'This flame.' Corski said after Alea's feet had stepped onto the burning grass, snuffing it out
'Is something wrong?' Alea asked.
'It doesn't have any fire spirits.' Corski answered. 'No, that's not it. It's hard to explain. Almost like the fire spirits had changed into something else. It must be the work of the rogue human's Character and its Promise.'
'Then we couldn't go with our plan of snuffing out the fire with a heavy rain.' Alea tried to look around for any telltale sign of the rogue human, but it was impossible to have a clear image of the surroundings. Since the city hall was built in the center of the village, the fire dancing atop the nearby building acted as a cloak, hindering her vision greatly. 'Since this human didn't take us head-on. I think his fighting prowess is not that great, and he has to rely on ambush and tactics. However, we mustn't underestimate him as he has proven himself capable of taking on three human saints. Sure, they're investigative saints, but that doesn't mean the Church didn't train them in combat.'
Suddenly, there was a disturbance in the air, causing the wind spirits to move frantically. The air bubble keeping Alea safe from the smoke was momentarily broken away.
'Don't breathe.' Corski yelled inside her head. Thankfully, since her sense was now connected with the former, her ability to sense the spirits was faster than that of normal people, allowing her to take in a deep breath just before the bubble popped.
'I'm calming them down, Dear. Just hold on for a second.' She knew Corski was using more of their mana to regain control over the wind spirits, but she couldn't feel it. What she could feel was her lungs burning as they held onto her breath. It hadn't been that long, but to her, every second felt like an hour; her brain was constantly being assaulted by an unpleasant headache with each passing moment as it was fighting against the instinct to take in a whiff of air.
'Okay, Breath! Now!' A voice yelled out and Alea opened her mouth wide, greedily sucking in a mouthful of air. Only until her head was clear of the pain did she stop.
'What the hell was that?'
'You know how air moves from warmer places to cooler ones? That's one of the laws low-level wind spirits must mindlessly abide by. By using mana, I could control them to my will. However, just now, a great quantity of wind spirits just flew by because of that rule, causing the ones keeping you safe to react as well.' Corski paused for a moment. 'You must have already known what I'm trying to get across, don't you?'
'A fire was abruptly put out so fast that it caused a great chain reaction among the surrounding spirits. And only one person could do that.' Alea straightened her back, taking her hand off her gasping chest. 'The rogue human.'
When she focused her mind, she could see faint traces of the wind spirits moving toward somewhere, trailing along the smoking scene. She dashed forward, her feet snuggling out small bonfires as she followed the thin green line.
Once she reached a four-way intersection, a burning building suddenly gave out, the flame had eaten away its support pillars, causing the house to collapse under its own weight. It was two-story tall, and one-fifth in width compared to the village hall. A decent size for a place with such a small population.
Its shadow quickly descended on Alea, growing into full size in just a matter of seconds. At that moment, Corski yelled out. 'Hang on.'
A gush of wind pushed her forward, increasing her speed dramatically. The sudden boost allowed her to escape the grasp of death just in time. Her feet dragged to a halt after the building collided with the ground, sending burning charcoal everywhere. A piece flew onto her sweater, almost catching it on fire.
"Hot! Hot!" Alea yelled out, and she hurriedly patted the hot spot on her cloth. She had completely forgotten that she was still in this shabby get-up.
But such thought only distracted her for a second before she felt the air around her become hotter. She thought it was flying debris coming her way, but Corski's alert told her otherwise.
'There's an enemy. Dodge to your right.' Immediately, Alea threw herself to the right. Her sweater cushioned the impact for her forearm and shoulder as they hit the dirt hard. Then, lying on the soot-covered ground, she threw her hand outward, facing the direction of the creature that had failed to lung at her. A wind blade shot out of her palm, hitting it right on the neck, and decapitated it instantly.
Its head was thrown backward, a look of surprise struck onto its irises as it flew through the air before smashing into a pile of burning debris. Its body, too, somersaulted a few times before lying motionlessly a couple of feet away from where its head was.
"What in the Seven Wind was that?"Alea stood up, her left hand holding onto her right arm, stabilizing it in place to stop the aching pain in her joints. Her eyes widened as she looked at the burning corpse, standing a couple of steps back. "Are you sure it's an enemy and not a village that tried to ask for help?"
'I can feel its hostility toward you.' Corski reassured.
"I guess even if it was a villager, it would've been too late to save them." She picked up a rock and threw it at the thing to see if there was any reaction.
"I didn't get to have a good look at its ears. Was it round-shaped?" Alea asked whether the spirit could have noticed one of the features that a human had that was different from an elf. But before the latter could answer, a cackle came out from the crash site of the creature's head. It turned into a chuckle, then bloomed into full-bellied laughter.
Only one word could be used to describe what she was seeing—madness. Blood shot out from the cut of the creature's neck, and it twirled in the air for a moment before connecting to the head. Not letting the creature achieve whatever it was trying to, Alea shot out two crossed wind blades, slicing the body of the creature into four pieces, severing the blood link.
But it only responded with an even louder, maddening laugh. "Fool! Fool! You can't kill me."
"I've been blessed by our Savior. Chosen to stand beside him as an immortal-blessed soldier." More blood links shot out from the cut, binding its flesh together. In a matter of minutes, the creature had regained its original form.
Flame danced along its silhouette as it stood still in place, opening and closing its palms more slowly, and it scanned every nook and cranny on its body. A awn expression played on its face as it marveled at itself. "Our Savior is truly magnificent."
'Keep an eye out for if there's another one.' Alea spoke to Corski in her head.
"Stay silent in the presence of the Savior!" The creature yelled out before running at Alea, and the flame on its palms increased in size. Alea was momentarily taken aback. Could it be the burning man can hear her and Corski's conversation?
'No, it can't. Don't ask for reasons from a mad fool, dear. I've known the true identity of this creature now. It's the man who had gone missing—the old village chief. He had been changed under the influence of the rogue human's Promise.'
The burning man leaped forward, still laughing. A combustion of hot air exploded underneath it, sending the creature flying toward Alea with great speed.
Alea wasn't a fool. While the burning thing was busing itself with worship, she had set up a defense just in case. With a flick of her finger, a massive earth wall erupted, blocking the trajectory of the creature. A loud boom echoed through the small village as fire and earth collided with each other.
The impact left behind large webs of cracks on the wall. But it held on, almost as if the heat from the flame had hardened it just in time, allowing the wall to withstand the attack from the creature. The sound of liquid splashing could be heard as burning blood started to flow over the top of the wall before hitting the ground.
Alea distanced herself a couple of steps back as flesh slashed onto the burning blood. A manic laugh came out from the pile of grotesque meat as a blob of something that vaguely resembled a head started to mend back together, looking at her with crazed eyes. Not a single piece of hair managed to stick onto its burning scalp to hide its ugly wriggle. But that wasn't even the worst part. The creature didn't have any teeth, meaning there wasn't anything to shield her eyes from the sight of its twirling tongue.
"Is this thing really unkillable?" Alea said to herself, her face grimacing in disgust, eyes moving along with the weird dance the creature's tongue was doing.
"Once I'm done with you, infidel. I'll spread our Savior's gift to everyone in this village, then the entire region, then the entire dukedom. Before you knew it, this world will change to fit our Savior's image." Its hand started to form, grabbing at the air to make a point.