30 Chapter 30: Victory

Silence befell the black fields once the last attack's impact ended. No Dread could be heard, nor the wind, nor anything. For a moment, the world stayed quiet, as if paying his respects for both beings that fought till the end for their lives and desires.

Dean woke up some minutes after he passed out due to the effort he made. His body was achy all over. He couldn't hear anything for a while, but that was because his hearing got messed. For a moment, he couldn't even remember what happened before he fainted.

The boy did his best to make his shaky legs get steady, so he could stand up. However, it wasn't possible. After that fierce exchange of powerful blows against the Dread, the muscles of his legs weren't working as they should. To keep standing still against such a powerful monster, one needed to push himself to the limit, and Dean went far beyond his limit on that fight.

He looked around, seeing that a huge fissure was opened in the fields. It seemed like a bomb exploded there, but one powerful enough to destroy an entire town and wipe everything inside it.

For a moment, he couldn't even realize that he was the one responsible for that destruction. The fact that he survived was already incredible enough, but to accept that his body held such power during the battle...

'I did it?' He kneeled on the ground after trying to get up several times. His widened eyes crossed those fields, trying to find the Dread lion, but he didn't find him. That creature ran away once he saw that his life was in danger.

Dreads who were alive for many generations put their survival as the top priority. The risk of staying there and get severely harmed by Dean was high, and he had lost one of his legs, which was a dangerous wound.

'I did it!' A gleam of happiness and relief appeared on the boy's face. He grinned while letting himself lay on the ground for some minutes more. Unintentionally, he began to laugh out loud. When thinking about his victory, he couldn't help but laugh.

Tears of joy began to leave his eyes. His sobs substituted his laugh as he remembered everything he passed for, and survived.

"Thank you..." He muttered. "Thank you, dad, uncle... Thank you very much."

The boy stayed like that for some more time, lying on the ground and resting his muscles. At some point, he even fell asleep. It was dangerous to do something like that in an unknown place, with Dreads probably lurking around. Nevertheless, his exhaustion had reached a high level.

After he got some rest, Dean got up.

'Ok. Now is time to think properly and try to do something productive.'

He analyzed the place where he was. Around him, just the black fields could be seen, but the most interesting thing was on the horizon.

It was night already, so Dean could orient himself using the position of the constellations. He learned it when he was a kid. He never thought that he could get to use it at some point.

'Ok, I just found Ursa Major. Now, where is the Polar star? ... Ah, ok, there is the north then!'

In the north, Dean could see a forest with tall gray trees. Their leaves had an autumn color. It wasn't too far away, and it was an extensive forest which he couldn't see its end. It spread to the left and right and occupied a good part of the horizon at west and east as well.

'Hmm, maybe I can find supplies there. But I don't know if trees are affected by the Crimson Apocalypse as well. Whichever I find in the forest can be toxic for my body. I saw in books that there are trees that move and kill animals and humans. It's better to keep my distance from there.' He frowned hard, in deep thought.

'At west and east, the forest isn't so dense, so it will be easier for me to travel if I want to. At south...' He turned his body toward the south region.

In the south, there was a long river crossing the black fields, there were some trees, but they were more spaced than in the other forest. The trees had a better look as well; their wood was brown and the leaves were green.

'If I remember well, the three refuges were construed near a water source. Where there's water, there's civilization too! Concluding, that will be the course I will take. Those trees probably have healthy resources for me. This path may not get me to Refuge Sarah, but if I can find any other settlement, then I can ask for a map or information.'

Afterward, Dean began to search among be items that got teleported with him. The majority got destroyed after the explosion of "Willpower" and "Chaos", but some of them just got knocked away.

The boy spent ten minutes searching. He didn't find any other weapon to defend himself, nor supplies. Unfortunately, what got teleported with him was a library.

Nonetheless, among those books, one very interesting drew Dean's attention. It had a worn-out leather cover and its paper was already yellowish. It was quite old.

Written on the cape was the tile: Art of the Ascendance.

That was a book that Dean heard about several times. The book that every Ascendant should have in order to get more knowledge about "Willpower" and how to get stronger. They said that it was written by Will, one of the three saviors. He was a professor that studied a lot about "Willpower" and its uses for humanity.

Dean smiled, chuckling.

"It will be useful, for sure." He muttered.

Since the book wasn't too big, although quite thick, he kept it in his pocket.

'Well, since there isn't anything more around, I think I got to start my travel. I need to find something to eat. However...' He looked to his own body. 'Just search around was already too tiring. My body is almost destroyed. How can I make a long journey with these conditions?'

He clicked his tongue.

Just when he was reasoning about it, he heard sounds coming from the west. Dean's neck hair stood on end, and he turned immediately to see what it was.