Chapter 9, A Ray of Hope

I was able to quickly find it as it was just below my wrist. There were four symbols on my wrist that had a tattoo like an appearance: a sword, a staff, a shield, and a bow. After identifying the sword and shield symbols I used my left hand and ran mana through the two. After over a minute of pain and running the little mana I had through the symbols I nearly gave up before a large white door appeared next to me.

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Ryan sprinted out of the door towards the three demons like soldiers and Yash stood in front of me with his shield covering me and him. I was nearly out of mana, I was still bleeding out, and I didn't have enough mana for any healing spell, Things were not looking good. 'Even after all that happened, I'm still going to bleed out.'

Thinking I was still going to die I gave up and closed my eyes. Until I remembered that I could just cauterize wounds with fire magic. I felt a great relief that I would die slower so I could regain some of my mana for a healing spell. 'Hell yeah! Not gonna die today.' I used the last remaining bit of magic and focused on cauterizing my wounds.

After cauterizing my wounds I continued to lay on the floor behind Yash, I couldn't see past Yash's shield so I had no clue what was happening in the fight. The only thing I could see is the occasional magic spell flying off in the sky or far to the right, the only exception was the one [Fireball] that hit Yash's shield and dispersed. Eventually, I got tired from boredom and fell asleep staring at Yash's shield.

I woke up around midnight and looked around, Yash, Ryan, the door, and the 3 demos are gone. 'Looks like the fight is over.' I tried to get up and stretch but the pain in my body made me reevaluate that decision. "Oh fuck!" I collapse back to the ground and wait for the pain to fade.

Before I get up again I use the mana I regenerated while sleeping and healed my wound with a healing spell. I writhed in pain a little bit because of healing broken bones. I got up and stretched after my bones fully healed and walked around. I walked over to the place where I assumed the battle happened. "Damn, they really tore up the place didn't they." After inspecting the place of battle I started to walk over to the wagon. I looked inside the wagon and saw cages with humans, demihumans, and elves.

It was obvious that there were most likely no survivors, as either their head was cut off or there's a hole in their heart. It felt like I should have been angry or discussed but all I felt was odd happiness.

Since I couldn't see all the way to the back I grabbed a lantern from the side and hopped up into the wagon. The blood-soaked wood squelched beneath my feet. At the very back of the wagon, there was a locked chest.

"A lock isn't going to stop me." I unsheathe my sword and watch it crumble as I fit it above my head. I turned around and looked at the top end of the sword lying in a pool of blood with a massive amount of disappointment, but I didn't take long before it was replaced with happiness. 'I knew it was going to break soon, but not this soon.' I sigh and use the little bit of blade that's on the hilt to break the lock.

After a few good wacks, the blade broke and the lock had a small chip missing. "What the fuck, come on now." I pull a small hunting knife and enhance it with magic. I wind back my arm, yell "FUCK YOU", and then proceed to slash the lock. The lock fell into the blood with a sickening thud, I caught my breath before I continued the search. Oddly I felt no anger but only happiness.

I undid the hasps, straps, and lifted the lid to look inside. Inside of the chest, there was a bit of glass peeking out of a red pillow with a note on top of it, I picked up the note and attempted to read it, '... Shit, it's in Spanish. Why couldn't one thing be in English for once? I can't be the only English speaking person on this planet, could I?"

Sitting there for a while I got over my mini existential crises, I looked at the note and tried to decipher what it said. However, all I could read was something akin to, "Hi, Carlos Perez. __ a perfect full __ in glass __ leg, arm, and head __ take it __ -From Agustín Solucio." after reading the note I looked back over the bit of glass and realized that it wasn't just some glass bit but the top of a bottle, I reached into the pillow, grabbed a long glass rod, and pulled out a large glass bottle with an intricate gold design on it.

As soon as I saw the golden design on the bottle my mouth started to salivate, I pulled the pillow out of the chest and put the bottle back inside of it before putting the pillow in my bag. I turned around and walked out of the wagon, I had a weird feeling where all of the happiness I was experiencing suddenly faded and was replaced with a massive amount of fear.

I started running in the general direction of home, the more time that passed the more fear I felt and the faster I ran. Eventually, I was running so fast it felt like my mussels were going to rip at the seams, but I continued to run occasionally I used mana to run faster and to prevent my muscles from ripping.

I was almost home before my usable mana ran out, this caused the tendons in my legs to tear apart. Even though I couldn't feel the pain, I could still feel the pressure release in my leg. The muscles in my leg no longer moved and it became visible with a large cave in my leg. The fear only grew with every second I was stuck.

But something was off, I felt a lot of fear but no tears fell from my face. It was pure fear and nothing else. After around an hour of overwhelming fear, it subsided. Suddenly all of the pain from ripping the muscles in my legs flooded into my head, I didn't even have enough time to scream before my body hit the floor writhing with pain.

Eventually, I became exhausted and laid down on the ground looking at the night sky. At this point, I was unable to cry, so I just laid there, silently. The moon was full and slightly to the left, the stars were bright and colorful, the night was so clear you could see a nebula. "Beautiful." were the only words I could murmur before I passed out

End.