Chapter 14: Amid the Storming, Freezing Winds
Lumin was stunned by the writing on the white plate, because it contained letters of the Vodan language. If the Vodan language had reached this place and was being used for writing, then that meant Lumin had not moved to another world...
Countless possibilities gathered in his mind at once. He whispered to himself in a calm voice, "Am I in... the Red Mist...?"
Before Lumin could sink deeper into his thoughts, he heard footsteps behind him. If not for his enhanced hearing, he would not have heard them or noticed them at all.
Lumin turned his body around and saw the very same Fishwell he had seen from the window in his room... The Fishwell was standing many meters away from Lumin, but Lumin still backed away in slow, cautious steps until his back hit the white carriage. He raised his hand and pulled the tethered stick from his pocket as he thought, The Joker told me to go outside... why is there a Fishwell here...?
In an instant, one thing flashed through Lumin's mind.
An axe.
At once, the burning stick changed shape into Lumin's axe, the same one he had taken from the hunting club.
Lumin watched the Fishwell and adjusted his stance for any sudden attack.
It seemed to Lumin that the Fishwell had not noticed him. He wanted to avoid its strike and surprise it with a swift attack that would finish it off... but the Fishwell was not even approaching him. Instead, it was moving back and forth from a distance.
Lumin turned his head toward his house, wanting to escape before the Fishwell noticed him and attacked. In that brief moment, the Fishwell screamed at the top of its lungs and charged toward Lumin.
Lumin gripped the axe tightly and waited until the Fishwell got close enough. Only a few heartbeats passed before the Fishwell came within range and tried to slash Lumin with the claws that sprang from its twisted fist...
In a flash, Lumin lunged forward and turned as he lifted the axe to strike the Fishwell's neck.
Thud!
Lumin struck the Fishwell's neck with all his strength. The axe pierced through its throat, revealing the Fishwell's green flesh and black bones.
Lumin tried to pull the axe free from its neck, but it had become lodged in flesh and bone. Quickly, he lifted his foot and stomped on the Fishwell over and over until it fell to the ground, away from the axe.
But before Lumin could understand what was happening, the claws of the Fishwell's left hand began to disappear and retreat back into its fist. At the same time, its neck began regenerating.
Lumin felt a strange heat surging through his body, as if boiling water were flowing from his mind into his four limbs and the rest of his body.
Pffft.
The Fishwell tried to slash at Lumin's arm with the claws of its right hand... but it failed, and its claws cut through empty air instead. Lumin felt the hair on his arm rise, and with a quick motion he lifted it upward, escaping the blow.
The Fishwell did not stop after that missed strike. With its left hand, it tried to smash Lumin's face, but Lumin managed to dodge its fist.
The Fishwell kept attacking Lumin repeatedly, becoming faster each time and more ferocious, while Lumin struggled to evade its blows. He kept dodging with no chance to counter, until his back hit the white carriage.
With all its strength, the Fishwell tried to crush Lumin's head with its right hand, but as a last resort he leapt forward and managed to escape the blow. In doing so, however, he was forced to let go of the tethered axe.
Lumin quickly lifted his head from the axe that had fallen to the ground and saw that the Fishwell's hand had become trapped in the carriage. He ran at full speed and picked the axe up from the ground, but he did not rush to attack the Fishwell and finish it off. Its claws had become stuck in the white carriage and it could not pull them out. The thought flashed through Lumin's mind that if he failed to kill it with a single strike, it would regenerate again and its claws would disappear, freeing it.
Quickly, he tried to think of Lumit's sword, the one he had used during the wild boar incident before joining the club. It had been sharper than the axe, and maybe he could have killed the Fishwell with it. But the axe had not changed shape, which made Lumin think of the stick and run toward the house.
But to his misfortune, he found another Fishwell in front of his house's door, one different from the one trapped in the white carriage. That made him change direction and run at full speed to get away.
After running and putting a good distance between himself and the Fishwell, he felt a slight headache and a dark liquid gradually covering one of his eyes. He touched it and realized what the liquid was. It was his blood, flowing from above his eyebrow.
He could not see well with one eye, but he managed to make out a larger carriage than the previous one, in a honey-gold color. He approached it and tried to pull the door open and force it. But unlike the white carriage, this one opened.
He pulled himself up and sat in the front seat. In front of him was a brown leather steering wheel, but he ignored it, grabbed the door, and closed it.
Very quickly, he looked back toward the Fishwell's location to make sure they had not followed him. When he confirmed that they had not, he turned his attention back to the carriage he had entered.
He noticed that the seat he was sitting on was better and more comfortable than any seat he had ever sat in before, including the sofa in the guest room and even the sofa in the priest's room at the Razawin church.
Before he took the tethered stick from his inner pocket and thought of using a tissue to wipe away his blood, he noticed a box of tissues beside his right hand. Still dazed from the headache, he immediately noticed that it was extremely light, and it had not been placed in a wooden holder but in clear plastic, like the tissues sold in noble markets at a higher price.
He took out one tissue and wiped the blood running from his eyebrow. Then he leaned back against the seat to rest...
After a few minutes, he noticed that the trapped Fishwell had managed to pull its hand out of the carriage. But he also noticed that the wound on his eyebrow had healed completely. Even his headache had vanished as if it had never been there. Lumin felt the strangeness of the event and tried to link it to the Linker Path, but he did not understand how it worked or why it had healed his wound without him doing anything or controlling the connection.
He sighed lightly and said, "It seems that not only my senses have been linked to my mind... The wound disappeared quickly. I think this is because my body is linked to my mind. My body has become stronger and better... I can even sense danger now."
Lumin stayed where he was, watching his house. He wanted to return under the protection of the Castle Man, but he was afraid of the Fishwell. With their terrifying resilience and unnatural regenerative ability, it would be impossible to defeat them both...
The Fishwell moved back and forth in random motions, coming and going, but they did not stray far from the house. Lumin did not dare try to go home while they were nearby. Instead, he thought about the battle he had fought against the Fishwell and tried to come up with ways he could win if he were forced to fight them.
...
Lumin did not know how much time had passed while he sat in that carriage... But he began to feel something strange about the dark sky, which he thought was moving as if it were alive.
In only a few moments, daylight seemed to break, and the sun appeared out of nowhere. Night vanished and day emerged in a matter of seconds. Lumin felt stunned and amazed by this strange phenomenon.
But before he could react to it, another phenomenon began to appear... Violent winds came out of nowhere, accompanied by a loud sound, and the cold was like frost.
Lumin got out of the carriage and turned his head around with shock on his face. In the end, he lifted his gaze to the sun that had appeared.
He saw a dark celestial body emerge from nowhere and begin moving toward the sun. While looking at the sun and the black body, amid the freezing, storming winds, he said one word:
"Eclipse."
He lowered his face at once and looked toward the house. The Fishwell were still there, but he ran at full speed anyway despite their presence. As he ran, the sky around him slowly began to turn red, and spirits and monsters appeared floating in the air, flying toward the sun.
Lumin pulled the tethered stick from his pocket and said, "Axe."
At once, the stick in his hand turned into an axe. Before Lumin reached the house, the Fishwell that had tried to kill the first one approached him, while the other one was still some distance away and did not seem to have noticed Lumin.
Lumin quickly raised the axe and tried to strike the Fishwell's neck, and he succeeded... but he failed to kill it and cut off its head. The axe became stuck in the Fishwell's neck, but unlike last time, Lumin this time thought of the tethered stick and at the same time stomped on the Fishwell so it would fall to the ground.
Immediately after the Fishwell fell, Lumin raised his hand and thought of the axe changing shape. In a fraction of a second, he cut off the Fishwell's head.
Before Lumin could lift his head and run to the house, he heard quick footsteps approaching him, while the wind around him grew colder and harsher.
He felt a chill in his right side and leapt to the left with all his strength, without raising his head to see the one attacking him... But even with that leap, he was too slow to avoid the blow completely and suffered an injury, though not one severe enough to be critical.
Lumin lifted his head while clutching his side in pain and thought, The other Fishwell...
Before Lumin could make his first move, the Fishwell attacked him. Lumin dodged its strike and ran away from it for a short distance. He turned around and, in a final move, decided to try his strongest gamble. He threw the axe toward the Fishwell's head and shouted loudly, "Turn into a table!"
Tickkk!
At once, the axe turned into Lumin's room table and fell onto the Fishwell's body.
Lumin approached the table slowly and cautiously... He touched it and thought, Axe.
At once, the table turned into an axe in Lumin's hand.
Before Lumin could confirm whether the Fishwell was alive or not, he quickly stepped back two paces and threw the axe toward the Fishwell while thinking, Turn into a table.
Again, he approached the table and touched it before thinking, Axe. Then he stepped back two paces and repeated the action.
Before Lumin could repeat the act for a fourth time and throw the axe toward the Fishwell, he heard a thunderous bolt of lightning. Without even thinking about the Fishwell, he ran at full speed toward the house. As he ran, he remembered the murderous aura he had felt yesterday—the aura that the Castle Man, Richard Alexander, had warned him about...
Fortunately, the house was not far from where he was. He ran for a few seconds and nearly reached it... but his body could not withstand the immense pressure and terrifying aura, and he fell to the ground.
Lumin felt as though a massive mountain had been placed on top of him. He could not endure it and cried out in pain, "Nooo!"
And before he could close his eyes and lose consciousness, the Castle Man came out of the house and saved him from beneath the eclipse.