Numortaaz (Part 2).

"Is it always like that these days?" - Aiden asked one of the town soldiers with puzzlement while passing him a wineskin with water.

"Yes, they attack and leave but then came back again soon." - sighed the guard who clearly was lacking sleep. He drank a mouthful and gave it back.

"They are trying to tire you out." - Aiden suddenly realized, that someone is using undead army not to perform siege or conquer, no, the main issue here is to weaken defenders to get advantage in actual attack is yet to come. But what he can't wrap his head around is why.

From his observation, Gurong Town was completely irrelevant. It was poor and with no secrets at all. If one needs to say something about it, then it would be that its destruction will go unnoticed by other forces and cities, let alone authorities.

Aiden left for the inn and sat there in a pensive mood. The main issue here is not him but Sena. He has a duty to protect her, and thus escaping this place as soon as possible with her is imperative. Or it should be, but somewhere deep down he keeps having this strange feeling that he just can't run away and must fight! It is like a belief in oneself and in what is right or wrong.

Only that could keep him from falling apart in the North Pole and Aiden suddenly realized that here in civilization everything is not that different. He still needs it, his heart and morals should be preserved, or who knows what he will become? Running away once is equal to running away every time.

And the other issue here is his intuition that was screaming that despite the lack of importance on the surface, deep down something vital is happening here.

'If I can't leave, I can only confront it head-on. Undead are not exactly beings of persona but puppets. Remove the puppeteer and all will become better. Nexus, do you have any knowledge about necromancy?'

= There are many limitations actually, even if one thinks there are none. First – close proximity. One needs to be near its creations or they will lose connection and immediately die the real death. Second – one cannot create zombies as strong as these ones just like that. Place, tools, corpses – all are needed to be quite unique.

'Wait, did you say one needs to be near? We can use it.'

"Order people to gather zombies that are still moving but crippled and can't follow the retreat. I will need them." - Aiden said to the bearded man.

"Why? Are you a dark master?" - the bearded man named Gu Baifeng was perplexed and suddenly became wary of the kid, especially seeing his battle prowess.

"No, tell people to lay them in a wide circle and wait."

"What good will it do?"

"We can find the direction of their escape." - Aiden said simply, but seeing look which lacks comprehension revealed the plan. - "Every controlled undead has a certain range of operation depending on the master's power. If he or she is retreating right now, we can see the direction from that circle."

"And what next?" - he felt incredulous. Not like he can kill the controller. And they all clearly see where the army is going. What is this youngster thinking of?

But what Aiden wanted is not just to track down the demon, but to figure out whether it is here, inside the town. The range can be small, just a hundred meters, but it can be as big as several miles. If the demon is strong even while ordering a retreat he can sit idly nearby and watch the show.

They lay bodies in the main square, but nothing happened.

'Nexus, is there a way to track down a demon through connection?'

= There is if you can sense it, otherwise don't bother.

Aiden jumped from the wall and met Sena in her room. Her rate of progress was very fast. Although she was only at the first level, she reached it after just several days.

In the week of his stay here, assaults happened at least twice per day and mostly at night. Aiden collected required crystals two days before the attacks finally stopped and what's more – the circle of bodies died at the same time with no way to show directions.

Back then he didn't know that not trying to follow the demon of death will become one of his biggest mistakes in that lifetime. A mistake he will pay so much for that it nearly drove him insane. But at present, an occasion with undead vanishing together with the tribes in a span of a day was covered in mystery and remained in deep parts of his memory without a proper conclusion.

He was too impatient to take care of the evolution of Tree of Life. And because of it not long after attacks stopped the duo left Gurong town just like that.

= I must remind you about the risks. You might fall into a coma so be prepared. When you are ready to fuse two hundred crystals together and swallow them.

"Got it." - he said aloud.

"Who are you talking to, brother Aiden?" - Sena was currently sitting by his side eating fried fish they caught.

"Just thinking aloud, don't mind it too much." - he said while sweating. The last thing he needs is for anyone to know about his secrets.

"Where are we going now?"

"I want to visit one particular academy that will be a proper home for you. Plus, you can practice there and have outstanding teachers."

"But... I thought... you will teach me." - she said with tears in her eyes. The little girl still found it hard to control emotions. She knew exactly whom to thank for her dreams to come true. And after several weeks of being together, she came to depend on Aiden and even love him like a family, a big brother type of figure.

"Silly, stop crying, it's not like we won't see each other again. We will in near future, believe me. And until then you need to have many friends and become strong."

"I don't want you to leave!"

"Sena... it's too dangerous..."

"I don't want you to leave!" - Aiden just sighed.

She is just a little kid, after all. Let's not press the matter for now.

* * *

A week after Aiden left Gurong Town. Within one of the courtyards.

"Gu Baifeng! Gu Baifeng! Hurry, your wife is giving birth, why are you even here?" - one of his comrades screamed from the street with good intentions and a smile all over his face. He looked at how a usually stoic and calm man who was as a rock in the midst of the battlefield has traces of panic on his face.

"Can you shut it, I was driven out okay!" - but even saying that he was already running back with all his might. Throughout these days he visited his wife so often that she became enraged.

A gargantuan man with a beard entered a spacious courtyard in large strides and stopped only at the very entrance. He listened to his screaming wife with trembling hands and barely covered excitement.

At some point screams subsided and silence descended inside the house which made him nervous with a premonition of misfortune. He always trusted his instincts and thus directly smashed the door open, only to freeze on the spot with astonishment.

In his rounded eyes full of shock and horror, he saw a newborn standing on the stomach of a woman with an opened mouth. Its mouth was as large as its body and looking inside Gu Baifeng saw only darkness and endless corrupted void.

Everyone in the room became dried corpses, and the newborn closed his mouth with a smack.

"Ah, another meal." - said the creature, while licking its lips. Pitch black eyes with no whites stared at the man and black smile opened up the face of a boy from ear to ear. - "This town will be the first, for I, Sky Lord Numortaaz, am here."

Then a black cloud of tremendous devouring might engulfed the courtyard and later moved through the town, killing all people silently. The next day Gurong Town became devoid of life.

* * *

Several weeks after Aiden left Gurong Town. Within the forest.

In these several weeks in the forest, her power reached level ten, and she was ready for the first spirit ring. Aiden already has a choice for her. It was a spirit beast with illusory ability, Dream Cloud Butterfly. An exquisite and thoroughly kind creature with a mild temper. They rarely live for long because of hunters and nobles, who loved this type of spirit beast to be as their house pets.

They hunted it down with no problem but it took Sena ten minutes to find the courage to kill it and that is because of its life-like eyes. Even Aiden didn't have the heart to kill another one of these beasts. As for Sena's skill, Aiden found an astonishing thing. She can do two things with activation. Either use the white part of the flute to create a blessing for comrades or black to curse enemies for negative effect of the same parameter.

As for both colors, she said it is possible but she can't right now and that the effect would be an attack spell! And here Aiden thought he is a cheat, but now Selena has a three-in-one package of skills from the ring.