18 Days Ago.

Yeah, no, honor that response, dumbass. The entire face of the giant was incinerated. Of course, his head was intact, and he wailed, moaning aloud as he fell onto the ground, shaking the hills as he rolled around. Before the other giant could react, I raised my hand to their face.

“You want a fight? I’ll give you a fight. But it’s not going to end well. All of you are fast and strong, that’s for sure, but how many of you can move fast enough before I burn you into less than nothing huh?”

My flames burned even more. “I only gave him a taste, neat trick, isn’t it? I can decide how much power my flames have; if I wanted to, I could have completely incinerated his face, his body, anything really. You saw what I did to the hill… And I know I could do so much more.”

I stared at them, and they stared back at me. I snapped my fingers, and a plume of flames burst forth from my hand and into the air, causing the giants to stumble back in a moment of fear that made me smile.

“Can you honor that with a response? Oh, and if you’re thinking of attacking the ones by the river, well, let’s just say I’ve been to the Nawia once, and I can grant you all a one-way ticket to the River Smorodina.”

They all stared at each other, and then at me. Awe, fear, regret, whatever they were feeling, it felt good to cause it. It felt good to simply be the one holding the gun now. I was in control of the situation, and they had to choose what to do next.

For a few moments, only silence permeated the air before the giants finally moved back. They stared at their brother, his face now charred and even more ugly. They tried to heal it with what appeared to be some kind of healing salves similar to what he had back in Phorash, but it was all for nought.

“You may enter. We will remember what you have brought us.”

“Yeah, remember what I could have brought upon all of you. Remember, you brought this on yourselves. If you just complied earlier, he wouldn’t have been scared. Although since these flames incinerate your soul… Eh, his fault, not mine, guess he’ll be screwed up until someone can fix that for him.”

I laughed aloud, grinning ear to ear as to unnerve the giants who moved out of the way.

There, I turned to Poli. “Alright, negotiations are done. Let’s get a move on.”

She nodded silently, moving me back towards the group as Koschei clapped his hands. “Wonderful, and with minimal work done as well.”

Charlie, on the other hand, seemed a bit miffed. “Was that necessary?”

“Yes, it was. They were going to kill us either way. The only way for them to know that I was serious is through actions. I’ve already offered them my word at that point.”

“Well, they’re alive at the very least.”

I gave her a smile and patted her head as we started to move again. “Well, of course! I can’t kill people all willy-nilly. What kind of person would I be? I’d never stoop to Ephitet’s level.”

I took her hand, trying to reassure her as she nodded back, smiling with me. “You won’t, I’ll make sure you won’t.”

With that reassurance at my back, I looked up above, smiling as the stars above twinkled and the moon shone through the rivers like a glowing pearl.

“Hopefully, that’s gonna be the end of it for now…” I turned to Koschei.

“That mountain pass, the one that looks like the edge of a crater, that’s the valley, right?”

He nodded along with a growing grin. “Indeed, the valley that was made when Perun slammed the Skiper into the ground, creating the largest valley in all of the Jawia.”

“Jawia?” He mentioned that before but I didn’t really mind it, from context clues I guess he meant the whole of Galfania.

“What is Jawia?”

“It’s the mortal realm, this realm. Below us is the Nawia, the Land of the Dead, and above us is the Prawia, the Heavens of the Gods.”

I nodded my head. I kinda wondered how all the mythologies worked with each other, but that’s a question for another day.

“How deep does it go? The valley, I mean?”

“I don’t know… I’ve never been to the bottom of it, but some say it could take months to find whatever is at the bottom of it.”

My eyes widened up. “What’s with these timeframes, man! Why does everything take so long?! No wonder people tried to make cars and airplanes and stuff, jeez.” I sighed and turned my head back. “I’m guessing it’s faster with the help of others here?”

“That is the hope I have as well…” Poli spoke out to my surprise. I faced her and, in my surprise, I found her hair slowly turning more white, and her skin became pale. “As I grow closer to the valley, I could feel myself both weaken from the presence of the Skiper and strengthen from the presence of the Leshy.”

“Uh… Hopefully they cancel out haha… Or at least hope that the Leshy can be stronger.”

“For now, they both are quite mighty, but I am able to continue without any hindrance to my ability, but I warn you all that it may come.”

Then, the mermaids spoke as well. “We, too, feel our presence weaken, and can only transport ourselves through the rivers and caves. Prepare yourselves if you wish to continue to take this path.”

I took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah, is everyone ready?!” I raised my hand at the band of monsters and animals I was leading. Many of them growled, some panted, and yet they all looked at me expectantly as I laughed.

“Yeah… That’s the spirit!”

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We took a break by nightfall to recoup ourselves and go through a plan. Well, that plan was to barge in, fight everyone who’s against us, make the rest join, and then try our best to find a way to defeat this Skiper avatar.

The safest route is through the rivers, but that’s always filled with monsters, so we would have to force our way through. The most dangerous and yet fun option is to jump into the valley, actually, free-fall right into it, but that would leave us vulnerable in the air, and I’m not gonna risk the others’ safety, especially Charlie’s.

Actually walking down would be horrific, and so would all of the rappelling if we even had that equipment, so it was the most obvious and logical choice we could come up with.

We slept that night, with the monsters protecting us. I used Charlie as a pillow since she said she wanted to actually do something, and so I put her to good use.

Not much happened that night, but I noticed that the cave ahead seemed to have some prying eyes watching over us. I didn’t mind them at all. If they wanted to do something, they could certainly try. It wouldn’t really matter to us.

I closed my eyes and rested my body, allowing myself to drift to sleep for the remainder of the night.

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17 Days Ago

The journey through the river began with a rocky start. We had to enter into a cave system that connected the outside river to the inside of the valley. There, the currents began to grow more and more unstable. The mermaids, whom I’ve learned were called Rusulka, have tried to keep it in check, but the waves were like a rocky ship in the middle of a sea in a storm. Man, that was a thought-full.

Koschei and I used our fires as a way for us to make light, but we did notice that the area was lit by the same glowing moss that was in the caves down south. However, more pressing matters were at hand, especially when I noticed that the Rusulka began to shake, their body heaving a little as they convulsed in pain.

I stared at the water and noticed that there was some black smog within it. “Shit, the venom is in the water system too!” I grumbled before I turned to Poli, and already she was one step ahead. She grew vines around the perimeter of the army, and I saw a rainbow-like shimmer surrounding her body. The Fae must have been uh… For the lack of a better word, “drugging” her again, making sure she’s surviving the massive influx of pain she was about to feel.

But trouble wouldn’t end there. On either side of the river, I saw several figures move about before arrows shot through the air as fast as bullets. However, with eagle eye precision, Koschei managed to rush to my side, deflecting them off before they could hit me.

Many of the monsters, however, didn’t fare as well; the arrows pierced their sides, and I heard them scream in pain, falling into the rivers as I quickly stared at the broken arrow in front of me. The head of it was dripping with a familiar venom from its broken tip.

Without any further ado, I raised both my hands up. “Everyone! We’re in an ambush! Take cover, opening volley!”

Flames burst from my hands, completely enveloping both sides of the river as the monsters ducked upon instinct. I didn’t even hear the cries of pain of those whom I burned.

After the initial volley, I lowered my hands, but kept my flames alight. I turned my head to the rest of the monsters who were left. “Scatter and patrol, if it’s too much, I’ll handle them.”

For a moment, they didn’t seem to listen, but Poli, who seemed to be getting quite stressed from dealing with the poisoned water, turned to the others, nodding her head as if giving them some kind of code.

Then, without warning, many of them jumped onto the sides of the rivers and began their rampage.

That’s when I saw them, the ones who were attacking us… People, honest to gods, people. They were humans, not Destined Ones or monsters or whatever. No horns or grotesque faces, they were people.

They wore simple clothing, pants, shirts, tunics, and robes. Many of them had tattoos across their bodies and were carrying runes as well. A few of them had rudimentary rifles, but most of them simply had bows, arrows, crossbows, and bolts. Each of which seemed to be dripping with the same kind of venom that the serpents had.

“Stay here with Charlie.” I said to Koschei before launching myself off the river and into battle.

It was a bloodfest, monsters and humans clashing all at once, ripping each other apart. I saw a bovine monster, which I learned was a Bes, just gore like seven people all at once, no bullet even piercing its hide as it barreled straight through.

The Bauk from before avoided the lights, but they completely and utterly weren’t affected by anything else the men threw at them, aside from the venom. They pounced on one of the men, completely ripping them apart limb from limb.

One of the men dropped from the ceiling on top of me, trying to stab my face with a knife. Instantly, my fire jettisoned from my chest, blasting the knife into less than nothing before I grabbed him by the neck.

“What are you doing? Who are you-“

My jaw dropped as I stared at his face in disbelief.

He was one of the ones within the River. He was one of the many voices, the many souls that converged. I can still remember how they asked to be freed, to be saved. I promised them all that I could free them.

I promised them all that I could save them…

“Why? What are you doing? This isn’t how to be free-“

He kicked me away as he landed on the ground. “I shall be free, once the chains of the heavens are cast down! You have rejected that! And I shall reject you!”

"Stop! We can talk about this. Just think this through! I remember you... In the river, you wanted to be free from your pain, your suffering. But, this isn't how-"

"Silence! I will not hear any more lies!"

The man cackled madly. In that moment, he raced at me, unsheathing a wooden sword, spitting the serpent’s venom, and thrusting it into my chest.

Or he would have, if not for a second earlier, a hole had been placed into his head, and he dropped down dead.

I looked to my back, finding Charlie, hand on her pistol, looking at me with an approving nod, and I simply nodded back and continued on with the war.