Evaelona: The Trails of Advancement

Chapter 03: Surviving the Forest

Wade observing from the distance, saw a group of hideous & ferocious people torturing a man wearing armor. He guessed the group to be hoarders or something and the other one to be a light or soldier of the king.

Wait! Why was he thinking like that? He suddenly pondered over his own thoughts before being interrupted by a scream from the knight. The hoarders are beating him up for some reason. Wade started to feel sorry for him. He thought that he had to help him or those men will probably eat him alive. He conceived a plan of sorts & started to execute it. What he did was created a very large sound far away. The sound caught their attention. They thought that someone from the knights' side was hiding there & went to investigate it. As soon as hey went, he ran to the knights' aid. The knight wanted to scream for help, but Wade calmed him down ad untied him. The knight in a puzzled thought looked at Wade opening up the knots. As soon as it was done, without any hesitation ignoring Wade, he ran away as fast as he could; screaming. As soon as he turned, a blue flash of light blinded him & knocked him out cold.

Hours went by. He was being tortured to the extent & what brutal ways did they not used? Sinking him in water, striking him hard with clubs & whatnot. And during this time, he noticed something that made him start to question his sanity. He observed the conjugation of fire from one of the hoarders' own hands. And another one of them was so strong that he was able to take down a full-sized tree with his bare hands. But the thing is, he isn't. He was as thin as a toothpick but chanting some weird words gave him such strength. He saw even more feats but was at a loss of words. He has now accepted that he has totally gone crazy.

Then the hoarders concentrated on Wade. Speaking with angry, scary voices, the hoarders approached him and started to punch him in the body very hard. And then they all of them chanted something together & touched Wade.

Then the feeling that Wade felt was horrific at a level that he could never even dare to tell anyone.

At first, he felt that at least a million pins are poking him simultaneously. Then the pain intensified like he was being stabbed ruthlessly by at least a 100 swords. This pain made him remember about the night Nathan died. He started to regret wearing the ring and about meeting him. The thought of dying in this strange, insane, and inhuman world made him cry like a baby. And the hoarders, laughing from a distance were enjoying this as if he were nothing more than a tool. At last that the pain intensified so much that he fainted for the second time.

As Wades' senses returned, he saw the group sharpening their swords with a steady concentration.

This meant only one thing, Wade will die.

Finding no other way to escape, he quietly remembered and honored the memories that he had lived. He remembered all that he did to make the world a better place and about all his friends & his relatives. He thought most of Nathan. How they spent their time together from the very childhood, how they worked together to stop "User" & & the innocent face from when he was murdered mercilessly. Tears ran down his face for the last time as the hoarders will be approaching him any minute to slay him like a pig for exactly no reason.

And finally, it started.

One of the hoarders who was short in size chanted something and then touched his body. "Nothing happened", Wade thought. But a few minutes later, his whole body got paralyzed in such a way that only his breathing was okay. To make sure of it, the hoarders landed a series of punch & kicks on Wade. He couldn't,t scream at all as he was partially dead before actually dying. As the hoarders confirmed of Wades' paralysis; all of them took their swords. And then they started to s***h Wade on different parts of the body. Without any mercy, they kept on infuriating cuts on his body furiously and as the number of cuts reached 100, he was knocked out for the third time.

Night struck in. And Wades' senses returned. He was still under paralysis and couldn't do anything. As soon as one of the hoarders found out about Wade regaining his consciousness, he called upon the others. Then they tied Wade to a long wood & then carried him and started walking. Wade didn't notice this deliberately and tried to enjoy the scenic view for the last time in his life. Moonlight shining on the lakes giving off an elegant power, filling all the darkness with light as much as possible, fireflies lighting the way playing hide & seek among the bushes. Truly it was a majestic scene. But this did not last. The hoarders put Wade down. Wade tries to observe where he was. And to his horror, in front of a huge gathering of hoarders. The hoarders were screaming with excitement as though they have won a battle or something. Then the hoarders who mercilessly tortured him bowed down to a freakish statue of some kind. The statue had at least 12 eyes, hands & legs. It looked a lot hideous and Wade heard them addressing it a lot as "Mempha".  Then one of the hoarders from the group gave a speech on something. Wade had no way to decipher that. "If only Marcus was here", Wade thought.

As the speech finished, the hoarders roared and raised their weapons in the air. They kept on chanting "Hoan. Hoan. Hoan". "That might be their tribe or race or something.", Wade thought. 

"Funny how I am thinking of all these when death is knocking in my door.", Wade thought curiously.

Then all of the hoarders turned to Wade. They started to shout more than before and chanted a line repeatedly. Then one of the hoarders pulled out a large sort of a beheading sword. The handle was constructed with several engravings of Mempha devouring souls and ripping off people's limbs. That too, an engraving was way too horrific. "Maybe that is why some of these things never made it to our time. That is because one would faint three times like hi did without even being tortured like he was just for the horrifying intensity." Then the hoarder wielding the sword came close to him and placed the sword on his throat.

"This is it", he thought sadly."This is the end of Wade Wilis, the greatest detective of 30 countries who couldn't even get out of knots."

Then something amazing & at the same time, insane and unhuman happened.

Some people from the far end shouted the word "Hoan" out very loud. And soon, all the attention was diverted to those people. Then without any moment of hesitation, one of them screamed "Liupthenar". And from literally nowhere, bright light the size of the sun started shining above them. And all of the hoarders except for the other group & Wade went blind. "Medieval styled flashbang", he said smiling. Wait, he could talk. That was weird. As he was paralyzed, he can't talk. Maybe the light had something to do with this paralysis effect or whatever.

And on the other side of the field, the brave & bold group finished every single one of the hoarders like cake. After dealing with them, they came to Wade. And boy did they look at him as if he were some alien or something. Wade realized the one whom he saved being in the group. Sighing with a bit of relief & still in terror, he said to them, "Why couldn't you guys come earlier?" thinking that they would understand it or something. And to his luck, one of them did.

Who would have thought that the one whom he had saved knew English? Now, he feels like punching him in the face for leaving him behind at first. But he came back to rescue him. So he forgives him. At least he should as he had to no idea where he was at all and needed someone to help him get back to his real world.

"Wade. Is that you?", asked the man.

"OK. What is happening here? First I get tortured like nothing a man could ever imagine. Now I find a guy whom apparently I saved and coincidentally, he also knows my name. What is happening? Nathan, where did you send me?"

 Mustering enough courage, he said "Yes. How do you know me?"

Ignoring him, he said something to his fellow group, and then they shouted in joy & became very eager to help him. They all helped to untie him of the wood. As soon as he hit the ground, the cuts made his whole body scream and shake. The pain was too much. But the group that saved him helped him to recover him very fast.

After two days of whatever has happened, Wade was feeling a bit well. At the same time, he was feeling homesick. He couldn't get out of here & he blamed Nathan for it. Whatever happened with him cannot literally have nothing to do with this world or wherever he is. Now he is in the middle of nowhere & he is likely to lose his mind if it weren't for Cormack McDonagh. He is the one who understood English and for that he can remain sane for now. He wished to see Nathan so that he could land him a punch & a kick for not being informative.

As he was sitting thinking, Cormack approached him. 

Taking a seat beside him, he asked him, "Its rare to get visitors from outside. What are you doing here?"

"I have no idea. All I did was wear the ring Nathan gave me & then I was knocked out. The second my senses returned, I was here and had no idea what to do. Then I saw you and did something which is probably stupid."

"Yeah. I know. But you did it. And for that, I thank you form the bottom of my heart. As a reward, I am assigning myself and the group to serve you until the end.", said Cormack

"Yeah, Yeah. That is not needed. I just want to meet Nathan.", frowned Wade.

"You keep on uttering the name, Nathan. Who is he?", Cormack asked confusingly.

"My childhood pal. He was the one who gave me the ticket to come here, after dying. Why?"

"Because as far as I know, only a person named Jonathan came here from the place that you came and he was as sacred as you. He wore a ring which is unlike anything I have ever seen. 10 of the rarest jewels in all of Evaelona with a bit of gold, silver & diamond in the middle."

"Wait, what! Did he come here before me? How is this possible?"

"How is this possible What?" asked Cormack.

"Jonathan is Nathan in the real world. He concealed his identity from me and looks like he did it from you too. The ring that you saw was his & I used that ring to come here under Nathan's favor. And what is Evaelona? Now I am really going insane."

Cormack tried to comfort him. He said, "Please don't freak out. I am too shocked by hearing this. But I think he did this on purpose."

"What do you mean by, purpose?"

"Well, Jonathan or Nathan, left a prophecy behind saying that one day someone would come here to avenge his death & something. I don't know about it but I heard it from the prophecy maker."

"Well, this might be my only way to meet him and know what the hell is going on. Can you lead me to the prophecy maker?"

"Sure, my good man." With that, he said something in their language and all of them started packing for the journey to the prophecy maker.

" Evaelona, huh? It's a good name for this time."

"That I can't argue about. My motherland. Well, you have only seen the hoarders forest. And that is a bit unlucky. But as we will go to the capital, Antica you will start loving Evaelona as much as I do."

"Antica!" Then he remembered Nathans' way of doing work and said, "Typical Nathan."

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Cormack McDonagh is the best scouter and swordsman there ever is in the lands of Evaelona. Working under the great Leonard Bard II, he was given the task of scouting the whole of Evaelona to create a map of it. And then the rest is as-is after getting stuck in the Hoarders forest. Mighty, bold, tactical, he can be really useful. But when his life will be in imminent danger, he will do anything to run away and every trait of his will become the opposite. But he is a friendly chap & knows how to keep the company. 

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