chapter 32: blood forest

After regaining his composure Timothy helped the others clear the remaining enemies, within a few minutes they had killed them all.

"Where did the leader go?" Komoni asked wiping the blood off her daggers

"He ran away." Timothy answered , he could feel his eyes growing heavy

"But why though? We all clearly saw that he had the upper hand against you , plus none of us could utilize the breath plus you didn't mention that your sword was a rune weapon" komoni shot all her questions at once as she stared at Timothy's sword that had chains emitting a purple light on its guard

Before Timothy could answer he found himself falling down but Jake quickly caught him

"There there pal" Jake carried the unconscious Timothy back to the carriage 

"Trevor open up it's me" the carriage was opened and Jake placed Timothy down

"You can go back , the fighting is over now " Jake spoke , Trevor bowed and left

The rest of Timothy's teammates got inside the carriage and stared at him lying unconscious on the carriage floor

"That guy he fought was using the foul breath , and to meet a bandit that actually practices the degenerate path is not a common sight" komoni spoke

"No those guys were not bandits , bandits are not skillful fighters . My bet is that they are mercenaries" Lus spoke

"The men we fought may be mercenaries but their leader isn't "

"What do you mean Jake?"

"Children of the fallen.." Jake's answer left them all stupefied

They had been taught about the children of the fallen this past week and they were one of the very few groups that practiced the degenerate path , this group was so powerful that they managed to infiltrate their kingdom and destroy the city where Jake and Timothy came from undetected , the whole city was down in a day. They all knew that if that man was part of the that organisation then this attack on them was planned and clearly someone told them where they were headed but who ? Could it be Sedrigus...

"So do you know what's wrong with him?" Komoni pointed at Timothy , Jake shrugged looking at Timothy's neck .

"So that's why ..."Jake thought to himself

"I guess everyone of us has their secrets."komoni added 

The carriage started moving and when they had just left the range of the suppression artifact they could all feel their connection to the breath but then Dan spoke up

"Are we going to live that thing"komoni immediately hopped out of the carriage and did the release hand seal , the artifact shrank and flew towards her hands 

"Move Trevor"she spoke as she got back in the carriage

The carriage made it's way out of the ancient city ruins but standing far away was a man with half of his body burnt looking at them with fury 

"How dare they take my artifact , master is going to scold me for this " he said as he vanished from where he was

Dawn arrived and Timothy woke up, they were now nearing the border. Timothy got up an sat beside Lus Komoni looked at him before asking"Are you okay ?"

"Yeah I'm fine" he answered with his head down ,in his mind he was trying to reach Sebrina 

"Sebrina are you there?" 

Silence , Timothy kept trying to reach her until he heard an irritated sigh 

"What do you want?" Sebrina finally answered 

Timothy was happy that she responded"tha-thanks for helping me"

"It's not like I had a choice" she answered

"That doesn't matter to me ,all I Know is you helped me and for that thanks " Sebrina did not bother answering him anymore 

The carriage moved forward and they were now on the outer parts of the desert , Infront of them was a sea of red trees and they all knew they had reached the blood forest border. Komoni suddenly asked Trevor to stop the carriage

 "We will walk from here " no one objected and they left Trevor on the outer desert 

They entered the blood forest and the first that assaulted their nostrils was the smell of blood 

"When they said it was the blood forest I didn't expect it to be this bloody" Dan spoke looking at the wet ground that was blood red in color , infact everything in this forest was red with Jake perfectly blending in since his cloak was red too

"This place is rumored to be the former battle field of Zebha and La'faura before they transcended to Godhood ,this is where they spilled their divine blood causing the forest here to be dyed red and even birthing a dreadful creature from the impurities in their blood , that creature is rumored to be the reason why many men who enter the forest disappear without a trace " komoni spoke but then Dan burst out laughing

"Do you really believe in those bed time stories?"

"Explain why this place reeks of blood then bald head?"komoni snapped 

"I don't know maybe this was warzone and the bloody of the countless soldiers who died with hatred in their hearts cursed this place or something I don't know" Dan shook his head at his own assumption 

"What!!!! that's even dumber than I thought"komoni slapped her face 

"Quiet!! I hear something"Timothy had already channeled and was on the look out 

He picked a black sound wave coming from a tree about 25 yards away from them, when he tried listening he suddenly clamped his ears and fell down to the ground while clamping his now bleeding ears 

"What is it" Dan asked , they had all drawn out their weapons and looked around in fear but there was nothing

Timothy recovered in a few minutes and stood up with his head a slightly dizzy 

"We have to get far away from here"Timothy spoke and dashed towards the center of the forest with the others immediately following after him , nobody asked why they just ran after him but after running for a few minutes they suddenly froze unable to do anything besides talking

"What's happening Timothy!"Dan yelled in fear then they all shuddered as a bone chilling aura filled the whole place 

"Humans....you dare step into this holy land with your tainted souls , your presence is unholy ."

Timothy and the rest tried everything in their power to move their bodies but nothing worked , Infront of them a phantom like creature materialized Infront of them revealing a creature with 5 horns and blood red angel wings with a mouth that sawn in and pitch black hair with a frighteningly beautiful blue skin color wearing black robes and a flute in hand 

Their blood started draining from their body at an overly fast rate but there was nothing they could do, Timothy was trying to call Sebrina but it seemed as if she was blocking him from reaching her thoughts through their mind link , Timothy was about to summon void when the creature turned to look at Jake with wary 

"I sense a superior bloodline in you" Jake stopped struggling and he looked at the creature 

"If what you say is true then you should release me and my friends" the creature laughed a little opening it's sawn mouth open before shaking his head 

"It's just a bloodline boy your not the first I've killed with a superior bloodline"Jake creased his brows and the sky darkened as many clouds gathered and lightning crackled