Heaven's Light (Book 1)

Chapter 19 - Ashura

"We're finally here, guys," Red announced. "These are the Ruins of Boreas."

Straight ahead, all we saw was destruction. Melted houses, corroding furniture, old skeletons, half-melted corpses, decaying bodies strewn about the place. Everything about the ex-city was just horrifyingly devastating. It was hard to believe all of this happened only a year ago. It seemed like it happened decades in the past. Yet, the pain was still there.

My father caused all of this mayhem.

"So, if we've reached this far, then does that mean the border is just past here?" Nama asked, full of hope.

"Yes, ma'am!" Red confirmed, signaling a thumb's up in her direction.

"And what will we do once we've past the border?" she continued.

"We'll seek out the dragons and scout out the war," I suddenly answered, surprising myself at the fact I spoke up. Everyone turned to look at me.

"What? Are you crazy?" Nama exclaimed, eyes widening in fear. "Don't you realize that just by being in the wrong area at the wrong time could mean our demise? Haven't you heard of the dragon, Aerion, King of the Heavens?"

The mention of his name caused my one hand to ball up into a fist. I ducked my head away, avoiding their eye contact. Much to my surprise, I heard a small boom echo from the distance and a light explode from far away. Must be the raging war. The one my father had also participated in.

"Yes, I've heard of him," I replied, using a monotone voice, "and yes, I realize that being in his vicinity is lethal, even if-" I emphasized the "if" greatly, trying not to expose any secret information I had. "-he's dead. Even so, I think it to be our duty to at least find out some things regarding the war for the sake of our country, since we're already here. And, if we discover some fighting, we can use that to try and track down the dragon we're hunting. After all, the war is between the dragons and another opponent."

I figured that, to be safe, I shouldn't expose anything about Aerion being dead. That would just arouse suspicion and questions, entrapping me in a quiz over the dead King of the Heavens and a test to see if I could maintain my promise to Master. I wasn't about to put myself in that kind of a risky situation.

Nama's fear was still incredibly evident.

"Don't worry," Red soothed. "I'll be using my telepathy to avoid coming into eyesight with any dragon. We'll be safe that way."

Nama's sea green eyes still remained wide, but her fearful expression seemed to falter a bit at Red's comforting words.

I rolled my eyes, suddenly feeling a bit agitated. "Man, for a wizard who fought to be on this team, she sure is a crybaby," I grumbled.

Luckily, nobody heard me.

As a group, we all decided to walk around the ruins, rather than straight through them. Parading on dangerous and unstable ground such as Boreas would prove to be a challenge both physically and emotionally. Everything was still too soon when it came to this city. I only found out about it a little bit ago, but it still felt depressing for me, especially knowing that my father was the one who caused this destruction.

As we trekked halfway through the outside of the ruins, the land beyond Venenatus was soon visible to our eyes. Unfortunately, what I expected to be expanses of grassland and forestry, turned out to be dried and dead foliage. Everything was not green, but a sickly brown, dirty color. Nothing healthy was anywhere in sight.

"I guess the war really has taken a toll on the land," I sighed.

"No kidding," Nama said. "This must be from either that deadly explosion or from Aerion's presence. Everything is just so dead."