Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

For some reason, Griar felt himself grow cold for a brief instant, but found no reason for this to happen, his wounds were healing nicely right now, and he did not detect any trace of danger nearby, but despite that, he still got a sensation like something big was happening, like the remnants of a distant storm had just passed by him in the form of a simple gust of wind…

Unable to figure out what might have caused this sudden feeling however, the young man did not pay it further mind, and focused on healing himself for the next hour or so- Wind magic, amongst the four most common elements, was amongst those that were easier to apply healing with, naturally, the way magic, no matter the element, was used depended on the caster, but it remained a fact that wind and water mages would have an easier time casting healing that fire and earth mages on average.

It was a good thing that Griar had an affinity for wind, without that, he might not be able to cast healing at all right now.

Though, he worried about the fact that he could not use his mana to return to the Peaceful Realm, but could use it for anything else… It made him wonder if something or someone was actively trying to keep him in this realm, or if somehow, by trying to catch up to Flor, he had gotten close to something that was passively inhibiting any attempt to escape, as he had been perfectly capable of moving in between realms back when he had been at Flor's house.

He did not have much time to test whatever theories he had however, once sufficiently healed up, Griar stood up, and after surveying the area around the shack, carefully and slowly climbed up on a tree, attempting to get a good overview of his surroundings, Flor had supposedly been taken to a castle of sorts, which he felt confident should be visible from quite a distance away, but upon climbing up, he realised that further away, a thick fog permeated everything.

This reminded him of when he stepped into the woods earlier and sounds that he did not hear prior to entering began to erupt from everywhere, that fog was not something that he could have just missed before, it was dense, it reached high into the sky… By all accounts, such a natural curtain should have been noticed by him many times over, but for some reason, it only became visible right now, it was as though the land of this realm was fractured and that bits and pieces were no longer quite attached to one another on a level beyond the physical, preventing certain things from sticking out entirely until one stepped upon a certain area.

It was as though the realm was in the process of being rebuilt, or at least, this general region was.

Although it seemed like a bad idea, Griar headed for the fog, reasoning that if there was anywhere a whole castle could hiding in, it would be inside of the thick wall of fog, so the youth traversed the warped woods, having to look where he walked as bear traps were awfully common, and he even had to slay an enraged, lone wolf with his machete on the way there, but eventually, he noticed mist began to flow around, at first, only up to his ankles, but quickly enough, he was fully submerged in the fog.

He had never experienced such a thing before, and had to advance very slowly, for now, the bear traps were much harder for him to notice with the obstruction of the fog, after nearly thirty minutes of careful trekking through the woods, he noticed the fog grow thinner, revealing a small stone house, which was guarded by someone wearing a near identical burlap sack as the axe-man from before.

It was hard to tell if that was a man or a woman, as they were garbed in a wide coat that obstructed their physique, all that Griar could make out was that this one was wielding a cutter mattock instead of a double-edged axe.

Upon closer inspection, Griar realised that he had arrived on the edge of yet another village.

'There are probably roads linking all of those places together, how come I did not see a single one of them?' he thought to himself, but perhaps it was for the best that he did take any road, they probably would have been teeming with hostile villagers and traps.

He prowled along the edge of the forest, until he noticed a gargantuan shadow in the distance, here it was, the castle and it was a magnificent piece of architecture, it looked old, almost ancient, but clearly, the owner of this place took great pride in it, as the stone was far from appearing weary and beaten by the passage of time, a great deal of manpower and resources had been dedicated to maintain the edifice.

This was supposedly where Flor was currently being kept, but the problem was simple, it was an actual castle, this was not a place one could just waltz in by walking or finding a door or window that had not been properly locked, it even had a moat around its tall walls, and Griar could see the figures of people patrolling upon them as well.

The only way in was the bridge that linked that great staircase to the castle itself, but the bridge was currently retracted, and Griar doubt that a single one of his spells would be enough for him to leap over the wall.

So unless there was a catastrophic oversight in the wall somewhere, which he greatly doubted, he would have to wait until the bridge was lowered to enter, but even then, that would just expose him into the open to what he imagined were countless guards inside of the castle itself.

'Unless I can find a grappling hook or something like that, maybe?' Griar was somewhat stumped about how to proceed, so for now, he remained hidden behind the trees, observing any changes amongst the people of the small village, or about the bridge.

He noticed that there were actually two sad-faced burlap sack wearers in the village, the other was definitely a woman carrying around a mace, whilst the other one seemed to remain in front of that stone house at all times, the woman wandered about constantly, even as night fell, she just kept on walking.

'Do these people not sleep at all?' this worried Griar, as he himself would have to take a rest soon, he could handle going without food or water for a while thanks to another trick Aunty Minli had taught him with allowed to get what one's body needed from mana, this trick would not hold up in time, but he was not planning on remaining here for too long.

Sleep however, he would have to partake in that soon enough, but doing so when people who wanted him dead stayed awake day and night would be problematic…