Chapter 298: The Edge Of The Wind

This was weird, Valera decided as she raced across the edge of the strange wind that the Little Guardian had summoned, dropping seeds from her pouches all the while. It pushed against her, urging her to move - to accelerate faster and faster, until time itself fell behind her in her haste. Valera didn’t know where those thoughts came from. It was as if the wind itself was seeping through her pores, changing her even as it empowered her. It would have been a little nerve-wracking if she didn’t know the source, and if she hadn’t already tested it to make sure that it was temporary.

It was. A single step outside of the hastening wind made those urges instantly go away, even as Valera slowed in comparison to everything remaining within it.

Weird, Valera thought again, watching the world move in slow-motion on the other side of the invisible barrier.

With her speed-based mana-enhancement, Valera already sometimes felt as if the world moved in slow motion. Now, though, under the effects of the Little Guardian’s wind…

It seemed to stop entirely.

She sprinted, mana winding its way through Valera’s muscles in a way that she couldn’t truly articulate, empowering them far beyond any mundane human - and, in fact, far beyond most monsters. That was before the Little Guardian’s wind came into play. With it, she knew that she must have been little more than a blur of motion to anything outside of the tiny snake’s domain.

Meanwhile, to anyone within, she was merely as fast as she always was.

That was the weird part, Valera decided. It didn’t feel like she was moving any faster than normal. The world didn’t pass her by any quicker than it usually did. It took just as much time to move from one location to another. It was only here, at the wind’s edge, that she could even tell that something was happening.

Everything was just so slow.

If Valera hadn’t been at the wind’s curtain, she wouldn’t have even been able to tell that something was happening.

But she was faster, somehow.

It didn’t take much to confirm that; a single step to the side would send her through the curtain’s edge, where she could look back at the place she’d come from. Valera did it again, just to marvel at the change.

She stepped through the curtain.

Nothing changed. There was no lurch of deceleration to herald her departure from the Little Guardian’s domain. Valera wouldn’t have even known she’d left if it weren’t for the niggling urge to keep moving disappearing - and the plantlife that had begun growing from the seeds that she’d dropped suddenly accelerating.

Vines that had languidly shifted about suddenly moved with surprising haste; spores that had danced in the air twisted about in startling fury; roots that had slowly stretched their bounds began to crack against stone more sharply than before.

Valera, marvelling at the change, slowed to pick a piece of stone from the ground. She turned, tossing at the curtain of wind that she’d stepped through - and watched the stone suddenly accelerate to ludicrous speeds as soon as it passed the invisible barrier, moving at least five times faster than the pace it had before.

Yet, when it made impact, it didn’t hit any harder than her original throw called for. Because the stone didn’t go any faster within its own perspective. To the stone, its speed had never even changed at all - even if, to Valera’s eyes, it seemed like it had.

It was weird.

Valera stepped back through the curtain, still marvelling at what the Little Guardian had done. It seemed like every time Valera thought she was used to the powers that the cute little snake had hidden within its scales, he would bring out something new.

She wasn’t the only one astounded by it; the former downtrodden of Erandur, particularly, treated the Little Guardian and his miracles with an almost worshipful reverence.

Then again, that made sense. The diminutive snake had pulled them from starvation and poverty. He had gifted them food and shelter. He had given them safety and health. For many of them, he had even created a path towards a new sort of mana-enhancement that Valera had never seen nor heard of before. And unlike what most humans would do, he’d asked for nothing in return - though it wasn’t as if he could.

It was no wonder they all but worshiped the little guy.

She shook her head, using the physical motion to turn her attention back towards her task. Valera burst into motion again, running the length of the wind’s boundary - and all the while, Valera left new seeds to sprout in her wake.

Behind her, the Groveways expanded with a speed like never before. Despite that, the most important seeds Valera possessed still remained within one of the pouches at her side, waiting for their moment to bloom in full.

It wouldn’t be long, though.

Valera, noticing that the others were finally catching up and reaching the edge of the wind’s domain, turned around and began to sprint back to their position. She noted with approval that all of the seeds she’d dropped in her path had already sprouted, accelerating through their normal lifecycle and beginning to drop seeds of their own.

It wasn’t going to make the difference, but she figured any new plant would be helpful.

Not for the first time, Valera missed the comfortable weight of the Little Guardian on her shoulder. Unfortunately, a brief test had proven that the tiny snake wasn’t able to move without the wind travelling with him. If Valera had carried him with her, then the acceleration of the wind would have moved closer to the approaching Virtun warriors and their powerful transportation artifact. Even still, it wouldn’t be much longer before the Virtun delegation reached the edge of the wind and passed through, and it all became moot; the advantage of time would be lost, unless the Little Guardian reeled the wind back in again.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Valera came to a halt at the edge of the wind, waiting as the warped sounds of the transportation artifact continued to press against her ears. They were long and near-unending, forced into an uncomfortable booming drone by the acceleration effect that Valera was under, each boom lasting far longer than it naturally should. Still, Valera supposed that it was a good thing. If it weren’t for that sound, she would have been much more nervous about how much time they had remaining.

With it, she knew that it wasn’t too late. Not yet. They were still making progress on things, even if that progress seemed small in the face of what was coming. The Groveways were expanding, filling out into the areas that had remained untouched until now.

Valera wasn’t the only one spreading seeds.

Elara arrived first, the girl more eager to prepare for the Virtun delegation’s arrival than anyone else. It was no wonder, with how a different delegation from Virtun had been responsible for the collapse of her original home. The Nature Core and its creations might have been the ones to destroy it, but it had been Virtun that set the events in motion.

The girl all but vibrated within her black-hued armor; the only motionless part of her body was the still-crippled hand that resisted even the Little Guardian’s attempts to heal it.

Valera offered the younger woman what she hoped was a comforting smile.

“Nervous?” she asked.

Elara snorted, the sound harsh enough to not sound humored at all. “I’ve been nervous since we first heard that Virtun would be coming. That was weeks ago. This is just more of the same, I guess.”

“...fair.” Valera hesitated. “You know, if it’s too hard…”

“No,” Elara interrupted. “I need to be a part of this.”

Valera didn’t argue. She knew enough of Elara’s story - of what she’d lost, and what she’d been forced to experience, to also know that it wouldn’t help. Valera had only spent a short time in the ruins of Verdant Grove, and even that had left a mark on her. Elara, on the other hand, had been part of those ruins.

Trapped within her own mind, her body controlled by the spores that had overtaken the city. Spores created by the Core that Virtun’s sabotage had set free.

“I keep thinking…” Elara said quietly. “If they’d just stayed away. If they’d just left us alone. None of this would have happened. Not at home, and not here.”

A droning boom echoed out across the cavern, as if to punctuate the remark.

Elara straightened, and the vibrating stopped - Valera recognized the signs of the girl’s mana-enhancement, that unnatural transformation that happened every time she used it to take full control over every aspect of her body. Valera wanted to say something, to reach out and hug the girl that was burying her own feelings in mana, but there wasn’t any time. That could come later.

It would have to. Behind Elara, the others had arrived.

It wasn’t just the members of Valera’s original party. They were there - Erik, Doran, and Kala - but they weren’t alone. The reforged, as they were calling themselves, ran behind them; the people of Erandur who had taken what the Little Guardian offered and somehow managed to make it more, etching healing mana into their very flesh through a frankly nauseating and brutal process.

If anything, they’d become even more indebted to the Little Guardian in the midst of that reforging - and now, with the tiny snake growing able to alter time itself with gusts of wind, the feeling of loyalty that ensued was seemingly only growing stronger.

There was little need to go over what they were all there to do, nor was there very much time to spend discussing it. With every second - or every five seconds or so, Valera supposed - the warriors of Virtun and their transportation artifact travelled deeper into Erandur. Already, the Little Guardian had fed them an image of the transport toppling one of the treehome towers - and, truthfully, they had even heard it. Even as far away as it had been, it was difficult not to notice the echoing boom of a tree large enough to form a tower splintering until it toppled to the ground.

Valera could only hope that anyone trapped inside had been kept alive by their [Little Guardian’s Totem]s. Beyond that, there wasn’t anything she could do but avenge their loss.

Still, if anything could light a righteous fire among the people of Erandur that the Little Guardian had saved, it was that. It hadn’t been long since they’d been gifted with the treehome towers, a replacement for the shoddy and ramshackle towers that they’d lived in before, but they were home to them now.

Now, their homes were in danger of being destroyed. It was being destroyed - because, like the treehome towers themselves, the Groveways had become a part of their homes as well.

It didn’t matter that the Virtun delegation likely - initially, anyway - had no idea what they were doing. The screams of the people within should have let them know that they were ploughing through someone’s home with every moment they advanced. Already, Virtun was primed to be an enemy as part of the agreement Valera and the other members of her party had made with the people of Erandur.

This simply made the final decision to fight against them even easier.

It was just a shame that they wouldn’t be able to do so yet. As helpful as the Little Guardian’s wind was, extending a single second into five, that still wasn’t enough time to prepare for the coming fight. The enemy was too strong, and too fast - and, soon, they would breach the edge of the wind and the advantage would be lost entirely.

Around Valera, the group gathered to watch as that very thing occurred. It was the sort of timing that Valera had come to expect with the Little Guardian around; as if the little snake had known just when the transportation artifact would come bursting through the outer ring of the more established Groveways that surrounded Erandur, meeting with the new growth that was only just beginning.

It was a monster, one made of metal and ingenuity rather than flesh and blood.

The transportation artifact was shaped into something resembling a metal centipede, fashioned in segments that glowed brilliantly with the light of mana, with too many legs to count propelling it along. The thing twisted as it moved, shifting in a way that felt viscerally uncomfortable to watch.

What was even more uncomfortable was how large it was. How unstoppable it seemed.

Valera understood why, even with the Little Guardian’s wind, even with the Groveways that ringed Erandur, and even with the surprisingly powerful mana-enhancements that the reforged had gained for themselves, there wasn’t any reason to attempt fighting it now. They would lose. Especially if the warriors inside were as strong as Valera expected.

Beside her, the edge of the wind retreated. It pulled back, moving away from both Valera and the metal centipede that threatened to penetrate it - back towards the tiny snake that served as its source.

Meanwhile, the mana-infused transport continued onwards, heading straight towards the White Towers at the center of Erandur that served as its destination, clearing a path through the plantlife all the while.

Valera and the others followed carefully, helping to close that path back up again. Even more, she knew, civilians who couldn’t risk coming so close to the unstable warriors of Virtun and their metal transport, were doing the same in other parts of the cavern. The Groveways were disappearing.

They were merging to become one, with a single target at their center.

The White Towers - or, more accurately, the Virtun delegation that would soon be camped alongside it.

It wasn't time to bring the fight to the warriors of Virtun. Not yet. They weren’t ready. But, soon enough, they would be.