Bright One | Empire of Blood and Swords Series

48. Sour Rice, Bird Nest

-48-
-Sour Rice, Bird Nest-

The gate to Miharu was wide opened. Spells and commands blasted into Seth's eardrums, so did the sound of screaming. The four Wolfbloods shared a look and rushed into deer land, clearly aware that they did not register. Not even a foot inside the Land and Saoirse already found her first target. Her dagger finding her enemy's mark, coming out from the back.

So far, they haven't seen any dahmatis, since there was still daylight. And the Nians will take a longer time to reach here, assuming they would be warped.

This is Miharu, or also written as 美晴—widely known as the Land of Magecraft. For their people were mostly weak in the body, but strong in the flowing essence of magic. Well, it wasn't entirely magic. It's energy, but built up in a very strategic yet scientific way that no one could possibly explain it.

Which was more of a disadvantage to them. Magic cannot necessarily kill a person, but wound them or knock them back instead. Completely different from Firewalker, Waterwalker, Earthwalker or Airwalker, these are abilities. Which is why the Achilleas decided to rule it out with swordsmanship.

To survive in this empire is to balance everything.

"Kasan, kasan!" A nearby cry dragged Seth's attention. He looked for the source of the cry, a young boy holding onto his mother's body. The woman—with blood streaming down her head, her pink kimono soaked, and an arm pressed onto the side of her waist.

Wounded.

A hooded man stood before her, sword raised. She growled, shooting a faint-pink energy blast from her palm. The man was knocked aback, but quickly lunged at them. Seth moved, his jaw clenched as he angled the sword around the hooded man's neck. A thin, red line appeared on the man's throat, before detaching and falling onto the ground, the body following.

The young boy whimpered, the woman gasped. Seth crouched low, snatching the sword of the dead man and handing it to the boy.

"Your mother is wounded. Take this and make good use of it," he said, shoving it into the boy's arms.

The boy looked at the sword with confusion, clearly not knowing what to do with it. But the boy's mother nodded, wincing from the pain as tears slipped from her face. Seth wiped them away, pointing to her son.

Please, please, please fight. Stand up. Be strong. Seth pleaded inside.

"泣かない (Don't cry)," Seth whispered, and with that Seth left them, hopping onto the rooftops, slipping every now and then.

It shouldn't concern him about that woman and child. Knowing the instincts of a mother, she would most probably fight when danger nears her child. Even sacrificing herself just so he could run.

Mothers in nature are so mighty.

Two footfalls landed beside him, Seth narrowed his eyes and his grip on the hilt tightened. But two scents filled his nostrils, one smelt of fire and flower, the other smelt of wet grass and iron.

Sapphire and Sylas stared at him with bore. A third footfall fell behind him.

"Mother's tits, the people should've been given more training with the blade," Saoirse spat, joining her siblings on the rooftop, almost falling herself.

Sapphire eyes' scanned the town, at the blood-poured streets. Dead bodies could be spotted from every corner, most of them were children. A variety of colours glowed everywhere, a sign that the people truly rely on their magic.

"People are dying," she stated, her eyes cold when she said that.

"And we're getting distracted," Saoirse added. "Let's find Odette. Then we kill the fuck out of everything here."