The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 409: Through The Woods

Chapter 409: Through The Woods

Having made the mistake of letting her guard down, Kordia spread out a thin layer of her own mana as the three of them traveled the main road toward Mora Lake, riding a trio of snowshoe grandhares she requisitioned from the border guards.

The moment she felt Fruhe disappear from her senses, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Gods, your mother is terrifying," Lapins said to Sin.

"I thought she was going to disown me... but I guess I’m just exiled now," she replied with a shudder. "I’ve never seen her look at me like that."

"Whatever happens, I’m here for you," Kordia said. "We’re family now." She squeezed her hand.

With Queen Fruhe behind them, the three took a less hurried pace in order to relax. Tomorrow, they would try for sprints, but for now, they let the sounds of the wind and forest, birdsong, and the calls of animals, wash over them.

Riding grandhares allowed them to make excellent time, and to Kordia’s mind came with the added benefit of ensuring news of her return home would not reach Mora Lake until after they were well into the woods.

The sight of mighty evergreens and distant redwoods filled Kordia with nostalgia, as did the scent of the evening mist when, at last, they stopped in the shadow of a fallen tree to rest.

As she looked around, Kordia noticed the grip of a Heavenswar sky had also made itself known in the half-wilting trees that had bloomed too early, only to be frozen and thawed and frozen again by the unnatural season. Thanks to Kordia’s knowledge of how to dry and prepare firewood with magic, they were able to gather enough wood for a small fire. Yet still they cuddled together for warmth, Lapins and Sin wrapped around Kordia as she lay awake, contemplating every pulse of pain that came to her along her bond with Silver.

The first sign of trouble made itself clear when they passed through the first village on their route.

A sign declared the place to be Badgerton Grove, but there wasn’t a citizen or animal in sight as the three of them rode in. The houses, mostly made of druid-grown vines and moss over stone, were all abandoned. The village’s great hall looked as though some beast had torn it apart, along with the village square and what had likely been its only inn.

The one consolation was that few supplies were available, indicating that the villagers managed to leave with everything they could. What little they managed to gather was feed for their grandhares and a little jar of honey to add to their supplies. Their pause lasted for as long as it took to graze the grandhares, before taking off once more.

During their next rest, that evening, Kordia opened herself to her bond with Silver just a little. She felt waves of pain, dimmer than the last time, but more importantly-

"Are you alright?" Lapins asked when she saw the furrowed look on Kordia’s face.

"I am fine," Kordia answered. "I was trying to check on Silver... I think we might have gone a little too far north." She pointed towards the west and just a little south. "I can feel she’s that way... but it’s distant."

"Are there any roads that lead there?" Lapins asked.

"None. The far west has always been the heart of Silver’s domain... but somehow she feels more distant than when we were in Montmorency."

Deciding to follow Kordia’s instincts, the trio left the road the next morning. While the grandhares made good time, their pace was greatly inhibited by the woodlands. Until, that is, the first signs of devastation began to show.

The first sign was a swatch of trees, felled in the same direction as if a massive hand had pushed them all down. Skirting around it was faster than journeying through, but Lapins insisted on taking a deeper look, and so they paused for an hour.

"If we can find out what did this, maybe it has something to do with why Silver needs us," she argued.

The first thing they noticed as they marched deeper was that the trees had not been cut, but snapped, even down to the trunks the deeper they went.

"I think whatever did this fell from the sky," Lapins said, noting the differences between the heights of the devastated trunks.

"I found something!" Kassin suddenly called.

What she found was a darkened splotch of blood. But more importantly, under the red mass were long, silver strands of fur, which Lapins confirmed by washing them free of blood before handing them to Kordia.

The moment Kordia touched them, her body seized as she beheld a dark night. She tasted blood in her mouth and felt the exhaustion of a long sprint before leaping onto something long and sinuous. Claws flashed and lightning crackled. The land itself empowered her, but her opponent was somehow more. Pain flared as claws dug deep, yet she buried her muzzle into the soft belly flesh of her opponent and ripped, before they parted with roars and fury.

As soon as the vision passed, Kordia stood. "Silver fought something here. Something... big. Something she was having trouble beating. Like a dragon or some kind of flying serpent."

As they moved toward the far edge of the carnage, they began to find shimmering blue scales the size of shields. The scales by themselves didn’t tell Kordia much that was new, but she was sure that Silver’s opponent had fallen length-wise into this grove. Meaning whatever she’d fought was far more massive than she was.

"You said she fled after being wounded... is there any way you think we could track her?" Sin asked as soon as they resolved to continue.

Kordia thought about this for a moment. Looking about, she saw how the trees had been snapped. There should have been some indication of an escape, but Silver was of the land. It made sense that she could maneuver without disrupting the environment, just as her opponent could do the same by flying. Silver drew her power from the land... she drew...

In a flash, Kordia found it.

The deep forest was a mix of evergreens and deciduous trees. The latter were wilting from the inconsistent weather, but the former should not have been. Off to the north, she saw evergreens whose needles had all turned brown, stripped of vitality and yet alive from what she could sense of their mana.

"She must have gone this way," Kordia said after explaining her thoughts to Lapins and Sin.

"Wouldn’t that kind of trail stand out?" Lapins asked.

"In the day, sure, but what I glimpsed tells me she was more focused on getting away and healing herself before the dragon-thing could recover."

In the end, they decided to follow the wilted evergreens, which led off to the northwest, roughly in line with where Kordia could sense Silver. As they departed the scene of carnage, Kordia felt something behind her and turned in her saddle, casting about and finding only the gaze of some small creature hiding in the shadows beneath the broken trees.

For two more days they traveled, and throughout that time, Kordia kept her senses open for Silver, deciding to risk contact.

Yet Silver never responded, even as Kordia sent pulses of thought and feeling through.

Each day, her sense of the spirit grew just a little weaker. Each day, her worries increased. What would happen to the Mora lands if the great spirit died? What would happen to her?

She knew she owed a debt to Silver, but how could she pay that debt if Silver died?

They were setting up camp when danger struck.

One moment, they were calmly setting their tents, and the next, a pair of shrieks ripped their attention towards the small clearing where they were letting the grandhares graze. They arrived to find a serpentine creature. It was wingless, and yet the only way it could have arrived without destroying the trees was to fly. The dragon crunched through the spine of a grandhare, while under its claw a second was pinned, struggling futilely as the life was pressed from its body.

There were no signs of the third.

The three barely had a chance to take in the invading spirit. To see the scrapes and slashes along its scales. The broken horn and blinded eye. The arrows lodged in its flesh, and the patches of torn hide.

As they held their breath, it reared up, the extra pressure snapping the neck of the grandrabbit it had pinned as it began to turn towards them. The growl in its throat rumbled like an approaching storm...

"Run!" Kordia whispered, right as the dragon snapped its gaze onto them. They managed to get into the trees right as a bolt of lightning struck behind Kordia.

The minutes stretched as they ran, Lapins initially in the lead but then both she and Sin fell behind to help Kordia as another bolt of lightning missed by the barest measure, filling the air with the sharp scent of ozone and ash.

Bearing her on their shoulders, Kordia had barely put up a shield when suddenly she felt another surge of pain from Silver. Moments later, Silver’s presence suddenly appeared as the voice of the great spirit called forth.

"Come to me, little kit..."

The sense of direction and distance was staggeringly close. Kordia directed Lapins and Sin, and they found themselves almost charging into a clearing before they could halt themselves.

"If we go out there, we’re dead!" Sin said.

"We’re dead if we stay here!" Lapins countered.

Kordia silently decided to take the risk. She set her shields as strong as she could make them, spinning them as she invoked strands of her magic to behave like copper - a trick she learned from Kir. As soon as the dragon struck, its lightning reacted as expected and flowed into the ground.

Yet Kordia’s shields were still damaged.

How strong is this thing? she wondered as she held onto Lapins and Sin’s hands, leading straight towards the place where she’d felt Silver’s presence.

They were halfway there when the dragon lowered itself in their way, opening its maw to reveal a ball of gathering power.

No! We were so close...

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