Chapter 14
The Existent of Solipsism
Berserker froze for a moment, not knowing if the woman was a friend or foe. He assumed the death of the wolves was her fault, but that wasn't enough to rid of his suspicion. Tokiya ran up to Karasu, but Berserker tried to stop him.
"Tokiya, wait!"
However, Tokiya was already next to the woman.
"It's fine, Berserker. I know her."
Berserker wasn't completely trusting of Karasu, so he kept a firm grip on his sword. Tokiya looked up at Karasu.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were in Ardston. You did say you'd be waiting for me there."
Karasu didn't greet Tokiya with her bubbly personality from their first interaction. Instead, she remained serious as if she was just as on edge as Berserker. She walked past Tokiya and Berserker and began making her way to the center of the clearing.
"That was simply an excuse for me to continue watching you without me having to interfere in your affairs. Had I not told you I would be waiting for you in Ardston, you probably would've expected me to help you fight the cultist."
Tokiya followed her with anger for the person who just saved him slowly building up.
"So, you were there while Mors was attacking me, and you just sat there and watched. What the hell! Do you know how many times I almost died?"
Almost as if she ignored Tokiya's outburst, Karasu knelt down and began inspecting one of the wolves.
"On the day we first met, I broke one of the rules placed upon me which was to never interact with you."
Tokiya looked down on her, and when he responded, his voice was filled with anger and annoyance.
"I know. Eien told me a lot after Mors' attack. However, there's a lot that's still unclear."
"I see. Well, to uphold as much of my contract as I could, having already broken it, I did not come to your aid during your fight with the cultist. However, my suspicions that the other party has broken their side of the agreement are growing, so I am here now."
"Other party? Could she mean Eien or maybe even the Cult of the Black Sword?"
Tokiya began to ask about this mysterious "other party", but Karasu stopped him.
"I want to talk to you more, now that you know more about your situation from Eien, but now is hardly a good time."
She finished inspecting the wolf and dropped it to the ground as she stood up. As the corpse hit the ground, it transformed into particles of light. Berserker and Tokiya looked on with awe. Karasu stared intensely at the other side of the clearing.
"These aren't real wolves. They're a result of animal summoning magic."
Berserker nodded his head.
"That explains a lot."
Karasu pointed to the opposite end of the clearing.
"Reveal yourself now. If you answer my questions, I'll consider letting you live."
In response to Karasu's command, three more giant wolves came out of the cover of the trees. Following them was a man in a familiar black cloak. His hair was long, blonde, and neat, and on the left side of his head was half of a golden wreath crown.
The man clapped his hands.
"Effortlessly killing all of those wolves is something to be proud of, so it's ok if you'll never be able to live up to my greatness."
Berserker pulled Tokiya closer to him by the collar of his jacket. Karasu remained calm.
"I'm assuming you're also a member of the Cult of the Black Sword."
The man grabbed at his cloak.
"Indeed."
Karasu nodded.
"I'd like to end this interaction as quickly as possible, so I'll ask my questions."
One of the wolves beside the man growled and bared its fangs. It was immediately kicked and sent flying by the man. It transformed into magic particles which slowly faded away.
"Damn it! I'm so tired of all that growling!"
He turned to Karasu.
"I give you permission to continue."
Both Mors and this man lived up to every expectation of a cultist Tokiya had ever had. Karasu continued.
"I'm aware that your target is Tokiya, but I also know that the Cult of the Black Sword would have no reason to hunt down a farmer from the middle of nowhere. So, tell me. Who hired you to do this?"
The man clapped his hands.
"You're pretty smart for someone who's not me. Unfortunately, not even someone as important as me was given access to that information."
"And you aren't lying?"
The man shrugged.
"What reason would I, Ubi Que Centrum, the Existent of Solipsism, have for lying? I have no reason to deceive those unfortunate enough to not be born as me."
The way the cultist, revealed to be named Ubi, spoke reminded Tokiya too much of Eien. Tokiya frowned, and Karasu continued her interrogation.
"Would there be a way for me to talk to your boss? I really must find the person who put the hit on Tokiya."
Ubi tapped his chin.
"The boss is actually very open to talking to people. Whether they walk away alive or not is a different discussion. However, after the generational failure of that idiot, Mors, the boss has stressed that we kill the farmer. So, before I take you to see him, Tokiya dies."
Karasu sighed.
"That's unfortunate. I have my sources for getting to your boss, but I was trying to be generous in giving you a chance to cooperate."
There was a mutual understanding between the two that conversation was no longer an option. Ubi decided that he would act first. He cast out his hand, and smoke clouds appeared throughout the clearing. A giant black wolf emerged from each cloud and charged at Karasu, who stood there with no reaction.
Karasu uttered two words.
"Time stop."
Ubi, the wolves, Berserker, and everything else except Karasu froze in time or at least what seemed to be frozen in time. If they were truly frozen in time, it would have been impossible for Karasu to inflict any damage. Instead, Karasu slowed time around them so much that they were basically frozen. However, Tokiya was strangely unaffected.
Karasu dashed past the wolves leaving a storm of feathers in her trail which would shoot through the wolves like bullets. She rocketed towards Ubi, planning to puncture his throat with her bare hand. When her hand was barely inches away from his throat, she was launched all the way back to the place she started. Her time stop effect vanished.
Karasu landed flawlessly and rubbed her stomach, the place where whatever sent her flying back had hit her. She looked up and saw a tall, white, lanky monster standing next to Ubi. Its mouth creeped up its face so far that it didn't even feel right to consider it a monster. That thing was a demon.
Ubi clapped his hands.
"Ah, I get it now! You're Karasu, the temporal mage. You should be proud of being able to master such advanced magic. You know, the boss warned about you, so I came prepared."
He pointed to the creature behind him.
"This is the Temporis."
Tokiya's eyes widened. Berserker looked down at him.
"What's wrong?"
Tokiya furrowed his brows.
"He can't be serious. There's no way he means the Temporis from the children's story."
Berserker hit Tokiya on the head.
"I don't get it. Fill me in."
"Ow, ok, ok. There's a story that I'd tell the kids in my town a lot. It's about a small village of people, and one day some people start randomly disappearing. They continued to vanish every night, and the people of the village tried everything to stop it, but nothing worked. In the end, once all of them were gone, it was revealed that nothing they tried worked because they were fighting something outside the laws of reality."
Tokiya gulped.
"What was abducting them was a monster called the Temporis that completely ignored the concept of time. So, if what Ubi is saying is true, Karasu's magic won't work."
Berserker grabbed Tokiya and flung him over his shoulder. Tokiya flailed around.
"What are you doing, Berserker?"
"My job is to protect you, and I know I won't be able to do that if we stay here."
Tokiya continued resisting.
"What about Karasu?"
"She can handle her-"
Karasu turned to them.
"It's ok, Tokiya. After all, you're my priority too, so let the rude man take you."
Berserker frowned.
"I wish I could find something to insult you about, but I can't."
Karasu gave him a sarcastic smile.
Before anyone could react, Berserker was kicked to the ground, and behind him was the Temporis, almost as if he had teleported. Even Karasu was shocked. Berserker hit the ground like a truck, and Tokiya fell out of his arms.
With shocking speed, Karasu dashed up to the Temporis. She punched him, and a pulse of dark energy sent it flying back. In an instant the Temporis appeared by Ubi's side again. Karasu sucked her teeth.
"What the hell is that thing?"
Ubi shrugged.
"I suppose you aren't well read enough to know what the Temporis is. I guess not everyone can be as cultured as me."
Tokiya frowned as he got up.
"It's just a children's story."
"Shut up, farmer."
Ubi turned back to Karasu and addressed her with much more respect than he did to Tokiya.
"Allow me to educate you. The Temporis is a creature that even time fears. Patience is something it has never experienced because this creature can completely skip the time between thinking of an action and performing it. Therefore, any actions this creature wants to take will happen instantly!"
Karasu's eyes widened not in fear for her life, but for the safety of Tokiya. She turned around to Berserker.
"Get Tokiya out of here!"
Berserker instantly picked up Tokiya and started running. Simultaneously, the Temporis disappeared. It appeared in front of Berserker, with its claws already on his body. However, Berserker's body took no damage. Karasu smirked.
"So what if that thing isn't affected by my temporal magic. That doesn't mean I can't use it in other ways. For example, I can predict who it will attack and freeze their state in time to prevent them from taking any damage."
Ubi clapped his hands rapidly.
"It's quite important to give praise to the peasants who perform well to encourage them to continue doing so. I see in this case you are well deserving of my praise. However, the Temporis is your perfect counter. Your magic will have no effect, so let's see how long you can keep this up."
Karasu was sent flying by the punch of the Temporis who she hadn't even realized had hit her until she was flying through the air. By the time she had landed, the Temporis had already sent her flying again. The Temporis continued its barrage of instant punches which hit Karasu hard.
The Temporis went for another punch, but instead of being sent flying, Karasu remained frozen in place. Then, Karasu lashed out her arm and sent a forceful palm into the Temporis' stomach. A massive amount of dark energy pushed the creature back, but in an instant. It was back by Ubi's side. Ubi clapped his hands.
"Would you like to tell me how you pulled that off?"
Karasu ran her hand through hair.
"I guess I could. I realized I couldn't just let that thing beat the shit out of me, so I froze myself in time while setting a timer that would undo my frozen state automatically. It's a pretty good defense if I do say so myself."
Ubi began clapping his hands more rapidly than ever before and started laughing.
"Bravo, bravo, an automatic magic timer is just brilliant. Keep up the good work, and you just might be spared in the new world that the cult will create."
He continued laughing with a sense of proudness over Karasu's actions. Karasu calmly stood in place, letting the cultist get his fill. Suddenly, the cultist froze mid clapping. Ubi stared at Karasu intensely.
"Where's Tokiya and the other one?"
Karasu looked around with mock surprise.
"Oh no, it looks like they got away. They sure are a slippery pair."
Ubi sighed and shrugged.
"You're smart, but as someone who isn't me it is natural that your intelligence occasionally lacks. You see, you failed to realize that with my animal control magic every creature in this forest is mine to command. Without your help, those two won't be making it out of this forest alive."
*****
Berserker ran through the forest, holding Tokiya over his shoulder with one hand and his sword with the other. By this time, they had actually made it pretty far away from the clearing where Karasu and Ubi were fighting. Tokiya groaned.
"Can you put me down? I'm nowhere near to being injured like you, so I can run just fine. Plus, this is a pretty bumpy ride."
"Tsk, all you do is complain. Despite you being in better condition, I'm ten times faster than you no matter what state I'm in."
Tokiya was going to retort, but talking about it made him realize how bad Berserker's state really was. His arms and torso were bloodied and bruised from the attacks of the wolves and the Temporis, and despite that, Berserker still found the strength to carry Tokiya through the thick trees. Tokiya had to respect that.
"Another thing, Tokiya."
"Yeah, what is it?"
"When we get out of this forest, you better tell me everything you're hiding."
"I'm not hiding anything, but fine. I guess there are some things I haven't told you."
Suddenly, a dark green snake that had been camouflaged as a vine lashed at the two. The snake was lunging straight at Berserker's face, but he savagely bit the snake's head off once it entered his range. Berserker casually spit the head out and continued running.
"Looks like the whole forest is against us."
Shivers were sent throughout Tokiya who had witnessed the whole thing.
"That was absolutely disgusting!"
Berserker scoffed.
"You should really stop criticizing my actions and not presenting any better solutions."
"I can think of at least ten different ways to deal with that situation."
"Then go ahead. I'm listening."
Tokiya struggled to think.
"Let's see. You could've-"
Berserker grinded to a halt which almost caused Tokiya to fall to the ground.
"Hey, no need to stop so suddenly."
Berserker dropped Tokiya to the ground. Tokiya angrily jumped to his feet.
"What the hell was that for?"
Out of the bushes, blocking the pair's path, appeared another black giant wolf. In its jaws was an odd black sphere with two golden plates running diagonally to each other on it. Berserker placed both hands on his sword. Tokiya cowered in fear, wondering how they would survive another wolf assault without Karasu's help.
"Don't worry, Tokiya. I can only detect this one wolf, so we'll be fine."
Tokiya let out an internal sigh. The wolf growled and lunged at Berserker. Despite his injuries, Berserker effortlessly split the wolf in half, and the two parts of its body hit the ground. However, in its lunge, the wolf had released the sphere from the grip of its jaws.
All eyes were on the sphere as its golden plates began to glow. The light got brighter and brighter, and as it did Berserker could feel himself being pulled closer to it like a magnet. Tokiya could feel it too. The brightness of the light continued to increase until it completely blinded the two. The only thing Tokiya could see was a white void.
Eventually, the light subsided. However, when it did something was missing. Tokiya and Berserker had vanished.