The Slayer Ascension: Cursed and Blessed.-Chapter 48: Do you trust me

Chapter 48

The next day, both Gazel and Blaze set out again, pushing forward on their journey toward the Bulwark, toward becoming a Shural.

"Hey, hurry up. Who knows how far we’ve already strayed from the path."

The voice was slightly deep, heavy, worn with worry.

"Shut up already. You’ve been saying that for hours now. Aren’t you tired of repeating the same curse over and over?"

That reply was smooth, sharp, and annoyingly irritated.

The two voices spilled into the open, their owners quickly revealed as Gazel and his new companion, Blaze. They had been traveling for days now, yet somehow they had never left the massive forest. The trees just kept going. Endless. Suffocating. Wrong.

It was unnerving.

"What do you think?" Gazel finally asked. "Should we just give up?"

They were lost. Completely.

Their map was gone, and the only other thing that could have guided them to the Shural organization, the Bulwark, was a Shural badge. Blaze did not have one since he was not a Shural yet. Gazel did have one, or rather, he had his father’s badge.

Had.

Stupidly, unbelievably, he had not brought it with him.

So now they were trapped. Either they turned back to normal human lands, or they continued forward blindly, praying luck would smile on them. If they were unlucky, then this journey would end fast, and at such a young age too.

"Let’s proceed," Blaze said.

His voice hardened.

"The determination of a hero is like a divine flame. It must never wane."

He walked forward without hesitation.

Gazel stared at his companion with a blank face.

He is surely a fool.

A heroic fool.

Over the past few days spent with the red haired boy, Gazel had learned far more than he expected. Many of his questions were answered, yet in their place, even more questions were born.

He learned that the Shurals existed mainly to put an end to the cursed humans roaming the earth. The demons. The Fallen.

And Blaze, Blaze had a dream. A strong one. He wanted to become a Shural, to become the flaming hero who would one day bring an end to all demons and all that cursed nonsense.

Honestly, Gazel could not bring himself to care about that grand dream.

What troubled him more was everything else Blaze had revealed.

The rat monster that nearly killed him days ago was merely a minion of a very powerful high ranked Fallen. A being a whole class above the monsters Gazel usually faced. Based on how Blaze described it, if Gazel were to truly face a Fallen, even a weak one, he would survive for at most a minute before dying.

At first, Gazel almost laughed it off. Another one of Blaze’s dramatic rambles.

But Blaze had been dead serious.

And that was not the only thing.

Gazel and Blaze had fought each other many times during their short journey. Sparring, clashing, testing limits. Gazel always won, but every time, he ended up with burning injuries scattered across his body.

That alone told him everything.

Blaze was holding back.

Which meant the red haired idiot was no weakling. In fact, he was terrifyingly strong for a child his age. Strong enough to make Gazel uneasy.

If what Blaze said was true, then he came from a powerful Shural family. One that had already offered him an escort to the Bulwark. Powerful figures. Safe passage.

And yet the fool rejected them.

"A hero must walk the true path without unwanted interference."

That pride.

That stupidity.

That same pride was about to get them both lost, and probably killed.

Lost in thought, Gazel failed to notice what was happening around him.

He walked straight into something solid.

"Ouch."

He yelped, rubbing his forehead with a frown.

"Hey, why would you just stand there?"

Blaze did not answer.

He gulped.

Gazel followed his gaze.

And then Gazel gulped too.

They were standing at the edge of the forest.

Below them was a pit.

No, not a pit.

A bottomless abyss.

Even with Gazel’s heightened eyesight, he could not see the bottom. Nothing. Just darkness swallowing everything beneath it.

Which meant only one thing.

Whatever lay down there was very, very far away.

Blaze gulped again.

He did not even want to imagine what would happen if they fell from such a height.

"I guess this is the end of the road for this path. Come on. Let’s find another way."

He turned and started walking away, then stopped.

Gazel was not following him.

Instead, he stood at the edge, staring down into the massive, bottomless fall below, unmoving. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"What is it?" Blaze asked, stepping closer. "Did you find something?"

He looked down too.

Nothing.

Just darkness.

Gazel stayed quiet, pondering, eyes locked on the abyss. After a while, he finally spoke. He turned to Blaze and asked calmly,

"Do you trust me?"

Blaze raised an eyebrow and snorted.

"Of course not."

Gazel smiled.

"Good. Then I really won’t feel bad for what I’m about to do next."

Blaze’s entire body screamed danger.

Before he could react, he felt a firm grip clamp around his hand.

Then the world flipped.

Gazel threw him.

Blaze was launched off the cliff with terrifying force, his body shooting downward like a fired projectile. Wind howled past his ears as gravity seized him completely.

"DAMN YOU, WHITE HEAD."

His curse barely left his mouth before panic took over. He forced his eyes open and saw it.

Below him.

Something blue.

Stone.

No, it look like some kind of crystal, blue crystal.

His muscles tightened instantly. Flames erupted from his body, wrapping around him in a blazing cocoon. Just meters before impact, he detonated the flames outward, slowing his fall for a brief, precious moment.

Then he crashed.

Not into stone.

Not into a crystal.

Into water.

Gazel followed seconds later, smashing into the surface with a violent splash.

"Damn you."

That was the first thing Blaze said once he resurfaced, coughing and spitting out mouthfuls of seawater.

Gazel turned to him, soaked and breathing hard, forcing a calm smile onto his face.

"Don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy the fall."

Blaze stiffened.

What the hell was wrong with him.

How was he supposed to enjoy almost dying. What if it had been lava instead of water. What if it had been solid ground. They would have been crippled or dead.

Heat radiated from Blaze’s body as his soaked clothes dried instantly. He raised his hand, flames condensing into a small infernal sphere.

There was only one thing he wanted to burn now.

Gazel.

To be continued.