"How is a Regalia used?" Yadrith recalled the intensity of the flame the man from the village could call forth.
Oliver gave Yadrith his strangest look yet, "You must be from another world?"
"Hahaha..." Yadrith slowly laughed.
Oliver sighed in response.
"The moment a person is born, their Regalia is practically instilled in their mind. The effect and limitations of it, it's like an extension of yourself. There are some very rare cases of Regalia being dormant until a certain condition arises." Oliver looked at Yadrith, "That's probably your case."
"So... If I'm on the brink of death or something, it might activate?"
Oliver shook his head, "Possibly, but it could be something far more simple. Perhaps falling from the sky, or being robbed. Regalia's can literally be anything, so they're unpredictable."
"Oh, I think I understand. What about you? What's your Regalia?"
Oliver went silent for a moment.
"You might get a chance to see it before we make it to Vestriam."
Yadrith nodded, 'It must be something pretty amazing then.'
The group suddenly came to a halt at the top of the hill, they all noticed something ahead, a fine long gorge separated the forest from the desert.
Oliver's eyes shook, "T-that wasn't here before." His legs felt weak as he took another step forward, "That... Bastard Neo Ogma is serious!"
'Neo Ogma?' Yadrith looked at Oliver's trembling body, 'A person did this?' The gorge was long and wide, wide enough to not be jumped over by just anybody, and long enough that his eyes could not follow it to the end. 'How much power does this Neo Ogma person have?'
"Do you think we can cross it?"
Oliver covered his mouth for a moment, "We'll have to split up." He turned to Yadrith, "Me and Mahaya can cross it, but you can't. I'll cross here, and we'll meet again at Telbak."
Oliver suddenly smiled, "That should work, Mahaya."
"Hm?"
"She said she'll carry you across."
Yadrith stared intently at the gorge, "What? How?"
Mahaya suddenly jumped onto his palm, staring at him intently.
"She'll transform into her human form, but the condition is that both of us must keep our eyes closed when she transforms."
Yadrith felt a little curious and nodded his head. "That works."
The three made their way down to the edge of the gorge and stared across it.
'Holy, It looks like two kilometers long.' Yadrith glanced at Oliver, "How do you plan to cross this?"
"When me and Neo Ogma originally met, I was at the First Step. Now that I've reached the Second Step—I gained a few more neat abilities. I'll cross first, Mahaya, give me your signal after I cross."
Pure-white light surged from him and he jumped once, it was a long jump, but not nearly far enough to cross the gap.
'He's falling!' Yadrith felt his heart drop.
Accordingly, as he began to fall, Oliver landed on air. It was ridiculous to see, and unimaginable, but he stabled himself on air and jumped again. That process repeated itself until Oliver made it across.
Yadrith was speechless. Just a few moments after, Mahaya jumped off Yadrith's shoulder. She jumped a few times after that, a signal telling him to shut his eyes. Yadrith closed his eyes.
He felt two arms slide over the front of his clothes, and then pull him in tightly. Feeling this, he attempted to slightly open his left eye, but it was glued shut.
'...She took her precautions, it seems.'
In the next moment, he was dragged forward. Then, with an immense force, the two were sent flying across the gorge.
'Woah!' He felt the pressure of the wind slamming against them, he expected to slow down soon, and they did. However, what he felt below him was solid ground.
"We're across."
His eyes shot open as he heard a soft voice whisper in his ears. However, behind him was only a small spider on the ground. "What a tease." He said, staring at Mahaya. She soon sprung onto his shoulder.
He recalled her voice. It was serene, a soothing voice just like Miel's. The only difference is that Mahaya's seemed a bit deeper.
Anyway, what he just experienced confirmed something to him. The fact that Mahaya was stronger than Oliver, perhaps she only had this power in her human form. But it was evident by her crossing the gorge in one leap that she was at a higher level of Rekh than Oliver.
Even the fact she had casually tampered with his mind, making him unable to open his eyes, seemed like something Oliver couldn't do.
'I wonder why she prefers being a spider?'
Oliver was older than both of them, yet Mahaya was still more impressive. Yadrith believed her behavior was probably influenced by something personal.
'A self hatred maybe? I'm not a psychologist.' He sighed, tapping Oliver on the shoulder. "Are we still going to Telbak?"
"We'll have too, I'm confident I could brave the heat... But, this is the longest part of our trip. This desert will be our lives for the next few weeks, so we'll need lots of supplies."
"How much money do you have left?" Yadrith asked.
Oliver simply looked at him silently and smiled.
"We'll be staying at Telbak for a while, we can get a few jobs at the Adventurer's Guild."
'Oh? There's a Guild like that in this world?' He thought for a moment, "Are we going to be hunting monsters?"
Oliver chuckled, "Monsters? You mean demon beast? They are pretty much rampant in this desert."
"What are demon beast?"
Oliver rubbed his chin, "Imagine a True Demon, like Mahaya, except its only instinct was to kill." He paused, "Sorry."
His eyes were fixed on Mahaya.
'Seems like she was offended by that statement.' Yadrith smiled, "Well, let's hurry to Telbak then."
Yadrith still wondered, what exactly was a True Demon? He planned to ask Oliver in the near future.
***
"Ughh..." Yadrith dragged his feet in his best attempt to stay moving. 'It's so hot...' He raised his finger to touch his lips, which had cracked. His vision went blurry, and he felt his body go numb.
In this next moment, Oliver caught the falling Yadrith.
"This is bad." He said, placing Yadrith on his back, "We're going to Telbak, full speed!"
A bright pure-white light illuminated him, and his figure blurred into a streak. The dust of the sands scattered violently as he ran through the desert.
Suddenly, ahead of them appeared a lizard—a demon beast that resembled a lizard—bipedal on two legs.
"Dam... Lizardmen!"
Oliver suddenly cursed as he ran, seeing that lone lizardman turn into a horde of them. His acceleration came to a stop, and he unsheathed his sword, decapitating the one he had seen first and hurtling past a group of six Lizardmen.
His momentum finally ended, and he jumped in the air, avoiding the spears of the Lizardmen. Instead of falling back down, he took a foothold on air and leaped away from the encirclement of the Lizardmen.
"It's no joke that the desert is teeming with demon beast."
In their journey, they had not encountered a single demon beast, ironically the Land of Demons was the continent with the least demon beast. However, that was for one reason.
All the demon beast were concentrated in the Vlinzel region, the largest desert in the world also known as The Land of the Forsaken.
Oliver did a flip, severing the head of another lizardman, and in mid-air, parrying an arrow. He landed on the ground once more, and the moment he did, a hand grasped him from below.
Ascending from beneath the sand, another lizardman appears.
"Tsk!" Oliver, blade moved at an unfathomable speed severing the lizardman's hands.
The difference between demons and humans is that demons were born with unnatural strength and speed. Humans, though, are born weak.
However, through Rekh, one can surpass the other. In other words, those who are fateless, such as demon beast—treated like animals by others—are confined to their own inborn limits and unable to ascend through the power of Rekh. They do not even possess a Regalia.
Born from the curse of the progenitor of demons, they were never meant to possess the freedom of others.
The limit of a lizardman, a lowly ranked demon beast, is not even that of the First Step of Rekh. It doesn't matter if a horde of them swarms Oliver, he who has reached the Second Step of Rekh is an unmatched terror to them.
Performing a calculated sword dance, with minute flaws. Oliver moved in between the Lizardmen, severing their lives. However, he was met with a problem.
"Yadrith won't last long." He kicked off the body of a lizardman, propelling him away from the horde. "His body needs to cool down somewhere."
It was so ridiculously hot in the desert that even Oliver felt sweat pouring down his head. Even if the Lizardmen could never hope to reach him with their weapons, the heat sure would.
"...Are you sure? Yadrith might be a bit upset when he wakes up."
Mahaya jumped off of Yadrith.
"Then, I will meet you at Telbak. If you continue northwest, you'll reach it." He dropped his cloak for her to cover herself with.
With a short flash of pure-white light, he ran right through the horde of Lizardmen killing a few in the process. If he had just done this earlier, they would have followed him to Telbak, causing a commotion and possibly leading to disaster.
However, with Mahaya staying behind, he had no worries about the Lizardmen following him.
Behind the horde, which had all turned toward Oliver, stood a woman. Previously, she was in the form of a spider. But now, transformed, her aura radiated over the horde.
An unmistakable aura, the natural enemy of demon beast.
"Kiieeeekkkh!!"
Roars came from the horde, as they turned away from Oliver and all flooded toward the young woman releasing an ominous murky Rekh that took on the form of a dark purple-colored light.
Oliver now, separated from the horde shivered.
"What a sinister Rekh..."