Travelling

Two outstanding beauties crept in a forest as they looked at a small village. "What's your plan to hide our identities? I can't be seen leaving the castle," Aria asked Celine because she knew that the result wouldn't be pretty if it became public she left the castle. The Valerian Kingdom would be at high risk and stress.

Celine let a helpless sigh release from her. "Where's Ray when you need him?" She mumbled.

Celine and Ray had made an easy method for them to hide their appearances in their last life. It was a process in which Ray would make some form of clay with his sigil and Celine would use her telekinesis to mold it onto their faces while moving it whenever they spoke. The process was highly efficient but required both to have higher master of their sigils so they only used it later in their lives.

Truth be told, Celine wanted to go meet Ray again instead of Ken but the human continents were far too dangerous. The roaming gods there and powerful gods like Malphus all controlled those lands sporadically while the dragon territories have some form of political system. Humans exploited the weak with strong sigils while other races protected them through politics. This was the major difference.

Celine had to stop herself from getting sidetracked and focused on the matter of hiding their identities. It was impossible to create a skin-colored mask of a new face without Ray but Celine eventually had an idea.

"I can use the same trick with the rays of light that I used to fight Aria!" She exclaimed. "It would be easily noticed by people with keen senses and it would take a lot of constant focus from me to ensure that it doesn't break but it would be doable."

Celine explained her plan to Aria and she was slightly amazed by Celine's ingenuity. Not only that but Aria was also impressed by the amount of mastery Celine had over her magic as well. Celine would be manipulating the very thing that gave everything sight after all.

The light around the two figures inside the forest began to distort slightly. Celine had kept it simple because she didn't want to overwork herself so they now both had brown hair and looked less beautiful. However, Aria was purposefully and noticbly more attractive than Celine in her disguise but Aria couldn't see herself to notice.

…

The travel through valerian territory was easy for the two. They were heading in the direction of the dragon continent but it would be slow because they couldn't fly. The repercussions of being spotted in the air out weighed the negative of the long journey.

They traveled through towns, forests, smaller kingdoms that didn't have gods, and cities relentlessly. Their plan was to go to recruit Ken as fast as possible and see if they could find more allies before the wars started in a few weeks time. The two ran far faster than race cars while sonic booms reverberated through the forest as they traveled. It had to be known that Aria was already one of the strongest mortal valerians and she could only improve from here.

Eventually, they made a stop in a forest for some air. The duo was silent and only Aria's heavy breaths filled the void as Celine hadn't even felt tired yet. The divine power within her naturally made her physically stronger even if she only had basic knowledge on how to use it.

The duo sat there and stared at each other until night came not too long after. They had ran for most of the day so not even an hour had passed before the whole first went dark and the two didn't have a fire. The cold couldn't hurt either of them anyways.

"Let's get moving again," Aria coughed out to break the silence after she caught her breath.

Aria began to leave slowly but didn't see Celine even move as she sat. "Let's wait one more hour," Celine said with a dreamy smile and a loving gaze.

"We should hurry, we don't know when-" Aria was silenced when she could see that her words didn't even enter the woman's ears. Celine was still there smiling, admiring the beauty of Aria reduced by the fake identity covering it.

Celine interrupted the stare with a casual voice. "You know, it hurt me to damage your beauty. I tried to keep it the same but I was forced to make some slight changes in the end," Celine said.

"Stop trying to court me," Aria asserted. "We should leave. Now." She turned and walked away, hoping Celine would follow her but Aria could only feel a small amount of divine power being released from Celine. Enough to grab Aria's attention and remind her who really had the power to make commands here.

Celine calmly smiled. "I learned one lesson from the tenth trial. The lesson was that the best moments of the journey isn't the destination or the most epic fight, it is right here, right now. The calm moments in the shitstorm that is life is the only peace we can find. So, let's spend one hour not slaving away, not being worried about our deaths, not rushing to the next thing, but enjoying the best part of the journey instead. Let's enjoy this peace."

Celine finished her speech and floated some logs over while Aria was still processing everything. Suddenly, Celine spoke again. "Oh also, I will never stop showing my love to you. I'm far too stubborn for that."

Celine gestured Aria to start the fire with small lightning and they both sat and watched each other. Celine had sly grin on her face and spoke again. "Thanks, the fire makes the environment more romantic I think. I don't know though, I never really was a romantic person."

Aria ignored that comment. "So, what would you like to talk about now that we're here?" She asked and began to get comfortable next to the fire. Perhaps enjoying this moment was the best thing to do.