The Shackles of the Past Pt. 8

"I see. Yna, accompany them to this Wolva guy, deal with him however you see fit, get the sword and bring it back."

"OK!" Yna said as she stood up.

"Wait! You don't plan on sending Yna back with us alone, do you?" Anda asked with widened eyes.

"Yes, why?"

"Wolva is an extremely dangerous man and has control over death itself. That and is sword is said to be capable of killing Golden Knights." Anda said prompting Katsíki and Yna to look at each other.

"Well?"

"Don't worry, I've dealt with death magicians before. They feed off the death of recently dead things. I'll have to explain this again in the mainline chapters just in case someone skips these ones, but once something dies, most of its potential is drained. That short process is called death. So you can imagine life or living as having a positive amount of potential and death is the draining of that potential to almost zero. I say almost zero because your corpse could always be turned into fertilizer. Anyway, a death magician is able to harness that draining force. Imagine that a human has fifty life points. If they die and a death magician absorbs their death, the human still dies and the magician gains fifty death points. This means that if they transfer those points into another person, that person will die."

Everyone let out understanding hums after Yna explained everything.

"Also, you can tell that a corpse has been defiled by a magician if it looks like a dry, dark husk."

"What happens if a magician takes only forty nine of the fifty?" Katsíki asked.

"The person will become extremely old and weak."

"Ooh! Kinda like what happened with Calëb and that woman." Katsíki said, but Yna shook her head.

"No. What she did was reduce that woman's maximum life points and give them to herself. If a Rendaro usually has fifty, that woman now has forty nine and Calëb gained one. So if she was at forty five after punching Karish, she went up to forty six after healing."

"I see. What usually affects how many life points a person has?" Katsíki asked.

"The simple answer is that your life points are equal the amount of time you can possibly live as an organism. The complicated answer is that the universe might know when you're gonna die and so that might factor in to your maximums." Yna said.

"Understood. So… how many do you have?" Katsíki asked.

"Huh? Can't say. It's not exactly quantifiable. My example of fifty was just so that you could understand the concept, but if I were to give myself a number… it'd be fifty thousand or so."

"What?" Katsíki gasped.

"What?" Yna asked, but at this point Anda's mind had given in.

"Forgive my rudeness, but Elder Tal should have found Wolva's sword by now. It'd be best if we headed there was soon as possible before he turns his blade on them." He said weakly.

"OK." Yna said as she placed Katsíki down.

She then pointed at a spot just in front of her.

"Everyone stand there." She instructed.

Anda and the scouts complied before being bathed in a bright golden light.

Anda blinked and are that they were in the dark expanse, he looked around and saw that they were several kilometers away from Coh.

"Dammit. Looks like I still suck at long distance travel. Ah well, you all look relatively fit. Come on!" Yna said before dashing south.

Anda and the scouts looked at each other, but they all quickly noticed that Yna was getting further away and so they ran after her.

.

..

Anda and his scouts all wheezed as they ran behind Yna.

They had just passed Eimval and the heat from the rising sun covered the Dark Expanse in a thick, suffocating heat.

Anda ran up to Yna, who's face was expressionless even though they'd been running for almost an hour.

"Pardon me, ma'am… but just… what do you plan on doing to Wolva after we reach him?" Anda asked while fighting for his every breath.

"Mmm?" Yna sounded before lowering her golden eyes to Anda who ran a little further away.

"Katsíki said I should do as I see fit. Meaning I'll react accordingly. If this Wolva person attacks me, I'll respond in kind." She said flatly. It didn't even seem like she breathing.

Anda nodded before returning his gaze to the horizon.

.

..

"Oh, Is that them?" Yna asked, but at this point Anda was beyond exhausted.

"Yes." Anda coughed as Yna finally stopped running.

The scouts all loudly wheezed as they followed Yna, who's body acquired a pale golden glow as she approached the group of Rendaro in the distance.

Anda walked up to Tal, who stood behind the guards who surrounded Wolva.

"What happened? Did you find his sword?" Anda asked while still heavily breathing.

Tal glanced at Yna momentarily before nodding to himself.

"He said that it's right here. However, I decided to wait until the knight returned to act." Tal said as Yna approached.

"So you are the one of the conspirators." She said with crossed arms.

Anda noticed that Wolva was staring at Yna with a rather peculiar expression, but he chose to ignore it.

"Yes and I am so sorry. Elder Olen was the one who deemed you a threat to the Ia and decided that we should deal with you before you turned your blade on us." Tal said while deeply bowing.

"Wow… do you have no sense of honor or shame? You just admitted that the one who planned all this was Olen." Yna said with a raised eyebrow.

"I know. But I have weighed my options and I'd rather live under lord Katsíki than dare raise a hand against him or you." Olen said as he visibly trembled beneath Yna's golden gaze.

"Good." Yna scoffed before facing Wolva who froze as Yna walked towards him.

The guards all stepped back as Yna and Wolva stood face to face.

They were about the same height, but Yna was several times bigger than Wolva, who's thin limbs stuck out of his filthy rags.

Anda's eyes widened as Wolva's head lowered.

It looked almost as though he was collapsing into himself.

"Hello. My name is Yna. What's yours?"

"W-Wolva." He said while trying his best not to face Yna. His deep, rumbling voice had been reduced to a faint drone.

"Where is this death sword I've heard so much about?"

"It… doesn't exist."