Savior! Redemption in Another World! - Chapter 82

“What? Okay, I think I’m going to need a bit more of an explanation.” I say, sitting down and sighing.

This is a can of worms I was not ready for today. Well, I mean this is better than where I was before, given I’m back in the body of Antonio.

“This may take a bit of explaining, but I guess you would have needed to hear this eventually,” Stephanie said, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. After about a minute of waiting, a pair of butterfly-Esque wings appeared on her back, casting a gentle breeze upon being formed.

However, unlike her delicate appearance, Stephanie’s face was twisted into a mess of sadness and rage.

As quickly as the wings formed, they disappeared, returning my mother to the calm woman I now know her as.

“Every ancestral magical ability has some sort of drawback, and we Faeries are no exception. Our wings and magic are deeply tied to our emotions, so any trauma or lingering negative emotions are multiplied by around a hundred times their normal amount.” Stephaine said, as she quickly dropped to my level and pulled me into a deep hug. “I don’t even want to ask what you see when you awaken your wings, but I’m so sorry to have put you through it.” She said as I could feel tears begin to well up and fall on top of my head.

This has to be the best yet worst news I think I could ever hear. Seriously, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

I unlock what amounts to a power-up, but I literally have to go back to that hospital bed every time? Or will it be different every time? Honestly, I think I’d rather just not have ever known about that power.

After a nice and long hug from Stephanie, a few more things were explained to me about my newest magical implement, my wings. Man, even thinking that I actually have wings now just makes me feel weird.

For the sake of my own sanity, I think I’ve drilled down the main factors that come with ‘awakening’ as a Fae.

Most importantly, is that when a Fae first awakens, their capacity and magical capabilities are increased by a significant margin, as entirely new sections of your magical network are born and now capable of taking in and using mana.

However, this process usually takes years if not even a full decade before a Faery is able to access and draw out their wings. What I did, was equivalent to finding out that one of my baby teeth was slightly loose, pulling it out with a set of pliers, and then pulling the adult tooth into position directly afterward.

Sure, I can  technically call upon my wings, but not only will they be in some grotesque form that no one in the party wanted to explain to me, but also I’ll also mindlessly attack everything in the vicinity since the drawbacks associated with them are nearly tenfold what they would usually be.

There is a silver lining in all of this, which is the fact that not only are their immediate increases to my raw magical capabilities due to having an expanded network, but also this should theoretically speed up the process in which my wings awaken to a normal level.

Yet, even with these detailed explanations, a few things stuck out to me. One of which I just can’t help but ask about.

“Aunt Elandria, aren’t your wings out right now? Is that not a huge mental burden on you?” I ask, pointing at the translucent multi-color bat wings ejecting out the back of Elandria’s back.

“Hehehe! It’s adorable you’d think that. Do you have any idea how old I am young man? If I wasn’t able to overcome something as simple as the biological drawback of using my full power, I wouldn’t be able to call myself a true Fae. After a few decades of practice and patience, even the deepest scars and traumas can be healed. Also, it’s not as if I have them unleashed at all times, if I did, I doubt you would even be able to stand, let alone your party.” Aunt Elandria said in a half-mocking tone.

“That’s another question I guess I have, what do you mean by unleashed?” I ask, as Zerath simply scoffs.

“Did you listen to nothing I said? To trigger any of the more powerful effects of your wings, you need to supply them with a steady stream of mana. That is known as ‘unleashing’ your wings. Our wings in their dormant state act only as additional sections of a magical network, and otherwise exactly how any other race’s wings operate.” Zerath explains as a large set of bird-like wings appear on his back, yet instead of feathers, they boast small scales.

“Wait, does that mean I can summon my wings and fly, I just can’t fill them with mana or I’ll fly off the handle?” I mean, the flight was the main goal anyway. So what if I don’t get some weird arbitrary increase in strength, I just wanna fly with a real set of wings.

“I would say no. I may not know much about the wings of a Fae, but I doubt yours could accomplish much aside from scaring the shit out of anyone who sees them.” Ivy said, her smirk and berating attitude back as if nothing happened.

“Are they really that bad?” I ask, subconsciously tugging my robe a bit tighter around my body.

“If I saw your wings on literally any other creature, I wouldn’t hesitate to lodge my strongest wyrm scale arrowhead in its skull and then run as fast I physically could in the other direction. Like, no offense, but I’d rather sleep naked in a village of Tiamat than go near something with wings made of straight-up bloody bones.” Ivy said, shivering at the very thought.

Maybe I’ll just stick to flight spells for now. Yeah, flight spells are cool, and a cooler way to show off than wings anyway.

“That’s not very nice of you to say you know,” Teresa said, her lips curling into a snarl as she gave Ivy a side-eye.

“Well, she’s not wrong. In all my many years alive I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pair of wings that look so, unnatural. I’m sure they’ll grow into something more, palatable, with age time, so worry not young man.” Zerath said, placing his hand on my shoulder as a way to reassure me, but the action along with his words had the exact opposite effect.

“See? Even his uncle agrees with me,” Ivy said, making eye contact with Teresa before turning to look back at me. “We’ve made some good progress on our custom flight and stalking spells, so until you get those things into better shape, I’d avoid using them at all. That, and I don’t wanna have to knock your ass out again if you go berserk. It’ll be a real fight this time, especially without his help.”

“Wait, you guys had to knock me out?” I ask as everyone’s eyes begin to avert from my gaze.

I guess that’s why my head hurt so much when I first woke up.

Although, I am viscerally interested in what exactly my wings look like, and if I’m able to fly with wings made entirely out of bone.

What if my wings stay bone forever? I don’t think that would be too bad, I mean, they would look super rad and intimidating right?

That being said, it  would be hard to get any sort of female attention with wings that look like something ripped straight out of Ed Gein’s discount furniture collection.

After a bit more small talk, the heavy mood that seemed to permeate the atmosphere was finally cleared up, allowing everyone to speak and laugh a bit more freely.

Once a good amount of the day was already behind us, we were able to hook up the cart and finally get back on the road, this time with three new traveling companions. Unfortunately, the presence of family doesn’t excuse me from my job of being the cart driver.

Either way, I’m glad that we can finally get back on the road.

— Point of View: Gust Renarus —

Thankfully, aside from the incident two months ago, Antonio seems to be completely fine and in control.

Standing up from my hiding place and returning to the small camp Arnold and Sylvia had prepared, it’s finally time to get a move on.

“Took you long enough, you really are an overbearing parent ya know. I wish I had a wyvern papa like you when I was growing up.” Arnold snickered, returning the campsite to loose dirt and quickly arranging all of his belonging.

“So, where to next, boss?” I say, turning towards the strange woman who I was apparently working for, but was able to keep in one spot for nearly two months in order to watch over my son.

“Hmm, there are a few cities on my list, but the first would have to be the northern port city of Kirabel. The journey will take a bit, but that place is pretty much the epicenter of a new-blood organization. If we can get a connection with them, we’ll be able to lay down some good roots.” Sylia remarked, showing Arnold and me exactly where we would be heading on her large magical map.

I think this journey will be good for me, especially now that I know Antonio is in good hands.

With no other words necessary, the forward party Night’s Edge set off towards the port city of Kirabel.

— Point of View: Richard Silverwind —

Lady Acrimony has been silent for too long. I think she’s mad at me since I let the trail on both Ego’s kid and that Tiamat go cold.

No matter, my connections in the magic kingdom have been able to tip me in the right direction, apparently, an heir to the throne of Delarus is headed towards the capital of the magic kingdom, and is being escorted by a young boy claiming to be a Tiamat.

If that’s not the Ego kid, I’ll cut off my own arm.

It sucks that I have to head back to the capital so soon, but I guess duty calls and all that. Once I catch Ego’s emissary, I’m sure I’ll be back in the favor of Lady Acrimony and I can get back to living my new lease on life my own way.

I just hope that uppity bastard isn’t still there, he’s lucky all I did was throw him in prison after stripping him of his blessing. If I have to see that little shit’s face one more time in my life it’ll be too soon.

Standing up from my seat, I hop off my body pile and get a good stretch in.. Here I go huntin’ again.