Chapter 334 - Six months
The group of six had started their journey to head back to Avrion, and although they could have ridden on the back of Noir for a quick journey, it would draw too much attention. Perhaps some guilds would have started hunting it.
There was also the fact that the Redwings were now in enemy territory. However, the Queen herself wasn't against the Redwings in any personal way. That didn't mean others felt the same way. It was more likely that they would try to capture the Redwings to get on the Empire's good side regardless if the Queen had given an order or not.
Right now, the six of them were at the back of a carriage. Using the money that Jack and Martha had earnt, they hired a man to take them there. It was a costly ride since Avrion was considered a long way, and there were even fewer people willing to go there now.
At first, nearly every person had refused, but eventually, they had found a man greedy enough to do it for the hefty sum of a gold coin.
"You're getting ripped off, you know?" Bliss said.
"Do we have a choice?" Ray said. "We're lucky someone is even willing to take us there."
The six of them were starting to get to know each other as they shared stories. After all each of them had spent six months inside Roland. Ray stayed at the academy while the other three outside. The biggest shock to all of them had been Van and Bliss's introduction.
The first one was Van, he introduced himself to them as the Prince of the Alure kingdom. The others knew of this detail due to the Queen's request, but were surprised at how Ray had managed to get him to come over to the Redwings.
"I think its best if you no longer introduce yourself like that," Martha said. "I know it's painful to forget and leave your city, thank you for journeying with us."
"Don't worry, I was the one who wanted to join the Redwings. Besides, Ray saved my life more than once, and I'm used to hiding my identity by now, so don't worry."
But what really shocked everyone is when Bliss introduced herself, and even Ray was surprised. She had told everyone she was the Divine being, at first Martha, Jack and even Lenny started to laugh, but when they saw that Ray and Van weren't laughing, their laughter quickly turned into faces of shock.
"You can't be serious?" Martha said. "We saw the Divine being it was nothing but a crystal."
"You can confirm it yourself when we get back to Avrion. Those crystals are no longer active as she has returned to her human form." When Ray was explaining everything, he was speaking in a tone that seemed like he was annoyed by the whole thing.
The others couldn't quite understand why that was.
"It would be easier if I showed you all." Bliss then waved her wand, and at the same time, each person had an image appear in their head. It was segments of Bliss's past, and even times when she was a crystal. She even managed to show them memories that only they would have seen related to the Divine being.
After seeing these images, the group was more reassured that she was telling the truth. "I thought something was up," Lenny said. "I wondered how you could tell what everyone was at first glance."
"Well, I was at the field when the Shadow Guard attacked, so I got to witness all three of your skills on first hand. Not so much Wolf boy but he just smells different to the rest of you." Bliss replied.
"Smell different?" Jack said as he started to sniff his arm. Jack thought he had a keen nose yet he couldn't tell he smelt different from the others. Unless they were talking about the slightly sour smell coming off from his body, but that was just because he regularly worked out in the morning to train himself.
"Well now with the Divine being by our side there is no way we can lose against the shadow, right? I mean, you are a god." Martha said.
"I'm afraid that's not the case," Bliss replied. "There are two reasons for this; my power is not what it once was. It would take another 70 years before I would be back to my regular self, and then there is a second problem. I'm afraid whoever is controlling the shadow might also be a god, or at least one of equivalent power maybe even far greater than mine. I even suspect it could be multiple gods."
Hearing those words come out of the Divine being's mouth did not strike confident in the group's heart.
"Will you all relax?" Ray sighed, "The plan hasn't changed. There are still six months until the fight with the shadow. Right now, the most important thing is to increase our power."
Just as Ray had finished his sentence, the carriage suddenly came to a halt.
"AHHHH!" The man screamed from outside.
"What is it?" Van said as he stood up.
Ray activated his dragon eyes skill and could see they had been surrounded by what looked like hornet type beasts.
"There are some intermediate class beasts, Jack, do you want to take care of this one?" Ray asked.
"Please let me," Martha said volunteering.
As Martha left the carriage to deal with the group of beasts on their path, the rest of the group had done the same to take a look. She was far more powerful with her bow shots compared to before. Taking out a beast after beast with arrow after arrow.
"Her strength really has improved this much?" Ray said.
Ray had seen Martha transform on the battlefield but didn't really have time to ask her about it. But now that all his troubles were over at Roland, he could focus on making his allies around him stronger. But just what happened to Martha? Ray thought.
Just then another group of Hornet looking beasts appeared from the forest after Martha had finished dealing with the first lot. She closed her eyes and wings started to appear from her back. She flew close to the hornets, attracting their attention and went round and round up in the air.
As she flew in the air, she shot each one down at a time from the sky. Finally, the beast had been defeated, and she had landed back on the ground.
"Phew," Martha said as she retracted the wings back inside her and started to walk over to the group.
"Martha, just what happened to you to make you so much stronger?" Ray asked.