The morning air was fresh, accompanied by the stench of uneasiness.
One week had passed since the ordeal in the waterfall chasm, and Elijah had been on a numerous number of walks around the city, and even walks in the crudely overpopulated inner city during the daytime.
From the looks of it, anyone who had managed to find a place to stay when their home was destroyed, were always out in the streets during the daytime selling whatever they could to make a living. These poor people probably made a deal to only take refuge in their temporary homes to sleep, and practically begged for money as they sold the same thing their neighbor's were selling.
That right there, is the cruel reality of a kingdom that refuses to expand. At some point, there is far too much of the same product lining the streets — not enough variety.
The tension in the kingdom continued to rise not just from the food rations, but also the next to zero progress on retaking the walls. What the kingdom needed was an all out war to solidify their survival, but before that, must come the slow destruction and dwindling of the horrid and new beasts roaming the outer lands.
Elijah took the moments of walking through the crowded streets to buy a set of quality black-leather hunting garments.
The sight of tears during the exchange gave Elijah a brief amount of embarrassment.
…
Subtle knocks were heard at the door of Elijah's bedroom in the evening. A voice that Elijah had been so dearly waiting for was finally here.
"It's Amaris, can you open up?"
The voice was not the same cheery voice as he always portrayed, but instead a cold tone relative to his affinity.
"Hello Ama–. Woah! Wh-what happened to your arm?!" Elijah opened the door to see the familiar white-haired and blue eyed man. Only this time, part of his left hand was missing as if it had been split down the middle in a diagonal line. Amaris' thumb and index finger were the only things attached with the missing part covered in gray and black skin.
Amaris took a seat on the chair in the corner of the room. " A beast unlike anything the kingdom has seen before did this to me. Just being touched by its power disintegrated my hand almost instantly. If I hadn't asked someone to cut part of my hand off, it would've spread…"
Elijah thought back to his astral projection experience. "Decay."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Did this creature have long squirming limbs coming from the top of its body?"
Amaris placed his hand on the door slamming it shut, wincing in pain at the same time. "Yes?! How do you know that?"
"Something Happened before I left for my mission. I'm certain I left my physical body, and was able to pass through anything physical and fly wherever I wanted to go… I went to the outer region, and saw the same humanoid beast. It somehow saw me even though I was invisible to the eye. It also tried to use a weird type of magic on me, but I was able to escape…" Elijah told the truth without sounding like an expert. Amaris was trustworthy since he too wanted to explore outside the outer walls, and not from this kingdom.
Amaris gave a deep sigh. "Elijah, You probably have no idea what you did, but your soul left your body during something called astral projection. It is a phenomenon that has been shared in secret within different societies of the kingdom I come from. However, to let your soul wander requires either an immense amount of energy, or pure and intense amounts of concentration that is seemingly impossible."
Elijah told Amaris the truth of how it had happened, and his meetings with a mysterious man troubled by his lack of memory and facial deconstruction.
"Elijah, I need you to tell me this man's name." Amaris' voice shocked Elijah. His tone made Elijah presume he knew Abel.
"Abel."
Amaris quickly stood up from his chair, and paced around the room in circles.
"Dammit! How is Abel alive? Where is he?!"
"Uhhh, he is stuck within The Catacombs. Something I haven't told you yet, is that every time I jump into the area underneath the whirlpool, I end up in the same cavern with Abel calmly being by himself. Also, Abel tells me he doesn't remember much about his past, and only knows his name… At least, that was in the beginning."
"Elijah. If what you are saying is true, then you cannot trust him. He was one of the people that came to this kingdom with me and I fear that he is being controlled."
"What?! Controlled by who?"
"I don't know. When I first came here as a youngling, and blended into the streets of the inner south, I stayed close to the people I came with. We rose through the ranks of the hunter guild, but something happened within The Catacombs many times over that triggered me to never return there again. I was betrayed, over and over again. I lost the people I had become friends with, over and over again. That is when I became friends with a fellow hunter who started to take me outside the walls… He was someone who had risen through the ranks expertly fast, far outpacing his peers in the academy."
"Everyone around me never wanted to go outside the walls in the first place, but the goal was to capture more animals for food if they were seen, or kill the beasts to collect their cores for magitech. The beasts outside the walls are wildly different compared to the beasts in The Catacombs. I think there are people within this kingdom that are the reason for the eeriness, and I want your help to either stop those people, or kill them…"
Elijah felt a warm feeling wash over him. For the first time in this new life, he was finally able to empathize with something going through the same troubles.
"Okay, I agree. I want to help you. I want to learn what is going on with this kingdom. I-I love this kingdom, or atleast, I did before the wall fell."
"That is good to hear. That flight ability of yours is rather special, you know. Back in my kingdom, the few abilities that the people possessed were not something that related to an element of the world, but rather a concept known by the people. These abilities could be flight like yours, but also speed, strength, telekinesis, shape shifting, and so much more I missed the pleasure of witnessing. These abilities were said to come from a holy site, and were said to be given to the people by the gods… Although, I believe that last part is just a myth. Either the gods are dead, or they never existed in the first place…"
Elijah compared Amaris' words to his personal experience. The voice that he sometimes heard in his head asking him to save someone, or the remnants of conversations he had with an unknown figure correlated with the idea of gods existing. However, only one question was on Elijah's mind. "What was your kingdom like?"
"Haha! Do you mean the way it looks? The culture? The food?"
"Yes! Everything!"
Amaris sat back in the chair clutching his cauterized hand.
"My kingdom is called Gion, and is at least ten times larger than this kingdom. If you think this place is beautiful, then you will drop to your knees when you see Gion. The entire kingdom uses a mana-dense river that comes from somewhere deep in the earth as a source of transportation. There are many different districts including the noble, market, agriculture, industrial, red light, oceanfront and even a district in the outskirts known as the slums. While my kingdom is nowhere near perfect, and definitely capitalizes on the weak, most people truly enjoy living there. The motto is basically contribution, as you get what you deserve. But… there are unfair rules put in place… I could talk about the endless body of water that on the other side of a pearly white sand dune, how the waterspout has been monopolized as a healing center and as a source of drinking water for the people, or how the beasts are handled within the borders and foreign regions of the kingdom. But… I would rather you see and experience it for yourself. I won't say much else, but I did want to let you know that our kingdom doesn't rely on magic nearly as much. We manufacture everything using the resources in our abundant environment, and even use the mana crystals to create magical equipment for hunters that do not have mana cores. Magic in this kingdom is a commodity, something so common it is seen as unnatural to not have it, whereas in Gion, having it grants you status unlike anyone in the kingdom.
"What about your family? Was it hard to leave them?"
Elijah's question tore a hole through Amaris' memory. Images of his mother and new-born brother flashed through his mind.
"I… was never able to say goodbye. I left under weird circumstances, and I regret it… If you ever make it there, then please, find my family. My last name is Restitule, and my entire family is flawed by white hair pigment."
Elijah suddenly marbled in his heart. He knew very well Amaris had a reason for every word that came out of his mouth.
Whether it was his outgoing expression of fidelity and kindness, or his demeaning and cold tongue towards anyone disrespectful, Amaris proved to not waste a single ounce of effort if it wasn't in his best interest.
"You are saying that as if you won't end up making it back to Gion."
"The world is tough, far bigger than you can imagine, and filled with creatures and humans far more powerful than you can fathom. I have no idea what I am dealing with. I'm just being cautious…"
The vast differences between the two kingdoms made Elijah think about the origin of magic. The normalcy of magic in the Kingdom of Astraea makes it seem like all magic originated from the crater, or from whatever made the crater that the kingdom survives around.
Elijah began thinking about the reasons why the outside world was hidden from the public.
Technically speaking, not a single building was in sight outside the walls except for the sight of beasts. Although Elijah had not traversed the entirety of the outer wall, he knew the same would be the case everywhere.
With the combination of a towering wall of protection, and the numerous problems related to maintaining The Catacombs, it was obvious why Astraea had not a single moment to expend its troops into faraway expeditions.
The suitable hunter's able to traverse through the unknown beast lands would be the strongest, but were preoccupied with diving into the deepest depths of The Catacombs, while also keeping peace when problems arose.
All in all, Astraea had far too much on its plate with a population size struggling to grow. While the nobles and well-off commoners were popping babies out like candy, the poor struggled to keep their bloodline alive.