Kharon stared at Aidan with an incredulous look before saying, "It does exist, because I weild it. Unless I did a ritual with the wrong path's name. Though that would have surely led me to losing control of myself or dying."
Aidan stayed in place, as still as a statue before looking straight at Kharon. His sky blue eyes seemed to encompass the whole world as he met Kharon's inquisitive gaze.
"I have never heard of such a path. There have always been 14 paths, no more, no less. This changes everything, everything I know, everything the whole world believes to be true. It turns out to have been one big lie. Are the Gods even aware of this?"
Aidan's calm demeanor was no more, instead his bright smile was replaced with a serious frown. As he ran his hand through his short, blond hair he quickly paced about before returning his attention to Kharon.
Kharon watched as Aidan got closer and closer to him. Each step made Kharon shiver as Aidan approached. He didn't think Aidan would do anything to him. However it was rather intimidating to be stared at so intensely.
When Aidan was just a few feet away from Kharon, he suddenly asked.
"How did you gain knowledge of this path? Was it in the mauseleum you spoke of?"
Kharon quickly nodded his head, expecting Aidan to start bombarding him with more questions. But instead Aidan turned around and continued to walk, his cloak floating gracefully as they were hit by a sudden gust of wind.
"Aren't you going to ask me more questions?"
Kharon was rather perplexed as to why Aidan didn't seem as interested as befpre. His attitude had slightly shifted as well. Kharon outstretched his hand toward's Aidan's back before pulling it back.
'I'd better let him be for now, maybe he is contemplating over something.'
Kharon continued to follow Aidan as they silently walked in the dense forest. As they walked, Kharon stared at all the flora that was around him. There were trees of every colour, bushes which contained alluring fruits.
Suddenly a low growl could be heard. Aidan swiftly turned around, his outstretched hand already emitting a faint, yellow glow. But as he looked around for the source of the sound, his eyes slowly fell on Kharon.
Turning slightly red Kharon mumbled a few, inaudible words.
Aidan stared at him for a second before saying, "Could you repeat that?"
Kharon seemed turned even more red before repeating the same words in a louder tone.
"I am hungry..."
Aidan stared at him as he slowly tilted his head. An awkward silence passed between them before he suddenly burst into laughter. He continued to laugh but as he did, he reached into his cloak and pulled a loaf of bread.
Kharon looked at the cleanly sliced loaf which contained several ingredients and looked back at Aidan before shifting his attention to the cloak. His eyes suddenly gaining a faint glimmer as he asked, "How does your cloak work and what tier is it? "
Aidan handed him the loaf before chuckling and saying, "This cloak isn't made from an essence core or by using an arcane path ability."
Kharon pondered over Aidan's words before his mind wandered off, thinking about the possible explanation on how Aidan's cloak worked while unconsciously taking a bite of the loaf of bread.
"How exactly does it work then? And who made this thing?"
Aidan looked back at Kharon who was slowly eating the sandwich; savouring each bite.
"It's called a sandwich and I made it. Do you not like it? And as for the cloak, I will explain later once we are in the city."
"I think this sandwich is delicious. What is in it?"
Aidan watched as Kharon took larger and larger bites before swallowing the last piece. When he saw this, he pulled another sandwich from his cloak. He handed it to Kharon who readily accepted the loaf.
"It is made from void-stalk bread and contains solar peppers, mirecarrots and skyfowl meat. Which is why I call it a skyfowl sandwich. I will get into the specifics later. For now we need to keep moving, it's getting dark."
Aidan was right, the once blue sky was turning a bright shade of orange and so were the cloud. The sun was emitting a warm orange glow which seemed to paint over all the trees and bushes, causing their vibrate colours to dull.
Kharon quickly gobbled up the rest of his sandwich before quickening his pace and walking side by side with Aidan.
As Kharon walked next to Aidan, Aidan suddenly said, "At this pace, we wouldn't get there in time... Get on my back."
"Huh? Why, we still have a lot of time before the sunset."
"It doesn't matter, if we aren't by the city before then we wouldn't be able to get in. The security is already very tight and you aren't a registered citizen. Normal civilians aren't even allowed to step outside of the city, except when it concerns their jobs. And even then those are very rare instances."
After listening to Aidan's reasoning, he didn't have much of a reason to refuse despite his reluctance. Being carried by someone else didn't sound very appealing in the slightest, but Kharon didn't have much of a choice.
"Fine, but you better be hurry up."
"Don't worry, I will be quick. I already managed to outspeed you didn't I?"
Kharon rolled his eyes and climbed onto Aidan's back while saying, "You cheated, you used one of your abilities to blind me."
"I was going to outspeed you either way. Using Light Projection was just a quicker way of losing you. You are very persistent, I'll give you that."
Aidan proceeded to slightly lower his body, extending one of his legs back and stretching his arms forward.
"Brace yourself."
Before Kharon could even react, they had travelled over a thousand meters in an instant and they weren't slowing down. The wind was violently pushing against his face, all he could hear was a strong, blowing sound. His vision was filled with a myraid of colours, all swiftly passing by and vanishing as quickly as they came.
Kharon instinctively tighten his hold of Aidan's body. His back was surprising broad and a good deal of muscle could be felt from under the cloak.
Even though the cold air was passing by, Kharon didn't feel cold. It was partially because of his cloak, which provided him with a good deal of protection against the elements. But it was also because of Aidan's warm body which seemed to emit a lot of heat even through the cloak.
'Does this mean Aidan's cloak doesn't provide him any warmth? Then again he is from the path of radiance. Being bright and warm is in the name. Is he usually cheerful or is he doing it to assimilate with his essence core...?'
As Kharon pondered on the implications of Aidan's natural warmth, he failed to notice a sight which was both as unsettling as it was breath-taking. A giant, multi-coloured rift was floating in the sky. It seemed to encompass the whole universe as it loomed above a large, imposing wall which stretched for several miles.
"We are here..."
As Aidan uttered those words, he slowly bent down and let Kharon get off his back. Kharon slowly slid off Aidan wide back while still staring at the mesmerizing view.
It had barely been five minutes and yet they had already reached their destination. Aidan looked pretty drained, but that was understandable. He had ran at over one thousand meters per second for almost five minutes straight...
"This is Lunaris Haven?"
Aidan took a few seconds to catch his breath before answering, "Yes..."
"How is this a haven? It looks more like a gateway to hell."
"Believe it or not... It's actually one of the safest cities in existance... It has withstood the test of time... for several enturies now. This rift above us is one of the reasons for that..."
Kharon failed to understand how exactly the rift was beneficial to the city or how the civilians could tell what the time was. However he decided that he would ask later when Aidan wasn't out of breath and would answer all his other questions.
"Now we just have to get you inside... This could be tricky..."
"Can I use my arcane abilities? I have a camoflauge ability."
"No. It wouldn't work, this city is one of the most secure in the whole continent. A mere tier 5 ability wouldn't be able to hide you from the runic systems... And also, don't go around using abilities which shouldn't even exist. Unless you want to be detained and experimented on."
Kharon immediately gave up on his idea, already thinking of other ways to sneak into the city.
"What if I go inside your cloak, is that even possible? And even if I could is there any air in there and wouldn't you need to be searched?"
"I could maybe avoid being searched, as I know one of the guards on shift. However, I can't guaranteed that you wouldn't suffocate. A search usually lasts for about five minutes so I will try my best to hurry up."
Kharon decided to trust in Aidan's plan. Despite their short time together, Kharon knew he could trust him and made up his mind.
As Aidan opened up his cloak, Kharon took in a deep breath but didn't exhale. Instead he stepped closer to Aidan. There was a slight suction force and everything turned dark...