an affinity they don't have. To cast an actual spell, you need to have a clear image of the spell in your head to make the spell work."
"Thank you, Bell for your time. As I promised, I will give you a gift but you will need to figure out what the gift does. And don't worry, the gift won't cause any harm to you or those near you unless you will it." The voice sounded happy that its questions were answered, I also really wanted to know what my gift would be but I'm sure that he won't tell me.
Once he said he gave me a gift, I suddenly fell into the mana. I wanted to ask some more questions like what was the favor but it was already too late as I opened my eyes. I'm no longer in the dead forest.
"huuuu hu hu hu. Im alive? H-How?" I started to pinch myself to see that I was actually alive. I also noticed that I'm no longer in the dead forest, I'm on a bed wrapped in bandages.
What I did not notice was that there was an emblem on the back of my right hand that glowed black, then disappeared.
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