Dawn- An age of Darkness

The princess was behind me, rubbing one of her eyes and yawning like it was midnight.  "You are contracted to a spirit?" 

She looked kind of cute but how the hell was I going to get out of this one?

I really hoped she didn\'t know anything about spirits but- I had to roll with this since I already lied. 

I nodded, definitely not convincing anyone. 

The bunny was now in my hand and she just stayed put. 

"Are you really a human?"

I guess she wasn\'t going to believe me at this point. \'Which route should I go?\'

If I said I was a human who had mysterious powers, she probably would have thought I was smoking something. If I said I was a demigod, that would have been acceptable but were demigods really that common? And if I said I was the apostle of a god, would that really feel legit, after all, most people didn\'t know the state of the gods. 

And I knew apostles were rarer than demigods. After all, I knew four demigods but not a single apostle. 

I sighed. "I\'m a partial god, so I can use some godly powers."  It was kind of true, so technically this wasn\'t a lie. 

Was it?

The girl looked at me, wide-eyed. But then she smiled. "I see." Did she just believe me without even questioning me!?

I had a feeling she\'d have believed me even if I said I was a literal God or maybe even the devil. 

\'Please tell me I don\'t look like your late brother or something.\'

After all, I already had enough of that back in Alfeim. 

I cleared my throat and looked at the bunny. "Do you think we should move at night?"

The bunny stared at me with large dull eyes for a minute but then just moved her head sideways. That was no. 

I almost had the urge to rub my face against that luscious fur of hers. But I controlled myself. 

  After all, this was Alisa. 

I really wanted to though. 

"Why do you look so disappointed?" the girl asked and giggled. "You really like your bunny don\'t you?" 

"Never mind." I was definitely not going to deny my affections. "We\'ll move tomorrow but for now, let\'s get some rest."

Alisa was here and the others were also nearby. So I didn\'t have to worry about monsters.

I didn\'t let my guard down but I still felt a bit relieved. 

***

I was up till midnight. By then both the bunny and the girl were already asleep. The bunny was sleeping on my lap while, the girl was sleeping, resting her head on my shoulder. 

The fire was still going strong. I had a feeling it wouldn\'t go out during the night unless there happened to be a storm of sorts. The sky was kind of clean, so I didn\'t see the possibility. 

The temperature for some godly reason was normal and rather comfortable for a nap.

My eyes were getting a bit too sticky so I decided to call it a night. If Ve and the others were nearby then one of them was probably going to keep watch. So I didn\'t have to worry.

At least that\'s how I consoled myself but deep down I knew, I probably didn\'t trust anybody anymore. 

***

I did sleep but woke up in the darkness. Instead of the usual hug, the spirit was leaning against my back. I couldn\'t see her and I couldn\'t see anything in front of me either. 

\'Well, this is getting redundant.\'

So, with an inward sigh, I just kept up my imbuition practice. With each and every try I was edging closer, but every single one of them was a failure. 

The spirit didn\'t say anything and neither did I.

I guess the spirit was connected to me, so it could lean against me, despite being far from me? I didn\'t know. 

Though this spirit was supposed to be a malicious spirit, it never tried to harm me or maybe I just never noticed. It was also possible Biteria was fighting her at all times and she didn\'t have the time to harm me. Though I didn\'t know which was even feasible so I didn\'t worry too much about all these. 

Instead, I just focused on my practice. And sure enough, there was little to no progress. After a certain time, I could keep the imbuition going for about five or six seconds but after that, the mana dispersed on its own. It was like a dead end. 

Was I missing something?

I didn\'t know but I was too tired to try some more. 

I didn\'t know how I got tired in this place in the first place. 

Wasn\'t I already asleep?

Sigh.

"Godly mana and mortal mana are different. Treating them as one and the same is ineffective." The voice came from behind me, the voice of the spirit. 

There was no malicious intent. It was almost as though it was guiding me. 

"Tell me, why me? Why\'d you choose me?" Again my voice didn\'t come out, but I felt like we\'d connected. 

"I don\'t know. Fate perhaps?" She paused. "Someone\'s here." Her voice had a sense of urgency. "There\'s malice in the air."

And my sleep broke. 

***

I opened my eyes and it was barely dawn. I could hear footsteps in the distance: birds chirped in the sky. There were soldiers headed this way. But they didn\'t look like the same one as the girl\'s. The emblems were the same but the colors were a bit different. 

And these soldiers looked like dog demi-humans. 

I could already smell trouble, or was it just my morning stomach?

Oops.

With a snort, I got up and the two leaning against me fumbled a little but they also woke up. 

I prepared my knife and also did a bit of stretching before the soldiers could reach here. 

The girl was shaking a little as she grabbed the side of my robe. "They are from my uncle\'s faction."

And she just gave away her identity after all this time.

The bunny jumped on my shoulder and stayed. Why the hell was she mimicking Biteria? I didn\'t mind though. Not only was Alisa lighter, she didn\'t even bite!

Ten of them were on horses and about a hundred or so were on foot. They were quite far when I woke up but now they were almost upon us. \'How come they\'re not teleporting?\'

And then I noticed three robed men among the rest, holding some sort of a ball. A crystal ball. 

I had a very nostalgic bad feeling about all this. 

"I am Baron Jerkocoa, who might you be!" The leader of the soldiers spoke in a rather haughty tone. A leopard demi-human.. He had a beard and a mustache and a glare that didn\'t seem friendly.