Dawn- An age of Darkness

We had to set up camp in an open field and there weren't any trees nearby. The closest one was at least three kilometers away. And when I asked about whether we could fly there, Dick only had one answer. "We'll have to wait for half an hour either way, so there's no point."

It would have been fine if this damn place wasn't boiling like that dessert we'd crossed before with the geezer and Jowy. 

The heat wasn't the problem though. It was the humidity. 

Back then I did have loads of dreams though. And lately, I was getting some nightmares too. Come to think of it, whenever I slept near Alisa I got nightmares. Last night I didn't though, since I was with Lianne and definitely away from Alisa.

I looked over towards Alisa and she just moved her head with a 'hmph'.

I guess for some reason she was angry with me. Unfortunately, I didn't care all that much. 

Lianne was surveying the surroundings while Servesta and Dick were training on their own: I guess Dick still had his cup and could bring out weapons. This was the first time I saw them do anything other than just lazing around. And for the record, this was also the first time I saw Servesta in action. The guy was big and so was his axe. He moved it like a stick or something. This guy was strong. 

They were sweating and fighting in this desert like grasslands while I was being cooked alive. 

It kind of rubbed me the wrong way so I changed directions. 

I turned my head around and located Ven in the distance. 

"Hey, Ve, watcha doing?"

She looked rather irritated. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't shorten my name further."

"Sorry, can't help it." I chuckled. 

"Nothing much." She returned her gaze towards the horizon. 

"Missing home or something?"

She frowned for a second. "What do you take me for?"

"A problem child Xerphas wanted to get rid of?"

She was awfully flustered for a second. "I-I don't know what you're talking about."

"Really?" I had no idea what I was talking about either. But at this point just poking her seemed fun enough. Besides, I needed something to distract me from all this heat anyway. 

"Ahem!" She cleared her throat. "Anyway, what do you wish to do with that lady within your ring?"

"Not sure. You said something about imbuing my body, right? Can you teach me?" 

Jori had mentioned something about imagining mana as blood. But given the fact that I could barely sense mana and use it by sheer dumb luck, wasn't helping the cause. 

"I'm not certain a mortal can pull this off, but sure."

"Wait, mortal? You're a god?"

"I thought you knew?" She glared at me with a lot of suspicions. "So the previous accusation was just a bluff." She seemed a lot relieved and started talking to herself for some reason. 

But unfortunately, she didn't realize that she just gave up herself while doing so. 

I didn't know how common demigods were but I didn't have time to worry about those things either. "So I take it you're a demigod of some sorts? I don't really care all that much about gods though. I just need to get stronger, so do help me."

Again, she looked at me with awfully dull eyes. "I guess you have your reasons." She collected her thoughts. "You know what mana is correct?"

"Nope, something that allows you to use magic?"

She sighed. "I don't know how in tarnation you managed to best Xerphas." She just looked at me with dull eyes, again. "Mana is the lifeblood of all the living. Everyone has it, even the dwarves. Though it is said that the dwarves have so little it's impossible for them to use it: so they just spread rumors that they don't have any. This mana was first given to the gods by the sacred tree- at least that's what it was believed. But in truth, the gods were born from the sacred tree of divinity: and that very tree was the origins of mana. And it was forbidden for the gods to eat its fruits. But Ashirnae once stole one of the fruits and gave it to a human. The human bit into the fruit, shared it with her brethren, and eventually the mana spread: they were known as the Alves: and the human became the first queen. Of course, the gods were furious but they couldn't destroy the mortals over this, after all, mortals were greedy, to begin with. But they charged Ashirnae with treason and sent him to guard the underworld. And even the tree couldn't do anything as no god had bitten into the fruit. As a consequence of all this, mana as we know was born. And as more and more people inherited mana, more and more races were born according to the amount of mana they possessed."

"That's odd. But I'm not from this world."

"Though most of the mana went into the body of the first human when she died the mana transferred to the soil and the atmosphere. Meaning the very air we breathe has mana too, albeit in very trace quantities."

"Doesn't that mean we can collect it too?"

"We can but it won't be efficient enough. Anyway, pay attention. So I take it when you crossed the worlds your body changed and absorbed some mana, which made it possible for you to use magic while other humans, even in this world can't."

"Yeah, I did feel a bit different." I didn't want to remember that night again. Even after all this, I still had nightmares about that night. 

"But since mortals were given the mana rather than they were born from it, they can't use it as their blood, like the gods or even the half-gods can, at least not anymore. Since the Alves were the original, they could use it and some half breeds still can. That's why I don't think you'll be able to."

"But I have godly blood in my veins, at least that's what Boriosa told me. And wait, doesn't that mean the sacred tree or whatever is the creator of the gods? So why didn't it do anything?"

'And wouldn't it be possible to get rid of mana by getting rid of the tree?' Obviously, I couldn't ask that much of Ve. 

"Oh? That's because-"

"The messenger is here!" Lianne jumped a bit. I hadn't seen her that excited in a long while. 

"I guess this can wait."

"Yeah, let us pick this up later. Though I doubt you'll be able to even attempt to make progress."

I chuckled and went towards Lianne anyway. 

***

On Lianne's shoulder there was a bird, but not just any bird, it was an owl. Its color was silver and it had white brown spots here and there. It definitely looked pretty nice. 

"I'll read this aloud," Lianne began.

The owl had two things with it, a letter and an emblem. I'd seen Lianne with a similar emblem before. I had a bad feeling, nay, a very bad feeling about this. 

Lianne cleared her throat. 

"Daarc Green, vanquisher of evil and my friend, I hereby grant you the title of the archduke. May you serve Alfeim with all your might and may Alfeim provide you with all your needs.

Jowy."

'The hell is that supposed to mean?' 

Lianne giggled. "Oh, I didn't expect him to keep it this short."

"Tell me. What is an archduke?" I kind of knew but I still wanted to know. After all, maybe in this world archduke was just an honorary title or something? I mean, I could always dream, right?

"Oh." Lianne looked at me with a smirk. "You're officially the ruler of Helsing- a duke.  Though Helsing is under Alfeim, that's only through the shadows. But this, this is the real deal. You're officially the highest-ranking noble in all of Alfeim. Second only to Jowy of course, since he's the current emperor."

"Meaning, you got more authority than the princess over here." Alisa looked at me with dull eyes. 

Honorary? Yeah, it didn't seem like it. It almost felt like everyone just kept on dumping more and more responsibilities on me. 

"I thought you were joking! You can't do this to me. I'm a human. And, and-"

"Well, the news of our engagement is already spreading. And now this will too. I think we can whip something up and finally end the war. Oh, and once our first child is born, peace will be eternal." Did something happen to Lianne? Because she was scaring the shit out of me. 

Oh, wait… last night…

There was no protection. 

"Tell me, by soon, how soon did you mean?"

Lianne held a finger on her chin. "Let's see if we're being generous, I'd say a hundred years? Give or take a few?"

'I've been duped.'

I'd been duped big time. 

Lianne's smile didn't leave for a second. I guess this woman was a lot, lot shrewder than I gave her credit for. 

I sighed. "Well, don't blame me, if I end up dead in the next six months."

Her smiling ceased. "I'd pray so it doesn't happen." She came towards me and stood just a foot away. "I now grant you the title of the archduke." She gave me the emblem. 

"I thought Jowy already-"

She didn't let me finish and just grabbed, and kissed me. She was fast when it came to getting that veil off her lips. 

Well, you win some, you lose some. I kissed back and needless to say, the tongues rolled quite nicely.