The Stubborn Light of a Dying Flame [Isekai - LitRPG]

The tree branch creaked ominously under Rayna's weight, swaying gently in the breeze. Rayna moved to a stronger branch to wait for the monster to pass.

The gargantuan snail inched below her, not giving her a moment's notice. It was too focused on its own destination to care what the small creature in the tree was doing. Without the System, Rayna couldn't tell the monster's level, but even if it was low, she wasn't eager to mess with something twenty times her size.

Rayna didn't come down until the snail was out of sight. She had run into a number of similar creatures since arriving in Ashen. The docile giants didn't give her much trouble as long as she stayed out of their way.

It was a nice change from the murderous rats and spiders Rayna had been subjected to thus far.

The most notable exception was when Rayna had uncovered her hair for a short time. Within minutes, a pack of rabid canine monsters tried to rip her to shreds. She kept her hair covered after that.

The incident led Rayna to wonder if most of her problems on Ember were the result of her hair being uncovered or if she simply had terrible timing. Her run-in with Kalin Jenka at the gates of Ellis argued for the former.

But was Jenka a Lerian, then? That seemed to be the most likely explanation. Why didn't he just say something? It wasn't as if the people of Helia recognized the species name. So far, only Shela had claimed to have any knowledge of Lerians.

Rayna shook her head, continuing on her way. It wasn't worth the brain power to figure out what people on Ember were trying to do. They had a habit of working against their best interests.

It was a self-destructive habit that they had in common with the average human, so Rayna wasn't in a position to judge.

Ashen's environment was more diverse than Rayna had given it credit for. The Obsidian Forest was pleasantly cool and the trees, though devoid of the glowing moss from Ember's side, didn't show any signs of disease. They were spaced further apart as well—likely due to giant monsters knocking down trees as they passed—and the branches didn't weave together as tightly. Rayna could see the moon shining down through the treetops.

Unfortunately, the pleasant atmosphere didn't mean that Rayna's spells worked, and her more detailed magic sight gave her an idea why that was. Every time she attempted to cast a spell, Essence gathered in front of her, hanging in the air like a cloud of bright white pollen. That Essence was quickly surrounded by Miasma, choking the life out of it before it could be used for the spell.

Skills had a similar effect, but the Essence was localized in Rayna's body. When the Miasma attempted to choke the Essence, Rayna panicked and cut off the skill immediately.

This also applied to Rayna's portals, which explained why she couldn't get back to Ember the first time either. Essentially, Rayna's abilities wouldn't work until she made it to an area with less Miasma.

It took Rayna an hour to reach the edge of the forest and in that time, she met few monsters that actually attacked her, though a particularly large feline creature tried to turn Rayna into a midnight snack.

As Rayna ventured into the open air, her breath caught in her throat. A shining city sat just beyond the tree line, its ivory towers stretching into the cloudless starry sky. A banner waved in the wind, marked with a cat rearing on its hind legs with a sword held in its mouth.

There were people in Ashen? Rayna hadn't even considered the possibility. Though that was partially due to the state of Ashen's Aeteraut Forest.

Rayna approached the city cautiously, keeping her hood up, but she needn't have bothered. The wall was deserted, the gates wide open.

Rayna walked slowly through the empty streets, alert for any movement in the shadows. The buildings showed signs of age, but they weren't crumbling yet. The ones that seemed the newest all glowed slightly, but instead of the usual white glow of Essence, the glow was dark, like the buildings were emitting black light. Rayna assumed that this was Miasma, but she couldn't figure out how one would use Miasma to cast a spell. Perhaps the spells had been corrupted over time?

Rayna couldn't read the signs as she passed, having no one there to translate for her, but she could determine some of the store's purposes by the view through their windows. A butchers shop had bones hanging from the ceiling, the flesh having long since rotted away. The brewery had dusty bottles with labeled potions lining every shelf. A tailor's shop was lined with clothing, some half eaten by moths. Some glowed with the same dark energy that Rayna had seen on the buildings, reaffirming her theory that Miasma was somehow involved in the preservation of these items.

Rayna grabbed the outfits that were in the best condition and stowed them in her Soul Realm. Phira would want to see them, and it wasn't like anyone here was using them. She did the same for several of the items in the other shops, being careful to keep them in a separate pile in her Soul Realm until they could be gone through.

As she explored further, Rayna found many other shops offering various wares. She didn't bother looting the dress shop, since she wouldn't be caught dead with the level of frills on display in the window.

It was all strangely mundane for an abandoned city of a magical world.

A crash behind Rayna made her heart leap into her throat. She spun around just in time to see a Cani scurry away, his tail between his legs.

Yep. Very mundane…

When Rayna came to a blacksmith's shop, she didn't know what to expect inside.

Her eyes widened as she took in rows upon rows of weapons. Daggers, swords, maces, bows; there were even a set of long sharp needles that might have been Ashen's version of an 18th century hat pin.

Some of the weapons glowed brighter than the others, but each was enchanted in some way. From the looks of it, preservation was a standard spell that the former blacksmith used.

Stolen story; please report.

Rayna took them all, pausing when she came to a basic awl pike. How long had it been since she picked up that nearly useless pike in the tutorial? A month? It felt like years. The pike before her was almost identical to the one she had used.

This time, when she picked it up, she didn't have any difficulty lifting it.

She finished collecting the rest of the weapons, looking with some regret at the empty shelves.

No one is coming back for them, she reminded herself. It's a waste to leave good weapons in a ghost town.

Rayna moved on, but not before scrawling a thank you note for the previous owner of the establishment. He would never read it, but she felt she ought to leave something and even if she had money, it wouldn't be the same currency that Ashen used.

Rayna didn't take any of the food she found in the city. No matter how well preserved it seemed, Rayna didn't trust it. Who knows how long it had been sitting out. A thousand years? Six thousand? She would sooner eat honey out of a pharoah's tomb.

Rayna came to the gates of the castle, staring up at its towering facade. Curiosity swirled around in her chest, but she decided against entering. She wasn't in the mood to deal with any magical traps that the ancient nobility might have left behind and there likely wasn't anything in the castle worth looting. She wasn't looking for gold, Rayna needed stuff.

And curious as she was, Rayna wasn't going to risk getting herself killed just for a bit of historical sight-seeing.

Rayna turned to leave and froze in her tracks.

A figure stood ten feet away from her, their hood pulled up over their face. Rayna backed up a step, pulling her new awl pike from her Soul Realm.

The figure didn't move. It watched her for a long moment, curiosity simmering in the air between them.

"Who are you?" Rayna demanded, her voice echoing uncomfortably in the silence.

"We are the Corvi," the figure said.

Hundreds of shadows appeared, surrounding Rayna in what looked like a dense fog.

Rayna spun around, waving her pike to keep them at a distance. What should she do? Could she run through them? They didn't look corporeal…

Rayna paused. They weren't attacking. They were just standing around and staring at her.

"What do you want?" Rayna asked hesitantly, directing her question at the first shadow to appear.

"We want to go home," all of the corvi said in unison.

"Home?"

"We want to go home," they repeated.

"Where is home?" Rayna asked.

"We want to go home. We want to go home. We want to go home."

The chant took on a steady rhythm like a drum beat. Rayna clapped her hands over her ears as the chant grew in volume, the thundering crescendo threatening to burst her eardrums.

The sound cut off, and Rayna was standing alone with the first shadow.

He watched Rayna from beneath his hood, still as a ghost.

Was this another hallucination? Rayna thought she was done with those after she evolved.

The silence stretched for a whole minute, anxiety rising in Rayna's chest until she couldn't take it any longer.

"What do you want?!" she snapped.

The figure didn't resume the chant, instead he nodded at her weapon. "Use it well. I will recognize it when we meet."

Then he vanished.

Rayna glanced down at her pike. Was the main shadow the blacksmith who made it? What did it mean they would meet?

She shook her head. She couldn't just dismiss it as a hallucination, but Rayna wasn't convinced it was a vision. She moved to leave the creepy city when another figure blocked her way.

"All right, I'll use it!" Rayna snapped. "Would you just leave me alone?"

The figure stiffened, their posture giving off more surprise than curiosity. Slowly, they lowered their hood.

Rayna recognized the woman from the brief glance she had seen before running to Ashen.

It was N.

Rayna pointed her awl pike at the woman, trying to decide if this was another hallucination or if N had really followed Rayna all the way here.

"I'm not going to harm you," N said, holding her hands up as if calming a startled horse. "I came to get you out of Ashen. Your portals don't work here, right?"

Rayna narrowed her eyes. "What do you know about my portals?"

They were a Lerian Inheritance. N shouldn't know anything about them if even Amon didn't know their origin. Rayna figured they were just an obscure family line from the outskirts of Helia.

Not that she really cared much about her stolen powers. She had only used them to get away from N.

Lot of good that did her…

"The story is too long to explain here," N said, glancing around nervously at the empty buildings. "We should go back to Ember. I can teach you how to open a portal here."

Rayna's surprise overrode her caution. "Really?"

For a brief moment she wondered if N was just trying to stall, but she wouldn't need to do that, would she? Rayna was no match for her. She didn't need to trick Rayna into going anywhere if she could just drag her there by force.

"You passed the first plateau, yes?" N asked. "That's when you got those horns."

Rayna nodded jerkily, not lowering her weapon.

"That means you should be able to create a bubble that repels Miasma. It'll take time and practice to hold it long enough for large spells, but it should be enough to open a portal." N stepped closer and Rayna took a step back.

"Before you come any closer, why did you set up the meeting in the woods?" Rayna demanded.

N had been looking for Rayna specifically. She tried to end the meeting early when it looked like Rayna wasn't there.

"To give you a warning," N said without hesitation. "My brother knows you exist, but he thinks you're a seer. If you were, it would be too dangerous to leave you alone. He plans to abduct you and force you into hiding until he can… bring your memories back…"

Rayna blinked. "My memories? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"He doesn't believe that you're one of the chosen," N said. "He thinks that you're confused."

Rayna stiffened.

"I don't agree with him," N rushed to tell her. "You've shown no signs of knowing what a Lerian is or why it's significant. Even if you were a young Lerian with false memories, there would be some hesitation there, some muscle memory that you displayed from your days before the cataclysm. The closest you've displayed was your instincts and your… tendency to bite things when you feel threatened."

"I only bite when I have to. It's not at all my first choice," Rayna said defensively. They were getting off topic. "That's not the point. Who the hell is your brother and what gives him the right to go around kidnapping people?"

"He doesn't have the right to do so, but he does it anyway," N said. "And you've met my brother once before. You would know him as Lord Myre."

Rayna opened her mouth and closed it again. She should be reacting with more concern—or anger, perhaps—but she found the revelation a little too ridiculous to take seriously.

A moment later, when Rayna's brain caught up to reality, she recognized the potential in this situation.

Lord Myre—or Emberan—was the person Silka suggested because he should know about the Inheritance, right? So, anything he knows, N should also know at least something about it.

"You know about my inheritance, right?" she said slowly. "You could teach me how to use it? Without telling Lord Myre."

N raised her eyebrows. "That's theoretically true. It might be difficult given my position."

"We can work out the details later," Rayna said quickly. "If we can find a way to make it work, will you do it?"

N nodded slowly. "It would be a good idea. Inheritances aren't something you want to blindly explore on your own."

Rayna wondered what Silka would think of this arrangement. She still didn't trust the vision she saw during her evolution, nor did she really trust the person she had just enlisted as a teacher. She would keep details close to her chest until she could figure out what was really going on.

And why the Corvi from Rayna's most recent experience looked so different from Silka's version.

N glanced at the castle behind Rayna. "Why don't we start by getting out of here. Ashen is no place for a Lerian."