390 Forged Alliance
The hunter was definitely perceptive, looking at him intently, “I’ll take you to one of the major port cities and help you get back to Milligarde–one of the captains owes me a few favors, anyway. In exchange, I want your help taking down this monster.”
“Sorry, but you said this thing was a Cataclysm-rank threat, right? Don’t you think that’s a bit of a lopsided exchange?” Emilio told him, facing him properly.
As he said that, he could tell as it was written on the veteran hunter’s face: even as stoic as he was, the hunter seemed to genuinely bear guilt for the massive loss of life that had transpired.
“I wouldn’t ask anybody that I had doubts over. We’d both get killed if you were incompetent. More life would be lost. That insignia you’re wearing is proof of your capabilities,” Jaeger told him, “I don’t have any sense of pride or ego constraining me. All I want is to bring this wicked beast down.”
It seemed there was some personal investment that the experienced monster hunter had with the elusive entity, “Inconnu”–that much could be seen from the glint in his feline-like, yellow eyes as he mentioned it.
Emilio thought it over, looking around at the sheer abhorrence of death that was sprawled across the city; the sight of the mother and child that had been crushed was embedded into his mind, affecting him personally.
“Alright, I’ll help you,” Emilio agreed.
Jaeger only quietly nodded without his expression changing, extending his hand towards his fellow adventurer.
As he accepted Jaeger’s hand, feeling the abrasive, black leather glove that covered it, he realized this was the first world-class quest he was partaking in.
“Do you know where it is now?” Emilio asked.
“Impossible,” Jaeger minimally responded.
“…Okay.”
“Inconnu is a creature of enigma. It leaves nothing that can lead to it; not a feather, a drop of blood, or even a scent,” Jaeger explained, “However–what can be done is predicting its next move.”
As he was unfamiliar with the fallen city, let alone Ennage itself, he followed in the lead of Jaeger as the quiet man began moving without saying anything.
“Do you have a place in mind, then? For where this “Inconnu” thing will end up?” Emilio asked.
Jaeger was silent for a moment, not so much as looking back at him as he responded, “It swept through Felran, and looks to have gone west.”
“How do you know where it went?” He asked.
The veteran hunter stopped before pointing towards the westward direction they were heading. There was a massive hole tore through the west wall of the city, crumbled and painted in blood.
“Oh,” he let out in realization, “Yeah, that’s definitely a good lead.”
He felt as though he couldn’t leave the city faster, passing by the bloodstained homes before leaving alongside the under through the large hole in the city wall.
‘I don’t sense any ill intent from this guy, but I’ll stay cautious. The last thing I need to do is let my guard down in foreign land,’ he thought.
There was a dirt-paved road leading from the west of Felran through a forest of dark-red leaves. It was somewhat eerie, but equally beautiful in its scenery, as if stuck in the prime of autumn as the scarlet leaves danced down alongside the rain.
“Where does this road lead?” He asked.
“I guessed it, but you really are ignorant of this land, aren’t you?” Jaeger replied before answering, “This is a merchant road leading through the Scarlet Forest—there’s a lot of wildlands between here and the next branch of civilization: a small town—’Rancor’.”
There was definitely something that felt weirdly nostalgic about traveling with the hunter; that dark clothing, pragmatic, focused nature, and less-than-friendly attitude.
‘This brings me back to traveling with Vandread. Though this is different—I’m not a kid anymore. He may be a bit cold, but even he respects my rank. I guess it’s nice to be relied on sometimes,’ he thought.
An uphill slope through the Scarlet Forest led to a vast section where the road bled into the depths of the valley of red-leaved trees. The flowers of Ennage seemed multiple times larger than those natural to Milligarde, sometimes even seeming to breathe or lunge towards them as they passed by, but remaining anchored to the soil.
“Does everything in Ennage want to kill you or something?” Emilio remarked, moving his cloak out of the way from a plant that resembled a Venus Flytrap.
“The hostility of Ennage’s wildlife is not without reason,” Jaeger told him.
“Yeah? All I’ve read is that the abundance of predators forced everything to evolve to be both big and mean as hell,” Emilio said.
“That may be true to some extent, but it goes deeper than that,” the hunter said.
As they spoke, they both casually and easily handled two aggressive creatures inhabiting the Scarlet Forest. Emilio swiftly snapped his fingers to his right, invoking a compression of wind that twisted and crushed the rabid rodent that had leapt towards him.
“Skree—!” The canine-sized rodent squeaked before its entire body was condensed to a ball of blood.
At the same time, Jaeger swiftly flipped his coat open before drawing a twelve-inch knife, ducking down just as a brown-furred wolf leapt towards his head.
For his age and tall, muscular build, the hunter was swift and flexible, pivoting his foot before sharply thrusting his knife upward through the skull of the wolf. The way that Jaeger handled the beast was quick and efficient, instantly wiping the life from the wolf as his blade pierced its brain.
“I didn’t hear an incantation. You’re a rare breed of mage,” Jaeger noted, wiping the blood off of his knife on the sleeve on the fur of the wolf.
“You’re not so bad yourself,” Emilio returned what he heard as a compliment.
“Mm,” Jaeger continued moving, “Being an adventure in the wildlands of Ennage will either make you as good as me, or dead.”
After some time of hiking, a break was taken as they both hadn’t eaten the entire day it seemed. Using his magecraft, Emilio created a campsite, making a small clearing amidst the dense forest of scarlet.
pAnD a(-)n0ve1.com
While waiting, he looked up towards the abundant leaves of a scarlet shade that hung overhead, finding the constant downfall of cold, plentiful rain to feel as natural as a sunny day now.
‘It still feels like a dream…or nightmare, that I’m in Ennage right now. It’s all just a bit too surreal…I have so many questions, but–’ He thought.
As he was thinking, something crossed his mind upon the idea of him having unanswered questions, fitting like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle into something else: his presence in the Continent of Demons.
It was at that exact moment that he recalled something–the main reason he ever planned to come to the wild continent in the first place.
‘Asher told me to find Excelsior here–he said I’d have my questions answered if I found him. Is this what he meant? There’s no way this could’ve been predicted. If Asher knew that much, he’d tell me himself. Just who is this “Excelsior” figure, then?’ He questioned.
As he found himself with another goal besides simply leaving Ennage itself, he nearly stood up with his sword drawn at the rustling of bushes, though relaxed as he found it just to be the darkly-dressed hunter making his way back.
There was something of considerable size that Jaeger was dragging behind him, covered in light-brown fur.
“…Is that a deer?” Emilio asked.
Jaeger came to the campsite before dropping the carcass of the creature down with a small “splat” that echoed out, “It’s a Devil Elk–unassuming, but lethal if you’re not ready for it.”
That much seemed true from one look at the spiraling horns that protruded from the massive, wide-built elk’s head.
The coat-wearing man embodied the concept of a “hunter” perhaps more aptly than an adventurer through the efficiency in which he skinned and dismantled the elk, setting it up on a stick above the bright-orange flames.
‘He’s faster than Vandread at that,’ he thought.
“You mentioned something earlier–about the reason why everything is so hostile in Ennage’s wildlands,” Emilio said, looking across the campfire towards the man.
Jaeger kept watch of the meat’s state, “I did.”
“So…What is it?” He asked.
Sitting there at the campfire, witnessing the dimming of the sunlight as the scarlet leaves seemed to shutter at the faintest breaths of wind, he watched as the hunter turned the elk to properly cook it above the fire.
Jaeger finally answered after staying silent, “The ‘Pollution of Iniquity’.”