Chapter 49: 49

After some time, Michelle was panting for breath, holding the scythe with trembling hands, standing in a ruined forest. Her body refused to move an inch, but she knew she had to continue. “Come on, Michelle! Move! Just a bit more!” Nyxaroth shouted as he lunged at Michelle again, solidifying into a black fist.

“Damn…” Michelle cursed under her breath and blocked with her scythe. If it wasn’t enhancing her concentration, she would already be lying on the ground. Blocking Nyxaroth’s attack with the scythe, Michelle had to dodge Cold Flame’s ice spears. She rolled to the side, towards a tree and as she jumped to her feed, she slashed the scythe, holding it in one hand, vertically through the tree trunk. Then, she had to dodge again, and Cold Flame’s ice spears hit the sliced tree, making it fall down.

A few long hours later, Michelle was lying on the ground, her trembling hand holding the scythe as she struggled to get up. All her muscles were aching as she got on all four and then slowly stood up. Cold Flame and Nyxaroth were no longer attacking her, and she had to do the rest alone. Trembling in exhaustion, she lifted the scythe with both hands and slashed it upwards. It flew out of her hands and ended up stabbed in the ground as Michelle fell to the ground, her hands twitching a bit. She couldn’t move a muscle as her eyes slowly closed.

Intense pain was coursing through Michelle’s body as she felt that her veins were no longer absorbing the surrounding spirit energy, which meant that something was wrong with them. And the only thing that could have been wrong with them after what she did was that they had tears on them, which was exactly what she wanted.

“Michelle…” Cold Flame landed next to her and watched her worriedly and Nyxaroth entered her body and observed what was happening in her veins. Everything was going as he predicted, so he could breathe a sigh of relief, even though Michelle fainted.

Michelle didn’t know how long she was unconscious, but when she woke up, her body was sore and her muscles were aching, but she felt that her veins were stronger. “Argh-” groaning a bit, she lifted herself off the ground and stood up, looking at Cold Flame. “Flamie, How much time has passed?” she asked.

“An hour since you fainted!” Cold Flame chirped. “Michelle, Nyxaroth expected you to be unconscious at least for a day, but because of your healing abilities, you exceeded his expectations.”

“I see…” Michelle smiled a bit as she walked over to the scythe stabbed in the ground and pulled it out. Then, she walked over to the tree on which she was sitting at first, she had on purpose left it untouched, and climbed it to get the Life Stone of Rivenaar, after resting the scythe against the tree trunk.

“Life Stone…” she muttered. “Rivenaar, just who were you?” From the knowledge she had, all monsters had gems on their forehead which contained some of their spirit powers, but some monsters with special bloodlines had their lives bound to the gems and because of that, the gems of those monsters were called Life Stones. If forced out of the monster’s forehead, the monster would die.

At the moment, Michelle had yet to check the memories she received from Rivenaar, so she didn’t know anything about him and his past, but since the moment Nyxaroth mentioned that the gem was a Life Stone, she was curious.

“Michelle, don’t move too much just yet. You’ve strained your muscles, so let them rest.” Nyxaroth’s raspy voice brought Michelle out of her thoughts as she jumped off the tree.

Remembering that she had the spatial ring and bracelet given to her by the auction house, Michelle stored the Life Stone and scythe in the spatial ring and looked at Cold Flame Flying above her. If he landed on the ground next to her, his beak would be at the height of her shoulder. “Nyxaroth, should I rest or can I go straight home? How are my muscles?” Michelle asked as she leaned on the tree trunk.

She felt Nyxaroth bubble a bit in her body before answering. “Do rest for a while. The sun is already setting and beasts and monsters will soon come out to hunt, so go back into the cave since they avoid it. We can go home in the morning.”

“Okay…” Michelle nodded and headed towards the cave. Cold Flame flew in behind her.

Going back in, Michelle didn’t find the cave to be as long as when she went there when the nasty energy was still there, so soon, she reached the bars which had turned to ashes.

Michelle was about to sit down on the ground after she lit a flame but Cold Flame suddenly chirped excitedly and flew over to the ashes. “Michelle! Come take this! That’s good stuff!” he spoke as he pulled on Michelle’s sleeve with his beak.

Feeling lazy and tired, with her muscles still aching, Michelle didn’t want to move a bit, but after a while of being a victim of Cold Flame’s so-called persuasion, which was basically pecking her head and pulling on her clothes, she stood up reluctantly and walked over to the ashes. “Flame, what is so special about the ashes…?” she muttered as she inserted her spirit energy into her spatial ring and used it to store the ashes.

Cold Flame flapped his wings happily and landed next to Michelle. “Michelle, if you merge the ashes with your shifting weapon, it might gain a soul and thus upgrade. You will be able to make a contract with it, and it will from then on start upgrading alongside you.”

A sigh left Michelle’s lips as she went back to sit down, her eyes traveling to Rivenaar’s huge corpse. Because he was a huge monster, she was unable to bring him out of the cave to bury him. “Flamie, you just want another friend to play with, don’t you…” she muttered, her words making Cold Flame shrink back a bit in embarrassment. He was seen through.

“Also…” Michelle glanced at him. “How would I merge the ashes with my weapon? I’m no blacksmith, and I doubt those around here would be able to merge it, since we are talking about the ashes of a cage that was able to keep Rivenaar locked down for maybe even millennia.”

Hearing that, Cold Flame froze and landed on the ground, his expression defeated. “That’s a pity…” he murmured.

Seeing him like that, Michele smiled and petted his head, ruffling his feathers. “Don’t be too sad. I’ll leave this place soon, and we will find a skilled blacksmith to do it.”

Just as she said that, she heard a sigh from her body. “Michelle, don’t spoil the Vermilion Bird too much,” Nyxaroth spoke up.

“Eh-?! Why!” Cold Flame who heard that felt aggrieved. “Why shouldn’t I be spoiled?!” he exclaimed.

Michelle glanced at the White Vermilion Bird throwing a fit next to her and frowned a bit. She didn’t need Nyxaroth to explain why. Cold Flame was the bird race’s ruler, and he couldn’t constantly act spoiled, even if his mind was that of a child. He could act like a child, but not like a spoiled one, or it would get him in trouble. “Flamie, Nyx is right.” She grabbed Cold Flame’s beak. “You will get yourself in trouble if you act spoiled.”

Hearing that, Cold Flame’s eyes widened as he stared at Michelle. He knew she was right. Just from the memories of his ancestors, he knew what he had to act like, and he could do it, but he didn’t want to. He wanted to enjoy himself. He pulled his beak away from Michelle and chirped sadly. “Michelle… but, I’m safe here… Even the birds are stupid here, so they can’t recognize me…” he stared at Michelle pitifully, clearly wanting her sympathy.

“Flamie…” Michelle sighed. “We will soon be leaving the Land of Exile. And outside of it, you can’t act spoiled. You have to be a composed White Vermilion Bird. Otherwise, you will get hurt.”

“I know that…” Cold Flame tried to imitate a pout with his beak. “I’ll be just like that outside the Land of Exile! Just let me be myself here! Please! Michelle!” he begged, his big eyes wide open.

Michelle sighed. “Will you really be able to stop acting spoiled once outside?” she asked skeptically. She didn’t believe Cold Flame could switch to a composed ruler.

But Cold Flame nodded quickly. “Yes, Michelle. Once I mature, I’ll change! It was like that with all my ancestral Vermilion Birds.”

Michelle lifted a brow, not fully believing him. “Nyx, is that true?” she asked.

“Yes, Michelle. He will change, and that will be just in a while, so you should start getting used to no longer spoiling him.” Nyx answered from within her body.

Hearing that, Michelle finally understood what Nyx was really trying to tell her when he told her not to spoil Cold Flame too much. He wanted to tell her not to get used to it as she will have to stop once he matures. “I see,” she smiled a bit.

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