Deep in the night,
Rustle~
"Just who are you.....?" A young woman with fair skin stared at the enigmatic being before her. She had an urge to scream and plunge forward to lessen the sheer terror coursing through her nerves.
However, her body refused to move an inch.
"...What are you doing here?"
For the third time, the being covered in white asked the same question. It was the same question he asked after severing her legs without moving a muscle.
Clutter~
The woman's body shook in a sorry state, she couldn't even feel the pain travelling through her legs, her mind clouded by simply staring at the two apathetic eyes before her.
"Will you not answer?" Orsted asked with a frown, losing his patience.
The woman didn't reply and began crawling away, as if her mind had come to a conclusion. A trail of blood was left in her track, profusely bleeding from her severed legs, below the knee.
Zing!
The fair women with hunter clothes turned back, only for everything to descend into darkness immediately after.
Watching the woman's head explode into a blood mist, Orsted held a disappointed expression.
"Ah, it's always refreshing to see others run in terror when your curse is active." Zarestia smiled menacingly beside him.
Crimson Hills Girall, a large mountain filled terrain, located at the corner of the continent - it acted like a natural boundary between Kararagi and The holy kingdom of Gusteko.
Orsted and Zarestia were currently in the middle of Crimson Hills Girall. It was the place where Zarestia's legs slumbered - which controlled the power of the earth element.
'I have come across around 6 spirit arts users in the past two hours. All of them attack immediately after meeting us and refuse to open their mouths to any of my questions.' Orsted tried organising his thoughts.
The woman just now was one of the better off spirit arts users among the other six spirit users. She was able to form coherent words, even while Orsted's [Dragon tribe's curse] was active.
[Dragon tribe's curse] was quite effective when Orsted didn't want others to speak any falsehoods. Their fear of speaking lies gets amplified dozens of times.
From their attire it was apparent that they didn't come from Karargi. Their fair skin and clothes pointed them to be from the holy kingdom of Gusteko.
Even without them speaking anything, Orsted was able to draw an image on their goal by coming here.
From his observation, the whole Crimson Hills Girall was filled with lesser and quasi-spirits. As all the six people were spirit arts users, it was clear that they came here to make a contract with the spirits.
'For them to come this far by crossing the border and coming across me...it might either be a frequent campaign or they are just bad lucky to come across me. They do appear well trained, seeing how they tried attacking me immediately.'
Orsted questioned Zarestia: "Does your original leg have some perk of attracting spirits?"
"Umm...." Zarestia thought with a serious expression: "No, it doesn't. My legs did have the power to enhance the growth of natural resources, like trees."
Knowing what Orsted wanted, Zarestia added another line thoughtfully.
'She is growing, huh. To be able to enhance the growth of plants, is it another application of earth magic or something special to Zarestia only?'
Orsted continued: "Can it enhance spirit's growth too?"
"...I don't know? I never liked mingling with other spirits anyway." Zarestia said righteously, while folding her hands.
"Does it have anything to do with those weird hobos? They should use those noggins on their heads before attacking us. I don't know where they got the confidence to challenge me. If I let them live after that, it would be a stain on my name as a 'Shinigami'!" Zarestia frowned towards the corpse before them.
"Let's go. You can sense your 'limb' to be that side, right?" Orsted decided to ignore the Gusteko people for now.
"Yes." Zarestia led the way with a serious expression.
The rocky and unstable terrain of the Crimson Hills Girall didn't pose a challenge to the duo. They both have the capability to fly, simply turning any mountain traversal into child's play.
"It's definitely below this mountain!" Zarestia pointed at the second largest mountain with confidence.
"....There is not a single cave in that mountain, strange." Orsted stated his observation.
Digging up the whole mountain was hard, but not impossible.
'I smell spirits around that mountain the most and along with it few fresh human scents. They might be camouflaging the mountain's entrance.' Orsted frowned slightly.
"...How deep is your 'limb' located in that mountain?"
Orsted's serious voice made Zarestia pause, before replying: "Oh, it's very deep below that mountain. I can smell a few rats here too, we could follow the smell and it might lead us inside..."
'....I actually feel proud for some reason. Her brain department has gone through an upgrade at last.'
Orsted shook his head in reality: "Rather, can you destroy that mountain with your water magic?"
Might as well destroy the mountain with everyone, who might be hiding within it.
"Err, If it was a year ago, I could have leveled it with my winds...! Well, I'm not sure if it's possible with my water, sorry...." Zarestia was racking her brain rapidly, to meet up with Orsted's expectation.
"I see....Next time, I should teach you about pressurized water, it would come handy in situations like this."
Teacher Orsted came online, causing Zarestia's face to fall.
"Wait...!" A flash passed by Zarestia's eyes: "If I create a huge chunk of ice and drop it on the mountain, it should do the trick! I will just have to borrow a little mana from your gate!"
'Her imagination is changing for the better. The idea is good, but if there are people on the mountain, they would be able to see such a big ice block immediately.' Orsted still shook his head towards Zarestia.
"Nevermind, I will do it myself. Keep an eye for any ambush. You did well to think of such an idea, good girl." Orsted patted Zarestia's head proudly with his calm face.
The original Orsted could split a continent with a single slash, if he used his godsword and didn't restrict his mana. Destroying a mountain, on the other hand, appeared like child's play.
'It is still impossible with a sword for me.'
Orsted possessed saint-level [Longsword of light], which when upgraded to God rank would allow the user to move and swing a sword beyond the speed of light. And the [Flow of magic], both these sword techniques were made for individual battles.
'Its either [Light blast] with [Tear stigma] or [Arcane dragon slayer magic].' Orsted wondered and chose dragon slayer magic quickly.
[Light blast]'s side-effect devoured a huge chunk of his physical energy. It wasn't as ideal as the [Arcane dragon slayer magic].