The New World -Ornia

Chapter Two- I AM NOT WILLING

“Sage are you alright?” One of the female warriors approached the woman to ask.

“That girl…” the Sage murmured in grief, she felt torn inside.

“She saved us” another female commented in a low tone, everyone could sense the gratitude and grief from her tone.

“Unfortunately she had to pay the ultimate price” a male warrior approached them, he had a deep, long claw wound across his chest.

“Bri, heal everyone first. I will go in to find her” the Sage ordered after a moment of silence.

“Definitely not! My Lady, she fulfilled her role and proved her worth. Every living thing is born to serve those above them. She saved our lives and that is noble but we must not throw it away for hers” the male warrior protested. Everyone turned to him hearing his words, he was the only one who dared to object to the order of the Sage because he was the strongest warrior of the tribe.

“Trevor your words are logical but disgraceful. The debt of life cannot be paid with another life, because life is granted and feeble but death is absolute. Life fades in death but a million deaths cannot make life. She saved us today and we owe her our lives, even dying for her doesn’t repay this debt. How can you say our lives are worth more than hers?” the Sage scolded.

“We have more than ten of us here, is this not worth more?” Trevor asked with respect this time.

The Sage quietly looked around at all of the survivors and gently shook her head.

“No it is not” she answered firmly.

“And what of the thousands of lives relying on you back in the tribe?”

This time the woman was stunned for a while thinking deeply before she firmly answered.

“Her life is not worth more than anyone of us, just as all our lives including the tribe’s are not worth more than hers. When the heavens fall there will always be someone taller to hold it up.”

Trevor could tell that the Sage was determined to save the girl who just saved them, but he still couldn’t allow her to put her life at risk.

“And what if you are the tallest in the world?” he asked lowering his head.

The Sage shook her head again, turning to look Trevor in the eyes she answered.

“There will always be a taller mountain in the world and a taller tree in the forest.

“There will never be a mountain firmer or taller than the mountain in my tribe. Perhaps there are firmer and taller mountains elsewhere but the tallest in my eyes will always be the one of my tribe.”

“Still the taller one would hold the sky up, preserving the lives of the tribe. Then I will go hold her sky” after saying what she had to say, the Sage walked slowly toward the direction Euodia left in, and though she seemed to walk slowly, she was gone before Trevor could follow her.

Unknown to the two of them, Bri the healer dropped a recording crystal when she was searching her bag for the bandages and everything they said was recorded in it.

“No one has ever walked out of this place after spending a night in.” the second female warrior murmured in grief.

“She just lost her daughter and that girl… Let’s go back, perhaps we can hold up the sky of our village, or at least feed the one holding it up while his hands are busy.” Trevor ordered firmly before walking away. The other warriors did not dare delay, they had to walk out of this forest before nightfall.

******

Euodia had been running for two hours and now it was dark everywhere. When she first walked out there weren’t half as many beasts in the forest and she was shocked now to find out how much terrifying beasts this paradise held. On her shoulder was a deep wound reaching into her back, she got this from the claw of one of those feline-like beasts. To her great shock, the suit provided zero resistance to the beast claws, from the growls she could tell that there were more of those beasts at the periphery of the forest thus she didn’t dare go back, but as she walked deeper in she had to be careful because there were other strange beasts in it albeit not as strong as the feline-like ones. Aside from the tear on her shoulder there were worn out marks and some marks on the suit, though the other beasts couldn’t tear her suit they would if they had more time to gnaw or claw at it. Now she had even her face covered, up to her eyes, she could still see because of the camera projecting the scene before her to Rebecca who could directly pass it to her brain. Admittedly this tech Euodia created was a true genius work.

“Rebecca how long until the suit mends?” Euodia asked in a low whisper.

“Four hours, but the speed will increase if you permit to use the energy it absorbed earlier.”

Euodia couldn’t help but make a strange expression, too bad no one could see it behind that mask.

“I absorbed less than one percent and I could walk that fast earlier cou…”

“You have absorbed four percent now, your body absorbed one percent and your brain three percent. The speed increased due to your increased mental and physical activity. The suit has been absorbing energy from the surroundings too and refining it to be as rich as the one from that spatial barrier so you have absorbed nothing yet” Rebecca interrupted.

“And here I thought you were getting more intelligent, at this rate wouldn’t it take a lifetime to absorb it all, why haven’t you fixed my suit yet? And please if it works use it to improve yourself and later on we can get information from this world to improve your intelligence.” Euodia groaned.

A bright light flashed across her body and the suit instantly fixed, questioning Rebecca she could tell that the suit was now a little stronger. Even so, she ordered Rebecca to keep nourishing the three of them with the absorbed energy.

“Oh no!” Euodia turned pale. The energy that fixed the suit was sensed by the creatures in the forest and they were stealthily approaching.

“Access inventory” Euodia called and some items were displayed before her. Without hesitation, she quickly chose a spear and whip made from Lay ore. With a thought the whip became shorter and more tempered, one end she plugged to a part of the spear, and the other she plugged to a slot in the waist of her suit securing the weapon so she wouldn’t lose it.

“Invisibility and phase mode. Improve both spear and whip. I’d rather go all out than die her”

Rebecca carried out her order without hesitation and the whip attaching the spear to the suit became invisible and Euodia’s hand could go through the whip without interruption. At the same time, the energy was transferred to the two objects tampering them even further, as the object became smaller, Rebecca took more lay ore out of the inventory to strengthen the suit, whip, and spear that were continuously undergoing tampering. The ore in Euodia’s inventory was reducing at a visible rate.

While all this was going on Euodia ran even deeper into the forest because she knew that those feline-like beasts would have stronger ones among them and the energy she was consuming right now would attract them.

Suddenly Euodia stopped, before her was a sea of wolves, although these wolves didn’t look strong, the number of them made her feel hopeless.

I didn’t think I would die for helping someone

At this point, Euodia truly felt like crying.

“I CAN’T!! I CAN’T DIE!!!” Euodia growled furiously shaking her head.

At the same time, a tiny wolf in the middle of the wolf sea howled and all the wolves rushed at Euodia.

With a thought the spear turned into a sword and Euodia slashed ahead, five wolves in front of her were slashed apart by her sword but even more fearlessly approached. One of them slashed at her suit with its paws and Euodia could see a faint thin line appear on it causing her heart to sink into her stomach. If half of these wolves slashed this suit she would be ripped apart, even the suit auto-mending wouldn’t be able to keep up.