Egg World

Chapter 2 - Lowest Moment

Illustration credit goes to Konomi at https://www.instagram.com/konomidrawz/

SYLVIE POV:

Complete chaos. All sorts of mana beasts rampaged around me, while shouts and screams filled the air. It was clearly nighttime, given the dark sky, but flashes of fire from around the field kept the area bright.

I sat dazed, still reliving the encounter that I had just had with my mother. I felt so lighthearted from her words that even given the situation I now found myself in, with huge creatures trampling through my ethereal body, my mind was unable to react quickly to this new development. But within a minute, I came to my senses and slapped myself awake.

Stumbling into a standing position, I looked down and realized that I was again in my humanoid form, while the ghost-like quality of my body still remained, consisting of what looked like white flame.

Another mana beast tore through me, and for a second I was enveloped in darkness while I stood in the moving interior of the beast. After the beast had passed through, I turned to look at the beast that I had just been inside of. It was a gigantic worm-like beast, with what looked like human soldiers in its cavernous maw.

Wait, humans?

Spinning around, I began to get a better grasp of my surroundings. This was not an ordinary gathering of mana beasts; humans, elves, and dwarves stood upon corpses of their own races in desperate stand-offs against the beasts. All forms of magic blasted through the air, most of the attacks serving to barely damage the attacking creatures. I began treading through the field, the magic attacks and mana beasts passing through me, as I searched for an explanation for the bloodshed.

What is going— I stopped in my tracks as a sight in front of me stole my breath away. Looming over the battlefield was an enormous wall, some distance away. No, not a wall. The Wall. It towered over the violence going on below it, like a disinterested emperor staring down at a gladiator match. The bursts of magic dimly lit up its surface as cries of pain filled the air.

"The battle at the Wall," I whispered in horror. A rumbling to my left caught my attention, as a massive bear-like creature barreled towards a dwarf that was channeling an earth-magic spell right in front of me.

"Watch ou—"

The bear tore into the dwarf with its jaws, tearing him to pieces as it continued its destructive path through the battlefield.

I ground my teeth together. I had to come to terms that there was nothing that I could do by staying here. Closing my eyes, I willed myself into my draconic form, and took flight towards the Wall. If my actions were inconsequential, I would at least try to figure out what point of the battle I had been brought into, and get a glimpse of Arthur's family members.

As I drew nearer to the Wall, I held my breath and reverted back to my humanoid form in midair, before slipping right through the surface. Fortunately, I landed on one of the floors of the Wall. It didn't seem like I would pass through what I perceived as floors.

The inside of the Wall was nearly as chaotic as the outside. Injured soldiers were being carried around on stretchers, many of them missing limbs. Some lay on the ground, bleeding out with no one to help them. The medics were rushing around and providing treatment as well as they could, but there were simply too many that needed help.

I dashed through the grotesque scene, looking for a way to go down. If I recalled correctly, Arthur's mother was on the ground floor.

An emblem on a door nearby caught my attention, and I skidded to a halt. The Flamesworth emblem hung on the wall, indicating that this was the senior captain's room. Stretching out my hand, I passed through the door to hear the conversation on the other side.