Last chance.
The golden characters hung in the air, impatient.
Perched at the boundary where white met green, Leion drew his legs in closer.
Day two was over.
With it, the end of this trip was nearing. He might not know exactly when, but he could feel it. Soon, very soon, Leion would be left who knows where by himself. Knowing this, the choice should’ve been simple. Be abandoned again in some strange place or leave to forge a new path by choice.
The answer was easy.
So why was he hesitating?
Staring at the words before him, he recalled yesterday. When the words had first appeared before him, he thought them a familiar bug. Little fireflies floating around with their striking bioluminescence. After the light shifted form into readable Manmanic, you could believe he was somewhat surprised, if not startled.
The message they carried at the time was simple.
Help?
Leion had stared at the words for a long time.
The silence giving rise to one singular thought.
Wasn’t this too convenient…?
As much as he enjoyed easy things, he wasn’t a complete fool. This sudden appearance of this was suspicious at best. In a time when he was in great need, a handy solution just fell out of the sky? Yeah, unlikely. The saying ‘there’s no such thing as a free dinner’ came to mind. Even in his last life, Leion was aware of such. It was why in part he always did the bare minimum.
Without a doubt, there were strings tied to this ‘Help’.
And that’s not mentioning the other big consideration adding to the suspicion. Who on Earth was even offering this help?! It goes without saying, but to trust a complete stranger was something tantamount to suicide! There was a reason parents often warned their kids from talking to strangers. And no, it wasn’t because they were friendly. Heck, in this case, it wasn’t even a person but floating words.
Trust.
The words shimmered once and then changed as if sensing his rejection.
Leion had stared at them in quiet disbelief.
Was that supposed to convince him? Sure, he might be in a difficult spot, but he would figure out something eventually. He always did anyway.
At least that was what he thought.
With that he left the edge and went back to sleep.
Back to today.
At present, the words had come, but this time they were much more assertive.
Last chance.
As if to confirm what he silently knew.
This trip was coming to an end soon. And, so far, he hadn’t figured out a method to escape undetected. Instead, he wasted an entire day getting carried away learning magic. Chucking snowballs at unsuspecting fish on their way to spawn.
‘Damn it…’
Looking down at his hands, Leion recalled the feeling of mana travelling through his body. Truthfully, despite wasting time, he couldn’t really regret the decision. Unlike before, it felt more in his control, though noticeably weaker. It was quite the intoxicating feeling commanding powers beyond comprehension.
‘Yea… I didn’t waste time….’
Thinking about it logically, having these powers would make life so much easier. The original goal for acquiring them was this exact purpose. Considering the fact that Leion would now be by himself, it made sense to learn the most basic things. Given his knowledge of Manmanic, learning the basic movements of magic would allow him to piece the rest of the spells later on… probably.
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In conclusion, this wasn’t a waste of time.
“Ha…” (L)
A soft sigh escaped from Leion’s lips.
His drifting gaze refocused on the floating characters.
Distracting himself with the magic topic while letting his thoughts spiral wasn’t going to help him with his most current problem.
‘What can I even really do…?’
Putting magic aside, the issue of how to escape still remained. The main problem lay in the fact Leion’s movements were so closely monitored. Throughout the day, he never left his “Master’s” sightline, and when night came, snow would be laid. The very same snow that served as some form of detected radar.
It was impossible.
‘Hehe, maybe this is a sign?
Dryly laughing at himself internally, Leion hid his face with his hands.
The decision was already made.
Sign or not, they were going to abandon him.
It would be better for him to leave… even if it meant risking it with those strange characters.
Getting up from his perch on the snow, Leion walked to the centre of the snow pile.
If he was going to leave, it was only polite to say goodbye, no?
Sleeping at the centre of the snow pile were two figures. One a towering beast, another a tiny nun. Walking over to the beast, Leion sat down by its head. Frankly, he wasn’t sure how awake she was, but for now it was best not to touch her.
‘I guess you’ll need to find some other sucker to sweep your floors, huh?’
Leion silently chuckled.
At last, he would be finally free to nap the whole day in order to explore his sweet dream paradise.
‘A true free man once again!’
At the declaration, Leion felt his spirits rise dramatically. They continued to soar for a little while until time ate away at the enthusiasm deep in them.
The quiet of the night was oddly loud.
Leion stared at the noiseless beast.
Silently, he recounted their time together. From their first meeting to their exploration of the mountains. From all the small moments to all the big events. The memories float round in his head till his mind grew weary. It was now official. The time they spent together was over.
Done, Leion got up.
There was no reason to act so sentimental.
He wasn’t an actual child.
Parting was merely a part of life.
The time they spent together, while a little enjoyable, was not substantial.
It didn’t mean much.
‘…Bye’
Scooting closer, he hesitated before lowering his head and placing a small parting memento.
Shortly after, he got up and dashed away.
The beast deserved a taste of its own medicine, if only a little.
Arriving at the edge of the snow, Leion was relieved to see the floating characters still in place.
They held an air of impatience.
Leion tilted his head.
‘Uh…. What am I supposed to do?’
The characters before him shimmered and shifted with what one could interpret as anger.
HELP?!
He quickly nodded in agreement while whispering out the faintest yes possible.
The characters broke down into lights once again before coalescing together and… abruptly shooting at Leion. A pathetic attempt to dodge was made and failed. The ball of light struck him, but contrary to expectations, nothing happened. Nothing bad, at least.
A thin layer of light had formed around Leion’s body.
RUN!
The remainder of the light yet to join formed one character, and, albeit smaller than before, the sense of urgency was twice as high.
Leion wavered at the urging.
It was clear that he was being instructed to step out of the snow, but…. Was this really enough to get by the detection? It certainly didn’t feel like it. Not to mention there was no clear direction after stepping off. Was he supposed to just wander off in a random direction? He was yet to decide upon what route would be–
A flash of dim light caught Leion’s attention.
‘W-What… when did they…?’
A trail of light had appeared, leading deeper into the forest. Dim and tiny, they appeared to be on the verge of blinking out of existence.
RUN!?!
The characters in front of Leion barked once again.
He didn’t know why they were in such a rush, but nevertheless, time was not in their hands.
‘D-Damn it!’
Throwing caution away at this crucial moment felt dumb, but in the end, Leion did it.
He stepped out of the snow.
The goal was to get as far away from them as possible. Given he couldn’t come up with a plan of his own, throwing away the only chance he had to accomplish this over vague ‘caution’ was foolhardy.
Without ever looking back, he ran.
He ran forward into the forest.
Leion stood at the river’s edge, the roar of the current pounding his ears like war drums. Cool mist rose from the churning water, light soaking his clothes and causing them to cling to his body. This was the river Leion had encountered earlier in the day, but at the same time, it wasn’t.
The river was fast, dangerously so.
The sound of running water, the smell of damp earth, and the taste of fresh sweetness in the air were all familiar yet carried none of their former charm. Was this perhaps why the fish seemed so determined to move? Gazing at the shore revealed a sickening number of broken bodies.
The trail ended here.
An obvious clue on what was to happen.
Leion was supposed to jump.
‘Hell no!!’
This wasn’t some action film. There was no way he would survive something like that! As much as he wanted to separate, there was no way it should come at the cost of his life. He wanted to part from them, not life! Meeting the Giant too soon wouldn’t be good for him in any shape or form.
‘Yeah… this is crazy….’
He had been right to trust his gut instincts.
Strangers rarely came with good intentions.
‘But to think they would lead me off a cliff…’
That's what he gets for trusting a bunch of randomly floating words.
‘Maybe I was wrong?’
Turning around, Leion thought a little deeper than before. There was no way the trip was in just two days, right? Even for his ‘Master’ such a notion was completely ridiculous. Surely, they couldn’t be moving that fast. He must be mistaken somewhere.
With each step Leon took back, the more the notion of what he was about to do seemed absurd.
'I—I need to cool off a little—'
As soon as the thought hit, Leion felt something go wrong.
His foot, it was slipping.
Suddenly, he was gazing up at the night sky.
A final thought struck him as tonnes of water crashed into his body.
‘Landslide!’