Chapter 246: Two Strangers on the Path
Warden blinked and looked away. He stood up, cleaning the drool from his lips. "It might sound a little foolish, but I feel like I should know you..."
The girl took a step forward and examined him thoroughly. "No, it isn\'t foolish at all," she said, turning back to look at the vortex of wind drifting away. "Most people I meet seem to feel the same... I have that kind of effect on them."
Warden rubbed his chin, inspecting her just to be sure his mind wasn\'t playing a trick on him. She was young and had innocent-looking eyes; she had shoulder-length, bone-white hair, which brimmed vibrantly in the sunlight. Her skin was pale white, stood as tall as Agnes in height, though looked to be half a decade younger than the captain.
Her face was heart-shaped, with a golden ring mark between her brows, which looked to be a mark of the sun. A white sleeveless robe draped over her slender form, matching her white hair.
Now, why did he think that he should know her? His brain wasn\'t providing any hints either. Was she someone from his past? But that simply couldn\'t be true. While there was a chance of the people inside the trial being real, it was likely they were merely records of them, and that too of ancient times.
Pierce\'s trial took him into the court politics of an ancient kingdom which had no records in the history of Ezim. It was likely over tens of thousands of years ago, before there was a huge chunk of rift that divided the land of Ezim.
This girl was likely a record of a girl who lived tens of thousands of years ago. Which meant the inheritance ground should be likely that old as well. Well, considering the superior time dilation system they imply, Warden didn\'t think any organisation of the current time could match that.
As Warden was staring blankly at her, the white-haired girl turned her head to him.
"I get it," she said with a sigh. "You don\'t meet someone of the opposite gender as gorgeous as me, but you aren\'t going to win anything by acting like that."
"Good thing, I\'m not trying to win you then," Warden snorted as he jumped out of the crater. "Sorry, but you\'re too young for me."
She really looked no older than a fifteen-year-old teenager, no matter how impressive she was. Warden had no strange fetish of any sort that he would succumb to it.
"You have no idea..." she walked away, taking in the feel of the wind on her form.
Warden sat down a few paces away from the hole, under a tree. He was about to meditate when he noticed what the girl was doing. She raised her finger in the air, somehow manipulating the wind.
The wind danced on her fingers as she lashed out. A sharp blade of wind whipped out, reverberating through the ambient winds.
"How do you do that?" Warden blurted out without thinking. He was that surprised, but considering she hadn\'t supplied any energy from her end, he had every reason to be surprised about it.
"How do I do what?" she said, sounding a little playful. She curled up another wisp of wind in her fingers and smiled. "You mean this?"
The wind blade lashed with her finger, vanishing into the ambience.
"Yes," Warden said, gasping. It wasn\'t every day someone could surprise him with their control. "It is your aura that manipulates the wind, right? But to affect something physical like that..."
"I\'m brilliant like that," she beamed.
Warden rubbed his forehead. He kind of understood now how others felt when he answered them like this, which wasn\'t an answer at all.
"Anyway, your hot-blooded male ego might want to save me again, but try to hold back," she said as she rose into the air, using the ambient wind. "As you can see, I don\'t need much saving."
With that, she rushed down the path. Warden jumped to his feet and followed after her. Even if she didn\'t give an answer, he could learn more just by watching her instead of forcing his way through with brute force.
Her slender figure flew using the wind of the mountain path; they curled around her body, and even the blades of wind slowed down as they began to twirl around her form.
"You\'re the type of guy who doesn\'t listen to straightforward words, do you?" she said condescendingly, not even looking back at him.
"I don\'t know what you\'re talking about," he replied. "It\'s not my fault if our destination is the same."
"Ahh, it makes so much sense when you have an excuse like that," she said, lashing at the wind blades with winds of her own. "But seriously, you should give up already... This is too high-level for the current you."
With that, she increased her speed, flying through the barrage of wind blades rushing at her from all directions. Her slender form danced through the attacks, winds curling around her form as she avoided most of them to get through. Explore stories at m-v le-mpyr
Warden was enamoured by the poise with which she carried herself. He was so enthralled with it that he hadn\'t had time to prepare for the attacks coming his way. Warden prepared his best defence, empowering his body, as wind blades thrashed at him from all directions. Sharp cut marks appeared on his body one after another as blood oozed out of them.
Warden couldn\'t follow after her a few more paces, when a great wave of wind flung him back to the ground again.
"Damn," he muttered. He lay there for several minutes, letting the cuts close by themselves with his superior regeneration power.
When he opened his eyes, he found the white-haired girl staring at him, hovering a dozen feet in the air.
"You\'re quite resilient for someone with a one-track mind," she said.
"I thought you left to climb the mountain peak," he muttered.
"I was going to, but then I remembered I\'m very kind," she said. Saying that, she cast a light spell on him as pure life essence washed over his whole being. It not only took care of most of his wounds but even recovered his lost energy. The purity of her energy was staggering. His radiance essence could barely hold a candle against such life-attuned energy.
She looked so young; how did she accomplish such a purity in her essence?
"How old are you?" he couldn\'t help but ask.
"So you\'re interested in my age now?" she asked, grinning. "I know what you\'re thinking, but it would do you a lot of good if you stop comparing me by any normal means. I was neither born normal, nor did I want to be. As for my age, you probably have a number in your mind; divide it by two, and you are probably close to it."
"What?" Warden was flabbergasted. The girl could be as young as fifteen with her looks; if he were to halve that, she would be just a couple of years older than toddlers.
"As I mentioned, do not try to explain my existence through normal means," she said. "Regardless, you should be going then. You can come back when your awareness is better, and your affinity stronger... Perhaps when you\'re gold... For the current you, Elysian only holds pain and failures."
"I\'m not afraid of pain," he said as he sat upright. "Or failure."
She shot him a prying gaze. "Suit yourself, then."
She was about to leave, but Warden stopped her by asking the important question. She hadn\'t answered before, but now she was kind—she literally said that. So, he could hope for an answer.
"How do you manipulate the ambient wind?"
"That\'s a stupid question," she said. "I\'m sure you can do it too, though to a lesser degree than myself... but you\'ve never stopped yourself from having a deeper gaze into the patterns, have you?"
"Patterns?" Warden frowned. "I can do that just by watching patterns?"
"No, but that\'s the first step of it."
"What\'s after the first step?" Warden asked, sitting down cross-legged.
The white-haired girl rubbed her forehead. "I\'m not getting through to you, am I?" she muttered. "Light curse me, but I have never seen anyone as stubborn as you."
"Perhaps that\'s because you\'re only seven, eight years old?" Warden grinned. "Little girl..."
"You know, trying to antagonise me will only decrease the chances of you getting your answers," she said, snorting.
"Sorry, sometimes I can\'t stop myself."
"At least have the decency to look embarrassed when you apologise," she glared, though a little playfully. There was an innocence to her, which couldn\'t be mistaken. Perhaps she was as young as she implied, though with greater humour and a grasp over everything. "You\'re as uncultured as they come, isn\'t that right?"
Warden shook his head. "So, what\'s the next step?"
"It should be obvious, no?" She said. "Perhaps you\'re way more far away from the threshold than I anticipated. Just read the pattern of the wind; the answer might come to you if you\'re not stupid enough... Anyway, this is goodbye, I guess. Weird, half-naked stranger..."
Waving her hand, she flew away again.
"Hey, wait," Warden shouted, leaping to his feet. "I don\'t even know your name."
"Catch up to me if you want to know."