35 Pledge of Survival
30 minutes before the direct encounter.
Kivas knew that it would be hard to find the group if the range of the deterrent could take up kilometers in range. So he started to experiment, or to an extent, attempted to abuse the new feature that the new Boon of Utility had just provided.
-Shall thou shackle upon a pledge?-
As soon as Kivas thought about using the [The Pledge Maker], fiery gold letters appeared in the depth of Kivas' soul, asking him personally and truthfully to his whole entire being.
-Available Pledges:
-Pledge of Survival-
'The description didn't mention anything about cooldown…'
Honest through his intent, Kivas put his thoughts on the Pledge of Survival.
The torch gleamed in red before it released a striking choir as its chime. Kivas felt like a bomb has been planted inside of him.
-May thou be graced with life-
After ten seconds, the pledge selection time was up, and within the vast darkness of his soul, a new time was ticking.
-Pledges:
-Survive for 120 seconds: 119 seconds left-
-Reward:
-30 seconds of blessing of life-
Kivas then waited until the 120 seconds ran out.
-All pledges have been fulfilled-
Kivas immediately felt a jolting wave running through the course and every inch of his body, going back and forth just like a pumped up blood vessel that was ten times more powerful and efficient. He then used the uptime of the pledge to explore the forest.
He then calculated on how much of a benefit of the pledge's reward.
It was quadruple of his current speed and power.
'This is insane!'
Just as he thought, he can indefinitely make a pledge again and again. The only drawback was the mental and spiritual exhaustion that felt beyond the experience of death after pledging the same oath ten times in a row. Although, such effort won't be wasted any more
'Ahahah… so the [The Pledge Maker] is just an overclock of my body with no limit of usage, hahah…'
Kivas miscalculated this probability, but he decided to push through the exhaustion and went on with his mission.
'There you are…!'
After Kivas managed to pinpoint the location of the group, he tried to deduce the pathing and their destination.
'The forest is quite dense and there is no particular place that is blatant enough for them to go there.' Kivas had his imaginary head over the heel of his pointy crustacean legs for rolling his brain to make up a deduction. 'Then again, I don't really know what their purpose is to go here other than the chances of the imposter pulling some shitty deal that many of them can't refuse. But why this isolated and obscured place?'
No matter how sharp the angle he used to turn his brain upside down, he seemed to be unable to reason with the hypothesis that he agreed with the most.
So instead of focusing on the reason, Kivas tried to roll his imaginary head to the other side, and used another angle to crack open the mystery.
'Samsong mentioned that the form of deterrent that was emitted is of wavelength, unless he meant metaphorically. If I took the POV of the members of the group, I wouldn't know a thing. But if I took the angle of vision of the hooded rodent however…'
Kivas used his sharp leg to carve a ball surrounded by simple illustrations of trees on the skin of the nearby tree.
'A person with psychopathic nature comes with elaborate malevolent planning when they want to carry out something into fruition. There is no way for her to use the deterrent just so that the whole group can safely explore the realm. Because if what Samsong said is true about the fake sky, then it must be that!'
Kivas then draw multiple concentric circles of different circumference, starting from the smallest one with the ball as the middle point, and the bigger one with parts of it curved to match the trees that are blocking the spread.
'The kind of wavelength that Samsong refers to must be some sort of emitted frequency. And if there is a limit to their area, then it must be the type of high frequency akin to a cell phone's data!''
Kivas remembered some details about why people who go camping out in the forest or for a hike didn't bother taking their phone. As well as the reason why using the internet in dense forest was inherently worse unless there was a provider nearby.
Cell phones operate in the 900MHz range during voice calls and the 1900MHz range for data. The trees in the forest literally eat up the frequency. The higher the frequency the shorter the range but more penetration of objects!
Most people use VHF (136–174MHz) radios while camping or anywhere in the woods. VHF radios are made for distance and don't penetrate. When you are in the forest there are no buildings to penetrate, the VHF waves simply move around the trees.
That's why VHF is the preferred method of communication in a wooded environment. Even then, the frequency that was used by the object isn't necessarily used for traffic, it was meant to spread as far as it could reach. In which, vegetation and high temperature was already proven to reduce the range of communication.
The object that the group carries with them might possibly possess two modes of frequency emission. The first was that of high frequency which passes through objects but in shorter range, and the second, where it could possibly be activated later, was of lower frequency which didn't pass through objects but capable of longer reach.
After all, it's not like this aforementioned object was sending out gamma radiation like an EMP or electromagnetic field which pulls electrons from air molecules, causing them to accelerate at the speed of light.
Actually, there was a possibility that what the device was emitting an electromagnetic field, but Kivas was just too preoccupied with his cell phones theory that he didn't want to check that area yet as it could possibly alter his whole plan in mind, and he want to gain an advantage as fast as he could.
'They are definitely going to go to an area devoid of trees!'
Kivas' adrenaline was too high at this point, knowing that it was his first time to take on a mission that was so absurd yet carry a bigger weight than simply just eliminating the opposing threat.
Because he admitted, he didn't know much of this world yet and its dweller, but he didn't want it to go into ruin without having the chance to explore it.
The rest was as it supposedly unfolded. Kivas found the vast glade of purple flowers meadow, and scouted started to draw this provocative yet adorable carving illustration on as many trees and stones he could find in all kinds of possible pathing that the group might take to reach their hypothesized destination.
He kept abusing his pledges again and again, pushing through the limit of what a normal human could endure in their whole life. Contrary to him, however, the mind numbing strain of the pledge feature was merely less than a half of what he had endured to count in the ever living emptiness of the never ending void.
Although, despite the intimidation tactic, the group kept on pressing onward.
'I guess confrontation is inevitable.'
Kivas stalked the group as he witnessed the disappearance of the hooded rodent and how the whole group was plunged into panic. One of the men, however, seemed to have suggested something to their leader.
Half of the exploration personnel turned their back and walked towards the direction where they were coming from while half stayed. Kivas eyed every person to find the object of his target.
'That dodecahedron device looks weirdly suspicious.'
He wanted to snipe the device so badly, but he had this inchling of a feeling that the consequences would be dire for him after he took out the source of the deterrent. Because as much as of help that Samsong could provide using his essence of nature, he told Kivas at some point that this sorcery was of low level and might not be able to help him if the people were to retaliate.
'That man with the scar… my instinct tells me that he might be strong enough to kill a whole battalion of the modern army…'
Though, there was this one key information that could change it all.
Everyone was always looking down.
As if they were scared of the terrifying scenery above. Or, they were told to not look up no matter what.
Kivas then activated his pledge.
-May thou be graced with life-
And waited until the countdown was nearing zero.
Using the tall meadow of flowers as cover, he then sprinted towards his appointed location where the slope level let him to be at the most visible position, all while maintaining his stealth like a deadly assassin.
'Art thou blind or art thou keen?'
Kivas pointed his torch straight to the sky.
'Ne'er aim for the hind, enlightenment for all thy kin!'
Suddenly, a towering blaze of red, black, and yellow golden flaming petals emerged from a highly visible point in the range of 20 meters away from the group. The sheer size and sound of the abrupt gleam of holy flare were enough to catch everyone's attention almost immediately.
All while they were flinched by the realization of the horrifying truth, Kivas activated the 'essence of nature' that was stored in his soul by Samsong. His mind was immediately connected to every person in the meadow.
-All pledges have been fulfilled-
"What all of you sought in this place is non-existent!" Using the boost from the Pledge of Survival, Kivas swung and maneuvered his 20 meters flaming sword into the shape of a blossoming flower with continuous swings of high velocity.
He made sure to have his sword pass through the space inbetween the majority of the group and the two individuals with scarf and giant hulking sword of steel. With his martial exhibition of intimidation, Kivas made sure the severity of his threat and sent enough message that he could kill everyone if he wanted to. "Leave this place, or the world shall shudder the consequences of your spiteful selfishness!"
Amidst the flurry of the beautiful yet deadly blossoming performance, Kivas sent out one of his spectral limbs like a guided missile, aimed to take down the dodecahedron device.
