The Slayer Ascension: Cursed and Blessed.-Chapter 51: Still trapped

Chapter 51

"What’s wrong with you?" Blaze asked.

"Do you have any food?" Gazel asked again, this time putting on his best act of a starving child.

From their age and size, Gazel was younger than Blaze. Not by much, but it was visible. Blaze felt a sting of guilt. He would feel like absolute shit if he ended up causing this crazy white head’s death. With a quiet sigh, he reached into his pack, pulled out his rations, and was about to hand him two pieces.

Gazel snatched it straight out of his hand.

He ate fast. Too fast. Way more than Blaze had planned to give him.

"Thanks," Gazel said casually.

He didn’t look like someone suffering from starvation at all. He looked fine. Just hungry.

"You you you you you lied," Blaze said, staring at him like he had just been betrayed by fate itself.

Gazel blinked, feigning innocence, then pointed at the empty rations. "You lied too," he said with a smile.

Blaze could only give up. It seemed fate had personally decided he needed to suffer. That had to be the reason he ran into this damn white head.

"Come on, let’s keep going," Gazel said, patting Blaze on the shoulder as they walked on.

The journey stretched on endlessly. They searched for a way out of the desert and found none. It felt boundless, without limit, just like the forest before it.

That can’t be true, right? Gazel thought. That has to be wrong.

The first day ended, and they rested before continuing. If there was any bright side, it was that there didn’t seem to be any danger lurking in the desert. But there also didn’t seem to be any way out of their predicament, and that alone made Gazel frown.

The second day came, and they walked. And walked. And walked.

Nothing changed.

Only the boundless desert, stretching as far as the eye could see.

By the end of the fourth day, the rations Blaze had brought were completely gone. They continued forward with only one bottle of water left, and even that was bound to run out sooner rather than later.

In the forest, there had been a way out. Destroy the forest, force an exit. But the desert had nothing like that. No core. No structure. Just endless sand.

So how were they supposed to get out of this damned place?

They kept moving anyway.

Soon, the inevitable happened.

Their last sustenance ran out.

No water. No food.

How were they supposed to survive?

Still, they pushed forward.

A few more days passed. Then Gazel reached his limit.

He collapsed to the ground, his body completely weakened. It took everything he had just to keep his eyes open.

Then thud.

Blaze wasn’t faring much better. But unlike Gazel, he was more attuned to heat, and that was the only reason he was still standing.

Gazel looked up at him weakly. "What are you going to do?" he asked.

He could see it in Blaze’s eyes. The hesitation. The calculation.

If Gazel were in his place, he would leave. Not because he lacked morals, but because staying would be suicide. Blaze wasn’t doing well himself. Dragging dead weight would only kill them both.

"I’m sorry, Gazel," Blaze said quietly.

Gazel forced a broken smile. He wouldn’t blame him if he was left behind.

But contrary to his expectations, Blaze bent down, lifted him off the ground, tore a strip of Gazel’s clothing, and tied Gazel’s body to his back.

"Sorry about the cloth. I’ll get you a new one when we get out of here," Blaze said.

"You fool," Gazel managed to mutter before his mouth went completely dry. Even speaking now was almost impossible.

Blaze chuckled softly and kept moving. He pushed forward with every ounce of willpower and strength left in his body. He had to reach the Bulwark.

He wouldn’t die here. He couldn’t.

We can’t die here. I refuse.

-------

A day later.

Two figures could be seen moving through the desert. A red haired youth, and perched on his back, another youth with white black hair.

"Maybe we’re both going to die here, white head," Blaze said, trying to joke.

The words didn’t sound like a joke. They sounded like the truth.

Gazel’s eyes were half closed. He tried to smile, but with how dried out his skin was, it was hard to even call it that. It looked more like resignation.

Blaze’s face twisted with disappointment and pain. He hated this. He had so many things planned ahead. So many things he still wanted to do. Was he really going to die just like this?

But what could he do?

There was no way out of here.

All their sustenance was long gone.

Just when it seemed hope had finally been extinguished, Blaze’s eyes caught something in the distance.

His eyes widened. He rubbed them furiously.

Wait. It can’t be what I think it is. Can it?

He looked again.

Then again. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

It was real.

Water.

"There," Blaze whispered hoarsely. "Gazel. I found it. I found water."

He tried to shout, but only a broken whisper came out.

Gazel forced his eyes open. "Really?" he asked weakly.

Blaze nodded and broke into a sprint.

"Told you we aren’t going to die," he said. "After all, I’m a lucky guy."

They reached it and dropped to their knees, drinking straight from the pond. They gulped it down like there was no tomorrow. Again and again. Slowly, color returned to their skin.

For the first time in a long while, they felt alive.

Unbeknownst to them, as the water splashed onto the sand, the heat began to fade. When another drop hit the desert floor, the scenery warped.

The world twisted.

What hit them next wasn’t heat anymore.

It was cold.

A deep, biting cold that pierced straight into their bones.

They looked around.

The desert was gone.

They stood in a land buried in snow. Freezing wind howled past them. Towering mountain peaks surrounded them, thick layers of white clinging to their slopes.

Gazel frowned. "Now where the hell are we?"

Blaze felt like crying.

So much for being lucky.

Especially for him. His counter element was cold.

Looking at the snow covered peaks and feeling the chill threatening to consume them whole, Blaze lowered his head and spoke in a broken voice.

"We aren’t blessed."

"We aren’t lucky at all."

"We’re cursed."

TO BE CONTINUED.