The sun hung high in the sky.
The scuttling of the animals was audible in the vast forest.
As I stirred awake, I saw a blue bird perched up on my face. Its wings fluttered as it flew away due to my sudden movement.
"You're awake?" The soft voice came from behind me.
I turned to meet a pair of tired, brown eyes.
"...Good enough."
Henry was sitting on a rock near me, covered in blood and dented armor. The scent of blood reminded me of yesterday's events.
The somber ruins, Aiden....
....and my Awakening.
I started inspecting myself.
I felt.... refreshed. As if yesterdays events didn't even happen. And not just that, there was a strange strength in my fingertips. It wasn't as substantial as after my awakening but I felt like I could fight off five of my former selves.
I lifted my shirt to observe the lethal wound Aiden gave me. What revealed itself to me was smooth, unblemished skin.
This was likely due to my mana cyclone.
When people grow older, they unconsciously gather mana particles from the air into their "Mana Heart", an organ located in the center of your chest. The more mana the Mana Heart gathers, the bigger it gets. When it gets full, the awakening is stopped by a thin barrier around the Mana Heart. It needs a catalyst to break through that barrier.
That catalyst is "Ambition".
There has to be a strong surge in ambition when the mana heart is full for someone to break past the limits of humanity.
When that person "Awakens", they will be surrounded by a "Mana Cyclone". It is a cyclone made of mana that's acts as a defense mechanism for the vulnerable awakened. It heals most injuries, gets rid of physical impurities and grants a temporary strength boost to the Awakened.
This is the reason I was able to keep up with Aiden even though I just awakened. It's also the reason I'm currently uninjured.
'I got lucky.'
"Feels good, doesn't it?"
I looked at Henry who was looking up in the air.
"I still remember the day of my awakening. As if a whole new world just opened up to me," He said with a wistful expression.
"So, what's your 'Ambition'?" He said finally turning to me.
I remained quiet for a moment before answering.
"To become stronger." I replied curtly.
He frowned for a moment before mumbling something under his breath. "I suppose that time will come later."
"What did you say?"
"Nothing, don't worry about it." He waved off.
I looked at him for a while before asking, "So where is the ruin? And...." I stopped, my sentence trailing off.
"Adam didn't make it." He said with a somber tone.
I kept quiet for a moment, thinking about the Tall awakened.
"So what about the ruin, and where are their bodies?" I reiterated my question.
Henry's face turned slightly grim. "I don't know...."
Before I could question him, he continued, "Shortly after you fell unconscious, the ruin started fading away like how it appeared and before I knew it, we were outside. Without any of the bodies."
'It just disappeared? How?'
"I think it's like what Adam was talking about," said Henry pulling me out my thoughts.
I knew what he was talking about....
'The Riftlands'
A Rift beast invested area with many weird magical events like illusions, gaps in time, cracks in space and many more.
Though that area is way closer to the Solara kingdom than it is to Felora. Why are these things happening here?
I suddenly recall the whole reason for our conflict.
"Did you manage to take that golden pendant before the ruins disappeared?" I asked hurriedly.
It might have been the reason we almost died but it would still get us a lot of gold.
"You're really worried about the gold, right now?" He asked exasperated.
Seeing my serious expression, he sighed and answered.
"I looked for it after making sure of your safety and Adam's condition but I couldn't see anything." He said while keeping his head down.
'It disappeared as well, huh. Not something I didn't expect.'
Sigh
What a messed up turn of events.
After talking some things through, we decided to head back toward the city and figure things out from there.
Ironically, I was the one who was leading the two of us, as Henry was injured in some places and suffering from mana burnout.
Since I was an awakened now, I didn't have to be too scared of any rift beasts.
Henry even went through the liberty of explaining some awakened concepts I wasn't familiar with yet.
Like that we slowly made our way back to Alexandra.
***
After exiting the Dreadclaw Forest, Henry and I decided to report our circumstances to the Guild before splitting up.
It didn't take long people to start staring. After all, Henry was covered in dried blood and bruises.
And I wasn't inconspicuous either. My wounds and bruises might have healed due to the mana cyclone but my clothes didn't have that luxury. There was a giant bloodstain and tear in my jacket.
But there seemed to be more at play....
The Dreadclaw forest is right next to the city of Alexandra so it isn't that weird to see Rift Hunters coming out injured or messed up.
But these peoples eyes told something else...
They were whispering and gossiping while staring at of confused, as if second guessing something.
"Uhm, Crow," Henry said with a frown on his face. "Take a look at this."
I turned my head toward the wall he was pointing and understood his reaction.
There were posters. Missing person posters to be exact. They were of us, the party we formed this morning.
Missing person posters aren't that uncommon among Rift Hunters. Some parties get wiped out without a trace after all.
The issue with these posters was the timing of it. There's no way a missing person report is filed within 24 hours of us being away. Most people would assume we were just on a slightly longer hunt than usual. They would never suspect something happened to us.
Then something in the discarded newspaper caught my eye.
After picking it up I suddenly froze.
"Crow, are you okay?" The young swordsman asked worriedly.
"Henry" I called out to the man.
Instead of answering him, I shoved the newspaper in his face. After scanning it for a few seconds, a massive frown creased his brows before changing to horror.
"How long was I out today," I said as I started sweating. "...because, according to this, we've been gone for four days."
"There's no way..." His hands started shaking. That told me enough to know I wasn't mistaken about the time.
4 days? How? At best we've been gone for a day. Henry kept watch and seemed pretty sure I was out for shy of 5 hours.
No way he could mistake that for 4 DAYS.
Then it could only be...
"The ruins..." I whispered before turning to a confused Henry.
"If those ruins are really like in the Riftlands, then time might move differently in that space than it did in the rest of the world." I explained, my voice getting more confident as I kept going.
"So, while we were in that ruin for a few minutes..."
"4 days passed to the rest of the world..." finished Henry, the realization setting in.
'Which also means...'
Kayla...
"Change of plans, I have to get home right now." I said, urgency leaking from my voice.
Henry, realizing something similar to what I did, nodded his head.
As we wanted to leave towards our respective responsibilities, we realized something.
It was quiet.
Unnaturally quiet.
The streets were full of gossiping people a few minutes ago.
Where did they go?
I suddenly perked my head towards the sound of metal clanking.
Appearing from the corner of the street were three heavily armored knights with sheathed longswords at their waist. The armor looked as expected from a knight, clean and full of refine.
On the chest of their armor, they bore a symbol of a rising sun coming from the horizon.
'The Dawn knights'
Knights under employment of the Dawn Ducal House, the strongest knight order after the Royal Guard that protects the royal family and the capital. And the nobles that govern over the Alexandra.
They seemed to be heading straight for us.
"Are you two the Rift hunters that go by the name of Kaelith Vayne and Henry Hilton?" Questioned the leading knight.
'Haven't heard my full name in a while.'
The knight seemed to be in his late 30s with healthy blond hair. He had a lean build that spoke volumes of his knightly training.
I wasn't able to tell the difference between awakened before, but now that I was one myself, I could instinctively sense it.
This man was way out of my league....
'A Tier 3 knight.', I gulped imagining having to fight someone like this.
I can tell that he would have beaten someone like Aiden without much difficulty. The knights behind him nothing to scoff at either. Though not as strong as the front man, they felt powerful in their own right.
But what am I sensing?
For whatever reason, whenever I looked at the knights I felt something incongruous. As if what I was seeing wasn't real.
Just like with the ruins in the Forest.
"Yes. That's correct. Do you have gentlemen have any business with us?" Replied Henry with a seemingly practiced bow.
Not knowing what to do, I just awkwardly bowed along with him.
The main knight stepped up and said, "I am a knight of the Dawn Order, Vash Hugh." He introduced himself with a chivalric grace. "I am here due to the two of you being suspected of the disappearances of your party members, Adam Ghis, Leo Velo and Aiden Cross."
They suspect us of murdering our team members? I suppose it makes sense, since we're the only ones to appear after 4 days.
But isn't this too fast?
We barely entered the city an hour ago. Does the knight order truly work that fast?
"We just came back from the hunt. We were just on the path to the guild hall to explain the situation there." explained Henry to the knight with respect.
He clearly has experience talking to knights.
"That won't be necessary. The questioning won't take long, only a moment. We can talk at the pub a small distance from here." explained Vash with professionalism while pointing towards a small building sticking out over the buildings
I suppose it is more convenient. It beats going over to the guildhall, which is still a while away.
But what about that weird feeling surrounding that knight.
"Hey, Crow," Henry tapped my shoulder with a dire expression. "These people, they aren't real knights."
"What?" I whispered back.
"They might look, sound and have the power of knights but I swear on everything, they are not from The Dawn Order." His voice was steady. He was sure.
They aren't Dawn knights?
Then who the hell have we been conversing with? And what the hell do they want with us?