Chapter 7, Not Everything Is As Easy As It Is.

Dawn had come and they started their journey in the forest to look at the source of the problem, Amara walked in front while Kayden was walking behind her. The forest had a lot of animals running around but the plants were dead in a lot of places and how much deeper you went in the forest, how much less life force there was. If you had a weak sense of mana you could collapse of the pressure, Amara had expected the same for Kayden but he is still walking and breathing alright. She did not think much of it and simply thought he had a good mana wave flowing inside of him that could make him follow her tempo in the forest. The trees were covered in blood and scratches, the fruits and vegetables had all soiled and dried out. You could find nothing special, it is now just a useless empty forest. It is not possible to save the forest anymore and if there was a small glimpse of hope left to save this forest Amara would try her best to find it even if it means to exhaust herself to her limits. She just felt bad for the forest, that's it. Kayden tapped on her back. "The scratches on the trees look a lot like X's for some odd reason." He pointed out for her to notice. X's? Where had she heard this story before… "Ah!" Amara said out loud as if she understood what he meant by that. He is talking about the demon named Xen, he has been here or is still here. Amara quickly looked at the trees with the scratches and felt them. "Your hands!-" Kayden yelled out but before he could continue his cries Amara had stopped him. "No need to worry, I am wearing gloves this time, I won't catch a splinter." She reassured him. He had calmed himself down and also examined the tree scratches. Traces of mana are left behind! They were not too long ago and people could still be nearby but as soon Amara had that thought she heard rustling in the bushes near them. So she took Kaydens arm and ran with him deeper into the forest just to make sure they're deep enough for the other party not to find them. "I am sorry for the sudden rush but I cannot afford for us to be seen." Amara quickly made use of her power and made them invisible however Kayden didn't look shocked or confused. He looked quite serene in the moment as if this wasn't his first time being in the forest and followed by something. There was a sound in the bushes again and this time they could have eye contact with it, it was just a small bunny. At first sight it might seem like a fluffy small little bunny but it is recording and taking their tracks with its eyes. It gave Kayden an unsettling feeling for a weird reason. While the bunny was coming their way they could see some sort of group of people at a camp surrounding a bonfire and speaking in an ancient language. Amara gave a signal towards Kayden that she wants to take a look but he was a bit hesitant but still went with her. The documents that mentioned the cult weren't wrong but it was also not right. The group of people who are in the forest is a group of people who are trying to offer the villagers they have kidnapped and trying to feed them to the man-eating spirit. It is honestly disgusting to see that some people are willing to betray their own family and friends for their own benefit. However before they could start feeding the spirit they got stopped by a man in black and he tried to fight off the spirit on its own. Amara and Kayden decided to only watch and not interfere and take small steps backwards but one of the two stepped on a tree branch on accident and it made a louder noise than expected. The spirit and man both lost their attention to each other and started directly looking at Amara and Kayden who are supposed to be invisible. The man-eating spirit dashed its way to them, making Amara get into a battle position and take out her sword. Just as she was ready to attack then, was a sudden loud sound! It sounded like an explosion, Amara turned around to look who it was and it was Kayden. He had a gun by the hand which baffled her. "You never told me you had a gun!" She yelled at him. "Well you never asked." He said in a confused tone. However the bullet wasn't enough for the spirit, it got up again and approached them. Amara chooses to attack and swing first so she has the upper hand. The spirit tries to take the sword out of her hand while Amara is slashing his hand away and takes it to a place away from Kayden and lets him handle the mysterious man in the hood. She got to a place in the forest that was not too far away from Kayden and started to strike the spirit. The spirit started to be more on guard and used his mana with every punch he made towards her. "Can't fight me without your mana? How sad." Amara teased it making it more angrier than it already was. The spirit was now attacking Amara with quicker movement but it was still quite easy to read the attacks it made. Amara had no trouble blocking all the punches and made the spirit exhausted itself and sluggish down. Amara punched the spirit with a lot of mana power and knocked it out with a playful reaction. "I hadn't had this type of fight for a long time!" she happily said to herself while walking up to the spirit and putting her sword in its heart without thinking. "I probably should report back to Alijah what had happened here." She twisted her sword making the spirit scream and yell in pain until it vanished into thin air. She ran back to where she had left Kayden and that weird mysterious man but when she approached the scene she was shocked to see that the job was already done and that Kayden was smiling and waving at her. She started to feel an uneasy sense but brushed it off. "You don't have any wounds on you right?" She asked him. "I know how to take care of myself, no need to worry." He answered her in a happy tone. The uneasy sensation started to linger back on her and looked behind her if she was being followed by something and it was the bunny that followed them earlier. She wanted to stab it but instead picked it up and played with it. Kayden took a couple steps back from the bunny. "Wait… Are you scared of bunnies?" Amara questioned him, she was a word away before she'll start laughing. Kayden didn't reply and kept quiet and Amara started to burst out of laughter making Kayden blush out of embarrassment. "Okay… There was no reason to laugh at me." He said with an annoyed tone and started to walk away from her so Amara dropped the bunny and killed it before following. "Please wait for me!" She yelled at him. They made their way back to the town with laughter and a smile on their faces after seeing the people who had been eating by the spirit finally be set free. They got back to the Inn and decided that this is the last night they would spend here, as they made their way to the room they are staying at Amara looked at the same painting she saw yesterday but it seemed a bit different from last time so she didn't think much of it. As they finally got to the room Amara offered to stay up the night. "Since I slept last night it would only be fair if you slept this night." She told him. "I don't have a reason to say no, however I should repay you for being my bodyguard shouldn't I?" He responded to her idea and made her realise that she will go in the same loop like they did last night so she took a deep sigh and nodded. "At least get some rest this time." She said to him before wishing him a goodnight and he could only smile and leave the room. When he had left the Inn, the butler saw him and chose to ignore him while cold sweat was dripping down from his face. Kayden went to the forest the same way he went with Amara and his hand lit up with fire. Amara could not sleep because of an unsettling feeling of someone watching her and she decided to open her eyes so she could see but it will look like for others that her eyes are still closed. She saw no one in the room and decided to just open her eyes and sit on the bed and stretch for a bit but before she could stand up she smelled a strong wave of fire coming outside so she looked outside the window and saw the entire forest in flames. She had contacted Alijah immediately. "Alijah!" She cried out his name. "Why are you yelling?" He asked her. "I cannot answer that now but send down my Nimcha sabre to my location in exactly 15 seconds." He was quite stunned by this request. "Just 15?" He asked for confirmation and Amara nodded and stopped the conversation between them and made the quick descent to jump out of the back window and look at the forest herself. How did the fire even spread this fast and where is Kayden!? Amara prayed for his well-being before trying her best to use icy water to put out the fire herself. "Kayden, are you somewhere!" She yelled out and hoped to hear a response but there was no reply back. Her sabre came down from the heavens with a strong speed and she started slicing through the trees creating a huge cold rain walk so the forest would not completely burn down. The fire was not drying out but only worsened every rain drop Amara did not stop her search for Kayden in the forest. A nervous feeling started to crawl up from her stomach, heavy breaths and sweat dripping from her face. She feels like she is about to throw up out of stress at this point as she also is too focused on finding Kayden and not her surroundings that she does not notice the flames going out on their own. Just how could this happen in such a short time? It is as if someone is trying to wipe out the entire existence of the man eating spirit. Amara was in the middle of the forest before she just stopped running. She looked around and saw her entire surroundings were completely burned down and she still had not found Kayden. She is confused on why only this part of the forest is burned down and not the rest. She decided to look around more precise at the trees. There were only scratches of X's on the trees left, does this mean that Xen was here? It would only make sense that he was and that he might have been helping the spirit raise his mana ranking to annoy the Celestians. Amara looked around if there was any mana traces left behind but this time there were none. She left put a quick sigh before leaving the forest with no Kayden found. The last few townspeople who had stayed behind were yelling and screaming, hiding in their houses praying to the Gods above of when the forest would stop burning. The forest was not in good health before and now it might completely disappear. Amara's head started to feel heavier as the minute would pass by because she had inhaled too much of the carbon dioxide from the forest in stress. It should not be this dangerous for her body to breathe in this amount of it, her vision slowly was getting more blurry by the second but she could not stop but help to think about Kayden safety. She was spacing out so much that she couldn't focus on her surroundings. There was a sound coming from near her but she couldn't understand where it was coming from. She felt a warm hand slowly wrapping around her arm and her heart skipped a beat out of fear. As she looked up to the person who was holding her arm she could not see who it was because of how her eyesight is working at the moment. She was able to make a guess of the gender the person was, a male, she was quite confused on who it might have been. The man was dressed in black and white and very tall and covered with small and big gold jewellery that was bright like the sun. Amara slowly started to think about the joke she made around the three little pigs, might this be her knight in shining armour? She laughed at herself a bit. She could feel a comfortable presence coming from him when they started to feel each other touch. As she was slowly able to gain her vision back and wanting to thank the man she had arrived at the entrance of the forest before she even noticed and when she blinked the man was gone. She was very confused about what had just happened and quickly looked around to see if the man was still here but there was no trace of him left behind. However she could still feel his warm embrace on her arm and feel relieved that he was not Xen. She quickly gained her thoughts back and immediately was thinking about where Kaydens whereabouts could be. "Amara?!" A voice yelled out with horror, she turned her head and tried her best to see who it was. It was Kayden! Amara let a sigh out of relief after seeing him. "Kayden, where were you this entire time?" She asked him. "I was looking at the houses because I could not sleep." He says with a soft angry tone. "What made you think I was in the forest? Have you lost your mind!?" While Amara was searching for Kayden he was also looking for her at the same time when he found out she wasn't in the room anymore. Stress and anxiety came from both sides but their lack of communication might still be the worst part of this duo. Amara felt bad for what she did and how she made him worry for no reason so with that said she gave her apologies to him. "Please, do not ever do this to someone else. Please." He pleaded with her. The forest had now officially burned down when she took one more last glance at it, the life force coming from it can be declared dead. Amara felt quite upset about it because she liked the way it looked and made her remember a forest near her old castle. "Let's just… Take care of your wounds, shall we?" He sighed and gave her his arm to lean on, but she denied his kindness. "I am alright, I can still walk on my own two feet." Kayden looked at her with a disappointed face and sighed. "If anything hurts please let me know." She nodded at his request and they started walking to the Inn with no conversation between them, this gave them both time to think about what to say next without making it uncomfortable for the other. Amara felt embarrassed of how she was too rational about finding Kayden first and not looking for a way to stop the forest fire. She is quite disappointed in herself now that she looks at the complete picture but she will not put the blame on her because after all she still has the mentality of a teenager. When they arrived at the Inn they saw the butler who had helped them before tense up when he saw Kayden but tried his best to remain calm and composed. Amara was confused on why he was acting this way on the day they had arrived. He was acting very cold towards them but now he's just being scared for no reason. She was so deepened in her thoughts that before she knew it she was already standing in front of the room they booked together. Kayden softly opened the door for her. "Do not lift a finger while I fetch a doctor." He commanded her. "Yes I understand." She had time now to finally put her sabre away and contact Alijah. "He might be very worried after what I said." She mumbled to herself and started to think about the man who had helped in the forest, if it wasn't for him she might've passed out in the middle of the woods. She could only fantasise about how he would look because she could not catch a good glimpse of his face. She quickly snapped back to reality and took a deep breath before she contacted Alijah who was in tears. "Alijah…" When he looked up to see who had contacted him he saw Amara in such bad shape that he cried even louder! "Are you okay!?" Amara asked him with worry. "How could you take so long to reply after that sudden request about your sabre!!" Amara felt a little bad and awkward at the same time. "Please stop crying, I am still breathing." This wasn't the best thing she could say but it was still reassuring for Alijah, Amara quickly showed him her sabre and sent it over to him. "My sabre is also in good health so do not worry about that, I must go now and patch myself up." Alijah sniffled a bit and they told each other goodbye. When Amara's spirit returned to her human body she noticed she was lying in bed, confused and in a lot more pain than expected. Wanting to stand up, someone stopped her midway. "The doctor said you shouldn't move for some time." Just how many minutes had passed when she was contacting Alijah if she keeps overestimating the human realm and comparing it to the Celestial one she will get caught being a Goddess any time soon. "You were out for a long time… But please keep sleeping. It is good for your health." How sweet of him? Definitely not what Amara expected to hear but it was still sweet of him to say, without her saying anything back to him she had closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. She could now sleep peacefully knowing that she is safe for the time being.