Aphena straightened herself when she noticed the incoming duo. Rufus' hair was messy as always, and he still wore his signature warrior's robe, which clashed with his glasses and scholarly disposition.
But she couldn't care less about his appearance. What she needed was his unique ability.
"I have retrieved him as you requested," Alto said before stepping back, to which Aphena just nodded.
Her gaze landed on Rufus who seemed to be lost in thought.
Noticing Aphena staring at him he regained his composure, stepped forward, and bowed his head. "My lady, how may I be of assistance?"
"Cut the crap, Rufus. I got a job for you."
He chuckled and straightened himself. "I doubt my 'useless' ability will be able to get anything done."
Aphena scoffed at his self-deprecation and pointed at Kody.
"He doesn't speak Elony, can you do something about that?"
Rufus turned serious and shifted his attention to Kody who was sitting upright with his back against a tree.
"And who might this be?" Rufus asked, adjusting his glasses to get a look at the scrawny kid before him. Although there were no injuries on the kid, he emanated the same aura as some who had barely survived a war.
"That's what you're gonna help me find out."
Rufus sized Kody up and then replied, "That won't be a problem, but I'll have to have direct contact with him for that to work."
"Fine by me."
___
The newcomer had exchanged a few words with the angel and was now walking towards him.
Kody suddenly felt uncomfortable watching him draw closer—perhaps, he was just being paranoid. They didn't seem to have any bad intentions towards him, but being cautious never hurts anyone.
He shifted, preparing himself for whatever this person might try to do; not that he could do anything against them if they truly wanted to hurt him. He wasn't even a complete human and these people seemed dangerous, at least that's what his instincts told him.
The newcomer walked towards him in a very slow manner, as if to show no hostility. This diffused whatever tension had previously been in the air and Kody decided to trust them.
He stretched his hand and placed it on Kody's forehead. In an instant, Kody regretted having trusted him. A wave of something flowed into his mind and it felt like he had been hit with a hammer. He was immediately knocked out as he slumped to the floor.
Never trust strangers.
____
"Uh, that didn't go well," Rufus muttered as he stared at Kody lying on the floor with the expression of a dead man.
"Di–did you just kill him?" Aphena questioned. She rushed to check if Kody was still breathing; luckily, he was.
She turned to Rufus demanding an explanation.
"Well, I might have tried to insert the entirety of the Elony language into his mind. I don't think his brain liked that."
"You idio–you know what, forget it. If he dies, just know you're not getting anything out of this trip, not even half a pint. Pray he doesn't." She scoffed.
"Wait you can't do that, what does this random person have to do with me getting paid?"
Aphena ignored him and with a single scoop, she picked up Kody's limp body and carried him back to the camp.
Unknown to her, she had developed a liking for this one-armed kid who behaved like a dog. She always wanted to own a pet after all.
____
The sound of dripping water echoed throughout the cave. Shadows fled from the burning torch with tentative haste, flickering in and out of existence.
There was no storm beyond the cave's open mouth, but night in the blood forest was just as dangerous.
The tents were raised and the charms were placed. Doing all they could, the group could only pray that no devil noticed their presence. Each night was a gamble for them; a stroke of bad luck would make it their last.
Aphena sat beside the flame, polishing her clean blade from whatever imaginary dirt or blood had stuck to it. Kody lay beside, lost in thought.
His eyes were glued to the ceiling populated with jaded rocks moistened by the evening dew.
He raised his left hand up, stretching towards the ceiling, but there was no hand and nothing was being stretched. With a sigh, perhaps one of acceptance, he dropped the imaginary hand.
The silence was peaceful, with nothing but insects and dripping water to break it.
"I think me got hang of it."
Aphena's gaze shifted from her weapon to Kody. He had been quite disoriented when he woke up and only recently calmed down.
His mind had almost broken under the weight of an entire language. But after a while, he was surprisingly able to digest the information, much quicker than she expected at that. From the moment she had decided to save him her instincts told her he was special, and he just kept proving them right.
"Can… you… understand… what… I'm… saying…" She spoke in drawn-out words, as if that would make it easier to understand.
Kody nodded, his eyes were still lost in thought as he kept processing the new information.
It was a strange language, archaic and primitive if he was to say. The English language sounded better and had fewer gaps, though. The language, Elony, had been forcibly implanted into his mind, the raw data at least. All he had to do now was teach himself to understand it.
He understood the basics now, but over time he would get more fluent in it.
He was still surprised as to how a dictionary had been compressed into his mind in an instant, but it seemed magic existed here—that was a plausible explanation.
Magic had also existed back on earth, but it wasn't as… human-friendly as this. Back on earth it had only served to justify the existence of some abominations, like Rapture and the Red Sun.
The system, too, had run on magic— that reminded him. The system, was it still there?
He secretly called for it, and to his delight, the familiar blue screen popped into the air, although it had no warning message this time.
___
Host is 29.9875% from gene/soul evolution.
The system is unavailable until evolution.
___
It reminded him again that he would have to hunt critters like he always did to complete his evolution.
But… did he actually have to do it? He was out of earth, he could decide to lead a normal life, away from the madness that had almost driven him insane.
Yes, he could leave the hunting job behind, get a normal job, and maybe even marry a woman as pretty as Angel—
"So, what's your name and where are you from?"
Kody's line of thought was interrupted by Angel's questions. He turned to her and took a moment to think of an answer.
"Umm… My name Kody. I'm not from here."
"Where exactly do you mean by 'not from here'?" Her eyes sharpened. If he were from the neighbouring empire, she would have to leave him for dead, as war would soon break out between the two territories and she had no intentions of getting tagged as a traitor.
Kody scratched his head. He couldn't tell her he was from earth; she most likely had no idea where that was.
"I can't remember."
Aphena furrowed her brows, but said nothing. The border was quite a distance from here so she didn't actually expect him to actually be from Drodemia.
Memory loss was a natural response to trauma and whatever left him in the state she found him was more than enough to cause trauma.
Once he fully recovers he'll remember, she concluded in her mind.
"Do you remember who did this to you, or maybe your family?"
Kody just shook his head in response. He had even forgotten the common language so it was expected that he forgot everything else.
Although it was a bit strange that he remembered his name, a strange name.
"Kody, you say?"
He nodded.
Perhaps I should've forgotten that too.
"I am Aphena, the fifth daughter of Duke Evilion. My men and I were on an expedition when we stumbled on you." There was a pause, as if she was preparing him.
"I'll give you two options: either you follow me and become one of my men, or we part ways right now. Which will it be?"