Fiona felt Ali's arms wrap around her back as the wind once again stung her face.
She opened her eyes, but never took her hands off her daughter, who had stopped crying. All she saw was the same black mask with gold engravings, behind Ali. Large trees streaked from the sheer speed Ali was moving at the moment.
"That was close…", Ali said to the women in his arms, who took deep breaths and looked down at their baby. She silently turned to see if she could catch a glimpse of her husband, but he was too far. She couldn't see her house, not the pretty garden or the flowers she was taking care of on the window. It was all gone.
Ali didn't stop running as he finally laid eyes on the final tree line before the forest ended. His legs worked harder than ever.
'Get me out of this fucking forest…', Ali thought. This was the worst luck he'd experienced in Paradise. From a death cave that directly targeted his weakness to rescuing a kid from goblins to being chased by superhuman half-animal, half-human creatures… Giving that lick ring away looked like a mistake now.
He slowed down once he got past the final tree, and the world outside the forest finally came into view.
Ali walked to the edge of a cliff where soft grass led up to the very peak. Miles was sitting on the edge of the cliff alone, his feet dangling from the cliff, and his eyes were fixed on something else. He was looking through the drones in the sky behind him, making sure nothing followed Ali.
Ali walked closer to Miles and gently placed Fiona down, who didn't have the strength to stand. He placed her on the grass, where she sat down with her baby in her arms. Miles didn't say anything as he simply watched Ali walk up to the edge of the cliff and look forward at the valley before them.
A vast valley stretched up to two towering mountains, separated by a narrow valley. The forest that surrounded the valley seemed endless, its edges stretching out as far as the eye could see. From the top of a cliff, Ali spotted an under-maintained path from the forest that led straight to the valley's centre.
At the centre of the valley lay a small village with nearly fifty homes. Each house appeared to be from before the medieval times. Behind the village, a hill larger than the goblin hill stood. On top of this hill, a large stone fortress stood, but it looked like it was about to crumble. Large pieces of stone had already fallen off the upper structure.
[World Event: Participate in the Continental War of Cetrox]
Ali turned to Miles, who had also received the world event alert. He then turned to Fiona, who was still crying on the soft grass.
"I have drones down there," Miles said. "What's your plan?"
"Stay here with her and keep monitoring the area," Ali replied. "I'll go check what's down there."
With that, Ali stepped forward and fell straight down from the edge of the cliff. Mid-air, he used the Force to push himself forward and pass over forty metres of the valley.
He opened his inventory and pulled out another black shirt, putting it on. Then, he took out a black coat with black fur all around the upper edges. Ali ran forward towards the small village. The sun was setting on the horizon, and slowly, his figure blended into the darkness of night.
"Come on, kids, get inside!" shouted a middle-aged woman from her small window. She had dirt on her face and looked poor, just like everyone in this village. Their streets were made of dirt, and their houses would crumble with a gust of wind. The entire village had only small gardens behind their houses. A small spring of water passed next to the village and through the hill at the centre of the valley. It was their only source of water.
'How do they survive here, with nothing to grow?' Ali thought, standing on the roof of one of the poorly built houses. He glanced down, his eyes landing on the shaky structure. 'I have to be careful not to fall through,' he reminded himself.
Ali's gaze wandered to one soldier holding a torch. He wore leather armour that wouldn't stop a kitchen knife, and a rusty sword hung loosely on his waist. 'Maybe they hunt beasts?' Ali wondered.
'How are they still alive?' Ali thought, considering the threat posed by a single beast in the forest. The villagers looked so weak that they would die from exhaustion if they even tried to run away. 'That castle should have the answers,' he said, his mind racing. He jumped from roof to roof, his frame impossible to detect for the untrained eyes of the soldier below.
Ali neared the top of the hill and saw two more soldiers in similar leather armour. They were guarding the gate, but guarding would be a compliment. Instead, they were sitting down and playing with a dice on the ground. One of them even had his back turned to the village.
Ali looked at the two guards, and this world made less sense by the second. 'Just one of those demi-humans could massacre this place,' he thought. 'And they hate humans so much, then why let these people live so close to the forest?' Ali made assumptions, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to the story.
Ali jumped up the castle wall and stood on top of the crumbling stone wall. He jumped forward and grabbed the edge of the fortress with his hand, scaling up it with ease. He looked inside the windows of the fortress and saw one older maid walk through with a candle in hand.
Ali scaled up to the higher floor, the last one that was still habitable. He found the one window with light behind it and stood at the edge next to it, peeking inside.
"Are you sure?", an old man who looked about seventy years old asked with excitement, he had a long white beard and a thin frame in his black robes, he was sitting behind a wooden desk with a candle to light up the room, the room was like a medieval office with books and rolls of paper stacked on shelves and boxes in the corner of the office.
On the other side of the desk was a young girl who looked about twenty years old, she had average looks but looked cleaner than the women Ali saw down in the village, she wearing a maid outfit and she placed her hand on her stomach which had a small bump.
"Yes my lord, I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant with your child", she said happily and Ali outside heard her words, 'Nasty old bastard', Ali thought.
"What great news, have you told anyone else?", the lord asked as he stood up from his seat.
"No but i think Sarina knows", the young maid said.
"That old witch has sharper eyes than a hawk", the old man described his older maid that had served him since young.
"Well congratulations", the two froze in place when they heard the deep voice of a stranger.
"WHO?", shouted the lord as he turned around to the window behind him but saw nobody.
"Don't move", the old lord turned around again to see a large man holding the young maid by the throat from behind her.
"Or your little maid here dies with your unborn child", Ali threatened the old man who raised his hands slowly in surrender.
"I am Lord Nicola Stork, my family has ruled this land for hundreds of years, i have friends in very high places. Do you dare threaten me? A lord!", Nicola warned Ali in a low voice, he didn't want to anger the large man holding his maid's throat.
"Are your friends here?", Ali looked around the room.
"I don't see them…", Ali turned to the lord with mockery, "I wonder what would happen to me if i kill both of you and just disappear…", Ali wasn't fazed at all with one of the most pathetic threat he'd ever heard.
"Listen here", Ali's voice turned very cold and he let go of the maid who suddenly started floating in the air and she felt her neck close up as she scratched at her neck and opened her mouth struggling for Air.
"You will do what i say and answer every question i have, there is no other choice here.", Ali told the lord who fell back in his chair.
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